Guidepoint News

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 ...

Guidepoint's SVL Lite system helps car rental companies boost profit margins. Whether they cater to local customers or travelers picking up rental vehicles at airports, car rental companies throughout North America are using theft recovery technology to boost daily utilization of their fleets and cut losses when cars aren’t returned on time. The typical company can recoup its investment in easy-to-install wireless theft recovery systems in a matter of months, said Anne Taylor, sales representative for the rental car segment of Guidepoint Systems Inc. Whether they operate a small local market rental fleet or a large airport rental fleet, car rental managers incorporate our technology because they have a problem,” said Taylor, a 20-year veteran of the vehicle rental industry. “Solving that problem always boils down to making sure they can pinpoint exactly where their vehicles are – at any day and time.  It’s all about reducing risk.” Car rental personnel are able to mo...

To ring in the New Year right, Guidepoint Systems has delivered a free and powerful website upgrade that helps parts and service employees nationwide to better manage vehicle rentals programs and get retail customers out the door sooner. Guidepoint automatically has upgraded the software of its rental car application of LTE accounts so that parts and service employees can enter information into standard rental forms that automatically record data in the system and provide retail customers with complete rental agreements that include legal verbiage. The new software is available now to any dealership with an LTE account using the loaner car application with Mopar EVTS, Nissan VRTS and Guidepoint private label manufacturered products. Dealerships don’t have to do anything special to access the upgrade rental agreement system, said Bryan Reynolds, VP-Western District for Guidepoint sales and support. “We saw a real need for this application because more and more dealerships are g...

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.