Recent data suggests that there may be a good bit of untapped potential for the car business to make some headway with trade-ins.  And that could start with educating the public.  Half of the respondents in a recent CarMax consumer survey said they had a firm grasp on how much their trade-in was worth. But more […] [Read More]

Used-car consumers buy service contracts because they understand their value to help offset future mechanical breakdown costs. Dealerships like customers to purchase VSCs because they help increase customer use of their service department. However, if you want more confidence that these customers will indeed return to your dealership for vehicle maintenance and repair — and […] [Read More]

Nearly a fifth of adults surveyed by SalesFuel said they would be buying a new vehicle in the next year. It’s not incentives that are driving them to dealer lots. And they're not choosing one store over another because of charity involvement.  According to the company’s annual AudienceSCAN survey and accompanying whitepaper, 27.3 percent plan […] [Read More]

Dogs: they’re an endearing bunch, aren’t they? Especially when they have the chance to jump in the car. An Autotrader survey released Friday — National Dog Day, by the way — found that dogs may be your wingman one minute, and have a mind of their own the next. (About a quarter of dog owners […] [Read More]

With leasing activity continuing to intensify, a quartet of experts from Moody’s Analytics devised elaborate formulas and explanations for how to structure residual values that might help captive finance companies, other institutions that provide vehicle leasing as well as other service providers involved with remarketing. The Moody’s team introduce a new model for forecasting the […] [Read More]

According to TransUnion’s latest Industry Insights Report, 20 states registered a delinquency rate higher than what analysts pegged as the overall reading for the second quarter. Analysts found that in Q2 of this year the auto delinquency rate connected to contracts 60 or more days past due increased to 1.11 percent, an 11-basis point rise […] [Read More]

Depending on whom you ask, the New England Patriots remind folks of a car with a whiny belt or a Tesla. There were no questions about deflated tires in the annual NFL & Cars Survey from Swapalease.com, but one would have to think the Pats would dominate that category, too. As it stands, New England […] [Read More]

Along with an analysis about how ongoing macroeconomic trends are pointing toward positive fortunes for dealerships, the team at KeyBanc Capital Markets attributed an upbeat conversation with Cox Automotive chief economist Tom Webb coupled with the July findings of its monthly dealer survey for producing such a “bullish” outlook. Before delving into the takeaways from […] [Read More]

An analysis by Vincentric LLC indicated that hybrids may be losing their competitive edge in the U.S. The company’s most recent U.S. Hybrid Analysis shows that seven of 29 hybrids it examined have lower total cost of ownership compared to their closest all-gasoline-powered counterpart. This represents a continued decrease in cost-effective hybrids, dropping from 44 […] [Read More]

Car buyers are getting more satisfaction, it seems, according to new data from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Consumer satisfaction with automobiles is up 3.8 percent to 82 on ACSI’s 100-point scale. And while luxury cars have dominated the driver satisfaction rankings for years, the top tier is now evenly split between mass market […] [Read More]