Guidepoint News

FORT MITCHELL, KY and NEW YORK CITY — When Terry Elliott opened his Guidepoint inventory management software, he was shocked. The department supervisor at Mercedes-Benz of Fort Mitchell quickly realized something was out of place when he saw one of his loaner vehicles parked in New York City, hundreds of miles from the Kentucky dealership. Mercedes-Benz of Fort Mitchell restricts its customers from traveling more than 100 miles away from the dealership with vehicles. Something was clearly wrong. Elliott quickly looked up the customer tied to the vehicle in question and learned that he had dropped off a 2008 Mercedes for warranty work about a week prior. In exchange, the customer was given a 2019 Mercedes GLC. Now, that 2019 Mercedes GLC was nearly 650 miles from where it should be and Elliott knew he needed to act fast. He quickly contacted local law enforcement and reported the vehicle stolen. At the same time, he dispatched one of his employees on a one-way trip to New York ...

A new partnership with Dealerware will help automotive dealerships maximize their loaner fleets. DETROIT, Mich. and AUSTIN, Texas -Automotive dealerships throughout North America will be able to maximize the profitability and efficiency of their loaner fleet programs thanks to a new partnership between two automotive-retail technology leaders. Detroit-based vehicle telematics firm Guidepoint Systems and Austin-based Dealerware , a modern fleet management platform, today announced an exclusivity agreement between the two companies. Under the new agreement, Guidepoint will become the exclusive supplier of GPS-enabled telematics devices for the Dealerware Platform, which streamlines fleet management for dealership loaner-car operations, vehicle subscription programs and hybrids of each. The agreement also calls for Dealerware to serve as the exclusive software provider for Guidepoint’s Loaner Vehicle Program and Rental Management tools. Guidepoint and Dealerware have been worki...

Parents with teenagers or college-age students can get peace of mind when vehicles have Mopar EVTS Brandie Wagner believes there isn’t anything more powerful than personal experience when it comes explaining the value of the Mopar Electronic Vehicle Tracking System (EVTS) to sales personnel and managers at the 18 dealerships in her sales territory. Not only is Mopar EVTS essential for managing rental car inventory, Brandie says, but it’s a heck of a sales tool when dealerships decide to sell their stock as used vehicles to parents of teenagers and college-age drivers – customers just like herself. “I have it on my 16-year-old son’s Jeep, and I wouldn’t be without it now,” says Brandie, area manager for FCA (Mopar) in the Cleveland Outstate District. “I tell them that there is a lot more to the system than just theft recovery. “Then I tell them my terrible story.” By way of background, Brandie explains to sales and F&I personnel how much valuable information Mopar EVTS ...

Guidepoint Systems has teamed up with Intersection Technologies to provide F&I Express to dealerships. Guidepoint Systems has launched a new initiative to provide auto dealerships in the United States and Canada with a service that saves time and errors when filling out the paperwork in selling Guidepoint products and services. Thanks to a new relationship with a Texas software company, the Finance and Insurance (F&I) departments at dealerships can streamline the process of setting up contracts for Guidepoint products or services – supporting the most popular menu or Dealer Management System (DSM) they use in-house. “We estimate that dealerships will save at least 10 minutes on each initial transaction using the F&I Express® software, and who knows how much more time and hassle they will save on errors and further administration,” said Tom Gafford, chief technology officer and corporate vice president of marketing at Guidepoint. Gafford said Guidepoint has just s...

Using GPS  technology originally meant to recover stolen vehicles, smaller finance companies now have a powerful new tool to reduce the risks  involved with lending to dealers – essentially through a daily reconciliation of floor plans to aid in timely collection of funds on sold vehicles. “GPS technology has reached the point where its affordable and practical for finance companies to keep regular tabs on the inventory that they have financed on used car lots,” said Ira Levin, vice president of business development at Guidepoint Systems Inc. in Madison Heights, Mich. “With the ability to run location reports on multiple vehicles in seconds, a finance company can virtually get an updated floor plan on a car lot daily with ease.” Levin said he will be available to discuss the floor plan inventory system in person with interested individuals who are attending the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in Las Vegas March 22-25, or by contacting him directly by ...

When a local service garage calls John Kupres to get a part from one of his Crown Motors dealerships, he doesn’t have to guess which of his 5 delivery vehicles are closest and annoy drivers with unnecessary cell phone calls anymore. Just by looking at his computer screen, Kupres can track the locations of all his parts delivery vehicles, figure out who is best available and give mechanics an accurate estimate of when parts will be delivered to their doors. Each of the delivery vehicles is equipped with the Mopar Electronic Vehicle Tracking System (EVTS) module that transmits GPS coordinates and other data wirelessly. “Since we're at three different locations, we would have to call each store to ask what their parts delivery guy was doing, and how important it was -- and it was just a lot of phone calls,” said Kupres, parts manager at Crown Motors in Holland, Mich . that sells Chrysler, Honda, Mazda, Cadillac, Buick, Toyota and Volkswagen brands. “This is saving me and the...

Don Rinaldi understands the value of knowing where all his vehicles are at all time, whether it’s managing more than 850 vehicles spread out through three dealership locations --  or his own truck parked at his home. As general sales manager for new and pre-owned vehicles at Lithia Chrysler Jeep Dodge Of Corpus Christi , Rinaldi is responsible for the floor plan audit of new and used vehicles that may be on the lot, at a subcontractor getting a bed liner, in the service department or anywhere in between. As an owner of a new Dodge Ram 1500 Longhorn, Rinaldi was able to locate his truck when it was stolen from his driveway and driven across the border into Mexico. And the tool that Rinaldi uses to easily track the locations of all these vehicles is the same -- the Mopar Electronic Vehicle Tracking System (EVTS) powered by Guidepoint Systems. “I have them pre-loaded into every vehicle at the dealership -- new and pre-owned -- and also have in my personal vehicle,” Rinaldi s...

When Terry Murdock arrives for work in the morning at Leith AutoPark Chrysler Jeep , one of the first things he does is boot up his computer to locate all the dealership’s 24 loaner vehicles, using a wireless Mopar Electronic Vehicle Tracking System (EVTS). “It’s an awesome tool to have -- particularly if you have customers whose cars have been done for awhile, but they don’t want to return the loaners,” said Murdock, fixed operations director for parts and service at the Cary, N.C. dealership. “If need be, I have to go out and get the loaner back, so I need to know where it is at any time of the day.