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]

It's just a fact of life in the automotive world: listening is essential!  One of the key things we stress when training our Certified Female Friendly clients is developing great communication skills.  Too often, when a woman visits a car dealer, tire dealer, service center or other automotive retail location, she is interrupted, talked over, […] [Read More]

A new global survey from Accenture of 10,000 consumers found that 80 percent of drivers in the market for a new vehicle are using some form of digital technology to research before purchasing, while almost two-thirds (62 percent) are beginning the car-buying process online before entering a store. Another sign the car purchase process is […] [Read More]

The typical franchised dealership increased its service and parts sales by more than 5 percent in 2014, and average net profit for this department climbed for the second straight year, according to NADA Data 2014. Meanwhile, total service and parts sales for all franchised dealers was a combined $91.73 billion last year, well above the sub-$80 billion […] [Read More]

Despite advancements by women in many businesses, the automotive industry continues to be mired in gender imbalance. Certainly, advancements have been made in the last 10 years, but there is still plenty of room for further change.  Automobile dealers can and should continue to step up and be leaders of change to create a more […] [Read More]

There were three primary factors behind what KeyBanc Capital Markets believes to be a rosy outlook for earnings growth in the retail car business over the next couple of years: strong used-car sales, strong parts and service sales and the current dealership acquisition trends. Based on analysis provided in KeyBanc’s report from its most recent […] [Read More]