Automobile Museums 2.0?
Today, thanks to computers, Web and Cloud we can affirm that memory is almost endless.
Yet – like in Orwell’s worst nightmare – some historical elements that characterize our society, are still alive only thanks to the memory of some individuals.
The risk is that they can disappear, just like the history of some car brands.
The car was born 100 years ago, and we can giggle at the...
Customer Satisfaction? Fix It Again Tony!
American clients have a clear fixed concept in their minds: “I-pay-so-I-demand”; to make even more clear this idea, in US customers are called consumers.
In the Old Continent we know that American consumers are very demanding in terms of quality of products and services: they have exported Customer Satisfaction worldwide.
Even in bars and fast-food – also with a bill of 5$ or...
China is near. Its not a film: it’s reality!
Considering that the European car market is restarting, with exciting business opportunities at the horizon.
Assuming that some Chinese carmakers “stepped on the gas” in the international arena, and are seeking for western commercial partners.
Admitting that in China the development of new automobiles & vans runs at speeds fivefold compared to our.
Established that the world leader...
Becoming the Jetsons! CES 2015
The great international car shows, Geneva, Detroit, Beijing, New Delhi are glittering opportunities to present new cars and boost – thanks to media coverage – the most important sector of the world economy.
Between dealers, only a few know that in January ALL the carmakers attended in Las Vegas a trade show which represents the future of the technics applied to everyday life: the...
Time stays, carmakers go.
In Italy, in five years, carmakers have lost more than 1,600 dealers, while the dealers of trucks (550 in 2009), today are only 110.
Also in the ultra-efficient US there was a die-off: NADA-data shows that more than 6,500 dealers have disappeared. Whilst of the remaining 17,665 dealerships, 5,000 of them sell less than 10 new cars per month, and 7,000 fewer than 30 per month.
These numbers in Europe...
Car colors: freedom of choice?
The Mass Customization should satisfy the desires of each individual client, preserving the typical efficiencies of the mass production, as low costs of production and sale.
To complicate matters, it often happens that customers and Companies do not speak the same language, also the excess of supply is confusing to the buyers.
In the age of mass customization, the color of a new car can accelerate...
Moment of truth: the delivery
In one of the most “rusty” sectors of the economy, since a long time carmakers are trying to convince their partners that the sale of a vehicle does not ends with the signature of the contract, but rather – from that moment – begins a long journey made of many steps that should be likeable for customers and profitable for dealers.
A study delivered by JD Power – the Company...
Alfa Romeo vs BMW?
Auto Motor und Sport – over half a million copies, an amazing website – is the most authoritative German automotive magazine, and one of the most acknowledged in World.
Its tests stand out for their professionalism and objectivity, the competences of the journalists and the thoroughness of the trials are the best guarantees for the reliability of the results.
The “safety section” of...
The last illiteracy: internet in automotive!
In China – despite the censorship that slows or blocks access to the Web (Facebook and YouTube do not exist) – the dealers that I visited during the CADA convention collect more than 50% of their prospects through the Web!
It’s possible to make money with cars and Internet?
YES!
Facts-and-figures show that this business is suitable for all, even if – in the automotive...
China: so close yet so far
During the CADA convention in Chengdu – the panda’s city with the largest mall in the world – I’ve met the extraordinary opportunities of the Chinese market, that astonished also the NADA delegation.
Used Cars? We visited a consortium of 400 independent dealers selling 600 used cars per day (200,000 per year), including Sundays. In a unique location, they display 6,000 used cars...
Alfa Romeo and Art: a good combination!
The Alfa Romeo that we love has been an industry pilot, in step with the times, always at the forefront, always in advance.
Not only when his cars had preceded from several years the public’s tastes and the demands of the market, or when Alfa was building in Arese a plant modern in structure and architectural line or when it opened in Balocco – in the middle of the rice fields –...
103, 169? The car that Alfa should have built
Authoritative automobiles magazines and journalists – but also many fans – are waiting since a long time for the new Alfa Romeo 169, which is still in the Marchionne’s drawer.
The history of Alfa Romeo is full of revolutionary projects which could have changed its story.
Let’s speak about one of the many Alfa ever born, of which there is a rare example at the Historical Museum...
Il Quadrifoglio: the greatest CRM of Alfa Romeo
Today everyone well knows the importance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for any company in the market: a regular follow-up with all types of customers is crucial to target, acquire, retain, and understand prospective and sold Customers.
But in the 60’s this was not the model nor the standard, and CRM was pratically unknown for carmakers and dealers (… but even today…).
The...
CRM: the “Waterloo” of the dealers
2012 has been succesfull for carmakers: they all made money selling cars!
GM is back # 1 in the world, followed by Toyota and Ford.
Ferrari had the best result of 66 years of history.
Martin Winkertorn celebrated the records in sales and profits at VW Group with a personal superbonus of 14,000,000.
Fiat-Chrysler sold 4.209 million cars, with a net profit of 1.4 billion. In January 2013 has further...
Mercedes-Benz and the ‘OM651 case’
Some carmakers invest millions in order to measure and increase Customer Satisfaction.
Today the manufacturers must be able to measure themselves “1-2-1” with their Customers, with transparency: thanks to the web any single Client could become a powerful promoter or a devastating detractor.
This is one of the reasons why carmakers should be ready to confront themselves with the Social...
Car is… Feminine
This year in Italy – in the middle of the worst car market since the 70’s – nearly 600,000 new cars will be personally purchased by Women; and Women will also influence the decision to purchase an additional 250,000 cars, used by Italian families.
Every day on the streets of the “Bel Paese”, millions of women are driving and dealing with the maintenance of their 13,400,000...
