The fact that lease penetration notched another all-time record last quarter, representing 33.6 percent of all new-car financing, didn’t come as a surprise to Experian Automotive. Leasing, along with used cars, has made more financial sense than buying new for many consumers, Experian said in an analysis accompanying its latest State of the Automotive Finance […] [Read More]

FORTUNE magazine recently released its 100 Best Companies to Work For and, as usual, several companies involved in the automotive industry made the list. These companies include the likes of ARI, Capital One Financial, CarMax, Credit Acceptance, JM Family Enterprises, and USAA. CarMax celebrates its 12th consecutive year on the list. “Our associates take pride […] [Read More]

Social media users are bombarded with advertisements and promotions — some obvious, some subtle. But in the automotive landscape, which manufacturers are doing it best? And what about offline, in perhaps the oldest form of promotion:  word of mouth? Engagement Labs, a technology and data company, set out to figure that out and released its findings […] [Read More]

The Motorlease Corporation announced at the beginning of March an internal promotion of one of its own to the position of business development manager. Moving up from the position of inside sales account executive is Dave Deslauriers, who will now be responsible for enhancing the company’s lead-generation and referral process, and delivering qualified sales leads […] [Read More]

ACA International is raising concerns in a new white paper about a recent report on the credit and collection industry that the organization claims to fail to properly contextualize the data it includes, leading to an incomplete picture of the industry and its practices. Officials explained the report titled, “Unfair, Deceptive, and Abusive: Debt Collectors […] [Read More]

In our urgency to get online inventory frontline ready, the importance of how we merchandise those vehicles can get lost. However, how you image inventory and the order in which you display those pictures online matters — especially if your goal is to sell cars, not just get clicks. In addition, also important is how […] [Read More]

After moderating a few Used Car Week conference sessions, I'm going to try my hand at moderating a webinar.  Fortunately for this first go-round, I’ve got a solid co-pilot: Tom Webb, chief economist of Cox Automotive. Tom is the type of source that journalists, particularly those of us in the auto business, love to interview. You […] [Read More]

Much like the dealer consignment side of the auction lane, you can expect commercial consignment to rise this year and next. According to a National Auto Auction Association forecast in Manheim’s 2016 Used Car Market Report, the drivers of the expected gains in commercial consignment are the spikes from prior years in new-car leases, outstanding […] [Read More]

How digital is the auto retail environment becoming? Consider this: OEMs are likely to launch approximately 100 new digital stores globally in 2016, says Lisa Whalen of Frost & Sullivan. In the firm’s 2016 Global Automotive Outlook webinar this past Tuesday, Whalen — a vice president and business unit leader with the company — shared a few trends […] [Read More]

Look for used-car sales to be well above 3 million units this month. At TrueCar, analysts are predicting a possible 3.27 million used sales for February, which would be a 4.5-percent dip from a year ago. Meanwhile, Edmunds.com is calling for 3.5 million used-car sales this month, with a resulting SAAR of 37.9 million. In […] [Read More]