National dealer management system (DMS) provider Autosoft recently announced a new integration with VinAudit, a provider of automotive historical data.
This partnership is designed to give Autosoft dealers access to affordable vehicle history reports that are National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) compliant.
Founded in 2012, VinAudit, an official access provider for NMVTIS, has built a robust database of automotive records. VinAudit's vehicle history report covers the key areas, including:
— Title records
— Junk, salvage and insurance records
— Theft records
— Lien, impound and NS export records
— Sale records
— Title brands
Dealers can also see the estimated market value and ownership costs of a vehicle. Dealers can view a sample report at this website.
Reviewing a full VinAudit report before every transaction can help dealers acquire clean inventory and helps customers purchase with confidence. Dealership employees can simply click a button in Autosoft's Sales and F&I vehicle screens to register and access VinAudit reports.
“As a small technology company out to deliver ‘the data without the brand,’ VinAudit is excited to partner with Autosoft to enable dealers to pull up instant vehicle history reports at a fraction of traditional costs,” VinAudit chief executive officer David Wu said. “It doesn’t get much easier than this.”
Autosoft president and chief executive officer Bryce Veon added, “Our dealers depend on us for an innovative, efficient, and profitable dealer management system. We are excited to add VinAudit integration to our Connect program and give Autosoft customers an affordable way to access their vehicle history reports.
“The features of this integration will help our dealers maximize their profit potential and increase their customers’ confidence,” Veon went on to say.
Whether the music your potential vehicle buyer likes most is by Bruno Mars, Johnny Cash or Adele, Vboost says it has dealers covered.
The viral marketing company focused on the auto industry announced this week that it can now customize viral marketing for its dealer clients down to the musical taste of the customer. As a result, Vboost said the dealer videos have seen a dramatic increase in shares and views.
Vboost developed quick and easy process to capture photos at the time of vehicle delivery and quickly gets those “branded” photos out to the customer. Now the customer becomes the dealer’s advocate by posting/sharing the photos. The captured photos are stitched into a slideshow set to music and sent to the customer. New updates to the platform further improve the customization as the salesperson can input the customer’s music and song preference from classic rock, to Latin, country, oldies and more.
Vboost pays the publishing rights so dealers can use nearly any song they choose. Customers share these videos via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social platforms, and additionally email them to their friends and family.
“With over seven million video views, the concept has truly caught fire,” said Paul Moran, Vboost president and chief executive officer. “Music makes the viral world go around. When messages go out, the more they mirror the customer and their individual tastes, the more likely they are to get shared. Popular license music adds entertainment value and raises the bar to a higher standard, setting the dealership apart from the competition. As customers are not used to hearing their favorite song associated with a local car dealership, imagine the difference that makes in marketing.”
The Vboost Viral Marketing Platform can deliver and track thousands of viral messages monthly — all designed to create referral business for dealers and their individual salespeople. With just a few clicks on a mobile app, hundreds of Vboost dealer clients can send thousands of viral messages every month, reaching new customers through the customers’ friends and family.
Vboost reiterated that its mission is to produce and deliver viral marketing messages that promote the dealership and the sales rep, creating referrals. The customer receives the content in a format that compels them to share on their own terms. The shares and views are then tracked and optimized.
“The key to producing high share rates and true viral marketing is different for each person. Customization and fast turnaround are key. Most of our dealerships’ customers share their experience before they even leave the dealership — that is very powerful marketing,” Moran said.
For more information, watch this Vboost overview video available here or at the top of this page.
For additional information and to schedule a demonstration, call (800) 799-3130 or visit www.vboost.com.
Auction123 has enhanced its dealer website and inventory management solutions, as well as its automated marketing tools for sites like Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist and eBay with vehicle-specific pricing information for Carfax Advantage dealers.
The company highlighted those dealers now can compare their pricing with the Carfax history-based values for units in inventory. Using Carfax information combined with local market trends, Carfax can provide a unique price for each vehicle.
