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The latest automotive industry news and insights to fuel your growth.

The End of ‘Get E-Price’

Not Responding to Reviews Is Costing You Money

Three Ways to Best Support the Female Car Buyer

“You Have to Be Comfortable with Failure”

Why Promoting Women in Automotive Is Good Business

How to Win with the Four Types of CPO Shoppers

Cars.com November 2018 On-the-Lot Report Analysis

“You Have to Be Comfortable with Failure”

What are the keys for women to succeed in a male-dominated industry such as automotive retail? On International Women’s Day, Cars.com hosted a panel of women executives to find out. And we learned a lot – such as how important it is for women to be comfortable with always learning, sometimes failing, and ultimately prevailing. […]

Why Promoting Women in Automotive Is Good Business

Dealerships need to attract and hire more women to remain relevant in a changing world. This was one of the key take-aways from a panel of women executives hosted by Cars.com on International Women’s Day. The panel, hosted by Cars.com CMO Brooke Skinner Ricketts, featured four women leaders in automotive: Diana Kennedy, general manager of […]

How to Win with the Four Types of CPO Shoppers

One of the most common challenges we hear from car dealerships is how to convince used car shoppers to buy a certified pre-owned vehicle (CPO). The answer is not to sell CPOs to shoppers. Success means reading shoppers on the lot and reacting to their needs. To help dealers do just that, Cars.com did an […]

Cars.com November 2018 On-the-Lot Report Analysis

Automobile shoppers were strong weekend warriors in November, according to the Cars.com November On-the-Lot (OTL) report. As we have done each month with our OTL reports, we used our patented Lot Insights technology to study data from shoppers who use their mobile phones to visit Cars.com while they’re on dealerships’ lots. For November, we examined […]

Cars.com Uncovers Insights about Holiday Shoppers

Holiday shoppers are more motivated to buy than they were in 2017. This is the key finding of Cars.com research into holiday shopping behavior during Black Friday weekend. For three days – Black Friday, Saturday, and Sunday — we used a geolocated survey to target shoppers after they visited dealer lots. We included a representative […]

Solving the Attribution Problem in Automotive

Customer obsession and identity mapping will take advertising and attribution to the next level in the automotive industry. That was the key takeaway from a presentation that Cars.com CMO Brooke Skinner Ricketts and LiveRamp Chief Evangelist Andrew Kasprzycki delivered at the Automotive Analytics and Attribution Summit November 19. Chasing the Holy Grail Brooke and Andrew […]

GMC Sierra 1500 Wins the Cars.com 2018 Best Half-Ton Truck Challenge

GMC just got a half ton of good news. Cars.com tested five pickup trucks to determine the best choice for customers – and the 2019 GMC Sierra 1500 took home the gold. As announced, the 2019 GMC Sierra 1500 bested four other brands, including the best-selling 2018 Ford F-150, in a hands-on test that assessed […]

Cars.com October 2018 On-the-Lot Report Cross-Shopping Analysis

Our October 2018 On-the-Lot report picked up where our July report left off by examining which automotive lots mobile shoppers visited the most; and which ones they cross-shopped the most while they were on someone else’s lot. In October, Toyota was the most visited lot for the non-luxury category — and BMW was the most […]

5 Ways to Win on Black Friday

All signs are pointing to a Black Friday bonanza for retailers. Last year, 174 million people shopped Black Friday weekend, a 13 percent increase over 2016. And with eMarketer predicting a first-ever $1 trillion holiday shopping season, retailers have every reason to believe that Black Friday will create strong foot traffic in-store – and so […]

Subaru Crosstrek Wins the Cars.com 2018 Subcompact SUV Challenge

How ‘bout that Subaru Crosstrek? As announced, Cars.com named the 2018 Subaru Crosstrek 2.0i Premium AWD the best subcompact SUV. The Crosstrek beat the 2018 Ford EcoSport, 2018 Hyundai Kona, and 2018 Nissan Rogue Sport in a comprehensive test by Cars.com judges, who assessed SUVs in 13 categories ranging from front-seat comfort to ride quality. The […]

Cars.com September 2018 On-the-Lot Report Analysis

The September 2018 Cars.com On-the-Lot (OTL) report examined how people shop for cars by price level. We counted the number of Cars.com VDP views that shoppers made on their mobile devices while on dealerships’ lots. We broke out those VDP views by vehicle type and price range, with $0-$9,999 being the lowest and $100,000+ being the highest.

Have You Hugged Your Salesperson Today?

A dealership’s salespeople humanize your brand and make you more responsive to customers: 97 percent of car buyers would like to select a salesperson before they visit a dealer.[i] A recently published Wall Street Journal article, “Dearth of a Salesman,” underscores why dealerships need to invest into their salespeople. Citing data from talent management firm […]

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