Zack_AF said:

Appreciate your input!

Totally agree with making things easy which is part of the thought behind the convenience of meeting someone at they’re at. What we have is just like Facetime but unlike Facetime, it includes Androids and doesn't require any apps/downloads.

Just trying to think outside the box. I occasionally see LinkedIn posts talking about the need to acquire more cars but never seem to see a lot of solutions being presented.

If Carvana/CarMax have a simple process and they offer more $$, how can dealers create an advantage?
One thing I know they don’t do is utilize live video for trade-in appraisals and use that as a sales opportunity with capability for a walkaround.

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So the person wanting to sell their vehicle would have to download an APP? Or does the APP reside on the dealership website so there would be no need for a Software Download?

Zack_AF said:

Appreciate the info, fellas! Sounds like you have a solid process working. Curious, would you know how many are buying from you vs just selling?

I’m not a dealership so I don’t have a process in place. Just have an idea that is sort of an offshoot of a live video product we have.
Contemplating if optimizing for a trade-in type experience would be useful and if dealers would even want/use something like this.

The thought here is sort of along the lines of we don’t know what we don’t know. I just wonder how many people bypass a dealership‘s trade-in processes in favor of CarMax/Carvana (whom are typically known to pay more) and how much of that market could be captured with a human connection.

Nobody is offering this, so what might customers think if this was an available option.

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I am really not sure what advice I can give, and know that I have thought about it a lot.

My store has been open for about 15 years. From day 1 we have worked to build a reputation as a dealership that would put a number on absolutely any vehicle that someone wants to sell. Even if the customer doesn't like our number, we give them a number.

We actually get some vehicle bought in situations where the dealer down the road is low balling on the trade so they sell it to us and go buy the vehicle from the guy down the street.

The kicker is that I am low volume compared to what most are. An app or video process might actually be more of a barrier than simplifying things. People are familiar with texting a cell phone picture. It is simple and something that they do all the time. Facetime is the same thing. It is so easy to just Facetime the customer and walk them through how to reverse the camera is we want to look at a trade in or purchase vehicle. Native Mobile features are just engrained into everyday life.

Now don't let my opinion hinder your outlook for a product. You may very well be onto something special. I am simply not a person that has the background or need for something like it so my input isn't worth much.

bringles said:

thanks! Do you mean in Quickbooks?

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Yes, Quickbooks Payments.

It's pretty frustrating @DrewAment . I don't like it at all, and it isn't just Carfax.

What I see frequently is that the "Great Deal" vehicles are typically really tacky but have no REPORTED Accidents. These cars might be scratched up with door dings, cracked bumper covers, stained seats, headliners that look like they survived an Apocalypse, oxidized head lights, etc...but the Value Rating is really strong especially if they have even a decent service history.

Think about the cars that work really good for Sub Prime and you realize that those are the cars that score well on these 3rd Party sites.

Why they won't just tell us how the Rater System works is beyond me. I suppose they are afraid that dealers will somehow game their system?

thanks! Do you mean in Quickbooks?

I process through Intuit and anytime someone is using a Debit Card I process it as an E-Check for a flat $3 per transaction.

For me, it depends largely on how new the pickup is. I would never mess with deleting a truck that is still under factory warranty.

As @Alex Snyder said, the performance difference is staggering. I have always known that diesel pickups are "de-tuned" to less than half of what they are capable of, but it is hard to really comprehend that until you have felt it.

I have recently been thinking about buying an old Ford 6.0 and having it Bullet Proofed and Deleted. Those things run amazing with a little bit of love.

What year make model engine are you wanting to delete?

We get basic information like @Richie K and have the customer send us pictures. We tell them that we don't need fancy pictures and that they don't need to wash and vacuum the car. We also tell that anything that can't be captured in a photo (windshield, scratches, etc) they can just tell us about "we will see it as soon as you bring it in anyway" and we will do the same for you on the vehicle you want to buy.

It works really good for us. We rarely change an appraisal.

I source most of my tires from ebay. I would avoid generic new tires and go with good quality name brand tires any day. The cheap Chinese tires wear out very quickly. For example, I just bought a matching set of Hankook 245/55r19 tires with 6/32" tread for $105 including shipping. I pay $15 per tire for mounting at a local tire shop.

This isn't the usual question for DealerRefresh, as we are more focused on solving dealer issues. With that said, I love diesels and think they are unnecessarily hampered by government bullshit. The fight against diesel is one of the best examples of eco-morons who only see the soot in front of them versus those who recognize the larger issues truly polluting our air.

I'm in the "remove all the government-mandated crap" on your diesel truck crowd. I had a deleted and bulletproofed F350 that I loved. The performance gain was tremendous (380hp to 600hp) with the delete. You'd see soot come out of the tailpipe only on a super cold day with a cold start (no engine warming with the plug).

