Method and system for automobile transactions

• US 6,041,310 A
• Filed: 12/12/1996
• Issued: 03/21/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Green Ford, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Green Ford, Inc.
• Inventors: Salquero, George J., Green, H. Dean, Lang, deceased, Lowell
• Primary Examiner(s): MacDonald, Allen R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Patel, Jagdish
• Application Number:
  US08/764,541
• Time in Patent Office: 1,195 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/1, 707/104
• US Class Current: 705/26.41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and system for facilitating a transaction between a customer and an automobile dealership. The system includes a kiosk including an input/display terminal and a terminal processor for formulating a multilevel customer query of automobile inventory. The query searches a storage device containing automobile data and images to return a selected inventory to the input/display device. The practice of the invention includes storing customer data, selected inventory information for later access by a marketing follow-up application and a financing and insurance application.

Claims

1. An on-site system for facilitating an automobile transaction for a customer comprising:

a) an input/display terminal adapted to form a multilevel customer query and to display responses thereto, the terminal including a terminal processor, wherein the terminal processor is adapted to create a link between the customer and a salesperson assigned to that customer;

b) a data server adapted to route a customer query from the input/display terminal to a storage device containing customer data, automobile inventory data, vehicle images, and video files, wherein the storage device is adapted to communicate to the input/display device via the data server a selected inventory responsive to the customer query;

c) a communications device for making a customer-initiated contact with the linked sales person from the input/display terminal via the data server.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a printer for printing information relating to at least one automobile from the selected inventory.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising an interface between the storage device and an automobile check-in system wherein the interface updates the inventory data to include data relating to newly acquired automobiles as the newly acquired automobiles are received.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the selected inventory is comprised of a minimum number of vehicles from the current automobile inventory.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising an interface between the storage device and a financing and insurance application,

wherein the financing and insurance application is adapted to extract customer data and selected inventory information to determine exact monthly payments for the lease/purchase of an automobile from the selected inventory.

6. A method for facilitating an automobile purchase transaction between a customer and an automobile dealership comprising:

a) assigning a linked sales person to the customer;

b) providing a customer transaction kiosk including a display/input terminal and a terminal processor;

c) providing a storage device containing customer data, vehicle data, vehicle images, instructional audio, video, and a payment module;

d) creating a customer query containing parameters relating to a preferred automobile in the kiosk processor;

e) displaying a selected inventory at the input/display device; and

f) contacting the linked salesperson responsive to a customer-initiated request from the input/display device.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising storing the customer query and associated selected inventory in the storage device.

8. A method for facilitating an automobile purchase transaction between a customer and an automobile dealership comprising:

a) providing a customer input/display terminal, the terminal including a terminal processor;

b) providing a storage device in communication with the input/display device via a data server, the storage device containing customer data, vehicle data, vehicle images, video files, audio files and a payment module;

c) generating a primary multilevel customer query in the input/display terminal processor;

d) displaying a selected inventory if the primary query returns a minimum number of vehicles from the current inventory;

e) generating a secondary query for comparative vehicles having similar characteristics to those meeting the primary query without further customer input in the input/display terminal processor if the primary query fails to return a minimum number of vehicles;

f) displaying a selected inventory comprised of vehicles meeting the secondary query if the number of vehicles from the secondary query equals a minimum number of vehicles;

g) repeating steps e) and f) until the number of vehicles from the primary and the secondary query equals a minimum number of vehicles to be displayed.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the vehicle data is selected from the group consisting of model year, make, model, body style, color, stock number, VIN number, transmission type, engine type, location, mileage, price and vehicle features.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the vehicle images are keyed to the corresponding vehicle by a selected item of vehicle data.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the selected item of vehicle data is the VIN number.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising storing the primary and secondary queries and associated selected inventories for each customer in the storage device.

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising accessing the customer data and the selected inventory via the data server from a financing and insurance application to determine exact monthly payments for the lease/purchase of an automobile from the selected inventory.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein the secondary query is generated by deleting a query level from the primary query.

15. The method of claim 8 wherein the secondary query is generated by modifying at least one of the primary query levels.

16. A method for facilitating an automobile purchase transaction between a customer and an automobile dealership comprising:

a) providing a customer transaction kiosk including an input/display terminal and a terminal processor;

b) providing a data server adapted to route a customer query from the input/display terminal to a storage device containing customer data, vehicle data, vehicle images, video;

c) creating in the terminal processor a customer query containing parameters relating to a preferred automobile in the kiosk processor;

d) executing the customer query to identify a selected inventory wherein the selected inventory comprises a predetermined minimum number of selected items from the current inventory database and sufficient additional items outside the customer parameters to meet the minimum number if fewer than the minimum number exist in the inventory; and

e) displaying the selected inventory at the input/display device.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

a) displaying a list of available salespersons on the input/display device; and

b) contacting a customer-selected sales person from the list via a communications device.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

a) displaying a group of images of available sales persons; and

b) contacting a customer-selected sales person from the group via a communications device.

19. A method for facilitating an automobile purchase transaction between a customer and an automobile dealership comprising:

a) providing a customer input/display device;

b) providing a storage device in communication with the input/display device via a data server, the storage device containing customer data, vehicle data, vehicle images, video files, and audio files;

c) generating a multilevel customer query in the input/display device;

d) playing an audio instruction before each level of the primary query is generated by the customer and playing an audio confirmation after each level is generated; and

e) displaying a selected inventory.

