Fire Your Internet Sales Manager

http://www.dealersynergy.com 

I know I am going to get a lot of heat on this article, but it has to be said. I have worked with thousands of dealerships over the years and there have been numerous reasons given for mediocrity, and even failure. In the beginning of automotive Internet sales in the late 1990s, it was a novelty and an incremental business, but most dealerships were not able to truly harness it and make it a major profit center. However, over the years and through evolution of the automotive sales industry, and the country as a whole, there has been a lot of change — change in how people are researching, shopping, making decisions and ultimately buying a vehicle. There has even been change inside our industry by dealer principals, GMs and sales consultants. It seems that dealers are getting it. They understand that Internet sales, business development, digital marketing, and social media are all important.

What I am seeing now is a scary pattern emerging. A lot of dealerships are not maximizing on opportunities right in front of them because they do not have the right person in place. The Internet sales manager or BDC director that they have in place is the wrong person for the position, and they are hurting the dealership! Here are some problems I’ve seen at dealerships:

•  A computer geek in the position who is not an automotive professional. There is nothing wrong with being a geek. I have a problem if they have no idea how to sell a car, and don’t have the respect of their team and employees. They can’t motivate and drive the department to success.

•  An IT professional is the head of an Internet sales department or business development center. Just because they are good at fixing computers or understanding technology does not necessarily make them the best choice to run a million-dollar sales department. “Internet sales” is still sales.

•  Instead of terminating a sales consultant from the showroom floor, they are given a “second chance” running the Internet sales department. I don’t get this one at all. If someone can not be effective on the showroom floor, why would you have that person be the head of a department where 92 percent of Americans go before they ever step foot into your dealership?

•  A sales consultant is promoted from the showroom to running the Internet department. Please understand just because someone can sell a car does not mean they can run a department, let alone an Internet sales or business development department. Just because they can sell cars does not mean they are capable of being a manager or a leader. There are a lot of successful sales consultants who sell 20 or 30 cars per month, but don’t work well with others. They have no concept of interdependence.

•  There is no Internet sales manager/BDC director at all. That is just bad, and again, makes no sense whatsoever. When 92 percent of people are going online, there needs to be major attention to this area.

•  A dealership’s manager also manages the Internet department. I have seen it all, my friends. The dealer principal or general manager takes on the Internet department as an “additional” responsibility instead of having a dedicated manager, or they dump the responsibility of the Internet department onto the GSM or sales manager. This is not a viable solution.

Remember Basic Math

The average dealership in the United States delivers fewer than 100 units per month. But the average dealership has:

•  A GM or GSM

•  One to two sales managers (new car/used car), or “closers”

•  An F&I manager

•  10 Sales Consultants

If you want your Internet or business development department to deliver units, you are going to need the right Internet manager or BDC director.

Yes, you might need to fire your current Internet sales manager or BDC director. You might have been thinking about doing it for months now but weren’t sure. Let me make it easier for you.

Think of your current Internet sales manager or BDC director:

•  Are they a family member or in a relationship with anyone else in the dealership?

•  Do they have any automotive sales or management experience?

•  Do they have an aversion to the phone?

•  Do they have the ability to take a “TO” from their employees, sales consultants, appointment setters, etc?

•  Do they have the ability or desire to proactively “TO”?

•  Do they have the respect of their team (or the dealership for that matter)?

•  Can they, or do they, lead by example?

•  Do they train their team? Do they know how to train their team?

•  Do they have “one on ones” with their team?

•  Do they know how to project and forecast, and not merely guess and hope?

•  Are they rude and or mean to their team or their customers?

•  Do they have Standard Operating Procedures (S.O.P.s), or do they just “wing it”?

•  Can they desk a deal?

If you are reading this and you are a dealer or GM, do this calculation before you open the showroom tomorrow:

Look at your electronic leads, phone leads and walk-in leads. Say your electronic and phone leads are 70 percent or greater of all leads. Now look at your manager running your Internet or business development department. Are you comfortable with them in charge of 70 percent of your opportunities? If not, make the change today. If you can’t promote that person as your nest general sales manager, you have the wrong person in place.

