In the early 2000s, Dell Computers ran a popular advertising campaign that included the line, “Dude, you’re getting a Dell!”
Now thanks to a new relationship with the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association, the line could be revised to, “Dealer, you’re getting a Dell!”
This week, Dell Technologies joined with NIADA as a Bronze-level National Corporate Partner, offering association members an exclusive new benefit to help upgrade and improve their technology.
The association highlighted the user-friendly program gives NIADA members discounts of 5% to 10% on purchases of Dell products. And those discounts are stackable with additional Dell promotions, which could allow NIADA dealers to save even more on their technology upgrades.
“Dell Technologies offers a wide range of business tools that can help dealers increase efficiency and productivity,” NIADA director of business development James Gibson said in a news release. “Having access to those tools at a significant savings is a big win for our members.”
The association went on to note that the new partnership gives NIADA members access to discounts on what they need to securely connect, produce and collaborate anywhere at any time, with products like award-winning desktops, laptops, 2-in-1’s, thin clients, powerful work stations and rugged devices made for specialized environments, as well as monitors, docking and endpoint security solutions and services.
“NIADA members can now receive healthy discounts on Dell's vast range of technology products,” Dell director of strategic partnerships Mobolaji Sokunbi said.
“We strongly believe NIADA and its diverse base of members will receive great value from this partnership and can in turn get more done in their day-to-day operations by repurposing the savings they earn,” Sokunbi continued.
Complete program benefits include:
• Exclusive member savings: Stackable 5-10% coupon.
• Access to a dedicated small business tech advisor at www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-small-business/cp/small-business-central or by phone at (800) 757-8442.
• Access to Dell Financial Services at https://dfs.dell.com/#/.
• Access to NIADA’s direct point of contact and account executive Steven Shipe at steven.shipe@dell.com.
Dell Technologies brings together the combined capabilities of businesses and brands to help our customers keep pace with digital innovation and accelerate their own success. As a hybrid of digital experts, we deliver real results for customers across a spectrum of industries.
Dell Technologies is comprised of a family of companies including Dell, Dell EMC, SecureWorks, Virtustream and VMware.
NIADA members can access the new member benefit by visiting www.dell.com/NIADA to receive a coupon by email.
PassTime and PayNearMe now are collaborating so finance companies know more details about where their collateral is located while also providing more options to help contract holders make their monthly payments.
According to a news release, the partnership combines PayNearMe’s modern and reliable payment platform known for making payments easy for businesses and customers with GPS solutions from PassTime to help mutual clients save time and improve the user experience.
The companies explained the software integration will leverage PassTime’s payment reminders and device commands to automatically signal PassTime when a consumer makes a cash payment through one of PayNearMe’s more than 20,000 participating retailers or when a consumer makes mobile electronic payments via debit, credit, ACH or mobile-first payment options, such as Apple Pay.
“PayNearMe is one of the best payment platforms in the industry. Offering a mobile-first approach as well as every way consumers want to pay means our clients get more payments on time and consumers have more choices than ever before,” PassTime president and chief operating officer Chris Macheca said.
“Partnering with technology companies such as PayNearMe that provide our customers value is what it is all about,” Macheca continued.
PayNearMe chief revenue officer Michael Kaplan added, “PassTime is a natural fit for the PayNearMe platform.
“By partnering with a leader in the GPS technology space and integrating our innovative technology platforms, we’re helping our clients increase on-time payments, lower collections costs and incentivize better consumer payment behaviors,” Kaplan went on to say.
For more information about the solutions or partnership, contact PassTime at (877) 727-7846 or info@passtimegps.com, or contact PayNearMe at sales@paynearme.com.
Amid the crisis, the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association reinforced its stable of partners this week.
According to an announcement from NIADA, PrimaLend Capital Partners, a Dallas-based commercial lender, has teamed with the association as a new Bronze-level National Corporate Partner.
PrimaLend provides revolving lines of credit and inventory floorplans to independent auto dealers nationwide.
