text: That's despite the NADA reporting 92% of all dealers have web sites now. But maintaining a web site is not the same as using the Internet as a key part of the sales process.
  Ward's e-Dealer 100 is a list of the dealers who are playing the game hard and playing to win. The Internet will not increase the total number of cars sold to consumers. What's changing is how dealers are interacting with customers to sell those cars.
  Manny Souza, Anderson Honda's Internet manager, says his incremental business — defined as customers coming from at least 15 miles away — increases about 3%-4% each month. Those are customers he is probably taking from a dealer without an active Internet presence.
  How are these dealers playing the game? First, the dealer must realize where the customer is — whether it's the showroom, the dealership's web site, the manufacturer's web site or the third-party referral sites.
  A Dohring Co. survey of consumers' car-buying habits says that 52% of American men intend to use the Internet for their next vehicle purchase. That compares to 32% last year. Thirty-eight percent of women, compared to 22% last year, say they'll do the same thing.
  Dohring's survey indicates that fewer people this year are using on-line buying services (20%) compared to last year (42%).
  However, Randy Rahe, vice president of e-commerce for AutoNation Inc., says AutoNation uses an array of third-party lead generators.
  “There is a place for them. The customers are looking there, and we need to be where customers are,” he says.
  About half of the dealers on the Ward's e-Dealer 100 list depend on the third-party sites for 50% or more of their leads while half depend on them for 50% or less. Yet every dealer on our list gets referrals from third party sites for at least some of their leads.
  In contrast, of all the dealers in the U.S., 53% say they use a third-party web site, according to a survey by Automotive Retailing Today.
  It's not just about getting those leads, though. As the profiles on the following pages show, it's what the dealer does with the lead that determines the sale. The Internet is a sales tool, not a member of the sales staff.
  Each of the top 100 dealers use sophisticated systems for responding to and tracking leads. What matters is what dealership personnel do with that technology.
  “It's the store process that is important,” says Dennis Rushing, Internet manager for McNamara Pontiac/Isuzu in Florida. “You have to leverage the technology you have. We're a small dealership without all of the resources, but because of our system, we're successful. It's about constant follow-up and fast response times.”
  Mr. Rikess reports that dealers able to contact customers three to five times before they enter the dealership will experience 85% closings among those customers.
  Vehicle sales don't occur without a franchised dealership's involvement. However, many consumers and the national media are unaware of who actually is selling or who can sell cars on-line. It's dealers.