When former President Obama mandated higher fuel standards for the automotive industry back in 2011, most manufacturers, feeling the pressure to comply and be ahead of the curve, responded by investing billions of dollars into “green alternatives” to the combustion engine. Currently, these include a variety of options as collectively, the industry hopes one or more of these formats will be embraced by the majority of consumers sooner than later. Toyota’s Prius (which I’ve owned since 2011) has been a favorite for several years due to its fuel efficiency.  Early on, I felt as though I was being friendlier to the environment, and sticking it to the oil barons at the same time.  

Whether or not we really have environmentally friendly/green alternatives is debatable on many levels (https://bit.ly/2NuLrBA).  Remember, oil was at $112 per barrel when Obama signed his mandate.  With all of the investment and marketing strategies being employed by virtually every manufacturer, recent sales performances by Hybrids, BEVs, PHEVs, and FCEVs lead one to speculate that America isn’t quite ready to walk away from the combustion engine just yet.  President Trump’s elimination of Obama’s mandate suggests that some manufacturers may have acted too quickly, and that the vast majority consumers can care less about “green” cars, preferring the lure of the SUV and pickup truck.

June sales for EVs, PHEVs, hybrids, and FCEVs are still down.  Here is a quick breakdown of exactly what’s going on through July:

Tesla sales are perhaps the one and only alternative outlier in the conversation.  Tesla is more of a luxury/status brand than anything else as is the BMW 530E which are all showing positive growth but are not practically priced for the average consumer. Granted, it’s cheaper to drive either one from a fuel investment angle, but at the price point that Teslas and BMW 530E’s are offered, it’s not a practical investment for most of us. Tesla drivers may be eager to do their part in eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels, but they still want to show their neighbors that they’re affluent, and so they invest in, and trust the Elon Musk products (The Tesla family has nothing to do with this company).  

Meanwhile, Volvo is working hard to reduce Tesla’s dominant position in the market, and will soon be 100% alternative themselves, having committed to beat Tesla out of its market share by the next decade. Volvo announced earlier this year that it will completely do away with the combustion engine and that all new models in 2019 will have electric motors (BEV, PHEV, HEV) including an all-electric SUV VC-40.  Volvo Cars has been majority-owned by the Geely Holding Group, a Chinese multinational automotive manufacturing company since 2010, and is looking to eclipse Tesla in sales by leveraging their more familiar, trusted, and technologically sound brand to the global market. More on Tesla vs Volvo next month.

So, where are we now as far as new car sales are concerned involving alternative technologies?

Currently, we are experiencing a downturn in sales of hybrids, EVs, PHEVs, BEVS, and FCEVs.  Aside from the west coast, and other liberal, big-city bastions, it’s a trend that’s a bit concerning to automakers who have all banked on just the opposite. When oil prices are stable, and gas prices aren’t outrageous, people will buy vehicles that are less fuel-efficient with aplomb.  Currently, we have very healthy SUV and pickup segments because oil prices haven’t driven gas prices up through the roof like they have in past cycles.

If gas prices stay at acceptable levels, we can expect “Green Car” sales to be far less than robust, unless of course you’re Tesla - whereby status is your primary buying incentive.  YTD, only the Chevy Bolt is besting last year’s numbers, but June’s fall off in sales was precipitous even for the Bolt.

Should you carry alternative inventory on your lot?  If you have slow movers, how do you as a salesman, speed up the turnover of "Green" cars on your lot?

Ask your customer what kind of vehicle they are looking for, and most importantly, why. If they are tight on funds, a hybrid or EV will be 50% of the annual operational costs of a conventionally fueled vehicle. That’s $1,000 less per year, or a savings of $83 per month.

Used Car Dealers need to continue finding the best vehicles available to match their PMAs. If you serve an area with a higher per capita income, and you sell vehicles to parents of new drivers, then carrying some used Priuses, or Volts might make sense. Both are hybrids but the Volt gets 53 miles on battery only while the Prius electric only range is almost negligible.  If you serve a market with a lower per-capita annual income, the Prius, Nissan Leaf, and Chevy Volt are good additions to your inventory.