What Dealers can learn from JFK?
As well as fishing in Italy is miserably in bankruptcy due to a wrong management of the sea – which allowed exploitation of resources beyond the limit – so now someone would like to follow the same exploitation of the “vast automotive’s sea” by continuing to preserve entire species of fishermen thanks to artifices such as bonus, contributions and Government incentives.
The...
The car dealers are sick. What about those of Trucks?
The world of HCV and Trucks changes much faster than the one of the automobile!
The truck dealers – who are still snubbed as ‘truckers’ with spicy calendars by those who work in the chain of Passenger Vehicles – they are ahead of the “obedient car dealers”.
A forced change: the cataclysm feared by the Italian dealers federation is already a reality from some years among...
Household Appliances or… cars?
Even if we do not know – at home – we ALL have a piece of the vehicle that has won numerous awards during the Rotterdam Shell-Eco Marathon, travelling along 5,000 kilometers with 1kWh of energy (the equivalent of a liter of gasoline).
The engine of this 100% Italian vehicle – built by the school “ITIS Rossi” in Vicenza – is the motor of a… washing machine! Manufactured...
Dealers: welcome to interesting times!
The car market trend is positive in the World: in 2012 the enrollment grew by 5.7%.
Not in Italy, where dealers falls in the middle ages and develop the numbers of 1979, when there were the Fiat 127, the Alfetta and the VW Golf’s first series, inflation was 24% and “Car and Driver” was at 1,25 US $!
To comment this data, some authoritative representatives of the carmakers and three of the...
Carmakers’ sperimentations whilst thousands of dealers are drowning!
New scenarios for Italian dealers: the debarkation of Penske Automotive Group in Italy put in motion many brains and overheated … some phones.
Carmakers and associations estimate that 1.000 dealers will go out of the business in Italy in 2012 . How to save these companies from the wreck? Federauto – the italian dealers association – has clear ideas: “it is necessary to ask incentives...
In Russia Ghosn beats Marchionne 31 to 1. Nasdrovie Tovarish!
While in Italy manufacturers, importers and dealers are losing dozens of employees and millions of euro every day – and Fiat develops his worst results in the last 30 years – in Russia the Carmakers seems to play war games.
The Russian market is a great opportunity for manufacturers and dealers: last year, 2,652,000 cars were sold with a growth of 39.1% over 2010. As reported by Focus...
Italy: whilst Penske is arriving, Marchione is… departing?
With trumpets and drums Mr. Rob Kurnick announces the landing of the Penske Group into the land of Fiat: “In Italy the economy is recovering and there are opportunities to grab!”
A few days ago the associations of Dealers and Manufacturers – Federauto and Unrae – had spoken a “bit differently” regarding the dramatic situation of all those spitting blood in the italian...
Appeal to all the ‘Alfista’: save our heaven!
Regarding the Alfa Romeo Historic Museum, here’s a interesting story pointed out during an interview with Andrea Vecchi, the President of the Alfa Romeo Club of Milano.
“I worked for 10 years at Alfa Romeo in Arese. During 2009 the last Alfa Depts. in Arese were closed by Fiat: Design, Mechanics (where were ready 2 alloy V6...
The ‘revolution’ of Mercedes Benz
The new Mercedes-Benz platform – CarTogether – which promotes car sharing to reduce emissions and traffic, promised to be a revolution.
What we lacked was that the German firm – rather than promoting his products or the image of the brand – it is more precisely using the image of the revolutionary par excellence: ‘Che’ Guevara, with the M-B symbol on his beret,...
FADA calls NADA for a worldwide car Dealers Association
FADA – Federation of Indian Dealers Associations – in concomitance with the New Delhi Auto Expo, organized Auto Summit, the convention dedicated to the Indian dealers of cars, trucks, commercial vehicles, motorcycles, three wheelers, four wheelers, buses and bicycles. Yes, even bicycles. What’s so funny? I met a dealer who sells in Delhi – with great revenues –...
XXI Congresso Fenabrave. Fiat: novo Uno or nuova Panda?
Everything has changed! In 2011, 370,000 Portuguese has ‘landed’ in Brazil and thousands of Spaniards have ‘invaded’ Argentina. With so many hopes and their workforce. The eighteenth century’s scenarios in black and white of Ellis Island and the migration to South America after the IIWW are unexpectedly reproduced.
Brazil, land of promise for the automotive (not only)....
Standards! A new absurd war for dealers: the ‘retaliation’ of the OEMs.
As reported by Automotive News, Jim Peruto, a dealer in Pennsylvania, is considering – reluctantly – the purchase of a new building for his dealership. This new facility will replace the existing store that cost $20 million to build just six years ago. “Mercedes-Benz told me it was their most beautiful dealership in the world before they told me that I didn’t conform”.
Mr....
Build and sell cars is still a good business! Not for everyone.
Noting the difficulties of Chrysler and GM, the dreaded sale of Opel, the drastic restructuring of many OEMs, but also the ‘extermination’ of thousands of dealers in Italy and around the world – people I meet ask me if it still worth to build and sell cars.
The impressions and the… ‘stomach ache’ of those who are suffering ‘in the trenches of the automotive’...
Facts and figures unmask the 3 digit growth of the EVs theorem! Only Audi speaks clearly!
Jato Dynamics presented the data of the EV’s registrations in Europe. Hooray: compared to 2010, the sales grew by 938%! Nine-hundred-thirty-eight percent!! A successful market, despite the controversies. I feel the bad smell of lies. Over 7 million registrations, 5,222 were electric cars, less than 0.001% of the total market. Last year were 507. In Germany 1,020, France 953, Norway 850,...
