Consumer reaction to gas prices is sending mixed signals to Kelley Blue Book. According to the latest Kelley Blue Book Market Intelligence survey, more than half — in fact, 66 percent — of new-vehicle shoppers have either changed their minds about which vehicle they are considering, or are thinking about vehicles they normally would not […] [Read More]

Who buys the “greenest” cars? Does the West Coast boast more eco-friendly drivers? Coinciding with yesterday’s celebration of Earth Day 2012, Cars.com aimed to answer these questions and more in releasing a list of U.S. cities with the most and least eco-friendly car shoppers. And the site found that based on their search for vehicles […] [Read More]

With gas prices high, more consumers are turning towards purchasing gas sippers like hybrids. However, dealers may have to fight harder to get hybrid buyers back into the store after their first purchase, according to recently released data from Edmunds.com Breaking the data down by 10 of the largest cities in the U.S., Edmunds.com found […] [Read More]

Lithia Motors shored up its floor plan resources on Thursday as the dealer group completed a new $650 million, five-year revolving syndicated credit facility with 10 institutions..  The group noted that the facility — which will expire in April 2017 — can be expanded to $800 million in total availability. Executives highlighted that the revolving […] [Read More]

As one conference panelist so succinctly put it, Canada’s used-vehicle industry may be in for a "helluva strong market."  And it appears the interest in the country’s used-car and remarketing industries is already there. Close to 500 dealers, remarketers and other Canadian auto business leaders poured into The Fairmont Royal York in Toronto recently for […] [Read More]

For Canadian dealer Larry Wright, his buy-here, pay-here offering started, essentially, as a solution to a financing problem. Wright — president of Wright Auto Sales, Inc., which has two dealerships in four locations — needed to get a group of customers from overseas financed, but he was running into complications. “RIM was our biggest customer […] [Read More]

In some perhaps not surprising news following the spike in fuel prices this spring, clean diesel automobile sales in the U.S. increased an impressive 35 percent during the first quarter of this year, according to information released Tuesday by HybridCars.Com and Baum and Associates.  And the two companies say this climb coincides with continuing strong […] [Read More]

The National Automobile Dealers Association revealed this week it has promoted one of its own to executive director of legislative affairs. Tapped for the position is current chief legislative counsel Michael Harrington.  In his new role, Harrington is responsible for managing NADA’s legislative staff and implementing the association’s legislative agenda, officials explained. [Read More]

Skip Pros — a subsidiary of Renovo Services — picked up two honors during the recent JP Morgan Chase & Co. vendor roundtable meeting. Skip Pros was awarded the Best Skip Company Award for its third-quarter performance as well as the Most Improved Skip Company for 2011.  “JP Morgan Chase has been a dedicated partner […] [Read More]

If recovery industry executives want to sharpen their skip-tracing skills, Alex Price often is one of the first experts called. As a result, Price has taken nearly 30 years of industry experience and created the Skip-Tracers National Certification Program. “What I basically did was take tried-and-true, old-school skip-tracing techniques and melded them with today’s technology […] [Read More]