TRUE CAR and ZAG Cyber Bandits, Parasites or Good for the Car Business?
Jim Ziegler asks...
I am hearing a lot of discussion about True Car and ZAG. I continually scratch my head and wonder if desperate dealers are doing the marketing limbo "How Low Can You Go?"
Are we so bad at what we do that we have to line up and pay vendors to lose money? AND, who is giving these people access to your data that is used against you?
Who owns these companies and what might be their ulterior motive? Sometimes I ask questions to which I already know the answer.
Am I wrong?
What do you think... JIM
Jim Ziegler's Guidance and Recommended Action Plan:
Ten Areas We Need to Concentrate on to Bring This Monster to It's Knees...
- Government investigation of ALL Data Aggregators taking consumer information from dealers' DMS. Sadly enough, dealers who do business with TrueCar are exposed to liability charges. Cut off all access to unecessary data, no matter who takes it from the dealers DMS and make it illegal to "resell identifiable consumer data" and "transactional data".
- Educate Your Fellow Dealers; If anyone takes financial transactional data, they expose the dealer that allowed it to violations, especially if it is passed on to other vendors or shared.
- Educate Consumers to what they're doing with their information...
a. You buy a car from a dealer, do you really want your personal information, and maybe even your financial information, passed along and sold and shared by "God knows who?"
b. These People Charge the Dealer $300 which the dealers have to build into the deal
c. Your Privacy and the Security of your Information could theoretically compromise your identity if you do business a company that takes data from the dealership. - Educate Investors and potential investors they could possibly be mislead if anyone is telling them this is a safe investment because of all of the dealers pushing back, associations pushing back, and government regulators in many states coming after TrueCar's business model as NOT compliant, in some cases they're saying it is Not Legal.
- AMEX, USAA and all of their affiliates do not want the bad consumer relations this push back is creating with their members and customers.
- Cancel your dealership's Affilation with TrueCar. Tell people with TrueCar certificates that YOU don't honor TrueCar and you feel the company is NOT reputable. Educate consumers as to perceived data exposure if they buy from a TrueCar dealer. Make sure that each consumer knows that using TrueCar actually increases their vehicle cost by $300 to $400.
- Make the dealers selling at huge losses take all of those deals. Big problem right now is too many Nissan Dealers and others are taking huge losers to get the factory money. The TrueCar reverse-auction business model will continually push those numbers down until the factory money is non-existent. Consumers need to hear from many dealers, "We don't do TrueCar"
- Keep calling your National and State Dealer Associations demanding they get involved and stay involved... No excuses.
- Get the Manufacturers into the game. If GM, Ford, Toyota, and other majors change the rules about how we advertise and do business to protect the dealers, we can cut off their ability to set pricing. So keep it up at every dealer meeting. Call your Dealer Council Members and protest to your factory reps. Tell the manufacturers, if they want showroom and facility improvements, we need the ability to make fair profits.
- Tell everyone you know. Educate other dealers and industry people. Watch the Painter interviews... I believe this is the first time a vendor has publicly announced they intend to bring down the dealers and hijack our business, taking our profits and starving us out with our own data. Painter has said manufacturers and dealers should go bankrupt and he, in his God-like way "will control distribution..."
When the TrueCar-Yahoo Deal kicks in we need to stand firm and "Just Say No" we don't honor TrueCar deals.
Read this article as a reference: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20110831%2FFIN...
AND, if you doubt the mission... read this... http://www.zag.com/websiteASSETS/whitepapers/ZAG-WhitePaper3.pdf
Comment
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Comment by A. J. Maida on December 6, 2011 at 1:54pm
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Didn't happen here!!!! Still showed a discounted price.
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Comment by Jim Kristoff on December 6, 2011 at 1:49pm -
kudos to Honda.....where are the rest of the Manufacturers????
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Comment by Keith Shetterly on December 6, 2011 at 1:48pm
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@ Brian WIlliams: Here's the text, AMAZING: "American Honda Motor Co., Inc. has directed all Honda Certified Dealers to remove upfront price guarantees for consumers from the TrueCar website. As a result, an upfront price guarantee is not available for your requested Honda vehicle. TrueCar strongly believes every consumer has the right to transparent, no-haggle pricing, and we will continue to work with American Honda to resolve this issue for the benefit of both you the consumer and our TrueCar Certified Honda Dealers. In the meantime, you can still enjoy low prices by contacting the Certified Dealers on your Price Protection Certificate."
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Comment by Brian Willian on December 6, 2011 at 1:44pm
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I appears Honda may have put a stop to their product being advertised at excessively low levels. Go to TrueCar and enter a Honda product and look at the special pricing notice that pops up.
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Comment by Will Michaelson on December 6, 2011 at 1:01pm
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I was in a Lincoln dealership this past weekend, and asked the sales manager he knew about TrueCar...he had not. I informed him to stay as far away from it as possible, and to check the facts if TrueCar does end up calling.
It seems it hasn't come up our way yet. I'm interested to see if any dealership in Minnesota has implemented it.
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Comment by Jerry Thibeau on December 5, 2011 at 11:56pm
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Here's the video that will put a hurting to the beast! One million views will take 300 million from their pockets and put it back where it belongs with the dealers!
The new video geared for the consumer:
Kill the beast!
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Comment by Keith Shetterly on December 5, 2011 at 8:32pm
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@ Dublin VW: You damn near made me tear up. Thank you!!!
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Comment by Stanley Esposito on December 5, 2011 at 4:24pm
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@Jim Kristoff Thanks for posting the article from Automotive news. This is where everyone should go and leave a comment. Most GSMs and Owners read Automotive news.
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111205/RETAIL0...
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I promised you some good information, well here it is. It seems that if TrueCar does not have a participating dealer in a certain city, they will sell the lead to other third party lead generators. They will also direct you to a dealer outside of that market for the TrueCar price. See this video for proof: Video
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Comment by Keith Shetterly on December 5, 2011 at 12:23pm
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