Cars.com acquires Dealer Inspire

[craigh]

p.s. Wyler's FastLane is the poster child of new-era risk-less car enjoyment

I agree with this part. Looks like slow growth (still in the first 30), but I'm excited for them.

 

[Chris Cachor]

New Model: "You bought it, enjoy it for *x* days to make sure you like it"

I hope that's not all there is to it. Otherwise, CarMax would have been selling cars online a long time ago. Risk transfer is a good thing - but I'm still skeptical on eCommerce for two big reasons:

1.) Salespeople are a lot better getting someone to spend money than a website. Hands down.
2.) It's too easy to back out of a deal online and push off a vehicle purchase due to transaction cost "shocks". Online retailers had to remove every extra transaction cost to compete. You can't really do that when someone realizes they need to pay $4k in sales tax, title, license, and doc fees.

Now, I think the Wyler FastLane program is awesome. I applaud them for bringing it to market. There's a major caveat, though. It's a $800+/mo "leasing" program. I think it's awesome but most of the market cannot afford the program! They also run the risk of getting run over by OEM's (Cadillac for example).

Transferring risk might be able to pave the way, but I'm still pretty skeptical of eCommerce for dealers. Hell, I even have my own project called Dealer Commerce! My strategy is different, though.

 

[john.quinn]

Here's a question... if Consumers are, at best, "so so" on Digital Retailing, and Dealers are, at best, "so so" on Digital Retailing, then why is Digital Retailing the first word out of every vendor's mouth?

 

[Chris Leslie]

Because everyone thinks they’re a futurist.

 

[john.quinn]

Because everyone thinks they’re a futurist.

Ha! There may be some truth to that...

I do think that after 15-20 years of producing your core product, it's easy to run out of ideas -- and also easy to glom-on to some ideas that don't quite fit into your original mantra, which (if you were successful) undoubtedly involved solving a legitimate business problem or filling a legitimate market need.

 

[Alexander Lau]

DealerInspire Purchase by Cars.com Elicits Praise and Concern
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dealerinspire-purchase-carscom-elicits-praise-concern-brian-pasch/

 

[craigh]

So humble.

 

[Alexander Lau]

Back to those AWA Awards again... ha

 

[FrigginBandit]

DealerInspire Purchase by Cars.com Elicits Praise and Concern
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dealerinspire-purchase-carscom-elicits-praise-concern-brian-pasch/

What a joke. I saw this too. Unbelievable.

 

[FrigginBandit]

DealerInspire Purchase by Cars.com Elicits Praise and Concern
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dealerinspire-purchase-carscom-elicits-praise-concern-brian-pasch/

I can’t help myself, the king of the made up awards, hahahahaha

A self-proclaimed “industry expert” that’s never worked in a store let alone in technology... wasn’t he in the fundraising business in another life? With his brothers. Selling candy bars to churches or for chirches to the elderly or something?

Anyway, we’re on the same wavelength because when I saw that yesterday I almost posted it myself. Well done, well done indeed.