With that said, you need to know your emissions restrictions in your state and what kits are available for your car. My F350 was a 2005, so it fell outside of current restrictions in my state.

This is data right from our groupwide roll-up GA4 property for last month:

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Wow, no kidding. Thanks for sharing that. Facebook would skew towards mobile but still. Great info!

~80% of dealership traffic is mobile, so the top navigation bar isn't even visible.

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I'd argue most mobile sites aren't even usable on mobile. I don't even bother on my phone - I just go direct to Cars.com or CarGurus.

But 80%? That seems high? Last I checked it was closer to 60%?

Here is an example of a landing page we use on Google's Vehicle Ads. We created a separate set of VDPs that are optimized for Vehicle Ads. They generate more leads and visitors are more engaged.


It was a whole process to A/B test and come up with these landing pages. We initially noticed the normal VDPs had a high bounce rate when coming from Google's Vehicle Ads. When we looked into the analytics, we saw that a high percentage of users that stayed scrolled down and clicked on a similar vehicle. So initially, we expanded that section from showing 3 vehicles to 6 vehicles.
Somewhere down the line, we added a link to the SRP. More people stayed and shopped.
We went crazy and expanded that section again to 12 and a little more people stayed.
We then decided to redesign the VDP and create a separate VDP just for VLA. Through several more iterations, that screenshot is where we're at now.
We did a case study with another dealer group and they saw an overall increase of 59% more leads, 122% increase in engagement and a 36% decrease in bounce rate.
This is all due to changing the landing page. Same spend and more leads.
You can carry this same process to all campaigns, even monthly offer campaigns.

DjSec is right on point here. A good landing page makes a huge difference. Think about it. You paid for that person to click on your ad and now they're on the website. You want to maximize the chances of converting that visitor into a customer. If you advertise a special lease rate, a landing page that goes into more details on the special lease, along with matches in inventory will outperform landing that visitor on the homepage or even on your SRP.

DjSec said:

And then pushes corrected data back through an API or integration with the dealership’s inventory system?

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This one has such promise but has much to learn
-yoda

DjSec said:

Why not skip the traditional homepage entirely?

Users want inventory first.​

You're removing friction. When someone visits yoursite.com, they’re not saying “wow, nice hero image!” They’re thinking:

"Do they have the car I want?"

By showing the SRP right away, you're answering that immediately.

Your removing a click and turning the traditional homepage into the SRP page. That speeds up the buyer journey and aligns with user intent.

Your homepage becomes the indexable inventory. Google gets real-time updates on vehicle listings right from the start, helping with organic rankings.

Mobile users don’t want to hunt through a homepage for the link to the inventory and that design gets them instantly to filters, photos, and price.

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Agree -- but most dealers have fixed/service departments.

Homepage == 3 buttons.....that's it.

"Shop New", "Shop Used", "Service Appointment"

MAYBE 4 if you have a solid buying program, so - add "Sell Your Vehicle"

Dealers that load their homepage with hero images, large luxury type cool photos, and other things a customer really doesn't care about.... just insane. Get the customer, as fast as possible, to the info/section they are looking for.

A stat thrown around a lot is that less than 15% of vehicle shoppers even see your "homepage" - as most traffic is direct to SRP or VDP.

Without good data, its' hard to make decisions that maximize ROI. Make sure all your data is there. Are you tracking all your leads (including phone calls, chats, sms, etc)? If not, you should. Then make sure they are making it into Google Ads. This will allow you to funnel your $$$ to your best performing campaigns.

PMax campaigns are probably one of the better performing campaign types right now, especially if you add in Vehicle Listing Ads but its' easier to spend a ton there and some mistakes can be costly. Start small, learn, optimize then spend more.

AutoMagic Labs is building a VDP auditing svc.


So far,
• 37% of all units listed are missing 1 or more key features.
• 99.999% of Dealers don't have the manpower to conduct a full VDP audit for 100's of used cars.



Our goal: Create an automated VDP audit that executes at a fraction of the cost of doing it manually.




DR Exclusive: HIT LIKE below to get into our beta.

I've been preaching this here for years...
Someone is going to figure out that putting a human face into the VDP carousel to tell a story about quality is going to sell cars.

Our pics are sooo sterile, yet great stores are is soo people dependant.


Youtube knows faces gen highest CTR

20 yrs ago, this gal and I sold a lot of cars together (then I married her

I would weave those customer photos and real testimonials throughout the Search Results if it's possible - maybe one per row? 2 listings, then a customer photo, 2nd row --> 1 testimonial, then 2 listings next to it.

joe.pistell said:

>>>The REAL ClockTower is on the right<<<

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Boom

Eric Miltsch said:

My current favorites based on YTD performance/trends & long-term potential (5yrs+)

• LI
• NIO
• RIVN
• LCID
• TSLA

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@Eric Miltsch
I joined you with LCID RIVN is zzzz.