Cars.com has created an initiative to help keep auto dealers open during the COVID-19 pandemic.

They sent a formal request to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that automotive sales and leasing activities are deemed “Essential Businesses,"  fighting on behalf of dealerships nationwide to help them maintain their businesses during these unprecedented times. 

In addition, they created the CARS Cares website and are asking dealers in a letter that was sent today to have their voices heard by signing the petition and sending a pre-drafted letter to federal government officials who will be deciding as early as FRIDAY, MARCH 26 whether to include local dealer sales and leasing as “Essential Businesses.” 

Cars.com wants to responsibly #KeepAutoOpen during these unprecedented times.  If you would like to join this initiative, you can access the petition here.  The goal is to collect at least 10,000 franchise and independent dealer signatures by close of business this Thursday, March 26th. 

Here is the formal request:

New Social Media, Video and AI Technology Program to Support Businesses and

Communities Impacted by the Coronavirus Pandemic

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – (March 13, 2020) Digital Air Strike, the leading social media, intelligent
lead response and consumer engagement technology company, today unveiled its new
Video Retailing Program with White Glove Service to help dealerships handle more steps
of prospect conversion, the full sales process, and vehicle servicing utilizing video, virtual
messaging, AI, and much more.
The Video Retailing Program allows consumers to do more of their research, shopping,
transactions, and even vehicle delivery or servicing leveraging social distancing
techniques powered by Digital Air Strike technology. Dealerships will receive custom
graphics, videos, video conferencing, and training to immediately implement exclusive
White Glove Services to support any consumers with health concerns while still buying or
servicing vehicles.
“First and foremost, our thoughts are with everyone affected by coronavirus. We
understand how this pandemic is changing the way consumers want to engage with
businesses. In response to that, we are helping our dealers and the automotive industry
thrive while concurrently assisting to flatten the curve of this outbreak,” said Alexi Venneri
co-founder and CEO of Digital Air Strike. “We are offering our Video Retailing Program at
no charge for the next 30 days to all clients, and we will continue to refine and evolve
the program to assist with community outreach and reinforce health best practices. It
can also help accommodate staff that may need a work-from-home option but still need
to assist consumers at the same time. "
The Digital Air Strike Video Retailing Program leverages the company’s Video Logix
solution in a very custom way, paired with technology Digital Air Strike has already been
providing to its clients while leveraging video conferencing through Facebook Portals or

iPads. Through training, custom videos and graphics, as well as campaign and in-
dealership best practices, Digital Air Strike has created the automotive industry’s first

turnkey program to immediately lessen social contact and provide new ideas to support
concepts such as solo test drives, custom walk-around videos, concierge delivery of
vehicles for sales and servicing, and much more.
Digital Air Strike was the first corporate entity to adopt Facebook’s Portal for business
communication and has provided thousands of dealerships with the device. The

company was also first to develop many industry-first consumer engagement, social

media and reputation management technologies that have always been market-
leading. Technology is an integral part of how Digital Air Strike will help each dealership

provide White Glove Service as it empowers dealership staff to communicate “face to
face” with customers through video both remotely and if consumers choose to opt to
take delivery of their vehicle leveraging social distancing with video while even inside a
dealership.
The technology company was founded in 2010, at the height of the recession, when
dealers were cutting their marketing budgets and struggling to sell cars. Offering the first
custom social media solutions, Digital Air Strike continues to offer innovative programs to
connect with consumers virtually and today is providing this new solution for dealerships
and all clients, in all industries, at no cost to help our economy and communities
nationwide. You can view an example of how the Video Logix tool is used, which is part
of Digital Air Strike’s Video Retailing Program, here.
Digital Air Strike is presenting a series of free webinars to outline their innovative solution.
“Start Video Retailing Today: Survive & Thrive During the COVID-19 Pandemic” webinars
are being offered on multiple dates. More details can be found here:
https://digitalairstrike.com/webinars/

About Digital Air Strike
Digital Air Strike is the leading social media, intelligent lead response technology and
consumer engagement company helping 5,000 businesses increase consumer response
and conversions in digital and social media environments while generating measurable
ROI.
A pioneer in digital response, social media marketing and online reputation
management solutions, Digital Air Strike deploys industry-specific mobile apps, software,
intelligent messaging and managed service platforms to monitor, engage, improve and
manage consumer interactions for thousands of businesses in the United States, Canada
and 11 additional countries, including working with seven of the largest automotive
manufacturers. More information is available at www.digitalairstrike.com and
www.facebook.com/digitalairstrike.

