An auto dealership’s reconditioning function helps or hurts the used car department.

Recon is not just a process through which trade-ins and auction vehicles get new brakes and tires and dings repaired. Recon, at its best, is a cross-store profitability tool for auto dealer groups.

This cross-store tool gives corporate-level store managers in one report the level of reconditioning efficiency, time-to-line (T2L) speed, and other vital metrics for managing the individual store and group-wide recon profitability.

As the industry continues to consolidate and produce new competition like Carvana and Shift, it has become critically important from a used-car profitability perspective that groups manage individual store recon process performance, store-to-store, and at the group level.

The goal is to use this insight to mitigate risk and transform the profitably of all group used car departments’ profitability.

From helicopter to sidewalk level, group reporting provides oversight of such Key Performance Indicators as:

Location of every car in the group’s possession

Place and position of those cars within the recon process on their way to sale-ready status

Number of vehicles having safety recalls and whether in recon or already on the lot

Per vehicle parts and labor costs – and whether applied as internal or retail costs

• T2L run rate, from acquisition to sale-ready status
•  

Average recon cost per vehicle, by store and group

Sublet status – vehicles released to sublets, status, due date

Progress to T2L goal, with two to three days the target; Non-automated recon cycle rates quickly balloon to 10 to 21 days.

• Holding costs, in near-real time

​​​​​​​Total recon cost at current T2L and cost savings as T2L is improved

Attempts at tracking recon workflow and some of the above metrics using whiteboards, Google Docs or Sticky Notes has proven wasteful, positively not helpful for transforming recon into a profit center of the dealership and its group.

Many dealers instead have embrace reconditioning automation and its accurate and real-time recon management and accountability.

The point is money

David Simches is group used car director for Crown Automotive Group. He oversees Florida operations. He reported that by using recon automation and its group reporting tools, his stores’ T2L dropped from an average 12 days to a 4.6-day group average. Among other gains for the business, reducing T2L by nearly 7.5 days means his stores added at least one additional inventory turn a year.

He said the reports help him inform his GMs and corporate executives precisely how well their recon operations – and as a result, their used car departments – are performing.

“I try to make these group and store reports effective tools for change because GMs are good at making the numbers look good to corporate, but the group-level report tells them what’s happening and how fast stores within the group are moving inventory from acquisition to sale-ready. With that, our sales are up, our aging is down, and our wholesale ratios are in check – this is all good stuff that is supposed to happen when cars get sale-ready faster,” Simches said.

General managers, fixed ops directors, and used car managers tell me that lacking automation to account for recon-related events most T2L estimates are guesswork. They were speechless; they said when they realized that accurate T2L measurement showed their shops’ were taking from 10 to 21 days to get cars to the sales lot.

Dealers cannot operate a profitable used car department when inventory is already aging out before it hits the sales lot (or even online). When inefficient recon consumes 10 days of a premium 21-day margin window to get cars ready to sell, holding cost and market depreciation has burned up any potential profit left in those cars.

On the other hand, highly efficient recon operations will complete all recon steps within three to five days of their acquisition from trade or auction. A three-to-five-day T2L keeps cars’ premium retail window open longer. The margin on fresh cars is always stronger than on those for which repricing is needed every few days to get them sold.

In other words, how does a group, whether it comprises three stores or 300, manage its many recon operations so T2L is low in every store and thus inventory hits sale-ready status having cars still so fresh the sales team circles like sharks.

Science applied

Years ago, Dennis McGinn was an entrepreneurial-minded and earnest young fellow working for Hewlett-Packard, part of a team learning and using quality disciplines known as Six Sigma and Continuous Process Improvement to build efficiency and accountability into enterprise resource systems for major automotive OEMs.

In 2010, he founded the reconditioning workflow software company Rapid Recon, for which he is chief executive officer. This software brings continuous process improvement disciplines to one of the most neglected and undervalued activities of the modern auto dealership.

“We know from our work with hundreds of dealer groups - from small group operators to the major public groups – who, having adopted group-level recon practices, report more profitable used-car departments,” McGinn said.

One example is Larry H. Miller Automotive. Rod Rowley is senior vice president responsible for nine franchise and five used car operations in Utah, plus group-wide used car operations. “Group reporting enables me to look at all my stores in one view, which makes it clear to us clear who needs help in their recon processes,” Rowley said.

These group-level metrics extracted recently from three dealer groups’ group-level reports (none from dealers interviewed for this article) show how a focus on cross-store recon can drive better results.

