Down Payment: The Podcast for Used Car Dealers

Does your dealership still do test drives? Are your test drives still done with a sales person in the car? How can you make this situation safer? In this episode Ted talks all about test drives in the age of COVID19.

In some places dealerships are not allowed to have a salesperson accompany the customer on a test drive. From a safety standpoint, this is the best approach. But many dealerships are not thrilled about the prospect of a customer taking an inventory vehicle off the lot by themselves.

If you still have the option of doing salesperson accompanied test drives, Ted talks about 6 ways to make it safer. By implementing these 6 rules for the test drive, you can make your test drives safer:
1- Don't allow anyone sick on a test drive. This applies to both the customer and the employee.
2- Limit the numbers. To limit exposure, allow only 1 employee and 1 customer to go on the test drive.
3- Require face coverings. Both customer and employee should were a cloth, non-medical mask to reduce the risk.
4- Require specific placement. If the customer drives, the salesperson should be in the passenger side back seat. Vice versa, if the salesperson is driving, the customer should be in the passenger side back seat. This gives maximum spacing between the occupants.
5- Maximize ventilation by keeping front and rear windows down. You want to create a negative pressure gradient to pull air into the cabin through the front windows and out through the back windows.
6- Make sure cleaning and disinfection happen. After the vehicle returns, let it air out before it receives a thorough cleaning and disinfection.

Resources to help:

What Rideshare, Taxi, Limo, and other Passenger Drivers-for-Hire Need to Know about COVID-19 - By the CDC

Cleaning and Disinfection for Non-emergency Transport Vehicles - By the CDC

CarDealerU Dealership Cleaning and Disinfection Program

Success for car dealerships during the COVID-19 pandemic requires dealers to take aggressive measures to keep their employees and customers healthy when at their stores. Both your employees and customers are anxious about the risks of infection at the dealership. To combat these concerns, dealers need to implement a vigorous cleaning and disinfection program.

The following resources will help you develop a program that works for your dealership:

• CarDealerU Dealership Cleaning and Disinfection Guide
• Cleaning and Disinfecting Your Facility by the CDC
• Removing Disposable Gloves Training Video
• Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19 by OSHA
• Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Fighting Products List
• CDC Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Page

With this episode, we will be pivoting the podcast to dealing with COVID-19 related topics for car dealers.

The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic will require dealers to be more nimble and adaptive then ever before. Dealers will have to adapt to a "new normal" where infection control is a daily consideration and economic recession is a constant pressure. Our goal is to provide you inspiration, creative approaches and information to help you better adapt to a changing automotive market.

In this episode Ted talks about how to optimize your video for Facebook. Facebook is the most important platform for car dealers. Unfortunately, too many dealers use it ineffectively. To be effective on Facebook, video is usually a critical component.

In summary, the tips are:
1- Don't use your TV commercials on Facebook. They typically do not do well on that platform.
2- Use "square" video. Square video, as opposed to horizontal video, is more prominent on the mobile newsfeed.
3- Keep your videos short on Facebook. 30 seconds or less is usually best.
4- Have an in-house video production capability. It is ok for video to look a little amateurish.
5- Always try to offer some value to your audience for watching the video. Don't try to make hard sales pitches. TV commercials get ignored on Facebook.

Down Payment now has a Facebook group! This Facebook group is an opportunity to continue the discussion started on the podcast and for used car industry professionals to network, share ideas and collaborate. Find the group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/downpaymentpodcast/

There is an amazing branding opportunity available for car dealers by utilizing new Top Level Domains. The traditional Top Level Domains such as .com, .org, and .net have become saturated and it is hard to find good, easily brandable ones nowadays. 

New Top Level Domains such as .car, .finance and .loans have not yet been extensively used and provide dealers an opportunity to get memorable domains that can be easily communicated in formats such as radio.

Welcome to Down Payment: The Podcast for Used Car Dealers! In this episode Ted introduces himself and the goals for this new podcast.

This podcast is designed to provide useful, actionable information for used car dealers and industry professionals to be able to implement immediately. We will provide two types of episodes. The first are short episodes (less than 10 minutes) that will provide you with information on topics ranging from marketing and sales to compliance and management. The second type are longer episodes (up to about 30 minutes) that will provide more in depth analysis, often featuring guests from within the industry.

Ultimately this podcast seeks to provide a source of creative inspiration for used car dealers. The used car industry is changing rapidly, and the dealerships that are most innovative and creative will be the most successful.