AutomotiveNetwork

Automotive Used Car Consolidation

2008-07-02T19:49:00.000-07:00

Times are getting tougher and tougher in today automotive arena. Many dealers are finding it imperative to consolidate as much as possible. This obviously assists in bringing down expenses and overall overhead for dealerships.

Mutli-dealer groups, such as a major dealer group in Cincinnati known as Cincy Autos, has pulled many of it's resources and formed a powerful alliance with all of it's used car dealerships. They realize that Used Cars Cincinnati is a powerful keyword phrase and that Cincy Autos needs to be a force in the internet landscape when customers are searching for used cars in Cincinnati. Placing all of their used car inventories in one centralized location is a great benefit to their clients, as well as their overall business plan.

Consolidation will become more and more attractive to dealer group owners if the current economic environment fails to give back what it has taken.

Sports Cars: The Ladies Like Them Too

2008-06-08T18:11:00.000-07:00

As a female child of the 60’s, I grew up in New Hampshire when a sports car was just the thing for those super-cool young men or the balding, Aqua-Velva wearing, slightly paunchy, middle-aged Peter Pans out there. Women racecar drivers were practically unheard of, and my mother drove a nice, respectable Ford station wagon, while my older sister drove a rather nondescript, beige 1968 Chevy Nova, hardly anything to make my pre-teen peers stop and gaze in awestruck, open-mouthed wonder.

My older brother, however, drove a 1968 Rally Red Corvette with T-tops, which, according to my ten year old brain was the epitome of cool. He shopped around at the used car Dover dealers and used car nh dealers until he found the right one. The deep-throated rumble of that 327c1 350hp engine when he roared off down the street was music to my ears. I remember marveling at the hidden windshield wipers and the unmistakable smell of the black leather upholstery heated by the midday sun. I remember how that same black leather upholstery would sear the backs of my shorts-clad legs during the summer on the rare occasions when I did get to ride in that magnificent vehicle (which was only when my mother forced my brother to take me to swim lessons at the pool when she got too busy.) But I didn’t care. The wide-eyed stares and envious remarks from my swim class more than made up for the pain when I got in with a flourish and shut the door I’d give my friends a lofty wave as we made our way out of the parking lot, that magnificent engine purring away. My brother knew what he was doing – he would back out of the space, then proceed slowly and nonchalantly to the stop sign at the corner, at which he would look both ways, then floor it. The engine would roar like a tiger as we peeled out into the road, and we would exit in high style, him smirking and glancing in the rear view mirror while my friends all stood stock-still, visibly impressed. The memory of that sweet slice of automotive heaven will stay with me for the rest of my days.

Fast forward 30 years later. I am now a married, professional businesswoman with a husband and three kids, one in college and two not far behind. I drive a minivan (only when I have to) and a 1997 slightly upscale red Eagle Talon ESI, which boasts a 2.0-liter DOHC four-cylinder with 16 valves. It’s only 140 horsepower, but it still looks good for its age (like me I hope) and it’s paid for. Men and boys often stop me at the gas pump and ask if I want to sell it. I always say no.

But my real baby is garaged 9 months out of the year, isn’t driven in the rain, and never except in summer. It’s my 2003 garnet red Mazda MX5 convertible. It’s a five-speed (let’s admit it, an automatic transmission in a sports car is a travesty.) It has a 1,839 cc 1.8 liter 4 in-line front engine with DOHC, and at 142 HP, it’s affordable (remember those three kids and the mortgage) and fun to drive. And, like any woman of good breeding, I tactfully ignore the neighbors’ smiling tongue-in-cheek references to my “second youth” when I drive that baby down the street. And sometimes when nobody’s around, I peel out, just for fun.

It seems I am not the only woman in love with the sports car. Times certainly have changed. According to recent statistics, some 25 percent of Corvettes are bought by women — not bad for a car that typically stickers at anywhere from $44,000 to $65,000. And I see more and more boomers like myself driving sexy retro-styled cars these days. Hmmm…I’m driving a Miata in my forties, will I be driving a ’68 Corvette in my 60’s? I sure hope so.