The annual savings for each group shown in this table originate from multiple gains:

• * Overall savings in time, labor and materials accumulating from improved recon efficiencies the elimination of such T2L killers as lost, misplaced or neglected on dealership lots or at sublets.

• * Faster T2L translating into reduced holding costs; NCM Associates calculates the average daily per vehicle holding cost at $40, which accrues from vehicle acquisition to its sale. For clarification, a 10-day recon cycle depreciates a car $400.

•  
•  
• The actual sale margin erodes by that much. 
• Application of T2L automation, reducing the recon cycle; two additional turns on 100 cars at $1,500 gross equals $300,000 a year or $25,000 a month — a remarkable ROI for a monthly T2L workflow software cost of around $500 per store.

Anthony Martinez, Group Performance Manager for Rapid Recon, explained other considerations that more structured and monitored reconditioning resolves for groups.

“A few examples may include capacity issues in the recon center, inefficiencies dispatching cars to the right tech, delays working with outside vendors, difficulty in getting approvals or a slow down in getting cars into recon caused by delays in title or transportation, to name a few,” Martinez said.

Elaborating on the table data, Martinez said, “When this information is presented in a group report, managers easily spot trends. Cross-store reporting details help build peer recon center competitiveness. Discussions that evolve from the reported data often evolve into a rich conversation across the stores about best practices, lessons, and problem-solving.”

This friendly rivalry at Morrie’s Automotive Group has helped Jerry Heinecke, General Manager and former director, Used Car Operations, manage a more profitable three days’ average days in recon for the Group’s seven dealerships around metro Minneapolis, and in Chippewa Valley, Wisconsin.

“This group-level snapshot gives me the metrics to track, monitor, and manage essential benchmarks. Comparing one store’s performance to another is an excellent way to create a competitive environment,” Heinecke shared.

Jim Leman has been writing about automotive retail operations since 1992. Contact him at Jimleman@gmail.com

By Jasen Rice, Founder/CEO Lotpop

You’re in the time business, which I’d guess you know all too well.

You know that time passes all too quickly – and often is allowed to slip by without your wringing a satisfactory return from its potential. You see that all too clearly later through the rear view mirror.

Selling profitably is always about time – and timing. Each of us has 30 days, plus or minus, on the calendar every month, but don’t you believe it; time flies!

Watch inventory aging like a hawk, responding proactively and quickly to move inventory at increasingly earlier aging dates if you hope to make a profit on your investments these days.

A Good March

You probably came off a good March – better than expected. According to MarketWatch, March auto sales were “surprisingly strong.” Citing Autodata information, MarketWatch said March SAAR sales were 17.45 million units, up from 16.57 the prior month.

When you come off a good month, the temptation can be to relax a little, but that is not helpful. High-five the gang, but get everyone back into the trenches. Your adversary, time, is already suited up and coming after you.

Keep an eye on interest rates. Edmunds reported in a late March report, Used Vehicle Market Poised for Record Sales in 2019, new-car interest rates jumped last year by 17 percent with used car rates increasing by 9 percent in the same period.

The report said market conditions have never been more favorable for CPO vehicles, which is good news. Take time to educate consumers about their value. “Many shoppers are unaware of the benefits of CPO vehicle programs, but given the tough financial conditions in the new market, it's never been a better time to look into them," said Ivan Drury, Edmunds' senior manager of industry analysis, in the Edmunds report.

Make it a Better April

Spring fever is hitting now, and consumers have more than a few distractions to keep from spending a warm, sunny afternoon at the car dealership. If you stocked up in used cars in March for a hopeful continuation of that success from your March Madness, you might be disappointed.

If you’re not grinding every day as if it’s already end of the month and moving cars off the lot within 31 days of their acquisition you’re already in trouble. Cars no longer age out as they once did. Oh, they age all right - right under your nose. Sixty days to make a little margin isn’t the risk anymore - it’s 31-to-45 days, and narrowing.

When cars age out faster than they once did, it influences your business in ways you’d do well to heed:

• Buy smarter, so your vehicles sell sooner with more margin
• Recon faster, so cars get front-line ready in 72 hours when they’re still fresh metal, not after 15 days, having consumed half of their prime margin potential in the shop
• Sell from the data, not your gut. Reduce the asking price on cars as they approach 30-days and drop it increasingly more urgently as the unit hits 30 days.

