Freezing cold, damp winter evenings attending car auctions in Chester, England will always hold a special place in my heart. The smell of meat pies, coffee, hot chocolate, and way too much Benson and Hedges tobacco, remains sealed in the deep fibers of my thick warm overcoat. 

The memory that holds an unwelcome place in my heart is fumbling through my 2-inch thick black-book, frantically looking for the value of a car with feeze bit fingers. 

No advanced notice of sale giving me time to prep. No mileage adjustment built into my paper black-book. No condition report. No market data. Just my gut and a dumb youthful appetite for success. How on earth did I ever make money? 

This leads me to think, how does anyone in the competitive USA make money today without these tools? More so, how do they compete with dealers that do use them?

Here are the top 3 reasons I wish we had the technology we have today when I was buying cars in 1999;

1- The ability to know which cars I should buy. Today I would have the luxury of knowing how long it will take me to sell a vehicle I am considering buying.

If my No1 focus is the quick profitable turnover of my inventory, which it better be; I'd better start by buying the right vehicles. I need to buy inventory that I know will sell quickly. Appraisal tools like Carketa's tell me how long it will take to sell the vehicle I'm considering buying.

2- The ability to know how many vehicles are for sale in my defined relevant market and how many have sold.

Do I want to buy vehicles to sell in my market already saturated with the same make and model? Well, yes, if the demand is sufficient to ensure I can sell that car quickly. Or, no, if supply and demand are out of whack. This tool makes me look like a frikken PHD.... I wish.

3- The ability to know all of the market's comparable pricing including, current and sold prices.

Selling quickly is great but I still need to make a good profit!! How do I know what I should pay for a specific vehicle? How do I know what I should sell it for so that the most popular search on add platforms (lowest price) positions me where I want to rank?

There are many reasons I love technology. But nothing gets my attention more than the technology that helps me easily dial in the most important things in my life, add huge value and make it ridiculously lightning fast. 

The fact that these tools are now so affordable blows me away that every dealer doesn't use them. What a difference it would have made to my life in 1999. This would have truly tipped the scales.

Please get out of the 90's; don't be left behind and take a look at the options out there. The best one for me of course is Carketa's. How it uniquely works within the recon tool and helps to stay on top of price changes is fantastic!!

OK, so I'm biased! You would be also.... Just take a look.

Carketa Inc - Inventory Lifecycle management Tools

Volume or gross, it's a simple mathematical equation, and fair to say that it usually ends up with the same bottom-line results.

You could sell 100 units with an average of $2,000 gross profit, or sell 65 units at an average of $3,100 gross profit. Either way, you make $200,000 for the month. So, which do we choose? Which is the better fit for my organization?

The constraints and circumstances that have given us the for's and against's to make the decision have changed. The way our customers buy cars has changed. Social proof and influence have added their dynamic. No longer does one need to go without the other. 

In the past with my Dealership in England, if I wanted to sell more cars I would need to up my marketing budget. I would need to cast my net further and try to entice customers to travel further to buy a car. I would need to lower my profits and up my expenses.

Counter this today with online sales being more and more the cultural norm for buyers, I can sell further afield and deliver my car to customers I never had access to previously. 

Also impacting my enhanced ability today is the technology that helps me turn my inventory faster without the need to drop my price. Valuation tools that tell me which vehicles will turn quickly and what I need to buy them for to compete in my market and make my target profit.

I used to turn my inventory and capital 6 times a year - now the best dealers who really focus, discipline, and use technology to help them set in stone and stick to process are turning 12-15 times a year!!! What a HUGE difference that would have made for me.

Recon software that not only helps me to get my inventory front line ready quicker but also helps me sell it before it's even ready for sale? 

Current Condition reports that help me show transparency, generating trust so that I can compete with the bigger digital retailers.

Bottom line. I can now hit my target 30-day turn ratio for my inventory and I can still gross strong profit. 

NADA Academy students showed an average turn of 7.6 times per year or every 45 days across the USA. Successful NADA 20 Group members turned their inventory 12 times a year, or every 30 days. These figures were agnostic to volume or gross stores. The difference in the faster turning stores was the focus, discipline, and measurable, scalable buying, and reconditioning process. 

So how do we do that? How do we eliminate inefficiencies? Identify and fix roadblocks? How do I buy better? How do I lower and control my cost in recon?

How do I get my turn down from 45 days to 30? Take 30 seconds to click here to see how much more money your store would make if you focus on the right areas. 

