Enhancements provide insights to make more profitable trades for dealers

Oakbrook Terrace, IL. – February 13, 2020 – vAuto announces enhancements to Conquest, its new car inventory management solution, that provide dealers with a new way to efficiently manage their new car inventory. The enhancements include an Improved Dealer Trade Tool, New Investment Comparison and Dashboard upgrades.

“We talk to dealers and evaluate market trends constantly to determine the product innovations needed to keep our inventory management solutions performing at the highest level,” said Randy Kobat, senior vice president of Inventory Software Solutions at Cox Automotive. “We’re confident these enhancements will directly solve the challenges dealers face.”

Economists are predicting on-going challenges in the new car market as sales continue to level off or decline1, along with the prospect of rising interest rates. 

“At vAuto, we’re seeing that one of the biggest opportunities for dealers is hidden in plain sight—that’s better managing the capital investment tied up in new car inventory. These new Conquest enhancements help dealers proactively manage their inventory as an investment by minimizing expenses and growing profits,” said Brian Finkelmeyer, senior director of new car solutions at vAuto. 

The 2020 Conquest upgrades include: 

Enhanced Dealer Trade Functionality: Trading on intuition supported by insights to reduce losses and improve inventory. 

- Dealer trade insights are now grouped based on dealers’ own splitter for same-make dealer trades.

- Filtering is no longer based on subscribed makes, but rather on the make from which the vehicle is searched.

- Stocking action is now included. Sort by the highest positive stocking action to lowest negative stocking action.

The upgrades to the Dealer Trade functionality seamlessly integrate into Conquest and use third-party data to identify which vehicles would perform best in each dealer’s market, creating an efficient trade process and resulting in faster turning inventory.

“We know new car managers today have a lot on their plates. So, when a dealer receives an inbound request for a trade, they need to be sure they’re getting the right car back, and quickly,” said Finkelmeyer.

In a limited study conducted by vAuto in 2018, dealers reported they averaged 22 trades per month and 17.7% of those trades were losses.2

Those losses are the reason that vAuto enhanced the trade functionality in the platform—to take out the guesswork, helping Inventory Managers, like Turner Silk, avoid losses.

“The new Dealer Trade tool in Conquest takes the hassle out of trades by having all of the information and relevant inventory available without having to manage the back and forth often associated with manufacturer-provided OEM tools. Having the necessary information readily available prevents us from taking the wrong vehicle back in exchange and keeps our inventory flowing smoothly, not to mention the overall time it saves with the transaction,” said Turner Silk, Inventory Manager at Glenn Ford Lincoln/Glenn’s Freedom CDJR.

New Investment Comparison: Know when you’re selling the oldest inventory with new, easy-to-interpret visuals.

- A simple bar graph compares dealers’ active inventory to their sold inventory by dollar amount and vehicle age.

- Dealers will be alerted when inventory fresh off the truck is being sold before vehicles that have been sitting on the lot, jeopardizing floor plan credits.

“We know from continued market research and conversations with our clients that dealers feel they’re doing the best they can with new cars and there’s no room to improve. We at vAuto feel differently and we’re confident that with enhancements like these and those to come, we can position dealers to out-think, not out-spend the competition,” continued Finkelmeyer.

Dashboard Upgrades: Minimize the time and effort it takes for you to check in on new vehicle inventory, identify potential issues and execute strategic adjustments. 

Updates include the following:

- New Investment Comparison

- Per Model Summary Update

​​​​​​​- Need Attention Redesign

​​​​​​​- Stocking Actions Redesign

​​​​​​​- Addition of Digital Frontline Ready

​​​​​​​- Separation of Inventory Summary from Inventory Metrics

• ​​​​​​​- Collapsible Widgets

To see the enhancements in action, stop by booth #2316C at NADA. For more information, call 888-536-4086 or visit https://www.vauto.com/products/conquest/.

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1Sources: https://www.nada.org/NADA-2020-Economic-Forecast/ andhttps://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/obczpthzbdumupsf8bostw2

2vAuto Fall 2018 Dealer Trades Study November 6, 2018 (page 8)

About vAuto

vAuto® provides innovative technology, tools and business intelligence to thousands of dealerships across the United States and Canada, helping them compete more effectively and increase new/used vehicle sales volumes and profits. Founded in 2005, vAuto revolutionized dealers’ used vehicle operations with the groundbreaking Provision® suite of tools. Leveraging The Velocity Method of Management®, pioneered by vAuto founder, Dale Pollak, Provision helped dealers adopt a more transparent and turn-focused approach to used vehicle acquisition, appraising, pricing and merchandising based on real-time, local market supply-and-demand data. In 2018, vAuto released the Provision ProfitTime metric and methodology to help dealers maximize inventory turn and gross profit based on the investment value or profit potential of each vehicle. The same year, the company expanded its integrations with Cox Automotive’s HomeNet unit and acquired iRecon, an online reconditioning workflow platform. The moves extend vAuto’s efficiency-focused used vehicle management solutions into vehicle merchandising and reconditioning.

vAuto’s solutions also include Conquest, a new vehicle inventory management and pricing system, and Stockwave, which enables dealers to efficiently find and purchase vehicles from leading wholesale sources via a single platform.

