Burlington, VT, August 13, 2019 – Dealer.com was honored to host Vermont Governor Phil Scott and Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger at a barbecue lunch at the company’s headquarters on Monday, August 12, 2019. In a gesture of appreciation for employee contributions to the Burlington community, the state of Vermont and Dealer.com company executives were joined by the governor and mayor engaging in a celebratory afternoon of entertainment and conversation.

Since its founding, Dealer.com has committed to be a good corporate citizen in Vermont. In the past six years, Dealer.com has volunteered more than 33,500 hours and raised more than $1.2 million through donations for the Burlington community. To further its culture of innovation, Dealer.compartners with local changemaking organizations through grantmaking, event sponsorships and employee volunteer programs. Other initiatives include hosting fundraisers, participating in panels and tours for student groups, donating vehicles to nonprofit organizations and collecting 550 pounds of food for local food banks.

“Our commitment to the local Burlington community is an integral part of the culture at Dealer.com,” said Wayne Pastore, general manager of Dealer.com. “Hosting the governor and mayor at our headquarters is an exciting opportunity to thank all employees for how they regularly take part in our various volunteer initiatives. We are looking forward to continuing our work in Burlington and the surrounding communities.”

Dealer.com has been recognized as a top ten largest employer in Vermont, Best Places to Work in Vermont, Excellence in Worksite Wellness and Top 10 Businesses Partnering with the Arts in America. In addition to being grateful for these recognitions and our employees’ efforts in the community, Dealer.com is proud of its GOLD LEED-certification Burlington headquarters, green purchasing, on-site recycling and composting programs, fitness and mindfulness training, CCTA Mass Transit Bus Pass benefit, solar panel rooftop and café that sources food from over 35 local farms.

Dealers taking advantage of NextGear Capital’s Self Reconciliation tool are clearing their audits faster than ever while benefitting from a better client experience. This new method significantly shortened the auditing process for dealers from three to five hours, to less than 10 minutes. After only six months, more than 60 percent of clients have utilized Self Reconciliation to manage their floor planned inventory’s auditing. 

“Prior to Self Reconciliation, the auditing process was one of the biggest points of frustration for NextGear Capital’s dealer clients, said Angie Provo, Senior Director of Marketing at NextGear Capital. “The quick adoption rate of this tool demonstrates NextGear Capital’s commitment to delivering new technology and services that ultimately facilitate a better client experience.”

Available inside of NextGear Capital’s Account Portal, Self Reconciliation clears units in real time, provides access to a historical database of previously reconciled units and allows dealers to pay off inventory, all through their mobile device. Additionally, dealership principal owners can now delegate the auditing process without having to share their Account Portal login credentials.

“The frustrating process of clearing audits using a Word of the Day method is now a thing of the past,” said Monique Belgrave, owner, Consumer First Auto Group. “Self Reconciliation means no guess work for my business. Audits are now instantly cleared and managed at a time convenient for me.”

NextGear Capital was determined to create a solution that empowered dealers to save time on their audits while allowing them to focus more on the tasks that drive profitability for their business. Self Reconciliation is that tool.

For more information about Self Reconciliation, visit www.nextgearcapital.com/Self Reconciliation/.

About NextGear Capital
NextGear Capital is the largest independent inventory finance company in North America, providing flexible lines of credit for auto dealers to buy used vehicles from over 1,000 auto and other vehicle sources throughout North America. With a client base of more than 20,000 dealers, NextGear Capital provides comprehensive services and support enabling dealers to buy and sell more inventory through self-service management tools, title services, records management and collateral protection. Headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, NextGear Capital is a Cox Automotive brand. For more information, visit nextgearcapital.com.

IRVINE, Calif., July 25, 2019  -- Kelley Blue Book was honored with the St. Jude Children's Hospital Partner Campaign of the Year Award for its 2018 "Turn Your Car into Good Karma" partnership with Charitable Adult Rides & Services (CARS).

