Cox Automotive acknowledged today’s retail landscape moves faster than ever. And if dealerships and other industry participants are not out front, everyone can risk falling behind.
Reflecting its position as a leading provider of products and services for automotive dealers and car buyers, Cox Automotive on Monday announced the launch of Nextology, what the company highlighted as an exclusive, future-forward digital marketing strategy series presented by Autotrader, Kelley Blue Book and Dealer.com.
Utilizing a fast-paced interactive format and exclusive insight culled from its category-leading network of consumers and dealerships, Cox Automotive explained that Nextology events will foster deep connections with leading digital marketing strategists and experts as well as other top dealers. The events will combine dynamic working sessions, data-driven keynotes and strategic consultations, all in a premier setting with overnight accommodations provided.
“The Nextology series will be underpinned by our deep understanding of and relevance to our clients' day-to-day marketing and operations challenges,” said Brian Geitner, president of Cox Automotive Media Solutions.
“We’re excited to create a new level of value for our clients by delivering direct access to Cox Automotive and media executive leadership as well as internal subject matter experts in a consultative, collaborative and collegial environment,” Geitner continued.
The company noted attendees will also learn about and demo new and emerging products from the automotive industry's leading digital marketing platforms.
The Nextology series builds on Cox Automotive’s commitment to dealer education. The company has hosted events in dozens of markets across the country, bringing insights and best practices to more than 2,600 attendees representing 1,600 dealers.
Following a successful launch in Miami last month, the next event will take place at the Intercontinental Hotel in Boston on July 19 and 20 and will feature a keynote address by Geitner. Additional dates will be announced later this year.
For more information about Nextology programs, visit dealer.com/events/Nextology or to register for the Boston event, go to this website.
For the second year in a row, the NIADA Convention and Expo was the largest ever.
The National Independent Automobile Dealers Association highlighted that the final count is in, and it shows this year’s convention, held June 12-15 at The Mirage in Las Vegas, edged the 2016 total for most attendees in the 71-year history of the event.
Overall attendance was up for the fifth consecutive year, and the number of dealers was also up from last year. And just as in 2016, nearly 20 percent of those attending the 2017 convention did so for the first time.
Among attendees who responded to NIADA's post-convention survey, the association reported:
—98 percent said they were satisfied with the event
—88 percent said the convention met their objectives
—94 percent said the information presented was very useful
—98 percent said the speakers and panelists were very prepared and more than three-fourths gave the sessions “good” or “excellent” ratings.
In addition, the survey also showed:
—95 percent said they are likely to attend future NIADA events
—96 percent said they are likely to recommend NIADA events to others
—99 percent said they plan to engage with NIADA in the future
“An awesome investment in my business," wrote Larry Schmidt of Countryside Auto and Cycle in Fond du Lac, Wis. “Four days of industry-specific training along with trade vendors to improve my business — that’s an investment every dealer should be making. I'll be back next year."
NIADA highlighted the 170-plus vendors and industry partners that exhibited in the 60,000-square foot Expo Hall also felt they got their money’s worth — 84 percent of respondents to the exhibitor survey rated the value of their NIADA Convention experience “excellent” or “good.”
Alvlis Tabaks of Elva DMS said his company exhibited at NIADA’s event for the first time and “the experience we got there was beyond our expectations.
“The event structure was perfect and gave the right balance between the sessions and the expo,” Tabaks continued. “So we managed to get useful information from industry experts and had enough time to interact with attendees at our booth.”
The exhibitors gave the convention a 90 percent overall satisfaction rating, while 95 percent approved of the level of decision-makers among the attendees and 90 percent said they are likely to be back to exhibit at the 2018 Convention and Expo – which will be held June 18-21 at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando, Fla., as NIADA's biggest event leaves Las Vegas for the first time since 2009.
Just as it surpassed its record-setting predecessor in attendance, the 2017 convention topped the 2016 event with more sessions on more topics than any previous NIADA Convention. That included for the first time a dedicated area of focus on certified pre-owned, as well as sessions addressing retail, compliance and an even more extensive buy-here, pay-here component.
