While men might be more interested in electric- and diesel-powered vehicles, women may be more open to the integration of technology in vehicles for the purpose of navigation and safety concerns.
These are the results of two completely separate studies on how men and women feel about varying levels of technological advancement and fuel types in automobiles.
First, according to the annual Jabian Automotive Industry Survey, a blind survey of 1,045 drivers in North America showed that 38 percent of women believe that driverless cars are the way of the future, compared to just 21 percent of men. Fifty-four percent of those women said they would pay for an application that allows their vehicle to communicate service needs prior to service, while only 38 percent of men felt the same.
“It’s interesting to see how open females are to more technology in and around the use of automobiles and automotive service,” said Jenni Crenshaw, Jabian Consulting’s executive director. “When diving into the numbers, we see that women want to utilize technology for convenience and empowerment, while men tend to favor its use for efficiency and entertainment.”
The latter bit, about men favoring efficiency, may have a role to play in the next study.
According to recent findings from a Harris Poll of 2,225 adults in the United States surveyed online toward the end of May, 25 percent of men, compared to 17 percent of women, said they would consider purchasing an electric vehicle. The same was true for diesel-powered vehicles, with 28 percent of men saying they would consider one, compared to 11 percent of women.
Millennials were the most acceptant of the idea of owning a hybrid, with 57 percent saying they would consider owning one. The overall interest in hybrids across America, however, has remained relatively unchanged since 2013, with 48 percent of all surveyed saying they would consider a traditional hybrid the next time they’re in the market for a vehicle.
Amongst those surveyed in the Harris Poll, the primary concerns for buying a pure electric vehicle related to price (67 percent), driving range (64 percent), maintenance costs (58 percent), reliability (53 percent), performance/power (50 percent) and the fact that it is still a fledgling technology (42 percent).
To view the full Harris Poll, click here.
One of the companies making some waves in the used-car and certified pre-owned space these days is SiriusXM, so as part of our annual Power 300 issue of Auto Remarketing, we reached out to Joe Verbrugge, senior vice president and general manager of SiriusXM Auto Remarketing Division, to talk about the company's footprint in the pre-owned space.
Our Q&A with Verbrugge is below.
Auto Remarketing: What is your biggest challenge as an audio entertainment provider within the automotive space, particularly as it applies to the used-vehicle realm?
Joe Verbrugge: SiriusXM has been highly successful at gaining Pre-Owned Program adoption, with more than 17,000 dealerships giving 3-month subscriptions to their pre-owned customers.
We are trying to reach more dealers, so that we can help provide a positive experience for customers buying pre-owned vehicles. If a dealer isn’t in our Pre-Owned Program, the satellite radios in the vehicles they sell may not be activated, which detracts from the customer ownership experience.
AR: What has been your biggest “conquest strategy” to target used-vehicle shoppers?
JV: The strategy boils down to providing customers what they want through a program that is easy and at no-cost for dealers to deliver. We want to provide used-car buyers the same opportunity to experience SiriusXM’s wide variety of commercial-free music, plus premier sports talk and live events, comedy, news, exclusive talk and entertainment, as those purchasing a new vehicle.
Our “conquest strategy” is to deliver the best audio experience in the car and remain the go-to entertainment for drivers and passengers in the vehicle. We also provide dealers with the ability to give their pre-owned vehicle customers three-month All Access trial subscriptions — our best package —where listeners can get all of our content in their car, on the SiriusXM app and online at siriusxm.com.
Dealers benefit by enabling the radios in their pre-owned inventory with the added-value of SiriusXM, which is a point of differentiation for the dealership.
AR: What methods do you employ to gain and/or retain customers who aren’t shopping for a replacement and have owned their vehicle for a while?
JV: Our programming is constantly changing and updated, with new channels, hosts, and exclusive music, talk and comedy programming. We love new opportunities to show customers what we have to offer. One way we do this is though our Service Lane Program, which complements dealers’ service loyalty programs and gives customers with eligible radios a new 2-month trial subscription as a thank you.
Like our Pre-owned Program, dealers need to enroll in this program, and participation doesn’t create any additional work in the service bays.
AR: Looking forward, what sorts of projects or strategies does SiriusXM have in the works to maintain their influence in the used-vehicle market?
JV: Our penetration in pre-owned vehicles is growing every year, and we want to make it even easier for dealerships to interface with SiriusXM. We recently launched our new SiriusXM Dealer App so dealers can simply scan the vehicle’s VIN with a smartphone or tablet and the radio is activated without having to manually enter a SiriusXM Radio ID number online or call Dealer Support in order to activate the Dealer Demo Service.