Throughout the campaign—July 2018 through September 2018—Kelley Blue Book received 1,067 vehicle donations across 257 nonprofit organizations. Of the total, 406 were St. Jude's vehicle donations, raising more than $180,000 ahead of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in September. This included Kelley Blue Book's pledge of an additional $25,000 to support life-saving research and treatments.

"We are humbled to be recognized by a great cause like St. Jude Children's Hospital," said Colin MacGillivray, vice president and general manager of Kelley Blue Book. "A donor's vehicle contribution helps make a real difference to families who rely on St. Jude's support in their time of need. We are proud to have raised both awareness and funds for the cause, and we are looking forward to continuing this longstanding partnership."

Through Charitable Adult Rides & Services (CARS), a full-service non-profit organization, consumers can donate any vehicle on KBB.com. For car owners with an automobile they consider past its prime and interested in contributing to a charitable cause, CARS offers an alternative and charitable means to dispose of their vehicles. Since the donation feature on KBB.com launched in April 2018, nearly 3,000 cars have been donated to more than 600 different nonprofits—raising more than $1 million to various nonprofits chosen by the owner.

Donating a vehicle to a charity offers tax benefits while supporting a good cause. The donation may be a deductible item—as opposed to a tax credit—on car owners filing next year for the current calendar period. There are many benefits to donating, and with free pick-up, it's especially worthwhile if the car is worth $1,000 or less. From July 2019 – September 2019 Kelley Blue Book will pledge an incremental $100 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for each model, up to 250 vehicles, donated through Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in September1.

To learn more, visit KBB.com/donate-your-car. To make a monetary donation to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, visit StJude.org/donatecox.

For more information and news from Kelley Blue Book's KBB.com, visit www.kbb.com/media/, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kelleybluebook (or @kelleybluebook), like our page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kbb, and follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kbb_com/ (or @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 BookSMInstant 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 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

1 Up to $25,000

ATLANTA, July 23, 2019 – As employee turnover across the U.S. reaches new heights and competition for talent redefines the workforce, dealerships find themselves at the epicenter of the struggle to attract and retain skilled workers. Fortunately, the Cox Automotive 2019 Dealership Staffing Study reveals an optimistic forecast with younger generation showing a greater interest in dealership jobs than older generations.

According to the latest study, approximately 20% of all dealership staff are likely to look for another job in the next six months, with one-third of non-management employees feeling neutral or unsatisfied with their jobs. These figures indicate high-risk potential for dealerships to lose a portion of their sales staff, which has an estimated 80% turnover rate, yet remains the group most likely to influence car buyer satisfaction, according to the Cox Automotive 2019 Car Buyer Journey Study.

“The good news is that dealerships have an opportunity to reverse this trend,” said Isabelle Helms, vice president, research and market intelligence, Cox Automotive. “A new generation is entering the workforce and bringing with them a renewed interest in working at a dealership. To attract and retain employees in this highly competitive job market, dealerships should understand which benefits and cultural attributes employees value most and take action to effect positive changes within their store.”

Among Gen Z and Young Millennials, more than 30% are interested in working for a dealership, even higher when roles other than sales are presented to them, according to the study. This interest is nearly 10 percentage points higher than interest shown by Older Millennials and Gen X.

With approximately 61 million members of Gen Z starting to enter the U.S. workforce, dealerships have a chance to build a culture that attracts and retains this younger, tech-savvy talent. However, if they want to win over this next generation, dealerships must address significant gaps in today’s auto retail workplace culture, according to the 2019 Dealership Staffing Study.

• - Dealership employee engagement is fading with one-third of dealership staff employees saying that they are not engaged nor excited about their jobs.

• - Only half of non-management employees say their manager meets with them regularly to set goals that stretch their capabilities and grow their skills.

• - The absence of work/life balance can lead to staff turnover with 40% of former dealership staff saying they left due to a work/life balance-related issue.

