CPO Dealer of the Year Winner Gives Credit to vAuto for Helping

February 09, 2009

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NEW YORK — After posting strong results in their certified pre-owned operations, Paragon Honda in Queens, N.Y., and Paragon Acura in Woodside, N.Y., earned national recognition in the past year, including honors from Auto Remarketing.

Management attributed much of the stores' success to using a specific inventory management tool from vAuto.

Brian Benstock, co-dealer principal of each store indicated he was an early user of vAuto's Live Market View system, which can provide dealers with an enhanced way to manage their used-vehicle inventory, make the best buying decisions and match vehicle prices to the market.

"With vAuto's real-time, up-to-the-minute used-vehicle pricing information, we are able to make better decisions when purchasing pre-owned cars and trucks, enabling us to price vehicles more accurately for our market," Benstock pointed out.

In addition to Paragon winning the Certified Pre-Owned Dealer of the Year award for the Honda at Auto Remarketing's inaugural Certified Pre-Owned Forum in 2008, the two stores have enjoyed ongoing strong CPO success.

Paragon Honda sold 1,823 certified units last year, while Paragon Acura moved 694 CPO models. And each store has ranked at or near the top of Honda and Acura dealers nationwide for used sales, according to officials.

Moreover, Paragon has been recognized by one industry publication as being one of the top five dealers in the country for Internet sales.

So just who will receive this year's Honda award at the CPO Forum? Will it be these stores again? To register to attend this year's event, which will held April 27-28 at the Wigwam Golf Resort & Spa in Phoenix, visit www.autoremarketingconferences.com. Also, don't forget that many other automakers will be on hand at this event to name their top certified sales dealers as well.

Moving on, another dealership, Acton Toyota of Littleton, Mass., also credited vAuto's inventory management tools for helping it push CPO sales. The store began using Live Market View in November 2007.

In 2008, Acton Toyota moved 893 certified vehicles, a 31-percent upswing from 2007. This gave Acton the highest CPO sales total for Toyota's Northeast region, which includes 72 other dealerships throughout Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island.

"Having a heavy focus on the Internet, vAuto played a major role in our recent success. It helped us develop our pricing in a realistic, fair and competitive way. vAuto's data is always up-to-the-minute or even ahead of the market," stated Craig Belowski, Acton Toyota's general sales manager.

"Consumers are discovering that owning a pre-owned car is easier and more reliable, especially with the added assurance of extended warranty coverage that comes with a certified pre-owned car or truck," Belowski added.

And as many dealers can likely attest, the CPO segment has become one of the fastest-growing and important aspects of the late-model used-vehicle industry. For instance, roughly 1.7 million certified units were sold in the U.S. in 2008.

"No part of the used-vehicle market is easy now," stated Dale Pollak, chairman and founder of vAuto. "We are able to help dealers compete more vigorously and earn greater profits through the industry's best stocking, appraisal and pricing tools.

"If there is a secret to success, it's knowing the dealer's market and managing the used-car inventory to position the dealership for reasonable turnover of cars and trucks," he added.

Used Car Manager