Come On Reynolds!

[Eley Duke]

There was a rumors at NADA indicating DealerTrack was making an offer to purchase Reynolds.

Ahhh crap, I hope not!

It will not be long and the hold the large three have on our industry will be reduced. As new decision makers enter in dealerships there will be more demand for a better product bringing more options. Even though there are a large number of alternatives to the big three, they are by and large lessor alternatives from a technology standpoint.

I have to agree, and hope that better solutions will evolve with better relationships between the vendors and dealers. In 2008 we had had enough of Reynolds, and we had heard of ACS through our 20 group. Call it luck, in Sept 2008 we made the decision to switch from Reynolds at $16,000 a month, to ACS at $1,700 a month and did so in Jan of 2009, good timing! Guess what, we hadn’t missed a beat with regards to DMS. My only complaint is ACS doesn't place nice in integration, we cant integrate live. And so at DD10 I was looking at DealerTrack, and like their product. But I sure as hell would never want to do business with Reynolds again, they still are holding our data hostage!

 

[Alex Snyder]

There was a rumors at NADA indicating DealerTrack was making an offer to purchase Reynolds.

DealerTrack is buying everything

 

[Jeff Kershner]

What for? I predict in a few years Reynolds will not longer he a power player anyways. I guess this would be a fast way of getting it done.

 

[CliffC]

What for? I predict in a few years Reynolds will not longer he a power player anyways. I guess this would be a fast way of getting it done.

Ditto

 

[JesseJ]

I noticed they are finally removing bad email addresses. Better late than never.

 

[craigh]

What for? I predict in a few years Reynolds will not longer he a power player anyways. I guess this would be a fast way of getting it done.

I can't say I necessarily agree with the prediction, but I certainly hope it rings true.
Too many dealers are building their entire technology front around Reynolds, Reynolds integration and the like.

Everytime Reynolds updates their security settings, the data pull company scrambles for 2-3 days to get back in there and parse the data feeds properly. In the meantime, our entire dealership is out. AAX, Auto Trader, Dealer.com Inventory -- they all depend on the beast.

 

[ArtMorris]

Everytime Reynolds intentionally breaks the methods 3rd parties are using to extract data , the data pull company scrambles for 2-3 days to get back in there and parse the data feeds properly.

There, fixed that for you.

 

[joe.pistell]

I can't say I necessarily agree with the prediction, but I certainly hope it rings true.
Too many dealers are building their entire technology front around Reynolds, Reynolds integration and the like.

Got a pal of my that is a ER Doctor at a hospital. He has the EXACT same complaints. The Hospital's legacy system (read: DMS) kills innovation and he feels like hes stuck in 10 year old time warp that's just discovering cell phones. Sound familiar?

Institutions depend on their legacy system to a fault... and the legacy system players know it.

We Dealers don't know that the legacy systems can multi-task. Look at how good Reynolds is at sucking cash from it's host while smothering change.

 

[craigh]

There, fixed that for you.

You would be correct. I do believe that is a better analysis of the situation.

 

[craigh]

Got a pal of my that is a ER Doctor at a hospital. He has the EXACT same complaints. The Hospital's legacy system (read: DMS) kills innovation and he feels like hes stuck in 10 year old time warp that's just discovering cell phones. Sound familiar?

Institutions depend on their legacy system to a fault... and the legacy system players know it.

We Dealers don't know that the legacy systems can multi-task. Look at how good Reynolds is at sucking cash from it's host while smothering change.

The last part is so true

Unfortunately it's all true and this is the state of dealers today. I find the same issues with our website provider though - we went with Dealer.com and are now stuck with the massive beast that can only innovate as fast as it's slowest part.

Being a young, modern and fast-paced young man means that I have no tolerance for these archaic technologies, interfaces or excuses for unfair business practice. They charge the most for the least innovation and features -- what is that all about?