Headquartered near Chicago, Illinois, vAuto is a Cox Automotive™ brand.

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. www.coxautoinc.com

Enhanced Functionality Brings Tools Together to Help Dealers Improve Efficiency and Overall Gross Profits During the Appraisal Process

IRVINE, Calif., February 11, 2020 – Today Kelley Blue Book announced the integration of its Instant Cash Offer tool with vAuto’s Provision tool to help dealers win more trades and maintain or improve efficiency during the appraisal process which helps overall gross profits. 

Dealers are currently facing a difficult dilemma: While inventory is entering the market and turning at a rapid rate, profit margins continue to decline. Furthermore, the average cost to market on a trade-in has risen more than 1.2 percent every year for the last three years, according to a 2019 Historical Margin Compression Study from Cox Automotive, making the fight for profitable inventory more competitive than ever. With the rise of online bidding and national competitors, dealers must utilize technology to improve efficiencies and distinguish themselves from rivals to win more trades. 

Evolving with these industry dynamics, the Instant Cash Offer integration with vAuto Provision’s appraisal report improves dealer efficiency by helping them find and improve win rates on needed trade-ins. Features of this integration include:

- An appraisal report enhanced with Instant Cash Offer information allows dealers to clearly see how effective the offers are in helping to efficiently find and maximize trade-in win rates to improve profit margins.

- Easily add or associate Instant Cash Offers to the vAuto appraisal report, bringing together valuable information about the vehicle.

- An exclusive market report containing Instant Cash Offer information gives dealers access to other offers for similar vehicles to validate the offer and provide a more comprehensive view to help dealers win the trade.

- Easily identify existing Instant Cash Offers on recommended vehicles dealers need, sourcing inventory directly from the consumers versus typical acquisition methods.

“With inventory turning at its highest rate ever, it has never been more critical for dealers to ensure no trade is missed,” said Paul Whitworth, senior vice president of inventory management solutions for Cox Automotive. “These integrations help dealers maintain a competitive advantage by increasing the flow of information from third-party sites to inventory management systems, modernizing the appraisal process and ultimately winning more trades with information from the No. 1 most trusted third-party automotive brand, Kelley Blue Book.”

Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer is offered as a standalone product and can be integrated with vAuto’s Provision. Both products are available for purchase at NADA 2020.

“We started using both vAuto Provision and Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer a little more than three years ago,” said Firas Makhlouf, chief information officer for Driver’s Village. “Instant Cash Offer is a great product, and the integration into vAuto has been tremendous. It’s very easy to populate the information and click through to see the full report with the information from Kelley Blue Book. We use the Instant Cash Offers during the appraisal because consumers see the offer is from Kelley Blue Book and know they can trust the offer.”

For more information on the Kelley Blue Book Instant Cash Offer and vAuto Provision integration, please visit Kelley Blue Book (booth #2528C) or vAuto (booth #2316C) at the 2020 NADA Convention and Expo, or online at www.b2b.kbb.com.

About Kelley Blue Book (www.kbb.com)
Founded in 1926, Kelley Blue Book, The Trusted Resource®, is the vehicle valuation and information source trusted and relied upon by both consumers and the automotive industry. Each week the company provides market-reflective values on its top-rated website KBB.com, including its famous Blue Book® Trade-In Values and Kelley Blue Book® Price Advisor tool, which provides a range for what consumers can reasonably expect to pay for a vehicle in their area. Car owners looking to sell immediately can also get a redeemable, transaction-ready offer with Kelley Blue BookSM Instant Cash Offer. The company also provides vehicle pricing and values through various products and services available to car dealers, auto manufacturers, finance and insurance companies, and governmental agencies. Kelley Blue Book is a Cox Automotive brand.

About vAuto
vAuto® provides innovative technology, tools and business intelligence to thousands of dealerships across the United States and Canada, helping them compete more effectively and increase new/used vehicle sales volumes and profits. Founded in 2005, vAuto revolutionized dealers' used vehicle operations with the groundbreaking Provision® suite of tools. Leveraging The Velocity Method of Management®, pioneered by vAuto founder, Dale Pollak, Provision helped dealers adopt a more transparent- and turn-focused approach to used vehicle acquisition, appraising, pricing and merchandising based on real-time, local market supply-and-demand data. vAuto's solutions also include Conquest, a new vehicle inventory management and pricing system, and Stockwave, which enables dealers to efficiently find and purchase vehicles from leading wholesale sources via a single platform. In 2018, vAuto released the Provision ProfitTime metric and methodology to help dealers maximize inventory turn and gross profit based on the investment value or profit potential of each vehicle. The same year, the company expanded its integrations with Cox Automotive's HomeNet unit and acquired iRecon, an online reconditioning workflow platform. The moves extend vAuto's efficiency-focused used vehicle management solutions into vehicle merchandising and reconditioning.

Headquartered near Chicago, Illinois, vAuto is a Cox Automotive™ brand.