In addition to keynote speaker Captain Richard Phillips — inspiration for the hit movie Captain Phillips — the featured speakers included many of the top names in the used vehicle industry, beginning with NIADA's own Chuck Bonanno and Shaun Petersen.
Others included leadership trainer Dave Anderson, TrueCar CEO Chip Perry, Cox Automotive's Janet Barnard, attorney Tom Hudson, KAR Auction Services chief economist Tom Kontos, FBI Special Agent Edward Parmalee, AutoZone’s Ray Curry and NABD president Ken Shilson, among many others.
Group 1 Automotive has purchased a 12-store dealership group in the United Kingdom, bumping its store count in the country to 43, the retailer announced Wednesday.
Beadles Group Ltd. includes seven brands throughout its dozen stores in the greater London area: Jaguar, Land Rover, Kia, Skoda, Toyota, Vauxhall, and Volkswagen.
These stores will keep the Beadles name.
"The Beadles Group is a great fit for Group 1, as we further expand our footprint and brand portfolio in the UK. Beadles was established in 1893 and incorporated in 1915 and has an outstanding reputation for customer service and satisfaction," Group 1 chief executive Earl Hesterberg said in a news release. “This acquisition bolsters our scale, provides additional management resources, and introduces new brand partnerships in the UK. We are also pleased to grow our existing relationships with key brand partners.
"With this addition, our UK operations are estimated to generate over $2 billion in annualized revenues," he said.
The 12 dealerships themselves are expected to pull in annualized revenue of $330 million.
Well, the convergence of cars and trucks depreciating at the same rate lasted all of a week.
The newest Black Book Market Insights report showed truck segments deprecating only by 0.9 percent last week, much less that in comparison with the car segments, which depreciated by 0.31 percent overall.
In fact, editors noticed three specific truck segments increased their value, including the full-size van, small pickup and full-size pickup.
Black Book also mentioned the recent truck performance produced a better than the average decrease since the firm spotted depreciation of 0.17 percent per week during the previous four weeks.
While those three truck segments saw an uptick, sub-compact luxury crossover/SUV and compact luxury crossover/SUV values dropped the most by 0.37 percent and 0.27 percent, respectively.
Over on the car side, looking at volume-weighted data, editors reiterated that overall car segment values declined by 0.31 percent last week. In comparison, the market values had decreased on average by 0.35 percent per week in the previous four weeks.
Within car segments, Black Book noted sub-compact car and compact car segments performed the worst, decreasing by 0.52 percent and 0.85 percent, respectively.
“Higher depreciation continued in sub-compact car and compact car segments driven by recent drop in gasoline prices. The average U.S. gas price per gallon has dropped by over 10 cents in the last three weeks,” said Anil Goyal, Black Book’s senior vice president of automotive valuation and analytics.
When Black Book’s representatives in the lanes reported back to headquarters, the dealer chatter continued to focus on trucks. And it came from both ends of the country.
First in North Carolina, “Had a lot of comments about high prices from dealers trying to buy nice, low mileage trucks.”
Then in Washington, “Pickup trucks are still king here. Mid-size and compact sedans struggled more than the past few weeks.”
The other anecdotes gave an indication of where dealers stand as the Fourth of July passed.
From Texas: “Dealers say they are building inventory around the July 4th holiday.”
In Colorado: “The dealers say they need inventory and are searching all of the resources to find their type of vehicles.”
And finally in Pennsylvania: “Most of the sales resulted from online buyers, as there weren’t many people in the lanes.”
In the spirit of summer holidays like Independence Day, Cars.com suggests that auto dealers align their pre-holiday advertising and mobile content in time for holiday weekends.
The third-party shopping site found that during holidays, car shoppers tend to buy — and they also want special offers delivered to their mobile phones.
Consider the traffic dealerships saw this Memorial Day weekend.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, 30 percent of mobile consumers Cars.com surveyed purchased a car.
Roughly 71 percent of mobile consumers said they visited a dealer to specifically shop for a vehicle, and 26 percent for service, according to a recent Memorial Day Weekend survey on Cars.com’s blog.
On a non-holiday weekend, 60 percent of consumers visit a dealer for service and 40 percent to shop.
