Tricolor has invested heavily in artificial intelligence and other technology resources to boost its underwriting.
On Thursday, tech-enabled Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and one of the nation’s largest used-vehicle retailers that caters to Hispanic consumers, also enhanced its resources connected to the vehicles themselves.
Tricolor announced the opening of its new state-of-the-art reconditioning center in Wilmer, Texas, south of downtown Dallas. According to a news release, Tricolor now operates a 200,000 square foot indoor facility to accommodate 200 service bays, a full paint and body center, and an automated car wash at scale.
The facility is adjacent to a 12-acre parking facility.
Tricolor said it employs more 200 people at the facility, which is designed to be environmentally friendly, utilizing water-based paint, waste material recycling and air monitoring features.
“Our unique, integrated model allows us to execute a full end-to-end solution that meets the mobility demands and affordability needs of the Hispanic consumer, many of whom require dependable transportation for survival,” Tricolor founder and chief executive officer Daniel Chu said in the news release. “This substantial investment in our reconditioning infrastructure will enable us to scale the delivery of unprecedented value to our customers.”
As part of its overall value proposition, Tricolor said it performs a 150-point inspection, invests an average of $2,200 in every vehicle and provides each purchaser with a free 18 month/18,000 mile limited warranty on the vehicle’s major components.
“Given today’s macro environment, as the burdens of high inflation impact the financially vulnerable, managing vehicle quality allows us to mitigate major mechanical issues, which can be devastating for a low-income borrower,” Chu said.
Tricolor said it has more than doubled its origination volume over the past two years, as well as doubled its market share over the past three years. Tricolor said only CarMax and Carvana sell more used vehicles than it does in Texas.
Buy-here, pay-here operators near Atlanta who need resources to get their inventory to stand tall on the front line now have another person to call thanks to Total Car Franchising Corp.
The franchisor of Colors on Parade and CarLove mobile automotive paint and dent repair announced on Wednesday the opening of its newest franchise unit in the metro Atlanta area that is owned and operated by Leonel Alcantara.
According to a news release, Alcantara has more than four years of experience in the automotive industry doing wheel repair and auto body customization. For the past several months, he has been working with Atlanta area developer Rob Ocello learning the ins and outs of CarLove’s proprietary paint repair processes and what it takes to operate a franchise.
Last week, Alcantara attended the Total Car Franchising paint repair certification class in Conway, S.C., and is now back in Atlanta getting his new CarLove business underway.
Working alongside Ocello and the other CarLove franchise owners in the Atlanta area, the company said Alcantara will bring ecoSMART automotive repair services to his community at an affordable price.
In addition, the new franchise will provide dealerships with high quality reconditioning services for their inventory with a quick turnaround time.
“As we continue to grow Colors on Parade and CarLove with more units across the country, it is a goal to make convenient, affordable mobile paint and dent repair services accessible for our customers,” Total Car Franchising president Jeff Cox said in the news release. “A key component to doing so is our group of passionate franchisees who provide a high-level of expertise and professionalism to our customers. We’re excited to welcome Leo to the CarLove family!”
With more than 30 years of experience and more than 250 operating franchises across the U.S., Colors on Parade is consistently ranked by Entrepreneur magazine as one of the nation’s top automotive franchise systems.
Total Car Franchising said its extensive training and certification process allows new franchisees to provide customer services safely on site while using an exclusive process.
Franchise opportunities remain available throughout the United States. More information can be found at franchising.colorsonparade.com.
DealerSocket is looking to help operators get their inventory to stand tall on the front line faster, especially if the vehicles are arriving in rough shape and need notable repairs.
On Wednesday, DealerSocket announced a partnership with AutoMobile Technologies, an industry leader in auto reconditioning software, to provide integrated vehicle reconditioning management capabilities to its independent and buy-here, pay-here dealership customers.
AMT’s Repair360 can give independent and BHPH dealerships a complete system for managing vehicle reconditioning from start to finish, making them frontline-ready, besides taking care of customer management and warranty service post-sale.