If you would like a free personalized analysis of your Internet Sales Manager, contact me at the email below with “ISM” as the subject line.

Sean V. Bradley is the founder and CEO of Dealer Synergy, a nationally recognized training and consulting company in the automotive industry. He can be contacted at 866.648.7400, or by e-mail at

sbradley@autosuccessonline.com.

Automotive Internet Sales and Google’s ZMOT for Car Dealerships

By now, nearly everyone has heard of ZMOT and how it might possibly be relevant for the automotive industry. In case you haven’t, ZMOT stands for “Zero Moment of Truth,” a concept developed by Google. It states that today, decisions on brand selection are happening before a consumer arrives at a store to make a purchasing decision. This also applies to how consumers shop for a car. This might not sound like anything new; we have all heard from NADA, JD Power & Associates, Cobalt, Autotrader and the OEMs that almost everyone goes online before they step into the dealership.


Personally, I’ve been immersed in Automotive Internet Sales for more than 13 years. So, the fact that people are going online first isn’t a huge revelation — it is what it is. However, what has evolved is what is happening and why. People are finding out about a product or business (whether they know the URL or not). To be specific, more than 72 percent of all transactions start online, from one-dollar transactions to jet engines. The first place people go to is search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.), or they may something on TV, radio, see something on a billboard or in a newspaper, magazine or hear about a product from a friend. In any event, they wind up on search engines relatively quickly. People believe that they will get the “real deal” on what they are looking for. “If it is on Google, it must be real,” they think.

So, the consumer will do the initial research on the product or service online. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are accessing the Internet from a home computer or laptop. They can be accessing the information through their mobile device like an iPhone or Android. The next logical step for the prospect is to validate that information even further. Prospects can (and do) go to a myriad of review sites such as Google Places, Dealer Online Reputation, Yelp, Merchant Circle, Edmunds Dealer Reviews and Cars.com Reviews, just to name a few. The consumer wants to make sure that they do not waste their time with bad choices. They have access to too much information for them to have to deal with headaches. Take for example a couple choosing where to go eat out for their once a week “date night.” If you only had one time a week you were going out with your spouse because you have three kids, a puppy, a career, etc., try to imagine how someone will feel when they are spending $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 or more. That is why 80 percent of consumers say that peer reviews influence their buying decisions. An automotive purchase is usually the second most expensive thing the average human being will ever buy in their lifetime, next to a home. But there is another variable: social media. Consumers will also go to their social networks and ask their “friends and followers” thoughts, opinions on products or services before they ever go to the store or the dealership.

I am going to focus on online reputation for the rest of this article, and the next article I will dive deeper into the other parts of automotive ZMOT strategy.

Dealerships need to make it mandatory to collect client reviews and testimonials from both sales and service. It is not enough to simply “suggest” to your team to try to get a review or testimonial. You need to make it part of the standard operating procedure. You might want to create incentives for your team, for example:

• Whoever gets the most reviews wins a reward (gift card or cash, etc.)

• Whoever gets the most video testimonials wins a reward

You can create a mini-survey (maybe three to four questions) at delivery (mandatory). For example:

1. How would you rate your experience at the dealership from 1 to 5 (5 being the highest)?

2. Did I (sales consultant) exceed your expectations? If so, how?

3. What did you like (or appreciate) the most in this experience in purchasing this vehicle?

4. Would you recommend me and this dealership to everyone / anyone?

You should then have at the bottom of the survey a legal disclaimer (have an attorney draw up a simple disclaimer) that says that they (the customer) give you full permission to post (or use) this (review/testimonial) anyway and anywhere you want. By doing this, you can repost or repurpose all of these reviews to all of the relevant reputation sites like:

• Google places

* Local Business Rater

* Dealer Online Reputation

• Merchant circle

• Yelp

• Edmunds reviews

• City Search

• Yellow Pages

• A review blog you’ve created yourself

It is TRUE that some review sites are IP Address specific and do NOT allow a client to post a review at the dealership, Here is the reality... there are a LOT of ways around that. 

