Auction managers, dealer principals, automotive digital marketing experts, third-party listing providers, consignors, transportation providers, automaker execs, bankers, lenders.
What do all these professionals have in common? They make the “remarketing world” go round.
Without all these players — and more — the automotive remarketing industry wouldn’t have turned into the massive, successful market it is today.
And as the industry continues to grow at a rapid rate as used supply is set to start expanding this year for the first time since the 2008 economic downturn, more and more young leaders are rising up within the remarketing ranks.
That is why Auto Remarketing Canada chose 2015 to launch “Remarketing’s 40 Under 40."
Do you know of an exceptional young dealer who has yet to hit the big 40? Have you been working with an impressive entrepreneur and founder of an automotive digital marketing start-up? Have you been impressed with second-generation auction GMs?
The deadline for nominations is Monday, March 2.
Note: If you have already made a nomination, we apologize for any inconvenience but request that you resend your nomination. We experienced technical difficulties but have addressed the situation.
All nominees will be recognized during a ceremony at the upcoming Auto Remarketing Canada Conference, presented by CarProof, in Toronto at the Westin Harbour Castle, April 20-21.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Auto Remarketing Canada editor Sarah Rubenoff at srubenoff@autoremarketing.com or (919) 674-6020.
In our very first “CPO Stars and Certified Trends” issue — set to be released next week — we will announce the first recipient of the CPO Dealer of the Year Award, which honors a top Canadian dealer who stands out in the certified market.
But that isn’t the only industry leader that will be honored at the upcoming Auto Remarketing Canada Conference in Toronto at the Westin Harbour Castle on April 20-21.
We will also be recognizing a top Dealer of the Year, among other accolades.
This year, we will once again need your help in nominating deserving dealers who stand out in their markets and the country as a whole.
The deadline for nominations is Thursday, Feb. 12. All nominations should be sent to Auto Remarketing Canada editor Sarah Rubenoff at srubenoff@autoremarketing.com. Questions can be sent by email, or you may reach out to me at (919) 674-6020 at extension 140.
Nominations should include the name, position and contact information for both the nominator and nominee, as well as a brief explanation explaining why the nominee deserves to be recognized at the upcoming conference.
The Auto Remarketing Canada Dealer of the Year Award recognizes operational and sales excellence within the used car and pre-owned business. This award is given to a dealer that is an innovator and a leader and a business that has undoubtedly left their mark on the automotive industry. This dealer will have played an active role in shaping the Canadian used-car industry into what it is today.
Andrew Lennox, general manager of Pfaff Volkswagen in Newmarket, Ontario, was our 2014 Dealer Of The Year. And the inaugural award in 2013 went to Amin Tejani, vice president of dealer operations, Weins Canada.
Auto Remarketing Canada looks forward to hearing from its readers!
Get all of your conference information at arcanada.autoremarketing.com, and stay tuned for updates as the 2015 event approaches.
DealerRater has announced the winners of its 2015 Dealer of the Year Award program based on consumer reviews of their dealership experiences shared on DealerRater.com.
The highest scoring dealership in Canada — Bank Street Hyundai in Ottawa, Ontario — was awarded the 2015 Canadian Dealer of the Year award, scoring 4.781 out of 5 on the DealerRater scale. For the United States, Klaben Ford Lincoln in Kent, Ohio earned a 4.875 out of 5.0 on DealerRater’s PowerScore system in 2014 with over 700 reviews.
“Consumers have identified the dealerships that deliver an exceptional experience in the U.S. and Canada and we’re proud to recognize this top group of dealers on behalf of consumers,” said Gary Tucker, DealerRater’s chief executive officer. “New- and used-car shoppers, as well as service department customers, write more than 35,000 reviews monthly on DealerRater, and these ratings and reviews are now seen by more than 14 million consumers each month. The dealers recognized today have earned the trust of their customers and have shown that a great customer experience is a competitive advantage.”
The complete listing of award winners can be found on DealerRater.ca.
Later on in the quarter, DealerRater says it will introduce an expanded annual recognition program for top dealerships in the U.S. and Canada based on consumer ratings from Dealer.Rater.com and DealerRater.ca. The dealers recognized for the 2014 calendar year will be announced in February.
Serpa BMW, a Newmarket, Ontario, dealership, is now officially a designated BMW “M-Certified Center of excellence.”
