Rainbow Cars

How Vehicle Color Affects Depreciation

According to a recent study from https://www.iseecars.com/ on 1.6 million vehicles that are three-years-old, the car’s paint color has a significant effect on how long it takes to sell and the vehicle’s depreciation. It may come as a big surprise that orange and yellow are the top 2 vehicle colors that depreciate the least after the three years are up. How is it that these vibrant colors, often seen on sport or exotic cars, depreciate the least? After all, they only make up 1.5 percent of the market. Are we missing something, despite their flashy colors?

Simply put, the reason why these two colors are the ‘least depreciated’ is that they are not a color we’d normally see for the daily drivers. Orange and Yellow cars are for those monthly day trips down the Pacific Coast Highway or a day in Beverly Hills. You’d never see a Yellow Bugatti at a grocery store parking lot. If you do, then the owner is clearly loaded and may have a few more like that back at the mansion.

That said, the top 5 colors making the lowest deprecation rates are listed below in no particular order:

  • Orange
  • Yellow
  • Green
  • Brown
  • Red

As far as the colors that are the most common paint choices and with average depreciation rates, you can probably imagine what made this list. They are:

  • Gray
  • Blue
  • Black
  • White

Beige and silver used to be the most in-demand colors back in the 90s and 00s, so they have an even higher depreciation rate than the ones listed above. However, the color that has the worst depreciation rate (just shy of 34%) is also the third-fastest-selling color: gold. Nevertheless, beige vehicles take the longest to sell and are on the market close to two months before they sell.

Vehicle colors are just part of what contributes to the depreciation. It’s only standard that the value of cars lessens over time. Whether you have a yellow Lamborghini or a beige Hyundai, take care of your vehicle, and you’ll be able to have a better value for your car. Make sure you take it to get its regularly scheduled maintenance and don’t neglect any repairs. If you are a dealership, be meticulous in your reconditioning operations, paying attention to paint correction and matching, regardless of the color. Brighter colors may have the lowest depreciation rate, but a well-maintained car will always have more value than a car that is not.

June 19, 2019 Business, Education, New and Used Car Dealers, Reconditioning No comments yet
Flow PDR

Recon Vendor Management – Multiple Moving Parts and People

For those who manage multiple vehicles through a reconditioning process, like dealerships, fleet managers, auto auctions, and rental companies, employing multiple vendors and employees on top of the administrative duties of running the business can be difficult to manage. There are a lot of steps to getting a vehicle through the make-ready process. To help ease the pains of so many moving targets, AMT developed ReconMonitor™, smart workflow management software for auto reconditioning.

This software is specifically designed to assist in your execution of auto remarketing at maximum speed and efficiency. ReconMonitor improves the ready-for-sale process by giving the user visibility into each of the many steps in the recon process. It also provides a detailed look at how each of the steps and technicians is doing from an efficiency perspective. Let’s look at an example:

Let’s say your dealership acquires a car at auction. The initial inspection indicates that the vehicle needs some mechanical work, PDR, a bumper replacement, paint touch-ups, and of course, photography. Then the next day you acquire 5 to 10 cars through trade-in (wouldn’t that be great), each with its own list of needed repairs. For the recon director or manager within your operation, it can be dizzying tracking numerous vehicles at different stages of the recon process. If your facility employs its own mechanical repair resources in addition to outside vendors for specialties like PDR and other sublet work, keeping track of everything can be stressful and things can slip through the cracks. You not only have administrative tasks to complete but have to manage multiple workflows and stations to make sure the right employees and vendors are matched to the right jobs for the most efficient turn-around.

Capacity management and knowing where each vehicle is in the process becomes complex and the entire process can become bogged down from a single inefficient step. Vendor management in ReconMonitor means the ability to plan, schedule, and evaluate vendors for improved efficiency. For the example above, it would make no sense for the dealer to have the photographer come on a day when a car wasn’t cosmetically ready for its close-up. Knowing where each vehicle sits in the process, and planned time until it is ready for the next stage is a critical ability that will set your business processes apart from any other dealer without this type of visibility and control.

With ReconMonitor, you can watch your vendors and employees complete the designed order of tasks in real time, contact them if needed, make changes where you see fit, and analyze the quality of work. ReconMonitor will also automatically create and distribute vendor work orders, and generate vendor invoices when the completed work is approved, giving you full control.