We are also focused on working with DMS providers to integrate SiriusXM as a feature in their product software, providing the dealer with the ability to seamlessly identify vehicles equipped with SiriusXM and activate the radio, allowing the customer to leave the lot listening.
Dealers will notice more of us in the field engaged and continuously visiting dealerships to ensure they have the latest information, tools and marketing to help them deliver on the best customer experience possible when showcasing a vehicle equipped with SiriusXM.
Other features in this special section include:
4 questions with NextGear’s Brian Geitner
4 questions with NADA Used Car Guide's Larry Dixon
4 questions with Infiniti CPO manager Sam Liang
4 questions with Black Book’s Anil Goyal
4 questions with Autotrader president Jared Rowe
4 questions with Geoff Parker of ADESA Cincinnati-Dayton
4 questions with Hudson Cook chairman Tom Hudson
4 questions with Edmunds CEO Avi Steinlauf
4 questions with Experian's Melinda Zabritski
CDK Global hosted more than 200 of the best programmers, coders and graphic designers in Portland, Ore., during its recent Summer Hack-a-thon.
Being CDK’s fourth Hack-a-thon event, CDK aimed to bring together associates and summer interns to invent new ways the company can leverage technology to benefit the company’s dealer clients.
Over the course of five days, more than 30 teams collaborated to create new ideas to put into further development.
Rajiv Amar, CDK’s division vice president of development, commented on the event, which is representative of the company’s focus on innovative culture and collaboration.
“The level of associate engagement, innovation and creativity completely exceeded our expectations in every way,” Amar said. “This was our best hack-a-thon ever — with the focus of bringing better technology to our dealer clients.”
Each team was given five minutes to present their innovations during the event’s demonstration day on Friday.
Here are a list of the winning ideas, according to the company:
- Project: Caller ID interface that delivers real-time, on-demand consumer (caller) intelligence.
- Project: A deal dashboard that summarizes the status and financial health of a deal, along with flagging missing data.
- Project: Join CDK ServiceEdge with Common Services for one-click provisioning and real-time appointment capacity management.
- Project: Monitor and certify network configurations related to QoS, Netflow and SNMP data.
- Project: Run a Dealer Management System (DMS) in VirtualBox on your workstation. Imagine having a smaller library of virtual machines that are managed by your team and Global Hosting. The number of total images could be significantly decreased, thus reducing overall costs.
Greg Meyer, the company’s chief technology officer, said the ideas generated during the event demonstrated movement in the right direction.
“We are focused on the right things and on improving the CDK experience,” Meyer said. “We weren't just playing around this week — we were solving real business problems and doing work that we can put into production today. The cross-functional alignment has never been stronger in Portland. I'm moved by all the passionate work that went into this week. We are in a perfect position to take on the future."
Edmunds.com has launched a new customized tool called Edmunds Express that is designed to help dealers save time, close sales faster and foster trust with the consumer.
And it doesn’t just revolve around price; it provides an easier path for the dealer to validate the trade-in offer and the perks of cars in the store’s inventory.
First, the basics.
For many shoppers, third-party validation is crucial; that’s where this new product comes into play. It can help dealers more quickly validate pricing and information on all their inventory, Edmunds said.
Through Edmunds Express, the dealership salesperson has access to Edmunds’ True Market Value reports directly from his or her desktop.
Dealers can simply click, and they have access to share with the consumer the details and info on a specific vehicle in stock. Those specs include the TMV price of the car and current available customer cash incentives.
The TMV report can be shared with the shopper either in person or electronically, with the end goal of confirming to the consumer that the dealer’s offer is fair.
“Our dealer partners told us that they love using the data on our site because their customers trust our information, but when they’re working with buyers on the phone or in person, they quickly need that information without navigating through our website each time,” said Edmunds.com president Seth Berkowitz.
“Edmunds Express solves this problem. It’s a straightforward sales tool that features Edmunds’ most relevant pricing and data so that both dealers and shoppers can proceed with an easy, productive transaction,” he added.
Beyond the TMV reports dealers have access to, dealers can tap into the Edmunds’ trade-in appraisal and vehicle comparison more easily through Edmunds Express.
The Edmunds’ dealer trade-in value on a car be pulled up through the appraisal, which may be handy in helping to validate the trade-in offer the dealer makes.
Dealers can use the vehicle comparison tool to detail the specific benefits of cars in their inventory through Edmunds third-party data.
