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True Car and ZAG - Cyber Bandits or Good for the Business?
Jim Ziegler asks...
I am hearing a lot of discussion about True Car and ZAG. I continually scratch my head and wonder if desperate dealers are doing the marketing limbo "How Low Can You Go?"
Are we so bad at what we do that we have to line up and pay vendors to lose money? AND, who is giving these people access to your data that is used against you?
Who owns these companies and what might be their ulterior motive? Sometimes I ask questions to which I already know the answer.
Am I wrong?
What do you think... JIM
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Jim Ziegler's Guidance and Recommended Action Plan:
Ten Areas We Need to Concentrate on to Bring This Monster to It's Knees...
- Government investigation of ALL Data Aggregators taking consumer information from dealers' DMS. Sadly enough, dealers who do business with TrueCar are exposed to liability charges. Cut off all access to unecessary data, no matter who takes it from the dealers DMS and make it illegal to "resell identifiable consumer data" and "transactional data".
- Educate Your Fellow Dealers; If anyone takes financial transactional data, they expose the dealer that allowed it to violations, especially if it is passed on to other vendors or shared.
- Educate Consumers to what they're doing with their information...
a. You buy a car from a dealer, do you really want your personal information, and maybe even your financial information, passed along and sold and shared by "God knows who?"
b. These People Charge the Dealer $300 which the dealers have to build into the deal
c. Your Privacy and the Security of your Information could theoretically compromise your identity if you do business a company that takes data from the dealership. - Educate Investors and potential investors they could possibly be mislead if anyone is telling them this is a safe investment because of all of the dealers pushing back, associations pushing back, and government regulators in many states coming after TrueCar's business model as NOT compliant, in some cases they're saying it is Not Legal.
- AMEX, USAA and all of their affiliates do not want the bad consumer relations this push back is creating with their members and customers.
- Cancel your dealership's Affilation with TrueCar. Tell people with TrueCar certificates that YOU don't honor TrueCar and you feel the company is NOT reputable. Educate consumers as to perceived data exposure if they buy from a TrueCar dealer. Make sure that each consumer knows that using TrueCar actually increases their vehicle cost by $300 to $400.
- Make the dealers selling at huge losses take all of those deals. Big problem right now is too many Nissan Dealers and others are taking huge losers to get the factory money. The TrueCar reverse-auction business model will continually push those numbers down until the factory money is non-existent. Consumers need to hear from many dealers, "We don't do TrueCar"
- Keep calling your National and State Dealer Associations demanding they get involved and stay involved... No excuses.
- Get the Manufacturers into the game. If GM, Ford, Toyota, and other majors change the rules about how we advertise and do business to protect the dealers, we can cut off their ability to set pricing. So keep it up at every dealer meeting. Call your Dealer Council Members and protest to your factory reps. Tell the manufacturers, if they want showroom and facility improvements, we need the ability to make fair profits.
- Tell everyone you know. Educate other dealers and industry people. Watch the Painter interviews... I believe this is the first time a vendor has publicly announced they intend to bring down the dealers and hijack our business, taking our profits and starving us out with our own data. Painter has said manufacturers and dealers should go bankrupt and he, in his God-like way "will control distribution..."
When the TrueCar-Yahoo Deal kicks in we need to stand firm and "Just Say No" we don't honor TrueCar deals.
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Tags: &, AMEX, Allen, Bank, Capital, Capricorn, Commission, Company, Conference, DealerTrack, More…
Comment
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Comment by Keith Shetterly on April 4, 2012 at 9:44am -
The list of markets and Autonation stores that I found on www.autonation.com matches none of the stores listed below in the TC DC. Anyway, that's what I found when I looked.
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Comment by James A. Ziegler on April 4, 2012 at 9:24am -
Great question Matt, just how many of these 'Dealer Council' members are from AutoNation Stores? Would someone please research that?