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

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Enhancements introduce added efficiency, customization and visibility to the digital merchandising arena for dealers

EXTON, Pa., February 11, 2020 – As car buyers spend more time online and fewer days in-market,[i] the pressure is mounting for dealers to deliver a more tailored and engaging shopping experience that separates them from the competition. But adapting to the needs of today’s informed and tech-savvy consumer is easier said than done. While 83% of dealers believe they can increase vehicle turn if they improve digital merchandising, only 12% think their online presence is highly differentiated.[ii]

To help dealers turn this industry-wide obstacle into an opportunity and drive greater engagement online, HomeNet Automotive will unveil a new targeted digital merchandising solution as well as several enhancements to its 360-degree capture technology at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) convention in Las Vegas on Feb. 14-17, 2020.

“As vehicle sales are increasingly being won and lost online, having a digital merchandising approach that is engaging and targeted is only becoming more critical,” said Randy Kobat, senior vice president of inventory software at Cox Automotive. “With the latest innovations from HomeNet, we’re elevating the dealer-to-customer relationship dynamic by giving dealers the essential tools they need to create deeper connections with car buyers at every stage of the shopping journey, whether it be on a third-party advertising site or dealership page.”

Bringing a new level of efficiency and personalization to digital merchandising, HomeNet’s latest enhancements include:

Targeted Promotions:

Set to debut at NADA this year, HomeNet’s all-new Targeted Promotions solution helps enable dealers to automatically generate targeted image content that is uniquely tailored to their dealership’s marketing strategy, helping establish much-needed differentiation online. Targeted Promotions includes three key features:

- Targeted Image Overlays: Dealers can automatically create custom calls to action within vehicle photos that align to their market strategy on specific advertising sites. By developing special overlays for each online destination, dealers can better track calls and leads and help guide car shoppers toward more informed buying decisions.

- Targeted Billboards: With Targeted Promotions, dealers can now insert custom designs within the photo stream to tell a stronger story about their dealership.

- Professional Services: As an added benefit, dealers also receive direct access to a dedicated team of experts at HomeNet who are focused on enhancing online listing quality and streamlining merchandising operations.

"Since we started using Targeted Promotions with HomeNet, we have experienced a significant lift in the number of calls from interested car shoppers,” said Aimee Rogers, marketing manager at Brad Deery Auto Group. “We simply added call tracking numbers to our photo overlays and have been shocked by the increase in online engagement."

SnapLot 360 Enhancements:

Introducing unprecedented automation to the digital merchandising experience at last year’s NADA, HomeNet’s SnapLot 360 solution is being enhanced for 2020 to help ensure dealers can get their inventory online and in front of consumers in a more efficient and engaging manner. According to HomeNet’s 2019 360 Consumer Study, 73% of consumers who browsed and then bought or leased a vehicle rated 360 displays as extremely or very helpful.[iii] SnapLot 360, which is an interior and exterior 360-degree image capture solution, helps dealers capitalize on this sentiment and raise visibility with car shoppers. The solution will now include the following enhancements:

- Easy Photo Capture: Dealers can now automatically extract photos once an exterior 360 is captured, eliminating the need to capture photos and 360s separately, creating greater efficiency.

- Automated Tagging: Leveraging the power of machine learning, vehicle hot spots that will draw the attention of online car shoppers, such as the wheels, headlights or trunk, are now automatically tagged.

- Reporting: Dealers can gain a better understanding of customer engagement through robust reporting capabilities, which measure merchandising performance.

For more information about HomeNet and to schedule a demo at NADA 2020, visit https://www.homenetauto.com/, or visit us at the conference at Booth #2316C.

About HomeNet

HomeNet Automotive gets inventory out of your systems and in front of online shoppers. Today’s car shoppers are researching, locating and evaluating cars online before they ever set foot in a physical dealership. Yet, dealers struggle to ensure inventory is consistently updated and distributed to all online destinations with speed, accuracy and quality. At HomeNet, we help dealers and industry partners merchandise and distribute their inventory from one unified platform and seamlessly push this information to their own website and all their third-party advertising sources. Based in Exton, PA, with offices across the U.S., HomeNet is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cox Automotive.

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. www.coxautoinc.com

Key role designed to help dealers meet the challenges of the digital transformation era

ATLANTA – February 7, 2020 – Manheim has named Zach Hallowell as the new lead of Manheim Digital amid the company’s significant growth and innovation in the digital wholesale space. Entrusted with leading the transformational efforts across Manheim’s digital platform, M LOGIC™, Manheim Express and condition reporting, Hallowell is also focused on ensuring wholesale buyers and sellers understand the sheer magnitude of possibilities that come with the evolving wholesale landscape.

“Zach’s commitment to our clients’ success, passion for the possibilities of technology and deep background in digital remarketing made him the ideal choice to lead our digital teams into the future,” said Grace Huang, president of Manheim. “As a visionary in digital wholesale, Zach’s drive to innovate and ability to lead through change will enable Manheim to continue being the best place for dealers and consignors to do business.”

A car enthusiast since he first saw a Ferrari Testarossa at nine years old, after which he eagerly read car magazines cover to cover and loved visiting car dealerships with his dad, Hallowell’s love of cars has driven much of his storied career. Shortly after graduating from Middlebury College, he found a way to merge his love of cars and interest in technology by moving to the epicenter of tech innovation—Silicon Valley.