With end-to-end management through all phases of the reconditioning process, the software can help identify process or vendor inefficiencies that increase cycle time.
As inefficiencies are identified and resolved, Repair360 customers are able to keep cars moving at optimal speed, which results in fewer days to achieve frontline status.
The certified integration of Repair360 with the IDMS platform will allow customers better command and control of the reconditioning process with full visibility of each vehicle as it progresses to frontline readiness.
“By partnering with DealerSocket, AMT has demonstrated a strong desire to bring additional value to the independent market through their innovative reconditioning solution,” said Blaine Morgan, senior product manager for DealerSocket’s IDMS product. “Gaining efficiencies is a primary driver of growth in this industry.
“Reducing double entry and speeding up data transfer between these separate products will reduce time spent working on the system and more time working on the cars,” Morgan continued in a news release.
Other notable features of Repair360 include:
• Mechanical and cosmetic inspections: The software can allow multiple inspections per vehicle, including mechanical and cosmetic inspections and vehicle condition reports.
• Parts ordering and management: Parts quotes can be obtained directly within Repair360 from a variety of suppliers (including internal inventory). Once approved, parts are ordered automatically and the order status is tracked in the system for each part and repair order.
• Vendor management and payment: The system can manage all vendors, their workloads and assignments and can show how much to pay each vendor per repair.
• Customer service module: The tool can schedule appointments for customer cars, perform diagnostic inspections, add routine jobs like oil changes, bill services to warranties/extended service contracts or policies, take customer payments, and more.
“DealerSocket’s IDMS platform has proven its value to independent and BHPH dealers with solutions and features they need on the front end across inventory, customer account management, configurable workflows, and more,” AutoMobile Technologies chief executive officer Paul Maximov said.
“Combining those capabilities with Repair360 to manage reconditioning workflows, technician and vendor assignments, and post-sale maintenance creates a true end-to-end solution for these dealerships,” Maximov added.
In light of potential costs and urgency to get vehicles front-line ready as quickly as possible, reconditioning can be one of the most stressful, ongoing challenges facing independent dealers and buy-here, pay-here operators.
To help stores of all sizes, Rapid Recon, the provider of a time-to-line, speed-to-sale reconditioning workflow software for dealership operations, has joined with the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association as a National Member Benefit partner.
According to an announcement made on Thursday, Rapid Recon is offering preferred pricing on all new reconditioning workflow software onboarding fees to the more than 16,000 NIADA member dealerships.
Rapid Recon, founded in 2010, established the reconditioning standard known as time to line, or T2L, a continuous improvement discipline for improving vehicle turns and increasing per-vehicle revenue.
“Faster reconditioning that’s trackable, transparent, practical and highly manageable is a critical advantage for any dealer, especially an independent dealer seeking competitive differentiation and a way to maximize its inventory,” Rapid Recon founder and chief executive officer Dennis McGinn said in a news release.
“Our relationship with NIADA moves Rapid Recon closer to the needs of its membership through this corporate partnership and the preferred onboarding prices, so more independent dealers can experience T2L speed-to-sale improvement,” McGinn continued.
The company highlighted more than 20,000 users, including independent, BHPH and franchised operations, have used Rapid Recon software to cut recon time by up to 75%, which can help increase turn and per-vehicle revenue.
Rapid Recon explained its integrated tracking and communications tools can eliminate “lost” or misplaced vehicles and enable oversight and accountability from any mobile device.
“With the used-vehicle retail market experiencing transformation, dealers’ ability to move inventory from acquisition to the sale lot in a few days is a real competitive advantage, lowering holding cost depreciation on those assets to reduce sale gross erosion,” NIADA director of business development James Gibson said.
“Rapid Recon, with its proven time-to-line recon technology, first-class client support and staff of field performance managers, has taught dealers of all kinds how to have greater transparency, accountability and control over their used-car business,” Gibson went on to say.
For more information or to view a demo and receive a complimentary copy of RECON T2L – The Starting Line for Reversing Margin Compression, visit www.rapidrecon.com.
