The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently released its semiannual report to Congress and contained within the nearly 200-page document are the top six debt-collection complaints the regulator received. Here is the percentage breakdown of those six grievance categories consumers reported to the bureau between April 1 and Sept. 30. CFPB officials indicated they received approximately 86,900 debt-collection […] [Read More]

Even as recently as a year or two ago, being able to transport a car to a customer in seven to 10 days was an ideal target. These days, however, that goal is more likely to fall in the three- to five-day range, depending on the distance the car is traveling, says Ready Auto Transport’s […] [Read More]

Two blockbuster dealer group acquisitions this year — Berkshire Hathaway’s purchase of the Van Tuyl Group, along with Lithia Motors buying DCH Auto Group — are proving to be game-changers on the mergers and acquisitions side of the retail auto business. As Erin Kerrigan, founder and managing director of Kerrigan Advisors, said in her firm’s […] [Read More]

Transaction prices were up in 14 of the 15 used-vehicle age groups in the latest quarterly data set from Edmunds.com. But that comes with one big Catch-22. In its Q3 2014 Used Vehicle Market Report, Edmunds said the “one downside to selling more expensive vehicles is longer lot times.” Analysts added, “This is especially true […] [Read More]

New-car sales have picked up nicely, lease returns are aplenty and franchised dealers are trading for more cars — all of which means more used supply entering the market and eventually giving independent dealers like Steve Matthews a boost in inventory. But for a while, that wasn’t the case, as many independents struggled to find […] [Read More]

The November 2014 issue of the NADA Used Car Guide's Perspective featured a retention review, outlining the value retention of several luxury vehicles that are either all-new or heavily revised for the 2014 model year. In the Retention Review, the NADA used retention calculation based on a three-month average (September through November of this year) of NADA’s […] [Read More]

Redesigns. Yes, this term is perhaps more exciting for the new-car market, but it seems waves of updated models impact the used market heavily, as well. In NADA Used Car Guide’s latest white paper, titled, “How Redesigns Affect Used Vehicle Prices,” analysts discovered redesigns can play a large role in how used values pan out […] [Read More]

Once final tallies are sorted, lease penetration figures for November are likely to shake out at a level similar to recent months, according to Kelley Blue Book senior analyst Alec Gutierrez, who said in a sales day conference call on Tuesday that leasing could end up with a share as high as 28 percent to […] [Read More]

Skip-tracers and private investigators who are instrumental in vehicle searches when the contract goes into default have more information than ever at their fingertips. But a new survey from TransUnion TLOxp found the top priorities for these industry players include privacy regulations and big-data management. The survey — which included more than 1,600 private investigators […] [Read More]

Today’s monthly payment driven consumers are keeping leasing levels on an upward trajectory, as Experian Automotive showed in its latest State of the Automotive Finance Market report. Analysts found that leasing accounted for 29.1 percent of all new-vehicle financing in the third quarter, up 7.1 percent from a year ago. And the latest level is […] [Read More]