CrossCheck Blog

Thinking of starting a car dealership? You’ll be in good company and want to launch the venture with the help of an auto dealer management system. This two-part series will explore the challenges and intricacies of being a new car dealership and why one would need a reliable and robust dealer management system (DMS). We begin with a description of the retail automotive space and related statistics.

A consumer just found their dream car and believe they got a good deal from one of the local auto dealerships. Isn’t this one of the big things in life? Of course it is. Being a savvy shopper, this consumer knows the car depreciated 10 percent the instant they drove it off the car lot and that it will depreciate another 10 percent over the first year of ownership. They may also be aware that studies show it will lose about 10 percent of its value each year over the next four years. If one does the math, this means that after five years, it is going to be worth about half or even 40 percent of the original sale price. Many people, including me, find this to be a scary statistic.

In our previous blog, we listed ways for consumers to leverage preparation as a means of speeding up the sales process at auto dealerships. As the old Boy Scout motto says, “Be Prepared!” This second article in the two-part series discusses how to accelerate the process once consumers arrive at dealerships. The discussion begins with a brief explanation of dealership interests.

A recent survey of 1,000 U.S. adults by Capital One Auto Finance found that most consumers are not confident when it comes to understanding the process of buying a car at auto dealerships. Only 20 percent of consumers feel sure of themselves when buying a car. On top of that, 62 percent of those surveyed believe they did not get the best price on the last car they bought. Ironically, almost half of those surveyed said that getting the best deal was the single most important part of the car buying process. Fully 82 percent said that negotiating the price is still necessary. In perhaps the understatement of the year, Jeff Rabinowitz, managing VP of Capital One Auto Finance, said, “The current state of trust and transparency in car-buying needs to be addressed.”

“Diagnostic equipment does not tell you what’s wrong,” said Gary Uyematsu, the national technical training manager at BMW of North America while discussing the auto service technician shortage. “It’s just a tool, and a diagnostician needs to interpret the messages.” Similarly, most articles about the auto service technician shortage provide the tools for analysis, but few sources have interpreted the messaging. This analysis of the shortage connects the dots and finishes with a holistic solution.

Leaving good impressions on clients is one of the most important priorities of any business. In addition, there is no better way to understand the value that companies offer than to hear it from the individuals who “buy the product.” CrossCheck recently visited President Kevin Massie of Napa Ford Lincoln who graciously allocated time to share his experience using CrossCheck services. In the below video, he talks about the reasoning behind how and why he chose CrossCheck to be his check guarantee provider for the last 12 years.

One of CrossCheck’s finest, Senior Vice President Charles Dortch III, will be the featured speaker at a business luncheon by the Sacramento Chapter of the Auto Dealers Office Management Association (ADOMA) on Feb. 19. He will discuss the lifetime customer value offered by CrossCheck services and how they help increase sales and mitigate risk while saving time and money. Highlights include CrossCheck's Auto Industry RDC Solution (C.A.R.S.), Flat Fee Warranty, and Plus Sales (for checks declined by other vendors). He will also cover the services of two CrossCheck affiliates, Constant Processing, and Qualia Collection Services.

There are about 18,250 new car dealerships in the United States. They range from the largest multi-store publicly traded companies to small stores serving rural communities across the country. New car dealers employ over two million people, and they are also a very big part of the national fabric as well as the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). In 2018, these dealers sold 11,786,069 new trucks and SUVs, an increase of fully 8 percent in this segment over 2017. They also sold 5,488,181 new passenger cars, a decline of 13 percent from the previous year. The average price of a new vehicle is $36,000. If you multiply 17 million by 36,000, you will see the extent to which new car dealers contribute to the American economy. My calculator doesn’t go that high.

American consumers have an intimate relationship with their credit cards. Most don’t really understand the numbers that drive this business for the banks that issue the cards, or who pays the “freight” to keep it going, especially at car dealerships. This article will provide an overview of who pays what to whom, and how much they pay. You will be surprised.

“Eighty percent of companies see a change in how their customers want to access and pay for goods and services, and 50 percent of these same companies are changing their pricing models as a result.” – The Economist Life used to be simple, or maybe just simpler. People bought new cars every few years because car loans typically carried three-year terms. They traded in their old cars at dealerships. The manufacturers (they used to be called the “Big Three”) introduced new models every September, and crowds of people would go to the local dealer on the day they were unveiled. It was an exciting period, but cars purchased three years earlier suddenly looks dated, and people thought about trading them in on new models. This used to be called “planned obsolescence,” although that is a loaded term and somewhat misleading.