Audi Winnipeg finds a temporary home

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This article was published 28/04/2017 (3390 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With construction on the Audi Winnipeg facility at its new Seasons of Tuxedo site still several months away from completion, the dealership has decided not to wait to make a permanent presence in the neighbourhood. On May 3 Manitoba’s only Audi store will join 100 other retailers at the new Outlet Collection Winnipeg, located on Sterling Lyon Parkway.

The interim Audi store will mark the first time in Winnipeg an auto dealership will be operating out of a shopping mall. The mall location will run simultaneously with the current Audi Winnipeg store on Century Street. Both locations will be closed when the new store is completed. The current Audi store shares a building with its sister store, St. James Volkswagen, which will ultimately expand into the Audi side.

The 3,000-square-foot Audi outlet location will have room to display four vehicles, says Audi Winnipeg general sales manager Rory Egan. There will be Audi experts on hand to introduce customers to the models on display. Customers will also be able to configure their Audis online at the outlet. Some boutique Audi-branded merchandise will also be available at the mall outlet.

The new store is expected to be completed by early next year. At just over 76,000 square feet, the new facility will be double the size of the current Audi store. The showroom will be able to accommodate 12 new vehicles with an eight car service drive-through attached. There will also be a customized Audi Sport display area for performance vehicles.

Also on the main floor will be two ultramodern customer lounges (and kids’ play area) stocked with fresh pastries and refreshments, 14 service bays, six detail bays, a dedicated new car delivery centre, an external drive-thru car wash system and an express service lane for oil and tire changes.

The new store will also have a 28,000-square-foot basement with three dedicated detail bays and a redelivery area for vehicles that have been brought in for servicing.

Upstairs, there will a fully digitized room where customers will have a platform desk with which to build their own Audi models and view 3-D images of the model they build in real time.

 

TradeRev expands its reach

 

TradeRev recently announced a series of exclusive relationships with some of the country’s largest dealer groups. The agreements were signed in partnership with ADESA, a 50-per cent stakeholder in TradeRev and business unit of KAR Auction Services. The arrangements make ADESA the exclusive physical auction partner and TradeRev’s mobile app the exclusive online remarketing tool for these large, geographically diverse dealerships. The groups represent more than 100 dealerships across Canada and will add tens of thousands of vehicles to the inventory available through TradeRev’s broad network of buyer and seller dealers.

“We’re tremendously proud to have earned the trust and confidence of some of Canada’s largest, most successful and most technologically sophisticated dealer groups,” said Mark Endras, TradeRev CEO and co-founder in a press release. “This is a big step forward for our company, our mobile app solution and the wholesale used-car industry in Canada.”

TradeRev is an innovative tech startup focused on streamlining automotive sales between dealers. The company was founded by Endras in 2009. Its technology builds transparency and convenience into every automotive transaction by placing live, real-time bidding auctions into the palm of dealers’ hands. The intuitive, easy-to-use mobile app provides a fast, efficient and accurate way to obtain true market value for trade-ins and used-vehicle inventory. With the added volume of vehicles from these agreements, dealers will have increased access to a broader range of used vehicles that fit their unique dealer profile and business model.

Mercedes-Benz Canada was one of the first dealers in Manitoba to have signed onto TradeRev’s app.

“We started using TradeRev’s app a couple of years ago,” Mercedes-Benz Winnipeg’s general sales manager Roger Man says. “It allows you to quickly get a valuation for a car before we take it in on a trade-in (although, he adds, the dealership is no longer wholesaling vehicles to a great extent). And with the app, you can get an offer online for the vehicle within an hour.”

TradeRev’s CEO wants to let readers know that his company has two new dealer plans available. The Pro Plan ($199 per month) is for high-volume dealers. The new subscription-based service guarantees payment in just 48 hours, reduces launch fees and introduces TradeRev Payday, a new incentive that allows dealers to earn money back as specific sales milestones are met. Dealers also get a new, easier-to-use billing process and advanced research tools (ADESA Market Guide).

The Standard Plan allows lower-volume dealers and/or new users to test-drive TradeRev’s real-time car auction technology free of charge as well as access the easier-to-use billing process.

“We’re pleased to introduce new customized plan options to better serve the diverse needs of TradeRev’s mobile app users,” Endras says. “Thousands of Canadian dealers rely on our real-time car auction technology and their feedback and input led the design of our new Pro and Standard plans. Both plans simplify the billing process, making it faster and easier for dealers to get true market value for their trade-ins.”

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