One of the original creators of private online wholesale stores, Hallowell also pioneered the digital grounding and upstream remarketing space. He led the team responsible for one of the first upstream lease end-of-term grounding platforms in the early 2000’s and helped design the lease grounding and upstream sales platform for captive finance companies and rental and fleet providers. His nearly two decades long career in automotive has led him to be the named inventor on numerous patents related to wholesale remarketing systems. Hallowell joined Manheim four years ago to build the company’s private store business and has held increasingly progressive leadership roles since.

“To be in this position with Manheim and the broader Cox ecosystem is equally exciting and humbling,” Hallowell commented. “When I think about what cars represent for our culture—the freedom and mobility to go anywhere at any time—and combine that with the technology resources and wherewithal here at Manheim, I know we have the opportunity to shape the future by bringing together our physical and digital assets to benefit our clients and make a real difference.”

The future is what Hallowell has a keen eye on. His appointment comes at a time when Manheim has seen exponential growth across its digital platforms—from Manheim.com to Manheim Express, Simulcast, OVE and more. In 2019, Manheim saw more than 150,000 unique monthly visitors to its digital channels, grew its Digital Blocks to 150 and sold over 2.3 million vehicles to digital buyers—nearly half of Manheim’s total. As the growth continues, Hallowell believes its critical to help dealers lean into the changes ahead.

“I’ve always been passionate about progress; what makes me uncomfortable is complacency,” he added. “We’re at an inflection point in wholesale where the pace of change and digital adoption is increasing, and I’m confident that the dealer body will be stronger as a result. It’s incredibly important for buyers and sellers alike to embrace these new opportunities to take inefficiencies out of the market, and we will take our clients beyond the traditional auction experience to something even better.”

About Manheim

Manheim®, the nation’s leading provider of end-to-end wholesale vehicle solutions, is celebrating 75 years as an industry innovator, driving success for clients, the company, its team members and the industry. The dream of five men who auctioned off a handful of cars in 1945 from a single-lane location in Manheim, Pennsylvania launched a company that today offers 7 million used vehicles annually and facilitates transactions representing nearly $67 billion in value with the grit and determination of 17,000+ team members. Through its physical, mobile and digital sales network, Manheim offers services for inventory management, buying and selling, floor planning, logistics, assurance and reconditioning. Operating the largest vehicle wholesale marketplace, Manheim enables clients more efficient ways to connect and transact business how and when they want. Headquartered in Atlanta, Manheim is a Cox Automotive™ brand. For more information, visit http://press.manheim.com.

Only 50 state solution offering new features to help seamlessly transition from F&I office to back office

NORTH HILLS, N.Y., February 7, 2020 – Dealertrack announces the launch of key new enhancements to its out of state registration and titling solution, RegUSA®. This brings next-level simplicity, reliability, customization and automation to alleviate an often complex and confusing process.

As a growing number of car shoppers move online, dealers need a solution that lets them quickly process registration and title transactions without having to master the unique requirements and business rules of each state’s DMV. From January to September 2019, out-of-state registrations rose 16% year-over-year (from 4.7% of registrations to 5.3%).¹ With 51 unique DMVs jurisdictions, 100 distinct sets of taxes and fees, 250 unique forms and 300 possible registration and title transactions,² the back-end process of finalizing an out-of-state deal can quickly become a time-consuming and costly process for dealerships without the help of the right solution.

“The shift to online car sales has opened up a great opportunity for dealers to sell to a broader market, but the burdensome task of having to navigate unfamiliar registration and titling processes has prohibited many dealers from capitalizing on this growing market segment,” said Kait Gavin, vice president of Dealertrack Titling Solutions. “With the enhancements to RegUSA, Dealertrack is helping to eliminate the guess work that can come with finalizing an out-of-state sale by giving dealers an intuitive and interactive interface that guides them through the nuances and requirements of each unique deal.”

Dealertrack’s reformulated RegUSA solution now has five new and unique feature/functionality enhancements that reimagine the user interface of the system, offer built-in safeguards to help ensure accuracy and efficiency, and replace much of the manual process that can slow down the out-of-state registration and title workflow.

1. - Intuitive Interface: Asking for only the information required for a given transaction, the system adapts itself based on the customer, vehicle and transaction information entered. Once the information is collected, it is automatically repopulated where needed throughout the registration and title process, eliminating the need for duplicate data entry and helping to ensure accuracy.

1. - Deal Comparison Based on Detailed Insight of Taxes and Fees: The updated state-specific tax and fee engine that powers RegUSA eliminates the need to manually calculate sales tax for out-of-state deals and offers side-by-side comparisons for different deal scenarios down to the county, city and municipality.

1. - Customer-Specific Checklist: Once a car buyer’s information is input into the system, RegUSA will electronically provide dealers a specific, action-oriented task list customized for each unique deal, telling them what documents are needed, when original documents and wet signatures are required and if the documents need to be notarized. Connecting the F&I staff with key documents needed by the customer helps gain all deal details for more accurate and quick deal submission to the DMV.

1. - Professional Deal Audit and Scan Services: An analysis of documentation by professional staff at RegUSA helps ensure paperwork is correct and accurate, with the ability for dealers to scan and upload missing deal documents should action be needed to finalize deals, helping ensure each deal is complete to meet state requirements for compliance and deal finalization.