A Dealership selling 75 vehicles with $2500 gross per unit, 7.6 times a year earns $1,4m. By focusing on the right areas and turning 12 times a year the same dealership earns $2.25m.

Click here to see how reducing a few days of your inventory turn would increase your earnings.

Alex Chester is the National Sales Manager for Carketa. He is the last of the famous international hooligans and automotive petrol head. 

Carketa helps auto dealers buy better, turn inventory quicker, and generate trust through recon transparency. 

Yes, we have come down to the world of yesterday’s dream. Ever since technology took over the world, the improvement hasn’t stopped a bit. Thus, we have a digital solution to practically every problem we encounter in life. Need a lift? Open the Uber app. Want to eat some food? Order food from Doordash. Do you want to shop for something and you don’t want to go to the mall? There’s Amazon to take care of it for you.

And car dealership technology doesn’t want to get left behind, as it starts to move into the digital world. Thought the progress may be slow, but it is reassuring.

Even though most car sales still happen at the dealership, car buyers check the Internet first before buying. According to Google/comScore, 95% of car buyers use an online source to gather vehicle information.

So what does it mean for you as a car dealership? Since a digital shift is inevitable, you need to prepare for the surge of customers looking for cars online.

Buying cars online is not a foreign concept, but there are underlying issues and problems that come with it. Therefore, you have to look for a way to attract car buyers online and make them feel secure after a purchase. And how to do that? That’s where the vehicle condition report comes in.

In this blog post, we are going to talk about what a vehicle condition report is. We will also talk about the importance of the reports to both dealerships and buyers. Read on to know how to get one and use it to your advantage.

The Perils Of Shopping Cars Online Through A Private Seller

We can practically shop everything online. And we mean everything, even vehicles.

Shopping cars online has brought a lot of advantages for buyers. But with the good, so is the bad. There are a couple of drawbacks, and knowing these red flags is important before dealing with anyone. Otherwise, you can potentially lose a lot of time, money, temper, and hair in the process.

No Warranty Included

For one, you won’t have the option to get a warranty when you buy vehicles for sale online – something that dealerships can provide. Furthermore, you’re only buying a car “as is”, which means sellers can be protected by the law when you found out that your vehicle is a “lemon”.

When you’re buying a car from a private seller, you have to secure your own financing. Not only that, buying a car from a private seller online won’t be able to give you any leasing options as opposed to buying from a reputable car dealership.

Hard To Personally Check The Car

If you’re planning to buy a car online, you won’t be able to test a lot of vehicles before purchasing. And if the vehicle is coming from a different state, you will have a hard time to visit it and check its status. The solution to that is to hire a mechanic from the locale and have it checked by them. But that would be costly. And if the mechanic shortcuts his job, you may never get the car’s complete information.

And these are just some of the dangerous disadvantages you may experience when you buy a car online from a private seller. We understand that there’s a certain risk when you try to purchase a vehicle through the Internet. And we also understand why people may opt to buy cars the easy way. To meet halfway, we suggest taking a look at the vehicle condition report first. But what is it really?

What Is A Vehicle Condition Report

A vehicle condition report is a set of documents – can be both hard or soft copy – where you will find complete information of a specific vehicle. In the report, you will see what the vehicle’s main conditions are, its history and other vital information car buyers should know. Below are some information you may find in a condition report:

Mechanical Condition

This is the part of the vehicle condition report where you will read the entire overview of the car you’re checking. Here you will find the complete rundown of the vehicle, its specifications, and the critical inspection report. The inspection reports cover virtually everything about the car, from the parts that are still in excellent shape to those that need repair or improvement.

History Report

The history report is just as important and is perhaps the most checked part of any vehicle condition report. In the history report, you will find the status of the vehicle’s title (whether it’s clean, salvaged, or reconstructed), title checks, and odometer status, among others. Even though the information provided is accurate, the data gathered comes from a third-party vehicle history service. This means that sometimes there may be inaccuracies. The dealership that provides the history reports has no control over that.

Vehicle Value Guide

The market value guide is the part of the report where you’ll see the vehicle’s average price in the market. Most value guides have three parts: the below-market, the average market, and the above market. Reports determine the estimates by gathering the average prices of sold vehicles between a particular time. It also includes the average mileage.

Why Is It Important?

So what’s the importance of vehicle condition report? What are its functions when buying a used vehicle online?

