WHY A THOROUGH FACILITIES APPROACH CAN PAY DIVIDENDS FOR YOUR USED-CAR BUSINESS One area that’s becoming increasingly important for franchised dealers concerns pre-owned vehicles. From a facilities perspective there are many approaches and variables that can help integrate a successful …
WHY IT’S NOT ONLY MAJOR METRO MARKETS WHERE GREAT CONSOLIDATION OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND I’m often asked whether dealership consolidation really only applies to large markets. The truth is that dealership consolidation takes many forms and sizes and it occurs all across …
WILL A RE-ELECTED MAJORITY GOVERNMENT IN ONTARIO REALLY BENEFIT AUTO MANUFACTURING IN CANADA? Given a series of highly publicized scandals, it might seem odd that the Ontario Liberal party would not only be re-elected on June 12 but gain majority …
IN THE FIRST OF A THREE-PART SERIES THAT LOOKS AT CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ACROSS AUTO RETAILING FROM OEM, TO DEALER TO CUSTOMER, MOHAMMAD SHAHZAD DISCUSSES THE MANUFACTURER ROLE Customer satisfaction, customer service, customer relations and CSI are words that have been …
A RASH OF RECENT VEHICLE RECALLS SIGNALS A TIPPING POINT FOR THE AUTO INDUSTRY Safety recalls have been a fact of automotive life for almost half a century. But they’ve taken on a whole new dimension in 2014, which is …
RICHARD COOPER ASKS WHO REALLY “OWNS” THE CUSTOMER WHEN IT COMES TO DELIVERING THE AUTOMOTIVE RETAIL EXPERIENCE Back in the 1990s, I attended one of Automotive News’ Congress sessions in Detroit. One of the keynote speakers was Francois Castaing, who …
OUR WARMER MONTHS GIVE COMEDIAN RON JAMES AN EXCUSE TO PILOT HIS BELOVED BMW 335I CABRIOLET Ron James is one of Canada’s top comedians — an award-winning stand-up comic known for his razor sharp wit and rapid-fire delivery. Besides performing …
CONTINUING HIS LOOK AT SIX KPIS THAT CAN AFFECT THE BOTTOM LINE IN SERVICE OPERATIONS, JIM BELL FOCUSES ON PERSONNEL EXPENSES. In our first installment for this series, we mentioned that personnel expense should not be more than 50 per …
FORGET DESKTOPS. THE WAY CONSUMERS USE THEIR MOBILE DEVICES IS CHANGING BY THE DAY J.D. Power reported that between 2012 and 2013, the number of vehicle shoppers who used an automotive website or app on a smartphone grew by 73 …
THE ANTI-SPAM VORTEX IS NOW UPON US. MAKE SURE YOU’VE TAKEN STEPS TO AVOID THE POTENTIAL (AND VERY COSTLY) PITFALLS How quickly time flies! It was just a few short months ago (in the April 2014 edition of Canadian auto …
THE CHALLENGES (AND ALSO BENEFITS) CAR SHARING COULD BRING TO AUTOMOTIVE RETAILING No one will argue that car sharing is essentially an urban trend. It’s also true that it’s witnessing significant growth both in Western Europe and North America. While …
PARTS TO LABOUR RATIOS Many of us remember when the value of the parts on a work order often exceeded the labour dollars. That was in the days not so long ago when you installed rebuilt engines, transmissions and other …
