'Right to Repair' bill fails in
Massachusetts
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
The latest effort in a decade-long effort to require
automakers to turn over diagnostic and software
information to auto repair shops and others failed this
weekend.
The "Right to Repair" bill, which passed the
Massachusetts state Senate on July 6, failed to win
approval before the state House adjourned Saturday
night.
LAKE
SUCCESS, N.Y., Aug 02, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE)
-- DealerTrack, Inc., a subsidiary of
DealerTrack Holdings, Inc.
/quotes/comstock/15*!trak/quotes/nls/trak
(TRAK15.99,
-.00,
-0.02%) , a leading provider
of on-demand software and data solutions for
the U.S. automotive retail industry, today
announced that the number of active
financing sources connected to the
DealerTrack(R) network has reached 900.
"We're pleased
to have connected our 900th lender --
substantially more than other auto finance
networks," said Mark O'Neil, chairman and
chief executive officer of DealerTrack.
"Growth of the number of lenders on the
DealerTrack network has clearly accelerated
over the last year, reflecting the renewed
interest of lenders in the auto financing
market, as well as our continued success in
bringing regional banks and credit unions on
board. By providing dealers with free online
access to such a broad lender universe, we
are helping them sell more cars by expanding
their financing relationships."
More
Jerry RileyInvestigative
Reporter - ProAutoTalk.com
Dealerships Sued For
Craigslist Postings?
Have
you ever heard the old saying “What you
don't know can't hurt you" Well that's
not entirely true is it? Did you know
that if you are using software
downloaded to your dealerships computer
to post to Craigslist you are in direct
violation of
Craigslist TOU. To date there are
approximately. 473 Auto dealers breaking
the terms of use set by Craigslist
and they probably don't even know it.
When
you download a posting software package
to your dealerships computer you are
turning your dealership over to
companies that use your IP address to
post to craigslist. You are also giving
them access to other parts of your
computer as well i.e. your DMS.
Take time and read section 19. VIOLATION
OF TERMS AND LIQUIDATED DAMAGES.
Craigslist TOU. The minimum fine is
$100.00 and can go as high as $1000.00
depending on the offense. I don’t know
about you but even $100.00 per post gets
my attention.
Craigslist TOU is very clear in
section 6. it does not want
posting agents or chronological software
spamming its environment. Yes you are
using a posting agent if you hired a
company to secure your inventory so that
they can give you access to their
software that you download to your
dealerships computer so that their
software can use your IP address to post
and spam Craigslist. Why is this “IP”
thing so darn important? Because
Craigslist can automatically detect if
someone is posting your inventory “out
of region” In other words you can only
post to Craigslist from your area. This
is why the spammers must have you
install their “software” What the
software does is grants access to your
computer so the chronological software
can spam Craigslist with your inventory.
What is Chronological Software? It’s
software that runs on a timer and also
can read a
captcha(w)
This little device makes the process
spam.
several companies develop, offer, market
and distribute illegal software and
services designed to greatly facilitate
and amplify unauthorized and illegal
uses of Craigslist’s classified services
— at the expense of Craigslist and
legitimate Craigslist users.
ProAutoTalk.com called a couple
companies that offer Craigslist Posting
Services and both admitted to using such
device but could not state if it was
illegal or not. If I were them I
wouldn't admit that either. Do not
let anyone tell you they are not doing
the above scenario. It’s nearly
impossible to charge as little as some
of these companies charge and not use a
Black Cat Software. What makes no sense
to us is that dealers are paying a
Posting Agent/Service to Spam Craigslist
using their IP address giving the
dealership all the liability. So in
reality dealers are paying a third party
company to spam a FREE classified
listing platform so that they could open
themselves up to being sued for hundreds
of thousands of dollars.. What's wrong
with this picture?
Another problem you are going to run
into is that the majority of the
companies offering this solution are
legit companies like your data
providers. Over 30 data providers and
several auto dealer marketing companies
use a company out of Sunnyvale CA. The
Sunnyvale company white labels their
spamming software and resells it to what
they refer to as "Partners" A
perfect example of this is a major auto
dealer marketing firm out of San Ramon,
CA. A source that use to work with the
Sunnyvale Software Spamming Company
claims to have proof that The San Ramon
Company is using this banned software to
spam Craigslist and provided us with a
list of over 200 dealers using such a
solution. So why would a major
auto dealer marketing company put your
dealership at risk? Why are they using a
company like the one in Sunnyvale?