With more accurate pricing information, dealers can market their vehicles competitively and reinforce to customers which vehicles are the best value.
“By integrating the Carfax History-Based Value with Auction123’s solutions, we are giving dealers the ability to more accurately price their vehicles based on a specific VIN’s history, as opposed to simply matching a vehicle to others in the market based on options and condition,” said Tracy Amato, executive director of Auction123.
“This is a huge game changer when it comes to determining the best pricing for a dealers’ inventory and identifies the value of vehicles that have fewer owners, more detailed service history and no accidents,” Amato added.
The Auction123 system is now geared to offer greater insight that can help dealers more accurately evaluate each specific VIN in their inventory. The company insisted dealers no longer have to rely on limited market value pricing for all vehicles matching the year, make, model, trim and condition.
Dealers can filter stored vehicles to see which units are priced above or below the Carfax History-Based Value and pull up the Carfax information on each one. In addition, dealers can view and adjust the trim, color, condition and options for each VIN as needed.
“Vehicle-specific pricing helps dealers hold gross on their inventory,” said Paul Nadjarian, head of products for Carfax. “With this information built into Auction123’s entire suite of products, Carfax Advantage dealers make better decisions when acquiring, advertising and retailing used cars.”
For more information or to get access to Auction123’s solutions, visit www.auction123.com.
More valuable intelligence for your dealership’s service drive arrived on Tuesday.
Vincentric released an in-depth update to its vehicle maintenance data with additional detail added to its automotive cost-of-ownership database. The latest enhancement includes costs for more than 400 services per vehicle with more detailed estimates of parts pricing, labor times and labor rates for light-duty vehicles in the U.S. and Canada, resulting in more accurate total cost-of-ownership calculations.
Vincentric maintenance data includes both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance costs, with scheduled maintenance costs using specific manufacturer recommended maintenance schedules as its foundation.
Unscheduled maintenance costs include items without specific service intervals, such as brakes, batteries and tires.
Vincentric reiterated that it uses a standard replacement interval for these services and then applies vehicle specific parts prices and labor times. This information is then combined with hourly labor rates that are customized by state and province based on a Vincentric survey of automotive dealers.
Current national rates are $96 per hour in the U.S. and $112 per hour in Canada, with slightly higher rates for luxury vehicles.
“Our customers can now more accurately estimate maintenance costs at any mileage interval up to 300,000 miles or 480,000 kilometers,” Vincentric president David Wurster said.
“Each calculation is done using our dynamic cost to own technology to determine specific costs for that driving distance without the need for any averaging,” Wurster continued. “Our web service can deliver this data on demand either as part of our cost-of-ownership solution or as an independent maintenance data delivery.”
In addition to delivery via web service using a VIN match or other unique vehicle matching keys, Vincentric data can be delivered via text file or other formats as needed by its customers.
Further information regarding Vincentric maintenance data can be requested from marketing@vincentric.com.
And Vincentric is again a part of Used Car Week, which begins on Nov. 12 in Scottsdale, Ariz. The company will be handing out honors as a part of the Used Car Awards Luncheon sponsored by TradeRev.
There is still time to register for Used Car Week 2018 by going online here.
Another publicly traded dealer group has made a significant investment in the online car sales space.
AutoNation said Tuesday it has obtained roughly a 7-percent ownership stake in Vroom after a $50 million strategic investment in the online car retailer.
“We are excited about our investment in Vroom and the potential collaboration between our companies,” AutoNation chairman, chief executive and president Mike Jackson said in a news release.
“With this strategic investment, AutoNation remains uniquely positioned to lead our industry towards the future of the consumer buying experience,” he said.
Vroom has been one of the leading online car sales platforms to crop up in the past handful of years, along the likes of Carvana and Shift.
Paul Hennessy has been Vroom’s CEO since June 2016. He joined the company after serving as the CEO of Priceline.com and chief marketing officer of Booking.com (both are part of Booking Holdings Inc.)
