CADA Summit, billed as Canada’s Automotive Summit, is back in business with an all-star speaker lineup ready to warm up dealers’ hearts on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 2024 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

The perennially-sold out event has been held for more than a decade, and brings together experts and analysts from inside and outside the auto industry to help dealers better understand the forces impacting their business.

The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA), the hosts and organizers of the annual conference, is urging dealer members to register at www.cada.ca to be sure they book a spot.

“This year’s speaker lineup is really going to get dealers talking, and thinking,” said Tim Reuss, CADA President and CEO in an interview about the event in CADA Newsline. “We are going to provide the economic updates and forecasts they need for business planning, but our mix of futurists, OEM leaders, all-star political analysts from Canada and U.S. and some as-yet-unnamed keynotes will truly make this a can’t miss event.”

Canadian auto dealer has had a chance to interview several of the key speakers for next year’s event including Jason Stein, host of the popular SiriusXM radio show Cars & Culture about his sessions. He will be doing a Quick Takes session to kick off the event featuring interviews with OEM leaders followed by an in-depth Q&A session with leaders on stage.

OEM leaders expected to participate in the Quick Takes include: David Klan, President and CEO of Mazda Canada, Steve Milette, President, Nissan Canada, John Cappella, President & CEO Porsche Cars Canada, and Jason Stoicevich, Chairman President & CEO, Stellantis Canada.

Also back this year are journalists David Frum, staff writer at the Atlantic, and Andrew Coyne, Globe & Mail columnist. They will offer their perspectives on the economic and political climate on both sides of the border.

Doug Stephens, retail futurist and best-selling author, will be talking about the changing customer experience, and the impact of machine learning and artificial intelligence on the retail world and business in general.

“I think that we hear a narrative today in the media largely centered around the question, is AI good or is AI bad? Is it going to save humanity or is it going to systematically wipe humanity out?,” said Stephens in the interview with Canadian auto dealer. “This narrative takes a lot of oxygen out of what I think is the more important narrative around this technology. That being specifically, what are the potential benefits not just to humanity, but to business owners and what are some of the pragmatic risks that they have to be aware of?”

One of the top global experts on the growing EV market will also present at the event. Michael Dunne, CEO of Dunne Insights, is an entrepreneur, author and host of the popular Driving with Dunne podcast. He will explore the risks and opportunities associated with China’s export blitz of EVs and the growing global EV market.

Economists will provide economic updates and Darren Slind, Co-Founder and Managing Director at the Clarify Group (an automotive consultancy firm), will look at the changing automotive market viewed through a dealer lens.

TD Auto Finance is the exclusive sponsor of CADA Summit, and has been since the event’s inception more than a decade ago.

The post Stellar lineup for CADA Summit appeared first on Canadian Auto Dealer.

Dealers and suppliers had positive reviews for both the content and the venue for the Western Dealer Summit held at the spectacular Fairmont Château Lake Louise in Alberta between Nov. 16-19.

The event was held on behalf of the Motor Dealers of Alberta (MDA), the Saskatchewan Auto Dealers Association and the New Car Dealers Association of BC.

Several speakers talked about changes impacting the industry, and industry and technology experts briefed dealers about digital marketing trends and strategies.

Speakers included Charlie Vogelheim, the principal of Vogelheim Ventures, Brian Sencich, the new Head of Industry, Automotive at TikTok Canada, George Nenni, the founder of Generations Digital (a technology marketing analytics firm), Mathew Growden, the head of the Google Canada’s auto retail team; and Joy Hawkins, owner and founder of SEO-focused company Sterling Sky.

The isolated location gave dealers and suppliers more opportunities to network and connect, including a western-themed banquet and music outing at Brewsters Barn. Suppliers and sponsors were able to exhibit and interact with dealer attendees.

Former NHL star Jeremy Roenick delivered an inspirational address, and true to form dealers dug into their pockets to raise more than $50,000 in an auction of signed jerseys, that will help benefit students in the host province.

Next year the event returns to the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alta. Nov. 14-17, 2024.

The post Rave reviews for Western Dealers event appeared first on Canadian Auto Dealer.

Every year since 2006, the national association representing car dealers, the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association, has awarded three CADA Laureate Awards to dealers in three distinct categories: ambassadorship, retail operations and innovation.

By my simple math that means there are just over 50 CADA Laureates remaining, (56 have been awarded, including two ambassador Laureates) and a few have since sadly passed on.

Out of the approx. 3,400 dealers across Canada, that’s a pretty small and exclusive group. You could fit them all inside a private box to watch an NHL game.

