What Makes The Best New Car Leads?

You need the best tools at your disposal to successfully operate a business, but shopping for tools can be exhausting and confusing when every vendor claims to have the best tool at the lowest cost. This is especially true in the third party lead provider space. Online searches return more than 210 million results for “third party lead provider” — overwhelming, to say the least!

But not all hope is lost. Some simple guidelines can help you maneuver the market and buy the best new car leads to benefit your business.

First, minimize the inherent risk in buying leads. Buying the best new car leads starts with research. How are leads generated? Does the broker have your best interest in mind, or are they obligated by a one-sided contract? Thoroughly reading a lead provider’s Terms of Service can give several clues as to how the lead generation process is conducted. Look for transparent metrics and reporting – transparency usually correlates with quality. Make sure vendors break down the geographical markets served in a way that makes sense for you and your audience, especially when 50 miles can make or break a sale.

Not every company can provide the best new car leads. Ask about the pieces of information that are attached to each lead. If you’re skeptical about the lead generation process as described to you, go undercover and submit your own information on a vendor’s site. Doing so can be an eye-opening exercise in determining which are the best new car leads.

While more leads are often better than less, diminishing returns do exist. Make sure you’re not paying for useless information. For example, CarsDirect sends follow up surveys to customers who have submitted leads to gain insights on why a customer did or didn’t end up purchasing a vehicle.

CarsDirect offers more than just the best new car leads, but also a full suite of products designed to help car dealers sell more cars: New Car Leads, Used Car Leads, Special Finance Leads, and innovative Display Advertising and Mobile solutions. We encourage you to explore this website to learn about how our award-winning products can help you move more units.

Why You’re Doing Everything Right…But Still Missing Sales

Getting serious about third-party auto lead generation is worth the effort. In fact, using third-party auto lead generation resources can often be the difference between meeting monthly goals and missing them.

Old-school techniques like cold calling are tried and true for a reason, but they work only as part of a bigger-picture sales strategy. Even new-school techniques like engaging with car buyers on social media are just a part of running a successful dealership.

Cold calling works – it has historically, and it’s still an effective tool today. Snail mail newsletters work by calling attention to inventory. Social media is an amazing tool to connect with and build relationships with customers. Even having your store’s entire website re-designed around driving auto lead generation can be beneficial for the bottom line. Yet, while being totally self-reliant on in-house auto lead generation seems good in theory, you’re still missing out on sales.

Different buyers have different needs and methods when buying cars. Many are distrustful of dealerships, and therefore of auto dealership websites. Others don’t enjoy the traditional car buying experiences. Some enjoy the comfort of car shopping from home. Many younger buyers don’t realize that cars must be obtained from franchise dealers and not from the OEM directly, so they don’t think to search for websites at the dealership level.

To serve this vast audience of car shoppers that isn’t landing on auto dealer websites, there are third-party auto lead generation websites like CarsDirect. These sites assist car shoppers by augmenting the traditional car buying experience while still connecting them with your inventory.

CarsDirect offers a full suite of products designed to help car dealers sell more cars: New Car Leads, Used Car Leads, Special Finance Leads, and innovative Display Advertising and Mobile solutions. We encourage you to explore this website to learn about how our award-winning products can help you move more units.

Meet the New Subprime Authority

Have you heard the news? CarsDirect and Auto Credit Express have joined forces to create North America’s largest subprime automotive solution provider! Both brands will continue to operate separately, while benefiting from shared resources and technology.

Combined, we now serve more than 2,000 dealers across the United States and are processing 250,000 credit applications each month — a 40% increase. And we have exciting product innovations in the pipeline. All of this means that you’ll will benefit from more opportunities to sell than ever before.

Even better, we’re thrilled that CarsDirect and Auto Credit Express were each the recipients of 2016 Dealers’ Choice Awards presented by Auto Dealer Today magazine.

CarsDirect received the #1 Diamond Award for Best Special Finance Lead Provider. Meanwhile, Auto Credit Express was honored with a Gold Award in the Special Finance Lead Provider category.

This makes CarsDirect a six-time Dealers’ Choice Awards winner in the Special Finance category. CarsDirect also received a Gold Award in the Used Car Lead Provider category.

Of course, CarsDirect offers a full suite of products in addition to Special Finance — including New Car Leads, Used Car Leads, and innovative Display Advertising and Mobile solutions. We encourage you to explore this website to learn about how our award-winning products can help you move more units.

