Dealerfire Blog

Score!!!

Asbury Auto will switch it's 124 new vehicle dealerships to Dealertracks Arkona DMS.

Points of Interest from JD Powers Automotive Study

Automotivedigest.com has published some info from the latest JD Powers Automotive study. It covers emerging technologies in the automotive industry for the US. Some of the findings; $100 is the price point for a USB interface and $150 for an IPOD interface. See the rest here at automotivedigest.com.

Is that a Mini in your Pocket or are you Just Glad to See Me

Here is some YouTube video of the new Mini Clubman, a slightly larger version of a Mini Cooper. The purists will and have been bashing it as "too big",  but I say this could be the Mini for the rest of us. My wife drives a Mini Cooper Convertible which we recently drove from Wisconsin to North Carlina to see the in-laws. The ride is smooth and power at highway speeds is quick but loading/unloading can be serious exercise in patience building. The back seat is only suitable for imaginary friends and/or a few bags of groceries. Don't get me wrong....the Mini Cooper is a blast to drive but at least now you don't have to choose between buying a Mini and having children.

"Uncool" Sliding Doors may be the Death of Minivans

Wall Street Journal online has interesting article on the demise of the Minivan. Besides increased competition from crossover style utility vehicles, the innovation that once defined them may finally be their undoing. The iconic image of American Suburbia, a minivan door "sliding" open and soccer ready kids spilling, seems to have earned minivans to commercially crippling tag of "uncool". Not that minivans we ever really cool but ... I often wondered why manufacturers didn't put sliding doors on mid-size and larger SUV's and cross over vehicles, now I know.

Gallop Poll names Car Salesmen least Trusted Profession

Jim Lentz, executive vice president for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. cites the study in an article posted on Detroit News Autoinsider. Congressman and Insurance salesmen ranked more trustworthy than car salesmen. Considering Congress currently has a 63% disapproval rate, that can't be good.

Everything but the Check...

Mazda USA is rolling out a new online service for auto buyers. They will offer a personal shopping assistant online via chat that can take the consumer up to point of writing the check and filling out the paperwork. The full story is online here at MediaPost's Marketing Daily.

More on Showroom Reductions

The Detroit Free Press has an article that spells out the costs associated with the Big Three's claim of to many dealerships. CNW Marketing Research puts the costs at "about $436 per vehicle, or $3.9 billion...", read the full story here.

Showroom Glut

The Wall Street Journal published a story today on the Big Three's desire to reduce the number of dealerships in operation. According to the story, shrinking market share has led to an over abundance of showrooms for GM, Ford and Chrysler. Read the full story here at the WSJ online.

The Chinese are Coming....

But first they are taking a detour through Mexico. The Autochannel posted a story that Chinese Zhongxing will assemble pickups and SUV's in Tijuana, Mexico with the intent of exporting them to the U.S. Read the story here at theautochannel.com. According to a story posted June 9th by the LA Times, the company setup to handle the importing will be headed by Steve Saleen. The company is ZX Automobile Co. of North America Inc. and Mr. Saleen is its new CEO. You know Steve from the Saleen 7 and Saleen Mustang but now is setting his sites on delivering you low cost Chinese import autos. The prices quoted by the LA Times put the price at "less than $14,000", no word yet on incentives or warranty. You can read the LA Times story here.

Brand Name Search Trends

Google Labs has a very nifty little tools called Trends. It's a search engine that you can type various words or phrases into and then see it's search volume over the last three years. It gives you the option to narrow by country, sub-regions and year. You can type several terms separated by a comma see them compared over time. For the U.S. it will break high volume terms down by state with some cities listed. I typed in various auto makers names to see how they compare, no you cannot get results for individual dealers. I compared Toyota and GM, Toyota and Chrysler etc... and tried some comparisons by make. I tried some Impala, Camry and Impala,Camry, Taurus; you get the idea. The results were not to surprising, Toyota out performed all others, except for Ford. Ford did well in both make and model comparisons, I used the Taurus. This could be some good ammo to use on the manufacturers, what those search volume levels represent is the "lake" you have to fish in at the dealership level. Higher search volume levels represent a higher level of online users looking for the make/model you sell, lower levels represent a much shallower pool to pull from. You can run some of your own comparisons here.