Announcing the second relationship with an automaker in less than a week, Ally Financial forged a new alliance with Aston Martin The Americas on Friday by launching a closed ended lease and retail finance program to U.S. customers. Ally has been named the preferred financing source for the British luxury automaker and will offer its […] [Read More]

Reviews have literally changed the way consumers find your business, whether you’re a car dealership or a dentist. According to a survey by Dimensional Research, a staggering 90 percent of respondents said that a positive review influenced their purchase decision. More challenging for dealerships is the notion that the sheer number of reviews plays significantly in the […] [Read More]

Service provider WebRecon determined vehicle financing cases still only represented a small amount of the complaints recently sent to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. WebRecon chief executive officer Jack Gordon reviewed the regulator’s database and found the CFPB received 3,380 complaints associated with debt collection in February. While the total amount represented a 3.1-percent jump […] [Read More]

Based on projections from industry analysts released Monday, expect used-car sales for April to finish north of 3 million units. Edmunds.com is calling for approximately 3.2 million used-car sales for the month. Although this would be down from the 3.5 million used sales in March, the resulting used SAAR for April (36.7 million) would edge […] [Read More]

With Earth Day being commemorated on Wednesday, both Edmunds.com and Experian Automotive uncovered a wide array of trends associated with hybrid and electric vehicles — with much of the analysis showing the lack of appeal for these units as well as diminishing financing opportunities if the consumer even purchased one of these models. Edmunds determined […] [Read More]

Asbury Automotive Group’s management expects the retailer’s Q auto program to show run rate profitability by the end of the year and said the standalone used-car outlet program is actually ahead of schedule on the financial side. In his early remarks during Tuesday’s first quarter earnings conference call, Asbury senior vice president and chief financial […] [Read More]

BellesLink founder Paul Kulas shared a statistic that skip-tracers and repossession agencies likely wouldn’t refute. Kulas said 76 percent of repo assignments contain inaccurate addresses. In light of that metric, BellesLink recently added six new databases to its skip-tracing platform, including: — Bankruptcy — Email Address by Name — Email Address by Demographic — Demographics […] [Read More]

AutoAlert, teaming with CreditMiner, has added additional sales opportunities for its users via the addition of credit soft pulls for service-not-sold records, allowing its dealer customers to provide solid qualifying offers to service customers that have not previously purchased a vehicle at their business. The credit soft pull, which does not require a prospect’s social […] [Read More]

With plenty of liquidity, the ability to generate cash and ideal financing conditions pushing buyers to make moves, KeyBanc Capital Markets says merger and acquisition activity in the dealership world “remains highly active.” So expect dealership acquisitions to continue, the company said, which along with robust used-car and parts and service sales should lead to […] [Read More]

When I attended my first Used Car Week convention in November 2012, one of the most enlightening sessions I covered for Auto Remarketing was the Women in Remarketing ceremony that took place the Thursday of that week. Looking back at the story I filed from Scottsdale, Ariz., there was one sage bit of advice from […] [Read More]