TRUE CAR and ZAG Cyber Bandits, Parasites or Good for the Car Business?

Jim Ziegler asks...

I am hearing a lot of discussion about True Car and ZAG.  I continually scratch my head and wonder if  desperate dealers are doing the marketing limbo "How Low Can You Go?" 

Are we so bad at what we do that we have to line up and pay vendors to lose money? AND, who is giving these people access to your data that is used against you? 

 

Who owns these companies and what might be their ulterior motive?  Sometimes I ask questions to which I already know the answer. 

 

Am I wrong?


What do you think... JIM

 

 

Jim Ziegler's Guidance and Recommended Action Plan:

Ten Areas We Need to Concentrate on to Bring This Monster to It's Knees...

  1. Government investigation of ALL Data Aggregators taking consumer information from dealers' DMS. Sadly enough, dealers who do business with TrueCar are exposed to  liability charges. Cut off all access to unecessary data, no matter who takes it from the dealers DMS and make it illegal to "resell identifiable consumer data" and "transactional data".
  2. Educate Your Fellow Dealers; If anyone takes financial transactional data, they expose the dealer that allowed it to violations, especially if it is passed on to other vendors or shared.
  3. Educate Consumers to what they're doing with their information...
    a. You buy a car from a dealer, do you really want your personal information, and maybe even your financial information, passed along and sold and shared by "God knows who?"
    b. These People Charge the Dealer $300 which the dealers have to build into the deal
    c. Your Privacy and the Security of your Information could theoretically compromise your identity if you do business a company that takes data from the dealership.
  4. Educate Investors and potential investors they could possibly be mislead if anyone is telling them this is a safe investment because of all of the dealers pushing back, associations pushing back, and government regulators in many states coming after TrueCar's business model as NOT compliant, in some cases they're saying it is Not Legal.
  5. AMEX, USAA and all of their affiliates do not want the bad consumer relations this push back is creating with their members and customers.
  6. Cancel your dealership's Affilation with TrueCar. Tell people with TrueCar certificates that YOU don't honor TrueCar and you feel the company is NOT reputable. Educate consumers as to perceived data exposure if they buy from a TrueCar dealer. Make sure that each consumer knows that using TrueCar actually increases their vehicle cost by $300 to $400.
  7. Make the dealers selling at huge losses take all of those deals. Big problem right now is too many Nissan Dealers and others are taking huge losers to get the factory money. The TrueCar reverse-auction business model will continually push those numbers down until the factory money is non-existent. Consumers need to hear from many dealers, "We don't do TrueCar"
  8. Keep calling your National and State Dealer Associations demanding they get involved and stay involved... No excuses.
  9. Get the Manufacturers into the game. If GM, Ford, Toyota, and other majors change the rules about how we advertise and do business to protect the dealers, we can cut off their ability to set pricing. So keep it up at every dealer meeting. Call your Dealer Council Members and protest to your factory reps. Tell the manufacturers, if they want showroom and facility improvements, we need the ability to make fair profits.
  10. Tell everyone you know. Educate other dealers and industry people. Watch the Painter interviews... I believe this is the first time a vendor has publicly announced they intend to bring down the dealers and hijack our business, taking our profits and starving us out with our own data. Painter has said manufacturers and dealers should go bankrupt and he, in his God-like way "will control distribution..."
    When the TrueCar-Yahoo Deal kicks in we need to stand firm and "Just Say No" we don't honor TrueCar deals.

Read this article as a reference: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20110831%2FFIN... 

AND, if you doubt the mission... read this...  http://www.zag.com/websiteASSETS/whitepapers/ZAG-WhitePaper3.pdf

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Comment by Jim Kristoff on December 2, 2011 at 12:27pm

Grant Cardone has asked the TrueCar question on Facebook......the people commenting do not understand the FULL impact!!

https://www.facebook.com/cardonesuccess/posts/10150435282453563

Comment by Craig Lockerd on December 2, 2011 at 12:18pm

@Keith,reading though it all right now,let me get a few weeks of feedback from our trainers and then I will reach out to you,thanks!

Comment by A. J. Maida on December 2, 2011 at 12:12pm

Nope Jerry I used my yahoo email with my name in it and from what I hear my competitors know who I am????

Comment by Jerry Thibeau on December 2, 2011 at 12:09pm

Great AJ!  Only problem, they'll think it was me that shopped them.  I am okay with that if it helps a dealer get off TrueCar. 

Comment by Keith Shetterly on December 2, 2011 at 12:07pm

@ Jim and @ AJ:  KMA.  :)

Comment by Keith Shetterly on December 2, 2011 at 12:03pm

@ Craig, if you read my summary blog here http://www.dealerelite.net/profiles/blogs/why-you-must-cancel-truec... and like it, I would be happy to sit in on any calls you have if you need backup.  I put that blog on my own site, too, www.keithshetterly.com, and some at TC apparently chose (by the stats) to read it there (that pesky private IP visit didn't hold up against my skills, in this case, too long:).  Anyway, you might get enough education at that blog and not need me; just an offer if you do.  Thanks!

Comment by Jim Kristoff on December 2, 2011 at 11:51am

@Craig......that will be an interesting report!

@AJ.....did you notice Keith only made it to #4......;-)))

Comment by A. J. Maida on December 2, 2011 at 11:44am

Way to go Craig...Keith all this counting before noon????

Comment by Craig Lockerd on December 2, 2011 at 11:40am

My company was in 580 dealerships this year helping them staff their stores with SALESPEOPLE,stated goal for 2012 1200 dealerships.We hold a national conference/Training call each Tuesday with all our Recruiter/Trainers.This coming Tuesday I'm going to ask them to ask the stores they are in if they are using True Car and if they really know what's going on.Give us a few weeks and we will see what % of dealerships we are in use their "services"

Comment by Keith Shetterly on December 2, 2011 at 11:30am

Okay, one thing to think about:  TrueCar says they have 5,500 dealers.  They have an organization for sales to dealers, marketing to dealers, support for dealers.  And they have been extremely silent except for one attempt at a long, self-serving social media explanation and one marketing blurb answer.  No defense.  SO, I figure their next options are 1) Admit they have it wrong and make a more dealer-centric adjustment (whatever that may be), 2) Try and shoot the messengers, of which (unfortunately for them) there is a growing body, 3) Continue in silence until this "blows over", or 4) Shut down and regroup.  # 2 is stupid for PR, but don't discount it.  #3 ain't going to work.  #4 isn't good for their $.  SO, their best bet is #1.  I expect, if they try anything, it will first be #2 as a way to get time for #3.  If they do #1, REALLY do it, I think I might faint--though I don't really know HOW they would do it, and I think they don't right now either.  My $.02.

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