More dealers are turning to used vehicles in the 5- to 7-year-old range costing between $10,000 and $15,000. That leads to a logical question: How can used-vehicle salespeople prove to customers these vehicles are good purchases?

“Right now, a lot of stores are slammed with a lot of work,” says fixed-operations veteran Lee Harkins.

New technology speeds service analysis and boosts profits while building customer confidence.

“It’s time for dealers to raise their hands and say, ‘We know about this,’” Liesl LaRouche says of electric-vehicle technology.

Mahle claims to be the world’s first supplier to enable independent workshops to perform battery diagnostics on EVs with the Mahle TechPRO diagnostic tool launched in March.

As customers keep their cars and trucks longer, dealership groups say they’re adding shifts and increasing service hours and, as always, working extra hard to recruit and retain technicians.

Both retail groups note a familiar pattern in fixed ops results as the industry recovers from the pandemic: higher customer-pay work as customers drive more, and doing more work customers had postponed.

Rapid Recon software allows dealers to monitor each step of reconditioning.

AutoAp alerts dealers to issues and allows them to collect OEM repair fees

GM Ventures and UVeye collaborate on vehicle-inspection-technology projects involving used-car auctions, fleet operations and dealership sales.