DRIVIN, an online solution that aims to help dealers secure pre-owned cars at wholesale prices, teamed up with Experian Automotive on Tuesday to enable its dealer partners to utilize AutoCheck vehicle history reports.
The company explained that dealers who work with DRIVIN to source and acquire inventory for their lot will have access to the reports prior to purchase of the vehicle.
The integration of AutoCheck reports with DRIVIN’s proprietary inventory trading tool is designed to give the company valuable information to accurately determine whether a vehicle is a good fit for a potential dealer partner’s lot. AutoCheck can allow dealers to review important information that is reported on a vehicle's history, including title brand records, prior accidents or odometer rollback issues that can influence an automobile's safety and resale value.
DRIVIN chief operating officer Justin Mahlik emphasized that being able to clearly convey this information to shoppers can allow dealers to instill the confidence they need in purchasing their next used vehicle.
“Through our relationship with Experian Automotive, we are able to provide our dealer partners with the tools to make evaluating and acquiring vehicles for their used-car lot quicker and safer,” Mahlik said.
“Being able to gain insight into a vehicle’s history is invaluable to our team and our dealer partners in today's competitive used-car market,” he continued. “We are pleased to work directly with an industry leader and are confident that adding AutoCheck to our already robust inventory data set will give our dealer partners and their customers even more confidence to make an educated buying decision.
AutoCheck will also power the vehicle history data available within DRIVIN Insights, a dealer tool that aims to turn 100 million data points into actionable stories for a dealer’s lot and local market, based on consumer shopping trends, local market supply/demand, optimal inventory levels, and unique dealer behavior.
DRIVIN Insights is currently available to a limited number of DRIVIN dealer partners in each market without a subscription. Market access can be reserved on the DRIVIN website.
About two years ago, Carfax launched Used Car Listings, the vehicle history report provider’s foray into showcasing dealership inventory directly to consumers. The company explained how the successes of that endeavor propelled Carfax into position to launch a vehicle value tool this spring.
During a conversation with Auto Remarketing at the NADA Convention & Expo, Carfax communications director Larry Gamache emphasized that no matter the product, what the company is most proud of is helping “our dealer customers build confidence with consumers.”
What helped to cultivate that path for store managers and their customers is leveraging vehicle history data in as many ways as possible, according to Gamache, who recapped the journey Carfax has navigated since the Used Car Listings went live.
“From the beginning, we got incredibly positive feedback that the listings product is incredibly transparent,” Gamache said. “There’s no ads or gimmicks. We want to facilitate the relationship between the consumer and the dealer. We’re not interested in selling ads to your competition or having a different manufacturer conquest your vehicle or your dealership. That fair marketplace has been incredibly appealing to our dealer customers.
“We launched it two years ago and we have learned more in the past two years than we did in the past 30 years of vehicle history business,” he continued. “The listing space has been incredible for us. It’s helped our company grow, and I think it’s going to be a really big benefit for dealers to have another marketplace in which they can compete and compete fairly.”
“One of the things we learned is just how much consumers were looking for an alternative and that there was room to innovate in the listing space. So many used-car listing sites were sort of grounded in that classified sort of experience from where they grew. Carfax came at it with a completely fresh perspective. It allowed us to do things unconventionally,” Gamache went on to say.
“But one of the biggest things we’ve learned is just how much consumers thought about us when it came to vehicle history reports and gaining the understanding that vehicle history at large could be used in all of these new and innovative ways. That’s been the really big lesson that we’ve had to wrap our head around,” he added.
Carfax wrapped its collective head around another project for what Gamache acknowledged has been the past “few” years. The goal has been to create another vehicle pricing model that can take advantage of what made the company’s vehicle inventory listings so popular. As a result, Carfax found a way to incorporate vehicle listings into the usual criteria contained within our resources often used by dealers or consumers.
But Gamache explained what distinguishes the Carfax product, which came out while the industry gathered in Las Vegas for NADA’s annual event.
“It really boils down to one principle idea,” he said. “If you put two vehicles side by side that are very similar with similar mileage, make model and trim, if I told you one of them had been in an accident and one had not, you wouldn’t pay the same price for both of those vehicles. The overwhelming majority of people would say that the vehicle that had been involved in an accident would be worth less.
“The fact is, we’re the first and only pricing model that actually takes vehicle history into account and give you a vehicle specific price on every vehicle in the United States,” he continued.
“It’s really designed to give consumers and dealers a more accurate price on every vehicle,” Gamache went on to say. “It takes into account things like whether a vehicle had been involved in an accident. It takes into account where the vehicle has been previously titled. It matters; vehicles that were driven in Massachusetts for their entire history are going to have a different value than those that were driven in Nevada or Arizona.