Driving Green in Today’s Environment

2008-05-13T05:29:00.000-07:00

With skyrocketing gasoline prices being what they are, the hazards of global warming, and the public’s concern about foreign oil, more and more automakers are offering electric, hybrid, and alternative fuel vehicles. While purchasing a green vehicle is a great start toward reducing the environmental impacts of driving. Of course, the vehicle you drive is the most important factor, but your driving habits and how well you maintain your vehicle will also impact the environment in a positive or negative way.
A Green house Gas (GSG) is any gas that, when released into the atmosphere, traps infrared radiation (heat) and causes a slow heating of the planet. The most common GHGs are: carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and nitrous oxides (N 2 0). CO 2 makes up about 70 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, which is why many vehicles produce several times their weight in greenhouse gases each year. In fact, most of the fuel you put in your gas tank becomes GHG emissions!
Let’s face it – owning a car is a necessity in today’s world, so what kind of actions can you take to help you “drive green”?
In hot weather, park in the shade when possible and open doors and windows to cool the car off before you turn on the air conditioning. Window shades also help cut down on heat and sun damage. Use of AC increases fuel consumption, and involves using fluids that are potentially harmful to the environment.
Avoid driving in rush hour traffic. Start and stop driving increases emissions of smog-forming pollutants.
Go easy on the brakes and the accelerator. Jack-rabbit starts result in wasted fuel and releases more pollutants into the environment. Let your vehicle coast to a stop as much as possible and save wear and tear on your brakes.
Obey the speed limit. If you drive 65 mph instead of 55 mph, you will lower your fuel economy by almost 10 percent, and increase exhaust pollution output.
Instead of taking separate trips, combine them as much as possible. An engine that is already warm generates far less air pollution. Catalytic converters only work well when the exhaust has warmed them to a certain temperature. If you cold-start your vehicle and drive just two miles, the emissions are much higher than driving an additional two miles to stop at the grocery after your usual evening commute. Combining several short trips into one can make a big difference when it comes to driving green.
Use your tire gauge! Properly inflated tires are a must. Fuel economy decreases by about two percent per every three pounds below the recommended pressure. Check the air pressure regularly; especially before going on a long trip. Your tires will last longer, too.
A tune-up can have a substantial impact on your fuel economy. Check fluids, spark plugs, and the air filter. Change the oil (to go even greener, ask for recycled oil) and replace worn belts. Rotate the tires and have your wheels aligned for even tire wear.
Avoid topping off the gas tank after the automatic nozzle shuts off. Spilled gasoline is carcinogenic to breathe, evaporates into the atmosphere, and can leak into the ground, pollute the water, and poison wildlife.
Save on fuel and decrease pollution by biking or participating in a car or van pool to get to work, and share rides to and from the kids’ activities.
There are three particular dealer groups in Cincinnati Ohio that are leading the way in the “Green” crusade. The first of these groups are the Cincinnati Buick Dealers who are working on creating more environment friendly automobiles. The Cincinnati GMC Dealers along with the Cincinnati Pontiac Dealers are also becoming more involved in their efforts to be more “Green”.
By following these simple tips and guidelines, you can do your part to offset global warming and help the environment. Go green!