• - A mere 39% of dealership staff believe their dealership is using the latest technology.

“Dealers can’t afford to take their eyes off their employees’ needs,” said Bob Kostkan, senior director with Cox Automotive University. “With record high dealership turnover and a low unemployment rate of 3.7% as of June 2019, it’s critical that dealership leaders improve productivity while also enhancing employee engagement and retention. These are controllable issues that must be addressed to maximize customer experience and profitability.”

Dealerships need to act now to create a culture that makes employees feel valued and shows them they have future growth opportunities. While participating in the Cox Automotive SHIFT/Reinvent Program in 2015, John Cragg, executive vice president for the Penske Automotive Group’s East Region and responsible for dozens of rooftops and thousands of employees, became aware of a blind spot — he was “delegating” when he should have been “empowering.” As a result of this new awareness, he worked strategically with his HR and marketing teams to shift the focus to be more about empowering people and giving them opportunities to contribute in more significant ways. Cragg has since seen consistent year-over-year improvement in employee turnover and satisfaction. His region now has the highest employee satisfaction scores in the company and the lowest turnover — outpacing industry averages, even for the highest performers.

In addition to empowering and engaging staff, dealerships should also invest in modern, user-friendly technology to help drive greater productivity and efficiency for employees. Having access to the latest technology is not only expected by these younger generations but required to succeed as a business in today’s digital age. To get the most out of technology, dealerships must also implement ongoing training opportunities. Equipping employees with the necessary tools to help them grow their skillsets and better take advantage of new technology will create happier workers and a more optimized workflow.

Download highlights from the Cox Automotive’s 2019 Dealership Staffing Study. Find out more about Cox Automotive University.

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 countries 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

Emergency response vehicle to be donated to dealer’s local American Red Cross chapter

LAS VEGAS – Otto Hahne of City of Cars, Inc. in Troy, Michigan, was recognized on June 20th with the 2019 National Quality Dealer award at the 73rd Annual National Independent Automobile Dealers Association’s (NIADA) Convention and Expo. In recognition of this award, NextGear Capital and Cox Automotive will donate an emergency response vehicle to Hahne’s local American Red Cross chapter. 

This will be the ninth emergency vehicle donated to the American Red Cross through Cox Automotive. Since 2015, the company has donated more than $1 million to the American Red Cross to support disaster relief. The vehicle will be transported to the winner’s dealership where it will officially be donated to its local American Red Cross chapter.

“Otto and his team live out not only what it means to be a National Quality Dealer each and every day, but practice the very values NextGear Capital and Cox Automotive operate by,” said Randy Dohse, senior vice president of operations for NextGear Capital. “He embodies all that it means to be committed to quality, excellence, outstanding customer service and to making the community a better place for everyone. I could not be more pleased with this year’s recipient.”

Each year, the American Red Cross responds to nearly 64,000 disasters around the country— from home fires and tornadoes to severe winter weather, hurricanes and floods. Members of the Disaster Responder Program, like Cox Automotive, invest in disaster relief readiness to ensure supplies, shelters and emergency vehicles are ready to respond when disaster strikes.

The National Quality Dealer award is the highest honor bestowed upon an independent dealer in recognition of their business standards and community service. A single dealer from each state is recognized, and from that pool of dealers, one is selected as the National Quality Dealer by a committee of industry leaders.

About NextGear Capital
NextGear Capital is the largest independent inventory finance company in North America, providing flexible lines of credit for auto dealers to buy used vehicles from over 1,000 auto and other vehicle sources throughout North America. With a client base of more than 20,000 dealers, NextGear Capital provides comprehensive services and support enabling dealers to buy and sell more inventory through self-service management tools, title services, records management and collateral protection. Headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, NextGear Capital is a Cox Automotive brand. For more information, visit nextgearcapital.com.

