DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -

In the same month another large dealer group unveiled its mobile app, more than 50 Lithia Motors dealerships now have a tool to reach consumers through their smartphones.

Earlier today, DMEautomotive rolled out Driver Connect for Lithia stores, an app specifically targeted to help group dealerships solve the service “generation gap” and keep “next generation” customers engaged through its suite of personalized automotive tools.

Available on iPhone, iPad and Android devices, the Lithia-branded and customized app can allow consumers to browse new and used inventory, schedule service appointments, manage their vehicles service histories and receive targeted dealership alerts and offers.

According to recent research from DMEautomotive, dealership service customers are aging, while a new wave of wired, hard-researching, high-spending Generation Y individuals and Millennials are gravitating heavily toward aftermarket chains and increasingly communicating via mobile media.

Driver Connect was specifically developed by DMEautomotive to help attract and keep these customers, who the company thinks represent the lifeblood of a dealership’s service future.

“Clearly, our greatest challenge and biggest opportunity is reaching the ‘next gen’ service consumer — and one of the best ways to do that is with a mobile app that makes it easier for this critically important customer to engage — and stay engaged — with us. That app is DMEa’s Driver Connect, and we’re excited to provide it to our dealerships and dealership customers," said Ron Stoner, Lithia’s vice president of fixed operations.

“As our work with DMEa has shown, the service customer communication game has fundamentally changed. And, as the consumption of mobile apps spreads to older generations as well, the time is right to offer our customers this timely and convenient way to interact with our service centers,” Stoner continued.

Officials also highlighted the Lithia-branded Driver Connect app can help customers manage their vehicles’ complete service history and appointment scheduling on the fly. Customer vehicle histories are automatically pulled from the DMS so they can receive up-to-the-minute recall info and alerts, as well as 24/7-service appointment scheduling, which is automatically added to the mobile device calendar.

To keep customers using it on a daily basis, Lithia’s Driver Connect app also includes what the company believes are “cool tools,” such as:

—Find My Car with GPS functionality to help customers locate their vehicle anywhere.
—My Parking Meter, which can provide meter expiration alerts.
—Gas Station Locator, to find nearest, lowest-price gas stations.
—Find Local Parking.
—Flashlight, which is literally a flashlight.

Officials noted Flashlight apps are one of the most popular paid apps for iPhone and Android, but now are free to Lithia customers.

“Driver Connect keeps dealership customers servicing and buying, and enables Lithia to have one branded mobile app across all their stores so their customers can find rich, detailed info about every rooftop and all inventory,” DMEautomotive president Mike Walther stated.

“With Driver Connect’s super-targeted alerts based on a vehicle’s service lifecycle, and its popular ‘cool tools,’ Lithia will literally be at the fingertips of the next gen of tech-savvy service customers, while also keeping its current customers close at hand,” Walther went on to say.

The developments from Lithia and DMEautomotive came after Sonic Automotive launched its own mobile app earlier this month.

Sonic highlighted its iPhone app, Sonic Auto Search, is designed to guide consumers through an easy, yet comprehensive, search process to connect users to the vehicle and dealer that best fit their needs.

For more details about Sonic’s tool, Auto Remarketing’s report on it is available here.