Leads, Leads and More Leads

2008-05-04T04:57:00.000-07:00

Although the new car lead business has been around a long time, dealers are taking a new approach to driving quality prospects to their dealerships. With dozens of dealers competing for the same customers in a saturated marketplace of new and used car sales, dealers know they need to get a leg up on the competition.
Considering the fact that the average dealerships operate in the red, they know that getting back in the black isn’t easy to do. When dealers need to get leads fast, they find that approaches such email campaigns, search ads, microsites and advertised incentives can drive more leads through the door. Dealers are finding that other approaches such as Google PPC can be an invaluable source of for getting more prospects as well.
Market saturation, such as the Midwest markets of Southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky, are a hotbed for aggressive online advertising. Particular General Motors franchises typically spend a greater portion of their overall advertising budgets in online advertising. Cincinnati Pontiac Dealers are leading the way in the online leads push. Not to be outdone in this highly contested market are the Cincinnati Buick Dealers followed closely by the Cincinnati GMC Dealers. These franchises pride themselves are quick, accurate responses to the leads and setting up face to face appointments.
A number of studies have been done that show that more than 60 percent of customers that send a lead to a dealer end up purchasing a vehicle. When generating leads, if the dealer chooses to utilize search engine marketing and if the leads are scrubbed for accuracy, dealers are able to receive a much higher level of quality leads. In addition, techniques such as Live Chat can be used to engage car buyers as soon as the lead is submitted. It doesn't matter if you are the biggest dealer or the smallest, a lead is a lead and comes with a customer plain and simple. If they don’t become your customer then they will become your competition's customer. Following up quickly and continuing to work the customer can mean the difference between closing the deal and a lost customer. With all the time and effort put into get customers to request a quote, a much bigger issue can be the lack of follow up once the lead is in the hands of the dealer. Every dealer hopes for a closing ration of no less than 50% which can easily be achieved with just a little training and effort on the part of sales personnel.
There are a number of companies such as Dealix, AutoBytel, and CarsDirect who have made their mark on the new car business by grabbing the attention of consumers and then connecting them to dealerships for a price. Their websites are well advertised and designed to get customers to submit for a quote. For most dealers the additional leads from a source such as this come at a premium cost per lead but may be worth the additional cost.

So bottom line is pick you source, work the leads and follow up again and again until the sale is made!

The Profitable Dealer

2008-04-11T16:13:00.000-07:00

In today’s competitive market, dealers are looking for every edge to increase the profit they make on each vehicle sold. Trying to up sell and convince customers that all the extras are good for them allows a dealer to get that little extra that they deserve. But how much profit is fair for a dealer to make when they sell a car?

With all of the information that is available to the average consumer today, they can very easily figure out what the fair price for a car should be, but when you listen to what people are saying, they seem confused about the car buying process. Toyota Los Angeles Dealers believe that negotiating the right price for a car should be easy, and yes, the dealer should be allowed to make a reasonable profit.

Each customer can pay significantly different prices for the same car, at the same dealer, on the same day, depending on the level of knowledge each customer has of how car pricing works. Dealers expect most customers to negotiate price but unfortunately, negotiating is not the easiest thing to work through. Dealers seem to be able to quickly spot those customers who are not as good at negotiating well and as we all know, knowledge is always the key.

Though the process can be difficult, buying a new car shouldn't be thought of as a war between customer and dealer. Instead, it's really more like a game so the sooner customers recognize this, the sooner they will realize how they can win the game by simply being prepared. Remember, the salesperson's job is to get as much for the car as possible while the customers goal is to pay the least amount so you should be getting ready for war.

Not all dealers operate in this adversarial manner. Dealer in particular regions of the country, Dover Audi Stratham Dealers and Portsmouth Honda New Hampshire Dealers operate under a different set of rules. These dealer do not view purchasing a car as a game, it is a serious business transaction.

Dealers have terms for certain types of customers such as "Minnie the Moocher" for customers who want everything, but are not willing to pay for anything and “I’ll Be-back” for the customer who wants to make multiple visits before closing the deal. Customers should not allow themselves to be rushed.

Dealership sales people have known for many years how to push the buttons that will make customers want a car so much that they will be ready to drive it home that very day. They still know how to get the most of you if you let your guard down. For every dealer, the real money is made with the back-end charges. With a good salesperson who knows how to sell, customers can find themselves paying for extras that they may or may not really need, such as an extended warranty, rust-proofing, undercoating, paint sealant, servicing and parts sales – even an antitheft system or a power sun roof if they're not in your budget.

So as many of us have heard time and time again, “Let the buyer beware”.