New Functionality Provides Automated Vehicle Maintenance and Service Reminders to Customers

LAS VEGAS, NV., Feb. 13, 2020—Spireon, the vehicle intelligence company, introduced MyDealer 2.0 for Kahu® with new features that enable dealerships to grow the customer/dealer relationship with individualized mobile experiences. This enhancement to the award-winning Kahu connected car solution increases consumer engagement through a high-value mobile app, putting vehicle maintenance and control directly into the customer’s hand. Customers can now receive tailored service reminders, schedule necessary service appointments and have visibility into their car’s maintenance needs and history all in one place—their mobile phone.

“Consumers consistently rank vehicle maintenance as a high priority in connected car solutions,” said Brian Skutta, president of automotive at Spireon. “MyDealer 2.0 delivers on this request as dealers are now able to support automated OEM and mileage specific service reminders, ease of scheduling and access to their car’s maintenance history which enables convenient ownership over their vehicle’s service needs.”

MyDealer 2.0 delivers convenience and automation by leveraging previous dealer repair order (RO) history, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) recommended vehicle maintenance schedules, and precise mileage driven to push service reminders and enable online or click-to-call appointment scheduling from the trusted Kahu consumer app. Dealers no longer have to manually create service retention push campaigns as Kahu automatically generates and sends those messages to customers. This ultimately reduces overhead cost of service engagements and enhances fixed operations profit to help address retail margin compression.  

Spireon’s MyDealer 2.0 will be demoed during NADA and is available starting in Q2 2020. To learn more, please stop by Spireon’s booth, 5609N, at NADA, or visit https://www.spireon.com/kahu/.

 About Spireon

Spireon, the vehicle intelligence company, is the leading provider of aftermarket telematics solutions in North America. By equipping cars, trucks, trailers and other mobile assets with GPS devices and sensors, Spireon turns any vehicle into a connected vehicle. Award-winning products GoldStar, Kahu and FleetLocate deliver 24x7 asset visibility and actionable insights to auto dealers, lenders, transportation companies, service fleet managers, rental car companies and consumers to increase safety and productivity, boost profits and protect assets. Spireon’s NSpire IoT platform powers all Spireon solutions, supporting nearly 4 million active subscribers and processing more than 1 billion data events each month. Learn more at www.spireon.com.  

 For more information, contact

Miranda Simonson
Havas Formula for Spireon

Spireon@HavasFormula.com
619-234-0345

NEW YORK (February 6, 2020) – automotiveMastermind®, part of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), and a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for dealerships and manufacturers, hired one executive and promoted another as an extension of the company’s product and technology departments. Mastermind hired Andrew McGuire as Vice President of Product Data and promoted Michael Ferreira to Vice President of Information Technology. Both strengthen Mastermind’s product and technology teams.

Prior to joining Mastermind, McGuire was the Director of Product Management at Dealertrack, a brand of Cox Automotive. With his background in APIs, recommender systems and other technology platforms, McGuire will help Mastermind translate customer insights and increase product efficacy on the company’s Market EyeQ platform. The assistance will help the company continue to expand, providing more dealerships personalized access to Mastermind’s unique data marketing solutions.

In his new role, Ferreira is responsible for information security, systems infrastructure and expanded network architecture. He will also continue to assist with service desk, CRM operations and procurement. Existing Mastermind customers will see more efficient online support times and access to digital resources.

“With unique data personalization at the forefront of marketing trends and the rising cost of new vehicles, automotiveMastermind is making strategic internal decisions to reflect the goals and trends of the auto industry,” said Johannes Gnauck, founder and co-CEO of automotiveMastermind. “We want to strengthen our leadership base with skilled data science and analytics capable professionals to ensure our platform is continuing to produce exponential results, as we leverage IHS Markit’s firm-wide data lake across the Transportation, Finance & Energy verticals. This ensures our dealer partners who access our predictive marketing technology are sending the right message to the right prospect at the right time”

###

About automotiveMastermind

Founded in 2012, automotiveMastermind, part of IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), is a leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation solutions for the automotive industry. Market EyeQ by Mastermind is the single sales platform to identify, communicate with and close every buyer in a local market. Mastermind is headquartered in New York City and San Francisco. For more information, visit automotivemastermind.com. Based in London, IHS Markit is a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions.