Dale Pollak, writing recently in his blog Like I See It, discussed this topic. “Consider how quickly used vehicles run out of margin today compared to two years ago,” he wrote. “In 2017, used cars hit a 90 percent cost-to-market ratio around day 60. You could sell those vehicles then, and still make some money even it wasn’t all you wanted. This year, we’re seeing vehicles consistently hit the 90 percent cost-to-market ratio around day 30!”

That’s what I’m talking about here, so again, the message is: grind every day as if it’s month end if you want to sell cars and make money in this market. You can be sure that this routine will require even more out of you going forward. Here are a few ideas to help manage this risk

• Watch your VDPs (video detail page) - are your cars attracting shopper eyeballs? What is the lead count on that car…why isn’t it selling? Did you buy it at the top of the market? And, no, you won’t retail out of it, sorry!

•  
•  
• Follow and heed key metrics – inventory balance, aging, the cost to market and market pricing. As you observe make/model scoring metrics also look at the conversion percentages for those cars. Are they converting online? What is your lead count on those models?

• Is inventory heavier on a particular year/make/model than your sell rate for those vehicles? Are you heavy in those cars at this time of year? How do those cars’ mileage averages compare to the market average? Is the segment heavy in that car at this time of year? How do your cars’ mileages compare to the market average? Are you too heavy at a particular price point?

Don’t wait until inventory approaches day 29 or 59 to look at the data – do it early and do it often. Take action if nothing is happening on your cars. Watch inventory creep, which occurs when the sale rate of your 31- to 45-day bucket has pulled back. Should you adjust pricing to attract eyeballs or get the phone to ring? Consider the color of the cars on your lot – what do the numbers say about that make, model and mileage in the color(s) of those you inventory. Is the color of the vehicle in demand or an oddball that you’ll need to drop the price on to move or spiff to sell it?

Focus your people, remarketing, marketing and energy on selling cars before 31 days.

To wrap up, if you don’t know, learn what it takes to:

• Manage your used car inventory to maximize both gross and volume
• Understand the metrics you should tweak to bump volume up by 25 to 30 percent
• Excel at sourcing the cars you want to sell and then to sell what you carry
• Become a proactive inventory manager rather than one who reacts to the market

by Dennis McGinn, founder and CEO,  Rapid Recon

Regardless the market, the one aspect of your business you have direct control over (or could have) is vehicle reconditioning.

When the new standard for recon department efficiency and profitability called time to line or T2L is applied to recon steps you get ultimate control and accountability over this vital part of any used car operation.

T2L practice increases turn and improves sale gross, whether your shop reconditions 100 cars a month or 600. 

Where T2L recon workflow management isn't in place:

Unrecognized practices and policies eroding gross before vehicles even get to the lot

• A pattern of vehicles neglected or actually lost on back lots and sublets

Weak or non-existent accountability or trackability of the movement of cars through recon from acquisition to sale-ready — and no insight into the performance of those responsible for reconditioning vehicles

The sales department’s voice increasingly becoming frustrated and angry that new inventory is slow to get to the front line or is not available to show to customers interested in new arrivals yet to be inspected and detailed

Finger pointing between sales, used cars, recon and fixed ops, each blaming the other for the delay, cost overruns, neglected repair approvals and confusion within the process.

Recon T2L is an automated way to take waste out of recon operations, plug in continuous cycle improvement and unify the team around a structured process of work steps and work tasks that organizes their day, helps them work smarter and faster, and reduces your T2L to three to five days.

That’s a substantial time savings in days off the recon cycle from what most recon centers are operating at using manual structuring and tracking via Google Docs or spreadsheets. When you can drop your recon cycle from 10 to 21 days or more — we see this all the time — to three to five days, magic happens to your bottom line.

Here are parting observations and encouragement:

Reduce existing recon cycle time by 2.5 days and pick up one additional inventory turn

Sell more cars yet inventory fewer

Reduce gross-eroding holding cost, a $40 per day per car overhead depreciation you accumlate on every vehicle you own until sold. Recon holding cost start at acquisition to they’re signed off as sale-ready. For example, a 10-day recon cycle at a 100-car monthly volume runs up $40,000 in holding costs (100 x 40 x 10-day cycle). Reduce T2L to seven days to see the difference — $28,000 in holding cost. This is the cost against gross. Every reduction in your T2L delivers gross margin gain.

Use this calculator to understand how your recon times impact your holding cost erosion.