About Cox Automotive
Cox Automotive Inc. makes buying, selling and owning cars easier for everyone. The global company’s 34,000-plus team members and family of brands, including Autotrader®, 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. For more information, visit coxautoinc.com.

Company’s integrated suite of market data now available to all dealers using Stockwave

Oakbrook Terrace, IL. – June 12, 2019 – vAuto is helping more dealerships take advantage of today’s changing automotive retail landscape — characterized by a marked shift in consumer demand away from new and toward used vehicles — by expanding its proprietary suite of market data to all Stockwave users with the introduction of vAuto’s Live Market View and Autotrader’s Scarcity Index.

Stockwave is a vAuto solution that helps dealers effectively and efficiently find and purchase vehicles from top wholesale sources all through a single platform. Through this expansion, Stockwave users — both independent and franchise — will gain access to valuable market data from vAuto and Autotrader to help them make more confident and informed used-vehicle purchase decisions. 

While rising affordability concerns are causing new-vehicle sales volume to taper, the used-vehicle market continues to hold strong. In fact, dealerships may need to be more concerned about supply than demand. To date, wholesale market growth and supply has largely been driven by off-lease vehicles. However, Cox Automotive calculations suggest off-lease volume will peak in 2019, indicating supply moving forward could become a major headwind for the used-vehicle market rather than demand itself.

Both independent and franchise dealers are starting to take notice, with approximately 33 percent of all dealers saying limited inventory is holding back their dealership, according to the Cox Automotive Dealer Sentiment Index for the second quarter of 2019. That’s an increase of 4 percentage points from last quarter.

“With the number of off-lease units at a peak and fewer consumers as a whole trading in their vehicles, the data and insights dealers have at their fingertips are more important than ever to ensure they are buying and selling the right inventory at the right time for the right price,” said Patrick Janes, business development director for Stockwave at vAuto. “As supply changes, so must dealer inventory strategies. By introducing Stockwave Market Data, both independent and franchise dealers will be better equipped with information to acquire the inventory they need and capitalize on rising demand.”

Previously only available to Stockwave dealers with vAuto Provision, all standalone Stockwave dealerships will now also have open access to the following four key metrics right in the platform:

1. Autotrader Scarcity Index: Gives dealers an understanding of online search demand for a car relative to the number available in a given market area.
2. vAuto rBook Market Days Supply: Lets dealers know at a glance whether a vehicle is likely to sell fast, given competing cars in the market and recent sales. 
3. vAuto rBook Adjusted Market Average Price: Uses proprietary technology to indicate what a vehicle’s real market average pricing is with inventory mileage from competitors factored in.
4. vAuto rBook Market Average Odometer: Specifies the average mileage of retail vehicles in a dealer’s given market.

“Having the Scarcity Index and Market Days Supply inside Stockwave will help my team save hours of scanning through search results to find the right cars,” said Craig White, pre-owned director at Ourisman Lexus of Rockville. “What we used to track through static spreadsheets is now all in one dashboard and available at a quick glance, enabling my team to make split-second decisions on vehicles that weren’t even on our original buy list. We are now nimbler, able to monitor multiple auctions at once and effectively growing our used-vehicle volume to meet rising demand.”

For more information on Stockwave, visit www.vauto.com/stockwavedata.

Above 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 incorporated Cox Automotive’s HomeNet unit into its organization and launched 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

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Will forgive one dealer loan for every business day in June

Carmel, Ind., June 4, 2019 — Throughout the month of June, NextGear Capital will be thanking dealers across the country for their partnership by forgiving 20 loans and surprising four clients with customized golf carts. These efforts are aimed at recognizing the company’s independent dealer client-base for their continued partnership and contributions to the industry.

“At NextGear Capital, we are committed to investing in independent dealers. We truly believe that our client’s success is our success and appreciate the trust that so many of them place in us,” Shane O’Dell, president of NextGear Capital stated. “And although I’d like to think we celebrate our partnership all year long, we’re always particularly excited when June rolls around.”

