It’s insane! Chrysler will soon begin production on 700-horsepower editions of the Dodge Charger and Challenger, both due in the 2015-MY. Considering my 1968 Dodge Super Bee was rated at 335 hp and was one of the fastest production cars of the day, I have to ask, where’s it all going?
Trumping the 650-hp 2015 Corvette Z06 and the 662-hp Mustang Shelby GT500 — and a host of European exotics — Chrysler’s SRT Hellcat line should be the ultimate “Need for Speed” machine, assuming buyers can find a public highway suitably equipped and unguarded to exercise its capability.
Well, hang on, speed freaks. In Monterey, Calif., Brandon Boeckmann is preparing to put his private-label, 1,058 hp Galpin GTR1 supercar in production. He and his team have been showing off the prototype at car shows. Prices will begin at a cool $1 million. I wonder if that includes floor mats.
Boeckmann is the grandson of a friend, Bert Boeckmann of the Galpin dynasty in the San Fernando Valley. The group includes the nation’s No. 1 Ford dealership and a myriad of other super-performing franchises. They stated they only intend to sell six units the first year. I am trying to picture a group of salesmen out in front of the GTR1 showroom, smoking cigarettes and waiting for an up. Will they put an inflatable gorilla on the roof? Only time will tell.
By: Automotive News
AutoDealer Monthly
I have been to Atlantic City many times. I have conducted seminars there, spoken at conferences and consulted nearby dealers. It isn’t the nicest part of New Jersey, and it sure ain’t Las Vegas. Unlike Vegas, where the airport is a stone’s throw from the Strip, the closest major airport is in Philadelphia. The streets and sidewalks around the casinos are nice enough, but you wouldn’t want to stray too far from the bright lights. The surrounding blocks are seedy, dirty and crime-ridden. It’s the kind of place that makes you feel like taking a long, hot shower after each visit.
The Borgata and the Revel were the only hotel-casinos where the Alpha Dawg would rest his head, and the Revel closed its doors over the summer. So did the Trump Plaza and the Showboat, and half of A.C.’s big gaming venues could be shuttered this time next year.
As anyone who has visited Atlantic City knows, with a few notable exceptions, customer service is notoriously poor. They don’t care and it shows. Aside from generating tax dollars, the casino owners appear to have done little to reinvest in their city. They allowed their properties to deteriorate and their neighborhoods to decline.
When Indian casinos started popping up all over the Northeast, gamblers left Atlantic City in droves. Now it’s on its way to becoming America’s largest ghost town.
Dealers, take heed. This applies to you. Competition is increasing, and some of you don’t seem to be paying attention.
I have visited thousands of dealerships over the previous 28 years. Frankly, I am ashamed to set foot in some stores. Even with all the latest factory-mandated renovations, some of your showrooms look like pig pens. Yes, I am a dealer advocate, but some dealerships are a disgrace to the rest of us.
Don’t get me wrong. I despise the manufacturer programs that make every dealer adhere to identical, cookie-cutter models. Those factory stiffs who think uniformity sells cars and trucks are idiots. No manufacturer should dictate the sights and smells that greet your customers. It should be up to the dealer. But many of your dealerships need a serious housecleaning, and some much more than that.
Clean up your showrooms and properties. Take a serious look at your conference and training rooms. Repave your lots and fix the lighting.
How many outdated materials are thrown in corners and stacked against the wall? Display and take pride in your inventory. Make your staff dress and look presentable. Some of your older employees look like bums. Some of your younger ones are displaying too many piercings and too much body art. And they’re all constantly texting. Enough!
This is a people business. Put that damn phone down and pay attention. True professionals come to work well-groomed and dressed for success with a winning attitude.
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — Experian Automotive found that the longer consumers owns their vehicles, the less likely they are to buy their next vehicle from the same brand. Average length of ownership in the first quarter of 2014 was 7.75 years, a number which correlated with a brand loyalty rate of 49.5%.
In Experian’s analysis, the company found that owning a car for one year held a brand loyalty rate of 57.3%, while owning it for 12 years had a brand loyalty rate of 33.8%. While the drop in brand loyalty was consistent with ownership length, the largest change came after 3 years of ownership. That's when brand loyalty dropped off by 10 percentage points.