By Jasen Rice, founder and chief executive officer, Lotpop -- March 11, 2019 

Traditionally, February and March give dealers some of the highest shopper counts, and April through May sales are brisk.

We probably won’t have that season in 2019.

If you’re still buying and stocking inventory now as you did through last week, stop doing so. The post-tax-refund market may not materialize this year, which typically drives volume through early April. You need to forecast inventory needs for April and May – less demand, meaning less volume – so you aren’t stuck with a lot full of metal that will age as you wait for the uptick.

By April, early tax filers will have received what refunds they have coming, so we’ll see any tax-refund sale bump then, if at all. Late filers typically owe taxes so don’t hope for a late-season hiccup from them.

Cox Automotive has reported that the used-vehicle market sees the most significant impact from tax refunds within the automotive market. March and April have historically enjoyed 10 to 15 percent more used-car sales than the average month and 25 to 35 percent more sales than the slower months in the year. These months also typically see a spring bounce in used-car values.

The strong demand fueled by tax refunds cause used-car prices to appreciate each year when tax refunds are being distributed, Cox noted.

“This appreciation usually lifts prices by 3 to 5 percent at its peak. For a depreciating asset, this ‘spring bounce’ is especially notable, but it is a reliable phenomenon thanks to the impact of tax refunds,” Cox noted.

Last year, the average 2017 refund received in 2018 was around $2,800. Changes to the tax code in 2018 are going to mean “several million households will not receive a refund [in 2019] when they are accustomed to receiving one. Worse still, several million more households will end up owing more money than is typically the case,” Cox reported.

Regardless, I find that year after year as April rolls around, sales slow anywhere from a 10 to 15 percent decline. For dealers having come off a strong February and March, the slowing market can catch dealers with lots filled with cars that will age out waiting for market's return.

This is a mistake I see too often as I analyze dealers’ markets, turn rates, and inventory needs. They come off a strong February inventory flow and roll into March at the same speed, and suddenly they’re holding too many cars and scrambling through May to eat their way out of them.

– if you haven’t yet done so yet, dial back your stocking levels now. Anything on your lot as of today will be 45 to 60-days old when we hit the end of April, going into May. Stay alert!  Call Lotpop at 314-568-2754 for a complimentary analysis of your situation.

OLATHE, KS, March 11, 2019 – Lotpop, an inventory consulting company, announced today a “marriage” with Competitive Inventory Acquisitions (CIA), a nationwide used-car sourcing service.

By this arrangement, Lotpop ensures its dealers of the replacement inventory they need as Lotpop’s LotStock inventory intelligence tool dramatically lifts their sales volume and velocity.

The CIA Platform uses a customized version of StockWave and combines it with a proprietary platform that analyzes cross-sell market data down to the trim level. The CIA Platform looks at every sale in a given market to spot trends and identify opportunities that the dealership might otherwise miss. 

The company’s proprietary algorithm is used in combination with Lotpop LotStock inventory data, extracted from vAuto, MAX Digital or another inventory-management software tool, to identify the most profitable and fastest turning inventory in the dealer’s market, delivering a consistent 85 percent win rate for cars sourced through CIA’s nationwide buying network.

“We isolate from data and market trends what makes, models, trim levels, years and mileage vehicles historically sell the fastest, based on 14, 45 and 60-day sell rates, for the most profit for dealers using our LotStock tool,” said Jasen Rice, Lotpop founder and chief executive officer.

Lotpop then provides this ‘hit’ list to the CIA Platform team, which then uses these metrics to source vehicles meeting those requirements from its base of more than 200,000 vehicles,” Rice said. “LotStock powered by Lotpop drives the volume velocity and CIA Platform matches that specific inventory within minutes, and handles transportation and recon if desired by our customer.”

“Lotpop redefines how dealers must look at inventory,” said Rice, a former performance manager for vAuto. “Not only is Lotpop’s inventory analysis more robust, but actionable. During weekly calls with our clients, the Lotpop analysis team reviews where Lotpop's industry-leading reports reveal gaps in dealers’ used-car inventory management and sourcing processes to guide them to consider changes to drive peak performance.”

“By taking advantage of our nationwide buying network, even smaller dealerships doing less than 100 used cars per rooftop can compete against the big boys and grow their market share. However, getting the right inventory is only half the battle,” said Joe Machado, chief operating officer for the Competitive Inventory Acquisition platform.

