What Car To Buy My Teen?

After looking over the cars released for 2010 and 2011, there is one car that stands out for younger crowds that will make your teen happy, along with your conscience and wallet. The Kia Soul is a great value and although it is not a Porsche full of power, it has a lot of standard features for your teen to get excited about. Using Autoxloo’s Vehicle Showcase Tools you can show off the features that the teens and the parents will want.

It has 3 months of Sirius radio for free; it has an usb connection for a mp3 player. The back seats are roomy and can store just about anything. With a small car it makes it a lot easier to limit the amount of people that get in, as well as makes it a lot easier to park. For those parents who are worried about the fact that it is a smaller vehicle, the kia soul was rated as a top pick for safety.

Is Your Spotlight on Safety?

Making sure that safety is always on the top of the priority list may or may not be the most important thing to a car company, but in recent years technology has definitely helped save a lot of lives. Mercedes Benz has been a front runner in a lot of innovation of these technologies. Whether it is their infrared system that allows the car to detect cars around it or their rear view monitoring system safety for the driver and those around the vehicle seems to be a priority. These safety features are becoming more and more important to buyers. Using Autoxloo’s “etch-a-word” feature you can ensure your future customer are aware of the features the vehicle offers.

Mercedes Benz takes it a step further with their release of the night view assist. This allows a camera display on the dash to indicate any pedestrian on the side of the road. Not only does an indicator alert you but, it also sends a spot light onto the person to alert them of your presence and alert you of theirs. Mercedes bens is putting a spotlight on safety by making sure even at night everyone can feel safe.

Cars on the chopping block?

Today’s auto makers are listening to the needs of others and although they have an inordinate amount of information, in essence they are trying to foresee the future. The younger generations are fickle and cannot really decide what it wants for the price range it has. The middle generations are looking to keep up with the “Jones’s” and the older generations seem to still be pretty stuck in their ways. As this year has passed and although the economy has not improved a lot one thing is clear, auto sales are starting to thrive again

With several companies completely dying and a few that are going to be discontinue but a few that might be able to be saved. It seems that the small compact car is just not really holding on now that gas is no longer making all of us sweat bullets. The Toyota Yaris and Scion XD have seen a substantial loss in sales as well as the Smart for two. The Mazda Tribute which seems to not be able to find its own niche in the crossover marketplace is not doing as well either. Two cars that really shocked me that are on this list are two sports coupes. The Mazda Rx-8 and the Porsche Cayman have seen a loss in sales as well. The rx-8 was released as a family sports car. It has 4 doors and a comfortable back seat. Porsche is on the verge of releasing the Cayman S which should help them boost some sales.

With Autoxloo’s Market IQ you can see what price a vehicle is selling at around the world and know just where you stand with the price of your vehicle.  Hopefully with a new year just around the corner, car companies are looking to be able to reinvent their automobiles that are on the fence will hopefully fall on the profitable side. With sales starting to rise, all of the automakers are looking up to get out of this hole that has been dug.

Smart and Resourceful Dealers Sell More Cars!

A quick shout out to Mike at Park Auto Mall for his nice (and unsolicited) comments about AutoXloo on his blog, Show Room Logic.

Car dealerships have always prided themselves on being resourceful sales guys, always with new ideas on sales promotions to entice customers to their dealership.

Internet marketing offers endless opportunities for these smart and resourceful dealerships to stretch their sales skills online.  Low cost, immediate results, and measurable effects, and quality leads.  What could be more compelling? Every car guy’s dream.

Mike recognizes this utopic vision does require some nuts and bolts, roll up your sleeve work, determination, creativity, analysis and adjustment as he works to increase sales for ParkAutoMall.  AutoXloo is up to the challenge of going toe to toe with him and other dealers in helping them creatively leverage AutoXloo’s software solutions to support their local car sales.

