It's great news! OEM's should focus on building what customers demand. It should be as simple as that.

I know of one particular OEM that has said they wouldn't produce hybrids because it doesn't help them hit their EPA goals by enough. The irony there is that hybrids are in quite high demand from a consumer and industry perspective. Let consumer demand do the talking.

Hybrids were always the ticket, even plug-in. Getting 50+ MPG but still having an aggressive exhaust note when needed.

If manufacturers can get to around 100 miles of electric-only range while still having the ICE driving experience it will be the best of both worlds. You can daily drive that thing to and from work without using the ICE. And still drive a 12 hour road trip without planning charging points to stop at every 200 miles.

Carsten said:

New owners includes? Musk?
I doubt Mr. Beast is ear marked for that but it would be interesting.

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If you didn't see it, I highly advise watching Trump's press conference while he signed Executive Orders. It was entertaining for sure. And you get a real good sense for how serious he is.

He did speak about TikTok quite a bit. He wants the United States to own half of TikTok. His argument is that TikTok is worth nothing if it goes away. If it stays, it has huge value. And his signature is all it takes because Congress gave the President that power specifically in regard to TikTok. They have 90 days to figure it out.

AlexCaradonna said:

How does this change the EV used car market? I don't have a great pulse on how EV credits work..

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It certainly doesn't strengthen it! However, the losses traditional OEMs are taking cannot be sustained and they're moving away from EVs anyway. Along with Trump's "drill, baby, drill" opening up resources, we will see lower fuel costs. When? Yeah, that's not answerable at this time. Cheap gas will hurt EV sales. Let's recap:

1. Removal of EV manufacturing mandate (California probably won't change their mandates right away) by Executive Order
2. Manufacturers losing money due to incentives on EVs - the bulk of current EV sales are due to them being cheaper than ICE vehicles
3. Cheap gas on the horizon will popularize larger ICE vehicles

I don't see a short-term future for EVs as we knew under the past administration. On January 3rd, 2023 (2 years ago) a thread was started about how long EVs will last at the production level they were ramping to then.

Details around the EV credits have not come across my news cycle yet. I'd bet the only thing that is going away are the manufacturing mandates.

He said it is all about common sense.

The EV battery technology got pushed hard and fast. Maybe some wishful thinking and fancy PR to make people think it is a cleaner power source. It is a superior driving experience. I hope more performance hybrids come to market instead.

All positive!

Ryan Everson said:

100%

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AI Progress Reference: October 2024

3 MONTHS AGO THIS AMAZED ME.​

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Carsten said:

That's an interesting take. Why do you think it's the M1 chip? Motorola/IBM vs Intel vs Apple chips does make sense but a speed bump?


Did you try to find an OS version that worked?

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All I know is I was having issues that PC users weren't on the same systems, with latest versions of Mac OS. Here is an overview that matches what we experienced with the first gen Apple Silicon Apple Silicon: What IT Pros Should Know About the M1 Chip and Beyond

Jon Singo said:

Think of the experience you could create

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AI Update:
Dealer Photo to video


Sick.
Login to view embedded media See reflections on the paint. The wheels are rolling.
Our team is in AI 2-3hrs a day. The progress of improvement is jaw dropping.

A lot of the prior conversation was about model-level new sales. Totally agree on with you on used being volatile based on lack of supply. I would say even if there's a lack of supply as you know the further your perspective the more predictable used gets. But yeah 1 dealer in 1 month it's pretty challenging. As we used to, I still like the approach of using the first 72 hours of engagement data after a car goes live, the dealers prior history and the market's history to smooth out.

This approach is similar to how you can use early player stats in baseball to determine reference players with similar trajectories. The first 72 hours shows you the early career, the dealer and market history give you the comps. If you track time series engagement data you can do this. For the nerds: Career Trajectories

I have been reading and thinking about this and one of the challenges I see is using different data/metrics for the wrong things. If you have time series sales data that will almost certainly be the best for predicting future sales. Any metrics that are upstream of that will lack the same value and correlate to sales anyways with just more noise. Sure there are 100 other ways to do this to seek a specific question about an audience or the performance of a geo, or a campaign but past sales is the best data point for future, that gets you like 70% of the way there.

The next 10-15% is real time data that shows pipeline devoid of human error, the remaining 15-20% is what determines your accuracy and this is based on 100s of things you'll go crazy trying to map, collect and clean. Most people never get the 70% right and focus on the remaining 30% which is 10x harder.