Collectively, they represent the brightest stars, most generous dealers, sharpest business operators and most innovative dealers in Canada — and likely North America. I have interviewed, and personally met just about every one of them.

Okay, I never met the 2016 Honourary Ambassador Laureate R.S. Sam McLaughlin who passed away in 1972, because believe it or not I wasn’t editing Canadian auto dealer back then!

So when I say that this group of men and women are truly the cream of the crop from Canada’s automotive retail industry, I am speaking from direct personal experience. Several have become friends over the years.

Each year, after the CADA Chairman calls them to inform them they won the award, and that they are sworn to secrecy, I’m the next person they are allowed to talk to about this award. It’s always a fun interview. They are, perhaps not surprisingly, usually humble and deflect the attention away from themselves to their broader team.

That spirit of humility and team was again on display when I attended the plaque ceremony for the latest dealer to join the ranks of the CADA Laureates in Kitchener, Ont., Andrew Ojamae from the AutoIQ Group, who won in the business innovation category.

In his interview, and in chatting before the ceremony, you could see Andrew went to great lengths to ensure that each of the 16 dealerships in his group was recognized for contributing to the award. Many of the dealer principals from those stores, or their General Managers visited Kitchener on a snowy November afternoon for the ceremony.

Even during his remarks, Andrew stressed this was a team win, and that although it might be an individual honour, the credit belonged to the group. Andrew, like his mentor and business partner Mike Stollery who won the award two years earlier, is a class act.

Andrew was right in sharing credit with his team. Innovation is a tough nut to crack. As he rightfully acknowledged during our interview, ideas are a dime a dozen, and getting them implemented is what takes work, charisma, leadership and a team willing to do it.

Andrew has all of that in spades, and his quiet and humble determination, with a steady hand of accountability and transparency in assessing the results, is what enabled the group to embark on a host of innovative initiatives that caught the eye of the judges from the Ivy School of Business at Western University that ultimately picked the winners.

Another secret to Andrew’s success is his connection to the Automotive Business School of Canada, where he himself graduated, and where he met his future business partner Stollery. Andrew once shared with me that he had his own “depth charts” of the ABSC graduating class, with insights about where they lived, where they wanted to end up in their careers, and then he actively recruited those that were a good fit.

Canada’s CADA Laureates are truly a national treasure for our industry, and the drive to become a Laureate is something that makes every dealer just that much better — and that ultimately is what the program is all about. Somewhere, CADA Laureate program founder Rick Gauthier is smiling.

The post Nice guys can finish first appeared first on Canadian Auto Dealer.

Canadian auto dealer senior editor Todd Phillips interviews Jake Stacey, EVP Sales & Training at LGM Financial Services, about the changing expectations for a better customer experience in the F&I office. Stacey works with dealerships to help improve their F&I training to ensure their experience measures up to what is expected in other industries.

The post LGM’s Jake Stacey discusses changing customer experience in F&I appeared first on Canadian Auto Dealer.

A jam-packed room of dealers and dozens more online listened intently to Dale Pollak, Founder of vAuto, as he offered his insight on a new approach to pricing and selling used vehicle inventory at a private dealer event in Toronto, Ont., hosted by software provider AutoSync.

Pollak is a celebrity in the auto retail world, as the founder of vAuto, and author of several books aimed at maximizing a dealer’s profitability using data science and vehicle market metrics. Pollak credits his unique approach to relying on science and analytics to price and sell vehicles due to his unique circumstances of not being able to physically observe used vehicle inventory when he was a Cadillac dealer in Chicago — because he was blind.

His observations and methods helped spark the creation of vAuto in 2005, and has now been widely adopted by thousands of dealerships across North America.

In his Toronto keynote address, Pollak said he had done a lot of soul searching and thinking during the pandemic. He said his previous approach to focusing on maximizing vehicle turns at the expense of gross profit for each vehicle was a sound strategy that worked for many dealerships. It was called the Velocity Method of Management.

But he said the market disruption fueled by the pandemic and the supply chain shortages made that approach less effective. He also said he started to see the process as fueling a “race to the bottom” that wouldn’t be sustainable. “In retrospect, I was wrong. There was a race to the bottom,” said Pollak.

He said that while forces outside of his influence, such as the transparency in vehicle pricing powered by the Internet, was the key factor driving lowered pricing, he nonetheless contributed to it with his teachings and publishing.

“I’m here to share a very important new strategy in used vehicle operations,” said Pollak during a 90-minute keynote he delivered at an upscale golf clubhouse location in Toronto. “Velocity passed its prime before the pandemic… Now is the time to move beyond velocity management — to a method called variable management.”

