Google “October surprise”, and the top results will all reference the political aspect.  For example, from Wikipedia: “… a news event deliberatively created or timed or sometimes occurring spontaneously to influence the outcome of an election …”.  From Kavanaugh, to caravans, to Khashoggi, to pipe bomb parcels, this October had more than its share.  But, […] [Read More]

Skeptics of the vehicle subscription model may, in fact, be right to pose questions about how the segment is addressing some very important concerns. Many of those questions came to light during a keynote presentation from auto industry consultant Maryann Keller at the Automotive Intelligence Summit in July, and later recapped in Part I and Part II […] [Read More]

Ally Financial has jumped into NASCAR, partnering with Hendrick Motorsports and linking up with one of the sport’s most recognizable and successful figures. Ally will be the primary sponsor of Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team for the entire 2019 and 2020 seasons. Johnson has won seven NASCAR Cup Series championships, tied with […] [Read More]

With the industry still sifting through units impacted by Hurricanes Florence and Michael, Carfax shared new information on Thursday, highlighting how many vehicles damaged by flooding remain operation. Compared to this point last year after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma hit the U.S., Carfax reported 478,000 flooded vehicles on the road; a figure that represents a 47-percent […] [Read More]

The brisk air and color-changing leaves may say otherwise, but October is looking a lot like September. Edmunds is predicting 3.3 million used-car sales this month, which is the same figure reached in September, based on its data set. The resulting used-car SAAR for the month is projected at 39.6 million – also on track […] [Read More]

The Germain Automotive Group has increased front-end gross per car by $300 since beta testing a new inventory management concept from Dale Pollak and the vAuto team at Cox Automotive. This new philosophy — and the data product behind it, called Profit Time — looks at inventory aging in a unique way, Pollack told nearly 200 […] [Read More]

As it turns out, dealers are more likely than the shoppers buying their cars to believe personal vehicle ownership will decrease drastically in the next five years. But does this mean that dealers are worried about the impact this will have on their business? Not necessarily. According to a study by Cox Automotive, the overwhelming majority […] [Read More]

It’s been more than a month since Hurricane Florence soaked the Carolinas and other locations in the Southeast. On Monday, Jumpstart Automotive Media uncovered more than a half dozen metrics and other trends through its post-Florence shopping analysis, pinpointing what types of vehicles are being considered and researched along the Southeastern coastal region of the […] [Read More]

Some used-vehicle dealers jack up the pricing on their fresh inventory to offset the lack of gross on their aged vehicles. Don’t do that. And don’t advertise your vehicles online without double-checking the pictures and descriptions, either. Unfortunately, those are just two of the many “don’ts” Jasen Rice has seen dealers commit since he started […] [Read More]

Market data can help car dealers make decisions around inventory. But they should be careful, as that data might not tell the whole story, says CarStory president and chief product officer Chad Bockius. In this episode of the Auto Remarketing Podcast and in CarStory's latest whitepaper, Bockius explains why. The whitepaper, titled "Avoid Being Average: […] [Read More]