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| Industry News in the Last 24 | |
| August 18, 2009 | |
 Ford, Toyota in a Close Race to No. 1 Once upon a time it was GM and Toyota fighting for top automaker spot. Now, with Ford on the rise, Toyota will struggle to keep pace with U.S. sales down 34 percent and nearly even with Ford in U.S. sales. A tougher battle will loom in the global arena. Detroit Free Press, August 16, 2009 |
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 Chrysler to Make Fiat in Mexico So much for government loans and union ownership as plans seep out about a subcompact Fiat-derived 500 to be built in Mexico. Chrysler Group says other Fiats will be built in the U.S. but no details on strategy just yet. CAR chairman David Cole: there could be some political fallout. Wall Street Journal, August 17, 2009 |
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 New Sticker Shock: Electric Car Mileage Claims Confusing claims show up in the windows of electric cars soon to show up in dealer showrooms. Critics say upcoming Chevy Volt (expected to be money-loser) is an example of "brash marketing and fuzzy math" and should display fuel consumption not fuel economy. MSNBC.msn.com, August 17, 2009 |
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| WHAT'S SIGNIFICANT THIS WEEK IN THE NEWS | |
Many analysts predicti recovery in global auto sales beginning next year, but challenges remain. Annual sales won't reach pre-recession levels for some time. Global focus will be more on smaller cars which will affect the profitability of the automakers. |
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Both Ford and GM move to sell off their Swedish units. While Ford is not under the same pressure as GM to sell Volvo, the automaker hopes to close the sale by the end of 2009. Chinese automaker, Geely, is the rumored buyer. |
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"Clunkers" being traded in under CARS program haven't changed pre-and-post-implementation as consumers were already shedding gas hogs. However, the average MPG improvement rose to 8.2 during the program from 5.1 before as consumers opted for smaller cars. |
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 Take Your Service Promotions to the Next LevelService and back end operations are what’s fueling revenue growth in our industry right now, so it makes sense to use electronic service promotions to their full advantage. Here are some ideas that seem basic, but the thread among all of them is they work at improving a service department’s bottom line month after month. Enewsletter promotions – Oone of the best and most convenient ways for a service department to bring in new customers is to add coupons to your enewsletter. It’s a quick and efficient way to add value to your content while increasing the cars in your service lane. Many enewsletter providers offer customizable templates right in the communication, making it easy to create and send a professional-looking coupon. Partner with businesses for two-for-one deals – Know a coffee shop in the area? Offer a “Rev Your Engine” promotion. Customers receive a free coffee from a partner business if they are one of the first 25 to reply to your oil change special. A “Tune Up and Tune In” promotion could feature a free movie rental for every customer who schedules a tune up. You can use your enewsletters, emails or even your website to help increase the popularity of these promotions. Birthday specials – Who doesn’t like being remembered on their birthday? Show customers they’re important to you, while driving service, drive revenue by sending out a special service or offer to customers with a birthday that month. Just ensure the birthday special is unique. You don’t want to provide the same offer in a birthday greeting that everyone else can get from the local paper. Customer Appreciation Special – I know a dealer who has had tremendous success promoting an electronic customer appreciation coupon that gives recipients a five dollar oil change. The sheer novelty of the low cost has driven tremendous response and brings them into the shop for additional services. Referral Program – Using your enewsletter, recommend that your readers share articles or coupons with their friends using the “Tell a Friend” feature. In exchange for helping spread the word, any of your readers who pass on the information will receive a special thank you gift. It can be as easy as a $5 gift card. You can access your enewsletter reports to tell who has referred an article or coupon and easily send them the follow up mailing. Share Your Story Program – Ask your customers to share a positive experience in your service department with you, either through an email address, electronic form or posting on your website. As a thank you for their story, send them a service special coupon. You can reuse these stories in a variety of different ways – post them as quotes on your website, feature them in your enewsletter, even use them in ads and flyers. Numerous studies show people buy vehicles and services based on friends and family recommendations. Brian Epro, Director of Automotive Services Group IMN|Loyalty Driver, can be reached at bepro@imninc.com or visit www.IMNloyaltydriver.com. |
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 The Great Auto Industry ShakeoutExcerpted Commentary and Opinion by Paul Igrassia The bailout of America's auto industry -- General Motors, Chrysler, their finance units, their parts suppliers, "Cash for Clunkers," etc. -- is costing American taxpayers more than $100 billion. Let's put that in perspective: It's enough to pay for every car and truck sold in America for the first half of this year. For now, nobody really knows what we taxpayers will get for our money. Everybody hopes (or should hope) that GM and Chrysler become viable companies once again, but in truth, whether either company makes it is far from certain. On paper, the new General Motors--shorn of excess debt, dealers, employees and brands--should be in great shape. But none of that painful cutting will matter unless the company can restore the faded luster of Chevrolet and Cadillac, its two core brands. The two others, Buick and GMC Truck, don't matter nearly as much. GM has some excellent engineers, as demonstrated by such worthy cars as the Cadillac CTS and Chevrolet Malibu. But for decades the engineers have been ham-strung by a corporate culture bereft of accountability. While GM was racking up tens of billions in losses during this decade, the only guy who got fired was former CEO Rick Wagoner--and it took President Obama to do it. Thus it was puzzling when new CEO Fritz Henderson's first round of executive appointments all were promotions from within. In other words, there are new people in key positions but no new blood. Perhaps the best news for automakers is that great swaths of excess capacity have been removed from their industry. As for the companies that will emerge from this great shakeout to become the biggest individual winners and losers, well, stay tuned. Read More Paul Ingrassia was formerly president of DowJones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal's Detroit bureau chief, where he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993. He is the author of "Crash Course," the story of GM and Chrysler's descent into bankruptcy, to be published by Random House in January. |
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DealerTrack Taps NADA to Provide Used-Vehicle Values for Lenders
MPi World Class Inspection Program™ Enters Canada
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