“It also matters if a vehicle was involved in an accident last month versus 10 years ago. All of that data is built into the new Carfax Value and consumers and dealers have access for the first time to a price that actually takes into account a vehicle’s history.”
The Carfax value tool can generate data based on what can be incorporated into a trade-in negotiation or a retail transaction as well as what dealers can expect when in the lanes at the auction; or as Gamache noted, “where the price is relevant.”
Gamache prefers not to think Carfax is explicitly trying to compete against other vehicle value providers.
“Our mission has been to provide crucial information to help dealers and consumers make decisions about cars with more confidence,” he said. “There is evidence when you talk to people that they want to shop for cars and they want to know if the car has had one owner or multiple owners. They want to know if it’s been involved in an accident. That led us to make this vehicle history information available through Carfax Used Vehicle Listings. I think the same thing happens as you move into through the used-car space. People want to have a price that’s takes into account vehicle history.
“We have known forever that vehicles involved in accidents or one-owner vehicles,” he added. “Now there is pricing tool that helps you unlock that value from a third party. It’s really more about our ongoing mission to make buyers and sellers more confident.”
While Carfax is incorporating this pricing tool into its portfolio of offerings, Gamache reiterated that the company remains committed to keeping its core intact, which includes providing vehicle history report information to its network of industry partners as well as automakers.
“The most exciting thing for us is this commitment to transparency and sharing information to making sure those buyers and sellers have access to information so they can make informed decisions is now really a trend in the automotive space. We couldn’t be happier,” he said.
Senior Editor Joe Overby contributed to this report.
The adoption of vAuto’s latest solution is even surprising the company’s founder, and it stems from two reasons.
In less than 30 days, more than 1,000 franchise and independent dealers have signed up for Stockwave, an innovative tool that can make finding and purchasing wholesale vehicles easier and more efficient for dealers.
“In all my years in the car business, I’ve never seen a product or solution take off with as much interest and momentum from dealers as Stockwave,” vAuto founder Dale Pollak. “The early response from dealers is unprecedented for Cox Automotive and, I believe, for our industry overall.”
Pollak credits the strong dealer interest in Stockwave to two factors:
• Current wholesale inefficiencies
Dealers currently spend hours to locate vehicles of interest at auctions, and even more time researching condition reports and valuations to determine if a vehicle fits their purchase criteria and how much they should pay. Stockwave can do all this automatically, showing available cars that fit a dealer’s inventory, profit and purchase preferences.
“When dealers experience Stockwave, they immediately see the time savings,” Pollak said.
• Stockwave’s buyer emphasis
Stockwave can allow dealers to tailor vehicle recommendations to suit their individual inventory, profit and retailing objectives. Stockwave is also auction-neutral, recommending vehicles from ADESA, Manheim and leading independent auctions.
“We built Stockwave to serve the best interests of any dealer, whether they use vAuto or not,” Pollak said.
Here’s a recap of whw Stockwave works.
Through deep integrations with leading auctions and Cox Automotive technology, Stockwave automatically can stream wholesale vehicles that match a dealer’s used-vehicle investment strategy, target profit, age, condition, equipment and other preferences.
Stockwave also can combine retail and wholesale valuation data with dealer-set cost estimates and profit objectives to provide auction bid guidance on every vehicle.
“Stockwave represents Cox Automotive at its best,” vAuto senior vice president Randy Kobat said. “This innovation required continuous collaboration and cooperation across Cox Automotive brands, from the earliest days of Stockwave’s development to its official launch at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention this year.
“Ultimately, Stockwave’s success testifies to the way Cox Automotive can help dealers work better when we work together,” Kobat went on to say.
Franchised and independent dealers interested in Stockwave can visit www.stockwave.com for more information.
There is a March piece on the Think With Google blog about a car shopper — 32-year-old Stacy — who had more than 900 “digital interactions” during three months of vehicle research.
The story, written by Lisa Gevelber, considered interactions to be “searches, website visits, video views, and clicks.”
The massive amounts of data points involved with Stacy’s process speaks to what Chad Bockius and the team at CarStory are trying to accomplish through the company’s Market Reports: take the heap of research, data and information that consumers would otherwise have to sift through, and present it in a way that provides context.
In other words, make the research process simpler for the shopper.
The challenge in the auto industry, says Bockius, is that “there’s a lot of data, but very little insight.”
CarStory Market Reports are designed to take the data and package it together to simplify the car research process, while providing some context.
“Turning data into insights is what is working for us,” Bockius said during an interview at this year’s NADA Convention & Expo.