*** Please understand what I am saying here... I am NOT advocating using fake reviews or irrelevant reviews. I am saying ONLY to use REAL reviews that REAL clients give you and give you permission to use. 

Try to image if every salesperson and service writer made 100-percent attempts to collect testimonials both in text as well as video, and you posted (syndicated) them to all of the relevant places online. In a short matter of time, you will be able to dominate the search engines with a ton of positive reviews.

I want to show you a quick example of a highline dealership that has bad online reputation. I happen to think they are an awesome store (and they are not a client). I serviced my brand-new vehicle there and I was so impressed with their service that I felt bad for their bad online reputation. On my own, as simply a customer, I shot a quick positive video review and posted it to YouTube and did the proper video optimization. Now, when you Google them, my video shows up prominently on the first page of Google (just Google “Cherry Hill Porsche”). That is just me as a client — can you image if this dealership did what I did? Their online reputation will turn around very quickly!

Here is another screen shot:

If you have any questions about this article, Google’s concept of “Zero Moment of Truth” / automotive ZMOT or how you can better equip your dealership (or individual sales consultant) to dominate with a positive online reputation, please feel free to call or e-mail me.

Sean V. Bradley is the founder and CEO of Dealer Synergy, a nationally recognized training and consulting company in the automotive industry. He can be contacted at 856-264-0564, or by e-mail at Sean@dealersynergy.com.

4 consumer points to consider when selling car accessories

Since the release of the popular film “The Fast and the Furious”, car accessorizing has shifted from being a secret of car gear enthusiast to a main stream phenomenon. Two sequels later and the aftermarket accessory market continues to average 8% growth annually. Car dealerships would be wise to keep up. The demand for car accessories is high. And, just like fashion accessories there are hundreds of options. And, trends change rapidly. Here are four reasons why people love certain car accessories.

1.       Making a Personal Statement

Crisp leather jacket, “I’m a rebel”, Eco-friendly seat covers “I care about the planet”. Just like fashion accessories, car accessories help your buyer make a statement about who they are.  A car is an extension of its owner, and we all want to present a certain “self” to the world. So, whether it’s a bike rack on a rugged Jeep Wrangler or a spoiler on a sporty Mazda 3, accessories gives buyers another way to express themselves through their car.

2.       Affordable Luxury

It’s inevitable. There is always going to be a prospect that’s eyeballing a Mercedes-Benz but their budget lines up more with a Toyota Corolla.   The right accessories can make that Corolla feel like a Benz. With today’s economy more and more people are learning to live within their means. That doesn’t mean buyers don’t still desire luxury.  But, in terms of cost efficiency it’s harder to justify. Rather than stretching their budgets almost $20,000 more on a luxurious brand consumers will invest $5,000 more in alloy wheels and seat heaters giving an economical brand a very similar look and feel.

3.       Protects the Value

A new car loses 11% of its value as soon as it leaves the lot. So unless they plan to ride until the wheels fall off, it’s not an ideal investment. People are aware of this and are more concerned than ever about protecting the value. Accessories like bed and trunk liners, covers, and deflectors can protect the resale/ trade-in value of a new car. This makes your buyer more confident about shelling out so much of their hard earned cash.

4.       More Convenience

 We as Americans are always on the go, we love to multitask, and prefer to be able to do things in our car just as we would if we were in our homes. Certain accessories were designed to offer a level of convenience that many buyers are looking for. The iPod adapters are one of the hottest selling accessories right now. It offers buyers the convenience of listening to their favorite music without needing CD changers.  Navigation systems and Bluetooth are other accessory options that appeal to a buyer looking for convenience.

Insignia Group, the leading provider of accessories sales systems and training has helped dealers maximize profits for over 10 years. Supporting 20+ brands and dealerships nationwide, we help our customers establish and grow their Accessories Profit Center. Call 888-579-4458 to learn more or schedule a demo.