We recently sat down with Allen Turner of Allen Turner Hyundai to discuss his new store launch. The conversation turned to his sales process, and Allen spent some time on how his salespeople approach today's buyer.

We recently sat down with Allen Turner from Allen Turner Hyundai and Allen Turner Genesis to chat about his new facilities. In this clip, Allen compares the showroom to the Apple Store and how we could use the showroom to conduct hybrid "owner clinics" for current owners and potential buyers.

Airbag control unit (ACU) defect that causes the safety devices to fail affects airbags also supplied to numerous other vehicle manufacturers, including Toyota/Acura, Honda, FiatChrysler/Dodge/Jeep, and Mitsubishi

On April 29, 2019, Lieff Cabraser and Baron & Budd filed a class action lawsuit in federal court in California on behalf of consumers across the U.S. against Hyundai Motor America, Kia Motor America, and ZF-TRW Automotive Holding Corp. over defective vehicle airbags that fail to operate during crashes due to electrical overstress (“EOS”). As detailed in the Complaint, a defect in the application-specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”) built into the airbags causes a failure in the Airbag Control Unit that prevents the airbags and the seat belt pretensioners, both vital to maximizing safety in a vehicle crash, from deploying. As the Complaint further alleges, ZF-TRW, Hyundai, and Kia became aware of the ACU defect as early as 2011, but did nothing to protect consumers or warn of the product dangers until 2018.

As the Complaint states, “From 2011 through 2015, ZF-TRW, Hyundai, and Kia investigated airbag non-deployments in several Kia and Hyundai vehicles but failed to inform NHTSA that there was an issue until the end of 2015. Even after advising NHTSA in 2015, each of these companies downplayed the severity and frequency of these non-deployment crashes. It was not until February and June of 2018 that Hyundai and Kia, respectively, issued product recalls as to a small segment of their vehicles.”

Throughout this nearly decade-long period, unsuspecting U.S. consumers purchased vehicles with defective ACUs which create a dangerous condition that gives rise to a clear, substantial, and unreasonable danger of personal injury, indisputably posing a grave and wholly unnecessary safety risk.

As the Complaint notes, “ZF-TRW, Hyundai, and Kia put profits ahead of safety by continuing to equip vehicles with ACUs year after year, even though they knew or should have known those ACUs were defective. Despite the number of airbag failures, injuries, and deaths caused by the ASIC Defect, ZF-TRW, Hyundai, and Kia were slow to fully investigate the problem and slow to report the danger to drivers and passengers of all ACU equipped vehicles. Only after several deaths, injuries, and investigations did Hyundai and Kia choose to recall a fraction of their vehicles equipped with the ASIC Defect.”

“This is not just fraud but also an astonishing breach of the public trust,” notes Lieff Cabraser partner David Stellings, one of the lawyers who filed the class action lawsuit. “Airbags and seat belts exist for only one reason: to protect passengers from being hurt in a crash.  The defective ZF-TRW airbag and seatbelt system Hyundai and Kia installed in their cars do exactly the opposite – they stop working when the car crashes.  Millions of drivers and passengers are at risk of being injured or killed.”

The Complaint notes that as a result of this misconduct, Plaintiffs and members of the proposed Classes were harmed and suffered actual damages; they did not receive the benefit of their bargain, and instead purchased or leased vehicles that are of a lesser standard, grade, and quality than represented, and did not receive vehicles that met ordinary and reasonable consumer expectations regarding safe and reliable operation. Purchasers or lessees of the affected vehicles paid more, either through a higher purchase price or higher lease payments, than they would have had the ASIC defect been disclosed. Plaintiffs and the Classes were deprived of having a safe, defect-free airbag installed in their vehicles, and ZF-TRW, Hyundai, and Kia unjustly benefited from their unconscionable delay in recalling its defective products, as they avoided incurring the costs associated with recalls and installing replacement parts for years.