Stock These Cars To Close More Subprime Deals

To take your subprime sales success to the next level, it’s essential to stock the right inventory. We want to make sure your customer succeeds with a solid, affordable and reliable vehicle that will help them re-establish their credit. As such, it’s important to know the top vehicles being sold to subprime customers. By having the makes and models that work for these customers in stock, you’ll be ready to rock when they roll onto your lot.

Additionally, it’s particularly important to know which vehicles are being sold to subprime buyers in your specific region. We know this because our data indicates that there are significant differences amongst the top subprime vehicles when both national and regional data sets are compared. Tailoring your subprime inventory to your region’s preferences will automatically give you a huge advantage.

So if you’re looking to increase your subprime sales’, analyzing your inventory against what is selling in your area will give you the insight you need to make it happen. And to show you how to take this strategy to the next level, we’ve gathered data that shows which vehicles work best for both consumers and dealers.

Comparing National and Regional Top Subprime Vehicles

To start, here is the national data for top-selling subprime vehicles, based on what our consumers have purchased in the last few months:

Now take a look at which vehicles are being sold the most to subprime buyers in Phoenix, Arizona:

It’s interesting how the 2016 Kia Forte that tops the national list doesn’t even show up in the Phoenix data. A lot of dealers see the Forte as the go-to subprime vehicle, but in Phoenix, AZ, the Nissan Versa is apparently the car to stock.

What should you stock in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas? According to the data below, that 2016 Kia Forte is back on top. But two different pickup trucks have made the list, along with the 2016 Subaru Forester:

Now that we’ve shown you how you can use region-specific data to boost subprime sales, let’s take it another step further and look at how this knowledge can help you increase profits.

Finding the Best Subprime Vehicles in Your Region

In the tables below, we’ve taken each of the top-selling subprime vehicles and cross-referenced them with recent auction value (RAV) data.

We’ve included the NADA Clean Trade for each vehicle, the recent auction value and the difference between these numbers.

The logic here is pretty simple. Basically, you can create a nearly fool-proof auction strategy by doing three things:

• First, get hard data on which vehicles are being sold the most to subprime buyers in your region.
• Next, book these vehicles and subtract their recent auction values from their NADA Fair Trade values to find out which makes and models make the most sense for your consumers.
• Finally, make sure these vehicles are solid, affordable and reliable so your customer will be successful in re-establishing their credit.

Sounds like a pretty good game plan, doesn’t it?

If you need region-specific information for your subprime department, we can provide valuable data. We also offer all of the additional tools and information you’ll need to support your subprime sales.

The team at CarsDirect and Auto Credit Express understands the importance of finding the right lenders, maintaining the right inventory and using the right processes to get the job done. For a personalized market-analysis report for your dealership, fill out this form, or give us a call at 888-535-CARS (2277).

These are the Top 10 Subprime Lenders

If you have a subprime department, or are in the process of building one, you’ll want to get connected to the biggest and best subprime lenders. After all, the more lending resources you have, the better your chances will be to get those subprime deals done. But how do you know that you’re connected with the best lenders?

The Leading Subprime Lenders in the Nation

As the nation’s leading subprime lead provider, generating approximately 250,000 credit applications a month, Auto Credit Express has great insight into who the most active lenders are in the subprime space. Here’s an insider’s list of the current top 10 subprime lenders in the country:

It’s essential to be familiar with these national players in the subprime market.  But nationwide lenders can only take you so far. There are a host of smaller regional lenders that can help grow your subprime business. Depending on where your dealer group is located, your top subprime lenders can vary significantly. Which brings us to…

Finding the Top Subprime Lenders in Your Area

If you have been sticking to our list of top national subprime lenders and haven’t been working with smaller lenders, you probably haven’t been reaching your full potential.

Luckily, our Auto Credit Express experts are able to identify and rank the top subprime lenders for any specific region in the U.S. For example, here are the 10 lenders in the Tampa-St. Petersburg (Sarasota) Florida metro area that had the most sales in the past 3 months:

If you’re a subprime dealer in the Tampa area and you’re not working with any or all of the lenders listed above, you’re likely not reaching your subprime potential.

Knowing which subprime lenders have the highest rankings in your area is essential if you are trying to attract subprime traffic. The team at CarsDirect and Auto Credit Express can get you the most up-to-date lender rankings for your surrounding area. For a personalized market-analysis report for your dealership, reach out to us at 888-535-CARS (2277) today. We’d love the opportunity to share our insights to help you grow your subprime business.