Over the last year or so, many dealerships have dialed back their special finance operations or given up on them altogether, but not Planet Ford, a World Class Automotive Organization (WCAO) dealership in Spring, Texas.
At The Car Store, Dealership Owners Greg Johnson and Ed Wilgus have worked to grow their two-store BHPH operation to encompass a wider spectrum of customers. Read on to discover how they moved beyond BHPH and now work with all customers in all credit tiers.
Kimberly Long - Pushing inventory out to multiple online destinations presents a unique set of challenges to a dealership’s resources. Accomplishing this task in house will often require a great deal of time, effort and manpower. So, what is the best way to handle online inventory management and how much help does a dealer need?
Kimberly Long - What kinds of strategies are at work when it comes to pricing online inventory? In short, all kinds.
Kimberly Long - In lean times, dealers must take measures to be certain they are maximizing each and every deal, and the F&I department is one of the main places to look for opportunities to increase profit. However, it also contains a potential landmine—compliance.
Kimberly Long - If a dealership were a living organism, it’s safe to say the dealership management system (DMS) could be considered the creature’s central nervous system. There isn’t an area of the dealership the DMS does not touch; it holds huge amounts of the data necessary for the dealership to function—customer data, parts and vehicle inventory information, service history, financial data and much more.
Kimberly Long - Leasing is coming back in a big way. Just ask Ernie Boch, president of Boch Automotive, which has dealerships in Norwood and North Attleboro, Mass., covering Toyota, Scion, Honda, Ferrari and Maserati. “Leasing is really, really getting hot right now,” he declared.
Too many dealers have had to learn how to pick up and move on with their lives after getting a “Dear John” letter from their manufacturer(s) to which they had been loyal for decades. At first glance, it would seem the disenfranchised dealer has three options: close the doors, acquire another vehicle franchise or go it alone as an independent.
Kimberly Long - To the casual observer passing by DeBoer’s Auto in Hamburg, N.J., the dealership might appear to be a small, rather unassuming-looking used car lot. To be sure, DeBoer’s isn’t a gigantic operation – they stock about 20 used vehicles at any given time – but the area in which the store truly excels is its fixed operations.
Kimberly Long - During one of the worst recessions in the country’s history, many businesses abruptly halted any plans for growth. However, while 2009 may have been a risky year to launch a new dealership, Findlay Automotive Group took the next logical step in growing the company’s footprint by opening their newest store.