The recent Iowa caucuses are in the books and it’s time to shift the political focus to Tuesday’s New Hampshire primaries. Similar to the tight legislative races vying for each party’s presidential nominations, the Edmunds.com data for New Hampshire shows that many of the state’s new-car buying tendencies are similar to the national averages. Let’s […] [Read More]

The Denver Broncos may have prevailed over the Carolina Panthers to clinch the Vince Lombardi Trophy this weekend, but there were many more competitors vying for viewer attention during Super Bowl 50. And as usual, the competition within the automotive space was particularly potent. Honda’s singing sheep did a fine rendition of Queen’s “Somebody to Love” while […] [Read More]

Franchised dealers have increased their used-car sales for six straight years, according to data from NADA cited in Manheim’s 2016 Used Car Market Report. But one caveat shouldn’t come as a surprise: Used margins are slimmer. In fact, the 25 straight quarters (through Q3) of increasing same-store used unit sales for the public dealership groups is […] [Read More]

Don’t expect to see a huge residual value impact from the decision to transition Scion to the Toyota brand. According to Eric Ibara, Kelley Blue Book’s director of residual values, Scion vehicles tend to hold their value better than others. But the challenge was from increased preference of utility vehicles over cars — something that […] [Read More]

Along with hiring an executive for a personnel role, CarGurus released a study this week identifying where consumers report the best vehicle-shopping experiences as measured by customer ratings of dealerships submitted to the site. Topping the list where shoppers gave the highest percentage of perfect five-star reviews when rating their dealership buying experiences was Nashville, […] [Read More]

The car whose late-model auction values showed the most positive change during the fourth quarter? According to a Kelley Blue Book analysis, it was an electric vehicle:  the Nissan LEAF. This took place, even amid gas prices that tumbled more than 14 percent. Specifically, KBB Auction Values on model-years 2012 through 2014 LEAF vehicles were up […] [Read More]

Collection solutions provider Harvest Strategy Group recently enhanced its senior leadership team with the addition of Jason Nesbit as vice president of business development. The company highlighted Nesbit’s more than 20 years in the ARM industry will enable Harvest to expand the reach of its services to new verticals within the industry and further enhance […] [Read More]

Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton? Donald Trump or Ted Cruz? These folks may be the current polling frontrunners in the state of Iowa, which was set to hold its caucuses Monday night, but the state’s frontrunners in the new automotive space are a bit clearer: They tend to buy American. A recent analysis of 2015 new-car registration data by […] [Read More]

It’s almost been three years since Santander Consumer USA began originating leases through Chrysler Capital in order for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to have a captive to move new metal. And with those vehicles about to come back to FCA dealerships, SCUSA chief executive officer Jason Kulas likes where the automaker and finance company currently stand. […] [Read More]

In his State of the Union Address, President Obama gave a shout-out to the auto industry, touting its best year ever. I’ve been cautiously optimistic about the return of the auto industry, but it got me thinking — can this resurgence last? U.S. automotive sales in 2015 were the highest on record with 17.5 million […] [Read More]