Swapalease.com, the nation’s largest car lease marketplace, unveiled new data today that show car shoppers are more interested in shorter-term lease options, compared with the traditional 36-month lease. An online survey presented to more than 2,500 drivers across the country shows that roughly 70% of those polled would like lease terms of 24 months or less as an option by their dealer.

The survey was conducted during the month of July, 2016, and was inspired in…

Change is inevitable. For dealerships and every other business, change is driven by shopper needs in the marketplace, and businesses that don’t change to accommodate consumers will fall by the wayside.  Today’s knowledgeable and fast-paced shoppers are looking for dealerships with an informed sales team that can meet them where they are in their buying and researching…

I woke up today thinking about the amount of energy required for sustainable success. If you think about it, we all have the ability to create energy in our own unique way. There are some common activities we can pursue that will bring us energy from a physical and mental perspective:

1. Physical exercise produces physical energy and mental…

A dealership’s CRM, the center of the sales operations. This sales tool has the capacity to work in tandem with the sales team to efficiently and successfully sell more cars. However, as is the case with so many dealerships, the staff and management are either misusing its functions or not understanding its capabilities. The largest…

Are you having problems getting your Fixed Ops team to pay attention and retain the information from your training programs? Are you conducting training sessions without getting results from your trainees?

Are they insubordinate, lazy or just plain…

The Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” has become a cultural phenomenon in our country. Sharks are relatively mysterious and most people don’t know much about them. Cars are very similar in nature. We know that we need them and which ones are cool, but most people don’t really know how they work. And not only that, as one in six vehicles on the road has open recalls…

Albany, N.Y. – August 15th, 2016 – Auto/Mate Dealership Systems today announced the integration of its dealership management system (DMS) with Unotifi, a pioneer in mobile relationship marketing and customer retention for auto dealers.

Benefits to dealers using both Auto/Mate's DMS and Unotifi solutions include increased data gathering and intelligence about a dealership's…

Prior to going over about exactly why 192.168.01 is actually a non-public Internet Protocol Address, initially you need to know very well what the private IPs are.

Non-public IP addresses are the IPs that happen to be allocated by InterNIC to permit the corporations and institutions to…

Women purchase over 50% of the cars bought and play a major role in over 85% of car purchases. 

Women are not only coming in more armed with researched information, but they are practical, savvy, and open to change. They want to develop a relationship of trust with a dealer and it’s up to us to rise to their…

Social media is the name of the game for businesses that want to attract consumer attention, and every day, more companies are realizing it.  According to Optimizely, 66% of companies say they’re putting more pressure on measuring return on investment (ROI) in…

Part I: The Millennial Mindset

Every generation does things differently. From shopping to careers to family life, younger generations are forging their own paths and writing their own rules.  For dealerships, this means taking a closer look at what’s fueling their buying behavior and learning how to forge strong relationships that…

Consumers increasingly use their smartphones to research which businesses they should patronize. These days, online reviews are a big part of that decision process. If managed incorrectly, these reviews can easily flip your prospective customer away from your dealership and into the lap of your competition. And it’s not just a bad review, it’s how you respond to them and…

In the classic movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, we received a filmmaker’s glimpse into what humanity would experience in the event of a U.F.O encounter and actual physical contact with an alien. To many dealers, Millennials are very similar. They’re very different from past generations, are far more technologically advanced, and we really don’t know much about them…

Every dealership in the automotive industry has some sort of relationship with vendors and their products. Whether it be for a CRM, Website Design, DMS, Email Marketing, Call Reporting…You name it and it’s covered by a business in this industry. And while most will have the main argument in their quest for your business, the age old pitch “We Will Show You The Results You’ve Been Missing”, this isn’t…

Women are where it’s at when it comes to buying cars! They are also more generous with car dealer review scores!

We are so excited to share with you the Women-Drivers.com slick new mobile site, now with emojis.

With the increased participation of dealers and reviewers alike, its paramount that we continue to deliver a website and mobile platform that are more…

Do you spend massive amounts of time cold calling leads with little results? There's a simpler, more sophisticated way to reach your prospects on their phones without the time investment that cold calling takes.

This method can also be combined with email and other digital channels to send similar messages across multiple channels,…

If you're like most people, you probably use your Microsoft Office programs on a daily basis and don't even think about it. But if your dealership purchases software off-the-shelf, there's a fairly good chance you may be a software pirate. Meaning, there's a good chance that someone in your dealership has…

If you’ve ever worked in automotive retail, you know that there are constant internal struggles going on between employees and their departments. The structure of most dealerships actually encourage this – similar to how a salesperson’s pay plan incents them to sell cars.

The most obvious friction oftentimes occurs between sales and service. While in theory,…

Welcome to this week's edition of Black Book Market Insights, with in-depth analysis of used car and truck valuation trends and insights straight from the auction lanes. Click here to download…

According to Black Book® data, the average price of a used vehicle for model years 2011-2015 depreciated by -1.5% during July, slightly better than June (-1.7%). The market performance was similar to the depreciation rates seen in the past three years in the month of July: -1.4% in 2015, -2.1% in 2014 and -1.3% in 2013. Cars overall bounced back from June ending the month at -1.9% (-2.2%). Trucks as a whole finished at -1.2% for July. All vehicles are averaging a 12-month depreciation change…