New Portal is Car Dealer's Best Electronic Friend
20 April 2000
New Portal is Car Dealer's Best Electronic Friend
METUCHEN, N.J.--April 20, 2000--For 20 years a small New Jersey publisher connected with its network of 8,000 car dealerships by providing newsletters that taught them how to get the most out of their warranty work, cut costs and raise profits in sales, parts, service and finance and insurance.But, oh how times have changed.
Now, WD&S Publishing in Metuchen has retooled. Its Web portal, DealersEdge.com, launched just a few months ago, is doing what no other in its niche is doing. It has become the portal of choice for car dealers from West New York to Palo Alto.
Peter Brandow, the owner of three car dealerships in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, says he turns to DealersEdge.com each morning while sipping his coffee and planning his day at the dealership. "It is an extremely useful tool," Brandow, who sells $1 million a month in cars on the Internet, says.
At the free DealersEdge.com web site car dealers and their associates can:
-- Read the current issue of Dealers Edge or search archives.
-- Participate in active discussion forums with other dealership
managers and experts.
-- Check employment listings in the job bank.
-- Place a classified ad.
-- Use the supplier guide, with e-mail and web links.
-- Check the industry event guide for conferences and seminars.
-- Participate in the "Ask the expert" discussions.
-- Setup their own personal financial management page or
access news and weather with updates via e-mail, fax or phone.
-- And more.
In the fast paced world of e-commerce, DealersEdge is poised to be the car dealer's best electronic friend as the landscape of auto retailing, service, parts, finance and insurance changes like never before.
Tom Libby, of J.D. Power and Associates, says: "The question of whether of not the Internet will have a major impact on the new vehicle business is moot. It already has...A year ago 40 percent of new vehicle shoppers used the Internet to shop...that number will reach 55 percent this year."
Jim Muntz, publisher of WD&S, started this unique company two decades ago, when he composed his first newsletter on his kitchen table. Now, the Staten Island native and his staff have become the voice of your local car dealer in print and electronically.
Recently, WD&S hosted its fourth Auto Retailing on the Web conference in Las Vegas. More the 400 car dealers and associates from all over the world showed up to hang on every word and learn where their dealerships should be positioned for the future.
The event sent a buzz through the automotive industry. And now, with more than 8,000 unique dealership pros visiting DealersEdge.com each month the buzz is continuing.