When it comes to special offers via mobile, around six out of 10 shoppers told Cars.com that they prefer “special offer” content shared with them on their mobile devices, while 81 percent of dealers prefer to share “why buy from us” mobile messaging, Cars.com Research and Insights senior manager Amanda Kaleta-Kott explained.
Additionally, during the Memorial Day weekend, 41 percent of all store visits were walk-ins where the shopper didn’t contact the dealer prior to making a visit.
Twenty percent of those walk-in shoppers surveyed by Cars.com bought a car over the holiday and seven out of 10 said they wish to make a purchase within three months.
Park Place Dealerships has both moved its Jaguar dealership from Plano, Texas, to Grapevine and added the Land Rover brand to its portfolio.
Construction for Park Place’s new store, Jaguar Land Rover DFW, is complete and is set to open on Saturday with a roster of 70 employees. This is the third dealership in Northeast Tarrant County for the company.
“Northeast Tarrant County has been growing at a great rate since we opened the Lexus dealership in 2000,” Park Place chairman Ken Schnitzer said in a news release. “We moved our Mercedes-Benz dealership from the Mid-Cities to Grapevine in 2012 and we recently broke ground on a Porsche dealership, which we plan to open next year. To say we love doing business in this area may be an understatement.”
Located between Dallas and Fort Worth, Jaguar Land Rover DFW is a two-story, LEED-certified facility on eight acres that has a nine-car service drive, a 2,800-square-foot carwash and a shop with 34 service bays and an 18-car service drive.
“We will be adding jobs as we begin to assess new positions that will be needed to best serve our clients in the Park Place manner,” Park Place president Jordan Case explained. “We are always looking for people who enjoy taking care of others and working in an environment where they are valued.”
Additionally, Park Place’s newest facility’s showroom can hold up to 12 Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles, according to the company.
Park Place’s former Jaguar Plano store was a recipient of the 2016 Pride of Jaguar Retailer Excellence distinction for its fifth consecutive year. Only 16 of the 162 total Jaguar dealers in the U.S. were selected, according to the company.
Customer advocacy, sales and business excellence were the three core business categories Jaguar dealers were recognized for.
Last year, Jaguar Plano also earned the Marque of Distinction title as the No.1 Jaguar dealership in the country three years in a row. Just one Pride of Jaguar Retailer Excellence recipient is awarded the title each year.
Dealer Marketing Services, the makers of ProMax Unlimited, recently released Recall Check, a new feature for the platform that tracks open recalls.
Recall Check was designed to monitor a dealer’s entire inventory for open recalls.
“Recall Check gives our dealer customers a foolproof way to track all pertinent recall information and use it to generate service business and protect their dealership from liability,” ProMax chief executive officer John Palmer said in a news release.
Recall Check is powered by the provider of automotive recall news and data Recall Masters, which draws on a comprehensive OEM database.
“As the automotive market evolves, Recall Masters is continually evolving our systems and database to provide the most valuable information possible to promote sound dealership business initiatives and consumer safety,” Recall Masters chief executive officer Christopher Miller said.
“The integration with ProMax’s Recall Check feature allows their customers to easily access unique recall data and information through the existing ProMax workflow. ProMax dealers can focus on efficiently managing recalls and attending to the needs of consumers through a familiar, proven platform. The partnership with ProMax is one more step in the right direction to ensure consumer safety and to mitigate the risk of automotive-related injuries.”
The new solution uses an automatic nightly process and checks for recalls anytime a trade is booked in or a vehicle is delivered.
“Recall Check is a tool that can be leveraged in a number of ways,” added ProMax chief operations officer Shane Born. “The automatic monitoring ensures that all recall information is available; dealers can craft different strategies based on their local laws and individual prerogatives. Savvy dealers can use Recall Check to better evaluate trades, book in inventory, or funnel customers to their service lane in some instances. There are also options to print recall disclosure forms on sold vehicles. It has everything a dealer needs. There are a lot of possibilities.”
Additionally, all recall information obtained by Recall Check is tracked across several reports dealerships can access at their leisure.
