Gas and wholesale pre-owned prices are falling as car buying season gets underway — a winning combination for dealers. And as the weather continues to warm as we approach summer, Kelly Blue Book’s manager of market intelligence and market analyst Arthur Henry said its “a good time to be a car enthusiast.” In fact, on […] [Read More]

When company leadership highlighted its first-quarter performance last week, Ally Financial discussed its objectives for continuing to work with Chrysler franchised dealers even though its exclusive agreement with the automaker expired on Tuesday. Ally Financial president Bill Muir acknowledged one of the biggest changes will be that the company no longer will arrange subvented leases […] [Read More]

NADA University extended the deadline to participate in the 2013 Dealership Workforce Study for a second time to accommodate many requests from dealer members. Now stores have until June 30 to participate. Officials from the National Automobile Dealers Association and American Truck Dealers reiterated this project is only study that compares a dealership’s compensation and […] [Read More]

As weather warmed, buyer interest for used vehicles on KBB.com focused in on Japanese automakers, with Honda and Toyota making up four of the top five most researched pre-owned vehicles on the site. Taking the No. 1 spot was the popular Honda Civic, followed by the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, respectively. In the No. […] [Read More]

Car-buying season: May through September. What will it bring for used dealers? On Thursday, Carfax reported that it is expecting 22.1 million used-car sales over the next few months. Interestingly, the company explained that history shows that more than half of all used cars sold this year will be bought in the next five months. [Read More]

To dealers, knowing what a customer is looking for in a car is a crucial aspect of the sales process. Based on the results of a recent survey, NADAguides.com discovered five of the most important attributes customers considered when shopping for a vehicle. The site discovered that  fuel economy, ownership cost, brand perception, safety and […] [Read More]

The Presidio Group’s Automotive Retail Buy-Sell Report reinforced why executives from Sonic Automotive, Lithia Motors and Penske Automotive Group talked about potential store acquisition so much recently. Report authors said lift in dealership buy-sell activity is being driven by a rising economy, higher dealership profits and attractive borrowing terms for dealership buyers. After the first […] [Read More]

What the finance company and automaker said was coming back in February became a reality on Wednesday as Santander Consumer USA and Chrysler Group officially launched its new private-label, full-service lending program. Chrysler Capital is designed to offer a broad spectrum of financing services for Chrysler customers and dealers. Under a 10-year, private-label agreement announced […] [Read More]

Edmonton-base dealership group Go Auto announced this week it has opened a new luxury location. The new store, Infiniti South Edmonton, complements the services of Ericksen Infiniti (located on the north side of the city), the company said. With this addition, the Western Canada Go Auto dealership group now has over 30 locations and an […] [Read More]

As its report highlighted the latest battle between popular vehicle segments, Dataium’s newest Automotive Shopper Intensity Index ticked up 0.14 percent in March. As a result, the aggregator of in-market automotive shopper behavior projected the U.S. retail new-vehicle SAAR in April to be 12.3 million units. In March, analysts found the truck, sedan and compact […] [Read More]