Customer Loyalty, The Ultimate Road To Profit

2008-03-28T21:18:00.000-07:00

When we think of the term Customer Loyalty, it is usually describing the behavior of repeat customers, who offer good ratings, reviews, or testimonials about your business. In a marketplace such as automotive new car sales, it is critical to build strong customer loyalty. A one size fits all approach to selling and retaining customers does little to fend off competitors and create loyalty. When customers come in to buy a new car today, most auto dealers will try to up sell by offering an extended warranty or rust proofing or possibly theft protection. However, many sales staffs forget about what more they can offer and focus purely on making the single sale. They forget to ask themselves if there are any additional products or services that could be offered that could mean the difference in getting the one time sale and bringing the customer back again and again because the dealer was so helpful and offered something that another dealer may not have.

As we can all attest to, when customers aren't happy with your business they won't hesitate to let you know and many of their friends and family as well which results in lost business to your competition. That's why Stratham Audi and North Shore Porsche with new strategies towards selling to the customer, dealers are doing simple things such as making follow-up calls or mailing a customer satisfaction questionnaire immediately after the sale has been made. The results in many cases are that the customer might be more likely to do business with them again in the future and refer the dealer to others.

Staying in contact with your customers is one of the best ways to build customer loyalty and a relationship with that dealer. As an example, once the sale has been made, Jake Sweeney Mazda interacts with the customer in areas such as service and customer support. A good sales person will keep in contact with a customer to make sure that even in a service situation things are resolved to their satisfaction and assist in any way they can to make them happy after the fact. The more a customer sees you the more likely they are to remember your name when it comes time to buy again.

For dealers today, building customer loyalty would be a much easier if they had a workforce that had the best interest of the dealer in mind. But in a world where it is all about “ME”, that can be hard to come by. In the long run, Los Angeles Honda Dealers know it is important to retain the employees who interact with customers such as sales people, service personnel, and customer-service staff. But loyalty should work from the top down. If the owner of a dealership is loyal to his or her employees, that loyalty will usually filter down and then get passed on to customers. A lot of associations today such as Used Cars Boston Dealers are instituting programs to train their employees of the art of dealing with customers and how to satisfy their needs. By teaching how to interact more effectively with customers, they give the customer a reason to want to come back. Employees should look for ways to get to know their customers and their needs and try to anticipate what they want in order to provide the highest level of service possible in every area of sales and service.

Providing good customer service is the lifeblood of any company who wants to remain in business. You can bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your company won't be in business for long. Creating and nurturing customer loyalty should be a top priority for every company.

Automotive Strategy For Today

2008-03-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

In today’s society, we are finding that it is more important than ever when trying to insure the survival of ones business that we focus on how what one entity does can trickle down and affect the success or failure of another.

In the automotive market as an example, a dealer, such as Porsche Portsmouth or a region, Southern Maine Honda Dealers, are finding it harder to attract the level and quality of customers needed to keep them in business year after year. Even with all of the aggressive advertising and moves to more online internet based strategies, it sometimes is not enough. To aid in these efforts and to insure their own survival, manufacturers are stepping in and doing a lot to help dealers in a variety of ways. From simple things such as advertising programs, certified Used Cars Cincinnati, on the manufacturer web sites that drive more traffic to individual dealer sites, to incentives for using online programs such as Google PPC where a dealer is paid back a portion of their budget each month by the manufacturer.

Manufacturers around the world have stepped up to the challenge and are now looking at new strategies aimed at reinforcing their relationships with dealerships and consumers alike. They are creating road maps that point the way to understanding the consumer of today and what can be leveraged to create even more desirable programs that entice consumers to buy. Additional traffic can be enjoyed by all Chrysler NH dealers for a marketing effort surrounding New Hampshire. The manufacturer’s job now is to create expanded marketing opportunities for its dealers in the auto industry to enable them to be successful and help them to sell more cars.

By creating more opportunities for dealers and using these relationships to encourage dealers to work more for their own best interest, manufacturers ensure their survival and in many cases can improve the bottom lines of dealers by as much as 10 percent or more.

Glitz and Glamour – The New Age Automotive Dealer

2008-03-11T12:58:00.000-07:00

You are in the market for a new car so you sit down in front of your computer, you bring up your favorite search engine, enter your search criteria, click the most promising link and BOOM …. Suddenly you have lights, sound and action. Welcome to the world of the new age automotive dealer.