1. - Real-Time Deal Status Updates: Leveraging built-in safeguards, RegUSA provides real-time status updates to help prevent deal delays and enable dealers to act on necessary items without the need to go back and forth with the RegUSA office after a deal is submitted.

“Navigating the new Dealertrack RegUSA solution is easy and it provides the correct paperwork and material for more accurate deal completion from step one to submission,” said Lauren Knorr, DMV title clerk of Pine Belt Automotive in Toms River, New Jersey. “As we complete the transaction, all necessary information, forms and documents are automatically populated which reduces data entry and makes our jobs easier. Best of all, with the new enhancements to Dealertrack RegUSA, finance can create more accurate estimates, driving a better process for everyone in the back office who finalizes the deal.”

RegUSA will be available to demo at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) convention in Las Vegas on Feb. 14-17. For more information about Dealertrack and to schedule a demo at NADA 2020, visit https://us.dealertrack.com/, or visit us at the conference at Booth #2336C.

About Dealertrack

Dealertrack provides industry-leading software solutions that give dealerships, lenders, and partners the confidence to thrive in an ever-changing automotive market. The company’s integrated suite of powerful easy-to-use products and services helps dealerships and their lending partners grow by increasing efficiency and improving decision-making. Dealertrack is part of the Cox Automotive family, a company that is transforming the way the world buys, sells, owns and uses cars. Dealertrack—along with its unmatched network of dealership and lending partners—is improving the car buying experience by embracing the technologies that will shape the future of automotive retail. For more information about Dealertrack, visit www.dealertrack.com.

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. www.coxautoinc.com

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¹ Based on Cox Automotive derived analysis of IHS Markit new and used vehicle registration data as of Q3 2019 where a selling dealer was identified. Used registrations include selling dealer for 31 states.     

² Cox Automotive Internal Data.

*This article originally published on Dealer Marketing Magazine.

vAuto founder Dale Pollak recently told a group of dealers: “We’re not in the car business, we’re in the business of making money.”

And he’s right.

One of the biggest influencers on new car dealers’ profitability in 2019 has been the health of their new vehicle inventory. In the latest Haig report, it was highlighted that franchise dealer expenses are growing faster than grosses, with new car holding expenses identified as the primary culprit for this trend.

It’s hard to fathom that in 2015 (per NADA Dealership Financial Profile), the average dealer booked nearly $110,000 in floorplan profit and in 2019, floorplan will be a $93,000 hit to the bottom line. That’s a $203,000 swing in the wrong direction. Using NADA’s guideline that dealers make approximately 2% net profit on every $100 worth of sales, dealers will need to find an additional $11,000,000 in sales revenue to make up that net profit difference.

Most dealers I meet with don’t have many $11,000,000 ideas lying around, so increased attention to managing new vehicle inventories has become increasingly urgent.

One of the biggest challenges in monitoring this aspect of the dealership’s operation is that the industry lacks good inventory measurement targets or benchmarks. NADA’s Dealership Performance Benchmarks Guide provides ONE recommendation for new vehicle inventory control: maintain a 45-60 days’ supply.

It’s interesting that parts managers have more inventory performance benchmarks and spend a lot more time analyzing their $400,000 parts inventory than a new car manager does for his $8,000,000 new car inventory.

If “making more money” really is the name of the game, dealers will be wealthier and wiser by managing these two critically important new vehicle inventory metrics.

% Inventory Under 90 Days

Maintaining a high % of units under 90 days is vital for three reasons: 1. Mitigates exposure to rising holding costs, because in most cases the factory floorplan credit covers the first 90-120 days. 2. Dealers with fresh inventories are typically those with higher retail sales turn, which means more trades, more recon, more F&I and more floorplan profit! 3. Grosses are BETTER! In a recent analysis Dealertrack conducted with 400,000 sales transactions, retailed units with 0-30 days in stock had an average front-end gross (transaction price vs. invoice, not including F&I, factory bonus or doc fee) of -$230, while retailed units with an age of 90-120 days in stock were -$750 and units over 365 days were -$1,690!! I don’t think many dealers realize the extent to which they pay a holding cost premium for worse grosses!!

Performance Targets:

Domestic Stores               70% under 90 days

Import/Luxury Stores     80% under 90 days

Dealer Days’ Supply by Model/Trim:

Monitoring the relationship between your dealer days’ supply and the overall market days’ supply allows managers to quickly identify model lines and trims where their pricing strategy, mix or online merchandising is off.

Most OEMs only provide the individual dealer days’ supply with no comparison to the overall market. This would be like analyzing your stock portfolio performance without having the S&P as a benchmark.

The devil is usually in the details, and this is certainly the case when it comes to the enormous complexity of most model/trim/option/color combinations. The overall dealer days’ supply at the model line level might look fine, but when you drill deeper into the trim mix, that’s where you’ll often find the problems. I recently saw a dealer with a 45 days’ supply of 2020 Camrys, but a 223 days’ supply of red Camry LEs.

The sooner dealers become aware of issues like these red Camry LEs, the sooner they can begin taking corrective actions to reduce their exposure to holding costs. This granular vision of your inventory will also highlight stocking opportunities of combinations performing well in the market, which are not currently in your stock.