Dealerships can lose around $35-$50 every day a car is stuck in the reconditioning process. ReconMonitor increases the visibility and control you have over the end-to-end process of reconditioning any vehicle. It’s a great way to get rid of disorganized paper orders and antiquated whiteboards and keep everything in one centralized management solution. With ReconMonitor, your reconditioning process is transformed with vehicles efficiently made frontline-ready in record time.

June 7, 2019 Business, New and Used Car Dealers, Product Related, Reconditioning, ReconMonitor No comments yet
Used cars balloons

Advantages Of Management Software For Your Used Car Dealership

  • Faster Turn Times
  • Improved Vehicle Volume
  • Better Coordination

For used car dealerships, management software is an excellent way to increase your efficiency both in the back-office and front-end operations.  Having a system in place not only reduces your overall cycle time but also increases your throughput– maximizing profit and minimizing overall costs.

Employing a management software solution for your fixed operations and reconditioning emphasizes your commitment to making your dealership run as effectively as possible, that you care about making tasks more streamlined for your employees, prioritize customer service and sales readiness, and you’re willing to adapt to the newest technologies out there for dealerships.

With management software in place, back-office administrative tasks that used to take hours can be cut down to just a few minutes. It allows all of your departments to be connected and work together, while also improving productivity on all fronts. Instead of relying on one employee or vendor at a time during each stage of vehicle processing, the operation becomes a more team-oriented environment. There’s a clear and organized structure that doesn’t rely on a back-office spreadsheet or whiteboard to get done. If a team member updates a vehicle’s status in the software, all relevant team members have access to the information, instantly, on their desktop or mobile devices. This lets the team know what’s in the pipeline, and lets both your technicians and your sales team plan for when work is coming.

You can see what vehicles are being reconditioned, where they are, the stage they’re in, and who’s working on them. You can also track and anticipate bottlenecks or delays during the reconditioning process, and improve resource planning based on vehicle volume and where they are in the recon process. The goal, of course, is high-quality work at optimal speed. Workflow management software can get your cars from acquisition to front line sales-ready in as little as a few days. Dealerships lose an average of $30-$50 per day when cars are stuck in reconditioning, so each day you can shave off your recon equals more profit per vehicle. And that savings adds up!

Workflow management software will make your used car dealership faster and more efficient both in the back and front-end of operations. You can create and refine your processes to make the back-office, reconditioning, and retail side of things work better together.

Automobile Technologies Can Help

AMT offers software solutions designed to make your used car dealership and reconditioning process as efficient as possible. We also provide you with better visibility and get your vehicles frontline ready in the shortest possible time.

ReconMonitor™ is powerful workflow automation for auto recon, dealerships, and auto remarketing companies that integrates with Dealer Management and Accounting Systems to ensure seamless operations across the enterprise.

June 4, 2019 Business, New and Used Car Dealers, Reconditioning, ReconMonitor No comments yet
Pensive At Laptop

Is Reconditioning Software Still Relevant in 2019?

Too much paperworkIf you’re staring at a desk surrounded by sticky notes and stacks of papers, wake up! It’s 2019! It’s no wonder you’re backlogged when you can’t even find the invoice for yesterday’s customer.

But somehow even with all the hours spent on invoices and paperwork after a long workday, many repair business owners and technicians take more comfort in this chaos rather than adopting a new method. The problem with that comfort zone is it’s virtually impossible nowadays to keep track of the repairs, check-in with your customers, and keep the business coming with increasing revenues. It’s frankly, well, not wise for these SMART repair shops to be using out of date methods for managing a business when even the way a technician approaches a car repair has gone through significant changes over the past few years.

Perhaps the fear of change is because many of these programs have often been designed without the mindset of the typical auto repair shop owner and its technicians. They’re often very complex and require specific training.

This is why AMT created a simple yet powerful software solution that eliminates the paperwork and helps make you more profitable. The software comes with all the features you need to be in command and control of your work, from PDR and hail damage estimating to an invoicing system that seamlessly integrates with your accounting software.