Pollak argued that velocity management was a “blanket one-size-fits-all” approach, while variable management is much more precise. Just as a parent wouldn’t treat all their kids the same, dealers need to treat each vehicle differently based on its expected ability to deliver its maximum potential.

As he was developing the variable management approach, Pollak looked outside of the auto industry and deduced that auto retail was one of the only industries that didn’t have a proper recognition of the return on investment (ROI) involved in acquiring, refurbishing, and managing used vehicle inventory. “Why was that? Was there something missing in our industry?” he wondered.

For a host of reasons, car dealers don’t manage their used vehicle investments with an eye to optimizing their returns. Pollak came up with a new theory and tested it using data from millions of used vehicle sales from over a decade of business with dealers. His hunch, fueled by the data science crunching from his analyst team, found a distinct pattern and statistically relevant correlation between vehicles that delivered the best ROI performance.

He said three factors stood out:

1. Cost to market
2. Market days supply
3. Local market retail volume

Based on those key factors, he developed a new classification system for used vehicles: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The bronze and silver vehicles were destined to deliver lower ROI, while the gold and platinum vehicles had the highest opportunity for ROI based on how they fit into those three key factors.

But what Pollak found in looking at how dealerships were actually pricing their vehicles, is that they had it inverted. They were quickly selling the gold and platinum vehicles that had a good chance of fetching a higher price and return, and were holding on to the “duds” that were going to generate little to no ROI on the investment.

This finding was also consistent across all 12,000 dealerships he analyzed. None had implemented what he called a “rational pricing policy” that recognized when a vehicle’s value was like a rotting black banana and needed to be priced quickly to sell. Yet dealers were only too eager to part with the platinum vehicles that could have generated more margin for them.

During his talk, Pollak repeated that: “Eventually this finding will change the way every single dealer manages used vehicle inventory.”

But he said it won’t be easy, because the used vehicle market buying and selling are rooted in habits and are influenced by human behaviours and things like pride. “Some of the issues are human nature,” he said. “People don’t want to admit on day one that a vehicle they purchased is a black banana,” he said, but the smart idea would be to aggressively price it and move it.

He said if dealers follow his classification system, most will find a lot of their inventory is in the silver/bronze category, because the markets are efficient and pricing information is so widely available. But that’s not a problem if dealers recognize bad bananas for what they are: high risk vehicles. “Make it go away quickly,” said Pollak, advising that dealers need to treat those vehicles as something that needs to be sold quickly for a reasonable price.

Pollak said only using a calendar to determine the time needed to sell a vehicle was also partly to blame, because some vehicles maintain their value even as they age in inventory. “The calendar tells us nothing about the profitability of a car. Calendar time does not equal profit potential.”

At the end of his keynote, Pollak then fielded questions from dealers in the room and others online who were viewing the event via livestream.

Watch the full recording and download resources at: https://bit.ly/3RofoHy

The post Dale Pollak shifts gears on used car selling tactics appeared first on Canadian Auto Dealer.

Canadian Black Book’s TalkAuto conference was held this week in Vaughan, Ont., bringing together a cross-section of attendees from the automotive ecosystem, including OEMs, lenders, industry analysts, dealers and suppliers. The jam-packed room was treated to an equally packed agenda filled with insights delivered by keynote speakers and moderated panel sessions.

Yolanda Biswah, President of Canadian Black Book, kicked off the day with welcoming remarks. “We are in the most transformative period in our industry’s history. The process of transformation can be intimidating.” But she added that the industry is poised and ready for change, and that people in the audience can be a part of making that change and transformation.

The opening speaker was Brian Kingston, President & CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, who offered an overview on the state of the Canadian auto industry. He said Canada’s auto industry directly employs more than 117,000 people and an additional 400,000 people are employed in aftermarket services and dealerships. “This is an industry you want in your country,” said Kingston, adding that Canada is lucky to have five OEMs operating manufacturing facilities here.

He said the auto industry has been Canada’s second largest exporter with $38 billion per year of goods, and the $30 billion of investment in new manufacturing capacity in Canada bodes well for our future.

Kingston said that while it’s hard to accurately estimate EV growth, the association predicts a four-fold growth in EV sales by 2030, although he added that forecast is not constrained by mineral availability, or other limiting factors.

He said virtually every OEM has an aggressive EV target by 2030. “The speed of commitments to electrification by OEMs is nothing less than stunning,” said Kingston. The “Big Three” are committing $100 billion U.S. to EV development by 2030, he said. In 2012, there were only three EV models available in Canada. “As of today there are 77, and by next year we anticipate another 40 more models,” said Kingston.

