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Devin Outfleet

Devin Outfleet

Tie Cut
Jun 11, 2018
12
4
First Name
Devin
#1
Hello Guys i just Recently signed a big contract for a website with a family owned Honda Dealership in my hometown.

we are currently trying to get to the bottom of an issue im sure you guys are all familiar with. "verified vendors"

My question is this. do i have to be a verified vendor to create a website for a family owned licensed Honda Dealership in California?

Any insight into this topic would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks & Happy Selling.
 
#2
To answer your question, absolutely not. The vast majority of "educated" dealerships having an OEM compliant website and then a secondary website for which they have total freedom. Whether that secondary website is considered a "custom website" or not can be argued, as many smaller website providers have a group of templates / themes that they use. In other words, just because you're creating a secondary website it doesn't mean that it's entirely customized per se.
 
#4
Alexander Lau said:
To answer your question, absolutely not. The vast majority of "educated" dealerships having an OEM compliant website and then a secondary website for which they have total freedom. Whether that secondary website is considered a "custom website" or not can be argued, as many smaller website providers have a group of templates / themes that they use. In other words, just because you're creating a secondary website it doesn't mean that it's entirely customized per se.
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Um... I won't argue with your "vast majority of "educated" dealerships" statement, but I will add that the vast majority of dealerships overall do no fit into that category. Indeed the vast majority of dealerships overall have a single OEM compliant website, in my experience. If they have multiple makes they may have multiple websites, one for each make for OEM compliance.
 
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#6
ed.brooks said:
Um... I won't argue with your "vast majority of "educated" dealerships" statement, but I will add that the vast majority of dealerships overall do no fit into that category. Indeed the vast majority of dealerships overall have a single OEM compliant website, in my experience. If they have multiple makes they may have multiple websites, one for each make for OEM compliance.
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I would agree about the vast majority :) and their reliance on a single website. My point, smart dealers know they're limited by OEM sites, so... the ones that spend the money on additional sites. Could be for used cars, new cars, combo (have seen it for fixed-ops too, but not limited by compliance typically). It's the freedom they need. As for makes / brands yes. For new, the only thing CDJRs are a challenge (four) as was Toyota Scion, etc.

The more hooks in the water (as long as being maintained properly), the better IMO. An automotive group might see more leads come through, with more organic real estate being eaten up.
 
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#7
to add some perspective they are trying to get rid of dealer inspire and have me build them a completely custom website. They also want it to work with the vendors they have now. Such as reynolds and reynolds, first look, v auto, gubagoo ect. They are a family owned licensed honda Dealership. thoughts on this ?
 
#8
Devin Outfleet said:
to add some perspective they are trying to get rid of dealer inspire and have me build them a completely custom website. They also want it to work with the vendors they have now. Such as reynolds and reynolds, first look, v auto, gubagoo ect. They are a family owned licensed honda Dealership. thoughts on this ?
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Are you a web developer with a great deal of understanding of all of the automotive best practice requirements (mechanisms... inventory managements, etc.) that need to be installed, maintained / supported and all of the 3rd party mechanisms (vendors) that need to be inserted? Doesn't seem to smart of them to move away from a proven automotive web platform provider (especially DI), but hey... I've seen dumber things out of dealers in the past.
 
#9
Alexander Lau said:
Are you a web developer with a great deal of understanding of all of the automotive best practice requirements (mechanisms... inventory managements, etc.) that need to be installed, maintained / supported and all of the 3rd party mechanisms (vendors) that need to be inserted? Doesn't seem to smart of them to move away from a proven automotive web platform provider (especially DI), but hey... I've seen dumber things out of dealers in the past.
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im a very seasoned software engineer and have drafted up and created projects that needed alot more skill involved then a custom website. as for the third party vendors iv been working in marketing in the auto industry for 3 years and have a pretty good understanding of how they all work. As for the Dealership they sell over 300 cars a month and are not happy with dealer inspire which is understandable because it has pretty slow site speed looks like a wordpress site from 2012 and is just like every other car dealership out there. im more interested about the compliance between Honda and the website. i know some dealerships can only use approved verified vendors for things like there website??
 
#10
Devin Outfleet said:
to add some perspective they are trying to get rid of dealer inspire and have me build them a completely custom website. They also want it to work with the vendors they have now. Such as reynolds and reynolds, first look, v auto, gubagoo ect. They are a family owned licensed honda Dealership. thoughts on this ?
Click to expand...
I hope you're charging $100K+ for this project and a significant monthly support fee because that is what's required to do a decent job. You would either need to charge an exorbitant amount to this dealer or have plans to scale with additional dealership clients.

I would ignore Reynolds & Reynolds and FirstLook and use vAuto to handle your inventory feed. If you contact vAuto, they will be able to upload a csv file to your ftp server with the dealership's entire inventory multiple times a day. Managing the inventory is the most complicated piece because of all the inconsistencies in color names, features, etc.

Gubagoo is a chat platform that simply requires placing some javascript on the site.

Honestly if I were you, I'd suggest working with Dealer Inspire to create whatever your client is working for. They can do some pretty awesome things and being on the Wordpress platform allows developers like you to easily create landing pages, etc.

What made the dealership want to move away from Dealer Inspire?
 
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