Friday 24 October 2014

Are Franchised Dealerships in Tesla"s Future

Michigan Republican governor Rick Snyder signed legislation Tuesday officially banning Tesla Motors and any other carmaker from selling directly to car-buyers in the state, but this past weekend,Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk hinted his position on direct sales is not set in stone.
Last Saturday, Musk sat down with John McElroy the host of program AutoLine Daily.
When McElroy asked Musk if he could really scale up his retail model of company stores in all 50 states and how they would handle maintenance and repairs, Musk made a surprising admittance.
He said, relying exclusively on company stores probably was not enough.
"We may need a hybrid system, with a combination of our own stores and dealer franchises," Musk told McElroy.
By the time of publication, Tesla representatives had not responded to Auto Remarketing's request for further comment.
According to the report, Musk made no mention of how this hybrid system may work and when franchises would become an option.
This discussion may come as a big surprise to those who have been watching the long battle between Tesla and franchised dealers across the country regarding its direct-to-consumer sales model, but it may just be part of the natural evolution of the company.
Now that it has launched a leasing and CPO program, and with new models in the wings, more Tesla's mean more maintenance, repair work and customers - an influx of work that could potentially be solved by launching a string of franchised dealerships.
Auto Remarketing discussed Tesla's new CPO program after the news broke earlier this month.
In an effort to source their new program, the company is giving Tesla Model S owners the option to return the car after three years and recover 45 to 50 percent of its sticker price.
It is still unknown whether Tesla's move into the used market will greatly expand its audience and analysts say there could be a chance the program will potentially cut into new-model customers.
The industry will also have to wait and see how the automaker prices its CPO units as the way the Tesla retail model is currently set up puts them in a place where they can potentially "control" the CPO market for the Model S, including price.
"They could control the roll out of used vehicles, and some could sit in reconditioning. They might cherry-pick others. So when you combine the idea that it is a used market but they are going to take the best of the best, and if they have the majority of them, it would be very easy for them to set a price with no negotiation, in that sense," said Ivan Drury, Edmunds.com senior analyst.
The question is this: Is Tesla going to come up with a condition and mileage matrix to price their CPO models or rather go with pricing every vehicle individually based on market and technician review?



Are Franchised Dealerships in Tesla's Future............................ www.redlineautosales.ca/are-franchised-dealerships-in-tesla-s-future.htm

Saturday 18 October 2014

Mercedes Benz Canada Appoints New Brampton Dealer



TORONTO - Mercedes-Benz Canada is expanding its presence in the Greater Toronto area by appointing a new dealer.
Company executives and the dealership's new management recently turned over the first shovelful of soil of the future Brampton-based facility.
Mercedes-Benz Brampton will be run by Sam Eltes and Jonathan Eltes, dealer principles, as well as Gary Williams, the store's general manager.
"Sam Eltes is a long-time trusted partner of Mercedes-Benz Canada and it is our pleasure to welcome him and his team to the Greater Toronto Area. They bring a great deal of experience and knowledge which will make the start up process smoother and more fluid for the benefit of their new customers," said Tim Reuss, president and chief executive officer of Mercedes-Benz Canada. "This new facility will also provide another convenient point of sales and service in the GTA to effectively serve the needs of existing and future customers in this important growing market."
During the groundbreaking ceremony, the group was also joined by Rob Girouard, general manager of Silver Star Mercedes-Benz, located in Montreal.
Mercedes-Benz Brampton will be the second Mercedes-Benz banner for the Silver Star organization.
Construction of the new facility began in August on a six-acre site located on the southeast corner of Mayfield Road at Highway 410.
And this will be a quick turnaround, as the facility is scheduled to be fully operational by May 2015.
The store is set to be 60,000 square-feet and will house the Mercedes-Benz, AMG and Smart brands.
A service area that will feature 29 work bays will take up 30,000 square-feet.



Mercedes Benz Canada Appoints New Brampton Dealer............ www.redlineautosales.ca/mercedes-benz-canada-appoints-new-brampton-dealer.htm

Saturday 11 October 2014

New No. 1 Reason Women Buy from Dealerships


New No.1 Reason Women Buy From Dealerships............... www.redlineautosales.ca/new-no--1-reason-women-buy-from-dealerships.htm

Saturday 4 October 2014

Most-Appraised Vehicles: What Shoppers Are Looking For

Year-to-date, the Honda Civic Sedan is the third most appraised vehicle in Canada.

Fall appraisal trends are so far mirroring summer results, with the ever-popular Ford F-150 out in front last month, according to DealerTrack's TradeTracker report.
The Ford F-150 is also No. 1 for year-to-date trends, similar to what was seen in 2013.
The Toyota Corolla was the No. 2 most appraised vehicle in Canada in September.
The top three were rounded out by the Dodge Caravan, taking the place of the Honda Civic sedan, which moved down to fourth place. Year-to-date, though, the Honda Civic easily takes the third spot.
Another Ford model, the Escape, rounded out the top five. Year-to-date, this position has been held by the Dodge Grand Caravan.
These reports are provided monthly to Auto Remarketing Canada and are a result of Dealertrack Technologies' TradeTracker solution, which is an online, trade-in evaluation tool that allows dealerships to create instant, accurate appraisals and gain insight into their used-car business.
The report also breaks down the vehicles by market, as follows:
  • The top domestic vehicle appraised by domestic dealers was the F-150.
  • The top import vehicle appraised by import dealers was the Corolla.
  • The top domestic vehicle appraised by import dealers was the Ford Escape.
  • The top import vehicle appraised by domestic dealers was the Mazda3.
The report also narrows down the top vehicles being looked at by trade-in owners.
Within this group, the top domestic vehicle looked at by domestic owners was once again the F-150.
For import owners, the top import vehicle looked at was the Corolla.
And when it comes to domestics, import owners looked at the Escape the most in September.
Lastly, the top import vehicle looked at by domestic owners was the Toyota Rav4. This spot has been consistently held by the Toyota Corolla, who holds the year-to-date trend.
The TradeTracker reports also include a Brand of the Month section, which highlights appraisal trends by an individual brand each month.
The brand highlighted in September was Kia.
The top three vehicles looked at by trade-in customers at Kia dealerships were the Sorento, Soul and Rio, respectively.
The top three off-make vehicles appraised by Ford dealers were the Mazda3, Ford Focus and Dodge Grand Caravan, respectively.

Most Appraised Vehicles: What Shoppers Are Looking For.......... www.redlineautosales.ca/most-appraised-vehicles--what-shoppers-are-looking-for.htm