Recent Press - Wardsauto

Cadillac ranks first in the 2023 Pied Piper Internet Lead Effectiveness Study that uses mystery shoppers to measure how well dealerships respond to website customer inquiries. Following the General Motors luxury brand in the annual ranking are Infiniti, Volkswagen, Subaru, Toyota and Volvo. This is the 13th year of the study, and overall scores have improved over the years. That indicates a heightened level of how seriously dealers take the ... Read More >

Major car dealership groups tout their digital retailing processes and prowess, but many of them rank only so-so in a Pied Piper mystery shopping survey. The consultancy's Internet Lead Effectiveness Study primarily measures how quickly megadealer stores respond to a specific question sent through their websites. Auto-responding didn't count. Of the major groups, Penske Automotive, Berkshire Hathaway Automotive and Asbury Automotive Group score ... Read More >

Chrysler tops a new study's ranking of how well vehicle brands feature their electrified vehicles online and how well dealerships field EV customer inquiries, both digitally and in-store. Chrysler's high score is ironic for a couple of reasons. First, although Chrysler is a venerable nameplate, it seldom tops auto industry rankings. Second, the brand only offers one electrified product: the Pacifica plug-in hybrid minivan. Now a Stellantis ... Read More >

Dealerships are getting better at responding to online customers, and the reason seems clear to Fran O'Hagan. “Dealers who handle Internet leads effectively sell a lot more vehicles than dealers who do not,” says the president of consultancy Pied Piper Management. “That is why manufacturers and individual dealers are so interested in this.” Dealer behavior can change slowly in some respects, he says. “It is like changing the direction of a ship ... Read More >