Manufacturers Remain Conservative when Adopting Newer Flash Versions

Manufacturer web sites feature some of the highest quality imagery and most interactive content available online.  The navigation and content (and in some cases, the entire site) is often Flash-based, but OEMs rarely use the latest Flash versions.  The chart below shows the minimum Flash versions required on the home pages of OEM sites as of April 2009.  (This was compiled by manually going through the code for each site – if you believe we missed something, please let us know.)

Currently, most OEMs are on Flash 8.  Hyundai remains a laggard on Flash 6 while Hummer has the same site it launched years ago on version 7.



In early 2007 most OEMs were on Flash 6 or 7 and by late 2007 the migration away from these older versions was finally underway.  Almost all these manufacturers chose Flash 8, even though Flash 9 had been released over one year earlier and had achieved over 97% penetration in the U.S.

It’s likely that the manufacturers didn’t want to risk losing even that small portion of their potential audience that would have had to upgrade.  These sites may not be missing all that much by using older versions of Flash on the homepage – less powerful image compression and a more limited toolkit may be considered a reasonable tradeoff.  And they can always utilize higher versions of Flash deeper in the site if they want to take advantage of more advanced capabilities.

By the way, Flash 10 has been available since October 2008.  It will be interesting to see which OEMs jumps on board first.

Online Dealer Reviews – Still Struggling to Make an Impact

A friend recently took her car to the shop after a break-in and used Yelp to find reviews for a repair shop.  It turned out that Jeep Absolute Auto Repair had stellar ratings and great reviews, which made her excited about her yet-to-come experience.

Imagine that.  She was excited (her words) about taking her car to the shop because of what she read online.

Consumer-generated reviews and ratings (subsequently referred to as “reviews”) form a core part of the experience on many highly trafficked sites, including Amazon and eBay.  In the automotive arena, vehicle reviews are available from almost every popular third-party site (e.g. Autotrader, Edmunds, CarMax) and this information is influential.  In fact, 63% of new-vehicle Automotive Internet Users (AIUs) and 66% of used-vehicle AIUs used vehicle reviews during their shopping process

Dealer reviews and ratings have been slower to take off.  Part of the problem is that there’s no central place consumers visit to research dealers.  Potential destinations include:

• Yahoo! Local : reviews are a component of local business profiles
• Edmunds : dealer reviews available, but not prominent on the site
• DealerRater : single purpose site with dealer sales and service reviews
• Yelp : targeted specifically at local business ratings and reviews
• Google Local: component of local business profiles.  Combines reviews from other sources with its own user-generated reviews

In a blog posting last year, I noted that among the first three sites listed above, none had sufficient volume of contributions across multiple dealerships to be broadly useful.  I recently researched these same sites again and found that the story hasn’t changed.  While several dealerships have attracted a fair number of reviews (at least five in the past year), most have not.  The average site visitor still won’t get enough current information to sway their decisions one way or another.

Looking at the other options, Yelp is great for many retail categories, but there isn’t much in the way of dealership reviews.  Google Local aggregates reviews from other sources to bolster its own user-generated content, which creates a larger body of reviews from which to choose.  For instance, Global Imports of Atlanta has 19 reviews from the past year by adding reviews from Insider Pages, Judy’s Book, DealerRater, Yahoo, and Edmunds to its nine user-generated reviews.  Still, aggregation can’t overcome the scarcity of dealer reviews available anywhere online and many dealers still have few (if any) reviews on Google Local.

Regardless of the consumer value proposition, dealers must still be involved.  Dealerships should absolutely be monitoring their profiles on these sites, just as they should have automatic feeds to alert them when the dealership name shows up in news stories, blog/message boards, and Twitter.  This is all part of online reputation, which means you need to at least be aware of what people are saying about you – both the good AND the bad.  You can’t erase what people say, but you can address their stories and even reach out to rectify their situations.

Some enterprising dealers have turned dealer reviews to their advantage by asking their customers to visit these sites and review them.  These dealerships must, of course, be confident that they’ll get good marks. Once the positive reviews build up, the dealership can then refer potential customers to these sites to show just how great they really are.  Here’s an example from Acton Toyota.

By the way, my friend’s story has a happy ending.  The repair was completed on time and at the quoted price.  They even cleaned out the glass fragments and washed the car at no extra charge.  As she put it “Sweet.”

What's Next for GM's Lutz?

General Motors' retiring Vice Chairman Bob Lutz could be back for an encore performance.

Fox Business is reporting that Lutz will return to GM in a new capacity when it emerges from bankruptcy Friday.

Lutz announced earlier this year that he was stepping down from his day-to-day duties as vice chairman of product development, turning that job over to Tom Stephens on April 1. Lutz was to finish out the year in a senior advisor role until his official retirement at year end.

Still, there had been much hand-wringing about GM without Lutz and who would be the champion for the product. Lutz threw out some tantalizing comments to Detroit's Automotive Press Association in May when he said he would "do something else" and "would not be unemployed."

Lutz could be asked to serve on the board of directors of the "new" GM. Perhaps he'll work with President Obama's automotive task force, which Lutz praised profusely during his May speech.

Judge Clears Way For GM To Leave Bankruptcy

By Michelle Krebs

NEW YORK - A U.S. bankruptcy judge has cleared the way for General Motors to leave Chapter 11 by approving the sale of some of the automaker's assets, including the Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC divisions, to a new, largely government-owned company.

Judge Robert Gerber of the U.S. bankruptcy court in New York ordered the approval of asset sale, despite the filing of 11th-hour appeals. GM will close the sale Friday morning and hold a press conference immediately after to provide details.

Judge Robert Gerber wrote in his ruling that allowing the sale was in the public's best interest, by saving jobs and health-care coverage for hundreds of thousands of employees and retirees globally as well as the tax base of communities. "If GM were to have to liquidate, the injury to the public would be staggering," he said.

Deadline Set for Delphi Bidders; Auction Scheduled

The four-year bankruptcy saga of auto parts supplier Delphi Corp. has taken lots of twists and turns, and now the bankruptcy court has set a Friday deadline for the various interested parties to bid on the company that nobody was interested in earlier.
 
Carl Icahn's Federal-Mogul Corp. and billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, who has pumped significant funds into auto supply companies, are among those interested.

Exit Package for GM's Wagoner Near

Former General Motors Chairman Rick Wagoner will find out in days about his exit package, the Wall Street Journal reports quoting an unnamed Obama administration official.

Wagoner, who had agreed to work for $1 a year as part of the deal to obtain federal funding for GM, was forced out of his job by President Obama in late March but technically remains a GM employee.

Pay and benefit packages for executives -- including exit packages for the many executives who will leave -- will be revealed as the "new" GM emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, likely on Friday. Wagoner was eligible for about $20 million in compensation accumulated over his 32-year career at GM.

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