The company noted a few other logistics behind Edmunds Express, as well.
The product is a Web-based tool and has customized URLs assigned to individual dealerships. Edmunds encourages the dealership employees to bookmark the page, then access vehicle info by typing in the VIN or stock number.
The tool is a complimentary value-add for each of the company’s dealer partners.
To become an Edmunds partner, visit the Dealer Center at www.edmunds.com/dealers.
Through its research and focus groups in recent years, Cars.com has found an interesting and extremely prevalent pain point among consumers who are trying to sell their cars.
And it's perhaps a misconceived perception by the consumer, at that — but one that gives dealers an opportunity to boost their used-car operations.
“What (consumers) overwhelmingly said was, they felt there was really only one retail location for them to sell a vehicle to … and that was CarMax,” said Joe Oliveri, senior director of product management at Cars.com.
“So, outside of CarMax, they really didn't know that the dealer down the street was willing to buy their vehicle for cash without any obligation to buy another car,” he said. “So I think the biggest pain point has been, from their perspective, that they don't have an option outside of selling it themselves through Craigslist or going to CarMax.”
And for many consumers, Oliveri said, selling a car can be a scary proposition.
That's where an upcoming product from Cars.com comes into play.
Auto Remarketing sat down with Oliveri at the company's Chicago headquarters last month to talk about Sell & Trade, which Cars.com hopes to launch nationally by the end of the year.
At the time of the interview, Cars.com had been piloting the multi-tier product for roughly six months.
As Cars.com explains it, the aim of one tier is “capturing the attention of car shoppers by promoting that dealerships will buy used cars for cash as consumers shop for a replacement vehicle,” with the other tier honing in on “building a dealership's car-buying program as car owners choose from multiple ways to sell.”
The company shared some statistics that illustrate just how important this segment is for dealers.
For one, almost one out of every five customers plans to divest a vehicle in the next six months, the company said.
The 2014 “Establishing Credibility Through Online Sell and Trade” study from Cars.com and C+R Research indicates that 42 percent of consumers will consider selling their ride to a non-CarMax dealer; however, just 10 percent follow through with that.
Not to mention, of the consumers who consider trading their car in, less than half actually make good on it, the same study found.
Why Cars.com is entering this space
Oliveri explained the company's approach to the consumer selling dynamic in more detail.
“It makes sense from our perspective to get into the space because we've been a shopping- focused site for many years. We rolled out Service last year, and now we've got Sell. So: Shop, Sell, Service. It rounds out those options for the consumer, which is really good from our perspective to continue to put the consumer first. So, anywhere within that ownership cycle, they can come to Cars.com,” he said.
“So, it was a bit of a natural extension for us on the consumer side. And then from the dealer's perspective, we know that they need more used cars,” Oliveri explained. “Profitability has shrunk over the years at the dealership, but we know that the used-car department continues to see stronger profits than, say, new. And anything we can do to help them acquire more used vehicles, the better.”
He said that Cars.com took the approach of letting the consumer “divest of their vehicle in the means that best suits them.”
If the shopper wants to sell their car on his or her own, there’s the Sell It Yourself channel that Cars.com has had for quite some time. But if the shopper wants to sell to a dealer and set up a face-to-face meeting with the dealer, there's that option, too.
Then, the third option is called QuickOffer, which is a mid-tier feature of Sell & Trade.
Through QuickOffer, the consumer punches in detailed information on his or her vehicle, enters a VIN, posts up to 12 photos, answers various questions and then submits the car to be sold along with their contact information, Oliveri explained. That is then sent to up to four dealers for competitive bidding.
“We see the majority of consumers going down that path,” Oliveri said of option No.3, “so it tells us that consumers want convenience. They want transparency, in terms of getting multiple offers on their car. And they certainly like the idea of doing it all, really, from their mobile device.”
The consumer can download an app to do just that. The app has a VIN scanner and uses native features of the phone. Oliveri points out that about 60 percent of traffic for product has come from the mobile device.
Lower acquisition cost & a new audience for dealers
A big piece of this is to lower vehicle acquisition costs for dealers, Oliveri said. “Ultimately, that's what we want to do: provide more cars to dealers and at a lower cost,” he said.
He added: “The other piece is, we're giving them access to an audience they typically never have access to. And that's a real big piece of this product. They typically only have access to consumers who are looking to shop for cars, and now (there's) a whole new audience that they have access to. And it's real consumers looking to sell cars, so they typically did not have this before.”