Vehicles in the Lawsuit

“Class Vehicles” refers to the Kia Forte 2013; Kia Forte Koup 2013; Kia Optima 2013-2019; Kia Optima Hybrid 2012-2016; Kia Sedona 2014; Hyundai Sonata 2013-2019; and Hyundai Sonata Hybrid 2013-2019. (The defective ZF-TRW airbags were also supplied to other vehicle manufacturers, including Toyota/Acura, Honda, FiatChrysler/Dodge/Ram/Jeep, and Mitsubishi.)

The class action lawsuit states claims that include fraud, fraudulent concealment, violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), violation of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, unjust enrichment, violation of the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act for Breach of Implied Warranty of Merchantability, and violation of the California Unfair Competition Law. The lawsuit seeks class certification as well as remedies in the form of an order enjoining  Hyundai and Kia from further deceptive distribution, sales, and lease practices with respect to the affected vehicles, an award to plaintiffs and the class members of compensatory, exemplary, and punitive damages, and an award for the return of the purchase price of the affected vehicles.

About Lieff Cabraser

Recognized as “one of the nation’s premier plaintiffs’ firms” by The American Lawyer, Lieff Cabraser is a national plaintiffs’ law firm with offices in San Francisco, New York, and Nashville. We have successfully prosecuted scores of product defect class action lawsuits against many of the largest U.S. manufacturers and corporations. Working with co-counsel, we have achieved judgments and settlements in these cases in excess of $19 billion for consumers. Learn more at lieffcabraser.com.

About Baron & Budd

Established more than four decades ago to fight for workers injured by asbestos, Baron & Budd has expanded to confront not only the asbestos industry but also other societal threats such as water contamination, unsafe pharmaceutical drugs and devices, financial industry fraud, and automobile recalls. Baron & Budd has been named repeatedly to “The Plaintiffs’ Hot List” of exemplary plaintiffs’ firms in the United States by The National Law Journal. Legal 500 has repeatedly honored Baron & Budd for being one of the top two law firms in the U.S. for toxic tort claims.

Source/Contact

Nimish Desai
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
ndesai@lchb.com
415 956-1000

One of the main reasons DrivingSales exists is to optimize a dealership’s greatest asset: it’s people.  We really enjoy it when we hear of individuals growing in their careers and improving their dealerships.

At DrivingSales Presidents Club 2019 we presented our first Automotive Excellence Award.  This award is designed to recognize an employee that is advancing not only their career, but their dealership as a whole.  We had three criteria. First, we wanted to find someone that is creating measurable impact and change. Second, leadership only matters if you bring along a team.  This individual must impact people around them. Finally, impact on one’s self. We owe it to the people we work with to improve ourselves.

Our winner?

James Cornelison, General Manager at Jack Burford Chevrolet in Richmond, Kentucky.

In an extremely competitive market, James has transformed his dealership culture.  The store has changed so much so that people who have left the organization are asking to come back.  They sense the difference. This transformation has resulted in increased sales, but that’s only part of it.  James has got his Dealer Principal re-energized and excited to be in the car business again.

“James has become my right and left arm” said John Burford, Dealer Principal, “and has taken us to a different level.  I have customers tell me the difference in your store from a year and a half ago to today; it’s an entirely different store. It’s fun. I went from thinking I don’t want to work today to getting up early.”

“You can be in the best market in the world,” James continued, “but if you don’t have the right attitudes and the right people, and if your management team is not doing the things it takes every single day, it’s not going to work long-term.”

In Seth Godin’s book Linchpin, he talks about how to become someone that is vital and essential to an organization.  He wrote, “Perhaps you need to get in touch with what it means to feel passionate. People with passion look for ways to make things happen…The combination of passion and art is what makes someone a linchpin…”

It’s refreshing that in the mature industry of automotive retail, we can still find individuals that make this kind of an impact.  Congratulations James Cornelison!

• The annual Outstanding Business Leader Awards program recognizes leaders in the American free-enterprise system. 
• Selection is based on personal achievement and how the recipient typifies the unique philosophy of Northwood University.
• Cox Automotive President Sandy Schwartz is one of seven leaders that will be honored at the 39th Outstanding Business Leader awards gala hosted by Northwood on March 16.

ATLANTA, March 14, 2019 – Cox Automotive President Sandy Schwartz has been named a 2019 Outstanding Business Leader honoree by the Northwood University Board of Trustees. 