“Dealers must implement and execute all of the velocity principles to win consistently, and that is where Lotpop comes in.  Lotpop’s consulting services ensure that our dealer partners are maximizing turn and profitability. The more cars they sell, the more we can buy; it’s a Win-Win. What’s more, we view our dealers more like partners than clients, which is why we offer territory exclusives and will not work for a direct competitor of the clients we serve,” Machado said.

Due to the large demand for acquisition services, dealerships purchasing fewer than 50 cars per rooftop can only access the CIA Platform if they are an existing Lotpop client. For more information, contact Jasen Rice at Lotpop.com or 314-568-2754.  If your dealership is purchasing more than 100 cars per month, you may contact CIA at 833-242-0007 to see if your territory is still available.

At NADA, I stopped some dealers walking the Moscone Convention Center to ask them about their concerns and strategies for used car performance in 2019. Those interviews appeared in Auto Remarketing magazine.

Now, with this new article for DrivingSales, I want to focus on reconditioning practices as a used car profit-making tool. This topic also made the bucket list of several dealers’ spoken to at NADA.

Dennis McGinn, the guru of rapid reconditioning practices, says dealers who implement T2L (time-to-line) disciplines to recon get cars from auction transport and trade into recon and back out the door much faster. Faster recon is essential, because in recon, cycle time relates to used car profitability. 

Ed French, president of auto consultancy AutoProfit and a member of the Board of Directors for TruWorth Auto with locations in Indianapolis and Kokomo, Indiana agrees.

“Empowerment of your recon department can supercharge your inventory turn,” he said. “Most recon departments are ‘handcuffed’ when it comes to decision making and left to negotiations between managers who want to keep the grips on their side, whether fixed operations or sales.”

Time is Money

As McGinn tells AutoSuccess magazine for an upcoming column there, dealers who implement this strategy in their stores realize savings of $18,000 a month or more. He cites a Florida BMW store enjoying a $1 million-a-month savings! Send an email for that report.

Abdulla Abbadi, pre-owned manager at McGrath Arlington KIA, in Palatine, Ill., told Automotive Remarketing improving recon was a 2019 goal. “Like all dealers, we want to buy the best car for the money, and because we want to keep reconditioning costs down, that means we have to buy as clean a car as possible,” he said.

John Napoleon is dealer principal for Carson Car Center Hyundai in Nevada. He said faster recon is a critical discipline. The faster a dealer can get cars from acquisition to the sales lot, the more opportunity a dealer creates to sell cars earlier in their prime retail window, he said.

Consider the cost of slow recon.

It adds a considerable financial burden to each vehicle as it meanders through recon. This time it takes a car to get from auction or finance and logged into your recon system carries with it a per-car, per-day cost. NCM Associates reports this cost at $40 per day per car. A 10-day recon puts a $400 "load" on each car. That load reduces sale gross by that much.

It means getting cars sale ready while they’re still their freshest. Today’s prime 21-day retail window even a 10-day recon cycle closes that window by half.

• It means you have to stock more cars to sell more cars. Faster recon improves inventory turn so your dealership can sell more cars without having to stock more cars. This reduces floorplan costs and ensures your inventory is the freshest. Fresh metal sells faster than aged metal.

Position for the Market

While used car sales will likely remain strong in 2019, price pressure may eliminate some margin. To combat these factors, do what is practical and possible to reduce recon costs. Selecting cars that will need less recon to be sale-ready is one tactic. However, when CPO and off-lease cars are sold, the remaining inventory is not likely to get by with just basic mechanical and cosmetic recon before they’re ready to be sold.

Therefore, be prepared for the used car sales opportunities 2019 will bring your way.

The National Automobile Dealers Association has predicted 2019 SAAR at 16.8 million annualized, down from 17 million in 2018.  NADA Chairman Wes Lutz noted that while 2019 will “be a robust year [for new-car sales], he is “concerned about ‘price creep’ that could take some consumers out of the market.”

This ‘creep’ has been happening for some time, as new-car prices now run about $35,000. Experian noted the monthly new-car payment of $530, an all-time high, outpacing the average used-car payment of $381 as of the third quarter of 2018.

“The gap between the price of a new and used vehicle is as wide as it has been in years, pushing an increasing number of consumers into the used-car lot,” noted the Wall Street Journal. In fact, estimates are 39.5 million consumers this year will purchase used vehicles.

This is good news – but to maximize you opportunity, work smarter.

