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vAuto effectiveness!

SlickRick

Full Sticker
Mar 11, 2010
15
0
First Name
Rick
Hey guys,

This is the first month for us at our dealership to be using vAuto, how effective has it been in your dealership ? Did the "typical car guy" understand the data ? Because we using it but we still have some "cowboys" (as I like to call them), who still go out and buy on top of there heads. I personally can't stand it, but they are higher on the food chain then I am...

So how effective has it been at your dealership and has it done a good job of improving sales ?

Because technically speaking, if you are selling the cars that most people are looking to buy then you are using more of your advertising dollars at work.

Regards, Rick
 
vAuto in my opinion is the most effective and the best thing that has happened to the used car business. I began using vAuto three and a half years ago in the last store I ran. It allows you to get a pulse on the market that no "cowboy" can possibly know. It gives a scientific approach inventory management. I have been recommending to people every since I first began using it.

Used car managers inevitably become emotional about inventory because its a "nice car" and tend to pay to much for it or keep it too long. At the end of the day its all about turning dollars and ROI. If you use a bucket system or similar it works great with vAuto. I have been able to help dealers keep their inventory levels to a 27-35 day supply and still increase their volume with this tool. It doesn't matter if you sell 20 used a month or 120 a month this product will help you.

Remember though, you still have to use common sense. This tool is a guide. I have seen people use this tool and price to the letter as vAuto suggested and leave money on the table because they had a unique car that merited a higher price because it was the only one out there. I have seen this tool help small rural stores that are selling 25-30 used a month go to 60-70 a month. The main reason for this that vAuto helps you price point the car so that people pick up the phone and call or come and see you.

Note: A reminder to everyone reading this. "For every $1000 increase in your average cost of inventory above $9,500 expect a 10% decrease in volume."vAuto is a great tool to help you keep an eye on this.
 
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I was at a special finance dealership about when that market really started to nose dive, and the dealer I was at starting using vAuto then. He had 3 stores at the time (all Suzuki franchises), they are down to 2 stores now, but between the 2 are doing about 150-170 used cars per month thanks to vAuto and having competitive inventory price points on all their models. This was about the time I left there though and got into buy here pay here, so I don't have much personal experience actually using the software, but I see it worked great for those guys.
 
We're going to start using vAuto in the next month... Everyone here is extremely hesitant about the system. We have 2 local auto groups using it. One follows vAuto to the letter and gets screwed on the front end. The other uses it more like a guide and has a bit more freedom pricing cars and they do ok, but still dollars per month didn't go up as expected.

Plus when you're turning that many cars there is the extra overhead of the rest of the business. Accounting, lot attendant, detail, etc.

So yeah, we're going to go ahead with it. It's a fantastic sales pitch, but there's a lot of skepticism.