Not sure if this belongs in this category, pls move if it doesn’t.
I received the following from my local dealer…anyone received this or ever heard of it?
fyi, I didn’t get my X3 from there (@Electric hooked me up at another dealership)
Dear XXXX,
Thank you for being a customer in our service department, and hopefully in the future you will become a showroom customer of ours as well. We have invested in a new technology that will notify us when you can get into a new BMW X3 Series keeping your payments about the same if your vehicle is being financed or leased.
We have found that most of our clients like to drive a new vehicle, rather than maintain an older model. There is absolutely no obligation. In the future, when we see an opportunity for you to get a newer BMW X3 Series, we would like to contact you.
If you are interested in knowing when an opportunity for us to upgrade your vehicle arises, please contact me so I can collect a few pieces of information from you.
This is a new software that integrates with the dealer management program (like Reynolds). Can’t think of what the name is, but it’s relatively new. It isn’t unique to BMW and can be used by any brand
If it is the program I think it is, it is a great tool on the dealer side since it assigns a score to each customer based on a variety of factors. Plus it isn’t a gimmicky sale pitch like the classic “we want your car”. There is an actual payment/cash offer based on real numbers and most people like that they can get out of their lease a few months early if their payment is similar. Obviously do your own homework and evaluate the deal. It might not be a “LH worthy” deal every time, but it is a great tool for the majority of dealers and customers.
Ok that makes more sense. It sounds like its more for people who are nearing the end of their lease then? But yes, might not make sense for everyone since there might still be some associated costs.
Imagine what happens when you get a marketing mailer now: you call or go in, test drive something else, while you are they lookup your prior “deal” and what your trade is worth, then they run numbers. Now they have more of that info available upfront, or when you call-in, but it’s the same shim-sham:
You can argue it’s to recapture used cars, or retain customers, but in lieu of bored salespeople who don’t work their prior deals for news ones, or work the service lanes when you’re in, the computer front-loads that and markets to you.
It’s not a pull-ahead: neither the manufacturer or dealer is taking any money out of their pocket. It’s a sophisticated electronic marketing mailer.
Here is what happens. Dealer says I am going to offer X% discount on this model and the system finds customers who are likely candidates to upgrade based upon lease expiration, lease or finance payments, trade equity, warranty expiring, etc. This gives everyone in the system a score and then customers with high scores are contacted. What makes it unique is that the software auto-generates a new offer on a similar in-stock car with similar terms. It is a good way to drum up new business or reconnect with old customers. On the customer’s end, it is marketing. Sometimes the offer is good for them and other times it might not be. For a lease, the remaining payments are just being rolled into a new lease unless there is a specific manufacturers program, like Porsche.