In terms of hurdles constraining EV growth and adoption, Kingston presented a Road to 2035 ZEV timeline that showed a woeful lack of charging infrastructure that will be needed to improve if the federal government’s EV mandates are implemented. “We need more charging and we need it now,” said Kingston. “There is a huge gap in charging and we don’t have a plan to get us to 2035.”

Affordability and charging infrastructure remain the key constraints consumers speak to about their EV hesitancy. “To not have a purchase incentive for consumers in Ontario is a real problem,” said Kingston, citing examples of how EV growth is sparked by government incentives in B.C. and Quebec.

The next speaker was Abhishek Bhatia, Head of EV Strategy and Transformation at Nissan Canada. Bhatia said Nissan has sold more than 1 million EVs globally and the company has been in the EV business for more than a decade. “During that time there have been lots of learnings,” said Bhatia. “More than a decade ago, our customers were pioneers.”

Bhatia said the company has taken its learning from their pioneers as EV usage and trends have shifted, most notably away from sedans and into SUV style vehicles.

A panel of experts then tackled the topic of leasing and financing a new car. Bob Metodiev from Inovatec Systems was the moderator, and panelists were Tara Powadiuk, Director of Product of Volvo Canada; Annie Deslauriers, VP of Customer Experience and Operations at Sym-Tech Dealer Services; Krishnan Mani, Manager of Financial Service at Lucid Motors; and Rob Hodge, VP of Remarketing with VW Credit Canada.

Tara Powadiuk said Volvo transitioned to building everything from a customer-centric approach.

Lucid’s Krishnan Mani said his company’s direct-to-consumer model, without a dealer network, means having to rethink the car buying and ownership experience. “You put technology first and let the consumers engage the way they want at every stage of the purchase experience,” said Mani.

Annie Deslauriers from Sym-Tech said the pandemic drove the industry to innovate and become more customer focused in their approach. “We now talk about the F&I products ahead of time,” said Deslauriers. “Now we are having conversations with customers about F&I products in the comfort of their own homes.”

Rob Hodge, VP Remarketing VW Credit Canada, said there will be growing pressures on lending approvals from financial institutions, and leasing will now become more of an option.

Thomas Feltmate, Senior Economist at TD Bank, provided an economic update. Feltmate talked about the supply chain challenges and the growth in EV production and investment. Feltmate said consumer spending in the U.S. is up sharply despite sky-high interest rates.

Darren Slind, Co-Founder and Managing Director of the Clarify Group, provided his insights about the evolution of the auto dealer in an era of disruption. Slind said he was offering his perspective through the lens of dealers. He cited a quote from a Forbes magazine article: “Disruption is rarely invited to an industry,” he said. But the auto industry, like it or not, is being disrupted and will continue to be.

To put that disruption in perspective, however, Slind presented a slide that outlined the potential risks that dealers were facing from disruption, the likelihood of which disruptions will happen, and the potential impacts if dealers do not respond effectively. The sobering message was that dealers can’t ignore or resist the changes, they need to embrace them.

Slind also talked about the changing customer expectations for the consumer experience, some  of which was accelerated by the pandemic, but many of those forces were already in motion. He said when consumers enjoy a transparent experience that delivers them value outside of automotive, they can’t help but then ask: “why can’t my dealer do that for me?”

Slind also presented a global view of the move to electrification. “The basic message is the train has left the station already,” said Slind, adding it’s no longer a question of “if” we make the transition to vehicle electrification, it’s mostly just a question of “when” for dealerships.

TV personality Stephanie Henry moderated a lively panel on the changing customer journey that tackled the changing consumer experience, a more digital sales and dealership experience, and the need for more education to help wary consumers better understand and embrace electric vehicles.

A panel session, moderated by Todd Phillips, Editor of Canadian auto dealer (and a founding member of Accelerate Auto), tackled the need for more intentionality by the auto industry in creating more opportunities for the next generation of Black talent entering the industry, while providing mentoring and career growth for those already in the industry.

The panelists were: Jerry Chinner, Executive Chair of Corporate Partnerships, Founding Member, Accelerate Auto and VP Business Development with taq Automotive Intelligence; Alannah David-Clark, Senior Manager, Marketing Communications at Nissan Canada; and Anne Marie Desando, Vice President National Sales, Scotiabank.

The panelists shared their personal stories of their journey in automotive, the challenges they see in industry for more diversity and inclusion, the start of a new pilot mentorship program created by Accelerate Auto, the importance of allyship and things people and organizations can do right now to make a positive impact.

The closing keynote was delivered by Elias El-Achhab, Vice President and COO, Kia Canada, who delivered a thoughtful perspective on changes to the industry, Kia’s growth and popularity among dealers looking to acquire a new franchise. He said the industry must move more quickly to embrace the transition to electrification.

