Auto Retail News

Last October at the Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition in Las Vegas keynote speaker Chip Perry,  the CEO of AutoTrader.com, addressed a capacity crowd of dealer principals, GMs, parts managers/directors and e-commerce personnel declaring  d

Fact: Most customer-pay service work (maintenance and repair) is done by aftermarket service centers. Fact: Aftermarket service centers outnumber dealerships by at least four to one. Fact: There is a universal perception that dealerships charge more

Potential legal problems often arise when consumers purchase aftermarket parts. Aftermarket parts, and particularly performance enhancing parts such as programmers, can cause damage to a vehicle, can void manufacturer and aftermarket warranties and c

Unlike the empty talking heads on ESPN and TMZ, we were good at nicknames in college. The empty talking heads rely on a tired, formulaic nickname method…first initial of first name and first syllable of last name. Unfortunately, you hear it all the

Terry is a Chevy dealer selling 200 plus new vehicles a month with better than average grosses in his region. We met about 14 years ago at a “20 Group” meeting I spoke to regarding advertising strategies. A lot has changed in those 14 years and t

Typical approach to cost control Most dealership organizations engaged in some form of cost reduction over the past few years in order to survive the “stimulated economy” that Washington has provided for us. Most cost reduction efforts involved s

  The good news for dealers today is there is a vigorous dealership insurance marketplace. The challenging news is the landscape is changing and dealers will need to take a nimble and aggressive approach to make certain your dealership has the right

Kia’s trained technician warranty reimbursement policy So one of your long-time, highly experienced Kia technicians has allowed some of his training to lapse, but he continues as usual to perform warranty repairs according to all Kia repair procedu

Black Book® Online (www.blackbookonline.com), based in Boca Raton, FL, pioneered the online vehicle trade-in valuation industry, creating the most effective sales leads in North America. With the launch of Activator Complete™ in April 2011, Black