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Comment by Matt Tucker on April 4, 2012 at 9:14am -
Michhael,
Thanks for the reply. However, the main issue has never been fully addressed. Will TC exit all dealer DMS sytems and make it company practice to not even ask for access? You can remove painter, add some fancy lipstick, give good lip service and paint a a pretty picture, but at the end of the day, has TC really changed? Jim Z. is spot on in stating TC is the same beast, different hair cut.
Also, the past few months public emergence of AutoNation high within the ranks of TC speaks volumes to the "True" director of TC. That is something any dealer needs to fully research and take not of before inking with TC. I have not researched yet, but I wonder how many on council are AutoNation dealrships?
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Comment by Michael Timmons on April 4, 2012 at 8:56am -
The TrueCar National Dealer Council is comprised of dealer principles, automotive executives, general managers and also internet sales managers that are using our product daily. We tried to invite members from all areas of the business and four of the members are not TRUECar dealers. We will have our first meeting next week where we will preview to the council our new dealer portal changes and solicit feedback on how to continue to make our product better for our dealers. I have previewed our upcoming changes here at Digital Dealer with many past and current TC dealers and the response has been very positive. If you are at DD today please stop by our booth and we will preview the changes for you as well.
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Comment by Matt Tucker on April 3, 2012 at 3:14pm
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I wonder if a prerequisit was your dealer group had to be a TC / ZAG dealer? Are any of those on the council not currently a TC dealer?
And for that matter, haven't heard from old 'voice' of TrueCar, Scott Painter, in quite a while.
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Comment by Criss Castle on April 3, 2012 at 3:07pm -
The only 'voice' I recognize from this list is Jeremy Alicandri.
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Comment by Debra L Bly on April 3, 2012 at 2:47pm
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Gary Marcotte, Chairperson for TrueCar's National Dealer Council. said "I'm excited to chair the TrueCar National Dealer Council and I look forward to working with my fellow Members to ensure the dealers' voice is heard," I hope more than the dealer voice is heard I hope the dealer council is consulted before True Car sends out public messages that damage dealership reputations (for past behaviors, that for years, have not been a part of the way any dealers do business).
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TrueCar National Dealer Council list of members:
Anthony Clemons Internet Sales Director Friendship Hyundai
Bill Walsh Jr. Owner/ Dealer Principal Bill Walsh Automotive Group
Chris Birmelin Owner/Dealer Principal Healey Hyundai
Chris Koster Director of Business Development
Superior Automotive Group
Chuck Olsen (Independent Member)
Corporate Sales Manager Boucher Automotive Group
Dan Duddridge Operations Director Cabe Toyota
David Green General Manager Tom Williams Lexus
Gary Marcotte (Chairperson) Automotive Retailing Senior Executive
Jae Park General Manager Keyes Hyundai
Jeremy Alicandri VP of Corp. Development Habberstad Auto Group
Jeremy Beaver General Manager Capitol VW Capitol Fiat
John Hopkins General Manager Jay Toyota-Scion
Ken Graham (Independent Member)
Owner OneSource Automotive Solutions
Patrick York Chief Operating Office Gillman Auto Group
Phil Bonfanti General Manager Lakewood Fordland
Ray Reilly Regional Performance Manager Larry H Miller Group
Richard Cvijanovich Owner & General Manager /
Dealer Manager Subaru Superstore / Acura of Tempe
Shaun Kniffin eCommerce Director Germain Motor Cars
Todd Reiselman General Manager Ed Martin Automotive Group
Tom Gibson (Independent Member)
Chairman Emeritus Asbury Automotive Group
Tony Rimas Executive Vice President Red McCombs Automotive
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Comment by Jason Manning on April 3, 2012 at 10:20am -
Keep your data to yourself. Otherwise, your dealer future is highly uncertain.
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Comment by Matt Tucker on April 3, 2012 at 9:57am
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AutoNation getting more involved in TrueCar:
http://www.automotivedigest.com/content/displayArticle.aspx?a=86695
The former AutoNation senior VP of marketing and e-commerce heading the new TrueCar "national dealer council".
As the famous C+C Music Factory put...Things that make you go Hmmm...
This one is sure looking and quacking.
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