Making More Money with Better Inventory Control

Making money for franchise dealers has become a lot more challenging over the last eight years, as return on sales has fallen from 2.8% in 2011 to 2.3% this year (per NADA). The major underlying cost structures are not likely to improve – rent factors/mortgages are not becoming less expensive, attracting and retaining talented employees is not getting cheaper and advertisers are not looking to charge less.

New car inventory control remains one of the single biggest opportunities for dealers to root out unnecessary expenses and drive incremental sales.

Dealers who are managing their inventories with a high % of units under 90 days and monitoring the dealer days’ supply by model/trim will be well-positioned to improve the health of their new vehicle inventories and the health of their bottom lines. Remember, “We’re not in the car business, we’re in the business of making money.”

Brian Finkelmeyer is senior director of new car business at vAuto.

Mission, Kansas, February 5, 2020 – VinSolutions is introducing new personalization capabilities at NADA 2020 that will help dealers unlock data potential to help win customers and drive brand loyalty like never before. As technology adoption increases across industries and generations, consumers have developed a taste for personalization. The car buying journey is no exception, and with much of it being spent online, dealers are presented with an opportunity to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to make valuable connections through a personalized experience. At NADA, VinSolutions will debut its Automated Offer capabilities and showcase new enhancements to Connect Automotive Intelligence, including a robust manager dashboard and a preview of upcoming Customer Enrichment features.

“Our research continues to show customers expect their dealer to have an understanding of their needs well before entering the dealership,” says Lori Wittman, senior vice president of Dealer Software Solutions at Cox Automotive. “By taking advantage of AI and automation for personalization, dealers can create an early and lasting advantage over their competition by recommending inventory and options that improve the car shopping experience.”

Connect Automotive Intelligence Buying Signals are now easier to work into the CRM workflow.  Salespeople and managers can more quickly create new sales opportunities based on the AI predictions and put those leads into their normal and custom follow-up processes. Additionally, the enhanced manager dashboard in Connect Automotive Intelligence helps create more senior level visibility of customer buying signals and the customer journey to improve employee engagement and sales opportunities. The enhanced benefits of this product include:

- Higher Customer Awareness is just clicks away with buying signals generated by a combination of Cox Automotive in-store and online data that can help determine how ready a customer is to buy as well as predict information like price range, preferred make, model and body style.

- Shorter Sales Cycles are created thanks to the power of machine learning and AI, which can help dealers anticipate customer questions and concerns to more effectively sell to a customer through personalization.

- Actionable Insights and data mining opportunities are more easily identifiable from a single view display for managers.

- Attribution for AI opportunities is more visible with side-by-side comparisons of close ratios and profit between AI leads and non-AI leads.

In addition to the manager dashboard, Connect Automotive Intelligence is offering demos of its upcoming Customer Intelligence functionality at NADA which further personalizes the customer experience and maximizes deal-making. Customer Intelligence connects shoppers with the right inventory for them by integrating data from thousands of different data sources such as public information and specialty data providers.

- Precise Vehicle Matching powered by demographic and psychographic data, the tool analyzes lifestyle indicators that correlate with vehicle preferences to help salespeople recommend highly relevant inventory.

- Meaningful Upsell Opportunities can be better identified and executed thanks to a more acute awareness of customer lifestyle and vehicle needs.

- Potentially Close Deals Faster with more specific data about customer financials, attitude and lifestyle.

Moreover, at NADA dealers will be able to demo Automated Offers predicted by customer data that can drastically reduce the time it takes to manually create multiple offers per segment. This capability also helps dealers meet the customer expectation that an offer will realistically meet their needs, making it even more likely a deal will close.

“VinSolutions Connect CRM combined with Connect Automotive Intelligence helps us make our customers' experience better and more memorable,” said Scott Risley, Digital Marketing Manager, Mohawk Honda. “You can put the pieces of the puzzle together in a way that a salesperson, manager and BDC rep can all look at without needing to know how to use a specific tool. It is all right there in layman's terms.”

The 2020 NADA Show will be held Feb. 14-17, 2020 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV. To learn more about these new enhancements, visit VinSolutions at the 2020 NADA Convention and Expo, booth #2837C.

About VinSolutions

As the provider of Connect CRM, a leading dealership customer relationship management system, VinSolutions helps more than 5,000 dealers make every connection count. VinSolutions products integrate dealership systems, processes and tools to deliver a single view of the customer across the business – so dealers can focus on building relationships throughout the sales cycle. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Mission, Kansas, VinSolutions fosters dealership success by providing a fully customizable suite of solutions, including equity mining, market pricing and desking tools, combined with the continuous, personal support of a designated Performance Manager. VinSolutions is OEM certified by every major manufacturer and is Autosoft, CDK, Reynolds & Reynolds and Dealertrack DMS certified. VinSolutions is a Cox Automotive™ brand. www.vinsolutions.com

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. www.coxautoinc.com.

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New integrations give dealers the connectivity and efficiency necessary to optimize operations

Draper, UT – January 31, 2020 – Dealertrack DMS, a leading provider of cloud-based technology solutions for car dealerships, will unveil a series of new, fully integrated and user-friendly technology solutions and services at the upcoming National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) convention in Las Vegas on Feb. 14-17.

