With GM’s latest recall bringing their year-to-date total up to 16 million vehicles, and then Ford announcing a recall affecting 1.4 million vehicles, dealers should look at preparing for a large influx of service work. I doubt any dealership would

How do you continue to maximize opportunity in a used-car market that has experienced healthy growth over the past few years? Speed. Profit. Innovative practices. Inventory management also remains a vital element in detecting continued growth, and te

I’ve been getting more inquiries lately from dealers asking about the merits of a one-price sales environment at their dealerships. The dealers have seen reports in automotive trade press about groups like Sonic Automotive adopting this non-traditi

You might call it an annual rite—just as the tulips start to bloom I hear from dealers excited about the start of the spring selling season. This year is no different, as dealers wrapped up March with year-over-year records in used vehicle sales vo

As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus famously stated, “No one ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same person.” The same principle of constant change also applies to the automobile market—

At a recent dealer group presentation, a used vehicle manager asked me an astute question: “Dale, how can you tell when a used vehicle may need a price change?” I liked the question because it suggested the manager was a thoughtful and proactive

Let me first point out the odds of becoming a sales manager in the automotive industry. There are approximately 20,000 new car dealers in the US and Canada. They will average approximately seven new sales people a year between them. Do the math on th

I’ve long advocated that dealers need to recognize the primacy of the used vehicle department as an engine of growth for sales volumes and profitability across the entire dealership. As a dealer friend puts it, “the used vehicle department is the

Now that may be a hell of a comparison but if you stop and analyze it, it could go with anything that you are investing in and showing for a return on the investment. It doesn’t matter what it is: whether it is a show pig, a show horse, or a show t