The event emcee was Bri Newman, Vice-President of HR4.

The post 2023 TalkAuto tackles EVs and change appeared first on Canadian Auto Dealer.

As of press time, it was full steam ahead for the return of Canada Night at NADA.

This event, initially sparked a few years ago by Alan Bird and his colleagues over at SCI Marketview, now taq Automotive Intelligence, was a good idea then — and it’s a good idea now.

While everyone likes a good party with great music, it’s about more than that. It solves a fundamental challenge with Canadians who attend this super-sized dealer conference as it rotates to various large U.S. cities each year.

Lots of Canadians descend upon NADA each year, dealers and their teams, suppliers and their teams, media, and industry association leaders.

Some set up pre-meetings and conduct business while there, but many others wander through the trade show floor and conference sessions, and take in some of the sponsored events and parties at night.

The challenge is, the event is huge and spread out over many days, so the odds of you accidentally meeting lots of other Canadians is pretty remote.

What’s been great to see, is the level of support, both financial and in time, that the Canadian suppliers are putting behind this event.

By gathering all the Canadians together on the eve of the start of the event, the Canadian contingents get a chance to meet, chat, network, catch up, and plan future meetings. In effect, they can do business.

This is particularly important for the Canadian suppliers who are sent down by their companies to meet and drum up business for their companies.

Canadian auto dealer is one of the media partners working to promote the event, and I have attended some of the committee meetings and planning sessions.

What’s been great to see, is the level of support, both financial and in time, that the Canadian suppliers are putting behind this event. While Alan Bird and his event team, led by Lara Appleton are still doing the lion’s share of the heavy lifting to get this event going again, the other suppliers are digging in too.

In the real world outside this event, some of these sponsors are also competitors (including us competing for advertising dollars with Automotive News) but for the greater good, people are working together and cooperating.

That cooperative spirit is part of the event’s DNA and something insisted upon by Alan Bird. All sponsors also pay the same and get equal billing in event promotion, so there’s no one company that can elbow their way to the front of the line for added exposure.

Above all though, the event is always a heck of great party, with great food, drinks and amazing Canadian musical acts. The first event in 2016 featured an intimate night of music with Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy. The event paused the next year to allow CADA to celebrate its 75th anniversary with a roaring party in New Orleans featuring Tom Cochrane.

In 2018, the event was back in Vegas with Alan Doyle, Great Big Sea’s frontman, and in the last event before COVID in 2019 the Barenaked Ladies blew away the huge crowd in San Francisco.

I won’t spill the beans on this year’s musical act, but suffice it to say if you are a Canadian dealer, you will want to act quickly to book your ticket for one of the hottest nights in Vegas in February. See you there!

The post Canada Night Eh’ is back! appeared first on Canadian Auto Dealer.

Canadian auto dealer Senior Editor Todd Phillips interviews David Frum, journalist with The Atlantic and a frequent contributor on U.S. cable television, about his return to Canada for the 2024 CADA Summit. Frum will be appearing on a panel with Andrew Coyne, columnist with the Globe and Mail, to offer attendees some of their perspectives on the economic and political environment. In this teaser interview, Frum talks about consumer buying sentiment, the shift to EVs, and the impact of workforce automation.

The post David Frum to talk economy & politics at CADA Summit appeared first on Canadian Auto Dealer.

The Dwayne Gretzy 10-piece band had delegates dancing and singing along at Margaritaville in Niagara Falls.

It was record dealer attendance at the 2023 ACE Conference and Expo, held this week at the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Ont. The two-day conference and trade show, organized by the Motor Vehicle Retailers of Ontario (MVRO), brings dealers, suppliers, and industry experts together for a jam-packed event filled with learnings, new technologies, and lots of social events and networking.

Lee Jeyes, Innovation Strategist and Business Futurist, set the stage for the event with a thought-provoking opening keynote about change and, more importantly, how business leaders must own the change process — not shy away from it. Jeyes, former Head of Innovation at Walmart Canada, shared examples of how he led change initiatives, and said it’s never about the technology; rather, it’s always about the people.

Lee Jeyes, former Head of Innovation at Walmart Canada, says dealers have to embrace and master change.

“Frankly, I don’t think there’s many industries in the world that have gone through as much change as this one. You guys are probably one of the top two or three industries that fundamentally go through disruptive change in every single segment of the industry,” said Jeyes. “From how people buy cars, what type of cars, how the cars are manufactured, do they even want cars or not? How many do they want? How do they work? What do they expect from a car? Every single element from design to sale and beyond in this industry is being disrupted. You guys are in it, and I’m sure you see it every single day.”

