I was at the Orange County Automobile Dealers Association golf tournament and awards dinner last night. Confession – I didn’t play golf. I can ride a bicycle 100 miles but I can’t hit a little round ball with a long stick. I did show up for the happy hour and awards dinner, however.
At dinner, I was sitting at a table with a bunch of bankers. We got to talking about online sales, and the whole digital world. “Traditional dealerships are going to vanish,” proclaimed one banker confidently. I think many would agree with him, depending on how one defines “traditional.” The days when customers walked into a dealership and were at the mercy of the sales staff are certainly gone. The future of the bricks-and-mortar dealership is still being written.
There is no doubt, however, that the big dealership groups are moving more and more of the sales process online. Larry H. Miller Dealerships just announced its online program aimed at reducing the amount of time customers spend in a physical dealership. In this issue I talk with Miran Maric, LHM’s vice president of digital strategy about LHM Fast Pass and the role of the dealership in the online sales program.
Also in this issue, we revisit a popular column written a little less than a year ago by Rick Kotzen of Crowe Horwath on what’s driving deals in today’s hot market. Rick updated the column but the only changes were data and dates. The trends are the same.
One of those trends is ever rising sales. That can be too much of a good thing, it seems. I just read an interview in the LA Times with Mike Jackson and Bob Carter of AutoNation and Toyota. Carter is leery of a SAAR above 18 million. That would impact future sales because cars are durable goods, he told the Times. To come full circle in this column, they also talked about digital disruption in the dealership world. So it is on everyone’s mind.
The two executives also talk about consolidation in the dealership business. That means buys and sells. You can read about some of those deals in our Transaction News.
Alysha Webb, Editor and Publisher