They remind dealers that it's more of a vehicle acquisition product than a trade-in product.
“And there's a pretty big nuance between the two. So, we're not pushing this as trade-in, trade-in, trade-in; it's much more about acquiring cars,” Oliveri said.
And the message to the consumer reflects as much: it focuses on being a way for consumers to sell their cars.
Speaking of which, Cars.com is currently doing some online promotion via keyword purchases and targeted banner ads to drive traffic to its sell channel in the test markets. The goal is to begin the more mass consumer marketing in early 2016.
Dealer pain point
On the dealer side of the vehicle acquisition dynamic, the biggest pain point has been “access to good cars,” Oliveri said.
“This is a way for them to access a new audience that they typically wouldn't have access to, and really they're going to have to have access to. There's a lot of other companies in the space that are vying for consumer audience in terms of purchasing cars,” he added, referring to such players as Beepi and Carvana that source vehicles directly from consumers.
“Dealers are going to have to get into this space, and they really welcome Cars.com doing so because you have the strong brand and already a good reputation with dealers.”
Dealer logistics
So, how does the dealer price the car with this product?
Oliveri explains that there's an app that allows them to put a number on the car. They're notified when they have a car to put a bid on, and through the app, they can log in to access MMR, Carfax, AutoCheck, plus Black Book value, and they are able to see all the photos.
And before the consumer starts down the path to sell his or her car, Oliveri said, they have to enter year/make/model/trim. The consumer is provided a Black Book value, which helps “set the expectation,” he explained.
“And we heard this from dealers in our research. They said that they would like the consumers to have a frame of reference, so that when they get a number from us, they at least have an idea of what that number is and what the deal is worth,” Oliveri added.
In closing, Oliveri had this point to add: “It has to be the right dealer in order to purchase the product. You need to have a process in place in order to handle these vehicles as they come in.”
The consumer, particularly with the QuickOffer path, is expecting multiple offers — and ones that are fair.
Dealers are in control, Cars.com emphasizes, but through the Black Book value the company provides the consumer, Cars.com is educating the customer on what the car is worth so that expectations are set.
Dominion Dealer Solutions announced Wednesday its dealer management system, Dominion ACCESS, has now begun integration with J.D Power’s Power Information Network, or PIN.
Via PIN, which serves over 12,000 franchises in North America, Dominion ACCESS is now integrated into J.D. Power’s PowerDealer tool, capable of creating customized, real-time F&I reports.
According to Dominion, there are also additional features available to members of the National Automobile Dealers Association 20 Group through their 20 Group Live reports.
“The inclusion in this program offers our customers better data about their performance in the marketplace,” said Van Koppersmith, the president of Dominion DMS. “This J.D. Power program offers clear value to participating dealers. We are delighted to be a part of it.”
Dominion ACCESS’ customers will now have access to the following reports, in real time, via the integration with PIN, as listed by the company:
- New- and used-vehicle gross per unit
- Inventory on retail turn rate
- Which vehicles are selling
- Finance buy rates for new and used vehicles
- Up to 2 years of historical data with trending capability and goal-setting features
- Booking tool for used vehicles
- Google Maps and ZIP code lists for dealer’s sales
For more information, visit the Dominion Dealer Solutions website.
On Thursday, TrueCar not only reported that it suffered a $14.7 million loss during the second quarter, but the company also said its founder, chief executive officer and chairman Scott Painter will step down as CEO later this year.
The company indicated Painter will retire when his successor takes office, which is expected to occur by year-end. TrueCar also mentioned Painter will continue to serve as chairman of TrueCar’s board of directors.
“After a decade of building TrueCar from an idea into a public company, I have come to the conclusion reached by many founders and entrepreneurs in my position: It is time for a change,” Painter said in a release that included details of the soft second-quarter performance that company officials alerted the investment community was coming.
“On behalf of the board of directors, I want to thank Scott for the creativity and vision he has demonstrated during the last decade in founding the company and leading it through its public offering,” said Todd Bradley, a member of TrueCar’s board of directors.
“We are grateful to Scott for the leadership demonstrated by making this difficult decision,” Bradley continued.
The news of Painter’s departure comes amid of flurry of activity regarding TrueCar and large dealer groups. Not only did TrueCar and AutoNation part ways at the end of the July, the company also settled a trademark dispute with Sonic Automotive.
And along with Painter’s move, TrueCar announced that Christopher Claus, former president of USAA Financial Advice & Solutions Group and a current director of TrueCar, has been named lead independent director. The company explained Claus will focus on the board’s search committee to find a new CEO as well as building deeper ties with USAA.