When it comes to reconditioning, the top 4 things that a thriving repair operation needs to keep track of are:

  1. Estimating the cost of the service
  2. Managing the front and back-end operations, including overseeing your technicians and making sure everything is running on schedule
  3. Billing and invoicing
  4. Serving your customers well = generating more profit

SMART Repair is all about doing the most effective job in the least amount of time to keep a steady money flow. Sticky notes and dry-erase boards may have worked before. But why be running your shop with limits when you can be limitless? AMT’s Automotive Repair Software manages over $139 Million in monthly repairs and estimates across over 23,000 repairs daily!

Go ahead and schedule your demo today!

May 30, 2019 Business, Product Related, Reconditioning, ReconPro No comments yet
PDR tools

7 Advantages Of Adding PDR To Your In-house Reconditioning Operation

In the reconditioning business, you’re always looking for a way to add another profit center. Luckily for you, adding Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) as an in-house capability is a great way to increase profit with minimal effort. As someone who’s already performing automotive repairs in your service bays or collision center, adding PDR to your processes will actually be pretty easy. With PDR, you can reduce the time you spend on bodywork during the reconditioning process, but you can also save quite a bit of money as well.

Trained PDR technicians can “massage” out any dents or dings found on a vehicle’s body. PDR typically relies on no damage to the paint in order to be as efficient as possible. Even so, technicians can still perform PDR to reshape the dents, and provide paint touch-ups if need be.

Below are 7 advantages of adding PDR to your reconditioning process.

 

It (Mostly) Doesn’t Cost Anything In The Long Run

Outside a few initial specialized tool purchases and training, PDR basically pays for itself. Once you have the training and tools, you won’t be paying any incremental costs to perform PDR since none of the tools or parts will require frequent replacement.

 

It Has a High Potential To Net You Profit

With the right technician, a $100 or $200 job can be done in 10 – 30 minutes with PDR.

 

You Have The Opportunity To Provide Better Deals To Customers

Most of the average drivers out there today have no idea what PDR is. It’s been around for close to 60 years, and there are still shops that don’t have it as a part of their repair processes. So, if a customer comes in with dents that need fixing, imagine their response when you tell them you can repair them all in a fraction of the time and for a fraction of the price of conventional dent repair. You may already use an outsourced PDR technician, but if you find yourself waiting for them to show up to complete the repairs, that vehicle downtime is costing you even more than just their charges.

 

Creates An Avenue For New, Potential, Customers

If you already have a stream of customers for other repairs and maintenance, you can offer dent removal as an up-sell in the service drive. In most cases, the dent work can be done during other repairs or services, adding no additional wait time for the customer. In addition to your walk-ins, you have the potential to bring in work from auto auctions, used car dealerships, car rental agencies, car insurance agencies, detail shops, and body shops.

 

Minimal Effort To Adding It Into Your Shop

PDR isn’t a method that requires a drastic change in your business. As we said above, it only requires a few initial tool purchases. Outside of that, there’s a pretty minimal space required to do the work and can easily be done in the shop or on the road with what you currently have. It only takes a few minutes to do during your detailing or painting phases, and it’ll just take a minute for you to speak with the customer, bring up the dents, and offer to repair them without any impact to the overall repair time.

 

Relatively Low Start-Up Cost

PDR will basically pay for itself once you’ve trained your technician(s) and purchased the proper equipment. It can be self-taught, but professional training and tools can cost anywhere from $5,000 – $15,000 depending on the level of training, certifications, and the quality of the tools. However, after the initial investment, PDR has high profit potential and costs much less than other typical investments for business line extensions.

 

It’s Easy To Sell To Customers

No matter what, offering a dent repair option that costs a fraction of conventional dent repair to a customer is a pretty easy sell. Since it only takes a few minutes to repair, the lower costs are drastically made up by the sheer volume of PDR that can be done throughout each week. What takes many shops days to do, you could do in minutes. So, if you provide a quality option that saves customers money and is convenient for them, you’ll ultimately get more business down the road.

 

AutoMobile Technologies offers Software Solutions That Can Help You Manage Your PDR Process

AMT offers software designed to make your reconditioning business more efficient, provide you with better visibility, and give you peace of mind knowing that your back-office is always up-to-date.

ReconMonitor is a state of the art workflow automation software for auto recon, dealerships, and auto remarketing companies. ReconMonitor dealership software decreases reconditioning cycle time from acquisition to front line and increases your control and profitability.

