Swapalease.com, the nation’s largest car lease marketplace, reports car lease credit applicants registered a 64.7% approval rate for November, a 3.2% increase from the previous month (61.5%). A year ago, the approvals rate was just 57.9% during the same month.

This year’s approval rates have been down in comparison to 2015. The lease credit approvals rates have been fluctuating on a month-to-month basis. So far this year, the average credit approval rating has been 63.8%.

Although…

Your dealership undoubtedly sees a lot of customers each day. Let’s say that each customer who walks into your showroom wears a different color shirt. Over the course of time, you see a trend in that every single customer who purchased a vehicle wears a red shirt. You’d probably start getting excited when you see a customer come onto the lot wearing a red shirt. In fact, you…

According to Black Book® data, the average price of a used vehicle for model years 2011-2015 depreciated by -2.3% in November, in line with the expectations at this time of the year. In comparison, the depreciation rate in October was -2.9% and a year ago in November was -2.8%. Cars overall saw lower retention in November, ending the month at -2.6% compared with –3.2% in October. Trucks as a whole finished at -2.1% in November versus a depreciation of -2.6% in November. All vehicles are…

In a past blog, I discussed how AutoNation instituted a policy to not wholesale or retail any vehicles with open recalls until they were repaired. Sadly, as recently reported by Automotive News, AutoNation’s efforts have met with tough consequences,…

MYTH #1: VDP views are the metric that matters most. 

Since when did VDP views become more important than sales? This is not an attempt to downplay the importance of driving traffic to your VDPs. Reputable evidence…

When employees make mistakes or seem to be harboring a bad attitude, what's a leader to do? Yell at them, write them off or fire them? Or, do you try to turn their setback into a comeback?

When I was General Manager of a large dealership, we had a rule that a…

There are a few critical areas that Fixed Operation Directors need to focus upon to ensure your service departments are prepared for 2017 and beyond.

1. Consumer Behavior: Understand that consumers view auto repair as time consuming, inconvenient, and intimidating. Having a car repaired is one of the last things in the world that any consumer wants to do. Auto repair has become a need basis driven industry, versus a want and maintain industry. Consumers will put…

Virtual Reality has been quite a craze recently with video gaming and other consumer electronics. However, the high cost of entry and expensive units limited its reach. Even Google’s cardboard VR glasses required smartphones that cost upwards of $700. The Oculus Rift Goggles were even more expensive and required high-end computers to work.

Now, however, Sony…

Gubagoo is a behavior scoring...engagement & conversion...call, chat, text and publishing company. To be more specific, we help dealers create, convert and close more opportunities than any other company in our space. 

Are you aware of what a Smart versus a passive chat approach is?

For first generation…

Potratz, an advertising agency in downtown Schenectady, has started a new apprenticeship program this December.

The program is a 6-month training program that gives insight into the inner workings of a full-service advertising agency.  Each apprentice will gain first-hand knowledge of digital marketing, content development, social media, traditional media, graphic design, video production, strategy building, website development and innovative product…

Your Competitors Are Invading Your Digital Beachfront

They spent thousands of dollars on digital marketing preparing to storm your fortifications because they expected fierce resistance. Instead they find an undefended Google Business Page from which you’re pouring customers straight into their sales funnel. Sound ridiculous? Well…

This Week in Social Media

News for the Week of December 12

Instagram Adds New Comment Control Features

Comments are where most of the conversations and interactions on Instagram take place. These comments are generally…

Customer feedback is important to any business’ growth. That’s why many send out customer satisfaction surveys and managers pay attention to that feedback.

However, sometimes the feedback system is faulty or gets misinterpreted to the point of being useless. Take the feedback system Uber used to have. At the end of each trip riders were prompted to leave…

The famous Albert Mehrabian developed a communication model in which he demonstrated that only 7% of what we communicate consists of the literal content of the message. The use of one’s voice, such as tone, intonation, and volume, makes up 38% of the message and as much as 55% of communication consists of non-verbal factors such as body language.

I’m sure you can…

Chapter 2: What to Know Before You Go

So you’re all signed up to go to NADA100 and you’re counting down to January 26?  (If you missed that whole registration thing, go…

Timonium, MD – December 12th, 2016-- Helion Automotive Technologies, a leading provider of information technology (IT) solutions for auto dealers, today announced the top technology priorities for auto dealerships in 2017. As dealerships plan to improve operational efficiencies, allocating budgets to these five areas will result in strong, fast and secure IT backbones that will support new business and technology initiatives.

"Dealers often view IT as a cost of…