NIADA highlighted that PrimaLend is a “uniquely responsive, high-service organization” that can allow dealers to focus on selling more vehicles and developing stronger relationships with their customers, helping its dealer partners grow their buy-here, pay-here portfolios and build equity in their businesses.
PrimaLend Capital is founded on the principle that independent dealers can become dramatically more profitable if they retain their retail installment contracts and continue to service and collect those accounts to maturity.
“We help our dealer partners grow their BHPH portfolios and build equity in their businesses,” PrimaLend chief operating officer Paxton Wright said, “as opposed to spending time and resources selling cars only to have others profit from the collection of those accounts.”
NIADA director of business development James Gibson called PrimaLend “an excellent resource for our members to access the capital needed for all of their vehicle acquisitions.”
Gibson added, “PrimaLend has been meeting the financial needs of independent dealers since 2007, and in today’s competitive landscape it is increasingly important that we have partnerships with companies positioned to help our members grow their business.”
The National Independent Automobile Dealers Association recently selected its newest Bronze-level National Corporate Partner, going with a firm that aims to help dealerships improve communications with their customers.
The newest partner is Podium, a leading interaction management platform in the auto service industry that works with more than 40,000 businesses worldwide, including 5,000 dealerships in the United States and Canada.
In partnering with NIADA, Podium’s platform aims to help the association’s 16,000 independent dealer members modernize their communication channels to gather reviews, message customers, gather feedback and more. The platform can collect and manage business reviews and messages in one central, easy-to-use inbox.
“Being able to manage customer feedback is vital to protecting a dealer’s reputation and growing a loyal customer base,” NIADA director of business development James Gibson said in a news release.
“By offering text-based interactions to customers, not only can dealers turn online searchers into car sales, they’ll be able to ensure their online reputation reflects the positive modern buying experience customers have come to expect,” Gibson continued.
Podium explained this partnership represents the company’s commitment to supporting independent dealers across the United States by offering association members access to interaction management tools, including reviews, messaging and more, for preferred NIADA pricing.
Dealerships seamlessly can connect with customers who have recently visited the dealership’s site or made an in-person purchase. With Podium’s Review and Feedback tools, dealers can automatically invite customers to leave a review via text or the messaging app of their choice.
Podium pointed out that research shows fast and easy to complete review requests are ideal and result in more accurate feedback. This integration can save dealerships time as well as increase the number and quality of their online reviews on Google, Facebook, DealerRater and other key sites.
“NIADA has been the leading force in providing solutions for independent dealerships in the US auto industry,” Podium senior vice president of sales Cameron Hale said. “That was a key factor in Podium choosing NIADA as a close corporate partner.
“Joining NIADA’s drive to provide solutions for its dealers with Podium’s powerful online review and two-way messaging products will supercharge NIADA members’ competitive advantage in bringing in new customers and keeping them for their lifetime,” Hale continued.
Last fall, Cherokee Media Group hosted a free education webinar with Podium titled, “Bridge the gap — How to sell cars like Amazon sells everything else.” A recording of that webinar is available here.
To learn more about Podium, dealers can visit www.podium.com.
Dealer Owned Warranty Co. (DOWC) finalized a partnership with PassTime on Tuesday.
DOWC now serves as the warranty administrator for PassTime’s motorsports and RV GPS devices. The provider and administrator of F&I products and services and provider of GPS solutions explained the theft guarantee benefit will allow dealers the ability to offer additional protection coverage for vehicles installed with PassTime GPS devices.
“We are thrilled to become an official partner with PassTime to provide unparalleled service to consumers through seamless claims processing,” DOWC founder Michael LaMotta said in a news release. “PassTime offers an extensive lineup of patented and leading GPS solutions for customers to connect their vehicles and protect their assets.”
This is the second significant partnership PassTime has finalized so far this year. Back in July during the Automotive Intelligence Summit, the company announced one with masterQueue.
“PassTime prides itself on providing high-quality and reliable products, and greatly values partnerships that help protect consumers from life’s uncertainties,” PassTime president and chief operating officer Chris Macheca said in Tuesday’s news release. “We are proud to work with DOWC as the warranty administrator to support our customers.”
