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.  

One day many, many years ago someone got the idea to jump on the back of a horse and ride it rather then walk everywhere they needed to go.  Not long after, someone else got the idea that they too would like to ride rather then walk.  However, they decided that they would rather steal a horse then pay for their own.  From that moment forward, while what we are ride has changed from horses, to wagons to motorized vehicles, one thing has remained constant:  A small group of people have been motivated to steal peoples rides, while owners have been motivated to find ways to protect their investment.

If you read our recent article on Fiat’s move to install an on-board espresso maker into the 500L, you might be thinking that automakers have run out of A-List ideas of vehicle options to improve sales. Well, we’re happy to announce that GM has not moved to the B-List yet.

Most of us were probably oblivious to what we were putting into our fuel tanks the first time we filled up on E10 Gasohol. In most circumstances, there wasn’t much cause for alarm. The government is now giving the green light to E15, a decision some feel might have been made on inconclusive data. This article cuts through the debate, and tells you what consumers should know about E15 as of right now.

In our VIN Decoding 101 series of articles, we have focused on which vehicles are required to have 17-digit VIN numbers assigned and what data is and is not captured within the VIN.  We have seen that country of sale, vehicle segment and type, model year, and manufacturer all play a big role in the usefulness of VIN decoding and the type and depth of vehicle details the VIN will encode.  For many applications, a basic VIN decode, one that decodes only what is encoded in the VIN, will provide all the details that your business needs.  However, there are also many common VIN decoder applications where there is a need and substantial benefits for more detail, as much as possible.  How can this need be met?

 Can the Civic drive Honda’s New Vehicle Sales in the Short and Long Term?

Though 80% of Honda vehicles sold in the U.S. are manufactured domestically, Honda’s position in the US market was shaken by last year’s catastrophic earthquake and tsunami.  Not only did it cripple Japanese auto production, it resulted in shorted supply lines that US production depended on.   As a result, in 2011 Honda lost significant US market share and were almost passed by Hyundai in total US vehicle sales.  On a model level Honda saw their flagship model Accord fall from 4^th to 9^th while the Civic and CR-V fell out of the top ten US bestselling vehicles for 2011. 

Since 2006, California has maintained legislature to ban driving and texting. The penalties for being caught texting or otherwise touching or using your phone while driving are steep. 

NHSTA to Deploy Fleet of 2800 V2V-Ready Vehicles This Summer.

Most new vehicle technologies, including even safety features, are introduced as premium options on luxury vehicles.  In the case of safety features these gradually become available to lower priced vehicle segments as it becomes more mainstream.  However, the exception to this rule happens when regulations are put in place that require new technology be installed on new vehicles from a certain date forward.  Based on the NHTSA’s interest in Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) technology and possible safety benefits it may become one of those exceptions before too long.

As we explained in our article "VIN-to-Trim/Style Matching Explained", VINs often are not encoded with enough information to determine a single vehicle style. This means that important details such as MSRP, MPG, and certain standard installed equipment may not known based on the VIN alone. If you're working with DMS data, there's a good chance that you have additional, valuable data at your disposal that you can use along with the VIN to decode down to a single vehicle style.

I was reading an interesting article on-line today about Apple's sales in 2011.  It noted that Mac sales are rising fast and that 2011 was the best year ever for Mac sales.  "Somewhat interesting, I guess", you say.  But hear is the interesting part: In 2011 alone Apple sold more iOS devices then it has sold Macs over their 28 year existence. Granted Macs have not been the most popular computer over the years but the fact that iOS devices outsold 28 years of the Mac in a single year is pretty remarkable.  It is just further evidence that mobile is not the next big thing, it has become the current big thing and only is continuing to grow.