As the largest independent inventory finance company in North America, NextGear Capital provides services and support to more than 20,000 dealers. Accompanying the month-long celebration by NextGear Capital will be a social media campaign focused on reinforcing the thank you messaging through shared reactions of those selected for loan forgiveness and golf carts.

NextGear Capital Thank You Month was established in June of 2018 when the company dedicated an entire month solely to thanking their independent dealer clients. Transitioning from prizes such as Apple TVs, Xbox gaming consoles and Amazon Fire Sticks, NextGear Capital will be focused solely on loan forgiveness in 2019 as the ultimate way to show its appreciation for dealers.

For more information plus terms and conditions for NextGear Capital Thank You Month, please visit nextgearcapital.com/thankyou  

After what has been a long, snowy winter for many across the country, spring is finally here! That means it is time for an annual dose of spring cleaning. Spring cleaning isn’t just for the storage shelves in your garage and that closet of random items, though. Most dealership CRMs could use a good spring cleaning too.

For a CRM to do your dealership any good, your team has to actually use it. Just like the miscellaneous pile of poorly-writing promotional ink pens and out-of-date pizza menus keep you from getting to the one thing you actually need in the junk drawer, the clutter that can build up in your CRM can keep you from being able to properly use the tool.

Your dealership and your customers are always changing, so the way you use your CRM should always be evolving too. There are three key areas in your CRM that could probably use a good spring cleaning: your data, your processes and your training.

Your Data
In conversations about CRMs, you’ve likely heard the phrase, “Garbage in, garbage out.” It is said often for a reason; it’s true, and it’s important. Keeping your data tidy is critical to CRM success, and the cost of failing to keep your data clean is high.

Bad data costs quickly add up. First, there are the opportunity costs. With missing or inaccurate data, such as a wrong phone number, you miss out on sales opportunities. Second, there are the wasted marketing costs. Sending customers promotions in the mail can be a valuable marketing tool – but only if you keep their physical addresses updated. If customers’ addresses aren’t up-to-date, you might as well be tossing dollar bills out the window. Finally, there are the lost productivity costs. If your salespeople are directing half of their follow-up to incorrect email addresses and phone numbers, half of their time is wasted.

Even the most stringent of CRM users likely accumulate some garbage data over a year’s time, so take stock of what you have and clean up what’s not right.

Your Processes
Your CRM should work for you, not the other way around. Take the time to ask yourself if your current CRM gives you the flexibility to customize processes to best fit your needs.  

There is some trial and error involved with getting processes right, so do some spring cleaning of every process you have built in your CRM. You may find that you don’t need some of the processes you currently have, or that there are big gaps that you need to build new processes to fill.

Start your process spring cleaning by looking at overdue tasks. Too many overdue tasks often indicate that your processes are overly complicated or unrealistic. On the flip side, if you do not have any overdue tasks, your processes are probably not complex or thorough enough.

Your Training Programs
I see many dealerships begin and end their CRM training with new hire onboarding. Training new hires is critical to CRM success, but new hire training alone isn’t enough. To keep utilization high, CRM training must be ongoing. High CRM utilization means high ROI, so it is worth cleaning up your training programs this spring.

To begin your training clean up, think about common problem areas in your dealership. Could the root cause of any of those problems be solved with training? For many dealerships, key CRM issues are caused by poor utilization, not the tool itself.

A good CRM is always changing, and people are forgetful, so it is critical to work regular training into your staff’s responsibilities. Be realistic about it, though, and start small. If you only have training once a quarter currently, try shooting for once a month.

It’s also important to take advantage of the training resources you have at your disposal through your CRM provider, such as online training sessions, in-person conferences and performance managers. The dealers that are most successful with their CRM are the ones who take advantage of all of this training and take it seriously.

This spring, give your CRM a good spring cleaning, and start seeing even greater success.

Mark Vickery is senior director of performance management for VinSolutions.