DOWC tailors a variety of structures to meet the needs of product manufacturers and dealership partners while striving to ensure regulatory compliance and provide peace of mind for vehicle owners.
“Valued partnerships like PassTime allow us to expand our vehicle protection offerings,” LaMotta went on to say.
Byrider is continuing to make moves on the heels of its major rebranding initiative.
The network of buy-here, pay-here stores this week announced a partnership with Automatic Labs, a SiriusXM company that looks to bring the power of connectivity to almost any vehicle on the road. Byrider selected Automatic as a preferred partner and is participating in the Automatic Dealer Program.
The Automatic Dealer Program enables participating Byrider stores to offer consenting customers purchasing a pre-owned vehicle an Automatic Connected Car Assistant and a free subscription that includes three years of Automatic’s Crash Alert and Connected Maintenance services, as well as up to 18 months of Automatic’s premium services, such as roadside assistance.
Officials indicated Byrider locations have already begun installing the adapters for their customers in selected locations with more joining the program each week. All 149 corporate-owned and franchise locations throughout the country can participate in the Automatic Dealer Program.
With Automatic’s app and adapter, most vehicles, model year 1996 or later, can become connected. This means that drivers can get easy access to a suite of important safety and convenience features from Automatic as well as service alerts, engine light diagnostics and recall information.
Byrider has been in the BHPH business for more than 25 years and has served more than 1.2 million customers during that time.
“We are happy to incorporate Automatic connectivity into our exclusive used car warranties and service agreements,” said Shannon Aldridge, director of franchise operation at Byrider. “This allows us to better serve the customers’ needs while enhancing our customer retention.
With the addition of Automatic, our customers can drive with confidence for years to come,” Aldridge continued.
Joe Verbrugge, SiriusXM’s executive vice president and division president of connected vehicle, added, “As the national leader in buy-here, pay-here vehicle sales, we are extremely excited to have Byrider participate in the Automatic Dealer Program,”
“We are looking forward to offering Automatic’s safety and convenience services to their customers across the country, as well as providing Byrider with the ability to better understand the needs of their customers and the ability to engage them after purchase,” Verbrugge went on to say.
For more information, and to enroll in the Automatic Dealer Program, visit automaticdealerprogram.com.
For years, independent and buy-here, pay-here dealerships did business with customers who might work multiple jobs or use their income tax return as funds to put toward a down payment. New ways are arriving for those operators to still do business with those individuals even if one of their sources of income disappeared or their cash injection from the Internal Revenue Service softened.
About a year ago, the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association (NIADA) entered into a strategic partnership with DriveItAway, a current NIADA National Member Benefits partner.
DriveItAway can provide NIADA members with the tools to offer a subscription model car sharing platform. The partnership with DriveItAway adds seamless turnkey self-service software, all insurance coverages and training to allow dealers to quickly and profitably add a cents-per-mile model to the traditional one car sale/one profit scenario.
NIADA members using DriveItAway’s turnkey program can also offer the Lyft Your Down Payment program, which provides new Lyft drivers with immediate temporary vehicles to drive at a daily or weekly rate as a path to ownership, allowing them to raise money for a down payment to buy the vehicle of their choice — offered by the participating dealership.
BHPH Report caught up with NIADA senior vice president of member services Scott Lilja this spring to get an update on program success and what kind of lift — pun intended — dealers are experiencing.
“There’s definitely a possibility there,” Lilja said. “Really it drives a whole new customer base to our dealerships that in many cases they might not have been serving. That customer, the Lyft driver and the perspective Lyft driver, those are only going to grow exponentially over the next few years. There are millions of them already and millions more to come.
“We see it as a great new sales segment and as a way to drive sales growth and inventory turn,” he continued. “I think the other thing is it gives our dealers a chance to test the waters around this Mobility-as-a-Service industry and get a little flavor for how it works to get them more comfortable in an area of the business that is only going to continue to evolve and become a bigger part of the auto retail sector. We’re giving them some tools, education, resources and ways to get started that are not really expensive and fit into their current infrastructure of their operation to make it a seamless process to get started and up and running.
