Tag: toyota

  • How To Fix the Auto Industry: Get Rid of Dealerships

    Sometimes ideas are too simple to actually work. If the United States is going to give $34 billion to failing auto industry, I have a right to give my suggestions for how to fix things.

    In order to make it for the next 100 years you are going to have to radically innovate. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to mean thinking about doing business differently than you ever have. To save the US Automakers, it’s going to mean sacrificing some of what has become sacred for the sake of making it work from here on out. Inside out top to bottom changes are what you need.

    This is my first idea:

    1. Starting immediately, your cars will only be purchased directly through you. No car buyer likes the dealership process so you need to kill fast Eddie’s business. You don’t buy a washing machine or a computer without knowing what the price really is, so why should you expect people to buy cars that way?

    2. Make car buying about the customer and not the dealer. This means you need to add a shopping cart, much like the one from Dell or Apple, to your website. For most buyers, getting a new car is either a very rare occurrence or they do it all the time. Make the website intuitive enough for the buyer to decide their buying experience. Instead of putting them on the defensive with a negotiation process that favors the professional, make the process about the buyer. The customer is your friend! Time to treat them that way.

    3. Have a simple pricing structure. Allow people to know how much the car costs you to produce. Then add a 5% profit and a 3% delivery free to that. Show the math. Allow customers to drill down into that invoice so they can see where every single part comes from and how much it costs. Not only will your prices be cheaper than the competition, your customers will know that they aren’t getting ripped off. All the shopping cart to add things one by one or by package. People are smart and they know what they like in a car… give them that ability.

    4. Eliminate the local finance office. This is the sleaziest part of the car buying experience. Allow people to buy the car through your finance company, or allow them to use a bank transfer, or even credit card to buy the car. Again, this is about giving your customer a fantastic buying experience instead of walking onto a dealer lot, with your brand on it, and getting screwed by someone representing you.

    5. Convert the local dealership into a delivery, customization, and repair shop. By getting rid of a sales and finance people will make the dealership more like the Apple Store. Change the name of these from dealerships to delivery locations. Instead of a sales force you will have genius’s and customer service agents.

    6. Only allow customers to come to the delivery center to buy accessories and receive customer care. Effective immediately, you will deliver the car where the customer wants it. Want a test drive, you can arrange to meet them somewhere. When it needs service, you’ll pick up the car free of charge.

    7. Every part of your cost should become open. This is about trust. You can make your money. Just be open about it. Customers will reward you for it.

    8. Allow customers to sell their used cars on your website. Have the local delivery office come to the customers house, create a listing, apply the proceeds to a future sale.

    9. No one in the sales, marketing, delivery process will be commissioned. Pay the people at the delivery centers well, but don’t overpay them. You want these people doing this job for love. A lot of people need jobs. If people at the new delivery centers quit… they will be easily replaced.

  • Travels with Stoney: The Rundown

    So here is the itenerary of my trip to San Diego. Of course, it’s a little odd to write about a trip to San Diego when I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in San Diego but let’s just pretend prepositional phrases don’t matter, OK?

    Sunday: Detroit to Terre Haute, IN. Having lunch in the Cincinnati area with Angie and Chris before bisecting Indiana like a carrot. We’re spending the night at my friend Gene’s crib. Should be fun.

    Monday: Terre Haute, IN to Tulsa, OK. This is mucho state day. Kicking it off with breakfast in Vinncennes, IN with my grandma. Then we’re blowing through Illinois, coasting across Missouri, waving at Kansas, and trekking into Oklahoma for dinner with PK in Tulsa. Anyone want to meet up in the St. Louis area?

    Tuesday: Tulsa, OK to Albuquerque, NM. Other than lunch with Len in Amarillo, this is a quiet day as we drive into brownness. It’s days like this that we’ll be having fun exploring stuff.

    Wednesday: Albuquerque, NM to Las Vegas, NV. Originally I was going to try to make it to San Diego on Wednesday. But it’s about 750 miles and unless the Camry drops into a stealth mode and we can drive 120 all day, I just don’t want to go that far. Plus, kicking it with my mom in Vegas sounds like fun. Maybe we’ll take Stoney for a walk on the strip?

    Thursday: Las Vegas, NV to San Diego, CA. The home stretch is only a 5 hour drive. Should be a good time as we finally drop out of the brown and start to see the greenish that is San Diego.

    Of course, we’re documenting this trip with a combination of video, pictures, stories, and “other media” to be discovered. Megan and Stoney are ready, are you?

  • 10 random Monday thoughts

    It’s a holiday. And a holiday for me means that I tend to get strikingly little done. I may have some big plans for my day… but if I get 1-2 things actually done I’ll be satisfied. Here’s just a data dump of things on my mind.

    1. I’m definitely taking a bike ride today.
    2. It was supposed to rain today, but looking at the satellite I don’t think that’s likely.
    3. I stayed up until 2 AM playing Madden 08 for the Wii. It’s just OK.
    4. This morning I added a ton of people to my friends list on Facebook. Many of them I don’t know personally but are “fans” of YMX on Facebook.
    5. It was fun to head out to Metemora State Park last night to hang with the Fisher’s and Brinker’s. Each time we come home Kristen and I vow to take our kids camping. I don’t really know if that will happen or not. But I hope it will
    6. Everyone is asking us when our house will go on the market. Probably in a few weeks. We have some things we need to do first. We are oddly at peace about the process. We know it’s a good house and are hopeful it will sell at a good price. 
    7. Jimmy was clutch yesterday. I was very pleased with the services over all. I especially liked that he “de-cheesed” the Lee Greenwood song, “God Bless the U.S.A.” 
    8. It was a little weird being my “last day” at Romeo. At the same time, we’re back next week. It’s not like we’re moving right now. The most common question yesterday was, “When do you start your new job?” I start next week and my next trip out west in in a couple weeks. 
    9. I’m shopping for a digital SLR as my wife has broken both our cameras. How do you decide between Nikon and Canon?
    10. Mellen’s Market (the corner store across the street from us) is closing its doors and going out of business later this week. That’s a total bummer.
    11. Bonus random thought: Kristen and I are planning to sell our car and buy a new one when we get to San Diego. We are definitely looking for a small/tiny car that gets great mileage. (I may even get a scooter!) High on our list of cars to look into are the Prius and Civic Hybrid. (American cars) We are also considering some Korean made cars and Mexican cars made by Ford and GM. I just had to get that dig in since Romeo people still think that there is a delineation between “American cars” and “Foreign cars.” No one outside of Michigan has used terms like that since the 1980s… but you still hear and see it here on bumper stickers. Let’s translate that… by “foreign car” they really mean “non-union made car.”