ParkAutoMall.com does a great job of leveraging the AutoXloo technology to increase their local presence and connect with customers when they visit their website.  Look at the ParkAutoMall.com website and some of the proactive things they are doing:

• An active, engaging blog
• Pictures, video introductions, complete contact information of sales staff
• Detailed information about vehicles
• Customer testimonials
• Search friendly, relevant content
• Information to help car buyers make decisions

The time invested in their website pays off on a daily basis.  A large percentage of their floor traffic comes from their dealer website, and this number has been growing for several years.

The Power of Customer Testimonials

Customers trust the words of other customers.  More than they trust a company spokesman, owner, or salesperson.  We encourage you to use the words of your customers to help sell more cars.

Take a look at how some of our customers are using our tools:

Powerful Dealership Video and A ProActive Internet Team

ParkAutoMall.com has a proactive Internet team that engages before, during and after the sale.  Authentic video is an integral part of their customer connections and it is a regular part of their day-to-day activities.

http://www.parkautomall.com/customer-testimonials

Built In Tools for Success

AutoExpoStore.com is more systematic and strategic with their customer testimonials. They have a permanent camera set up in their dealership sales office to capture customer feedback at the point of sale.  Brilliant and easy.

http://www.autoexpostore.com/testimonials/

Long Term Trust, One Customer At A Time

ClassicMotorCars is systematic about how they handle testimonials.  This dealership has earned a trusted advisor status in the West Allis Wisconsin community, and regularly uses the automated tool built into their AutoXloo website to solicit customer feedback.  It’s easy to see they are a great company to do business with.

http://classicmotorcarsinc.net/index.php?pg=testimonials

Dealership Internet Marketing – Location, Location, Location

Search continues to be an evolving and controversial topic among dealerships.  A “search” lead is a valuable, pre-qualified lead, because a searcher is demonstrating “intent” and “specific interest” when they search.  On the other hand, dealerships have had mixed results with search campaigns, and many have spent thousands of dollars monthly on SEO consultants, with varying degrees of success.

AutoXloo continues to evolve our website architecture to be search friendly. Our detailed vehicle descriptions are structured to be relevant to search engines, and helpful to car shoppers. For car shoppers using Google and Bing to search for vehicles locally, our dealer websites naturally provide excellent search relevancy. And car shoppers love our vehicle description reports, available on all AutoXloo websites. AutoXloo’s technology can help dealerships make giant strides in achieving good search results without having to spend thousands of dollars on SEO consultants.

The “up and coming” online opportunity for dealers is the mobile market.  Mobile is big and will be bigger than most of us imagine. It is the fastest growing Internet platform in the market today. Smartphones represent 50% of all phones sold, and represent a fast growing and evolving platform.  Coupled with GPS pinpointing of location, the opportunities presented by barcode scanning of QR codes, there are interesting possibilities for strategically driving qualified leads and  customer engagement.  Talk to AutoXloo about the products we offer that support mobile initiatives by dealerships.

The most underused and most cost effective search tool available to all car dealerships is Google Places (previously Google Local).  A complete profile built here can improve Google Maps visibility (1^st page search results), provide better organic search results, and relevant information to your customers.  Google Places supports customer feedback (testimonials), which are viewed as more credible and trustworthy than any other information you can provide.  Integrating a proactive solicitation of customer feedback from happy customers at the point of sale, is the most effective and cost effective thing you can do.  This single action improves Google search ranking and provides helpful information that other prospective customers WILL read.

When we work with dealerships, we encourage an attitude of “decide, implement, adjust”.  There is no magic bullet online – it’s an iterative process and there is no one size fits all. Choosing what’s right for your dealership and trying and measuring different tactics helps in developing an effective long term strategy.

Automotive Retail Industry- Six technologies that will facilitate change

Consumers in the automotive industry have been asking for changes. Changes that can improve how they will shop, how they buy, and most importantly their overall experience and satisfaction.  Car dealers understand the changes their customers want and truly recognize the opportunities being created.   Showroom shopping, online browsing and customer relationship management abilities are becoming more congruent.  The six pieces of technology are positioned to speed up the historic change currently happening within the automotive retail industry.  Car buyers are a powerful segment, with a strong voice.  Dealers are wise to consider adoption these ideas sooner, rather than later.