The reports were launched at last year’s NADA Convention Since then, more than 15 million consumers have tapped into the merchandising reports and more than 6,000 dealers have begun utilizing the reports.
They’re designed to help dealers turn more website visitors into buyers by boosting consumer engagement with the vehicle details page.
In a news release, Bockius — CarStory’s chief marketing officer — said: “Research shows that the more car shoppers engage with a VDP, the faster a vehicle will sell.”
In the convention interview this year, Bockius explained how the Market Report can help simplify vehicle research and contextualize the wide swaths of car research data.
“It starts with price. You find a car that you’re interested in, the first thing you want to know is, is it a good deal?” he said.
But determining that requires the shopper to go out and find cars just like it, account for variances like mileage, etc., and then compare the prices. Bockius said CarStory does that work for the shopper and in its Market Report would share broader context about vehicle’s price, for instance (i.e. the report might note that 90 percent of cars just like it are more expensive, he said).
“The consumer now has this sense of confidence,” Bockius said.
In talking with consumers, Bockius has found that they’re not trying to squeeze money out of the dealer; they’re really just safeguarding themselves against the same thing.
“They just want to know that they’re getting a fair deal,” he said.
The second most importance piece of information is condition, Bockius said, and CarStory shares some context here, as well. For instance, a Market Report might note that the car was driven half as much as other cars like it, Bockius said.
And the list of insights goes on from there.
“The point is, we are helping build confidence in the decision and we are eliminating a lot of research that they would otherwise have to do,” Bockius said.
Manheim declared on Thursday that wholesale inventory management just became a whole lot more convenient with a pair of enhancement to its digital offerings.
With the introduction of OVE Text Notifications, dealers can fully negotiate transactions via text. Buyers and sellers are now able to accept, decline or counter an offer by text message, in addition to replying via the OVE online platform or Manheim mobile app.
Manheim insisted it is the first company in the industry to offer a two-way text feature.
The company highlighted dealer clients already have shown enthusiasm for the new two-way text feature, which allows them to make inventory transactions at anytime from anywhere, allowing them more time to focus on their customers. Since the launch of two-way text in January, more than 5,000 dealers have signed up and more than 2,800 vehicles have been sold via text.
“It is much easier for me. I am on the road a lot and always had to log into the site from my phone to counter or accept offers, now all I have to do is answer by text,” said Jacob Kern of Kern Automotive Group in Marietta, Ga.
Manheim mentioned a second enhancement offering greater convenience and more competitive bidding is OVE Daily Sales.
Dealer vehicles now run for 24 hours from 4 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET, seven days a week. All Daily Sales vehicle listings start and expire together each day. At 4 p.m., the vehicle sells, is relisted or comes down from the site, based on the seller’s specifications. Live inventory is now relisted in minutes versus hours.
Added in March, Daily Sales are expected to increase competition and make it easier to make the right inventory choices, as buyers and sellers gain a clear view of their cash flow and inventory on a daily basis.
“This approach offers a more aggressive bidding environment and provides greater urgency for sellers to price right and for buyers to buy right away,” said Stephen Smith, vice president of product management at Manheim. “Daily Sales benefits all clients, with the ability to track cash flow for bought and sold vehicles each day, allowing greater confidence in bid activity.”
OVE is one of the industry’s largest digital marketplaces, with more than 7,500 dealers participating and more than 240,000 vehicle listings a month. Manheim noted OVE transactions are up 21 percent over last year’s performance and March was the highest month on record.
“We’ve been on the cutting edge of selling cars online since the late 90s, and we continue to define and deliver a trusted digital marketplace that makes it easy for our clients to manage inventory,” said Grace Huang, Manheim’s senior vice president of inventory solutions.
Thanks to a partnership between AutoIMS and Chrome Data announced Wednesday, wholesale consignors will be able to tap into what the companies described as more accurate and standardized vehicle content data straight from the AutoIMS platform.
The International Automotive Remarketers Alliance’s Standards Committee has called for a centralized vehicle data repository, and the chair of that committee applauded the move in a news release.
“The IARA is very excited to see this initiative take flight. This data will give our remarketers increased confidence throughout the remarketing process, resulting in lower days to sell and maximized residual value retention,” said Tim Meta, head of remarketing for Fifth Third Bank and the IARA Standards Committee chair.
The joint press release from AutoIMS and Chrome said the tool tackles some of the consignor challenges with increased volumes both online and in-lane. Additionally, the companies say it addresses the “ongoing challenge to fully account for the equipment, options, and other information needed to maximize the value of a vehicle through better descriptions and pricing.”