Money.
Think about it, 200 dealers times
$700.00; well you do the math.
So why doesn't Craig just shut them down?
Well, Craigslist has its own battles
going on but we were assured by Craig
himself that this is HIGH on his list to
do in 2011. Sources close to Craig’s
camp say that they have plans to change
the way you can post, especially
dealerships. By the way, in case you
were wondering; Yes, Craig knows who is
spamming his environment. They also know
what auto dealer is using companies that
use and abuse Chronological Software.
Here is the bigger picture in case you
missed it.. Let’s say you are one of the
473 dealers using this outlaw software
(This number may be higher this is
all we can trace) Craigslist finds
out you are spamming their platform
using this type of software. Craig can
sue you right? Right.. easily since he
has a track record of every car you
posted with the software from your
machine using your IP address.
The average dealership post 700
ads per month using Black Cat
Chronological Software so at the minimum
700 X $100 equals $70,000.00 the max
fine, if Craig wins, is $1000.00 per
post equaling $700,000.00 in fines not
including court cost, attorney fees,
your time etc. But wait
there’s more. He could, if he wanted
too, turn you over to the federal
government and report you to the spam
department
http://www.ftc.gov/spam and your
dealerships IP will be found on a Spam
list.
When your dealership is on a spam list
your IP is blacklisted. How bad is that?
Well every time you send an email to
someone it will go to spam. That's how
bad it is. You can check to
see if your IP address is being
blocked or reported here
Check my IP
You understand and agree
that sending unsolicited email
advertisements to craigslist email
addresses or through craigslist computer
systems, which is expressly prohibited
by these Terms, will use or cause to be
used servers located in California.
Any unauthorized use of craigslist
computer systems is a violation of these
Terms and certain federal and state
laws, including without limitation the
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18
U.S.C. § 1030 et seq.), Section 502 of
the California Penal Code and Section
17538.45 of the California Business and
Professions Code. Such violations may
subject the sender and his or her agents
to civil and criminal penalties.
More
Spamming, in case you didn’t know, is
against the law and not just any law,
it’s prohibited by Federal Law.
http://www.ftc.gov/spam
So why
don't you contact Craigslist and just
"Make A Deal" Maybe you can get Craig to
give you permission to use the software
by offering him money.
First of
all Craigslist and its founder Craig
Newmark are everything but motivated by
money. So good luck with that.
Craigslist is now in
more than 700 cities worldwide. More
than 50 million people visit the
site per month and they view more
than 20 billion pages per month,
Newmark said. Users have posted more
than 1.5 billion ads on the site
since its founding in 1995. Posting
on the site is free in most cases;
the site makes most of its money
from job postings Source
Inman News 07/13/2010
So what
should you do? First of all remove any
and all software that you have
downloaded from a third party to post to
Craigslist. ( This isn't easy they
make it hard to remove, get your IT
people to help you ) Secondly, Craig
wants you to post manually to
Craigslist, from your computer, so that
its fair to others posting to
Craigslist. Third, There's another old
saying: "If it sounds to good to be
true, it probably is"
Bottom
line: You can do whatever you want to do
as long as you are willing to pay the
consequences or Craigsequences.
Have
something to report about the automotive
industry? Send us a story to
investigate.
Comment
07/19/2010 By: ProAutoTalker
Comment: So we hired a
company that swears they do not access our
DMS and that the software is 100% Craigslist
compliant.
Powered By: ProAutoTalk.com
07/19/2010 By: Admin
Reply:
When they promised all this did they remember to
say "Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye" lol
Did you get this in writing? most of the companies doing this
type of work using
Chronological Software will not state in writing
that they will or will not. The agreements we found are very
vague .. usually states something like: "We will post to
classified platforms including craigslist etc" the end pay us.
Send your agreement to me let me look at it.
news@proautotalk.com
Attn: Jerry.
Powered By: ProAutoTalk.com
07/18/2010 By: ProAutoTalker
Comment: Not to mention the
violation is double, it's on the person who
is doing the posting "agent" and the dealer.
So it's a double whammy. I know HomeNet is
big into this type of blackhat stuff.
Comment: So what if you used
a Proxy Server? It looks like its coming
from that region and that should be good -
right? We hired a company that uses this
process and swears its Craigslist compliant.