Find more videos like this on Automotive Internet Sales

This is a Video MY production company created for one of our clients (We did this one years ago).

I don't think it's a secret that millions of Americans own a smartphones. See here: There Will Be More Smartphones than Humans & here: Afraid of Losing Your Phone, You Might Have Nomophobia

To affirm this even further, the brilliant folks over at Nielsenwire conducted a study: "New U.S. Smartphone Growth by Age and Income." While their study has produced a plethora of paramount statistics, there are just a few I'd like to touch on and examine their importance in regards to your dealership's mobile marketing strategy.

• In the 25-34 age group, Neilsenwire found that 66% own a smartphone. 
• • 8 out of 10 who purchased a new device in the last three months chose a smartphone over a traditional mobile phone.
• Of the people who purchased a new device, more than half under sixty-five years of age specifically chose a smartphone. In other words, they're adapting to a new world. 

Neilsenwire also examined the relationship between income and age as it pertains to smartphone ownership.

• Those aged 55-64, with an income over 100k/yr, are just as likely to own a smartphone as those in the 35-44 age bracket with a substantially lower income.

What does this mean?

It simply means that people in the age bracket 35-44 view a smartphone as a necessity even if they're making only 35k/yr, while older folks view a smartphone as luxury. If I can afford it, then I'll buy it.

What does this mean for YOUR dealership?

Believe it or not, it all falls back to ZMOT and winning that Zero Moment of Truth. Seems like everything leads back to ZMOT these days, huh? In all seriousness, given these statistics, now you know your demographic in regards to smartphone users. It's time to utilize this information to inform your marketing strategy in the coming year. Several dealerships have already adapted by creating their own mobile app or a mobile program. For instance:

• "TEXT 12345" TO ABC MOTORS to receive specials to your smartphone"

Additionally, more and more people are purchasing smartphones, regardless of income. This is opening up a new avenue for you to reach your customers. If you're not adapting to this new, tech savvy world just like the 55-64 age group is, then you're going to be left in the dust.

Is your dealership implementing the proper strategy geared towards more mobile customers?

http://www.seomoz.org

http://www.automotiveinternetsales.com

Why Every Marketer Now Needs to Employ a Google+ Strategy For SEO

http://www.dealersynergy.com 

Dealers can learn a LOT from this video! 

Great job Grant- 

Someone once told me that most aeronautical engineers will tell you that there is no possible way the bumblebee can fly. His wingspan isn’t broad enough, he is too heavy and his body build makes it impossible for him to fly. Fortunately, the bumblebee doesn’t understand aeronautics, so he just goes along and flies anyway!

Decide to have a “bumblebee attitude” and just fly anyway! All of the good this world has to offer is on your side. Fight to be the best you, you can be! Fight to reach success! Fight to make it big in every area of life! Despise second best! Despise the fear of failure and rejection and live your life to the max! Don’t listen to the naysayer’s and critics. Don’t listen to the media, the economy and the news. Have a bumblebee attitude and fly anyway! 

 “Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.”

- Zig Ziglar

Do Your Best Today!

When we do the best we can, where we are, with what we have now, we will live in success! So many people hold back and save their best for later. They wait for a reunion, an occasion, an event, a specific job, an important person with a special title or even a stranger before they show off everything they know and can do. The difference between “The Average Joes” and “The Pros” in sports, business and in every area of life is the discipline to do your best in your field every day.

Think like a champion!

Champions are people with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them. They are a bit unrealistic in how they see life, as they don’t reason with reality. They make the impossible happen and never considered it impossible.”

- Grant Cardone

So many times we can get hung up on focusing on the things we don’t have, rather than on the things we do have. We think we need more equipment, more programs, more incentives, more people, more training and more money to be our best. Now, don’t misunderstand me; more equipment, more programs, more incentives, more training and more money is good and will add value to our lives, helping us become and release our best. However, if we are not maximizing what we have in our ability, in the areas of the influence and equipment we have now, we won’t when we get more, either. Use what you have now. Sharpen your skills you have now. Master your craft! Practice doing your best and when it comes time for “Game Day,” you’ll perform your best.

“Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are hard jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the bigger ones tend to take care of themselves.”

-          Dale Carnegie

Give your best in every matter, both small and large, and you will experience the best each matter has to offer. Give your best now! Don’t wait until later or tomorrow. Start where you are now. Don’t let circumstances, people or excuses hold you back from giving your best. If it’s in your power to do it now, don’t wait until tomorrow.

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

- Matthew 6:34 (New Living Translation Bible)

Don’t Wait Till Tomorrow!

Tomorrow has enough worries, problems and situations of it’s own. Why add more on top of it to make things even more difficult to deal with. Deal with it today! I once heard someone say that today is a gift, and that’s why it’s called “the present.” We need to open up our today with the same excitement, attitude and efforts as if it really is a present. We are alive today. Today, we can make a change. Today is always the best time to deal with ourselves. Today!

One of the biggest problems that face our today is our worry about tomorrow. Worry is one of the greatest issues that paralyze people, keeping them from moving into the greatness for which they have been created. I once heard someone say, “I don’t worry about the things I can change, because I can change them. I don’t worry about the things I can’t change, because I can’t change them. Therefore, I just don’t worry.” This is probably the most liberating statement I have ever heard! Stop and think about the truth of that statement! How many times have you changed the situations you were going through by worrying about them day and night? And if they did change from you worrying about them, they probably changed for the worse! Someone once said, “Worry is like a rocking chair — it gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.”

Share your best with the world today, have a bumblebee attitude, don’t worry about tomorrow and, no matter what happens, you will be an Ultimate Success!

The last 3 years, infographics have grown as one of the most effective marketing tools available. They're easily sharable on social media, can offer tremendous SEO benefits, and can help your dealership offer content that people enjoy seeing.

Still, it's also the most underutilized tool by the automotive industry. A lot of it is our fault; vendors in the automotive space have seen infographics as too challenging and too expensive to bring to market. We've had a handful of forward-thinking dealers take advantage of it, but there hasn't been nearly the adoption that has occurred in other industries.

Even at the OEM level, Ford is the only company that has dipped their toes into infographics and found success.

First, let's look at what they do for dealerships:

• - They give content to visitors of both their websites and social media profiles an item will be shared. People share good content on Facebook and Twitter. They don't share new car specials pages. Some have asked what the benefit is. We've seen that when people share content on Facebook, a good percentage of it is localized. Friends, relatives, and coworkers that see a nice piece of content from a friend will visit the link and land on your site. If you're running remarketing campaigns or simply going for social media exposure, landing them on your site is an opportunity to generate a lead. Don't forget, every Facebook user has 8-9 Facebook friends who are in the market to buy a vehicle in the next 30 days.
•  - Powerful inbound links are the most important aspect of search engine optimization. Having graphics that can be embedded on other sites is an opportunity to use this "link bait" to generate free links to your site.
• - Infographics that portray useful information such as proper SYNCing on a Ford or localized information such as a crime-rate map of the area positions the dealership website as a resource on top of being a place to look at cars. Whenever you can become a resource for people, they are more likely to want to do business with you.

Once you know what they do for you, let's take a look at the most successful infographic that we built in 2011. This particular one was generated for a non-automotive client but it will be easy to see why it was so successful. Here are the stats:

• - Posted on over 400 websites that linked back to the source, including high-value websites that included the New York Times, Mashable, TheNextWeb, and TheAtlantic.
• - Shared on Facebook over 17,000 times with Mashable having the highest share-rate of nearly 10,000.
• - Tweeted over 25,000 times with Mashable again leading the way with over 6,000 retweets.
• - Estimated 2.3 million views of the infographic.
• - Made the front page of Digg, Reddit, and went viral for 3 different sites on StumbleUpon.

