Honda Store Went Live and Bought a Car the Same Day with MOTO(drive) Service Lane Vehicle Acquisition

• A dealer group went live on MOTO(drive) at 11am and one of its GMs bought a car out of service that same day, with another deal in the works the next day.

• Another dealer that launched a week earlier bought three cars out of service in its first week.

• Some of these stores write only 20 to 25 repair orders a day, others 30 to 40, so a busy service drive is not required to start buying cars.

• Mike's view: an established dealership already has the salespeople, service customers, and sales managers it needs, so tested software can produce results without blowing up the process or front-loading training.

• MOTO(drive) stores consistently buy about 1% of their repair orders without dedicated service acquisition hires.

Every used car manager knows the service drive is full of cars the store would love to own. The hard part of service lane vehicle acquisition has never been finding the cars. It's getting a program running without tearing up your process, retraining everybody, and waiting months to see a deal.

Mike Crothers, CEO of MOTO(acquire), shared two recent launches that show how fast it can go when the software fits the way a dealership already works.

How fast can a dealership start buying cars out of service?

A dealer group went live on MOTO(drive) at 11am. The next day, one of the GMs reported back: they had already bought a car out of service on launch day and were working another one.

Another dealer launched the Friday before. In their first week, they bought three cars out of service.

These are not giant service departments. Mike pointed out that some of these stores write 20 to 25 repair orders a day, and some write 30 to 40. "So it's awesome right out the gate," he said. "They're buying cars out of service."

When a store buys its first car, the MOTO(acquire) team sends a quick celebratory message. Mike's point is simple: the dealer should know the team is there for them too, not just at kickoff.

Why service lane vehicle acquisition works without changing your process

The part Mike wanted dealers to hear: these stores did not have to "blow up their whole process, change a whole bunch of stuff, do a whole bunch of training beforehand."

His reasoning comes from time in the store. An established dealership already has what service drive acquisition needs:

• Salespeople who know how to work a customer and close a deal.

• Service customers coming through the drive every day with vehicles you want.

• Sales managers who can appraise a car and put numbers together.

What is usually missing is a reliable way to spot the right customers and get them to the sales team at the right time. Put "a good piece of software in place," as Mike said, one that has been tried and tested, and the people and process you already have can do the rest.

That is why Mike stressed how the product was built. MOTO(drive) was intentionally built over the last 12 months to work inside real dealerships, not to force dealerships to work around it.

What this means for your store

If you have held off on a service acquisition program because you assumed it required a dedicated hire or weeks of training before the first deal, these launches point the other way. Start with your existing team, keep your current process, and let the software handle finding and reaching out to the right customers.

Where MOTO(drive) fits

MOTO(drive) handles service drive acquisition using your DMS data and automated texts. It pushes VIN and miles to your inventory tools, and your sales team is alerted when a customer is ready.

MOTO(drive) stores consistently buy about 1% of their repair orders without dedicated service acquisition hires. MOTO(acquire) integrates with all major DMS platforms and many others, including Tekion, Dealertrack, CDK, Reynolds, and Auto/Mate. If your DMS is not integrated yet, we will build the integration.

For more on how stores are approaching this, visit the Service Drive Acquisition topic hub or watch how a dealer group profits from buying cars out of the service drive.

Congrats to the stores getting started

Mike closed with a thank you to the Honda store and every dealer that has launched MOTO(drive) in the last couple of months. "We love working with you and we hope to work with more and more dealers on this important initiative," he said. That initiative is service drive acquisition.

If your service drive is busy and your used inventory is thin, it is worth finding out what is already sitting in your service lane.