Cargurus, Please tell me how this benefits your customer (aka... The Dealer)????

[Baron Ringler]

So how exactly does placing an Avg. Price Paid on the New Car listing benefit your customer? The cars already have sale prices on them. What purpose does having a Avg. Paid Price on the vehicle serve except to undermine the dealers selling price and create confusion for the customers. Please don't give some BS answer about transparency!

Unfortunately, it's the name of the game today that sites like this do their best to lure buyers, to see your cars, but place you in a race-to--the-bottom scenario that you can't escape. On the one hand, if they don't give the customer a compelling reason to visit their site, your cars will never be seen. And since one site tries to out-do the others, to capture advertising revenue, they do what they must to draw your business. I don't blame these third party sites because they are just following the business, just like we do. The decision becomes whether or not we play in that sandbox.

But they give us something we didn't have, which is a customer that may buy a car from us. So ask yourself (3) questions: Is my price fair? Do I have salespeople or a BDC that are skilled enough to overcome the objection that their local guy is cheaper? And do I run my used car inventory efficiently enough that I can still make decent money on the car because of my quick turn, even though I'm playing in the pricing sandbox?

There is no sense in bemoaning the situation: there is no way we can change the market, or the marketING. How can we effectively promote our product and manage our inventory in a way that fits this dynamic in order to maximize our ROI is the consideration. If that means the types of comparisons you posted above then so be it. We may not like it, especially those of us who've been doing this since before a time when the Internet was so everywhere, but it's our reality.

 

[Steve Stauning]

Kind of funny how the Big 3 classifieds are looking beyond the traditional dealer. Shaking them down for higher fees, while getting into bed with (and skewing the game for) non-brick-and-mortar operations (or worse, investing in startups that will bypass the dealer network completely).

It's also kind of funny how many industry consultants who claim to have dealers' bests interests at heart are completely silent on this phenomenon. I suppose if they didn't depend on the Big 3 (and the snake oil sellers in the industry) to sponsor their events, they might actually have a meaningful opinion.

 

[Dan Sayer]

Kind of funny how the Big 3 classifieds are looking beyond the traditional dealer. Shaking them down for higher fees, while getting into bed with (and skewing the game for) non-brick-and-mortar operations (or worse, investing in startups that will bypass the dealer network completely).

It's also kind of funny how many industry consultants who claim to have dealers' bests interests at heart are completely silent on this phenomenon. I suppose if they didn't depend on the Big 3 (and the snake oil sellers in the industry) to sponsor their events, they might actually have a meaningful opinion.

Shoppers are looking past the traditional dealer. No one is shaking down anyone, Steve. A dealer can choose where they spend their money. I'm going to spend money where the eyeballs are, so I am paying two of the big three (and I've negotiated lower fees) to get my cars in-front of those eyeballs. What startups are they investing in that will bypass the dealer network completely? In your professional opinion, what stand should a dealer take? Drop classified?

 

[joe.pistell]

The winds of change continue to come to us all. Carvana/Vroom, Digital Retailing and more. Let's face it, it's the shopper that is way ahead of our industry, pushing us into a new world that THEY WANT.

These quotes popped out to me...

Shoppers are looking past the traditional dealer. No one is shaking down anyone

ALL dealers are willing to ship vehicles to anywhere within the States.

I'd like to know how our dealer can become an "online dealer" as well.

250 mile radius of your dealership: $1,600/month

My thoughts:

• The majority of car shoppers are undecided and they WANT a dealership/test drive experience to make a decision. Carvana can't compete here.
• Carvana has been a catalyst of change, but Local Dealers who have great operations will now compete with Carvana. As I reflect, Carvana has the most to lose in this scenario.
• Carvana's prices are not all that low*
• It's more than price, think: BRAND BRAND BRAND. Dealers who want to break into selling via delivery will have far greater success when they dive deeply into communicating who they are and why it matters.
• All the marketplaces will be offering long distance sales to local dealers. It's up to the marketplaces to clean up the chaos that we see now that so confuses shoppers and dealers. Look for this to change quickly.

*I went to CarGurus to compare the 'inventory pricing profiles' of Carvana vs Hi-performing Local dealer Dolan Automotive Group.
Google Search for Carvana locations
https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/m-Dolan-Toyota-sp174494

Carvana, Atlanta. 10% of inventory at Good or Great Deal.


Dolan Toyota, Reno. 44% of inventory at Good or Great Deal.




p.s. Will EbayMotors make a come back?

 

[joe.pistell]

This is a recent interview among 2 automotive all stars (Paul J Daly & our Kevin Frye). This discussion offers us all insights into the Carvana/Vroom disruption from a progressive CMO’s P.O.V.


(vid starts at Carvana discussion)

Summary: Carvana et al are a positive catalyst for change, and, the real challenge for our dealers is to master internal workflow (i.e. speed the sales process).

 

[Rick Buffkin]

CG!!!!! Why would you include another dealers listing in the email communication from our sales rep to the customer after the customer inquired about one of our vehicles on the CG website.

 

[Ryan Everson]

I wanted to take a moment to praise CarGurus on some improvements they recently made to their Dealer Pricing Tool.

Whether or not you agree with the premise of their deal rating algorithm, the addition of the dollar amounts needed to move to the next deal rating category are a welcome addition. Before it took a lot of precise sliding to figure out the tipping point of the next deal rating category, now it's easily notated right above the slider.

 

[joe.pistell]

CG!!!!! Why would you include another dealers listing in the email communication from our sales rep to the customer after the customer inquired about one of our vehicles on the CG website.

View attachment 4359