Now, here's the infographic. If you have any questions about why it worked so well or how it translates in the automotive industry, please feel free to email me or ask in the comments.

“It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not.” ~ Author Unknown

            I’d like to start out with a story that maybe some of us in the automotive industry can relate to. This deals with the number one obstacle of the sale. You! The demo is completed, they love the car, they love you, they love the ease of everything so far and now it has come to this. Your so-called friend now sits across from you and tells you that they will take delivery of their new vehicle if the numbers are right. The customer is sold and wants to drive the car home today. You are pumped up; full of confidence and the adrenaline begins to flow through your body. You go to the desk and you tell the GSM where they need to be in order for you to seal the deal. You explain everything word for word and as you are talking the GSM begins to pencil you the numbers. It’s as if he’s not even listening. You feel like Charlie Brown’s parents, “WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH!” It’s like everything you say doesn’t even matter. You look down at the up sheet to see if you’re in the ballpark and you notice that the number is way higher than where the customer wants to be. Not only are you not in the ballpark, but you’re not even in the same state. You than see that the customers trade that was explained to be a gem has 2 car accidents on the Carfax and is coming in thousands less than what they want for it. The GSM finishes writing the numbers, turns the paper to you and slowly slides the up sheet back into your hands and with a smile softly says, “let’s make this deal!” You think, “Ok I will if you’d just do the customers numbers!”

By this point your heart is racing, you have fallen into a deep black hole and feel like you are miles apart from where the customer is and where the desk wants to be. Your confidence doesn’t slowly disappear, but it has been shattered, blown up and destroyed. You put your head into your hands, look at the paper and start to try and close the desk on where the customer wants to be. You think, “Maybe he didn’t hear me so I’ll explain it again.” You finally come to grips with the fact that the desk is not budging so you peek over your shoulder to see what your customers are doing. As you look they see you look their way and smile at you as if you’re gonna come back and not only give them what they asked for on their trade but exceed that and give them a thousand more than they asked. You look back at the paper huff and blow out a deep breath. You get up, grab your paper, look at the GSM as if he’s the devil himself and with your head down looking at the paper, dragging your feet, in total disbelief and defeat you begin to walk back towards your customer. You sit down and as you’re shaking your head back and forth you say, “ Well, I have bad news. I’m so sorry to say that I CAN’T BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!”

Don’t Lose Confidence in Yourself

As exaggerated as this story is I believe it speaks to us in one way or another. The point of this entire case study is that if you lose confidence in yourself to close the sale you’ll never close the sale. We are the number one obstacles that obstruct the path of buyers saying yes and driving home in their new vehicles. When we lose the confidence in our-selves to present the customer the numbers that we are given, the customer can pick up on that and pull back their confidence to say yes. When you are confident in your presentation, demo, walk around, product and competitive knowledge your customer feeds off of that. The more confidence you display the more confident they will feel in making a major decision to purchase. A lot of your success in closing is dependent on your ability to empower your customers with the confidence they need to make a decision. How you speak, how you stand, the body language you show, the inflections and tone of your voice all have to do with the success and failure of instilling confidence into your customer. It begins with you. Be confident in your ability to sell, present numbers, deflect stalls and overcome objections in the sale. Practice your transition points of one word to the next. The more fluent and articulate you are with your words the more at ease people feel. The more you stumble, sigh, and trip through your words the more hesitant people feel. Your words and how you say your words are your tools that you use to be successful in what you do. We should take the time to practice using these tools.

“Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right.” ~ Henry Ford

Always Think You Can

An unknown author said, “Success comes in cans, not cant's.” That is so true. Think you can close every deal. Think you can overcome every objection. Think you can be salesman of the month every month. Think you can be more productive than you’ve ever been. Think you can do the impossible and you will. Think you can reach your goals and you will. The ones who say they can’t usually end up getting passed up by the ones who think they can and just did. It’s more than just thinking you can in your mind but also in your heart. Your heart is the core of your being. It is the center of your-self. As a mirror reflects your face so your heart reflects back to you your true self-image.