Profit-Centered Recon

The recon practice-improvement strategy worked out by McGinn is an automated reconditioning workflow improvement system, validated for dealerships of all sizes and markets, franchised and independent, and even for Buy Here/Pay Here.

This practice, called T2L, McGinn says, addresses most dealers’ current pain points, such as:

•             Knowing where all your cars are

•             Improving gross profit

•             Reducing inventory volume and costs

•             Eliminating recon approval conflicts between the used car and fixed ops managers

•             Instituting accountability and verifiable metrics, including vendor services

Dustin Ireland, a former Kansas City firefighter, leverages faster recon’s benefits for Instant Auto Credit, with locations in Lee’s Summit and Liberty, Missouri, and in Olathe, Kansas. He handles dealership operations while his business partner Nathan Anderson, once a schoolteacher, manages inventory acquisition and sales. Russ Meyer is a silent partner. Today, the three Instant Auto Credit locations retail 180 vehicles a month.  

“Old-school methods just couldn’t keep up with our increased recon volume,” Ireland said, “so I started looking for a product that would eliminate the guesswork and confusion of tracking vehicles through recon. Eighteen months ago, we implemented a rapid reconditioning T2L workflow system."

T2L is more than a practice — it is an automated way to take waste out of recon operations, plug in continuous cycle improvement and unify the team around a structured process of work steps and work tasks that organizes their day, helps them work smarter and faster and reduces your T2L to three to five days.

“Our time-to-line has decreased 35 percent. Our holding costs have also declined as a result, and we have increased inventory turn by getting more cars to the front line in less time,” Ireland said.

Dan Oakes operates Oakes Auto, the Kansas City area’s largest independent dealer. “Because dealers don’t actually write a check out of the business account for holding costs, they don’t see what recon delays can cost them,” he said.

“Old-school dealers focus on overall front-end grosses. If they instead were to concentrate on improving recon and inventory management, front-end gross would be better, and inventory would turn faster.

“Managing recon processes for efficiency is the main focus here because a car is not for sale until it’s shown online or on the lot. The holding cost clock starts once I own the unit. We are very mindful of its ticking,” Oakes said.

“Remember,” French said. “These things we sell have wheels on them for a reason. Keep them turning!”

SARASOTA, FLA -  Victor Young is managing partner and president of BMW of Sarasota, Lamborghini Sarasota, Land Rover Ocala, Jaguar of Ocala and a used car dealership, International Auto Spa. BMW of Sarasota sells about 1,200 preowned vehicles a year.

As a dealer of high-end vehicles to an affluent community, BMW of Sarasota depends on its ability to merchandise premium-tier, front-line inventory reconditioned and detailed to the highest standards.

“At the same time, we can’t over-recondition these cars or allow them to sit,” Young said.

Getting used cars through the recon process efficiently, correctly and aesthetically pleasing had been a 25-day assembly-line challenge for BMW of Sarasota.

It was an unacceptable length of time, Young recalled. “We’re now below five days, which includes parts holds,” he said.

The dealership’s original, non-automated recon practices led to delay and frustration. Young said the inability to extract answers about bottlenecks and delays — or discover how long it was actually taking recon to process vehicles from acquisition or trade to the front line — was unsatisfactory.

“As we talked about this,” he said, “we realized we never had an accurate measurement on precisely how long our recon processes were taking. In 2015, BMW of Sarasota installed recon reconditioning workflow software. "I knew it would help us get to a true recon time-to-line number, Young said.”

Today, Young has centralized recon in a separate facility on the property. Lamborghini recon is at that dealership, and he said technicians are privileged to work there because they don’t have to “sell” inspections to a retail customer.

He enforces strict adherence to rapid reconditioning best practices.

“I’m a private pilot. Without a preflight checklist, a pilot is likely to miss something that might be life threatening,” Young said. “No one here works on our used cars unless they’re all in with using this Rapid Recon system. If they’re not, they’re off the line.”

One individual taken off the line was a former used car manager who fought against this policy. Young replaced that manager with one who did embrace his time to line or T2L goals. Within two weeks of making that change, Young watched BMW of Sarasota’s original 19-day T2L drop to 4.5 days.

At this much more efficient T2L rate, gross margins improved. Today, BMW of Sarasota average $1,000 more per-car gross because fresher vehicles hit the front line sooner. Newer inventory also frees up capital because inventory turns twice as fast — from a 57-day supply to a 25-day supply.