I recommend to just start forecasting model-level sales 1-3 months out and track your MAPE, keep improving your model and learn all the different approaches. If you want post them up in a new thread how you built it.

Dan Sayer said:

instances where increasing packages actually lowered my cost per VDP BUT increased VDPs per unit without a measurable increase in Leads.

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For classified value I totally see your point here @Dan Sayer how an overall VDPs increase that's unequally distributed to likely 20% of the most appealing VINs doesn't provide the same value as if they were spread evenly or even better yet to cars with less traffic. I really think this is a good way to assess value and not go past this point. This analysis is actually still pretty hard. I am going to think some more how I would set this up

ssotop said:

Would you be able to guide me?
For me, it keeps crashing...

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May be time to move to the M3 or M4 chip... Most of my issues are all with the M1.

jon.berna said:

I think you also have make sure it's apples to apples in what you are calling cost. Since many have bundles with other products that don't generate VDPs.

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Part of my cost per VDP theory was that I would be able to add on/upgrade packages without seeing an increase in cost per VDP. If they wanted me to add cost, my return should be an increase in VDPs, therefore keeping the cost per VDP at the same level or lower. This played out for me in a couple of instances where increasing packages actually lowered my cost per VDP BUT increased VDPs per unit without a measurable increase in Leads. I don't know of many products options today that wouldn't be tied to a VDP or CTA that would stem from a VDP.

Jim Lease said:

Dan - Here is a screenshot of your survey results from 2020 for a number of dealers subscribing to Cargurus.

View attachment 9347

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Please send me my own Doc link lol

Dan - Here is a screenshot of your survey results from 2020 for a number of dealers subscribing to Cargurus.

Hey Dan, we still tracking VDPs for 3rd parties, with a benchmark of <50 cents cost per VDP. Our benchmark for 3rd party cost per lead leads (forms, calls, messages from third party site) is <$50.00 Post pandemic, not all 3rd parties recovered, some lost 20-30% of their traffic it would seem, requiring dealers to cancel for 6 months, then come back in at a lower rate. Here is a link to a sample of our reporting:
Analytics Express from Generations Digital

I kinda still stand by the video above from 2018 that cost per vdp is a reflection of your stocking, merchandising within each provider. When you compare across I think it tells you how good of a deal you have with each of them as a baseline. I think you also have make sure it's apples to apples in what you are calling cost. Since many have bundles with other products that don't generate VDPs.

If you ultimately want to reduce the overall cost per vdp then that's going to take some effective deal making. Sounds to me like you actually need to know if you have good deals, not how to measure value, as you have too many ways to do that.

Reviving this relic thread but I'm in the process of whittling down a 3rd Party Classified at the moment. AutoTrader, Cars.com, CarGurus, CarFax, TrueCar, Edmunds, Oh my. We seem to have amassed all of them again while I was helping with the operations side of our business. I'm jumping back into marketing and we seem to of added everything under the sun. Admittedly, CarFax is safe because the ROI is legit for us and Edmunds will escape the ax because we are grandfathered into a ridiculously low subscription. TrueCar we only have at two locations and they have much better account support this time so they're probably not going anywhere either (plus we're flat rate and not per sold with them). That puts Cars.com, AutoTrader, and CarGurus on the clock. I'm running a 90 day comparison for Leads to Sold and I'm compiling referral data and events but how much weight do I put on VDP in 2025? I can't find the older forum post (pre 2014) but I swear that I added a Google sheet at some point that all could report their cost per VDP. $0.45 per, $0.75 per, etc and I'd use that as a comparison between vendors. I'll run those today and post the results for our markets.

Do you still count VDP views or cost per VDP when comparing 3rd Party Classifieds?

Feldie77 said:

Hey all,

How do you obtain a list of what dealer plates you have at your dealership. I'm new and I need to know what plates I am suppose to have so I can verify what's missing. How do I get a list of plates issued to my dealership by the dmv. I'm in New York btw.

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Call the New York State DMV phone number and provide them your dealer number.
In Ohio, we have a login where we can see all the plates, renew registrations, and order new plates.

Is TikTok going to make it past Sunday?

Alex Snyder said:

I'm staying away from these EV companies

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Watch Gasoline. If it spikes, EV demand will follow.

I just bought PoleStar today at $1.20 a share, adding it to my Rivian $RIVN buy

SpinCarShow said:

our software and platform is the best...

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bobjones said:

looks like a fit for what I'm needing. What's the cost?

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SpinCarShow said:

3 different price points depending on...

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