Austin dealer is the biggest show in town

Desert dealer goes solar to save

In balmy Palm Springs, Calif., the desert sun shines an average of 350 days a year. So converting an auto dealership to solar energy might seem to be a no-brainer.... Read More »

Historian-songwriter- developer leads revival of legendary L.A. auto row

Long before Los Angeles became a skein of freeways, Figueroa was the city's Automobile Row. As far back as the mid-1920s, the street was chockablock with dealerships for such brands as Dodge Bros., Buick, Flint Motors and Hupmobile. Nearly a century later, Darryl Holter, the onetime academic who heads L.A.'... Read More »

VW, Audi see Manhattan stores as service trendsetters

There is no parking lot outside the Volkswagen and Audi stores that opened side by side last year in Manhattan's main dealership district. Parking on the street, for those lucky enough to find a spot, means popping $3.50 an hour into a parking meter.... Read More »

Dealer swaps shoe leather for Facebook

When Chris Morrison started out as a car salesman 30 years ago in the placid southern Mississippi city of McComb, he spent every Tuesday at local employers handing out business cards and shaking hands. Today he uses Facebook instead of shoe leather and business cards to help him sell cars and service.... Read More »

Old-school Rizza roars into the digital age

In an age when auto dealers are plunging into digital tools for marketing, store management and customer retention, Chicago's Rizza Cars has become a star practitioner. The six-store retailer is a case study of a traditional dealership group transforming in a new era of operating technologies.... Read More »

Dealer pairs test driver's phone to car

A Chrysler Group dealer in Michigan has turned a 30-second routine into a better way to demonstrate his technology-laden vehicles.Before the start of each test drive at Extreme Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram, the salesperson showing the vehicle asks the customer in the driver's seat for his or her smartphone and -- with permission -- connects the phone to the vehicle's infotainment system.... Read More »

Custom 'werks' loads up Jeeps -- and revenue

The staff at Fields Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram noticed that many of the Jeeps they sold looked different when their owners came in for an oil change or other service appointment. The vehicles might have new tires, flashier wheels or modifications such as suspension lift kits.... Read More »

Suzuki's top-selling U.S. dealer finds a new path with Subaru

Closing up shop was not an option for Scott Pitman, America's best-selling Suzuki dealer. He couldn't fathom leaving the business and laying off 86 employees at his Suzuki of Wichita. So he bought half the equity in a crosstown Subaru store owned by a business partner and moved the operation to the site of his Suzuki dealership.... Read More »

Va. group cultivates home-grown talent

Brown Automotive Group used to search far and wide for top talent, picking off store managers and executives who promised to work magic. That changed after the dealership group's president left for a job at Asbury Automotive Group.... Read More »

A 5th-generation store with 21st-century skills

When you find a thriving seven-franchise dealership in sparsely populated South Dakota that has been in the same family for 106 years, you know they've learned a thing or two about finding and keeping customers.... Read More »