The automaker’s recognition was effective on the first of the new year.
"M Series vehicles have been featured since Serpa BMW took over the dealership in April 2012, but this new designation is something special, based on our success with the M brand so far," said Frank Serpa, dealer principal. "We can now offer a more comprehensive and impressive selection of BMW M vehicles and advanced training in the service area to support them."
And the high-performance BMW M Series vehicles will find a new and expanded home at this luxury dealership, as the facility is currently in the throes of an ongoing complete $2.5 million dealership renovation.
As part of the renovation, there will be a new showroom area built specifically to highlight the enticing M Series vehicles.
Specially trained technicians will also be on tap to serve M series drivers with their service and sales consultation, perhaps contributing to customer retention and loyalty.
"M engines are not tooled-up versions of standard production engines, but independent developments of motorsport technology for the road," Serpa said. "Their innovations point the way for other BMW engines. The words 'M Power' are an exclusive mark of quality — it promises unique technology and breathtaking performance. We are very excited to become even more involved with the special part of the BMW brand. It is a great achievement for Serpa BMW."
Mercedes-Benz Canada has chosen its class of 2015 Star Dealers.
Ten dealerships across the country were recognized with the designation this year, which highlights stores' accomplishments in the area of new and pre-owned sales, service and parts, as well as customer satisfaction.
Ontario was the dominant province this year, with five of the awards doled out to dealers in this area.
Quebec didn’t show up at all this time around, with New Brunswick, Manitoba and Alberta dealerships rounding out the list of this year’s Star dealers.
“The strong momentum Mercedes-Benz is experiencing in Canada would not be possible without the support of our dealer network. Their unwavering commitment to consistently deliver the highest brand experience is the catalyst that drives our business forward,” said Tim Reuss, president and chief executive officer of Mercedes-Benz Canada.
“This year, I am pleased to congratulate the dealers who performed with particular distinction by delivering the absolute best at every turn. Star Dealers represent the finest examples of excellence from a truly exceptional group and I commend them for their dedication in embodying the brand’s guiding principle of the best or nothing,” he continued.
The award-winning dealers (from East to West) are as follows:
Ian Brett, Tristar Fine Cars — Saint John, New Brunswick
Peter Santos, Mercedes-Benz Peterborough — Peterborough, Ontario
To be Announced*, Mercedes-Benz Markham — Markham, Ontario
Van Malkhassian, Mercedes-Benz Midtown — Toronto
Jason Ground, Mercedes-Benz Newmarket — Newmarket, Ontario
Sylvester Chuang, Mercedez-Benz Oakville Autohaus — Oakville, Ontario
Brian Lowes, Mercedes-Benz Winnipeg — Winnipeg, Manitoba
Perry Itzcovitch and Steven Itzcovitch, Hyatt Auto Gallery — Calgary, Alberta
Tom Wilson, Weber Motors — Edmonton, Alberta
Sylvester Chuang, Three Point Motors — Victoria, British Columbia
*Mercedes-Benz Canada pointed out the Mercedes-Benz Markham general sales manager recently left the company to pursue other opportunities, and the role has not yet been filled.
Dealer review website DealerRater announced today the current leaders in its annual Dealer of the Year Awards Program for North America. The program awards Canadian and U.S. dealerships for distinction in outstanding customer service based on consumer reviews on the DealerRater website.
The final five dealers for each make, for those manufacturers that had more than five dealers nominated, have been selected for each country, with the final winners to be announced at the 2015 NADA Convention and Exposition in San Francisco, Jan. 22-25.
DealerRater will also introduce an expanded annual recognition program for top dealerships in North America in January, which will complement the Dealer of the Year awards.
“We are sharing the preliminary results for the 2015 Dealer of the Year awards to motivate dealers to prioritize customer service through the end of the year,” Gary Tucker, DealerRater’s chief executive officer, said. “We hope that this increase in customer engagement will encourage online reviews and sales. The frontrunners for our Dealer of the Year Awards Program lead by example through using online reviews to build trusting relationships with car shoppers and differentiate themselves from their competition.”
The complete listing of dealers currently left in the running for the Dealer of the Year Awards in Canada can be found here.
It seems the vehicle preferences of Canadians haven’t changed much in the last year, as the 2014 iteration of ALG’s Canada Brand Perception of Quality (BPQ) rankings look very similar to the 2013 edition.
