This graph shows you by price range the most viewed vehicles across our network in the last 60 days.

Click HERE to view a larger image of the results.

Are you preparing end of financial year data for your accountant, and don’t know where to start?

Are you struggling to catch up after staff changes and can’t see the end in sight?

If your answer is yes, you need an accounting specialist, with Dealerlogic experience.

We have great news for you! Dealer Solutions can now put you in touch with an independent consultant with very reasonable rates, who has extensive dealership accounting experience and is also familiar with Dealerlogic Accounting Software.

John Ratcliffe from Pacific Automotive Projects can assist you with ongoing regular reconciliations, or simply help you with a one-off ‘tidy up’ of your Dealerlogic accounting data.

Contact John during office hours on 0418 730 322 for all enquiries.

Half way through their free leads period, which runs until 31 May, Carsguide.com.au has announced record traffic figures as a result of their new marketing campaign.

The following was announced during a recent press release direct from Carsguide:
Carsguide announce a 161%* increase in visitors carrying out searches on dealers’ used cars and a 58%** increase in leads sent to dealers.
CEO Michael Schreck commented “We are thrilled with the feedback we are getting from dealers all over the country, the 58%* increase in leads is a direct result of the increase in inventory and on the back of a national consumer advertising campaign.”
Record Traffic
The number of car buyers visiting the site jumped instantly following the launch of new advertising. Carsguide.com.au enjoyed a monthly increase of 8% reaching over 1 million*** unique browsers for the first time ever.
Early results from the advertising include:
· 21% increase in direct visitors in the week after TVC launch on Foxtel
· 17% increase in direct visits in the week directly after the launch of the outdoor campaign
· 22% increase in brand term traffic since the launch of the above the line campaign
Increase in Car Searches
The number of visitors carrying out searches on dealers’ used cars has jumped by 161% in March.  This number is expected to further increase in the coming months as Carsguide.com.au launches new products that will facilitate the car buyer in making their purchase.
For further details please contact Lia Bresnihan on lia.bresnihan@carsguide.com.au or 02 8114 7316, or Tracey Cannon on tracey.cannon@carsguide.com.au or 02 8114 7433.
*Data taken from Unica July – December 2011 average, compared to March 2012.
**Data was taken from the total dealer leads over August – December 2011 average, compared to March 2012.
***Data was taken from Market Intelligence UB figures over August – December 2011 average, compared to March 2012.

It just got cheaper for Dealers to sell Parts and Accessories with Ebay.

From 2nd May 2012 the Featured Store monthly subscription will  reduce by an amazing 75% from $99.95 to $24.95 and featured Store fixed price insertion fees will reduce 34% from 30c to 20c for all parts and accessories categories. The final value fee has increased to a flat 7% with a $100 cap and the subtitle cost changes to only $2.00 in all cases.

To help with maximising your Brand and Reputation across the eBay marketplace and community there is now a Automatic 5 star Rating for Communication.

To get this you must meet the following criteria:

• Stated handling time is one working day or same day
• Postage tracking number is uploaded within one working day after payment has been received
• The item is paid for using PayPal, which makes the payment date visible to eBay
• No communication took place between the buyer and seller in the 14 days prior to the transaction and up until the point that Feedback was left. This includes messages within My eBay.

Who said “the cost of things never really goes down”?

At the moment it is hard to have conversations with Dealers like yourself that don’t involve questions like “What is this Social Media thing?” and “How do I sell cars with Social Media?” and “Oh come on, who’s going to buy a car using something called Twitter?”.

You may have already established that everyone you talk to has a different opinion and that their opinion(s) may or may not be based around a secret agenda. Perhaps it is way to easy to be a expert in Social Media these days?

If you prefer to rely on facts and figures before forming an opinion then THIS video will help you get a grasp on the Social Media Marketplace, it’s size and its penetration into almost everyone’s life.

If you accept the proposition in the video or you didn’t need the video to be convinced then perhaps the next step is an gaining an understanding of what part of Social Media gets used for what.

Here is a graphic that does this although the subtle and a little dated dig at Google+ is now unfounded with a 200M users.

So the the next question a really big one………………..Why would the millions of people in this “marketplace” want to be social with a car dealer?

When you answer this then your Social Strategy starts to take shape.

Comments and discussion welcome………

This arrived in my inbox today. The story speaks for itself but obviously we are also very happy that results like this are happening for our dealers.

“Just FYI fellas, just received confirmation that we have sold a complete Tradesman accessory kit for a Navara to a client in Sydney which consists of Bullbar, Driving lights, rear tub sports bar, ladder racks, roof racks, the list goes on – $5500 one client, one purchase, one shipment.

This started from one item then the client started up selling themselves after viewing the rest of the Navara stock on our eBay store. To all the doubtful dealers – here you go, a little hard work has paid off.”

Discussion or comments welcome…

Tired of not being able to pick the car that owns this headlight? Don’t give up just yet! Bragging rights and the  $50.00 gift card may just be yours if you pick/guess/fluke the car that owns this Headlight.

The winner will be first person who uses the blog comments (no emails or texts or facebook messages) below to correctly identify the Make and Model and uses a confirmable Dealer Solutions Client email address. Yes, we may just check and yes you need to be a Dealer Solutions client.

Sorry, we aren’t offering any hints or answers but you can always look at what others are guessing in the Blog comments below.

It will be interesting to see how fast the car is identified. GOOD LUCK!

Continuing with our philosophy of supporting our dealers with maximum advertising choice we are pleased to advise that www.carsupermarket.com.au is now available as an advertising destination.

John from Carsupermarket has this message for you:

To activate advertising with www.carsupermarket.com.au you only need to send a activation request by email to service@dealersolutions.com.au.

A Sydney Dealer achieves 21K in sales with a 26% GP with their eBay parts and accessory store in January 2012.

A Melbourne Dealer achieves $19940.00 in sales in January with a 18.5% GP and gets the bonus of exceeding their OEM accessory target for the “first time in ages”.

Both these dealers have less than 400 parts and accessories listed in their eBay store and both are budgeting for $50K in sales within 4 -5 months.

These results show that eBay works for Dealers and that both volume and gross are achievable. It is easy to be part of this exciting new marketplace and we look forward to helping  you and your people get these kind of results.

It takes one phone call to get this happening. Hope to hear from you today.