- Feb 11, 2015
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- Alex
- Mar 17, 2011
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@Jlewis74 I appreciate you bringing this issue up. It has go to be the biggest racket in our industry and I am floored that the NADA didn't, hasn't, and isn't doing anything to stop it. That's what a dealer association is for. This racketeering does nobody any good except drive revenue to these companies in an unfair way that ultimately costs dealers and their vendors valuable time and money. It's not even their data, it's the dealers' data!
I agree that the best strategy to combatting this is switching DMS providers. While that might not be as simple and painless as you make it out to to be, so what! This is a choice dealers can and should be making out of sheer principle. If 75% of ReyRey and CDK dealers banned together to do this they could bring these companies to their knees (and bring a whole batch of other providers great successes).
I agree that the best strategy to combatting this is switching DMS providers. While that might not be as simple and painless as you make it out to to be, so what! This is a choice dealers can and should be making out of sheer principle. If 75% of ReyRey and CDK dealers banned together to do this they could bring these companies to their knees (and bring a whole batch of other providers great successes).
Could not agree more. And I am speaking to more and more dealer group people who feel the same. It's a computer system. We are not splitting the atom here.
It seems odd -but I've heard that NADA feels this is out of their responsibility to their members as a whole.
Had these DMS companies NOT gone down this path, their legacy solutions would have eventually become nothing more than "data-servers" for the many more effective "bolt-on" services provided by more innovative and nimble solution providers in this industry. Although the dealership and service provider business models thrive with those kind of choices, the legacy DMS vendor business model does not.
I wouldn't expect any legacy DMS vendor to buckle much under market pressure. For them, it is a matter of survival as the writing was clearly on the wall. IN recent years, they realized that they were "endangered" and on their way to "extinct". The self-preserving strategy to acquire the easy providers first, extract revenue from those vendors who they don't own, and do everything else they can to collapse the vendors who won't pay up is all they have left and if it doesn't work for them, the party is over. If they're lucky, these massive companies become much smaller business data and communications providers for the much more innovative 3rd party developers, and if not, they are likely to fade into the abyss.
JMHO...
CDK and RR are both feeling it now, CDK more than RR. CDK has laid off so many people in the past 12 months they are way understaffed. The only reason any dealer is still on their websites solution is because the MF makes them. The DMS is losing customers every day. I see someone else buying CDK and taking part of the DMS and making it better with better support.
- Feb 11, 2015
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- 765
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- Alex
I have had Dealertrack in my Ford store for a year and a half. Very satisfied. In fact I am putting it in another Ford store I am purchasing the first of the year. We will save 2/3rds of what the current owner is paying for R&R with better customer service more functionality. I also looked at Autosoft. I've heard some good things about them and could have saved a little more. But didn't want to switch two stores. Why anyone would pay for R&R or CDK for a one or two store operation is beyond me. We will save aprox $50k a year.
Pros & cons for all options, CDK accounting is much more robust, than that in DealerTrack. DT is super simple to use though.
