An electric vehicle’s sustained performance for weekly shopping activity at Kelley’s Blue Book’s Kbb.com is leaving the model with momentum going into an important West Coast auto show. Leading the way on the most recent Hot Car Report from Kbb.com was the 2011 Nissan LEAF. Site analysts determined among all models, the LEAF’s activity level […] [Read More]

When it comes to how the vehicles of tomorrow are designed, consumers are most concerned with attributes regarding unintended acceleration and fuel economy improvement, according to RDA Group’s 2010 Auto-Ideation Study. The study, which was unveiled this week, delves into the top 500 needs consumers want automakers to handle as they build future vehicles. [Read More]

Automotive Resources International has rolled a new flexible closed-end leasing program that it says it geared toward executive fleets, organizations in the process of stopping a vehicle-reimbursement program and companies that want to trim their chances of unexpected lease costs. [Read More]

During October, the proportion of vehicle transactions that were leases climbed to more than 27 percent, according to CNW Market Research, which said the automaker leading the way as far as leasing penetration upswings was Toyota Leases commanded 27.6 percent of the market in October, compared with 26.9 percent in September. Meanwhile, 6.6 percent of transactions were cash […] [Read More]

As Chrysler officials reported gains in third-quarter operating profit, the domestic automaker joined Ford Wednesday in denouncing the passage of a free trade agreement between the U.S. and Korea as it was written back in 2007. Both companies described Korea as one of the most closed automotive markets in the world. And both Chrysler and […] [Read More]

The National Automobile Dealers Association described a recent decision by the Internal Revenue Service as a “major victory for car and truck dealers.” NADA shared Wednesday that the IRS has created uniform capitalization safe harbor methods of accounting. The association thinks these methods should favorably resolve several contentious and potentially costly income tax issues that […] [Read More]

AOL Autos recently unveiled its list of what it considers to be the 20 best deals for November.  The site broke it down by vehicle segment, spotlighting models in the following classes: SUVs, pickups, compact cars, fashion statement vehicles and midsize cars. SUVs Ford Explorer [Read More]

In light of the disparity found when comparing economic optimism within the “business side” of things to the level of optimism (or lack thereof) among consumers, NADA Used Car Guide executive automotive analyst Jonathan Banks suggested that the used-vehicle market is experiencing somewhat of a “dichotomy.” [Read More]

Supporting the strong October sales performance previously revealed by Autodata, analysts from AutoTrader.com indicated Wednesday that the average asking prices for certified pre-owned vehicles showed significant improvement. As opposed to September, when prices dipped for 15 out of 20 most-searched CPO vehicles on a year-over-year comparison, the site determined prices increased for 14 of the […] [Read More]

One of the key presentations at the CPO Forum earlier this week was with Arianne Walker, of J.D. Power and Associates, who discussed her company’s 2010 Used Vehicle Market. She told the many dealers and other industry executives in attendance that the new-vehicle and used-vehicle markets are closely tied together. As the new-vehicle market has […] [Read More]