 “Faster recon has helped us reduce capital expenditures by more than $1 million per month,” Young noted.

This dealer has also rebalanced inventory mix to improve recon throughput. He cut his non-CPO unit count to 35 percent of total used car inventory. By focusing on CPO cars and CPO-quality trades, recon requirements and costs are less, the vehicles reach sale-ready status quicker and they command more sale margin. Lease returns remarketed by the dealership offer similar advantages.

“These cars give us more velocity through recon, so the investment in them is going where it should — into the car. We’re not losing or misplacing cars parked out back as sometimes happens with non-CPO cars,” he said. Every night, lease returns, which might be dropped off on a back lot, are scanned and loaded into the workflow software so that every car is “on the grid” and being measured.

“This tool gives you indicators about what’s changing in the business,” Young said. “Everything might look wonderful, and then you see a kick up in time to line. In a recon operation not managed by this kind of technology, the reasons you’d hear for why the wheels slowed down would be all over the place, but we look into Rapid Recon and see where we’re stuck.”

Corrective actions might be finding a more productive and responsive sublet for paint and dent, for instance. “Little things can happen that aren’t often easily noticed, but rapid reconditioning software  lets me keep my finger on the pulse so I can see anomalies or red flags as they occur,” Young said.

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SMITHFIELD, VA – January 9, 2019- SaleSleeve™ a weatherproof document display company, announced today its patented window sticker can solve compliance issues related to displaying sales documents on dealerships’ new and used car inventories nationwide.

This is not your ordinary window sticker display, but groundbreaking technology that keeps Monroney Label, Buyer’s Guide and Addendum Sticker documents sticking solidly where placed and highly visible -- tinted glass or not – across any weather condition – so vehicles always display essential compliance documents.

According to the Patent and Trademark Office, the SaleSleeve patent is for a protective envelope that encloses a one or two-page document and protects that document from weather damage, airflow from vehicle movement, and friction from lowering and raising a vehicle’s window.

SaleSleeve holding power and visibility help dealers stay compliant with current document display regulations.

“Staying compliant is a top priority for us,” said SaleSleeve user David Banty, Sales Manager for Strosnider Chevrolet, Hopewell, Virginia. “When you visit our dealership you’ll notice that all of our sales documents are prominently displayed on our vehicles and clearly visible to our customers.”

SaleSleeve Operations Manager Anthony Stile said, “These uniquely designed and translucent holders peel away from glass easily when they need to be removed, simplifying the process and leaving no adhesive residue. When using a SaleSleeve to display media on exterior glass, cars no longer have to be unlocked for inside glass attachment.”

Dealers agree SaleSleeve delivers on these promises.

“We used to post our sales information on the inside of the windows, but darker tinted windows made the stickers virtually unreadable. We tried lamination, and the number of documents getting damaged was unbelievable. We implemented SaleSleeve, which solved all of those issues while being extremely cost-effective,” said General Manager Matt Raymond from Sanders Ford in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

“SaleSleeve document displays make the cars look clean and our lives much easier!” said Alex Ramon, sales manager for Ferrari Austin, Austin, Texas.

“SaleSleeve has solved an industry-wide problem for displaying Monroney labels, addendums and Buyer’s Guide documents,” said aftermarket accessory installer Robert McGarr, owner, WRL Premier Tinting, Dallas, Texas. “Other options are extremely pricey, don’t work, or take too long to install; SaleSleeve is simply the best choice.”

The sleeve has been field tested in all types of weather conditions including temperatures ranging from minus 15F to 185F degrees and the harsh elements of Hurricane Florence that made landfall the summer of 2018. The newly patented product is the only document display envelope with an IPX7 water certification rating.

“Dealerships are discovering that SaleSleeve is durable, inexpensive and a remarkably versatile solution for displaying a vehicle’s sales documents,” said SaleSleeve Logistics Manager Benjamin Brown, “and dealer acceptance has been outstanding.”

For a sample packet, contact SaleSleeve Customer Service, 866-218-5783, or email info@salesleeve.com. For more information or to order directly, go to salesleeve.com. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin and Instagram.

SaleSleeve is headquartered at One Monette Parkway, Smithfield, VA. The corporate management team has more than 25 years of experience in the automotive industry. For more information contact SaleSleeve Customer Service, 866-218-5783 or visit salesleeve.com.

