What is the best tip for dealerships in order to make their women customers happy?
Again, a very easy question. Treat them as you would treat your wife or mother. Do that and they will never be sorry.

Why did you start www.luxuryautobids.com?
It is no secret…the Internet has dramatically changed the paradigm of automobile retailing! Hundreds of companies are now engaged to provide ‘leads’ to dealers and charge for that service. I felt that the prices were outlandish and the leads were now really leads. And to top it off, they were sold to several dealers at the same time! I wanted to provide a way to give both the consumer and the dealer a great sell/buy experience and do so where the playing field is level.

As I stated above I spend a lot of time developing new and creative ways to market our products and our services. The first thing that we all need to understand is that there is a large segment of the market that simply does not like to shop and I’m one of those people. I use the Internet to make most of my purchases, including clothing and electronics.

Over the past few years I have also enjoyed a great deal of success selling automobiles on the Internet. One of the things I learned doing this was that the quicker and easier it was, the more the customer liked to process and the more the dealer liked the process. We started LuxuryAutoBids to make it quick, easy and at the same time provide the consumer with an easy way to reach a nationwide network of dealers and get the most competitive price available and at the same time, give the dealer an qualified buyer with 6 clicks of the mouse.

What is the ‘gotcha’ about Luxury Auto Bids and why is it helpful to the consumer?
As I stated above it is quick, easy, guarantees a competitive price but here is the very best part...the buyer is totally anonymous to the dealer. It is simply a buy/sell function. I really think that women in today’s world, under a multitude of time-constraints will find this approach appealing as they don’t need to even visit the dealership. And, most of all, women and men too, really don’t want to deal with what we call an exasperating experience in the dealerships. I think it’s getting better, but the negotiating part is still there.

What makes LuxuryAutoBids.com a better experience for women in this negotiating part?
Most buyers, including women, know what they want to purchase and have already completed all of their research before they ever enter a dealership. Unfortunately, she, and even men, enters at a disadvantage. The dealership negotiates the sale of automobiles hundreds of times a month. She, on the other hand, only negotiates a purchase once every 3 or 4 years. They playing field is not even BUT LuxuryAutoBids puts her in the unique position to make ALL of the decisions without the distractions normally associated with the purchase process.

What car buying tip would you give women?
Make the purchase of an automobile a mechanical and not an emotional process. Do your homework in advance and don't allow yourself to be pushed or manipulated into buying something different than what you wanted when you came into the dealership.

My second best buying tip is don't buy at all! Lease it instead, but that is a for another set of questions at another time or an article on www.sdmautomotive.com.

Danny Mayer has been the automobile business since 1969. It has been his entire career and remains his passion today. He has sat in the chair of virtually every executive position in the industry, from single point franchises to the largest of publicly owed automobile corporations. He has proven time and time again that “…creative, at the edge thinking drives success…” That is probably why General Motors of Canada tapped Danny to assist them in developing and introducing a new Customer Satisfaction program for that nation’s dealers and why Nissan Corporation asked him to participate, as 1 of 3 dealers nationally, in developing the Internet process for all Infiniti dealers. He knows the automobile business…he knows the Internet…and he cares about customers. He can be reached danny@sdmautomotive.com.