TORRANCE, Calif. -

Auto Remarketing learned Friday that Mazda North American Operations has a new manager of certified pre-owned and remarketing to replace Eric Watson, who moved on to become group manager of retail marketing and incentives early last month.

The new CPO and remarketing head at Mazda is Roger Basa, who spoke with Auto Remarketing on Friday morning and shared his goals for the position, his background in the industry and more.

Basa started his position with Mazda on Sept. 26, joining the automaker from Volkswagen Group of America, where he was the Western regional used-car manager. His industry experience also includes time at Jaguar Land Rover North America and Volvo Cars North America.

For Jaguar Land Rover, his positions included Western regional CPO manager and CPO operations supervisor, while at Volvo he was the senior variable marketing financial analyst.

“I’m hoping to continue the momentum that has been (started) since the re-launch of the CPO from Eric Watson in July of 2010,” Basa said. “It’s basically just keeping the momentum that Eric has set by implementing strategic and tactical programs and vision for the future of Mazda products.”

“Roger brings a solid foundation of CPO and remarketing experience to Mazda. His recent field experience calling on VW dealers has given him insight into what customers and dealers expect from a CPO program,” Watson said. “We are confident that Roger will continue to build the momentum of a successful Mazda certified pre-owned program.”

Sharing some personal background, Basa originally hails from St. Louis and has been in the auto business since 2000. He currently lives in Orange County, Calif., and he and his wife Gina have two children.

Basa graduated from St. Louis University in 1991, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and his Bachelor of Arts in classical languages. He passed the Certified Public Accountant Examination in California in 1996.

Used-Car Challenges

As far as his new Mazda CPO post, Basa enters the position at a time when the used-car industry is at a rather unique point. The industry’s certified sales have been quite strong this year, but used-car prices are extremely high, inventory is short and lease-returns — often the lifeblood of CPO supply — are drying up.

“In general, we’re in a unique time for used cars. There hasn’t been a time where used cars are butt-up against new cars, basically,” Basa noted. “My challenges here are just to keep the momentum going and get our field staff, regional and also the dealer body, to continually engage in the program and the reason why we’re doing this from the highest level.

“I think what I need to do is to come up with a best practice and actually educate our field and our dealers. I’m thinking about national training to get our guys actually focused on the game,” he added, also touching on the importance of utilizing the Web and technology in the CPO market.

“It’s going to be focused on training and basically getting our guys understanding this new program and getting dealer engagement and seeing the opportunities for profitability at each store for this business, both front-end and back-end,” Basa continued.

In his first few days on the job, one goal Basa has set is working on the vehicle retention program to keep Mazda units within the automaker’s network.

Because of its relatively new financing relationship with Chase,  Basa said: “We’ve got to work better on our retention program and understanding of buying our own cars as the lifeblood of sustaining used inventory for each of our dealers.”

In terms of sourcing inventory, he emphasized the importance of dealers utilizing technology to make smarter inventory buying decisions, understanding auctions, knowing how to handle trade-ins better, as well as using inventory tools and communication with the new-car side when making a deal.

Basa emphasized the importance of off-lease as the bread-and-butter of finding CPO vehicles.

As many dealers can attest, however, lease returns have begun to dry up.

But Basa also stressed the benefits of reaching out through customer relationship management databases to find existing customers who purchased instead of leased, and working that channel for decent trade-ins.

He also said he is a “big proponent” of working service bays to find customers who may be willing to work a trade-in deal for a new car.

Interestingly enough, Basa also found alternative sites like Craigslist to be helpful.

“It’s really those guys who are guerilla marketers who are finding these cars. So, dealers are doing it,”  he said.

Dealer Input Needed

As he continues in his new role, Basa is also aiming to get feedback from dealers. He would like utilize a council of dealers to offer input, including several across the spectrum of size.

“I’m hoping to get core dealers that have already embraced the program to get good ideas … (but) I think it’s always best to hear it from all kinds of dealers when you get feedback,” Basa emphasized.

It’s not just a matter of getting input from the “big guys who are engaged” in the process already, he said, but reaching out to the “medium and little guys” who are eager to learn more about the CPO market and become fully engaged.

Basa noted the importance in building “a program that meets 80 percent or 90 percent of everybody’s needs,” even if you can’t please every dealer.

Sharing more perspective about the program and citing some of its benefits and coverage, Basa said: “I think Mazda is in a pretty good position.

“But we can get better,” he added. “If I can find ways I can make the program best-in-class, I’ll definitely do that if it’s within our budget and within our ability to do so.”