This month, our Tech Innovator is an unlikely recipient but worthy of the honor. This will be our first recipient that is not a software company, gadget inventor or an app designer. But technology plays a vital role in their business model and their astounding success.
TechBillow’s Innovator Of The Month for May 2019 is <drumroll please> AutoSource Motors, LLC. (AKA simply, AutoSource.) If you are unfamiliar with the name, then you are clearly not in the automotive industry; because AutoSource is the talk of the car business and is even the buzz in some corners of Wall Street.
While it’s true that AutoSource is a chain of used car dealerships, they are more than what they appear to be if you simply drove passed one of their numerous locations nationwide. (At publishing time, they have eight locations but rumors of new locations in the works are rampant)
What makes AutoSource so unique, such a hot topic in the auto industry and the reason they are being awarded our Innovator Of The Month is WHAT they sell and HOW they sell it.
At first glance, it would seem that AutoSource is just another large car dealership of brand new cars, or at the very least, very close to new, used cars. But there’s more there than meets the eye. AutoSource sells a very specific type of used car, a type you might never have even considered before now; they ONLY sell what has come to be known as “branded title” vehicles. Translation: any car that has had some sort of “incident” such as hail, water, collision, theft and other types of insurance claims.
Back in the day, these would have been referred to as “salvage” cars, but that term has been replaced by the more accurate term, “branded” because ‘salvage’ sounds like the car has been utterly destroyed, which is almost never the case with a branded title car. At least not in the case of our honoree, AutoSource.
Unlike the “old days” when damaged cars were often cobbled back together by a guy named Gus working out of a shed while wearing worn, blue overalls, today’s automotive rebuilders look like Scientists, working in high tech centers, armed with extraordinary technology. Using pinpoint accurate lasers, robotics, and even state of the art 3D software, modern auto rebuilders are able to return damaged vehicles to like-new condition, often even surpassing some factory specifications. The result is a like-new vehicle at a fraction of the retail price, but with all of the benefits of a new car.
AutoSource has also successfully partnered with multiple banks and financial institutions, thereby allowing buyers to get traditional financing at competitive rates. They have even added a free warranty to each vehicle. Their innovative approach to the car business has resulted in sales of tens of thousands of branded title cars, trucks, minivans and SUVs. They are clearly on to something here.
So while they may not have created the next big video game, authored the coolest new social media app or solved intergalactic commercial air travel, they have absolutely revolutionized the auto industry by reinventing the way people think about branded title vehicles. For these reasons, we are pleased to name AutoSource as TechBillow’s Innovator Of The Month for May, 2019!
