After car sales, manufacturing, repair and other key pieces of automotive were found to be essential businesses in a guidance update from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency on Friday, it begs this question: Would the wholesale and auto auction industry be included? “I think it's still open to interpretation, but […] [Read More]

I, like you, have been reading numerous articles about fear gripping the automotive industry. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, fear is running rampant. Fear has gripped our industry and many other industries right now, and the last time I checked, fear has never led to positive outcomes. It’s very easy to get caught up in […] [Read More]

Kristin Kolodge says J.D. Power is “concerned for automakers.” Kolodge, who is executive director of driver interaction & human machine interface research for the company, says automakers are moving forward with technology such as self-driving and battery-electric vehicles, “that consumers seem to have little interest in.” Kolodge was commenting about J.D. Power’s 2020 Q1 Mobility […] [Read More]

People are sheltering in place across the country because of COVID-19. But Matt Schmitz notes that many of those people are making a brief escape from their homes and hitting the roads. “Our research shows that people just need a break from the daily monotony, and cars are serving as a safe, personal retreat for […] [Read More]

As the company’s chief executive officer shared his five broad perspectives about the ongoing economic crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic, Ally Financial also offered more details about how it’s worked with dealer clients. During the company’s quarterly conference call with investors on Monday morning, Ally Financial chief financial officer Jennifer LaClair said 72% of […] [Read More]

It’s no secret that in looking at various surveys and studies on vehicle reliability, Toyota and Honda usually stand out. Those automakers also stand out in affordability. That is according to iSeeCars’ most recent study, which is titled “Best Affordable Used Cars” and lists “reliable and safe used cars" by price and segment. But other […] [Read More]

Recent Auto Remarketing reports chronicled the swift declines in wholesale activities at auctions and the softening of vehicle retail sales at dealerships. The data science team at Womply, a software and API company serving small businesses and app developers, looked to quantify the impact of COVID-19 on segments of the automotive industry that might be used […] [Read More]

Used-car inventory levels at dealerships in the major cities most impacted by COVID-19 are, for the most part, climbing — including a big spike to begin April. That’s according to a data analysis from CarStory, which continues to track the auto market effects from the pandemic throughout the country, including the most heavily affected cities […] [Read More]

Based on auto industry analyses, a rough March for used-vehicle sales appears to have spilled over into April, and as PureCars says in its latest COVID-19 report, dealers are “facing obvious headwinds” in pre-owned. But, some silver linings: the dive in used- and new-car sales appear to have hit its trough, according to Cox Automotive. And […] [Read More]

Fitch Ratings offered some sobering assessments of current dealership finances on Monday when revising its dealer floorplan (DFP) asset-backed securities (ABS) performance outlook, mentioning some of the same unprecedented conditions dealer groups and principals now are facing as vAuto founder Dale Pollak did in an open letter posted on Good Friday. Fitch revised this particular […] [Read More]