ReconPro is the industry’s most versatile and powerful software solution purpose-built for auto recon professionals. With essential tools for performing PDR estimates, hail and insurance matrixes, parts management, paint code lookups, integrations with body shop crash systems and accounting systems, too. ReconPro manages the details of running your business so you can focus on growing your business.

May 10, 2019 Business, Collision Centers, New and Used Car Dealers, Product Related, Reconditioning, ReconMonitor, ReconPro No comments yet

Why Choosing ReconPro Helps You Claim Your Life Back

  • Reduce the hours spent on paperwork
  • Coordinate jobs and teams
  • Complete visibility of every job and customer

When you manage a SMART repair business, you are the captain of your own ship. No matter how big or small your business may be, your systems allow you to see how your technicians are doing, manage your team, check your sales figures and more. You’ve spent late nights creating invoices and filling out paperwork, only to be back on the job early in the morning. Sound familiar?

Then you decide enough is enough and you purchase, or start a free trial of, a mobile reconditioning management software program. However, not every reconditioning program is designed the same way or has all the features you may need. If you make the investment in a flawed solution that is not fully functioning, you may never experience the bliss of owning a smooth-running operation that keeps you on top of all your jobs to keep all of your customers happy. In fact, the wrong program may actually backfire on you and make you miss the days of collecting invoices on a weekly basis, those sleepless nights, and conducting business based on the word of your technicians. Owning a bad solution might end up being worse than no solution at all.

Thankfully, there are programs for PDR and SMART Repair professionals that were designed specifically for those working in the auto recon industry. We all know time is money. But how can we make that money if we are backlogged and unable to effectively manage the repair process? There could be a hailstorm and all of a sudden, a customer contacts you needing repairs on hundreds of vehicles. If you don’t have an efficient way of creating estimates, managing your technicians, the repair process, and making sure your team is all on the same page, you may end up losing a major sale.

What if the time you’ve spent documenting the repair, invoicing, transcribing VIN’s, keeping tabs on your technicians, and more could all be significantly reduced with the right software? You’d finally have your life back to spend your nights for what they were meant for: rest and relaxation.

The quest to reclaim the hours of paperwork and administrative tasks is how AMT came up with the idea for ReconPro™.

ReconPro was conceived with the idea that there had to be a better, more efficient way to manage the repair process that was simple, easy, and accessible anywhere on any device. AMT engineers have a passion and deep understanding of efficient processes and auto recon workflows. As more and more providers entered the industry, AMT wanted to help SMART repairers get a leg up on the competition and get out of their own way. By working in a quick and efficient manner in ReconPro, you are able to handle all the paperwork you’ve had many late nights over and complete it during the work day so you can claim your life back outside of work.

While ReconPro was designed for reconditioning companies and technicians, it also makes the customer process much easier. From mobile estimates to team collaboration, ReconPro allows everything to be managed and accessible in one, easy-to-use location. You are able to set, adjust, and control customer specific pricing with even the most complex pricing models.e all know that every repair is different, no 2 jobs are ever the same. and every customer is unique. The software lets you manage all of the variables.

In addition, you can manage jobs, track time, receive real-time reports of the repair status from your technicians, determine R&I labor times and conventional repair costs for fully informed estimates. Work orders can be assigned, technicians can be scheduled, and customers can receive and approve their estimates, supplements, and invoices. It’s a simple-to-use yet powerful tool capable of doing a lot for you – because you do a lot already.

ReconPro makes the repair process easier for both you and your technicians by keeping it all in one accessible place. Keep the flow in your workflow by using a tool that works wherever you do. The days of IT staff installing software for your auto repair business and you spending hours working on invoices and paperwork are forever behind you. AMT invites you to schedule a free demonstration of ReconPro and see just how well it works for your business.

May 2, 2019 Business, Product Related, Reconditioning, ReconPro No comments yet

How Reconditioning Software Reduces Your Time To Market

Recon management whiteboard

Yesterday’s recon management dashboard. Don’t rub it the wrong way!

With each year, more and more dealerships are adapting to the latest and greatest technology. They’re doing this to increase their inventory turn times, but to also anticipate the likelihood of selling outside of those time spans. There are a lot of things to consider as a used car dealership, but one thing for sure is that each day a vehicle is being reconditioned, you’re losing money.

