Carpoint Becomes Single Dealer Group Bird Dog, Great Deal for
Them Lousy Deal for Consumers
Nation's Largest Auto Retailer to Provide Fulfillment
For the Web's Most Visited Car-Buying and Ownership Site
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Feb. 2 AutoNation, Inc. ,America's largest automotive retailer,
and MSN Carpoint, the most visited car-buying and ownership site on the Web,
announced today an agreement that makes AutoNation the primary distributor of
Carpoint customer sales leads. The agreement dramatically expands Carpoint's
national dealer coverage to ensure that online car buyers can easily find
the car they want at a nearby dealer.
As part of the three-year agreement, AutoNation begins initial
distribution of Carpoint's sales leads this March, leading to full
distribution by June. To serve Carpoint dealers, AutoNation will leverage its
existing e-Commerce infrastructure, which already serves online sales leads
from shopping sources such as AutoVantage.com and other major consumer portals
to AutoNation's 400 dealership franchises and more than 1,600 dealership
franchises outside of AutoNation's retail network. Carpoint and AutoNation
will also use customer demand data to dramatically expand Carpoint's dealer
network to better serve online car buyers everywhere.
"When a car shopper goes online with questions, they want answers and we
need to be there with a fast response and the car they want. That's why, as
the Web's largest e-Dealer, we want to work with Microsoft Corp. to be
Carpoint's fulfillment solution," AutoNation Chief Executive Officer Mike
Jackson said. "That means keeping the flow of high-quality, Carpoint sales
leads flowing to the greatest number of e-Dealers possible."
Added MSN Carpoint CEO Jeff Dossett: "We are very excited to forge another
significant industry relationship to help make it easier for consumers to buy
and own cars. Bringing together AutoNation's expansive retail network and
fulfillment services with our vast consumer reach and technology leadership
means better responsiveness, more satisfied consumers and more sales to
dealers, everyday. We look forward to working with AutoNation and our other
industry partners to continue to innovate to better serve car shoppers, car
owners, dealers and OEMs."
Carpoint will continue to develop and market innovative online advertising
and customer acquisition programs to leading automotive manufacturers such as
Ford, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and Toyota, as well as to other
companies serving automotive consumers such as State Farm. Carpoint will also
continue to work closely with manufacturers such as Ford and Honda to deploy
Dealerpoint, the automotive retail industry's most widely used customer
relationship management tool that is currently on more than 7,000 dealer
desktops. AutoNation will continue to offer real cars and real prices through
its company-owned-and-operated Web sites, including AutoNation.com, home to
the Web's largest virtual showroom, and continue development of Compass, its
customer relationship tool. Together, AutoNation and Carpoint will work with
the industry to develop the programs, tools and technologies that will
continue to improve the online car shopping experience for consumers and
dealers.
Editors Note: This story was originaly published on Friday February 2 2001,
I was told by the PR agency for AutoNation that the story was not correct and
it didn't mean what it said. If this was true, our policy of not misleading our
intellegent readers could have been broken. So I embargoed the story until I
heard from the PR agency to tell me the story was not as I understood it.
But, I guess my understanding is correct. In fact on the exhibit floor at the NADA in
Las Vegas yesterday a competitor of Car Point,another on-line 3rd party lead
generator was using this very announcement as a selling point to induce dealers to
sign up with them, if they were not part of the AutoNation Club.
...what the heck is Microsoft doing in the Bird Dog Business Anyway?
BG
