VIN Basics Blog

Online quotes have revolutionized the world of car insurance. It has made insurance more competitive because users can get multiple quotes from different carriers quickly. This has created an environment where consumers shop to find the best price possible, and may do so as frequently as once or twice a year. This results in a consistent demand for online quote both from the insurers directly and well as from third party sites that provide quote comparison tools.

VIN Decoding Large Commercial Vehicles

The mid-duty and heavy-duty truck segments offer unique challenges to VIN decode properly.   Almost all commercial trucks offer many options to significantly customize and up-fit the vehicle.  These options and up-fits include everything from engines, to axles, to transmissions, to cab types and body types, all of which can substantially change the details and specifications of the vehicle.  (For more information on the challenges of decoding large trucks see our article “VIN Decoding Outside the Light Duty Segment”.)  The customized nature and complexity of these vehicle segments has contributed to their being few commercial VIN Decoding solutions available for large trucks.  

Never before have there been more ways for auto dealers to market inventory to customers - who are able to take advantage of unprecedented availability of vehicle data and methods of comparison shopping.

Like an individual fingerprint unique to each person, the Vehicle Identification Number is unique to each individual vehicle. And, just like the federal government maintains a database of fingerprints in order to access information on individuals registered in the system quickly and accurately, a VIN database can also access a wealth of information on each vehicle in the system in a quick, organized, and easy manner. With the high-tech, user-friendly VIN decoder software available on the market today, there’s no reason not to install and utilize a VIN decoding solution as part of your business process. In fact, a VIN database or VIN decoder application solution is essential to maximizing efficiency and profits and can be used to help position your service-oriented transportation business miles ahead of the competition.

Wikipedia defines a "car dealership" as a business that sells new or used cars at the retail level.  If you asked most people who own or work for dealerships, or even consumers, to define what dealerships do, the majority would start by saying "They sell cars".  It is the selling of new and used vehicles that defines a dealership and is it greatest source of revenue.  Most of the effort put forth by the business is to capture vehicle sales, and with good cause. 

In the effort to turn a lead into a car sale, the most important thing a used car dealer can do is inspire trust. The customer buying the vehicle is considering an expensive purchase, and is looking for reliability and predictability in the automobile they seek to buy.  More then likely, they are also a little distrustful of the sales process and looking for ways to "protect" themselves from getting taken advantage of.  

It wasn't too many years ago that the continued existence of American car manufacturing was in peril.  All of the Detroit 3 looked weak and ready to tumble amidst an unstable and receding US economy.  Sales were down across the industry, but even more so among the US manufacturers.  Brand consideration and perceived quality were remarkably low among the few new vehicle purchasers that were out there searching for a new car.  Fuel prices were rising quickly and none of the US manufacturers had a strong offering in the small car segment. Chrysler and GM had to accept bailouts from the US Government to survive while Ford narrowly avoided having to do so.  What a difference four years make.

Since 1981 the global vehicle manufacturing community has used the 17 digit VIN as a means to uniquely identify a vehicle.  The VIN captures basic vehicle information as part of an international standard, and in some countries, like the US, it is used to capture additional data.   In the US, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, is tasked with regulating the information the VIN must capture, how it is assigned and to whom.  Some of the many benefits of the VIN system include being able to identify and recall vehicles with safety issues, track vehicles accident and maintenance history, and identify vehicles that have been stolen.

After nearly three decades of production, Suzuki has announced its departure from the U.S. automotive market. Suzuki first began manufacturing automobiles for the U.S. market in 1985 and will stop selling automobiles once their current supply runs out. They will however continue to produce motorcycles, ATV’s, and watercraft here in the U.S. According to the press release, Suzuki determined that it’s automotive division was facing a serious number of challenges cited as “low sales volumes, a limited number of models in its line-up, unfavorable foreign exchange rates, the high costs associated with growing and maintaining an automotive distribution system in the continental U.S. and the disproportionally high and increasing costs associated with stringent state and federal regulatory requirements unique to the U.S. market.” In short, Americans never took to Suzuki like they did with other Japanese manufactures, such as Honda and Toyota.

Any type of mobile marketing strategy requires presenting information in small “bites.”  When it comes to advertising to auto consumers, whether they are researching vehicles or actively shopping inventory, the vehicle information presented needs to be optimized to the mobile experience.  

 Creating an experience that can support inventory or generic vehicle search, research or comparison for a mobile visitor is a difficult task.  There are a large variety of vehicles and brand out there.  In addition, there many different valuable features and options that can be installed on these vehicle.  These can be key drivers in the consideration and purchase and must be included in a successful mobile approach.  These factors all contribute to make displaying the necessary detail to power mobile research and shopping solutions for perspective car buyers is a significant challenge.