Dateline NADA: Chrysler says Internet Really Makes Customer King!
1 February 1998
Dateline NADA in The Big Easy--Hey fellow Web Heads. Were your ears itching just a few minutes ago? If you felt them feeling strange, it's probably because Robert J. Eaton ,the Chairman and CEO of The Chrysler Corporation during his Keynote speech at the National Automobile Dealers Association annual meeting was talking about you! He was describing the power of our Internet as the tool of change, in the purchase cycle of new cars,to an audience of automobile dealers from around the US. Mr.Eaton used the metaphor of a raging hurricane to describe changes in the automobile business. "For the first time in the hundred years of this industry there are some fundamental changes taking place in the way a car or truck goes from the factory to the customer. Lets face it, the factory and the dealer have controlled the process for a century--but along comes the Internet. In a nut shell, what's HAPPENING IS THAT FOR THE FIRST TIME THE CUSTOMER IS GOING TO CONTROL THE RETAIL SYSTEM. Not the dealers. Not the factory. The customer. Everything will be out in the open. The customer will have all the information about the vehicle and its price before she walks into your dealership. She's not going to be intimidated any more because of what she doesn't know. With a few strokes of a computer keyboard, she'll know everything that your salesman knows. And she'll have more options when it comes to actually making the purchase. She'll have the traditional neighborhood dealer, the superstore, the dealer three states away selling on the Internet, and probably a half dozen other options we haven't seen yet. She's now in charge. We'd better all get used to that." He went on to say that a strong smart dealership will continue to thrive as always but it won't be the slam dunk it was BI (before Internet). We'll I guess the Webs for real now that the head honcho says it is. I also heard that Chrysler would put all their dealers inventory up on the web--what's going to happen next? Keep on clicking and see what else the traditionalists do. Go Webheads! Bob Gordon, CO-publisher of The Auto Channel reporting.