If you serve a mid to upper middle-class demographic, you’re still looking for SUVs and pickup trucks as your primary movers. Gas prices are stable, and oil prices have actually started to drop despite the media suggesting otherwise. In fact, if one is to look at oil pricing trends, we can see that the artificial forces (banks, investment houses) that historically jack up the price of a barrel of oil, have been muted.  

As a used car dealer, hopefully, you’re seeing a lift in sales this summer.  New car sales are down in most markets if you compare May and June of 2017 with May and June of 2018. People with marginal or bad credit can no longer buy a new car so easily.  Rising interest rates and the fact that loans are harder to get are funneling consumers to used car lots en masse.

QUICK TIP:  If you have EVs on your lot that require a charging station, make sure to amortize it into the cost of the vehicle. Selling it separately as a line item is a turn off and gives a customer pause to reconsider. Charging stations run between $379 and $4500 depending on your vehicle and need for commercial capacity.

Where we will be a few years from now is anyone’s guess, but I’m going to postulate that although sales are slow for alternatives now, there is likely no stopping the transition.  The gas-powered engine is clearly on the endangered list. The amount of maintenance needed is far less in electric-powered vehicles, let alone engines that utilize hydrogen as a power source like the Toyota Mirai which is in its infancy as an experiment. The cows have definitely left the barn, you just couldn’t tell by looking at this summer’s sales numbers.

A recent survey of 334 used car dealers by Dealer Control shows that only 19% actually responded to lead forms that were filled out on their websites!  

The survey was conducted by contacting used car dealers who are currently using a popular website service that charges $99 per month as a subscription fee, parks the dealer on a templated website of choice, and then controls all email engagement and implementation of a lead gen/form fill system.  There are apparently a number of templates in use by thousands of subscribing dealers, but one thing they all share in common is the reticence of the vast majority of those dealers to follow up on lead forms and vehicle queries.

Quality, 1st generation leads are hard enough to come by so there has to be a reason used car dealerships have such a bad track record responding to queries. Eliminating technical issues, unethical lead rerouting by the vendor, leads blocked due to billing issues, or dealers no longer in business, one is left scratching one’s head. What makes this even more perplexing is that these sites aren’t truly responsive (mobile friendly) according to Google best practices. They aren’t likely to rank very high in organic search as buyers shop for vehicles.  One would think that each lead would be treated like gold.

Is it an Issue with the Website Design?

The mobile versions of these sites go directly to VDPs with no branding marks, or anything that remotely matches the “on-site dealership experience”. You don’t even know what dealer it is you’re getting a canned email response from in some instances.  A properly designed “responsive website” maintains its “look” and brand identity no matter what device is used by the consumer as their technology of choice in the search process.

A state-of-the-art dealer site mirrors the look and feel of actually being in the dealership. With that said, a thought occurred to me that maybe these websites were just old and out of date since many of the URLs don’t even match the business name of the dealership!  The mobile versions even looked like antiquated (m.subdomain) stop gap constructs to comply with Google’s 2 year-old mobile best practices initiative - else disappear in the search engines. Problem is, such constructs do not adhere to Google Best Practices simply by ignoring the user experience portion. Still, although the sites aren’t winning any awards, they still seem to be functional...so maybe the dealers aren’t?

Could Used Car Dealers be Relics of a Bygone Era, Ignorant to the Emergence of the Digital Consumer?

Maybe the majority of used car dealers just aren’t tech or even business savvy which may be why they pay for cheap site templates and don’t understand the latest tenets of digital consumer behavior.  Whatever the reason, the lack of response was shocking considering the hue and cry heard by all listing sites and digital marketing agencies that they’re never getting enough leads!

Of the 19% that actually had a response, 73% of the responses were via a cold “no-reply” email messaging template with no dealer branding footprint on it at all, rather the name of the vendor who supplies the service and maybe a message from a mystery salesman promising to get back to the potential buyer. Most dealers took at least a couple of days to follow up.