Let’s list the six pieces of technologies here. First is Real-Time Search, for example, Google, Bing, Twitter, Facebook. Customers benefit is having access to real-time content which will help shoppers confirm a smart decision much faster.  Second, Geolocation Service which is GPS- style functions within mobile phones, social channels, and smart phone apps. Customers will benefit because they will have an opportunity to create better relationships with dealerships while having fun.  Third, Mobile Video, customers will benefit because it is very convenient. Shopping is what they want and where they want it. Forth, HTML5. Gives opportunity to improve online experiences, adding rich applications, video, animation, Flash, and Silverlight.  Customers will experience shopping online more robust as new content delivery methods emerge.  Fifth, Social centralization, direction of car dealer social networks and the value-added services they will provide automotive professionals.  Customers will benefit from the rapid increase in the sharing of best practices which is about to overcome the retail industry. Competition will increase as the bar is raised to prove a better, more impressive shopping experience. Last, Number six, is Social CRM.

The entire CRM segment will be shaken up in 2010.  Customer benefit will be greater communication and information flow with regards to items such as vehicle service and care care will become more important as ownership continues to increase.

Will the Weather and Recalls Hurt February’s Auto Sales?

The month of February had some horrible winter weather and continued uncertainty surrounding the labor picture in the country, and many analysts has lowered their expectations for February’s auto sales report. Analysts at the beginning of February were expecting the month-to-month sales numbers to be much higher based on strong demand during the President’s Day weekend, yet auto sales volumes came in much lower, thus proving that demand was not sustainable. Wall Street economists have always placed emphasis on the monthly vehicle sales report because it offers a rather reliable gauge as to the health of the U.S. consumer. But, after a month that had the world’s largest auto maker - Toyota Corp. – hit a public relations mess that rivals some of history’s largest catastrophes, many are not expecting anything earth-shattering tomorrow when the auto industry releases its monthly report.

Skeptics are quick to point out that the year-over-year sales numbers should be higher because the United States was involved in a crippling recession, forcing many would-be buyers to the sidelines. But others like to argue that the figures could be even higher had it not been for Toyota’s massive recall and the snowstorms to prevent consumers from hitting the showroom floor.

Source: Taipan publishinggroup.com

Are Auto Sales are expected to rebound in 2010?

Experts Predict- 2010 A Good Year for Auto Industry

Despite all the recent woes suffered by one of the country’s best-selling brands. Lets take a closer look. Toyota’s recent recall have opened the door for its competitors in the United States.   A recent survey by Jumpstart Automotive Group found that 80 percent of prospective car buyers said that they would target buying a Ford, Chrysler, or General Motors vehicle instead of Toyota, due to recent negative publicity related to Toyota’s quality. But more than 33 percent said that they may yet consider a Toyota if they delay their purchase and let the recalls play out.

Last year, 1,772 U.S. dealerships—mostly from GM and Chrysler—closed their doors as closing underperforming dealerships was a large portion of both automakers’ restructuring efforts.  The closures in 2009 may have been the biggest in history, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA). But despite the losses, NADA says that dealers should look toward a brighter future ahead.

“Last year, through much hard work, we avoided Armageddon for many in our industry,” NADA Chairman Ed Tonkin said in a statement. “Now we’re able to focus on some serious issues that face us this year.”

VW Spends $8.3 Billion This Week!

It’s been a busy week for VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech as he has spent $5.8 billion dollars acquiring 49.9% stake in Porsche and $2.5 billion for a 20% stake in Suzuki in his quest to make VW the #1 car manufacturer in the world by 2018. 

Suzuki will not be VW’s 12th brand, but the two companies will share technology that each one will need to expand their footprint in emerging markets.  The deal also gives Suzuki 2.5 percent voting stake in VW.

This latest buyout/merger exemplifies the need for manufactures to form strategic alliances in order to survive these tough economic times.

What manufacturer mergers would you like to see happen in the near future?

Source: http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2009/12/09/457797.html