Business and, as a matter of fact all relationships depend upon good communication. If you do not know something it makes perfect sense to ask. When you do, you may get an answer you either like or dislike, but you will have the most powerful thing, the answer.

This is why OEM’s have CSI (customer satisfaction index) and this is how dealers are…

There is a lot of talk going on about car dealership turnover. It seems that everyone has an opinion about it but not a whole lot of solutions. I am going to do some "REAL TALK" in this post because it is time that the sugar coating stops. I have spent a great deal of time between consulting dealers and working for dealers on a case by case basis over the…

Tonkin is the third Top 100 Dealership Group sold by Kerrigan Advisors in the last 12 months

Irvine, CA, December 19, 2016 – Kerrigan Advisors, the leading sell-side advisory firm to auto dealers in the US, represented and advised the Ron Tonkin Dealerships, Portland's largest auto dealership group, in its sale to Gee Automotive Companies.  This transaction will create one of the nation’s top 50…

Terminating someone is never pleasant and not to be taken lightly. As a former service manager I only had to fire one service advisor -and I did not make that decision lightly. However, in most cases it is the employee’s choice to get fired. What do I mean? Certainly it’s the manager’s responsibility to train employees and develop processes. But anyone with experience…

We live in a world of empowered consumers.  They say when, where, and how they’ll buy the products they’re interested in, and businesses everywhere are working to meet their needs and win out over the competition.  Today’s consumers are connected online—to businesses and each other—and your dealership stands to gain quite a bit based on how you interact…

Urbandale, IA--December 19th, 2016--Flick Fusion announced today a new partnership with AutoBase (www.autobase.com), a leading provider of inventory merchandising solutions for auto dealerships. AutoBase selected Flick Fusion's Smart Flicks video marketing platform to provide its customers with a full-service solution for implementing video marketing strategies. AutoBase…

Albany, N.Y. – December 19th, 2016 – Auto/Mate Dealership Systems announced today that its dealership management system (DMS) is fully integrated with the DealerOps Platform, expanding auto dealers' actionable insight into their enterprise-wide analytics. Dealerships that use both vendors' solutions will now receive automatic and seamless updates from their Automotive Management Productivity Suite (AMPS) software into their…

Want to say goodbye to all those travel related hassles that stop you from going on a vacation on whims? How about owning a safari vehicle, with windows in all directions? Your obvious choice, of course, would be to move into a luxury motor home. Now, if you happen to be one of those people who find traditional RVs less-than-fabulous due to their limited style options, you…

There are many different approaches to keeping our names in front of our clientele. Here are just some of my quick suggestions;

1) ONE school of thought is not to ask for referrals at the time of delivery. It’s their magic moment, not ours. Besides our customers won’t care enough to send us referrals until they know how much we care about them. Remember, in the long…

Have you ever heard of Google Tag Manager? If you haven’t, you’re losing customers! There is 1 huge disadvantage of not using Tag Manager - slow websites. 

On this week’s Hard Facts, Samantha explains how you can condense all of your tracking codes in order to get even more accurate results.

Watch this episode for more information.…

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 the full report.

This week’s Black Book Market Insights report shows vehicles in the truck segment with much weaker retention values than those in the car segment. However, Sub-Compact Luxury Crossovers in the truck segment have managed to maintain their value since last week.

“So far this…

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…