Consider the long-lived paradigm that a potential buyer is most likely to interact with the first dealer or two who contacts them, and know that this lackadaisical response can hardly be an acceptable industry business practice. According to research by the folks at InsideSales, “50% of buyers choose the vendor that responds first.” Per researcher Dr. James Oldroyd, “the odds of the lead entering the sales process, or becoming qualified, are 21 times greater when contacted within five minutes versus 30 minutes after the lead was submitted.” The Oldroyd data also suggested that the average company response time to a lead is 61 hours.  Of the 334 dealers in our study, 3 dealers responded personally within 5 minutes.

Dealers, Take Control!

On average, a typical car buyer will spend 16.75 hours researching online for a vehicle and will ultimately visit 1.6 dealers before they buy a car (MAXDigital study). You had better have your digital-self cleaned up else you’ll rarely be one of the 1.6. Responding to that initial query already puts you way ahead of your competitor according to our finds. Used car dealers need to understand what new car dealers have finally learned about the importance of branding across all channels, most importantly, online. You need to have full dealer control of your branding which includes how your website looks, how you respond to sales inquiries, and deal with customers. You cannot let a lead get sucked into the vacuum of space because you’re system is antiquated or broken else your business will get sucked into the cosmos as well.  

It’s an Epidemic of Inefficiency!

The Oldroyd data suggests we have a bunch of lazy salesmen out there, systems for lead cultivation are put in place but not worked as efficiently as they should be, and businesses across all categories, not just used car dealers, are letting sales slip through their fingers!  With that said, there were several dealers whose follow up was incredibly professional and methodical. To those who know how to sell...I salute you.

Props to the following car sales professionals and dealerships for utilizing effective lead follow up practices via CRM tools or good old-fashioned customer service. Of 334 inquiries, this group of 9 individuals stood out.

Simon Laski of Best Rate Auto Sales at http://www.bestrateautosales.com/

Dan Lentz of Palmetto Ford at www.palmettoford.com

Jim Davis of Taylor Hyundai at www.taylorautomotive.com

Joe Burlett of Frank Motor Cars at www.frankmotorcars.com

Larry Kahle with his auto-respond CRM of Mile High Motors at usedcarsinmontana.com

Jordan White of Exceptional Motor Car at

Don Piper of Consolidated Auto at http://www.consolidatedauto.com/cms.cfm

Betty Entralgo of the Stephen Auto Mall Center at http://www.cusecars.com/

Sam Dorsey of Crossley Ford who for 3 months after the initial lead was sent is still cordially following up to my alias. www.garycrossleyford.com

When Craigslist realized that they provided better leads for used car dealers than any of the paid classified sites, they decided it was time to get paid for it.  They are no longer free, but do, on average, provide better quality leads than the paid sites.  Enter, by default, the new, slick looking "FREE" classified site Usedcarsforsale.com.  It is fast becoming the "automotive industries go to classified".  

They are currently signing 150 car dealers per week to the platform, with no end to their growth in sight.  They are now posing such a threat that carsforsale.com will no longer "volunteer" to provide inventory feeds from their (cfs.com) clients to the Usedcarsforsale.com classified site.  This in spite of the fact that they still provide those feeds to the other sites and had been providing those feeds to UsedCarsForSale.com for two months before the stoppage. Remember "fear the beard"?  We now have "fear the free automotive classified site."

With the larger dealer groups jumping on board (Lithia Motors, Group 1, Larry H. Miller), I can see why some vendors might fear the "free".  After all, once UsedCarsForSale.com reaches proper inventory counts per market, dealers will see results that may make them reconsider expensive classified pay sites.  Search is still the dominant force in car buyer research activity, and "used cars for sale" in exact and broad match search queries, drives way over a million searches per month!  It's inevitable that this classified site will be a top organic search ranker within the next several months.  

How does UsedcarsforSale.com make money you ask?  The answer is apparently via 3rd party vendors who use the platform to test a number of emerging technologies and pay for the opportunity.  Dealers become the benefactors at no cost to them because the tab is picked up by technologists testing a variety of concepts to see what best drives serious, bottom of sales funnel car buyers into dealerships both online and into the lot.