So, let’s approach time to market with an example. Let’s say your turn time is 50 days, but it takes you a total of 9 days to recondition the vehicle from auction to the frontline. With that turn time alone, you’re already reducing the vehicle’s chance of getting sold by 18%. Beyond that, if you wait too long, you may have to send it back into auction or reduce the price significantly to make any profit from it. The longer you have a vehicle in inventory that isn’t driveable by a potential customer, the less likely it’ll get sold.

Because of an inefficient recon operation, problems with morale can develop between your different departments. The business relies on the sales force selling vehicles as soon as possible, but if the technicians in the service department are taking too long, there will inevitably be some friction. At the end of the day, time to market relies the most on the reconditioning process pushing out vehicles as fast as possible for the sales team.

If you create a standardized process for your back-office, service department, vendors, and front-end sales, your time to market will drastically reduce. One of the biggest bottlenecks for used car operations and the reconditioning process is communication. Reconditioning management software can bridge the gap between all of the departments– making it easier for information to be accessed, knowing who’s accountable for delays, and getting approvals as fast as possible. It can even reduce friction between departments, by enabling your Fixed Ops department to set Sales department expectations with reliable delivery times for each vehicle.

To make sure all of your vehicles are frontline-ready as soon as possible, reconditioning software is an absolute must in this market. It enforces a much more organized approach when it comes to back-office information, vehicle reconditioning, sales, and customer satisfaction, and all the relevant information is available at the touch of a button on your computer or mobile device.

AutoMobile Technologies Can Help

AMT offers software solutions designed to make your reconditioning business more efficient, provide you with better visibility, and give you peace of mind knowing that your back-office is always up-to-date and your reconditioned vehicles are delivered at speed.

ReconMonitor is a state of the art workflow automation software for dealerships, auctions, and auto remarketing companies. ReconMonitor dealership software decreases reconditioning cycle time and increases your control and profitability.

April 4, 2019 Business, New and Used Car Dealers, Product Related, Reconditioning, ReconMonitor No comments yet

Why Your Dealership Should Prioritize Convenience And Transparency

Why Your Dealership Should Prioritize Convenience And TransparencyAccording to Dealership News, research from a Cox Automotive Service Industry Study showed dealerships are losing out on roughly $266 billion dollars a year in service revenue. Beyond that, the biggest contributing factor to it all is customer trust and inconvenience. Unfortunately, many dealerships aren’t doing enough for customers to feel completely comfortable with their purchasing process.

Released back in January, the study also showed that 70% of all customers who bought or leased a vehicle from a franchised dealership did not return for continued vehicle service. The reason behind this? Well, they’d rather take their chances with established body shops and independent repair shops. In fact, the study showed customer service satisfaction with dealerships was about on par with the small body shop you may see down the street.

With the average age of vehicles out on the road sitting at around 11.5 years old, it isn’t too surprising that dealership services see a reduction in visits as a car ages. However, on the plus side, dealerships still lead the way against third-party businesses for overall customer visits– but lag in customer service, convenience, and transparency.

Dealership News suggests a few simple fixes for this would be:

  • Providing customers a way to pay online.
  • Schedule appointments with customers via their mobile devices.
  • Picking up and delivering serviced vehicles to and from customer locations.
  • Provide simple repairs to their vehicles outside of the shop setting.
  • Providing customers with information, such as trade-in value, services, price ranges, estimates, and competitive ranges.
  • Give customers a way to monitor their vehicle’s service remotely.

Jim Roche, Vice President of Marketing and Managed Services with Xtime told Fixed Ops Journal: “Dealers have to figure out how to get your vehicle to the service, or the service to your vehicle.” Which is in line with the study that also suggests customers are willing to pay more or travel longer distances if the customer service is great.

 

AutoMobile Technologies

AMT offers software solutions designed to make your dealership more efficient, provide your customers with the information they need, offer you better visibility, and give you peace of mind knowing that your back-office is always up-to-date and you’re building a positive relationship with customers.

ReconMonitor is a state of the art workflow automation software for auto recon, dealerships, and auto marketing companies. ReconMonitor dealership software decreases reconditioning cycle time and increases your control and profitability.