Selected vendors from the trade show hall then took to the main stage for the Demo Theatre, sponsored by Kijiji Autos. Representatives from the exhibiting companies had only two minutes to deliver an elevator pitch about their business offering. In talking to exhibitors who took part in the pitch, they say it was one part exhilarating and one part terrifying standing in front of the 500-plus attendees pitching their wares.

The Demo Theatre was just one strategy employed by the event organizers to ensure the exhibitors and sponsors, who underwrite the bulk of the costs for dealer attendees, had a chance to derive more value from participating.

Other ways included having all the breakfasts, lunches, breaks, and a cocktail hour in the exhibit area. And having high profile celebrities like Leaf hockey legend Darryl Sittler, Olympic and world champion curling superstar Jennifer Jones, and Canadian auto driving sensation Ron Fellows available to sign autographs. A passport program where attendees were rewarded with lucrative prizes also sparked more booth visits.

Mustafa Oweida, National Sales Manager at AutoSync, said exhibitors are happy to get a chance to connect with dealers.

“We’re incredibly excited to be here today at ACE,” said Mustafa Oweida, National Sales Manager at AutoSync. “The turnout is outstanding. It’s nice to be amongst your Canadian dealers. It is one place that connects us all between dealers and vendors.”

Another popular session was with Hayley Wickenheiser, Assistant General Manager, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Canadian gold medal hockey star, who was interviewed in a fireside chat style by broadcaster Rod Black. Considered one of the top female hockey players of all time, she recounted her career journey in multiple sports and inspired the attendees.

Other sessions included panels with industry experts on the used car market, the importance of training and retaining the next generation of talent to succeed in automotive, retaining service customers and keeping them from going to the aftermarket, tips from the leading 20 groups, and an economic update from a senior banking leader from Scotiabank. There was also a ceremony to recognize this year’s winners of Scotiabank’s Women Driven awards.

Adam Weir, Scotiabank Canada’s Director and Market Lead for Ontario dealers, said they were happy to sponsor ACE and promote their Scotiabank Women Initiative.

“It’s been great being here. We really appreciate the opportunity to be a sponsor here at ACE,” said Adam Weir, Scotiabank Canada’s Director and Market Lead for Ontario dealers. “We’re here promoting our Scotia Women’s Initiative, which is a program that focuses on female entrepreneurs. And so we’re here in conjunction with the ACE to show support for that and show support for the auto business.”

After the cocktail reception, delegates made their way to Margaritaville, where they ate, danced and drank to the sounds of Dwayne Gretzy, a 10-piece cover band that had delegates dancing and singing along to some of the iconic and popular songs of all times. Delegates the next day were still buzzing about how great the band was, which featured four singers alternating between leading songs, doing harmonies and a broad range of instruments and sounds from various decades.

Another great turnout for the 2023 ACE Convention and Expo.

The second day of ACE was all about hands-on workshops dealing with the nitty gritty of business operations for dealers.

Those sessions delivered insights and audience interaction on topics such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on dealers, building a culture of engagement within your dealership, how to measure metrics in aftersales, applying for grants through the Canadian Digital Adoption Plan, workplace mental health, managing data, making fixed ops more profitable, and finding funding to install EV chargers.

Google guru Matthew “Growdy” Growden delivered colourful insights punctuated by a few of his trademark f-bombs to wake up the crowd about the changing consumer buying journey and the importance of video, and later delivered another workshop on Google Analytics.

Matthew Growden “Growdy” from Google Canada shared insights about the car buying journey and the importance of video for dealerships.

Growden told dealers that video is a powerful tool that is not being used effectively by dealers or OEMs, partly because no one knows who is responsible for it. “Online video, digital video, is a more nebulous bucket than search, and that’s been true for five, six years. The depth and the use of those solutions is just growing. It’s not declining,” said Growden.

“But I think we have misconceptions about video. I was sitting down with an auto group person last week for dinner, and I said, ‘the problem with video is that across tiers, no one seems to know who’s responsible for it.’”

He said dealerships think it’s the responsibility of their OEMs, and for the OEMs, they say, “well, we do the ads, but all the other videos, that’s probably the responsibility of the dealerships, right? And in the end, nobody does anything. Sound familiar?”

Growden said video is not just a branding or top of the funnel marketing tool, because when people see the video content they then go do the lower marketing funnel actions.

Universus unveiled vivi — virtual video — a new service to help dealers produce a high volume of low-cost videos.