One salesman at UCFS.com explained to me that the toughest thing they have to deal with is explaining that it's an absolutely free, basic platform and having the dealerships believe them.  It's true, but some of the dealers they speak to are apparently so jaded that they can't conceive of a concept that includes the word "free".  Imagine that.

Although vehicle sales are mostly down from last year, some manufactures saw promising increases in the sales of certain segments, primarily SUVs, hybrids and pickup trucks.

Ford has stumbled out of the gates and is way below last years numbers.  Other than the F-Series trucks, Ford continues to lose sales to everyone in virtually all segments. Misery loves company. If they look to the western horizon they’ll likely see a chute-less Honda CR-V plummeting from the sky as fast as their Escape and Explorers are with sales down 19%and 25% respectively.  Meanwhile, Nissan’s Rogue, Chevy Equinox, and Toyota’s Rav4 are still seeing continued growth and healthy sales increases.  Of the previous mentioned brands, only Toyota is up YTD and YTY. Not surprisingly, Ford shares are at a 5 yr. Low, and Toyota shares are still up over a year.

Jeep sales have jumped thanks to the Wrangler and the Compass which are up close to 500% over last year.  Overall, the full Jeep brand is up 12% over last year. Jeep is the only American brand that has sold over 20K cars experiencing an increase in sales (Caddy is up 14% YTD but only sold 16K cars).  Much of this success is due to the Jeep brand going global, launching in China and Europe. Literally, no other American brand with is seeing positive sales growth based on 20K sales thus far. In fact, Jeep’s mothership, FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) is experiencing a huge 20% lift in share prices. Part of this is due to the reinvigoration of Alfa Romeo to compete with BMW, and the retooling of several of its North American factories to increase production of more profitable SUVS and pickup trucks.

VW, despite its many legal issues, tripled its sales of February 2017 with the stylish and roomier 2018 Tiguan.  VW as a brand overall is up nearly 6% YTD and YTY, but it’s shares are down 10 points due to President Trump’s suggestion that tariffs may be in play for European car makers in an effort to renegotiate NAFTA and impose tariffs on European imports.

Volvo, BMW and Daimler also saw sell offs after the President’s comments which many believe may just be a negotiating ploy.  It would be bad news for such tariffs to be imposed on European car makers who are all experiencing a spike of success at the expense of US brands as we get out of the gates in 2018.  Ploy or not, the President is motivated to shake things up and no industry is immune.

The pickup truck segment continues to be dominated by Ford F-Series trucks.  They win month after month, after month. Meanwhile, the storm clouds are gathering over the Dodge Ram and the Chevy Silverado.  Sales are down double figures from last year. To make matters even more ominous, the Japanese have established a beachhead and are coming on strong and their invasion armata consists of pickup trucks.  The Toyota Tacoma is becoming wildly successful and has taken a commanding lead in sales over the closest American competitor, the GMC Sierra whose February sales are down 25% from last year. The Nissan Frontier is also climbing the charts, up a whopping 68% in sales over last year.  American pick up manufacturers clearly have things to worry about as their Japanese competition is clearly stealing market share at an alarming rate. It looks like hockey stick growth for Japanese brands and a ski jump for American brands.

Last but not least, we have the EVs, the PHEVs and the hybrids!  Chevy Bolt sales are up 152%, Tesla sales are up 33% across the board, the Nissan Leaf, the most affordable of all EVs, sold over 7X as many vehicles in February as they did in January!  Almost every hybrid or EV experienced sales increases except for the anemic Ford C-Max Energi and the Honda Clarity BEV. Other nice performers were the Toyota Prius Prime, the Chevy Volt, and the Ford Fusion Energi.  Meanwhile, my beloved Prius isn’t faring so well with all the new similar makes and models coming out. Unless your name is Camry, or Sentra, you’re likely experiencing the gravity of market forces as the public shifts from the standard auto, to larger, more functional vehicles, and other more energy efficient, electric or hybrid kin.

YouTube automotive enthusiasts/ wildmen Alejandro, Buddy and Farshad have apparently uncovered an issue with Tesla security in the Tesla X model.  Their channel is Salomondrin and it’s loaded with fun-loving, potty-mouthed, narcissistic, automotive hijinx.  At some point Buddy discovered a flaw that may indeed compromise all Tesla models, although we do know for sure the Tesla X is clearly affected.