“I am honored to begin serving as the lead independent director and look forward to working closely with the leadership team to build upon and execute the vision that Scott has created, as well as maintain a strong partnership with the company’s largest affinity partner, USAA,” Claus said.
TrueCar’s leadership will have to steer the company through some difficult times. The company’s Q2 financial statement included nearly a $15 million net loss.
That said, the company reported an increase to $65.3 million in revenue, up from $50.5 million during Q2 of 2014.
“It was a tough quarter in relation to our initial guidance,” TrueCar chief financial officer Mike Guthrie said. “Notwithstanding that, we achieved notable successes.
“Traffic grew by 42 percent to 6 million unique visitors, and TrueCar Certified Dealers transacted a total of 190,358 vehicles on the platform, a quarterly record,” Guthrie continued. “New-car transactions represented 4 percent of total U.S. retail sales in the quarter.”
Editor’s note: Look for more coverage of developments at TrueCar coming in future editions of Auto Remarketing Today.
Identifix announced on Wednesday the enhancements it has made to Direct-Hit, the company’s online automotive service tool.
These changes include improvements to the tool’s information database as well as visual improvements, including fully interactive color wiring diagrams.
Aiming at being a one-stop tool for vehicle repair professionals, the Direct-Hit tool is now integrated with vintage service and repair data from Chilton, dated back to 1960, allowing access to service manual information and technical service bulletins from Direct-Hit’s diagnostic Hotline Archives or its Vehicle Home Page.
According to the company, with Chilton’s coverage of domestic and import models, the tool provides information on 98 percent of all vehicles on the road in the United States today.
Direct-Hit is also linked to the International Automotive Technicians Network (iATN), granting access to the latter’s TechHelp community, where technicians post questions on vehicle issues and exchange suggestions and solutions.
The tool also now features fully interactive color wiring diagrams, which cover the majority of vehicles manufactured from 1985 to 2015, assisting with the repair of vehicle systems that utilize more and more complex technologies every year.
“These new enhancements are much more than simply adding data to our existing online tool,” said Jeanette Dorazio, Identifix’s vice president of product management. “They’re part of our greater mission to provide automotive repair professionals with the tools they need to keep up with the complexity of the vehicles they service, without compromising the efficiency and accuracy that their customers demand.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve expanded our offerings beyond our signature real-world diagnostics, and we’re going to continue evolving our products with the singular objective of delivering high value and return-on-investment to our customers.”
More information about Identifix and its Direct-Hit tool can be found on the company’s website.
With franchised dealers having so many choices of providers for a customer relationship management system, NADA University Online is now offering guidance for National Automobile Dealers Association members to help them make the best decision for their store.
Because the CRM can connect the revenue-critical business functions of marketing, sales and fixed operations in your dealership, officials said, the new Dealer Guide to Automotive CRM contains basic information for use during vendor selection, system installation, training and maintenance.
The association added that the guide discusses the goals and driving forces in the automotive CRM market, as well as CRM core functionality and some future CRM applications.
Intended for dealers and general managers, this guide is complimentary to members.
To obtain a copy, dealers have to sign in to www.nadauniversity.com and search for CR8.
CDK Global announced Monday the upcoming official launch of data integration management and syndication tool, Dealer Data Exchange.
Otherwise known as DDX, the solution will roll out in October after several months of testing with nearly 500 dealers.
DDX provides a view of the two-way exchange of data between the DMS and third parties and OEMs, giving dealers the ability to follow data movement via both certified and non-certified connection.
The base-level version of the product will be offered at no charge to CDK dealers.
CDK unveiled DDX earlier this year at the National Automobile Dealers Association Convention & Expo in San Francisco. The pilot dealers testing DDX and providing feedback have been doing so for the last four months.
Jeff Barr, CDK’s director of solutions strategy, commented on the solution’s creation.
“We believe data security is a shared responsibility, thus a partnership approach was essential in the development of DDX,” Barr said. “With input from dealers, OEMs and third parties, we’re able to truly understand the issues facing our industry and identify the most beneficial solutions.”
One benefit that may be most interesting to dealers is the ability to monitor both authorized an unauthorized data flow.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Amanda Bates, the director of business systems with Park Place in Dallas. “With DDX, we can see who is accessing our data, and we can make better decisions about who we want to share our data with going forward.”
For more information about DDX, visit the solution’s website.