“Our charter is to help dealers evolve, grow and stay relevant in an ever-changing marketplace,” Lilja went on to say. “This is one of those areas where there are some new trends coming at them, a new customer base and how they want to transact business is somewhat different. Sometimes it’s a challenged customer base from a credit scoring perspective. We’ve created some tools that can help them repair that credit history and help them get up and running as a Lyft driver and be successful.”
DriveItAway founder and chief executive officer John Possumato described how the program has been particularly beneficial this year with tax-refund turbulence being in play stemming from the longest federal government shutdown in history.
“Historically, large tax refunds have stimulated used-vehicle sales, as this provided the usually not available lump sum down payment cash required for a subprime customer, so much so, that whole business were created in getting that cash early to stimulate a sale,” Possumato told BHPH Report. “Lower refunds, less sales, until you factor our ‘new way’ for a cash/credit strapped consumer to buy a vehicle — by using our car-sharing program that creates extra income from on-demand driving, spreads out the down payment requirement in small increments over a series of weeks, and repairs credit all at the same time, while allowing the potential buyer to drive the vehicle they wish to own on a rental basis, to create the means by which to purchase it.
“Our program offers a multifaceted solution for dealers,” he continued. “It creates a new, money making shared mobility department that satisfies and leverages the immediate need of a new Lyft or Uber ride share driver to begin earning money, if they lack a vehicle, but, more and more, with our ‘path to ownership’ including free credit repair at the platform level, our ‘Lyft Your Down Payment’ incentives, etc., it is becoming a new way for subprime buyers, and those with little down payment money to buy a vehicle.”
Lilja shared some anecdotal stories about NIADA members who have leveraged these kinds of program, noting that some operators are seeing an extra 10 to 15 turns a month. Lilja also mentioned that it’s helping dealerships retail vehicles that have been in inventory for as long as 50 days.
Furthermore, for dealerships that also have a service drive, Lilja noted bays are busier because these customers are returning for maintenance.
And perhaps what might be most valuable, Lilja pointed out, is that independent and BHPH stores using a program like the one that’s being promoted via NIADA are enjoying the positive benefits of satisfied customers.
“They’re seeing a lot of new clientele coming through the door,” Lilja said. “That’s really excited some of our dealers. It’s made them look like the hero. It put them in a good light with these customers. You can really get a customer for life.
“They’re working two or three different jobs, and our dealers serve those client bases in some cases, especially our buy-here, pay-here operators. They’re comfortable working with a credit-challenged clientele and building some flexibility into the terms,” he continued.
Lilja summed up independent and BHPH dealers getting deeper into the Mobility-as-a-Service space by saying, “It’s a whole new horizon and opportunity.”
DriveItAway lands partnership to get free credit repair for Lyft and Uber drivers
Lyft and Uber drivers not only might have a path to generate funds for a down payment when acquiring a vehicle at certain dealerships, but they also could take advantage of a solution to help their credit situation.
DriveItAway, a company concentrating on dealer-focused shared mobility, announced in January that it is partnering with Get Credit Healthy to pilot what the operations say is the first “no strings” free national credit repair/rehabilitation service for Lyft and Uber drivers.
The companies explained this opportunity to rebuild personal credit is free to all drivers in a dealer-supplied vehicle on the DriveItAway Car Sharing platform, with no obligation to use any particular vehicle, dealership provider or any vehicle purchase commitment.
After a week in good standing, all drivers on the DriveItAway dealer Car Sharing platform can receive a free invitation to utilize Get Credit Healthy’s credit rehabilitation service, which has been seamlessly integrated into the DriveItAway driver app. The service remains free as long as the driver remains a DriveItAway customer.
On the dealer side, DriveItaway has integrated Get Credit Healthy’s leading fintech platform, to provide its dealer partners with data intelligence and sales lead recovery that turns credit “fall out” into funded vehicle loans and sales.