The flaw allows thieves to break into the trunk of the vehicle with very little effort via a small, access panel in the lower, far left part of the bumper on the driver side. The access panel is easily popped off by a screwdriver. Two canvass wires attached to a release mechanism are housed in the exposed compartment and when firmly pulled, pop the trunk. Granted, it will trigger the alarm, but it takes seconds to grab the goods in the trunk and shut it, leaving the owner to wonder why his or her alarm was triggered, never even thinking to check the trunk compartment to see if anything was absconded with!  The breach can take as little as one minute!

It’s important that Tesla becomes aware of its security issues and that it provides vehicles that are secure and safe. It seems as though they never thought this would be discovered as easily as it was.  QC is priority one with any consumer product let alone a company like Tesla.  WTS, it’s not like the automotive industry hasn’t had its share of incompetencies, poorly planned concepts, and risky mechanical issues.  On a scale from 1-10, this is a 1.  But, it’s still “a thing”.

Somehow, some way, humans always find the weak link in any security system and then exploit it.  The guys from Salomondrin are no exception.  Perhaps Tesla should have cut the crew a check for their silence, but hindsight is foresight that happens too late, and now we know.  At the very least, Tesla owners now know that a mysteriously triggered alarm may have a more nefarious cause.

If you don’t mind a millennial stew of me-me’s, and expletive-bombs reaching saturation point, the Salomondrin YouTube channel is entertaining and educational for car and truck enthusiasts. These guys have a lot of friends and like all of us, like to have a great time.  We at Dealership News consider them the Three Stooges of automotive hijinx with Alejandro playing Moe.  Good hearted, knowledgeable guys, with absolutely no filters...except for maybe Buddy (LOL)...and some valuable info for everyone.

While at the IADAC Conference in Lake Tahoe, we took a few minutes to chit chat with the used car Queen of Orland, Ca. Brittany Hibdon of the Hibdon Auto Center

Dealership News: As a woman owner/operator, do you find it gives you an advantage or a disadvantage in dealing with customers? Is it easier dealing with male buyers or do you find the women are more trustworthy of you than they would be a man?

Brittany: I believe talent and personality play more of a role than gender. However, there is a lot of stigma attached to the idea of a “typical salesman.” The majority of my sales staff is female, and we’ve had people walk in the showroom and comment in surprise at the number of women employed. Breaking the stereotype expected might be an advantage all on its own! Women also tend to have more empathy – nurturing is in our make-up. With male or female customers, we tend to wear our hearts on our sleeves, and customers see that we care. I think this may allow us to break down walls and connect faster with our customers. I’ve actually found that customers are less concerned with my gender than fellow industry members! When I first started buying cars at the auction, it was clear I had entered a man’s world. I think since it’s still fairly uncommon to meet a female dealer, most dealers are simply surprised by it. I’m very grateful for the friends I’ve made and the respect I’ve been given as I’ve made my mark in this industry.

Dealership News: Tell us a little bit about the dynamic of working with your husband who runs the service dept. Who gets in who’s hair the most?

Brittany: That’s debatable (LOL). In all seriousness, we get along quite well. My husband does a fantastic job of overseeing our Service Department, and knows more about fixing cars than anyone I’ve ever met. Even other shops in town call him for advice. I stick to my role of General Manager and we stay out of each other’s hair for the most part. In addition to regular managers meetings with our leadership team, he and I recently started a “Same Page Meeting” once a week, and that helps us by purposely setting aside time to discuss any issues that we both need to work on together.

Dealership News: Every small-town dealer has its main competitor, without naming names (we know who it is LOL), what do you do better than they do, is it service, is it sales, is it selection?

Brittany: I have a lot of respect for our largest competitor. However, I believe that our niche separates us from all of our competition. Our mission statement says it best:

Brittany: We put our customers first, before everything else. We believe everyone deserves to drive a Nicer, Newer car®. Our business is different- our business is not selling cars. Our business is finding solutions to the everyday problems that keep most people stuck in a car they hate. We’re on a mission to change the world one person at a time by helping them get the car they want and deserve.