Through the data connection itself, AutoIMS consignors can tap into accurate, VIN-level, as-built vehicle descriptions, recall notices, MSRP, invoice prices, and warranty information, through what Chrome has compiled via various OEMs.
The data is available to AutoIMS consignor clients. IARA members receive a discount.
Craig Jennings, Chrome’s managing partner said: “It became very clear that AutoIMS was the most efficient channel to enable broad access to our accurate, as-built vehicle descriptions for remarketers. We look forward to expanding the partnership and adding even more value to the industry.”
AutoIMS chief executive officer Mike Broe added: “We are very excited to partner with Chrome Data to provide this critical information to our consignors; we also look forward to working with Craig and his team on other valuable product offerings for the remarketing industry.”
KAR Auction Services said Tuesday it has launched a Data Science Solutions Group that aims to help customers improve business decisions through analytics and predictive modeling.
KAR DataSci will be led by Dr. Huey Antley, who was most recently vice president of marketing analytics for KAR’s Automotive Finance Corp. subsidiary. Antley will report to KAR chief operating officer Don Gottwald.
“KAR will commit the resources necessary to develop products specific to the auto remarketing industry that enable our customers to make better business decisions,” Gottwald said in a news release. “The KAR Data Science Solutions group is actively applying data science and predictive modeling to our business, leveraging the rich data assets collected over many years to optimize decisions in vehicle remarketing.”
‘Billions of data points’
The group will take “billions of data points” gleaned through KAR’s operations across the wholesale spectrum, and then generate and apply predictive algorithms to aid in customers’ decision-making, the company said. If you think about KAR's operations, that includes everything from whole-car auctions and floor plan financing to transportation and inspections, plus much more in-between.
“In essence, we are bringing science to our customers to lower their operating costs, enable them to turn vehicles faster with less risk and ultimately help them be more successful,” Antley said in news release . “I am excited to lead this talented team in applying advanced mathematical and computing science to data to meet our customers’ needs and deliver real business solutions.”
In an interview ahead of Tuesday’s launch, Auto Remarketing asked Gottwald for a few examples where KAR DataSci — which will focus on the wholesale side — will come into play.
“First off, better matching supply and demand would be one issue,” he said. “If you think of the problems that a company like KAR Auction Services and our affiliated organizations (aim to solve) … at the end of the day, we help solve the problem of improving the efficiency for our customers, improving transparency and reducing risk.
“So, to the extent we can better match supply and demand — the sellers and the buyers — we can make the process more efficient, more transparent,” Gottwald said.
Another area is “pricing optimization across channels,” he added.
For instance, getting the right inventory to the right channel (be it in-lane, online or to a service like TradeRev) at the right price.
Gathering data points
As far as how bits of information are collected, KAR has a set of transactional data through its operations that span “the entire remarketing spectrum,” Gottwald said.
“We actually have the data. It’s now going beyond the historical ways of looking at data, applying — I hate to overuse the term, but — big data tools and predictive analytics tools to those data sets to find new insights and help our customers better optimize across a host of fronts,” he said.
“At the end of the day, we have the data we need right now,” Gottwald went on to say. “The difference will be in how we use it, how we present that, how we share that with our customers.”
CDK Global believes more than 73 percent of consumers prefer to do business with brands that make their shopping experience more relevant.
With that metric in mind, CDK Global contends the company now can personalize the online consumer experience for dealerships’ new- and used-vehicle sales endeavors as well as their parts and service profit centers through new personalization capabilities and expanded content on the Consumer Interest Network.
Shoppers will now receive content, offers and information relevant to where they are in the buying and ownership process, according to Max Steckler, who vice president of product management at CDK Global.
“Personalization pays for car dealers, and it's something that consumers have come to expect,” Steckler said. “According to our research, consumers who experience personalization engage with 53 percent more VINs and perform 58 percent more vehicle searches on dealer sites.
“Additionally, we’ve found that there is a 28-percent increase in likely buyers for dealers who have implemented our personalization solutions,” he added.
The company acknowledged that vehicle research happens on sites all over the Internet, and CDK Global is connected to a broad set of research points through its Consumer Interest Network, which can allow for personalization to occur.
This penetration includes dealer and select manufacturer websites, automotive research portals and other third party websites, including Edmunds.com.
Additionally, CDK Global has recently entered into a relationship with Contact at Once that can enable dealers to see what vehicles customers are shopping for on their website in real time. The integration will also allow for the sharing of customer interest data to enable dealers to personalize live online chat interactions with their customer.
“One of our latest innovations in personalization and a first for the industry connects customer actions in the dealership to their digital experience,” Steckler said. “Customers who recently purchased a vehicle don’t want to see advertising for a new car, so we can instead show them content about servicing the vehicle or purchasing accessories.