“AutoNation has been one of the chief trailblazers in transforming automotive commerce in the past several decades,” Hennessy said in the news release. “It is a perfect fit to have them in our family as our industry is quickly scaling towards the digital purchase and sale experience that we are offering.”
AutoNation reported third-quarter results Tuesday morning and was set to host an investor’s call at 11 a.m. ET. Net income from continuing operations for the quarter were $112 million, up from $98 million a year ago. The earnings per share of $1.24 was a third-quarter record.
In its earnings release, AutoNation says investing in Vroom, “provides a foundation for potential strategic partnership opportunities with experienced and proven e-commerce executives.”
It follows a similar move by fellow public retailer Lithia just last month.
With its $54 million investment, Lithia led a $140 million round of Series D financing in Shift, an online automotive marketplace. The funding, which included equity and debt, more than doubled Shift’s total financing of equity and debt, bringing it to $265 million. Lithia and Shift also formed a strategic partnership, and Lithia CEO and president Bryan DeBoer joined Shift’s board of directors.
And then in mid-October, Shift quadrupled its floorplan capacity thanks to a new credit line for buying used cars. With that news came Lithia acquiring more equity interest in the online marketplace.
Lithia chief financial officer John North said in an Oct. 11 news release: “Our deep industry relationships resulted in an immediate benefit for Shift. Access to capital for inventory procurement will increase vehicle sales. As a result of this collaboration, Lithia has received an additional equity interest in Shift.”
Reconditioning is a vital part of most any retail used-car sales operations, including those in the growing standalone pre-owned store space.
With that in mind, EchoPark Automotive — which is Sonic Automotive’s chain of used-car stores — has lined up auto reconditioning software provider AutoMobile Technologies to provide workflow automation software to its reconditioning facilities, including Charlotte, N.C., Dallas and Denver.
The recon facilities are now using the AMT ReconPro and ReconMonitor platforms.
“AMT software provides EchoPark Automotive a scalable tool with a common language platform,” executive vice president of operations Tim Keen said in a news release. “It increases our efficiency, saves costs and cycle times so we can deliver consistent high-quality vehicles to our customers.”
Added AutoMobile Technologies EVP of operations Eric Meahan, “EchoPark has one of the most robust reconditioning operations we’ve ever seen, providing great value to customers across their inventory of nearly-new vehicles. We are proud to enhance that value with ReconMonitor’s efficient workflow management capabilities in vehicle recon
“Dealers lose an average of $35-50 per day that cars spend undergoing reconditioning. Our partnership will allow EchoPark to reduce costly delays and make better vehicle recon decisions early in the cycle,” Meahan said. “That results in better inventory availability for their customers and ultimately, increased margins on vehicles sold.”
With the industry still sifting through units impacted by Hurricanes Florence and Michael, Carfax shared new information on Thursday, highlighting how many vehicles damaged by flooding remain operation.
Compared to this point last year after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma hit the U.S., Carfax reported 478,000 flooded vehicles on the road; a figure that represents a 47-percent spike year-over-year.
Carfax indicated Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Louisiana are the states where flood-damaged vehicles are most prevalent.
Carfax added that the specific cities where the highest penetration of flooded units remain in operation include Houston, New York, Miami, Philadelphia and Dallas.
“Flooded cars rot from the inside out, likely causing safety, health and financial problems for unsuspecting buyers of these waterlogged wrecks,” Carfax said.
This summer, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer delivered a letter to the Federal Trade Commission to outline his significant concerns about what the New York lawmaker dubbed, “hurricane cars.”
Schumer fears scores of vehicles damaged during previous hurricanes currently are in dealership inventory. Therefore, the powerful Senator wants the FTC to increase the regulatory capability of the Used Car Rule already in place in an effort to keep flooded vehicles from being retailed.