Conceived by Dr. Arthur E. Turner, co-founder of Northwood University, and established by the Northwood University Board of Trustees in 1981, the annual Outstanding Business Leader Awards program recognizes leaders in the American free-enterprise system. 

Selected based on personal achievement, each awardee typifies the unique philosophy of Northwood University. Criteria used in the selection of awardees include contribution to the philosophy of private enterprise, support of the integration of business and the arts, contribution to education, economic innovation, creative marketing ideas, community involvement, religious leadership, philanthropic contributions and business success. 

In a statement congratulating Schwartz on being a 2019 honoree, Dr. Keith Pretty, president and CEO, Northwood University, wrote: “Since first vested in 1981, the [Outstanding Business Leader] Award has gone to some of the most extraordinary leaders in enterprise in whose company and association we believe you belong.” 

Schwartz’ career at Cox spans three decades where he has led both Cox Media Group and Cox Automotive, subsidiaries of family-owned Cox Enterprises, and been a key member of the leadership team that has grown the private company to $20 billion revenue and 60,000 employees. 

Schwartz helped build the unrivaled Cox Automotive portfolio by nurturing organic growth at Autotrader and Manheim, seamlessly integrating software start-ups such as vAuto and Xtime, as well as orchestrating the $4 billion acquisition of Dealertrack and Dealer.com. Along the way, he has fostered a family-first ethic and an Open, Honest & Direct culture that routinely ranks Cox Automotive among the best places to work. 

In addition to a successful business career, Schwartz has participated in extensive community service, including leadership positions at the A.C. Green Youth Foundation and the American Red Cross of Metropolitan Atlanta. 

Schwartz is one of seven leaders that will be honored at the 39th Outstanding Business Leader awards gala hosted by Northwood on March 16. Joining the incoming honoree class will be more than 200 people, including past honorees, board members, Northwood students as well as family members and friends of Northwood. 

Visit www.northwood.edu/obl to learn more about the honorees.  

About Cox Automotive

Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling, owning and using cars easier for everyone. The global company’s 34,000-plus team members and family of brands, including Autotrader®, Clutch Technologies, Dealer.com®, Dealertrack®, Kelley Blue Book®, Manheim®, NextGear Capital®, VinSolutions®, vAuto® and Xtime®, are passionate about helping millions of car shoppers, 40,000 auto dealer clients across five continents and many others throughout the automotive industry thrive for generations to come. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company with revenues exceeding $20 billion.

coxautoinc.com

About Northwood University 

Northwood University is committed to the most personal attention to prepare students for success in their careers and in their communities; it promotes critical thinking skills, personal effectiveness, and the importance of ethics, individual freedom and responsibility. 

  Private, nonprofit, and accredited, Northwood University specializes in managerial and entrepreneurial education at a full-service, residential campus located in mid-Michigan. Adult Degree Programs are available in multiple states and online. The DeVos Graduate School offers day and evening programming in Michigan and Texas, and online. The Michigan-based Alden B. Dow Center for Creativity and Enterprise provides system-wide expertise in family enterprise, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and new business development. International education is offered through study abroad and in Program Centers in Switzerland, China (Changchun and Wuxi), and Sri Lanka.       

  For additional information regarding Northwood University, go to www.northwood.edu. 

Do you want to disrupt or be disrupted?

A key difference between a fad and a trend is time. Fads are a form of behavior that are intensely followed by people for a short period of time. Trends get stronger over time and tend to remain.

Differentiating between the two is a difficult endeavor.

With trends such as digital retailing starting to gain traction in the auto industry are you doing everything possible to ensure you are on the forefront?

Blockbuster is the example everyone uses when talking about disruption.  Their failure wasn’t that they didn’t see Netflix coming. Their failure was that they weren’t able to act at the right time.  They had the opportunity to buy a young Netflix for only $50 million, and they turned it down because they had something else in play, but because they couldn’t capitalize on this trend, we’re following the countdown to the last Blockbuster location.

Using your 20-group will be a great indicator of where you could/should be. To get to where you want to be having a pulse of the market, ideas, and goals. In addition, you need to get a fresh perspective on what you can do to capitalize on emerging trends and be the first.

DrivingSales Presidents Clubyou will hone your dealership strategy with other top performing dealers in the nation.

Join us and see what’s next.