PALO ALTO, CA, August 1, 2018 - Rapid Recon, the established leader in Time-to-Line (T2L) workflow™ software and reconditioning center transformation, announced today that retail automotive software development leader Bridget Townsend has joined as Vice President of Development.

“Bridget is a well-established innovator with a remarkable record of leveraging software to bring operational and profitability solutions to auto retailers. Before choosing to join Rapid Recon, she was actively pursued by some of the best-known technology companies in this space. We are delighted she chose to join the Rapid Recon Team,” said Dennis McGinn, Rapid Recon founder and CEO.

Townsend most recently was COO and co-founder at Vin Voyager. She had been vice president of Vendor Management and Vice President of Market Performance for, respectively, DealerSocket and Dealertrack.

“I’ve been involved in software development and implementation within the automotive sector for 18 years, and this product, Rapid Recon, has such a direct and material impact on a dealer’s business. I wanted to work with this team and solution whose high value is very apparent and very measurable,” Townsend said.  Rapid Recon development resources now report to her.

“Rapid Recon has grown 50 percent in the last 12 months as dealers continue to embrace our intuitive reconditioning software that reduces their recon times to just a few days, making recon more profitable for the dealership,” McGinn said. “Dealers using our workflow solution enjoy ROI results of $50 for each dollar spent on the software.”

Townsend compared reconditioning software’s contribution to market efficiency to the advantages inventory management systems brought to the business. “Every dealership should be using this time to line workflow software to combat margin compression. It’s a real miss for dealers to not want to drive margin from this existing part of their business,” she said.

Rapid Recon software improves used car inventory turn and builds continuous improvement and work accountability disciplines into recon processes and its personnel.

“As we continue to implement Rapid Recon in stores of all sizes, including large, well-established groups, Townsend and her development team will ensure that Rapid Recon remains the most productive, reliable, stable, mobile, and transformative solution for improving the profitability of the dealer’s used car operation,” McGinn said.

Rapid Recon benchmarks and best practices help GMs, used car managers, and service managers fine-tune their reconditioning methods and efficiency to achieve faster time to market that retains vehicle gross. www.rapidrecon.com

Independent and Buy Here-Pay Here (BHPH) dealers will attract more customers and sell more cars by offering shoppers Fidelis PPM preventive maintenance now including at-home or at-work vehicle repair services.

Fidelis PPM has teamed with GetWrench.com mobile vehicle maintenance services to give dealers that offer their customers Fidelis prepaid maintenance plans extra competitive advantage in their markets.

Fidelis PPM maintenance plans feature discount-priced oil, filter, and tire rotation services. The added GetWrench.com service, called Wrench, is a no-charge upgrade for dealers and their customers. Dealers either pre-load or sell these plans. Plan savings and this new service convenience impress customers, who remember the dealership’s special touch.

“Impressed customers say great things about their dealer – and dealers that build maintenance convenience into buyers’ schedules to keep their vehicle investment running longer become repeat customers,” says Ryan Williams, President of Fidelis PPM.

“It’s proven that car buyers who service their vehicles at the dealers tend to purchase other cars there, but  independent and BHPH dealers who lack service facilities for customers can lose this connection,” Williams added, “which our program including Wrench services reinvigorates.”

Wrench is a full-service shop without the shop, offering a full range of maintenance services from oil changes and tune-ups to brake jobs and no-starts. Wrench staffs ASE-certified technicians and the tools and parts to maintain or repair most any car and service need. Fidelis PPM plans with Wrench now service independent and BHPH dealers in the Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Phoenix markets.

“Customers schedule with us using our app, website, or phone, and our expert mobile technicians arrive at their home or place of business fully equipped to deliver excellent results. Our convenience strengthens positive impressions about their dealer,” says Wrench Co-Founder Casey Willis.

Wrench completes all scheduled Fidelis PPM services at no charge to the customer. The customer pays for any additional parts and labor they agree to if identified by the Wrench technician. Wrench also provides a 12-month/12k mile warranty with any of these additional services.

About Fidelis PPM

Fidelis PPM, a CU Direct company, turns prepaid maintenance into a brand-building, revenue-generating retention machine. Developed by dealers, Fidelis PPM knows the importance of substantiating ROI from its products. Powered by Driv Customer Retention Software, Fidelis PPM provides an easy-to-use interface for at-a-glance tracking of dealers’ ROI on their PPM program. For more information, visit www.getfidelis.com or email Williams at ryan@getfidelis.com

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