Proverbs 23:7 (Amplified Bible) For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

Whatever you think you are in your heart that is what will eventually come out in your character and words. Allow your heart felt thoughts to help govern your actions and words. The more confident you are in your ability to believe that you can be successful and achieve outstanding accomplishments the more you will begin to experience what you already thought you can do. 

Think big! Think success! Think on good things! Think on things that instill a positive outcome!

"Before you change your thinking, you have to change what goes into your mind."

Zig Ziglar

As you think on things that empower you to be the best you can be and stay strong in your self-confidence you will overcome the hardest obstacle you’ll ever face in this life and achieve success, victory and promotions in all your endeavors. Please email me to receive a copy of an article to help strengthen your self-confidence.

US Auto IndustryShuts Door On Another Strong Year- By Tony Pugh - Re-Post from McClatchy - Tribune http://www.dealersynergy.com

WASHINGTON – After a near collapse at the height of the Great Recession, the streamlined U.S. auto industry defied the odds and outperformed the greater economy this year with solid sales increases, job growth and product innovations that signal that a full industry recovery no longer is just possible, but probable.

Credit better quality and pent-up consumer demand for the industry’s slow, steady improvement. Customers who were unwilling to gamble on automobile purchases during the recession are coming back to showrooms because the average age of vehicles on U.S. roads is more than 10 years – the highest ever.

U.S. car buyers also are getting comfortable with making large purchases in the volatile economy, experts say.

“And that’s a big behavioral change from what we saw in ’08 and ’09. That’s good for the industry,” said Jesse Toprak, the chief industry analyst for TrueCar.com, an auto-pricing Web site.

After selling roughly 11.8 million cars and trucks last year, U.S. vehicle sales to businesses and consumers are expected to hit nearly 12.8 million in 2011, Toprak said. That’s up from 10.6 million at the height of the Great Recession in 2009.

Through November, new-vehicle sales had logged six straight months of year-over-year gains. That should continue in December, when 1.2 million vehicles are likely to be sold, Toprak said.

Those numbers are well off their pre-recession levels, which topped 16 million vehicles a year. But the industry’s plodding recovery in the past two years has helped stabilize the greater U.S. economy and power a regional recovery in the Great Lakes and Rust Belt regions, where auto production is king. Both areas have seen some of the sharpest declines in unemployment in the country in the past two years as automakers regain their financial footing.

U.S. and foreign automakers are poised to add nearly 167,000 U.S. jobs by the end of 2015, according to the nonprofit Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. That breaks down to 30,000 hourly and salaried workers at the Big Three U.S. automakers, 17,000 jobs at foreign automakers and about 120,000 auto-supply sector jobs.

“The industry has pretty much hired back just about everybody from the automotive side that had been laid off. And now they’re hiring fresh, so they’re actually adding to their rosters,” said Aaron Bragman, senior analyst at IHS Automotive in Northville, Mich.

Most analysts say the industry’s growing stability is sweet vindication for the federal government’s $80 billion bailout, which allowed General Motors and Chrysler to reorganize. The Center for Automotive Research estimates that the bailouts saved more than 1.1 million jobs in 2009 and another 314,000 in 2010, while avoiding personal income losses of more than $96 billion.

Today, all three major U.S. automakers are on the comeback trail with increased investment in U.S. manufacturing plants, improved new models, greater profitability and thousands of new hires.

Chrysler’s rebound has been dramatic. In its best November since 2007, the beleaguered automaker sold more than 107,000 vehicles in the U.S., up 45 percent from November 2010. It was the 20th consecutive month of year-over-year sales gains for Chrysler and the best November for Jeep brand sales since 2003.

Foreign automakers also are expanding their U.S. operations. In May, Volkswagen opened a new plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., that now employs 2,000 people. The Mercedes-Benz factory in Vance, Ala., will add 1,000 jobs when it begins producing the C-Class in 2014.

