Despite the challenging economy, Gary Crossley Ford in Kansas City, MO implemented a strategy that dramatically increased their revenue and reduced their operating costs and just had the best month in the dealership’s history, outperforming last ye

I was consulting in a mid-sized GM dealership one evening. The service manager and I were looking through carefully prepared pre-write packets (menu, history, pre-write, recalls, MPI, and notes), to determine how well the service advisors had pre-loa

“In order to know where you are going, you have to know where you are.” “In order to grow, you have to know.” “What you treasure, you measure.” No matter how you say it, automotive industry experts all agree that you have to track the num

Every few months, I ask one of my law partners to share with you the issues they are seeing in their area of our motor vehicle dealer practice. This month, Rob Byerts, describes the myriad of regulatory and compliance issues with which he is assistin

Ford’s new plan for Lincoln Here we go again. Another manufacturer plan for its dealer network that invariably leads to more dealers being strong-armed into spending money or giving up their franchise. As of the date I write this column, Ford has a

Since manufacturers are only building on demand, are you aware that you could probably pile up all the gold in the world solely on the empty spots in your new car lot? The reason why gold is so valuable is because the total supply of world gold could

Now is the perfect time to begin planning for expense reductions in 2011 if you haven’t already done so. From the supplier and expense side of your business, if you are like most dealers, you have the following facts to contend with: Active managem

As we head into the holiday season, this is the perfect time to get focused on creating a more effective advertising message and media plan. I’d like to suggest a two-pronged program that will help you define both: focus groups and message manageme

As we all know, we wouldn’t be where we are if we weren’t good at something. If you’re like me, you probably have one good thing that you do better than most anyone else. And, if you’re really like me, then you have no trouble telling anyone