Dealership News: Who are your favorite vendors and do you use classified listing sites so you can pull from surrounding cities or do you use other methods such as social media, radio, or cable TV to bring folks in?

Brittany: We’ve done well with radio and social media. We work with an incredibly talented marketing company that has helped us increase our reach to surrounding cities and grow our customer base. We’ve found that speaking to masses works better for us than targeting specific buyers or spending money on classified listing sites. It’s not for everyone, but it works well for us!

Dealership News: You can’t satisfy all of the people all the time but you sure can try, what measures do you have in place to make sure you aren’t held hostage by negative reviews or questionable review sites like the good folks at Yelp?

Brittany: I appreciate your classification of Yelp as “questionable!” I think best way to handle a negative review is to respond. If the customer is upset or frustrated about something, I try to leave a short reply and then take the conversation off-line. We reach out and often can get to the bottom of the situation and find resolution. Some people just like to complain and won’t respond to us, but that’s OK too. I’ve had situations where customer see our replies to negative reviews and “like” or comment in agreement with us! People want to see that we are real, and that we care about the things they care about.

Dealership News: Where do you see the future of the automobile industry after the electric and autonomous cars kick in, say 10 years down the road? Will the used car business survive?

Brittany: Since I am in the solutions business, not the car business, I think there will always be customers to help and problems to solve. I also believe customers want great service, they want human interaction, they want to touch and drive and smell and see. Electric or autonomous cars are probably not for everyone, and as the industry shifts beyond just new technology to buying online, etc. I believe giving the customer an unexpectedly wonderful experience will stand out even more.

Kelly Kleinman

Dealership News

Kelly@Dealershipnews.com

818-817-6343

SEO aficionado and prodigious automotive domain collector Steve Tackett has just launched yet another automotive classified listing site. Says Taylor Buchanan GM of Automotiveleads.com; “Usedcarsnearme.com promises the consumer a very satisfying experience, this new site is the perfect platform for local used car dealers to list on, the listings look fantastic and it’s a very easy navigation for the consumer, best looking new classified site I’ve seen by a long shot.”  

Tackett, the owner of 350 classified listing sites and 5,000 automotive domains has modeled all of his sites on popular search queries in order to drive organic traffic (buyers) to those sites.  Says Tackett, “The key is in drumming up enough real inventory for the sites to rank in the search engines. The exact number of vehicles needed on a site to goose Google into ranking it isn’t exactly known, but it’s a heck of lot of iron”.  Once his sites become searchable, they tend to achieve a fairly high organic rank and attract a lot of car shoppers which puts smiles on the faces of his listing dealerships who tend to pay a lot less for leads than they would on other sites.  

Usedcarsnearme.com’s sister site is Usedcarsforsale.com which was recently launched as a  free listing site available to any licensed used car dealer in the industry in the US and Canada. Usedcarsforsale.com actually gets up to one million exact match search queries per month before any advertising even kicks in and is projected to sign close to 30,000+ dealers when all is said and done.  

Having two classified sites launching at the same time may seem to some as being in conflict.  According to Tackett, the key to selling a car online is visibility, “we have 350 listing sites and I’m more than willing to accommodate any dealer who wants to get his or her inventory as visible as possible on our sites...which by the way, are sites that have carried zero conquest or dealer advertising to date. Paying to list on a classified site is a pure advertising investment, why would I pay for listing fees and lead fees and advertising and then have some other dealer’s ads distract a potential customer from my listings?  It makes no sense”. 

He went on to state that he sees no conflict in getting dealer inventory  loaded up for free on usedcarsforsale.com, and offering them high visibility on the new site as well.  “It’s all good, we like the model of a basic referral site option, that’s why Craigslist outperforms all of the major automotive classified sites hands down when it comes to making car sales...and that’s the bottom line to our ever-growing client base.