20. A method for facilitating an automobile purchase transaction between a customer and an automobile dealership comprising:

a) providing a customer transaction kiosk including an input/display terminal and a terminal processor;

b) providing a data server adapted to route a customer query from the input/display terminal to a storage device containing customer data, vehicle data, vehicle images, and video;

c) creating a customer query containing parameters relating to a preferred automobile in the kiosk processor;

d) displaying a selected inventory at the input/display device;

e) storing the customer query and selected inventory; and

f) accessing the customer data, customer query and the selected inventory via the data server from a financing and insurance application to determine exact monthly payments for the lease/purchase of an automobile from the selected inventory.

21. A method for facilitating an automobile purchase transaction between a customer and an automobile dealership comprising:

a) assigning a linked sales person to the customer;

b) providing a customer transaction terminal including a input/display terminal and a terminal processor;

c) providing a storage device containing customer data, vehicle data, vehicle images, instructional audio, video and a payment module;

d) creating a multilevel customer query containing parameters relating to a preferred automobile in the terminal processor;

e) executing the customer query to identify a selected inventory comprised of a predetermined minimum number of selected items from the current inventory database and sufficient additional items outside the customer parameters to meet the minimum number if fewer than the minimum number exist in the inventory;

f) displaying the selected inventory at the input/display device;

g) contacting the linked salesperson responsive to a customer-initiated request from the input/display terminal; and

h) storing the customer query and selected inventory in the storage device.

22. A system for facilitating an automobile transaction for a customer comprising:

a) an input/display terminal adapted to form a customer query, the terminal including a terminal processor, wherein the terminal processor is adapted to create a link between the customer and a salesperson assigned to that customer;

b) a data server adapted to route the customer query from the input/display terminal to a storage device, wherein the storage device is adapted to communicate to the input/display terminal via the data server a selected inventory responsive to the customer query; and

c) a communications device connected to the data server for making a customer-initiated contact with the sales person using the link between the customer and the sales person.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the storage device contains customer data, automobile inventory data, vehicle images, audio files and video files.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein the storage device contains automobile inventory data, vehicle images, audio files and video files and wherein the terminal processor further comprises a storage device containing customer data and video files.

25. A system for facilitating an automobile transaction for a customer comprising:

a) an input/display device adapted to form a customer query containing parameters relating to a preferred automobile;

b) a storage device containing automobile inventory data; and

c) a data server adapted to route a customer query from the input/display device to the storage device, to execute the customer query so as to create a selected inventory by determining whether a predetermined minimum number of automobiles from the inventory data meet the parameters and adding additional automobiles outside the parameters if fewer than the minimum number exist in the inventory data, and to communicate to the input/display device the selected inventory.

26. A system for facilitating an automobile purchase transaction between a customer and an automobile dealership comprising:

a) a customer transaction kiosk including an input/display terminal and a terminal processor;

b) a storage device containing customer data, current inventory data, vehicle images, audio files and video files; and

c) a data server adapted to route a customer query from the input/display terminal to the storage device;

to create a customer query containing parameters relating to a preferred automobile in the kiosk processor;

to execute the customer query and create a selected inventory by determining whether a predetermined minimum number of inventory items meet the parameters and adding at least one additional item outside the parameters if fewer than the minimum number exist in the inventory; and

to display the selected inventory at the input/display terminal.

27. A system for facilitating an automobile purchase transaction between a customer and an automobile dealership comprising:

a) a customer input/display device;

b) a storage device in communication with the input/display device, the storage device containing customer data, vehicle data, vehicle images, video files, and audio files;

c) a data server in communication with the input/display device and the storage device for generating a multilevel customer query in the input/display device, playing an audio instruction before each level of the query is generated by the customer, playing an audio confirmation after each level is generated; and

displaying a selected inventory.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein the customer data and the video files are stored in a storage device contained in the input/display device.

29. A system for facilitating an automobile purchase transaction between a customer and an automobile dealership comprising:

a) a customer transaction kiosk including an input/display terminal and a terminal processor;

b) a storage device containing customer data, vehicle data, vehicle images, and video;

c) a data server adapted for creating a customer query containing parameters relating to a preferred automobile;

routing the customer query to the storage device;

displaying a selected inventory at the input/display device;

storing the customer query and selected inventory; and

d) an interface between the data server and a financing and insurance application for determining exact monthly payments for the lease/purchase of an automobile from the selected inventory using the stored customer query and selected inventory information.

30. A system for facilitating an automobile transaction for a customer comprising:

a) an input/display terminal adapted to form a multilevel customer query and to display responses thereto, the terminal including a terminal processor, wherein the terminal processor is adapted to create a link between the customer and a salesperson assigned to that customer;

b) a storage device containing inventory data;

c) a data server adapted to route a customer query from the input/display terminal to the storage device, and to communicate to the input/display device a selected inventory responsive to the customer query, wherein the selected inventory is comprised of a minimum number of vehicles from the current automobile inventory;

d) an interface between the storage device and an automobile check-in system for updating the inventory data to include data relating to newly acquired automobiles as the newly acquired automobiles are received;

e) an interface between the storage device and a financing and insurance application, wherein the financing and insurance application is adapted to extract customer data and selected inventory information from the storage device to determine exact monthly payments for the lease/purchase of an automobile from the selected inventory;

f) a communications device connected to the data server for making a customer-initiated contact with the sales person using the link between the customer and the sales person.

31. The system of claim 30 further comprising a printer for printing information relating to at least one automobile from the selected inventory.

32. The system of claim 30 wherein the selected inventory comprises a minimum number of selected automobiles from the automobile inventory to include additional automobiles outside customer parameters if fewer than the minimum number of automobiles meeting customer parameters exist in the inventory.