Years ago, dealers realized that in order to stay competitive that they had to embrace the age of the computer. The trends and ways that people were looking for goods and services were changing and they had to change as well. Taking what used to be paper advertisement and TV screen and transitioning it to paperless and computer screen was a huge task. New websites were popping up all over that now had all the graphic content and advertising that once was part of full page color ads in the local newspaper and it worked for awhile for what has commonly been called the “Baby Boomer” generation.
But as time went on and the generational gap has widened, the consumers of today now are looking for a little more excitement and action as part of their everyday life.

Automotive dealers such as such as Chrysler NH, Honda Seacoast, and Dallas Mazda have seen this change and have embraced it. Websites have gone from flat and informational to lights, camera, action and informative. Now instead of just being able to read content and click links on a screen, you see action, have people on screen talking about products and services and the whole user experience comes alive.

Consumers today are more sophisticated and are looking for so much more and to address this, a search engine marketing firm can step in and help dealers with this. Dealers now realize that in order to capture the eye of this new age consumer, some dramatic changes may be in order. Looking at what a dealer should do to incorporate the latest in technology, but design it in such a way that allows optimization based on non-graphical content is a huge task. Getting the right mix while keeping the new generation in mind can be difficult. Search engine companies, such as Google and Yahoo, are also starting to see this and as a result are making adjustments to their processes and how they rate and rank website page content.

As consumers get tighter with where and how they spend their money, they look for products that grab their attention, pull them in and make the sale. Being able to see 3D rendering of vehicles, view and hear many of the accessories and build their own 3D version of the vehicle of their dreams in today’s world are all possibilities.

So as the world continues to evolve and as the consumer attitude towards what they expect grows with the times, dealers will constantly find themselves changing, growing and looking for that next great answer to “What do consumers want”. You won’t want to miss the exciting series of changes on the interactive front.

Search Engine Marketing - Automotive Miracle or Myth

2008-03-06T23:55:00.000-08:00

In the early days when computers were just coming of age and the internet as we know it today had yet to be born, it was difficult to see what lie ahead. Information was not as plentiful and moving from paper and pen to keyboard and mouse just did not seem to be what people were pushing for. But as time went on and more and more people began to see the growth of what has now become the world’s biggest repository of electronic information, people and businesses alike have looked far and wide for how they can take advantage of this new age miracle to get their products and services seen by people everywhere.

The automotive market, in particular new car dealers have relied on traditional methods such as newspaper ads, TV commercials and radio spots to get the message out about whom they were and what they had to offer. It was not only costly, but reaching the market area desired and beating out the local competition was very difficult in deed. Like other large metropolitan areas, new car dealers markets such as Boston Honda, Los Angeles Toyota, and Dallas Mazda have caught on to the technology know as Search Engine Marketing.

Companies such as Elite Search Engine Marketing, a search engine optimization company, who know the ins and outs of how search engines promote people and products on the internet, are in the business of helping dealers to position themselves better and rank higher for their particular market areas for the goods and services they offer. They work with dealers to not only design a strategy for how the dealer needs to market themselves, but also help dealers to understand what they need to do better to both attract the customers and offer them what they are looking for to make the final sale as well.

The marketing initiatives in the automotive industry are completely different than they were a few short years ago. When a dealership changed hands or branched out from a larger dealer group, such is the case of Audi Seacoast and Porsche North Shore breaking out from Dover AutoWorld, the concerns were less complicated than they are today. Beyond the obvious of relocation and spreading the word about the move, there are now additional issues that need to be dealt with that a few pieces of advertising cannot typically accomplish. The daunting task of designing, developing, and optimizing a new website is now part of this overall marketing strategy. Because a very high percentage of all dealership customers find and research their new cars via the internet, it is imperative for each dealership to have a strong presence on the internet. Search Engine Marketing was designed for just this type of situation.

The greatest majority of dealers are beginning to take this more seriously and moving dollars away from the traditional methods of advertising to a more substantial investment in an internet marketing strategy where they can get far more bang for their buck. The methods for how a dealer can market to a wider market area and how quickly advertising can change when necessary based on customers needs makes this one of the best investments any dealer can make.