March 7, 2019 Business, New and Used Car Dealers, Product Related, Reconditioning, ReconMonitor No comments yet
Dealership Service Shop

What Does ReconMonitor Offer Used Car Dealerships?

ReconMonitor is a software solution from AMT that establishes an early warning system to help your used car dealership control cost and keep vehicle repairs moving towards frontline readiness. With reconditioning software, you can track employee tasks, vendors, and current repairs being done.

It comes standard with automatic alerts that notify you in instances where technicians or vendors fall behind schedule. However, it will also send out detailed visual-alerts if any vehicle misses a milestone. It can get your used car dealerships operating at maximum efficiency– all while making your life easier in the process.

ReconMonitor can help reduce back-office stress by streamlining workflow management, estimations, and overall visibility of your operations. Beyond that, ReconMonitor offers complete operational control at the click of a button.

Your used car dealership should prioritize sales and reconditioning– while stressing less on back-office paperwork.

 

ReconMonitor’s Features Include:

  • Essentials tools, such as VIN scanning and decoding, record management, the ability to upload photos and video inspections, and bulk or line-item approvals.
  • Workflow management that tracks vehicles from in-transit to frontline readiness to help you reduce cycle time.
  • Mechanical and cosmetic digital inspection checklists enable you to create OEM or NIADA certified pre-owned inspections as well as cosmetic inspections and vehicle condition reports.
  • Parts and labor hours management systems that can access OEM parts and numbers, parts ordering, R&I and mechanical labor hours.
  • Service requests allow you to schedule a service drive with advisors and the back-office to make sure certain vehicles are prioritized.
  • Vehicle ROI estimations help you triage repair costs.
  • Capacity management that tells you how many employees and vendors are required to repair the number of vehicles you have.
  • CDK approved integration partner.
  • DMS integrations pull inventory without needing to key information.
  • Real-time reporting that provides you and your team information on vehicle statuses.
  • Customization of business, process, and industry-specific forms.
  • Real-time event notifications that let you send and receive notifications for status changes on vehicles. You can also notify customers of the current status and condition of their vehicles.
  • NHTSA vehicle recall information that is up-to-date and provides information for any vehicle in the reconditioning process.
  • Technician worklog that tracks individual employees and vendors in real-time to keep forward progress.
  • Vendor payment and management that allows you to track workloads and how much you should pay specific vendors.

 

AutoMobile Technologies Can Help

AMT offers software solutions designed to make your reconditioning process more efficient, provide you with better visibility, and get your cars frontline in the shortest possible time.

ReconMonitor: Powerful workflow automation for auto recon, dealerships, and auto remarketing companies.

 

January 20, 2019 Business, New and Used Car Dealers, Product Related, Reconditioning, ReconMonitor No comments yet
Service drive

Streamline Reconditioning To Improve Your Throughput

After a car is purchased at auction, the average reconditioning process will take anywhere between seven and ten days. But how many of those hours are dedicated entirely to the vehicle? When it comes down to it, each vehicle requires different levels of reconditioning. For most used car dealerships, there are always efficiencies that can reduce cycle time during the reconditioning process.

 

Get An Accurate Measurement Of Your Current Workflow

The most successful used car dealerships can have vehicles front-line ready in just five days. To figure out how to increase your workflow speed, use management software to measure your current processes. Constantly analyze where you can reduce time and effort to increase your workflow’s momentum.

 

Make Sure Your Team Follows Exact Processes And Utilizes The Software

You know running a used car dealership is a team effort. How well your team works together and how disciplined the environment is can strongly dictate how quickly you can operate your business during back-office, sales, and reconditioning stages.

If your team is recording information, following protocol, and providing and receiving constant communication and updates in real-time, then you can easily shave off days of time during reconditioning. Knowledge is power, and knowing the status of your operation at all times will give you the power to improve.

 

Prioritize Setting Up A Management Software System

AMT offers software solutions designed to make your reconditioning process more efficient, provide you with better visibility, and give you peace of mind knowing that your back-office is always up-to-date. ReconMonitor is a state of the art workflow automation software for dealerships and auto remarketing companies. ReconMonitor software helps you decrease reconditioning cycle time and increase your control and profitability.

January 20, 2019 Business, New and Used Car Dealers, Reconditioning, ReconMonitor No comments yet
Company News
Product Updates
Archive