Jim Ziegler Wants to know "Is it Time For the Retail Automotive Community to Rise Up and Give CarFax a TrueQuality Thumping?"
Enough is Enough!
Haven't you had it with all of these Data Pirates using our own customer information to defame us, lower our profits, alienate our customers... while at the same time they charge us through the nose to do us harm?
Among the worst of them in my opinion is CarFax. They even believe they have the right to price our cars and trades.... too low of course. While at the same time CarFax exploits negative stereotypes that we are crooks in every commercial the Little Car Fox Rats out the dishonest bumbling and inept idiot car sales person. They charge us to defame us.
read this article we just published in Wards Auto Magazine... "My latest article is out and it's hot.
Here are more than 250 Consumer Complaints and reviews about CarFax... look... http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/carfax_inacc.html
We have manufacturers supporting these people and requiring we do business with them. Let's get mobilized and scream at our factory representatives, reprint this article for your dealers, do press releases, and generally alert your State Dealer Associations and 20-groups.
If a consumer asks for the CarFax, tell them it's $39.00. Whoever told you it was free was lying.
I am available to perform 20-group and Dealer Association Keynote Speeches on this subject. As of right now, I am calling out the Tribe to get on this subject. JIM
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Comment by Stan Sher on October 31, 2012 at 11:51am
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Last year in December, we went after TrueCar. This week right around November it is CarFax. I wonder who we will go after in September/October of 2013. LOL...I see a pattern. However, it is a great pattern and we are on the right track.
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Comment by David T. Gould on October 31, 2012 at 11:46am
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Jim,
If your calling all data companies to task for being responsible vendors, I'm in. Your (our) prior TrueCar campaign was historic and worth noting as a blueprint for continuing efforts.
NOTE: As we read and write this, TrueCar is rebuilding and making headway nationwide through dealer reps, event / automotive community sponsorships and scholarships to rebuilding their business model. The silence about this from leaders (such as yourself) is deafening. Have they met your (our) expectations of being a responsible vendor? I am not sure as we are not TrueCar clients here.
As we head off to slay the next dragon, are you (we) setting a bar for them (us) to judge what is reasonable / acceptable?
I look forward to supporting any effort that supports the betterment of the automotive industry.
All the very best,
DTG
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Comment by James A. Ziegler on October 31, 2012 at 9:26am
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Wow Tom, that's still another angle I had never considered as this web is woven from so many angles.
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Comment by Big Tom LaPointe on October 31, 2012 at 9:24am -
I never looked at it like that - you have piqued my brain cells. As a former exotic car broker I always warned buyers and sellers about using carfax as the be all to end all. carfax is helping perpetuate the anxiety buyers experience. They are only ONE measure of the condition of a vehicle.
When i asked one seller if his car (SL 500) had been in any accidents over the phone, he said "it has a clean carfax" - and indeed it did. He had enough cars that it was smarter for him to pay the THIRTY THOUSAND IN REPAIRS than to have it hit his insurance!
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You got it Keith. They charge (over-charge) a premium price. Purportedly hold the dealers hostage by many accounts through their exclusionary relationships with AutoTrader.com and Cars.com (which I feel is wrong), they Have deals where some manufacturers are in their pocket and require dealers to use them, and they insult dealers and smear our integrity every time one of their commercials runs on television.
Why wouldn't we or why shouldn't we throw these people out of the dealership and forbid them access to our data, and punish anyone else who supplies them data from our DMS?
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Comment by Keith Shetterly on October 31, 2012 at 8:24am
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When I got married, my wife had a car she'd already bought from an independent lot. I asked about any previous accident because of the paint job that I could see evidence of when I opened the trunk--she replied that the CarFax at sale had shown no accident. I checked it through CF at work (we had a blanket agreement, so no add'l charge to the dealership). Nothing showed! The door on the driver side had obviously been painted, and a paint meter showed the entire driver side to be painted all the way back to the trunk. Turns out the first time she turned on the defroster, GLASS blew out on to the dash! Hood was painted, too, blah blah. To this day, NOTHING shows on the CF for accidents. Just one more story, only this one is personal.
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Great point Stan. It is my purpose to educate dealers, manufacturers and the public that these people (CarFax) are not what they seem. I love the word you used Stan... "Extortionists". This is NOT going to go away. Get CarFax out of your dealership and get them out of your computers... that's my advice based on my low opinion of them.
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I spent a few days being lazy with the hurricane coming my way.
The only thing that I can say about CarFax is that they are master extortionists. They have built up trust with the consumer by making dealers look bad. However, they became a necessary evil where dealers need to have them just to give the consumer a better piece of mind. They ave done a great job of spinning propaganda and have grown their business substantially. I know AutoCheck is way more legitimate but in retail consumers question it because in their mind they want CarFax.
Glad that Jim is taking action to put them in their place.
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Jeff that's the Point Jeremy Alicandri was making in his Blog. Read my latest article referenced above about CarFax and especially the Consumer Affairs website with 250 Complaints and reviews about CarFax.
Alicandri referred to Cars.com and AutoTrader.com as only showing CarFax and NOT showing other Vehicle History reports which might be more accurate, or at least as accurate... and certainly less expensive. it's a fixed game with a stacked deck.
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Bobby I am so pleased to see you've checked in with your opinions here. I hold you in high regard... Alpha Dawg
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