Auto Retail News

Not too long ago, a customer’s first step when considering a car purchase was a trip to the dealership. That’s no longer true. Today, 88% of car buyers use the Internet to research and shop for a new or used vehicle. Almost half do their research

One of the many strengths of digital advertising is the broad range of possibilities it covers as a marketing channel. In just this one area, dealers can target customers in any number of ways, from dynamic search to programmatic display to social. O

It was a movie scene that predicted the future. In the 2002 blockbuster film Minority Report, Tom Cruise played a police officer on the run from a frame-setup. And as he walked through a mall on this near-future Earth, sensors scanned his retinas to

Teachers can affect our eternity. In fact, it’s hard to tell where the influence stops, if at all, even many years later. On today’s social web, our values appear front and center. As the saying goes, reputation is everything and there ar

In the truest sense of the word, Dorsch Ford Lincoln Kia is a family operation. Don Dorsch bought a Ford dealership in 1970, their first, and later added both Lincoln and Kia franchises. In 1999, Don’s three sons­—Pete, Mike, and Dan­­—bough

First, a couple of thoughts: If you don’t have a ‘brand’, you are just a retailer of a commodity. If you don’t have a brand, you have absolutely no marketplace distinction other than price. If you don’t have a brand, your only ‘blue sky�

When I ask most dealers to tell me about their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiative strategy they instantly default to what piece of software they use and that is where it ends. Funny how we focus almost 100% of our faith and attention o

Reducing costs and improving profitability seems to be a constant initiative in many organizations. Ask anyone in a dealership if there is a “cost reduction effort” underway and you will get a look like you just fell off a truck and are covered i

Nissan dealers are fed up with NNA’s abusive tactics and are creating an alliance of Nissan dealers in hopes of negotiating favorable changes to NNA policies. These NNA practices include: Constant changes to incentive programs; Unreasonable and una