“Leases with their fixed length ownership cycle are typically strong contributors to brand loyalty,” said Brad Smith, director of automotive market statistics for Experian Automotive. “Over the course of seven years of ownership, a lot of things change, including vehicle product offerings, vehicle budget and credit score.”
He also added that the more time a customer had between dealer interactions, whether for service or sales, the higher the probability they would leave the brand.
Experian found that Ford and Subaru had the highest brand loyalty at 61% and 59.4%, respectively, but Ford had a much higher average length of ownership at 110 months. Dodge and Buick shared the longest average ownership length however; both companies had poor loyalty rates at 22.6% and 38.4%.
“Understanding how long consumers hang onto vehicles, or how often then return to market and purchase the same brand, are critical pieces of information for automotive dealers, retailers and manufacturers,” said Smith.
Rising transaction prices for new vehicles have been a big contributor to the health of the auto industry this year, J.D. Power analysts reported this week. They noted that the average new-vehicle transaction price has risen $3,900 since 2009 to $29,600.
Current transaction prices for new vehicle and the rise in sales could push up the value of vehicles purchased to the highest level ever at $407 billion, J.D. Power noted.
“When defining success in the auto industry, whether it is for a specific segment, manufacturer or model, it’s important to look beyond basic sales figures,” said Thomas King, vice president of J.D. Power’s Power Information Network.
King noted that not all vehicle segments have performed equally, with some delivering stronger volumes and lower price growth while others realized greater price growth but weaker sales. Retail sales in the large pickup segment, King pointed out, have increased 4.6% this year, which is below the overall industry sales increase of 5.7%. However, the average price of a pickup has risen by $2,700 over that same period, a gain of 7.5% compared to the industry average of 2.3%.
“From a sales perspective, large pickups have grown slightly slower than the industry overall, but from a price perspective, they have significantly outperformed the industry,” said King.
By contrast, compact SUVs have demonstrated exception retail volume growth of 22.1% so far this year. The average transaction price for models in this segment, however, have changed only slightly by an average of 0.6%. It is these statistical differences that is driving J.D. Power's belief that sales numbers alone do not provide the best overall picture of industry success.
“With the rapid growth of average transaction prices over the past few years, success needs to be defined more broadly to include overall revenues in addition to sales volumes,” said King.
ANTON, Mass. — LoJack Corporation has deployed its LoJack inventory management system with South Florida's Braman Motorcars, a top 30 dealer group. The new inventory management system will help deliver an accurate location of vehicle inventory across multiple lots, helping to minimize the time required in the regular dealer inventory process.
LoJack is working with Braman to further refine the system that uses a telematics platform and a proprietary user interface.
"LoJack has had a long tradition of bringing products to dealerships that help boost their bottom-line profits," said Hal Dewsnap, senior vice president and general manager of U.S. sales at LoJack. "Braman Motorcars is one of the South's most respected and successful dealerships, and we're proud to help improve their inventory process and help build their business through an inventory management system. Many dealers have asked LoJack to help them obtain a better solution for lot management for their vehicle inventory —we listened, and we think we have delivered."
The inventory management system helps sales personnel at dealerships locate vehicles across the various lots that larger dealers sometimes cope with to handle their inventory of vehicles. The system also warns dealers of low battery voltage on vehicles, allowing them to expedite the work of keeping batteries charged; dealers only need to work on those vehicles that need charging, and can skip the time-wasting work of checking the battery levels on already-charged vehicles, officials said.
With the LoJack inventory management system, dealers no longer have to worry about bringing a customer to a vehicle for a test drive, only to discover that the vehicle has a dead battery. Additionally, the inventory management system can help avoid battery-related customer delays when they arrive to pick up the car, avoiding potentially damaging Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) scores.
The LoJack inventory management system is available on the computer and for mobile workers. Employees will be able to see the location of their vehicle directly on their smartphone or tablet computer, obtain additional information about each vehicle quickly, track test drives and get an early warning movement alert through geo-fencing.
"At Braman Motorcars, we constantly evaluate our work processes to deliver the highest possible level of customer service," said Evan Bernstein, senior controller at Braman Motorcars. "The Inventory Management System from LoJack can help us reduce cost, while streamlining the process to deliver on that customer service excellence promise."
Kp>In addition to using the inventory management system, Braman loads the LoJack Stolen Vehicle Recovery System at their West Palm Beach Auto campus, which includes BMW, Mini, Audi, Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Porsche brands.
