We are needing to replace the way we deal with keys at our store. We have always used lock boxes that are on the car but it has turned out to be a big issue lately. We have experienced a lot of theft and I chalk most of it up to us putting the keys on the car.

That being said, we are looking into key track companies to sign up with. We have had demos and gotten pricing from 3 different companies. It is a challenge to determine who will be the best option in terms of quality of product and on price.

Does anybody use a key track system that they love? If so, what is the company? I would love some suggestions so we can set up the system that is going to work out best for our store. Is there anything that you don't like about the current system?

Our dealership isn't in the best part of town and we have had several issues with vehicle theft in the past 6 months. We have always had some issues, but it seems to be getting worse and worse. We do a good job of locking all vehicles at the close of business each day and the lot is completely secure with blockers.

As a result of all of the theft that we have had, our garage insurance policy is through the roof and the owner is getting more and more nervous that we won't be able to be insured. We have been discussing the possibility of putting some sort of a kill start or a gps tracking device on all of our new and used inventory.

I haven't done much research yet, so I don't really know what way we want to go. I thought I would throw out this post to see if someone out there has a good recommendation. If so, what company or product do you use? I would like to know the cost and how hard it is to install. Also, do you pass the cost on to the customer as a part of a package?

I recently attended a 20 group meeting where we had a long conversation going back and forth on to what extent you should recondition and warranty a cash and carry vehicle. To me, a cash and carry vehicle is a $2,000-$10,000 car that is older with higher miles. We typically fix the major stuff on those vehicles when we sell them and usually don't worry about the small stuff. We sell them as is but fully disclose any issues the vehicle may have up front to the customer.

I know the industry standard for getting a used vehicle through the reconditioning process is 4 days or less. We have consistantly averaged 8-9 days for the past who knows how long. We have met with and begged the service department for a long time to fix the issue and get our vehicles through the shop faster. So far, no luck.

I'm curious to know if there are other dealers that have successfully got this number down to 4 or less days. Or do most dealers even track and hold their service department accountable?

Just to make sure we are comparing apples to apples in terms of volume, we retail an average of about 90 retail deals per month. We currently have 2 full time detailers, 1 full time tech (part of our problem) and sometimes the divvy up his work when he's really behind, and 1 internal service writer that acts as the middleman between us and service. It's also worth mentioning that we recondition to a very high standard so that may be causing to the higher average days.

Let me know how you got it done. Change in pay plans? More techs?

Just like most dealers at this time of the year, we are short on salespeople and we need to start ramping up for the spring and summer months. We were already a bit understaffed last month and I just lost 2 more in the last week (one quit and one was promoted).

We usually don't have that hard of a time getting qualified applicants but it has been more challenging this time. We typically just run an ad or two and offer a $500 recruiting bonus to our staff for bringing somebody on board. It has always worked in the past but we aren't getting that much action this time around.

Just wondering if anyone has something new that I can try that has proven to be effective? I'm open to trying something new in order to get the right guys in place. Any recommendations?

We have had some issues lately with out of state deals when it comes to taking care of their licensing and registration fees. We have had several customers either assume or claim that someone told them that we were going to pay for all of their licensing and registration fees. As you guys know, the customer usually wins and we had to pay for their fees that weren't set up in the deal as a result of the miscommunication.

I would assume most dealers handle out of state deals the same way that we do. We account for the sales tax in the deal and send that money to the dmv of the state where the customer lives. We do our best to explain that the taxes are going to be handled but they need to take care of their state fees when they go to the dmv and register the vehicle.

Because we keep getting put together lately, I was thinking that we need to put together an addendum or something for the customer to sign that states the customer is responsible for taking care of their state fees when they register the car. I figure by having that separate contract, we could avoid any future problems. So... Does anyone have a similar contract that they use at their dealership? Does it work? If you have something in line with what I'm planning on putting together, is there any way you could email what you use to me to give me some ideas of what to put on it? Any input would be much appreciated. My email is bgibby@henrydayford.com.

We had our advertising meeting for 2013 yesterday. Among other things, one idea our ad guy pitched to us was to advertise with Pandora. He mentioned the cost is relatively cheap and feels confident that it would be worth the money we spend. Unfortunately, we would be the "test dummies" if we decide to do it as he has never done it before.

He didn't have much to show us in the way of previous history concerning the effectiveness of advertising on Pandora. I was just wondering if any other dealer out there had dabbled with Pandora and if they had a good/bad experience?

We have gone back and forth on year end bonus' over the last few years. We currently pay our sales consultants a year end bonus based on them acheiving a certain level of sales for the year. We also pay them an extra bonus for CSI if they are in the top 10 percent. I'm curious to know what other dealerships pay in terms of an annual bonus for their salespeople.

Also, we currently don't pay a year end bonus to any of our sales managers or finance managers. They used to get an annual bonus that was linked in to their monthly one-on-ones and their average scores from those reviews. It wasn't a ton of money, but at least it was something that they could look forward to at the end of the year. Again, I was wondering if the norm is to pay year end bonus' to sales managers and finance managers? If so, what type of bonus do you pay out and how is it earned?

We have gone without a 401k match here at the dealership since 2008. When the tough times came, that was one of the first things that needed to be cut to keep expenses low.

Now that we are back where we need to be, we are planning on reinstating the 401 k match soon. We used to match up to 2% as long as the employee contributed 4% or more. I'm curious to see what others dealerships out there offer on a 401k match if anything? I would like to see what the standard is in order to make sure we set up something that is fair to the employees.

Let me know what you think...

The owner of our store recently bought a house and used a company called DocuSign when he signed several of the documents during the process of the transaction. He was so impressed with how convenient the singing went that he is insisting we get signed up with them.

I looked into the comany and signed up for a free 14 day trial. I did a practice run and I've gotta say it seems like a really cool tool. The only issue is that I am trying to figure out what forms I can use and at what points it will be beneficial to use them. If financing is being done on the car deal, I'm sure that banks wont accept signatures from Docusign on the contracts that they require.

I'm just wondering if there is anyone out there that uses Docusign at their dealership? If so, what forms do you guys use it for and in what circumstance?