Durran Cage Crystal Ball: Dealerships 10 Years From Now
Transcript
Reid : 10 years from now, will we have subscription models, will manufacturers be selling direct? Oru2026n
n Durran : Definitely on the new car side. I definitely feel the manufacturers we all know this, this is no secret, the manufacturers are going to be way more involved in the consumer process. So yes, do I see a place where there’s gonna be dealers or more or less fulfillment for online orders that are direct from the manufacturer? Absolutely. I think that that’s possible.n
n Reid : Why do you think that is?n
n Durran : If you just watch TV sometimes, like just look at an ad, I think it was, man, I don’t even want to say to the OEM, because I don’t, but there’s an ad that ran, that was an OEM ad, and it’s on TV, and it says, reserve yours now go to www.black.com. Right, so they’re pushing that. And the other thing is, I was at a dealership, I’m not going to say the manufacturer, a customer came in, had already put in an order for such and such. And was just wondering what the status was, the dealership didn’t even know anything about it, there was no communication to him about this customer even putting an order in, it was all from the consumer to the manufacturer?n
nSo that’s where, and this is all OEM, so I don’t want to blanket it. But because there are some OEMs that are really taking a team approach with the dealers, they are locking arm and arm. And there’s some other manufacturers that I feel like they’re stepping on dealers toes, but my advice to dealers, even right now, if you don’t have a used car store that you can separate and brand, you need to do that. Now. n
nThat’s what I would say, because the US car business is always going to be huge. , like, we always talk about the franchise that we look at new car numbers, but we don’t talk about the US car numbers enough. And so if you have OEM, , Jones, family company, whatever it’s called, they should be creating Jones use car superstar centers, , something like that. Because if you look at some of the top, right, look at car Max, I don’t mind saying your name or Carvana, whatever, even if Carvanha is down, looking at what they have, they can do whatever they want. Why? Because they’re not ran by an OEM. What were you gonna say Reid? n
nWell, honestly, I’m a big believer in, go after the buy, not the sale. You did notice though, I think Carvana, Varoom and companies like that will suffer because I still believe that Buying a car is an emotional purchase, you have to drive it to make sure you like it efore you buy it. And I think these people are having that discontent after and that’s where they’re seeing less and Carmax is seeing more.n
n Durran : That, and people still love to connect with people! Look we’re doing now. We still love to connect with each other. So as much as it sounded great to make a 30,40 50 $60,000 purchase online and not talk to a human being, what we’re seeing now is people are like, no, like, because it’s that after the sale, too, right? That’s so important. You just spent 50 grand, you want to feel appreciated after the sale you want somebody following up with you want to know that your service needs are gonna pick you up,n
n Reid :nI’ll pick your car up for service. n
n Durran : Boom!
nYou see what I mean? So that’s what’s important in terms of why some of these companies might struggle with that, because I think consumers just really need to have the options anyways. Sometimes I feel like companies and vendors, we push our agenda on the consumers and say everybody is going to do digital retailing, when the answer really lies with what does the consumer want to do? It should be those different options. Just like if we went to a grocery store, right? You can now do what you can have that sucker dropped off to your house. You can go in, you can do your scan yourself. You can wait in line and deal with real people because some people still want a real person to check them out. They got it down pat, and dealers needed to implement the same strategy.n
n Durran : Definitely on the new car side. I definitely feel the manufacturers we all know this, this is no secret, the manufacturers are going to be way more involved in the consumer process. So yes, do I see a place where there’s gonna be dealers or more or less fulfillment for online orders that are direct from the manufacturer? Absolutely. I think that that’s possible.n
n Reid : Why do you think that is?n
n Durran : If you just watch TV sometimes, like just look at an ad, I think it was, man, I don’t even want to say to the OEM, because I don’t, but there’s an ad that ran, that was an OEM ad, and it’s on TV, and it says, reserve yours now go to www.black.com. Right, so they’re pushing that. And the other thing is, I was at a dealership, I’m not going to say the manufacturer, a customer came in, had already put in an order for such and such. And was just wondering what the status was, the dealership didn’t even know anything about it, there was no communication to him about this customer even putting an order in, it was all from the consumer to the manufacturer?n
nSo that’s where, and this is all OEM, so I don’t want to blanket it. But because there are some OEMs that are really taking a team approach with the dealers, they are locking arm and arm. And there’s some other manufacturers that I feel like they’re stepping on dealers toes, but my advice to dealers, even right now, if you don’t have a used car store that you can separate and brand, you need to do that. Now. n
nThat’s what I would say, because the US car business is always going to be huge. , like, we always talk about the franchise that we look at new car numbers, but we don’t talk about the US car numbers enough. And so if you have OEM, , Jones, family company, whatever it’s called, they should be creating Jones use car superstar centers, , something like that. Because if you look at some of the top, right, look at car Max, I don’t mind saying your name or Carvana, whatever, even if Carvanha is down, looking at what they have, they can do whatever they want. Why? Because they’re not ran by an OEM. What were you gonna say Reid? n
nWell, honestly, I’m a big believer in, go after the buy, not the sale. You did notice though, I think Carvana, Varoom and companies like that will suffer because I still believe that Buying a car is an emotional purchase, you have to drive it to make sure you like it efore you buy it. And I think these people are having that discontent after and that’s where they’re seeing less and Carmax is seeing more.n
n Durran : That, and people still love to connect with people! Look we’re doing now. We still love to connect with each other. So as much as it sounded great to make a 30,40 50 $60,000 purchase online and not talk to a human being, what we’re seeing now is people are like, no, like, because it’s that after the sale, too, right? That’s so important. You just spent 50 grand, you want to feel appreciated after the sale you want somebody following up with you want to know that your service needs are gonna pick you up,n
n Reid :nI’ll pick your car up for service. n
n Durran : Boom!
nYou see what I mean? So that’s what’s important in terms of why some of these companies might struggle with that, because I think consumers just really need to have the options anyways. Sometimes I feel like companies and vendors, we push our agenda on the consumers and say everybody is going to do digital retailing, when the answer really lies with what does the consumer want to do? It should be those different options. Just like if we went to a grocery store, right? You can now do what you can have that sucker dropped off to your house. You can go in, you can do your scan yourself. You can wait in line and deal with real people because some people still want a real person to check them out. They got it down pat, and dealers needed to implement the same strategy.n