It is mostly to protect buyers from choosing the wrong vehicle to buy. Sometimes, when you do car shopping online, you may find that all the used cars look perfect – they all look brand new most of the time. But, sometimes, it can look too good to be true, especially when you check a sketchy person’s listing. The vehicle condition report then supplies the vehicle information that a buyer should know.

Time And Money Is Gold

Vehicle reports can also save you time and money. Back in the day, you need to go to the dealership to check the vehicle for yourself. That is if you have done your research. If not, you have to go through several cars and check them one by one. And it would help if you spent at least an hour on average to check a vehicle. So if you have to check five cars, that’s five hours spent at the very least.

And when you have no time to check on the vehicle, the next best thing is to hire an expert mechanic to do the job for you. A mechanic is more knowledgeable about checking vehicles, so you’d have an accurate report within a day or two. Although it may save you time, hiring a mechanic costs money.

To save you time and money, you can look at a vehicle condition report. It’s available to most car dealerships online, and you don’t need to wait for days to get a result. A vehicle condition report is complete with all the information you need to help you decide whether to buy the vehicle or not.

In Conclusion

And that is what a vehicle condition report is. These are the reasons you should look at one before buying a vehicle online. Bottom line, a vehicle condition report helps you come up with the decision to purchase or not. Sometimes you have to pay for it, but some websites can provide vehicle condition reports for free. Click on the link if you want to look at vehicles and their accompanying condition reports. If you own a car dealership and looking for a reconditioning tool to check on your cars, click here.

76% of Car Dealers surveyed believe that advertising online, constitutes a digital selling strategy. 

As of May 2020, Carvana's as-soon-as-next day delivery was available in 261 markets across the USA. In Q2 of 2020, the company reported a 25% increase in vehicle sales, as a result of physical dealership sellers being closed as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Carvana had gross revenue of $1.12 billion, up 13% for the months April-June 2020. In 2019 the “Amazon of Auto” sold 177,549 vehicles and posted annual revenue of $3.94 billion, making it the third-largest used-car retailer in the U.S.

So, is it the beginning of the end of the road for the traditional dealership? No, it’s not, however, the threat of online sales will not go away, it will continue to grow. Is it a matter of, if you can't beat them join them? “No… Brady Thurgood, Carketa Inc Co-founder & CEO says, you beat them”.

“We are looking at this upside down, says Thurgood; winners don't focus on the opponent's strengths, they study them, improve on them, highlight their own unique strengths and get to work.”

What are the online retailers' strengths and how do we improve on them?

According to NCM associates staff, those strengths are User Friendly, Quality Photos, Customized Financing, Saving Time, and The Longest Test Drive. Which of these strengths can not be achieved by the traditional dealership? Sure, we may need to shorten the time it takes for price negotiation…. slightly… but everything else we can adjust to very easily… right?

Are these the only strengths of the online retailer's model? Let's dig a little deeper. Let’s consider the backbone of their operation and how they make it work? How do they convince a customer to buy a vehicle from a dealer 1000 miles away without them touching or test driving the car? How often does a traditional dealership sell a used car without the test drive? Even the idea of handing over a SSN number on the web causes many buyers to stop in their tracks, however, turn it over they do along with their hard-earned cash and their trust in the dealer and it’s vehicle.

Carketa Co-founder Jason Berry says “the online auto retailers have built their business on two solid blocks. The vehicle reconditioning process and the ability to show transparency, building trust, and confidence in their product through their vehicle condition report.” It's true that companies like Carvana have dialed in the Recon process; it is the key area of their business that enables them to ensure a quality product consistently and build their brand.

The traditional dealership has what the online stores don't have; the dealership. The building, the lot, the handshake, the smile, the popcorn and water bottles from the fridge, the service bay, the test drive, Saturday morning BBQ’s, the kids play area, the family, the personal touch, the experience. The full service.

To compete with this new wave, a dealership can stay ahead of the game by adopting early to the technology available in the marketplace today. Tools that will provide everything needed to perform the backbone operation of an online store will open new ways to market and speak to every kind of buyer, near or far.

“Carketa loves the car dealer, says Thurgood. We know they will work hard through any worldwide crisis or change in their marketplace and come out on top. What is needed to outplay the online retailer is the right process and best practices, marshaled by a solid cutting edge reconditioning tool. Add the ability to cast their nets wide, appealing to the distance buyers with the aid of a robust vehicle current condition report and the dealer is in good shape to take on this new way of transacting business.”