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...

  1. 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".
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. AMEX, USAA and all of their affiliates do not want the bad consumer relations this push back is creating with their members and customers.
  6. 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.
  7. 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"
  8. Keep calling your National and State Dealer Associations demanding they get involved and stay involved... No excuses.
  9. 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.
  10. 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

Views: 48188

Comment

You need to be a member of DealerELITE.net to add comments!

Join DealerELITE.net

Comment by Mike theCarGuy Correra on February 3, 2012 at 3:15pm

Anyone see this yet?

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- ZAG - Zag Sales Strategy, now known as TrueCar, Inc. is the recipient of a "Top Rated" Best New Car Lead Provider award in the third annual DrivingSales Dealer Satisfaction Awards, presented in conjunction with the 2012 National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Convention & Expo.
Followed by an oh so sweet post in which Scott gushes all his appreciation to the dealers that voted for TrueCar. Money can indeed buy everything including awards I suppose. A great use of the $200 mil they raised I would say, it will be a great trophy for the reception area of their offices... Of course this vote MUST have taken place AFTER the recent overhaul of their business model! Here in So Cal they are no longer showing actual dealer pricing but rather a TrueCar Target Price and then a disclaimer saying that the individual dealers will contact the consumer directly with a specific price, aka Edmunds/CarsDirect style. Much better presentation however all the clouds over the info mining/sharing yet remain!!

Comment by Keith Shetterly on February 3, 2012 at 3:14pm

@ Tom:  You like boats??  Who knew.  :)

Comment by Thomas A. Kelly on February 3, 2012 at 2:43pm

If I wanted to be a shill for someone on a forum and did not have balls enough for folks to know who I am.....OR......I was not who I say I am.......This is what my bio and pic would look like on that blog:

Which best describes you?
Dealership
What company do you work for (or own)?
Boat Dealership
What is your current position within your organization?
Manager
What is your company website?
http://boat.com
How did you specifically hear about dealerELITE? If referred, who?
A friend
To maintain the integrity of dealerELITE, tell us what you will have to offer once a dealerELITE member?
Over 20 years experience
Comment by Keith Shetterly on February 3, 2012 at 11:23am

@ Robert:  Looking at your profile, are you with Car.com?  Or what dealer are you at that has been using TC?  Thanks!

Comment by Heather Graham on February 3, 2012 at 9:59am

CEO Painter has been making the rounds, visiting dealers.  'New' plan/program for Maryland to roll out Feb 8th! I imagine it will incorporate thoses new T's & C's that were posted a couple days ago.  Regardless....I will post the info when I get it.

Comment by David T. Gould on February 2, 2012 at 7:02pm

Congrats on the Passion award Jim. Safe to say that it is a reflection of your involvement here and throughout the automotive community. 

Comment by James A. Ziegler on February 2, 2012 at 5:52pm

TrueCar Reception update?
Earlier announced TrueCar Open House is now rumored to have moved locations...we're checking on it now. Originally announced to be at The Las Vegas Renaissance...now rumored to be held at Holiday Inn Express or the lobby of The Greyhound Station due to budget constraints.

Comment by James A. Ziegler on February 2, 2012 at 5:15pm

To answer your questions, here's what they're doing instead...

 

Dear TrueCar Dealer Partner,

If you are heading to the NADA Convention, feel free to join us at the TrueCar Open House! 

When:
Saturday, February 4th, from 2 to 5 pm
Sunday, February 5th, from 12 to 3 pm 

Where:
Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel (Short walk from the Las Vegas Convention Center)
3400 Paradise Road, Las Vegas, Nevada 89169-2770
Suite 1432 

Why:
Meet TrueCar employees, share your feedback, get latest updates 

No RSVP Necessary... Just Show Up! 

Thanks,

TrueCar Dealer Development Team
            (866) 480-1313      

TrueCar, Inc., 225 Broadway, 12th Floor, Santa Monica, CA 90401
To unsubscribe, send an email to: unsubscribe-67174@up0.net
Comment by Thomas A. Kelly on February 2, 2012 at 5:10pm

Painter, Dietz and Kim might be hitch hiking to Vegas as we speak and planning on hanging out at the AutoNation booth....salvaging what little is left????

Comment by Keith Shetterly on February 2, 2012 at 5:06pm

No Zag, either.

© 2024   Created by DealerELITE.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service