As thousands of dealers assemble for the show, they each share a common goal – to gain new perspectives for cutting complexity across their business and learn about best practices in creating operational excellence to win at retail – and Dealertrack DMS is delivering an answer. Building on its longstanding commitment to put dealers at the center of every business decision and innovation, Dealertrack DMS’ new solutions have been crafted to streamline and centralize some of the most vital and time-intensive aspects of a dealership’s day-to-day operation, from payroll and human resources (HR) to reporting and managed network services.

“While dealers today have access to more information and technology than ever before, the need to toggle between multiple, stand-alone solutions has made obtaining the insight they need to manage and grow their business a significant challenge,” said Mandi Fang, vice president and general manager of Dealertrack DMS. “By bringing more capabilities and processes under one ‘roof,’ Dealertrack DMS gives dealers the integration and simplicity they need to turn data into a competitive advantage in today’s ever-changing automotive retail environment.”

Helping provide dealers with the information and processes paramount to competing today, Dealertrack DMS enhancements include:

- DMS Critical Analytics: As the amount of data across software tools continues to increase, managing a dealership is only becoming more challenging and competitive. However, dealership reporting tools, instead of helping, have often created a bigger burden for dealers, requiring significant time, money and customization to implement and maintain on a daily basis. To address these pain points, Dealertrack DMS is slated to feature a brand-new reporting solution at NADA this year – Critical Analytics.

Eliminating unnecessary complexity and custom report building, the flexible, performance-based tool is integrated directly into Dealertrack DMS and helps managers stay focused on the data that is most important to their position.

With detailed dashboards and reporting modules organized by dealership position and department, dealers can easily filter and group information, track progress against prior-year performance, and prioritize activities that drive the most valuable KPI’s. Additionally, dealers can now automate general ledger account mapping and report information across multiple departments and stores, erasing the need to manually aggregate data through spreadsheets or leverage an additional third-party provider.

- Integrated Payroll and HR Solution: Dealertrack DMS and Hireology are joining forces through an exclusive new partnership to bring dealers a new payroll and HR solution unlike any other in the market today. The new platform, powered by Netchex, is fully integrated with Dealertrack DMS, and enables dealers to streamline their payroll processing, while also now managing all of their HR functions, from employee paid time off to benefits administration and talent management, in one place.

While processing payroll has traditionally been handled through the DMS, dealers have often been required to manage all other HR functions either manually or through separate, non-integrated solutions, resulting in redundant and inefficient processes that can cost time and money and frustrate staff.  As employee turnover continues to be a significant pain point for dealerships – 20% of dealership staff are likely to look for another job in the next six months, according to Cox Automotive’s 2019 Dealership Staffing Study – having one integrated HR system of record will be critical to solving for the extraneous and error-prone processes that have been holding dealers back and taking attention away from engaging the people who make the business run every day.

- Dealertrack DMS Managed Network Services Powered by Proton: It is essential in today’s business world that dealers have a fast and reliable network setup that is both secure and robust enough to handle the substantial technology demands of a dealership, including the DMS. Dealertrack DMS Managed Network Services powered by Proton provides dealers with unlimited 24/7 access to support and expertise in complex IT solutions and cyber security with all the capabilities of an in-house IT department at a fraction of the cost.

For more information about Dealertrack DMS and to schedule a demo at NADA 2020, visit DMSDealertrack.com/DTDMS or visit us at the conference at Booth #2336C.

About Dealertrack

Dealertrack provides industry-leading software solutions that give dealerships, lenders, and partners the confidence to thrive in an ever-changing automotive market. The company’s integrated suite of powerful easy-to-use products and services helps dealerships and their lending partners grow by increasing efficiency and improving decision-making. Dealertrack is part of the Cox Automotive family, a company that is transforming the way the world buys, sells, owns and uses cars. Dealertrack—along with its unmatched network of dealership and lending partners—is improving the car buying experience by embracing the technologies that will shape the future of automotive retail. For more information about Dealertrack, visit www.dealertrack.com.

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. www.coxautoinc.com

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Industry-leading solution powered by Netchex with superior functionality and end-to-end integration addresses dealers' hiring, payroll and compliance pain points

CHICAGO and DRAPER, Utah, Jan. 23, 2020 -- Hireology, the leading recruitment CRM for multi-location, decentralized enterprises, and Dealertrack, the leading provider of integrated dealership technologies, announced a new partnership that provides automotive dealers a fully-featured, integrated payroll and human resource solution.

The exclusive partnership will help mitigate the redundant, and error prone processes that often come when dealers use multiple disconnected and stand-alone solutions that, over time, create frustration and inefficiency for auto dealership staff.

"As dealers face more challenges to finding top talent, it will be even more important to have technology in place to keep new employees engaged and serve as one central point of record for their journey throughout the company," said Adam Robinson, CEO of Hireology. "By partnering with Dealertrack, Hireology furthers our commitment to making the day-to-day hiring, payroll and HR administration processes for auto dealers more streamlined and accurate, while also making more time for HR staff to focus on what matters the most—their people."

