• Stop being a LURKER - join our dealer community and get involved. Sign up and start a conversation.

Tracking the Used Car Reconditioning Process

Jump to latest Follow Reply
#31
Eley Duke said:
I like this process a lot, unfortunately we don't take our pictures, we have a 3rd party and most smaller dealer do, so your waiting on them to get your pictures done. But this is something I am going to look into. Only issue is you need quality control to inspect the vehicle coming out of the shop, making sure now grease foot prints, finger prints, etc.
Click to expand...

I am a third party photo guy. We hit our stores a minimum of 2 times a week, so worse case it sits clean for a day. I'd rather hold off the shop for a day to have photos of a clean car. Our biggest issue is having cars sit for days at a time and not being cleaned, then the dealer wants to know why it has no photos. You would be amazed how many times they ask why a car is a week old with no photos and I tell them it's not detailed yet. I have driven to the dealers to show them the cars. If you stop looking at a no photo list and start looking at the cars themselves, it will make your process better. Just because a car is on a "no photo" report does not mean it is ready to have them taken...
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#32
AutoArchitech said:
I am a third party photo guy. We hit our stores a minimum of 2 times a week, so worse case it sits clean for a day. I'd rather hold off the shop for a day to have photos of a clean car. Our biggest issue is having cars sit for days at a time and not being cleaned, then the dealer wants to know why it has no photos. You would be amazed how many times they ask why a car is a week old with no photos and I tell them it's not detailed yet. I have driven to the dealers to show them the cars. If you stop looking at a no photo list and start looking at the cars themselves, it will make your process better. Just because a car is on a "no photo" report does not mean it is ready to have them taken...
Click to expand...

As the guy who takes the photos for our dealership, I feel your pain. My General Manager in particular seems to think that my SLR Camera makes me some sort of wizard and that I can just wish a dirty car into looking clean in a photo.

I think it's better to have no photo than a photo of a car which isn't prepared to show.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#35
It was always a battle to keep the days to market at 3 days of less.

I proved to the Used Car Director that they would sell more cars and increase their turn if they followed this guideline. Regardless, it was a continuing battle. I wanted to detail the cars before they went into the shop. "Oh, they will get dirty if you do that!"

What if the recon is too much and we send it to the Auction?

Do cars get dirty when the customers bring them in?

Seriously, do you return cars to the customer with grease on the seats?

Since when did cars not bring more, at the sale, when they were clean?
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#36
Jeff Kershner said:
Has anyone seen or used http://www.reconstatus.com?

They posted here in the forums but it was moderated since due to blatant advertising. However since there isn't a lot of dedicated recon tracking services, and after reviewing their website, I figured I would at least mention and link over to their website.
Click to expand...

I like this idea,and I have seen others like it. It has one huge flaw, someone at the dealer needs to input the info. They will for the first 2 weeks, then stop
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
#38
#39
#40
I think this would be another good use for Trello on a few fronts:

1) It's free on the base plan (and the base plan could well be enough)

2) Lots of mobile support--I about use it more on my iPhone to manage my FIRST Robotics Competition* team than I do on my laptop. (Upload a picture of the thing your paint guy needs to touch up and remove all doubt!)

3) You Car People** seem to have a knack for wanting to change up a process every couple months.

This would suck for something hard-coded, but when you can change around the boards or lists on a whim this is easy.

*Yes, that was a shameless plug for them. Find a team in your area and get involved either as a sponsor or mentor or event volunteer.
**Not that all process changes are bad, but they sure are frustrating when they're sprung on you!
 
  • Useful
Reactions: Jeff Kershner
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply
Jump to latest Follow Reply
Menu