Once again, Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen are tops for the mainstream sector, with scores of 61.9 percent, 60.6 percent and 60.5 percent, respectively, on a 100-point scale.
And Mercedes-Benz came out ahead in the premium market with a score of 65.8, followed by BMW (65.4) and Porsche (64.3).
“It’s clear that the established German luxury marques, along with Lexus, have a solid advantage in the battle for public perception,” said Geoff Helby, Canada regional director, partner development at ALG.
The company also pointed out overall perception of brand quality in Canada has risen nearly a full point, showing increased confidence in automakers — even amid the extensive recall campaigns launched this year.
Though 2014 BPQ results — which were calculated from an on-line survey of 2,000 recent new-vehicle buyers across Canada — show similar rankings from last year, ALG pointed out a few notable shifts.
For example, Dodge and GMC moved in “opposite directions”, ALG analysts reported.
Dodge saw a BPQ bump of 2.8 points this time around to 53.8, which was nearly two points more than the overall average of 55. According to survey results, the appreciation for Dodge was split between genders. While women’s opinion of Dodge went up nearly 2.5 points, men’s fell by approximately half a point.
On the other hand, General Motors’ truck brand saw perception fall by one point to 53.3, which was enough to drop the brand down five spots in the overall rankings.
Opinions of GMC dropped among both genders, and ALG pointed out that various demographic groups, such as “leading-edge boomers” and buyers without a college education, also lowered their opinions of the brand.
Another mainstream brand to see a drop in perception of quality was Hyundai, which has moved forward recently in other avenues.
The brand, though, ranks just above average for BPQ, falling below brands such as Subaru, Jeep and Ford.
“Hyundai's biggest shift was among trailing-edge boomers and, more worryingly, millennials,” Helby said.
And new for this year, ALG broke down the BPQ results by geographic region, highlighting the Quebec results as particularly interesting.
In Quebec, VW ranked significantly above Toyota.
“The German brand also had an advantage when it comes to younger buyers, with Millennials and Gen-Xers ranking marginally below Honda in terms of perception of quality,” Helby explained. “Many of these buyers did not experience the quality issues Volkswagen struggled through in the early- to mid-2000s, and just associate the Volkswagen name with German engineering.”
And this dedication to German engineering was particularly obvious in the luxury rankings. Results for the premium brands panned out in similar “clusters,”Helby pointed out, with the Germans at the top, the second-tier Japanese luxury brands near the average, and the U.S. brands towards the bottom.
“Each of the latter groups have struggled to compete with the Teutonic luxury juggernaut, and have continually sought to reinvent themselves in order to jump-start their market share, though Acura and Infiniti get the benefit of the positive association with Japanese quality,” Helby said.
Interestingly, the biggest alteration in the premium sector was seen toward the bottom of the list, with Tesla (15) and Alfa Romeo (14) switching places.
ALG asserts this change is due to increasing familiarity with the Tesla brand, while Alfa Romeo “still relies on public memory of its brand to inform buyers of its quality levels, which is not conducive to high levels of perception.”
While Alfa lost more than a full index point, Tesla gained 4.5 points.
SiriusXM Canada recently announced the winner of its summer Win Your Wheels contest.
Bonnie Stimers, a resident of Peterborough, won up to $40,000 to use toward a new or used vehicle purchase.
The contest, which was available to any customer who signed up for a one-year subscription to SiriusXM at the time of purchasing their vehicle, was won by Stimers, who purchased a 2014 Hyundai Tucson from Carmax Hyundai in Lindsay, Ontario. She was randomly chosen in September.
“I was absolutely floored when they let me know I had won my brand new car,” Stimers said. “It’s exciting enough to get a new vehicle, but to find out someone else is footing the bill is something else. I will enjoy my new car even more now, as well as my SiriusXM subscription!”
James Byun, SiriusXM Canada’s vice president, OEM, presented Stimers with her check on Thursday, Nov. 6.
“This was a great opportunity for us to reward a subscriber,” Byun said. “It also gave us a chance to talk to dealerships across Canada, who are so vital to our business.”
It has been 50 years since Toyota entered the Canadian marketplace.
A half a century ago, Toyota granted a distributorship agreement to Canadian Motor Industries, Ltd., which would later become Toyota Canada Inc. (TCI).