Key features of the systems integration include:

- Automatic transfer of new hire data, kicking off onboarding and payroll processes

- Management of paid time off requests and accruals, performance reviews, job summaries and more, eliminating the need to track these manually or in separate systems

- One payroll system of record for all HR information and real-time automatic posting to the DMS General Ledger

- Sales commissions, tech time and employee receivables integration

"Together, Hireology and Dealertrack DMS combine all a dealer's HR needs including hiring, time and attendance, payroll processing and reporting, benefits administration, and talent management into one platform," added Mandi Fang, vice president and general manager of Dealertrack DMS. "The integrated solution is easy to implement and significantly reduces the ongoing administrative effort of managing multiple third-party providers."

Hireology and Dealertrack will preview the integrated payroll solution powered by Netchex at NADA 2020, in Las Vegas, February 14-17, 2020.

About Dealertrack

Dealertrack is the leading provider of integrated dealership technologies. From best-in-class Sales and F&I software that improves the customer experience to a Dealer Management System that boosts employee productivity, Dealertrack is committed to the growth and success of your business. Our products empower dealerships to make better choices about how to run their businesses and promote better customer vision, giving dealerships a cross-product view of each customer. With more freedom and better vision, our dealerships can provide a better buying, borrowing, and service experience within a changing automotive world. For more information, visit us.dealertrack.com.

About Hireology

Hireology's recruitment CRM empowers multi-location, decentralized enterprises and independently owned businesses to build their best teams with confidence. The company equips HR and business leaders with the skills and technology needed to manage the full employee lifecycle – from hire to retire – in one seamless platform. With focused expertise across several industries – including retail automotive, healthcare and professional and consumer services – more than 7,500 businesses today trust Hireology to help build great teams, lift customer service and drive profitability. For more information, visit www.hireology.com.

New data sharing capabilities drive reliability from start to finish for deals worked between Dealertrack Registration and Title Solutions and CDK Global Drive DMS

NORTH HILLS, N.Y., Dec. 16, 2019 -- To help increase dealership time savings and improve customer satisfaction, Dealertrack Registration and Title Solutions today announced it has become a participant in the CDK Global Partner Program, the largest third-party marketplace of automotive applications and integrations.

This integration will provide dealers with data sharing capabilities between their Dealertrack in-state and out-of-state solutions and the CDK Drive DMS. As a result, dealers can now seamlessly push the deal from the CDK Drive DMS into their Dealertrack Registration and Title Solutions and back into the DMS when a deal is complete, helping reduce data discrepancies between dealer systems and improving operational efficiency in the sale and F&I process.

By simplifying the deal finalization process through this improved data workflow, this integration now mitigates the need for double data entry by automatically populating the DMS, addressing informational gaps caused by conflicting data between systems and policy variance by state.

"At Dealertrack, we are continuously seeking innovative solutions that ease the registration and titling process for our dealers," said Kaitlin Gavin, vice president and general manager of Dealertrack Registration and Title Solutions. "Joining the CDK Partner Program furthers our commitment to ensuring dealers are equipped with the most accurate information for deal completion, which in turn reduces surprise costs at the end of the deal."

The 2019 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey Study found less than half of consumers were satisfied with how long the purchase process took at the dealership, noting car buyers spend nearly three hours on average in-store.1 Dealers can now leverage information directly from the DMS during the registration and title stage of the deal process, creating a more efficient workflow and elevating the experience for their customers.

"We're excited to introduce Dealertrack Registration and Title Solutions to the CDK Partner Program," said Howard Gardner, vice president, Data Services at CDK. "They are a welcome addition to our vibrant program, which provides dealers with a range of choices and the assurance that their programs will be seamlessly integrated with our applications."

For more information about this integration, visit go.dealertrack.com/rts.

About Dealertrack
Dealertrack provides industry-leading software solutions that give dealerships, lenders, and partners the confidence to thrive in an ever-changing automotive market. The company's integrated suite of powerful easy-to-use products and services helps dealerships and their lending partners grow by increasing efficiency and improving decision-making. Dealertrack is part of the Cox Automotive family, a company that is transforming the way the world buys, sells, owns and uses cars. Dealertrack—along with its unmatched network of dealership and lending partners—is improving the car buying experience by embracing the technologies that will shape the future of automotive retail. For more information about Dealertrack, visit www.dealertrack.com.

About the CDK Global Partner Program
The CDK Partner Program now numbers more than 500 partner companies and 840 unique applications auto dealers can use to run their businesses. As part of the CDK ecosystem, the CDK Partner Program provides data and workflow integration to a wide range of third parties, OEMs and dealers. For a full list of partners and applications available through the program, visit cdkglobal.com/us/partners-list.

About CDK Global, Inc.
With $2 billion in revenues, CDK Global (Nasdaq: CDK) is a leading global provider of integrated information technology solutions to the automotive retail and adjacent industries. Focused on enabling end-to-end automotive commerce, CDK Global provides solutions to dealers in more than 100 countries around the world, serving approximately 30,000 retail locations and most automotive manufacturers. CDK solutions automate and integrate all parts of the dealership and buying process, including the acquisition, sale, financing, insuring, parts supply, repair and maintenance of vehicles. Visit cdkglobal.com.

1 Cox Automotive, Car Buyer Journey Study, 2019.