“While the FTC has been sounding the alarm on ‘hurricane cars,’ consumers are still at risk of being duped and burdened by a financial road of ruin if they unknowingly buy one,” Schumer said in a news release distributed back in July. “That’s why the FTC needs to drive forward with more than a consumer warning and hit the gas on a plan that uses the ‘Used Car Rule’ already on the books to ensure that the sticker slapped on every used car in a lot details a robust ‘flood check.’”
To help dealers spot flood-damaged vehicle, AutoCheck Auctions offered more than a dozen recommendations after Florence deluged the Carolinas in September.
Before Michael ripped through the Florida Panhandle, Georgia and other parts of the Southeast, Cox Automotive estimated at least 20,000 units likely were damaged.
Many of the metrics around Asbury Automotive Group's used-car operations have shown some growth, both in the third quarter and through nine months of the year, according to the retailer's quarterly earnings report released Tuesday.
Asbury increased its used-car retail sales by nearly 11 percent in the third quarter, retailing 20,824 pre-owned units.
That’s up from 18,777 in Q3 of 2017 and pushes the year-to-date figure to 63,079 used-car retail sales, up from 59,107 through Q3 of 2017.
Asbury’s used-to-new sales ratio for the quarter was 75 percent, up from 74.6 percent a year ago. Year-to-date, it’s at 81.4 percent, compared to 80.1 percent through three quarters of 2017.
The dealer group pulled in $497.5 million in total used-car revenue for the third quarter, a 9-percent hike. That includes $448.7 million in retail used-car revenue (up 12 percent) and $48.8 million in wholesale used-car revenue (down 12 percent).
For the year, Asbury has generated a shade under $1.5 billion in total used revenue, up 7 percent from the year-ago period. That includes $1.36 billion on the retail side (up 9 percent) and $143.6 million on the wholesale side (down 5 percent).
Total used-car gross profits of $32.8 million were up 14 percent year-over-year in Q3; through nine months, they’re up 5 percent at $100.4 million.
Average gross profit per used vehicle in Q3 was $1,570, up from $1,539 a year ago. Used retail gross margins of 7.3 percent were up from 7.2 percent in Q3 of 2017.
Through nine months of the year, average gross profit per used vehicle is at $1,562, down from $1,597 a year ago.
Used retail gross margins have declined from 7.6 percent to 7.3 percent.
Auto classified industry veterans Skip Dowd and Ernie Blood — who have been with operations such as AutoMart Magazine, AutoMart.com, AutoTrader.com, Mini Merchant and Trader Publishing — are now collaborating on a new platform to help dealers move metal.
Dowd and Blood joined forces to launch MAutoSearch, an online mobile vehicle-buying solution that is geared to bring online mobile and print together to help consumers more easily comparison shop on their mobile devices.
“Currently, the mobile car-shopping experience is not always seamless for consumers. We see gaps in the tools provided by current online and offline publishers,” Dowd said. “While mobile shopping works well if you know exactly what you want, the small screens on mobile devices make it difficult to do research and comparison shop.
“So in most cases the car shopper will initiate a search on their mobile device and then go back to their laptop or desktop to complete their research,” he continued. “That’s inconvenient, especially as consumers have begun to rely on their mobile devices for almost everything. As desktop and laptop use continues to decline, we felt car shoppers and dealers would appreciate some new solutions designed to address this gap.”
With more than 3 million vehicles for sale on www.MAutoSearch.com, the company is focusing on the mobile car shopping experience and is using technology to deliver a modernized, digitized and free automotive photo guide as a companion to its online searchable website.
MAutoSearch Magazine shoppers can browse local vehicles to find a vehicle of interest, then enter a special MCode on MAutoSearch.com to get more information.
This solution can provide shoppers a more convenient way to browse vehicles and comparison shop — without ever having to go back to a laptop or computer to do research.
With MAutoSearch Magazine, shoppers can also call or text directly from one convenient number on each listing in the magazine.