Powered By: ProAutoTalk.com
07/18/2010 By: Admin
Reply:
Nope not good at all - you are still in violation
of
Craigslist TOU. Think about what you
just said. You are still cheating. You should contact a guy
named Tom Stokes that owns a online marketing company named
Inventory Blaster.
Ask him for a Compliant Craigslist Posting Solution. There are
only two companies that we have found that honors the
Craigslist TOU
Powered By: ProAutoTalk.com
07/18/2010 By: ProAutoTalker
Comment: I will tell you this
- Fact Craig Newmark does know who is
spamming his platform. You must be in some
third world country hiding under a rock to
think Craigslist can't track every ad you
post.
Comment: Thanks for the post
this is great information and I have
forwarded this to all my Ford Dealers in my
region. Anyone that downloads software to
their computer to post to Craigslist isn't
thinking very clearly. The rewards are not
worth the risk. @Jerry Riley - I met Craig
Newmark a long time ago, and you are right
he is not motivated by money. Period. He
really does everything he can to help his
follow man and country.
Comment: I think Craig is
probably waiting until 1000 auto dealers are
posting using the black cat software check
this out:
The Pitfalls of Craigslist and what to look
out for. Seems like Craig and Mr.
Jim are just waiting until the right time to
tap a dealer on the shoulder and say "hi"
I'm Craig and you owe me $250,000 for the
last two years of posting. LMAO but its
really not funny.
Powered By: ProAutoTalk.com
07/17/2010 By: ProAutoTalker
Comment: Is there any company
out there that can help post cars to
Craigslist and that's Craigslist compliant?
Thanks
Powered By: ProAutoTalk.com
07/17/2010 By: Admin
Reply:
There are a couple companies that offer a legit
posting solutions not just for Craigslist but for all platforms
- Check out
http://www.inventoryblaster.com again
Craigslist wants you to post from your computer and must be an
employee of the dealership.
Powered By: ProAutoTalk.com
07/12/2010
Google Acquires Metaweb
To Make Search Smarter
Google has
bought
semantic search startup
Metaweb,
according to recent post on the search giant’s
blog. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Metaweb
develops both semantic data storage
infrastructure for the web, and
Freebase,
an “open, shared database of the world’s
knowledge”. Freebase is a massive,
collaboratively edited database of cross-linked
data. The idea behind the product is to create a
system for building the semantic web. Freebase
allows anyone to contribute, structure, search,
copy and use data. It sounds like Wikipedia, but
instead of arranging by articles, it is more of
an almanac, organized like a database, and
readable by people and software. You can read
our previous coverage of Freebase
here.
Read more
07/10/2010
Chrysler to
offer Mopar
limited
edition of the Challenger
DETROIT
----- Chrysler Group will sell a special Mopar edition of the Dodge
Challenger sporty car starting in August.
The company will build 500 Mopar 2010 Challengers at its Brampton,
Ontario, plant.
Chrysler says the car, with a functional hood scoop, is the first Mopar
edition of one of its vehicles.
Mopar is Chrysler's service and parts
brand.
The automatic transmission version will be priced at $38,000, including
freight, while the manual-transmission version will sell for $39,000,
including freight. Both will be powered by Chrysler's 5.7-liter Hemi
V-8.
The car will be offered in black with three accent colors: blue, red or
silver. The accent colors will appear on side stripes and the
baseball-style stitching on the steering wheel and seats.
Customers will receive a special kit when they buy the car that includes
a certificate with the VIN number and date the car was built along with
a sketch of the vehicle by Chrysler Group designer Mark Trostle
Up to the minute Automotive News by: ProAutoTalk.com
Google to challenge Facebook with new social
networking service ‘Google Me’
Relaxnews
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
The web has erupted with a wave of rumors about
a new social networking service created by web
giant Google
. Bloggers are saying the service (which is
tentatively called "Google Me") will be in
direct competition with Facebook
.
The rumor went viral after Digg founder Kevin
Rose (@kevinrose) reportedly tweeted, "Ok, umm,
huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor
very soon "Google Me," very credible source" on
June 28.
Rose has since deleted the message but others
closely involved with Google have stepped in to
add fuel to the rumor fire.
More
"Uh I don't think this
will amount to much no
matter how many
engineers they put
behind this. Innovation
in this space has come
to a crawl. Plus I don't
really see Google being
able to add that human
touch. Google =
robotic…."
More Tweets Below
Car sales may top ‘conservative’ 11%
forecast for 2010
CAR SALES may top the official 11% growth
forecast for 2010 as stronger demand is usually
expected in the second semester, Chamber of
Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines,
Inc. (CAMPI) President Elizabeth H. Lee
yesterday said.