“It was interesting to hear Growden’s perspective on video,” said Kristina Alexiou, VP of Client Success with Universus Media, one of the exhibitors at ACE. “We are hearing the same message from dealers. That’s why we launched vivi — virtual video — here at ACE. It’s a low-cost approach for dealerships to produce a high volume of videos.”

The successful event wrapped up mid-afternoon on the second day, and tired but happy delegates headed for home armed with new learnings, deepened relationships, and new business leads to follow up on.

Canadian auto dealer was the official media sponsor of the event.

The post ACE event rocks Niagara Falls appeared first on Canadian Auto Dealer.

I encourage you to read the column on artificial intelligence on page 34 by Dee Murphy-Brown in this issue.

As I was editing her column, I was struck by the line:

“Over the next half-decade, early adopters will likely start reaping the benefits of AI tools. Another five years down the line, we might find it challenging to find a dealership where AI isn’t an integral part of the F&I process.”

The reason the quote stood out to me, particularly the line “we might find it challenging to find a dealership where AI isn’t an integral part of the F&I process” is how matter of fact it is about the arrival, adoption and acceptance of AI.

She writes as though it’s a foregone conclusion that AI is not only coming to dealerships, it’s here, chugging along, and before we know it will be “old news” and just the way things are done.

I think she’s entirely right.

And it won’t just be in the business office, where the sheer power of machine learning and number crunching consumer behaviours will lead to more accurate credit approval decisions.

AI and machine learning in particular will be used in applications through all aspects of a dealership’s operations from how they respond to digital and phone leads, predict customer demand for new and used vehicles, manage their service operations and actual service work, run their physical facilities, and a host of ways we can’t even yet imagine.

There’s a famous observation called Amara’s law that suggests we tend to “overestimate the impact of technology in the short-term and underestimate the effect in the long run.”

This phenomenon helps explain why there is often such hype for new technologies, and why people tend to downplay or resist the hype when the next great thing comes along.

Consider, for example, how much hype there was about autonomous vehicles only a few years ago, and how aggressive the timelines were for the adoption of this technology that is still many years away from being even close to mainstream and in wide usage.

So, I get the skepticism.

But as a July 2023 study from CDK Global, “What Automotive Dealers Think About Artificial Intelligence” discovered, dealers are already buying into the promise of AI. 76 per cent of dealers surveyed say they are already seeing the benefits of AI and 60 per cent of dealers who plan on using AI are expecting positive outcomes.

Some of the most productive areas for AI among dealers surveyed included: improving sales and marketing efforts, helping with pricing decisions, targeting customers through propensity to buy, making product recommendations, forecasting inventory and predicting service failures.

Interestingly, only 10 per cent of dealers in the survey say they are “not at all familiar” with AI.

I’m hoping that if you find yourself in that 10 per cent, you’ll read Dee’s column, track down the CDK Global study and start mapping out ways AI can help your dealership.

If you don’t, and I know this sounds alarmist, there’s no doubt the dealerships you compete with are already hard at work trying to figure it out.

The post Demystifying AI appeared first on Canadian Auto Dealer.

A new report, released by the Motor Vehicle Retailers of Ontario (MVRO) with support from the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA), highlights the “crisis” facing car and truck retailers in Ontario: the shortage of skilled trades and technicians available to work in dealerships.

“We knew we had a problem, because our members were telling us about it, but we didn’t know to what extent,” said Todd Bourgon, MVRO’s Executive Director in an interview with Canadian auto dealer. “With 3,000 skilled trades vacancies, that’s a major problem — that’s crisis mode.”

The report, researched and written by MNP, found that as of the first quarter of the year there were more than 3,000 vacancies in the automotive trades in the province. Before COVID, there were around 1,500.

Between 2016 and 2021, the number of technicians and mechanics aged 15-24 years old dropped by 2 per cent, while the 25-54 age group was down 8 per cent. The 55-plus group increased by nearly 13 per cent.

“Just about every new car and truck retailer I speak to can’t hire an automotive technician today. We know there is a massive shortage of automotive technicians, and the problem won’t be solved overnight,” said Bourgon in a press release to introduce the report.

MVRO said that depending on their labour rate, the estimated annual revenue loss of one technician vacancy is $429,600-$644,440 per year.

But the problem isn’t just impacting dealer revenues. The report says that, with the average wage of automotive service trades being between $60,000-$80,000 annually, each skilled worker vacancy is costing Ottawa about $7,000-$10,000 in federal income tax and $3,500-$5,000 in provincial tax each year.