Toyota just opened a new $800 million plant outside Tupelo, Miss., where about 2,000 workers will assemble the popular Corolla. The plant is Toyota’s 14th in North America.

Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia saw their U.S. vehicle sales explode this year. But U.S. sales of Japanese autos faltered after a tsunami in northern Japan disrupted production in March and caused worldwide inventory shortages during the summer months, when car sales are hottest.

“They didn’t have full strength of inventory because they weren’t able to make enough cars,” Bragman said.

U.S. automakers were prepared to capitalize with new designs and models. Chevrolet’s new Cruze became the second-best-selling car in its class this year, behind the traditional industry leader, Toyota’s Corolla.

Improved quality among all automakers also helped drive sales.

“You’ve got to give the automakers some credit here,” Toprak said. “The new products that have come out of virtually every single automaker in the last year or two have been the best that consumers were ever offered. When you have great product, it fuels buying.”

Ford’s redesigned Explorer has continued strong sales even as the U.S. market has moved away from SUVs. This year, the Explorer moved from a truck-style, body-on-frame design to a lighter, more fuel-efficient one-piece body architecture, which most cars have.

“It has been a big success and is selling very well,” said Bernard Swiecki, senior project manager at the Center for Automotive Research.

After recently inking four-year agreements with the United Auto Workers union, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors plan to add more jobs. The UAW agreements call for 20,000 new jobs over the life of the contracts: 6,400 at GM, 2,100 at Chrysler and more than 12,000 with Ford.

The new pact reduces labor costs for the automakers because new workers will earn lower wages than longtime employees, who will get profit-sharing and inflation-adjustment payments rather than annual raises.

In exchange, the companies agreed to bring back more foreign manufacturing jobs to the U.S. Last month, General Motors said it would begin assembling its Chevrolet Equinox next year at the old Saturn assembly factory in Spring Hill, Tenn., along with a midsized vehicle for the 2015 model year.

Earlier this month, Ford announced that production of its F-650 and F-750 trucks will move from Mexico to its Avon Lake, Ohio, assembly plant in 2014. The move retains about 1,400 jobs at the plant, which is slated for a $128 million upgrade.

New labor agreements and cuts in retiree health benefits also have helped the automakers become more profitable. Before a 2007 UAW labor agreement, Ford and GM’s wage and benefit costs were about $78 per hour. They’re now $58 an hour for Ford and $56 for GM, said Kristin Dziczek, director of the labor and industry group at the automotive research center.

While Chrysler’s sales have increased the most from last year, its per-vehicle profit margin is only $1,066, according to the center. General Motors clears an average of $3,327 per vehicle, while Ford earns $2,819.

Barring a European debt crisis next year or a double-dip domestic recession, most analysts think that 2012 will be another strong year, with vehicle sales approaching 13.8 million.

“The industry is ready, when the economy recovers, to make a lot of money,” Dziczek said. “If we get back to moderate economic growth of about 3 percent a year, we could be talking about there not being enough (manufacturing) capacity” to keep up with demand. “That’s a good problem to have.”

The vast reach of the auto industry, through its parts and supply chain, helps drive the economy in times of expansion. The industry typically accounts for up to 3.5 percent of the gross domestic product and fuels about 10 percent of U.S. retail sales.

When automakers were cutting jobs in 2008 and 2009 at the height of the recession, the industry’s economic ripple effect worked in reverse, causing millions of additional jobs to disappear.

“Now that huge economic multiplier is once again on our side. It’s working as an engine of growth. But we paid a dear price in ‘08 and ‘09, when the hit was really enormous,” Swiecki said.

Source: Most Googled Cars Of 2011

Sean V. Bradley CEO of Dealer Synergy goes over the RULES for his $2,000 FREE CASH Give-A-Way

http://www.dealersynergy.com

Sean V. Bradley, CEO of Dealer Synergy is giving away $2,000 CASH FREE (NO B.S.) to the Lucky Winner(s) - Automotive Internet Sales