Larry H. Miller Dodge Ram Avondale recently announced that it has once again made it onto The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com’s 2017 list of Top Companies to Work For in Arizona.
The dealership is on the list for the second consecutive year. A total of 100 companies are chosen each year.
All of the companies were honored at an awards breakfast reception held at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess hotel on Thursday.
“It is incredible to see that a culture based on the values of stewardship, hard work, integrity and service can make such a difference both in the lives of our employees and our customers,” LHM Dodge Ram Avondale general manager Mike Messina said in a news release.
“As our employees embrace the culture that we are striving to achieve, it drives them to succeed. In turn, it drives our business, making us the best place in town to work and do business. It is extremely gratifying to see the many lives that have been enriched as this dealership continues to evolve.”
LHM Dodge Ram Avondale said it was recognized for its employee incentive programs such as the dealership’s holiday bonus program, employee appreciation celebrations and Saturday lunches.
Each company on the list completed a two-part assessment process conducted by Best Companies Group (BCG), an independent workplace research firm.
BCG used the combined data from both parts of the assessment process to select the 100 companies honored.
The process began with BCG’s Employer Questionnaire, which asked about benefits, human resourse policies and the fun things employers do for their employees, according to LHM Dodge Ram Avondale.
Following the first assessment, companies were asked to take the Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey.
The survey measures employee experience in the following nine core focus areas:
- leadership and planning
- corporate culture and communications
- role satisfaction
- work environment
- relationship with supervisor
- training
- development and resources
- pay and benefits
- overall engagement
The 100 companies are to be named in a special supplement in the July 2 issue of The Arizona Republic, as well as at topcompanies.azcentral.com and www.BestCompaniesAZ.com.
Galpin Motors is currently aiming to sell 11,000 vehicles during its annual summer sales event, which kicked off on Memorial Day weekend and will continue through the end of September.
Over the years, the dealership has committed to sales challenges such as the Galpin 3,000, the Galpin 4,000, the Galpin 6,000 and the more recent Galpin 10,000.
Galpin said this year it was time to bring the sale to 11,000.
“The Galpin 10,000 has always been a fun summer sales event, but this year we thought it was time to take it all the way up to 11,” Galpin Motors president Beau Boeckmann said in a news release.
“We need that extra push to go one louder and are very excited about the Galpin 11,000.”
Additionally, throughout the summer, Galpin said, in conjunction with its sale its employees will work with a number of community organizations and charity groups to collectively contribute 11,000 hours of charitable service to the dealership's local community
Employees’ community activities will include volunteer work and city beautification projects, according to Galpin.
“Meaningful philanthropy plays a big role at Galpin and we look forward to positively impacting our community while also reaching our sales goals,” Boeckmann said.
VinSolutions is set to host its annual VinWorx User Summit on July 11 and July 12 at the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center in Kansas City, Mo.
The two-day summit provides attendees training on improving CRM utilization and how to use data to increase customer retention.
"Automotive and marketing trends are changing on an ongoing basis, coupled with a shifting sales forecast in automotive. For dealerships to stay ahead of their competition, they need to know how to create a personalized customer experience and how to maximize marketing, lead-generation and ongoing customer engagement," VinSolutions Senior Director of Performance Management Mark Vickery said in a news release. "VinWorx is the perfect setting for dealers to gain some new insights, skills and approaches to making their dealerships more profitable."
VinWorx speakers, break-out sessions and software training will focus on topics relevant to auto dealers, such as what dealerships can expect from the car selling process in today’s digital landscape.
Breakout sessions will cover three themes related to VinSolutions' Connect CRM: Connect, Ignite and Succeed.
The summit's line-up of keynote speakers includes Cox Automotive Chief Operating Officer Mark O'Neil; Tim Mueller, automotive industry strategist from Google; PCG Communications founder Brian Pasch; and Mike Burgiss, Cox Automotive’s vice president of digital retailing.
"We are always asked by our customers what can be done to make them better dealers," Vickery added. "At VinWorx, you can have that conversation with VinSolutions experts and your peers from across the country."
For more additional information about VinWorx or to register for the summit, click here.