The industry may match the record high of
roughly 160,000 units seen in 1996 by yearend
instead of merely hitting the present goal of
147,000, Ms. Lee told reporters at the launch of
the upcoming Philippine International Motor Show
(PIMS).
Sales could also at least match the 18% growth
recorded in 2007 before the global downturn hit,
she said, meaning 156,284 units for 2010.
"I know 11% is conservative," Ms. Lee said,
referring to the group’s revised growth target
from the earlier 4% projection. That, however,
is the average figure that resulted from a poll
of CAMPI’s member firms’ outlooks, she added.
Car
sales have already risen by 36.6% to 66,958
units as of May from yearago levels, industry
data show. CAMPI has said this was due to
election-related spending and buyers replacing
their flood-damaged vehicles after tropical
storms hit in late 2009.
"Is [a higher 18% growth] possible? It’s
possible," Ms. Lee said, noting that
second-semester sales are usually stronger the
first’s.
"One hundred sixty thousand [units by yearend]
is what some are saying."
Ms.
Lee clarified, however, that the group’s
forecast would remain at 11% for the meantime.
"We will revise it as we go along," she said.
CAMPI, meanwhile, will be bringing back the PIMS
on August 19-22 at the World Trade Center in
Pasay City.
Ms. Lee, in a statement, claimed the third
staging of the event "is seen to further boost
sales particularly given the positive effect of
the relatively successful automated elections
that help boost both consumer and business
confidence."
"Factors that will continue to bolster vehicle
sales include aggressive financing packages,
making it easy and affordable for buyers to
purchase their vehicles; OFW (overseas Filipino
worker) remittances, the engine of consumption,
is expected to perform even better than last
year; and the positive business and consumer
confidence," she added.
The third PIMS will have as its theme "Drive the
Green Road" with automakers expected to showcase
fuel-efficient and alternative fuel-fed
vehicles.
CAMPI will also launch an environmental
protection awareness campaign called "My
Ride+Earth". -- Jessica Anne D. Hermosa
Chrysler Group made the wrong choice in deciding
to keep open one New York state dealership and
reject another, said an arbitrator who relied on
performance data for both stores. The
arbitration for Terry Chrysler-Jeep in Burnt
Hills, N.Y., may be the first in which
comparative operating data, including sales, was
used, said the Terry dealership's lawyer, John
Gentile. The data were unsealed last month by
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez.
Read More »
4:46 pm U.S. ET, June 14 2010
Chrysler Group made the wrong choice in deciding
to keep open one New York state dealership and
reject another, said an arbitrator who relied on
performance data for both stores. The
arbitration for Terry Chrysler-Jeep in Burnt
Hills, N.Y., may be the first in which
comparative operating data, including sales, was
used, said the Terry dealership's lawyer, John
Gentile. The data were unsealed last month by
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez. Read More
»
General Motors will keep
open about 900 dealerships across the
country that it had planned to close, a
shift in corporate strategy that could
preserve thousands of jobs.
At least two dealerships
have been reinstated in Utah.
The automaker will
wind up with about 5,000 U.S. dealers in
July, up from original plans for 4,100,
Mark Reuss, GM's North America
president, told The Associated Press. It
had about 6,000 when it filed for
bankruptcy last year.
The change represents
a desire by GM's new leadership team to
avoid the expense of ending dealership
agreements, a step they say is not
critical to bring the company back to
profitability.
GM's large dealer
network "used to be one of our main,
massive strengths," Reuss said. "I still
think that's true. It can be true with
the right dealers."
Craig Bickmore,
executive director of the New Car
Dealers
More
New iPhone4
The video-calling software, called
FaceTime, was announced by CEO Steve Jobs, in
accordance with his "one more thing" tradition
of revealing blockbuster technologies at the
very end of his keynote addresses at the annual
Worldwide Developers Conference
More
Almost all copiers made
since 2002 have a hard drive
buried inside, which stores
images of every document
that is scanned or copied.
A large majority of people
who have used copy machines
in public places, at a copy
shop or at work thought that
their privacy was ensured
and never knew that there is
a hard drive in the machine,
which keeps a permanent
image of everything they’re
doing
Student Protesting
Towing Company On
Facebook Sued For
$750,000
The AP
reports
that
Facebook is in the
process of rolling out
some new login
protection security
features that seek to
combat an unwanted user
hacking into one's
account. It's a specific
problem but a serious
one that needs to be
addressed, so it's good
they're getting to it
now.