To help fix the problem, MVRO has been actively recruiting skilled technicians from the Philippines. The challenge is the system of getting techs approved and relocated to Canada goes too slowly, and there are needless hurdles and red tape. “To fix the problem we need to recruit overseas,” Bourgon told Canadian auto dealer. “The school system takes three to four years to train someone, and immigration will continue to be a factor to help us solve this.”

To bring employees from overseas as part of the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program, dealerships have to first undertake what is called a Labour Market Impact Assessment — or LMIA, to prove there aren’t workers available locally. “This takes a lot of time and money,” said Bourgon, adding a minimum of two-three months of delays to getting foreign workers into dealership service bays.

Bourgon said he hopes the data in the report, showing the extent of the problem, will help convince the federal government to temporarily waive the LMIA requirements for the auto sector. MVRO estimates that 20-30 per cent (up to $9,000) of the TFW costs are associated with the LMIA process.

Bourgon said the search for talent is a global one, and countries like New Zealand and Australia, for example, are winning the talent war because candidates can get approval to work there in a matter of months — not a year or 16 months of waiting to get approved to work in Canada.

Tim Reuss, President and CEO of CADA, said the problem is not Ontario specific. “CADA was pleased to support this report and establish a baseline for what needs to be done in order to solve the ongoing automotive skilled trades labour shortage,” he said. “Retailers in every province tell me they can create jobs if they could find technicians to fulfill them.”

Another key reason MVRO conducted the study was to provide a valuable service for their dealer members. “It’s the first time we’ve ever done a labour market study in our history. It gives our dealers a data-driven crystal ball so they can plan their talent acquisition.”

Bourgon said the data will also be useful in showing students and other potential skilled workers about the job opportunities in automotive in Canada.

The report will soon be available for MVRO members.

The post New MVRO report highlights “crisis” of technician shortages appeared first on Canadian Auto Dealer.

To state the really obvious, ready or not,
EVs are coming.

Maybe not at the pace some expect, and some brands will be much faster to produce vehicles than others, but make no mistake — they are set to transform the way we move around.

I took a partial step towards electric vehicle ownership, when I recently purchased a plug-in hybrid.

Until then, the idea of EVs as an alternative propulsion system was an interesting story on many levels, and one I covered regularly in the magazine, but I really wasn’t personally affected one way or the other.

But since I now own one of these, I have had to learn more about how to integrate it into my daily life.

I’ve had to download several apps that show me where chargers might be located. This, incidentally, is almost nowhere near where I live and shop, and I’m about an hour northeast of Toronto — Canada’s most populated city. The nearest charger I can find on the apps is about a 25 minute drive from my home.

I’m also on the hunt for an electrician who can help me navigate adding a home charger to my century home that was built in 1860 and has upgraded electrical systems, but I’m not sure what it will entail to get home charging sorted out. Thankfully, the Universus offices have two chargers installed, so when I’m at work I’m charging up. On most days, there’s at least one more vehicle charging there too.

But the reality with a plug-in hybrid, is that I’m using the gasoline engine 90 per cent of the time. So, I’m not really dealing with the full EV experience. It’s more of a fun experiment to top up that battery and lower my gasoline usage and costs.

If I were in a battery-electric vehicle, well, I’d feel like the world isn’t really quite ready for me, or I’m not quite ready for it.

Which brings me back to the question in the headline: Are you ready for EVs?

The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association recently brought to our attention a new white paper from WEIS, a consulting firm specializing in retail innovation, about things dealerships need to consider — for their facilities — as we move to an EV future.

The 14-page white paper, (which you can download for free at www.WEIS.ca) “Seven Key Dealership Facility Impacts of Electric Vehicles” presented dealers with some things they really need to start thinking about, including:

• Obtaining sufficient power;
• Managing electrical consumption;
• Managing the customer experience;
• Managing infrastructure for EVs;
• Managing risk;
• Adaption to business changes;
• Managing the unknown.

The report is really worth reading, as it also discusses the fact that some of these areas are likely to become part of new dealer standards imposed by OEMs, and dealers should really be anticipating many of these changes, ideally so they too have some input.

“With this monumental transition there is little open discussion around what a transition to EVs actually means for the retailer of today, or more importantly, how existing facilities transition into an EV-ready retail space of tomorrow. Dealership facility designs will need to evolve to accommodate necessary infrastructure, from electric charging stations to EV service bays,” write the report’s authors.

While dealers are waiting on the availability of EV products, and sorting out the training of their teams about EVs, they would be wise to spend some time considering the impact on their facilities and the consumer experience.

Selling an EV might be fairly easy, but dealers will be expected to the new gold standard for providing a great customer experience to an owner, and having an EV-friendly facility will be expected.

The post Are you really ready for EVs? appeared first on Canadian Auto Dealer.