Possumato insisted this life-improvement service is a true differentiator and fits right in line with DriveItAway’s mission to put all of its clients on a “path to ownership.” Possumato explained all ride share drivers will be able to access it right from the platform, free of charge, and it will help all dealers facilitate a vehicle sale to all those drivers who are looking to buy.
“This is an industry first, in that this type of service has not yet been offered in this ‘no strings’ way. Partnering with a company like Get Credit Healthy in order to offer the best comprehensive credit remediation program for our longer-term drivers is a natural step for us,” Possumato said.
“This fits perfectly with exclusively car dealer clients who provide temporary vehicles for Lyft and Uber drivers,” he continued. “It is fully compliant, as there is no obligation for a renter-recipient to buy a vehicle from any specific car dealer, nor is there any obligation to buy a vehicle at all.
“Our goal is to make it a win for all and, with the ‘on-demand’ employment ride sharing provides, improve lives by making it easy for everyone to increase income and improve credit,” Possumato went on to say.
Get Credit Healthy CEO Elizabeth Karwowski elaborated about why her company chose to align with DriveItAway.
“Get Credit Healthy’s traditional partners have been financial institutions, mortgage companies and municipalities,” Karwowski said. “The common mission of our two companies is to provide our clients with the means to improve their financial lives and provide them with the necessary tools and education to help them sustain those improvements.
“At Get Credit Healthy, we are passionate about providing consumers with the tools and resources they need to eliminate debt, build credit and make sound financial decisions,” she continued.
“That’s why we are delighted to be launching this new program with DriveItAway, and to make this life improvement option available for the first time to members of the new ‘gig economy’ in shared mobility,” Karwowski added.
For the third time already this year, PassTime is integrating with another technology provider to help buy-here, pay-here dealerships and subprime auto finance companies.
This week, PassTime and BlytzPay announced an integration partnership. PassTime — a solutions company that provides automotive GPS devices — and BlytzPay — a mobile, text payment solution than can allow customers to communicate and pay via text — will be able to offer integrated solutions to dealers and finance companies.
With integrated functionality, BlytzPay’s technology can target what officials said is an ideal industry for adoption. PassTime indicated its customers will be able to provide early warning notifications to mitigate delinquent payments and keep vehicles on the road.
“We are very excited about partnering with BlytzPay. The technology is innovative and will be a complementary add for our auto dealers and finance company customers as a valuable communication and payment tool,” PassTime president and chief operating Chris Macheca said.
“The ability to expedite payments, and with a timely cash option, allow our customers to offer a billing service consumers can utilize anytime, anywhere,” Macheca continued.
BlytzPay explained that it can provide a financial solution for customers to maintain current installment contracts with payment methods that are convenient to them. BlytPay can provide its users convenience without driving back to the dealership, finding an ATM, paying high fees at a cash loan store, or loading a pre-paid debit card, all of which the company believes are common hurdles within the auto financing industry.
With multiple ways to pay, including a cash option, which is an accommodation that benefits both dealer and driver, BlytzPay chief executive officer Robyn Burkinshaw highlighted that customers are able to avoid delinquency and keep vehicles on the road.
“From BlytzPay’s inception, we knew the advantages, convenience, and serviceability of our technology would transform payments, particularly within the auto industry. We have seen the difference a mobile point of sale solution makes in the hands of dealers trying to collect from often hard to reach customers in a timely way,” Burkinshaw said.
“The PassTime/BlytzPay partnership is a significant step toward creating efficiencies, connection, and inclusion for dealers and their customers,” she went on to say.
Burkinshaw added the BlytzPay integration with PassTime can allow dealers and finance companies to include payment versatility to consumers in conjunction with the use of PassTime’s GPS and automated collection technologies. She also mentioned the integration also could tap into dealer management systems to provide customers even more options in managing payments, inventory and their GPS devices.
The alignment with BlytzPay arrived after PassTime also landed relationships with AFS Dealers as well as Solutions by Text (SBT) last month.