“We’re able to follow the customer's journey from online to in-store by connecting DMS and digital data — with the goal of keeping the dealer at the center of the experience,” he went on to say.
To learn more about the solutions offered by CDK Global, visit this website.
Carfax announced this weekend at the NADA Convention & Expo that MAXDigital has broadened its partnership with the vehicle history report provider.
The enhancements include a wider array of information provided to dealers through MAXDigtal’s inventory management platform. So, things such as reported accidents, number of owners and open recalls, for instance, will appear instantly on screen on cars listed in the platform.
Another element to the expanded partnership is designed to save users time. When a Carfax dealer enters a vehicle into the MAXDigital inventory management platform, it automatically runs a Carfax Report.
In the news release announcing the expansion, Hendrick Automotive Group director of pre-owned vehicle operations David Nelson said: “The enhanced FirstLook and MAX platforms are just what our dealers need to stay well-informed about their inventory. Carfax information, especially regarding open recalls, is critical for our dealers to adhere to Hendrick policies and, most important, identify vehicles that meet the quality standards our customers demand from us. MAXDigital and Carfax are helping streamline that process for all of our stores.”
MAXDigital vice president of product management Kara Longo Korte added: “We are excited to be furthering our partnership with Carfax to better serve our customers. Our existing functionality will continue to evolve to provide even more value in the future.”
“With millions of open recalls amplifying concerns about vehicle safety, the need for on-demand Carfax information is even greater,” said Larry Gamache, communications director at Carfax. “MAXDigital’s enhanced platforms are powerful solutions that can help our dealers further improve their operations and protect their customers.”
As the site prepared to unveil two new solutions during the NADA Convention & Expo, Cars.com highlighted that it influenced 36 percent of 2015 total vehicle sales in the United States.
How did the site arrive at that claim on Thursday? Cars.com explained the reading stemmed from this month’s data generated by Oracle Data Cloud. The calculation based upon analysis of estimated 2015 vehicle sales share, using tracked desktop traffic and reported mobile traffic, which is based upon 2015 ComScore desktop/mobile user estimations.
“The automotive industry is a key driver of the U.S. economy, and we’re extremely proud to have such a strong influence on vehicle sales,” Cars.com chief executive officer Alex Vetter said. “Cars.com is the trusted bridge between consumers and local dealers, and we’re helping to deepen that relationship throughout the full lifecycle of car ownership.”
As the site cheered the market penetration reading, Cars.com launched two new solutions on Thursday as thousands of dealers descended upon Las Vegas. The Cars.com Sell & Trade tool can help local dealers connect with consumers looking to sell a vehicle and Cars.com Lot Insights can provide mobile shopping data from consumers on the lot.
Last year, Cars.com launched new Service & Repair features, which helped connect vehicle owners with trusted dealership service departments in their area. This weekend at NADA, the company will introduce Sell & Trade, a solution that can allow consumers to quickly and easily sell a vehicle through a new Quick Offer mobile app.
Sellers upload vehicle information and receive real-time online offers from local dealers who will give cash with no obligations to buy from them. Cars.com claims that dealers can benefit by getting access to a new audience of consumers looking to sell a vehicle and having control over the bidding process, which takes place anytime, anywhere through the Quick Offer for Dealers mobile app.
Sell & Trade is currently available in 21 U.S. markets, and Cars.com indicated the tool will be deployed nationally starting in April.
In the end, Vetter insisted dealers have a new solution to building their used-vehicle inventory, which can be critical to profitability.
“Mobile is at the epicenter of our lives,” Vetter said. “It only makes sense to develop solutions that meet the needs of today’s consumers and advertisers, and Sell & Trade does just that. As the automotive industry continues to shift into a mobile-first world, Cars.com is committed to lead the way.”
The site went on to mention consumers are using mobile on dealership lots to access real-time information from sites like Cars.com more than ever. Today, half of Cars.com’s site traffic comes in from a mobile device.
“This has made tracking and targeting car shoppers across devices increasingly challenging for advertisers,” Cars.com said.
Using exclusive geo-fencing technology, Cars.com launched Lot Insights at NADA; a report that tracks Cars.com mobile shoppers on or near a dealer’s lot and delivers valuable insights to advertisers.
“Lot Insights is a game-changer,” Vetter said. “We are the first in our space to quantify mobile shoppers on dealership lots across the country and capture their shopping behavior.
“This is a great first step for the industry to start advancing the attribution conversation and evolve marketing strategies and analytics to align with today’s consumers,” he went on to say.
Cars.com will provide demos of its two new solutions at booth No. 1572C at the NADA Convention & Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center beginning on Friday.
