New Certified Master Dealer Program

The Certified Master Dealers (CMD) program is bringing together the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association (NIADA) and the National Alliance of Buy-Here, Pay-Here Dealers (NABD) for a new training program. This new program was designed specifically to address the special needs of dealers and individuals that run in-house financing. The NIADA and NABD are currently working on the content of the classes and getting input from dealers as well. Topics on the agenda so far include compliance and financial management.

The CMD program was developed in 2001 and requires an intensive 3-day course along with 12 hours of continuing education over the following 3 years. It was developed to assist dealers in growing and running a profitable business.

To read more on CMD’s program, please click here.

KBB Updates

Kelley Blue Book has made some pretty important additions and changes. They have announced that they will now provide values for 51 regions and update values weekly for all of KBB’s used-car values. The values that they are updating weekly include lending, auction, trade-in, private party, certified pre-owned and suggested retail. Kelley Blue Book is also adding a new category to describe the vehicle condition. They are including,”Very Good”, as a category to give a better description of used-cars on the market. As would be expected the new condition category, “Very Good”, will be in between the current categories of “Good” and “Excellent”. According to the director of vehicle valuation, “Only 3 percent of today’s vehicles are actually in ‘Excellent’ condition.” With this new condition category it should allow for a better description for both the dealer and consumers of what a vehicles actual condition is.

To read the full article in F&I Magazine, please click here.

BHPH Dealers and Service

As a Buy Here Pay Here dealer there are many things that must be monitored and looked at, one of the key areas is BHPH Service Departments. A successful Buy Here Pay Here Service Department should be doing two things:

1. Cost-effectively and consistently recondition inventory (inventory management) to maintain sufficient lot-ready units at an acceptable quality level.
2. Support the collections function by providing superior customer service by handling customer repair issues in a timely and cost-effective manner while retaining the customer’s participation in the repair process and building value in your program.

Both things must be done together for a Buy Here Pay Here Service Department to be successful.

To read full article in Dealer Business Journal, please click here.

BHPH Marketing Spend

When it comes to marketing and advertising in the Buy Here Pay Here market, Leedom has come up with a composite benchmark of how much dealers are spending per unit sold. The average spend is estimated to be $186 per unit and what that number includes is: Radio ads, TV ads, Print ads, Referrals, Key Chains, balloons and much more. That comes out to be $67,000 per year that the average BHPH dealer is spending on marketing and advertising. Some dealers of course spend less and some more, for example a dealer in Lancaster, CA that owns a chain with 3 different locations is spending $340 per unit averaging 110 units sold putting their yearly spend at about $450,000.

To read full article in Dealer Business Journal, and see how dealers are spending their marketing dollars, please click here.