The following year, TCI would sell only 755 vehicles.
To put the automaker’s growth in perspective, Canadians have purchased over 4.6 million vehicle as of this year, and the lineup includes 40 vehicles.
"On this special occasion of our 50th anniversary, we thank Canadians for making Toyota a part of their lives, and allowing us to be woven into the social and economic fabric of this great country," said Seiji Ichii, president and chief executive officer of TCI. "Our customers are the inspiration that motivate us — and they are behind the passion that drives our innovation in the automotive industry."
And TCI has put an emphasis on creating jobs in the country, as well.
Today, almost half of the Toyota vehicles sold in Canada are made at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. (TMMC).
The Toyota Corolla and RAV4, and the Lexus RX350 and RX450 hybrid are built at TMMC.
And this year, TMMC also hit a milestone, celebrating the production of its 6 millionth vehicle.
TCI employs 700 associates, and the total of Canadians employed by Toyota in Canada reaches about 11,000 when adding team members, as well as at Toyota Financial Services, the company said.
And when taking the network of 285 dealerships into account, total employment reaches approximately 24,000 Canadians.
The company said that innovation is at the heart of the automaker’s long-term vision, both for Canada and on a global scale.
In fact, the milestone of 100,000 TCI hybrids sold in Canada was recently reached.
Since 2000 when the Toyota Prius hybrid was first introduced to Canada, based on the total Toyota/Lexus hybrid units sold, using approved government of Canada test methodology, Toyota and Lexus hybrids have saved Canadians almost 260 million liters of fuel and helped avoid over 600,000 tons of C02 emissions, according to TCI.
The company also works to support Canadian communities, with help from its dealerships. Toyota Canada Inc. and the Toyota Canada Foundation work within the community with a primary focus on the environment, safety education and quality.
Toyota and its dealerships support the Toyota Evergreen Learning Grounds program and the Toyota sponsored KartSTART, a driver-safety training program.
In addition, there is support for research in telematics at Canadian universities such as the Toyota Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC) project at the University of Toronto, and research done by specialists at a dedicated Cold Weather Testing facility in Timmins, Ontario.
Two Asian automakers and one of the Big 3 topped the list of the 2014 Vincentric Best Fleet Value in Canada awards.
The results of the third annual set of awards were recently announced, and Nissan and Toyota shared the top spot. Each of these brands won a total of eight Vincentric awards.
And even as General Motors recalls this year has the automaker at a rocky point crossing the mid-year line, GM followed closely behind its Asian counterparts with a total of seven award-winning fleet vehicles.
Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz and Ford were multiple-award winners, as well, taking home the titles of four best fleet value awards each. The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter was a high player this year, winning three of the heavy duty van segments.
Ford, on the other hand, showed its truck savviness with awards notched by the F-150 pickup, as well as the E-150 passenger van.
Lastly, Mitsubishi notched two awards this time around.
"With a three-year history of fleet awards in Canada, we are noticing some trends,” stated David Wurster, president of Vincentric. "The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and the Toyota hybrids have had strong performances all three years, with GM and Ford also consistently delivering numerous award winners.The Nissan line-up and Ram trucks also had a strong presence in the awards this year, which will give fleet operators a wide range of choices when using total cost of ownership to help guide their vehicle selections," he added.
Vincentric also pointed out a few factors behind the leading automakers’ success this year.
First off, Nissan’s success was spurred by its crossover class, according to Vincentric analysts, as well as a “strong performance” by its NV product line in the van class.
Toyota rounded up its eight awards through its comprehensive lineup in the passenger vehicles and crossover classes. This includes a few hybrid winners, as well, Vincentric pointed out — one of which is the ever-popular Toyota Prius.
GM’s fleet vehicle prowess was led by its two luxury nameplates: Buick and Cadillac, which notched a total of five awards.
Dodge and Ram brands earned two awards each for Chrysler, with the Ram 2500 and 3500 pickups sweeping the heavy-duty pickup segments.
According to the company, to determine the 2014 Vincentric Best Fleet Value in Canada awards, Vincentric analyzed over 1,900 vehicle configurations in 24 different lifecycle cost scenarios, using eight cost factors including depreciation, fees and taxes, financing, fuel, insurance, maintenance, opportunity cost and repairs.
To check out the full list of 2014 Vincentric Best Fleet Value in Canada Awards, see here.