Kelly Kleinman

Content Manager/Dealer News

www.dealershipnews.com

Office: 818-817-6343

Kelly@dealershipnews.co

Historically, there’s nothing like Mother Nature to surge sales as well as flood waters. Remember Hurricane Katrina, up until now, the costliest disaster in US history? She wiped out nearly a half a million vehicles and consequently, automotive sales peaked at all-time record volume in 2005 which is no surprise considering the need to replace the water-ravaged wrecks. As fodder for another story, 10,000 of those totals ended up in Bolivia being sold as low-priced dream cars turned nightmares when the corrosive nature of the saltwater eventually totaled those vehicles for a second time.

Vehicle replacement sales in September and October continue a rally in car sales that is expected to continue into November and creep into December. As one would expect, the best performing brands in Q3 were representative of the three manufacturers historically favored by those geos hit hardest by the weather such as Texas, Florida, S. Carolina, Louisiana, and Georgia. Here’s the scoreboard; GM has experienced an 11.8% increase in sales, Ford at a 14.9% lift, and Toyota at an 8.9% spike.

GM and Ford pickups led the sales salvo with the Toyota cranking out record transactions as well. Nissan reported that its popular Rogue also set a record, selling just 4,000 units less than the Rav4.

Overall, it was a killer quarter for Nissan that set a wind-related record for September enjoying a 9.5% increase in sales, with a total of 139,969 units finding new, drier homes led of course by crossover King the Nissan Rogue. Toyota’s Rav4 continues to get raves from the public and continues to be the big T’s top seller into Q4.

Even new used car sites Usedcarsforsale.com and Usedcarsnearme.com have reported a prodigious increase in dealer listing activity for replacement inventory.

Will the trend continue with the absence of another natural disaster or is the industry rallying up on an upsurging economy? Perhaps Asteroid TC4 will decide to make an unexpected crash landing and bring on a whole new of car sales opportunities that are out of this world! Only time will tell!

Kelly Kleinman Content Manager/Dealership News www.dealershipnews.com 818-817-6343

Steve Tackett’s “Carweek.com” has it’s big 20th anniversary coming up in November. “As a big thank you to the industry that’s been great to me and my team, I thought I’d give back by making www.usedcarsforsale.com absolutely free. I like the trade-off, dealers get great leads, traffic, and sales for free, we get to see which emerging technologies are the most effective at driving car shoppers to their sites, it’s a win-win”.

Tackett is taking the entire automotive listing concept back to its roots and is creating an environment where a dealer can list their entire inventory for free, forever as part of his rather unusual, if not eccentric gift to the used car industry.  The consumer can shop on a clean, user-friendly listing site and the car dealer will never have to hassle with billing issues or their leads being shared among other local dealers.  Tackett will have the only automotive listing site that is completely free to the industry and so far the response has been as expected, off the charts.

Used Cars for Sale has been a search engine query keyed in by millions of car shoppers every year. It is now a classified automotive listing site that will be driving millions of car buyers to used car dealer’s websites absolutely free, forever according to Mr. Tackett.  Once the advertising campaign kicks in, traffic to the new site will increase substantially as will leads, and sales to the dealers who have listed their inventory on the site.

Tackett, an upper 1% Google SEO expert who has collected over 5,000 search engine-based domain properties, has a plan that will help used car dealers increase sales while he drives traffic to them utilizing technologies and strategies few have the ken to imitate and or initiate. Says Tackett, “Dealers who have used car inventory now have a platform that charges them nothing to list their inventory, generate leads, or drive traffic.  We expect to make many car dealers very happy and the pay for lead sites very upset.  When you can get quality leads for free, why would you pay for it?".

Used Car Dealers Rally en Masse for Free Leads, More Visibility, and Increased Sales at No Charge.

Classified listing sites used to be basic referral sites with an ad revenue model.  Now, the big classified listing sites charge for leads, ad position, traffic, and listings.

The bottom line is that this free approach creates no ambiguity between vendor and dealer, allows car shoppers the necessary comparables all of the paid sites do, and the only ones making money are the used car dealers.  Used car dealers have long been clamoring for an affordable listing site and now they have one that provides exactly what they’ve needed for years along with a 0-cost CPA.

Kelly Kleinman

Dealership News/Content Manager

www.dealershipnews.com

818-817- 6343