You can
choose to be notified by
email or text message if
you're account has been
logged in from a new
computer or mobile
device, for one thing.
It might be annoying,
but if your account
isn't being abused, it
should be annoying very
rarely. Facebook is also
"adding roadblocks" to
suspicious actions like
simultaneous logins from
China and New York. In
that case, it might ask
you to confirm who you
are by actually using
the info already on your
account, like correctly
identifying tagged
friends (which is
actually kind of cool,
if you ignore that a
hacker will at least see
a picture of your
friends, even if it's
the ultimate stumbling
block to his taking over
your account).
There'll be a log of all
the times and places
you've logged in, so you
can make sure it was you
doing the logging in
every time.
Oddly,
this system is "opt-in,"
meaning by default it's
not enabled. You have to
dig through Facebook's
labyrinthine privacy
settings to turn it
on. This might be a
mistake, given how
complex and intimidating
Facebook's privacy
settings already are.
The
new features have
already started rolling
out to some users and
will continue to reach
more and more users
until the whole
400-million-strong
network is covered.
Dan Nosowitz, the author
of this post, can be
followed on Twitter,
corresponded with
via email, and stalked
in San Francisco (no
link for that
one--you'll have to do
the legwork yourself).
Toyota Falls From Top Spot, Boosting
Ford to No. 1 in All-New 'Automotive
Brand Indicator' Data From Kelley Blue
Book
IRVINE, Calif.,
May 6
/PRNewswire/ -- Kelley Blue Bookwww.kbb.com today announces the
latest results from the company's
all-new 'Automotive Brand Indicator' (ABI),
showing Toyota dropping from the top
spot among all brands to No. 2, boosting
Ford to No. 1 for Q1 2010.
Kelley Blue Book Market
Intelligence: Automotive
Brand Indicator (ABI)
Top Five Brand Rankings
Q4 2009
Q1 2010
1. Toyota
1. Ford
2. Ford
2. Toyota
3. Chevrolet
3. Chevrolet
4. Honda
4. Honda
5. Nissan
5. Nissan
The ABI is derived from four primary
components that are important in
determining brand performance based on
consumer attitudes and behaviors. The
Kelley Blue Book ABI combines brand
consideration data and perception
ratings on factors of importance from
Kelley Blue Book Market Intelligence's
Brand Watch™ study with new-car shopper
activity and leads data garnered from
the 15 million monthly visits to kbb.com,
and puts this information through a
rigorous analytics modeling process to
determine each brand's strength. more
Auto Dealer Saves The Day
PHOENIX - The widow of Lance Taylor, the man
who was killed for intervening in an attempted
beer theft, is getting an incredible gift.
Full Story
General Motors and its strategic
partner, Shanghai Automotive
Industry Corp. Group (SAIC), share a
common vision for addressing the
need for personal mobility through a
radical change in personal urban
transportation. They are exploring
several solutions for tomorrow’s
drivers. Among the most promising is
a new vehicle form called EN-V.
Social Media Marketing for
Auto Dealers
Inventory Blaster is a
leading provider of
automotive digital
marketing offering
dealer websites,
automotive lead
solutions and more. Our
automotive solutions
provide all aspects of
internet marketing for
your dealership.
Contact Us
Porsche demonstrated its
commitment to hybrid technology with the 918
Spyder concept, a car that boasts outlandish
specifications. The two-seater uses a plug-in
hybrid system comprised of two electric motors
coupled to a 3.4-liter V-8 racing engine. As a
parallel hybrid, the car can run on pure
electricity, just gas, or a combination of the
two.
96.7 WBAP FM was born on Monday morning as a
simulcast to the 820 AM you've know for decades.
It is a very exciting time for everyone at WBAP
including the CarGuy Show family. The truth is,
some people NEVER touch the AM dial and we think
many of those will find the CarGuy Show while
flipping around the dial on Saturday mornings
more
LAKE
SUCCESS, N.Y., Aug 02, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE)
-- DealerTrack, Inc., a subsidiary of
DealerTrack Holdings, Inc.
semantic search startup
Metaweb,
at $38,000, including
freight, while the manual-transmission version will sell for $39,000,
including freight. Both will be powered by Chrysler's 5.7-liter Hemi
V-8.
