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FordDirect Drives 9% of Ford Retail Sales
NEW ORLEANS -- Ford, Lincoln and Mercury dealers sold more than 210,000 vehicles from FordDirect Internet referrals last year, and sales of from these referrals accounted for 9% of total Ford Division sales in 2004, Steve Lyons, Ford Division president, announced at the National Automobile Dealers Association Convention here.FordDirect was founded in August 2000 by the Ford National Dealer Council to create an online presence that leverages the collective strength of Ford Division with the distribution channel of the local dealer. Launched in New Jersey with just 15 dealers and a handful of Internet referrals, today FordDirect has over 3,900 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury dealers voluntarily participating nationwide. Local dealers include Fred Martin Ford, Austintown; Crown Ford Lincoln Mercury, Warren; A.J. Loudon Co., Salem; and Preston Ford Inc., Sharon, Pa.FordDirect offers marketing services that help dealers capture the online market and get their new and used inventory in front of millions of Internet shoppers each month. FordDirect has built an extensive web presence on all major automotive portals, search engines and content sites and has more than 3.5 million monthly visitors to FordDirect.com. Last year, the company delivered dealers more than 1.5 million referrals on new vehicles alone."FordDirect gives Ford dealers a competitive advantage," said Bill Keith, dealer principal at Freehold Ford. "We are the only dealer-initiated and controlled joint venture in the industry and this model is clearly working."JD Power's "2004 Dealer Satisfaction with Online Buying Services" recently ranked FordDirect highest in lead quality, ease of uploading inventory, amount of contact with dealership and dealer gross profit per-vehicle-sold from FordDirect leads. FordDirect, headquartered in Dearborn, Mich., is the only dealer-manufacturer partnership in the industry, Lyons said.Visit FordDirect: www.forddirect.com"