As I'm sure any subscriber already knows, when not otherwise (and largely) reporting on the bad industry news of late (and therefore a real downer to read anyway) Automotive News regularly postulates dealer Internet "success" stories. In the following instance, patrons were treated to a tale including a 50% sales decrease for the last full quarter, an average website, a broken mini-site, plus (totally astronomical) Autobytel close-ratios from 1996 (???) as rationale for an honorable mention in the tangentially puffy piece "Dealer's use of Web turns Main St. into high-sales highway," penned by David Barkholz, appearing on page 3 (page 2 is a full-page Ford advertisement) of the 22 page January 4th, 2010 issue (of which 7 pages were full-page advertisements, 7 were full-pages of "2009 The Year In Photos," and 2 contained only classifieds - leaving just 6 pages of actual content, among which this story figured prominently).

The reason this article deserves attention is because if you don't take the time to fully read and contemplate / investigate the claims therein, your brain will most probably be tricked (yet again) into reassuring itself that the Internet and technology in general indeed remain the cure-all; seemingly out there working for some people like gangbusters, but somehow still not big medicine for you; and upon such realization another bout of self-flagellation likely ensues (as you've now been further conditioned to believe that the key to your company's rocket-ride must be no more than a matter of finding that elusive balance / combination of killer widgets and Internet services) and under such influence, in desperation, and against your better (prior) judgment, you decide to write that check to Allardyce T. Merriweather Virtual Thingamajig, Inc., after all - only to cancel the contract three months later because it turned out to be just another busted nostrum .

For an example of the aforementioned power of suggestion (or perhaps chicanery): a pollyannish investor over at Yahoo Finance interpreted the 1996 numbers as positive contemporaneous company news and was compelled to paraphrase (also link to) the "Nice article mentioning Autobytel" on YF's Autobytel (ABTL) messageboard. No matter the article's brief mention of the company related only anecdotal claims from 14 years ago. (The market was not fooled, however.)

The following is a reprint of a comment posted in response to the story:

There is nothing at all remarkable about the Team Hillsdale website, in fact it's much the same as every other dealer site out there. (By the way, the survey doesn't work.) As such, it is difficult to grasp just how their "use of [the] web" is generating any more conversions than the average dealer's. Furthermore, I was very surprised to find absolutely zero mention of the company's supposed specialization in outland sales; nor their return and delivery policies mentioned in the article - I thought such key features would have figured prominently on the site. And that "perky college girl" (neither new or innovative) does little to "coax customers back" as it is in reality, a nuisance.

I did notice, however, that a few Internet service companies were mentioned favorably, which leads me to believe that the story was nothing more than a vehicle by which to promote and proselytize Autonews' advertisers; the title being especially misleading, as with sales off by 50% for a full quarter and just 20 Internet deals per month, a "high-sales highway" this is not.

Also, jeepgeek.com does not even resolve; why was this empty, five-year-old domain even mentioned? How does "the webpage cannot be found" (displayed when visiting the site) constitute meritorious "use of [the] web."

I've chosen not to re-up my Autonews subscription due to BS pieces like this. Selling cars is about hard work, not bells and whistles or unsubstantiated / exaggerated claims of Internet innovation and success; and the sooner dealers realize, the sooner they can get back to simply selling cars instead of spinning their wheels and draining their checkbooks. Autonews is not doing dealers any favors by perpetuating the Internet (as panacea) myth.

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Internet / BDC reference