At 10 a.m. CDT today, vAuto will be publicly announcing the acquisition of Auction Genius—a company that has developed a “heads-up display” technology to simplify how dealers evaluate and purchase used vehicles at online auctions. This is vAuto’s first acquisition.  

The acquisition…

Hello Dealer Elite Members......

It looks like Auto Trader needs money much like Facebook did a while ago, and you know how that has gone so far!

As I travel around the country ans work with dealers on maximizing leads, traffic and driving more sales I have noticed more and more that dealerships are looking for "FREE" or low cost ways to promote their vehicles. Sites like Craigs's List and kijiji (Ebay), are currently changing the online marketing…

Following is the latest Black Book pricing data on the used-car market. Additional analysis and chart information can be found here.



It was an interesting week regarding the market values. Sure the softening trend continued. The car segments were overall at very close to the level of the previous 4 weeks, at -$31 this past week. The lone increasing segment in the cars was the Premium Sporty Cars (PSC) at…

Good Morning Dealer Elite Members and Car Guys and Gals everywhere.....

As an industry we have had our ups and downs, our challenges and our opportunities. As I travel around North America I see the whole range of Owners, Managers, salespeople and customers. I also see examples in our industry and in other industry of how we can move the industry forward and change the process for the better. We have spend the last 30 to 40 years conditioning customers that we can sell in…

This ongoing story is meant to be a journal of our traveling showroom, from conception, to construction, to the reality of our lives on the cutting edge of auto sales.…

Carfax has a very unique business model.  Tell the consumer they need to ask for a “free” Carfax report from their dealer (who then pays a hefty fee).  The exclusivity…

Visit our All-New, Content-Rich Website at …

Is yelp business friendly or are they doing what would be called legal "BlackMail"?  I had five of my personal customers go on yelp to give a review, good or bad, I just wanted their input and post.  Yes, I asked them because the service was awesome, but real people, with real ratings sent to archive, Why?????

Fuel cell cars have the potential to reduce the demand for foreign oil and lower the harmful effects it has on our climate. Fuel cell cars run on hydrogen rather than gas and their exhaust doesn’t put out any harmful fumes, just water and heat. A lot of challenges will have to be overcome before these vehicles can compete with hybrids technology and regular gasoline…

Southside Financial Group Launches National Subprime Loan Portfolio Program to Help Franchised and Independent Auto Dealers Achieve Greater Liquidity

Arlington, Texas, October 17, 2011 -- Southside Financial Group (http://www.southsidefg.com), an active purchaser of auto finance receivables, today announced the launch of a nationwide program…

Partnership provides dealer training and tools to take bigger bite out of $29 billion accessories market and increase dealership accessories sales by nearly $500 per vehicle

San Francisco, California – October 5, 2011 -- izmocars (www.izmocars.com) and Ask Patty (www.AskPatty.com) today announced they've teamed up to provide car dealers with the training and tools…

As we fly around North America and other parts of the world one of the most common problems we see is cherry Picking and High turnover.

Cherry Picking: When a room is understaffed and the staff really can’t handle the call volume they tend to run through the calls they need to make and pick out the low hanging fruit or the east opportunities. This also happens on the show room floor at most dealerships. Some sales staff and managers believe they can spot the buyers, so they…

First of all thank you for taking the time to take a look at my post this morning I appreciate it. The BDC experts work with a large number of dealerships all over the world and when I see something that works well I like to share it with the automotive community. I will be doing a more comprehensive post later this week. Here are some tips, which will help you Crush It on Craigslist, or other portals.

Tip One: Use some form of software that enables you to…

My son Frank Luna sells 7 New Kia's Saturday!!!! That tied my record in one day!
Way to ride that title wave through the sharks Son!

Chances are you have a Facebook page.  Chances are good, you don't think to much of it.  Chances are you have not seen the new application Social Outbreak.  Your Dealership should have it.

Would it be good if your Facebook page had links to your new inventory?  Pre-Owned as well?  How about being able to schedule service appointments?  Order parts?  This new application can do this an much…

Before the Internet, automotive dealers had more control of the customer. The only place customers could go for pricing information was the dealership. Now of course they could ask their automotive expert friend or uncle, but they really had no idea how pricing really worked in the automotive industry.

Today with the Internet, and sites that provide invoice pricing customers are more informed then they have ever been. The carmakers also have sites to provide customers will all kinds…

Years ago in dealerships all over the world, the dealers were to only way to get pricing. Customers did not have access to invoice pricing, shipping cost, etc. The simple fact is that today this is just not the case any more. I hear dealers all the time talk about the "good old" days when customers did not know so it was easy to make money.

I also hear a great deal of blame as well being tossed around. It's the manufacturers fault, it's my competitions fault, it's the salespeople etc.…

How to uncover the real objection in a car deal?

That’s the question isn’t it! You have done the road to the sale; you have taken a look at their old car. Your customer loves the new car and just won’t sign. You have followed them up and the customer isn’t calling you back. Now what should you do?

You take it to the next level, you have the manager speak to them, and you even call them every day for a week, still nothing. What is the next step?

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