Blood added, “Technology has pushed our industry forward immensely in the last 20 years, and yet much of that technology is not integrated with local marketing solutions. Most vehicles are purchased by shoppers located within 20 miles of the dealer, and dealers ultimately want best-in-class technology complimented by efficient local marketing in their hometowns.”
Whether shoppers arrive on MAutoSearch.com by way of an MCode from MAutoSearch Magazine or through the SEM and social campaigns planned by the company, Dowd and Blood insisted they will appreciate the emphasis on mobile messaging.
The founders added that shoppers will be able to connect instantly with dealers via their preferred communication method — ultimately with less clicks — as dealer chat and dealer text options are prominently displayed on both the vehicle search results pages and vehicle details pages.
For dealers, Dowd and Blood said MAutoSearch can provides a low-cost, low-risk way to get their new, pre-owned and certified vehicle inventory directly in front of motivated vehicle shoppers. MAutosearch can offer dealers affordable, online advertising options across the country and online and print packages in select markets.
MAutoSearch.com has launched its website nationally, and its local print and digital ebook will hit the streets this week in the Akron and Canton, Ohio, markets.
The company plans expansion into additional markets in January.
Dealers can make inquiries by calling (770) 634–6351 or sending a message to sdowd@mautosearch.com.
TradeRev — sponsor of the Used Car Awards Luncheon during Used Car Week 2018 — announced the release of the company’s new MOVE METAL service options for sellers.
TradeRev highlighted the offering includes three customized tiers ranging from self-service to full-service, all aimed at helping dealers sell unwanted inventory faster and easier.
Also offered is the company’s new TradeReady seller protection, an optional service that can guarantee no post-sale returns or arbitrations.
The company indicated all service levels include access to TradeRev’s mobile app and desktop marketplace that facilitates live-bidding, one-hour wholesale auctions among thousands of dealers from coast to coast.
TradeRev’s new MOVE METAL service options will be available to qualifying U.S.-based dealers nationwide beginning on Nov. 1.
“TradeRev knows every dealer is unique, and that selling and sourcing inventory is never one-size-fits-all,” said Becca Polak, TradeRev president and chief legal officer for TradeRev’s parent company, KAR Auction Services.
“Our new service levels put dealers in control of their TradeRev auction experience and help them sell their way all day, every day. And to make sure every sale is final, our optional TradeReady seller protection gives sold vehicles an arbitration-free, no-hassle, one-way ticket off the lot,” continued Polak, who is among the collection of industry executives and leaders set to appear during Used Car Week that begins Nov. 12 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The company mentioned all TradeRev registered sellers can receive in-dealership onboarding and training as well as hands-on support planning and promoting the dealership’s “first sale” event. Sellers at the general TradeRev level can image and launch their own vehicles using the TradeRev mobile app and the company’s artificial intelligence technology.
For dealers who upgrade to the VIP level, TradeRev’s field crew will come to their lot to image vehicles, perform detailed inspections and complete onsite condition reports.
And for dealers who want permanent peace-of-mind on every sale, TradeRev’s all-access level provides the additional power of TradeReady seller protection.
“On the lot or on the phone, the TradeRev crew is all about hustle — we’ll do everything we can to help our dealers win,” said Keith Crerar, executive vice president of U.S. sales and global operations for TradeRev.
“If you love imaging and launching your own trades, keep doing what you’re doing — our coast-to-coast team is standing by to help whenever you need it. But if you’re short on time or manpower, just upgrade your plan, give us the keys and we’ll handle the rest,” Crerar went on to say.
TradeRev’s MOVE METAL service offerings also include two optional add-on services that can be applied on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis.
The negotiation feature can allow sellers to extend the auction time and negotiate one-on-one with the highest bidder directly through the app.
And for dealers who select the new lot sweep service, TradeRev will haul sold vehicles off their lot to an advanced logistics center to clear space for new dealer inventory.
Interested dealers can visit www.TradeRev.com and click “Join Now” to enroll or contact TradeRev customer service at (844) 881-8738 to upgrade their current plan.
