When the American International Automobile Dealers Association gathers for its 49th annual meeting and luncheon in San Francisco in January, the group also will be honoring a member from the Golden State. AIADA plans to give the 2019 David F. Mungenast Sr. Lifetime Achievement Award to Dave Conant, a dealer from Newport Beach, Calif. The […] [Read More]

The CarLotz chain of used-car consignment stores has made another expansion, this time setting up shop in Texas. On Tuesday, the company announced a new location in San Antonio, continuing a 2018 growth pattern that has also included new stores in Florida and Illinois. CarLotz launched in 2011 in Virginia, eventually adding other locations in […] [Read More]

Earlier this month, AutoNation announced a partnership with used-car subscription provider Fair to potentially provide the dealer group’s customers “an alternative to traditional ownership” and drive used-car velocity. The partnership between AutoNation and Fair was set to roll out in California this month. In a news release on the deal, AutoNation chairman and chief executive […] [Read More]

Off Lease Only — among the Top 100 independent dealers highlighted this past summer in Auto Remarketing — is making its inventory of more than 6,500 vehicles easier to find in seven new online markets. Now customers who search for a specific vehicle via Cars.com will have Off Lease Only vehicles automatically pop up in […] [Read More]

Overall used-car retail sales were up slightly more than 5 percent year-over-year in the third quarter, with franchised dealers, in particular, increasing sales by 2.37 percent, according to a report from Edmunds. But certified pre-owned sales in Q3 dipped modestly (1.20 percent) from the year-ago period. These were just some of the data points shared […] [Read More]

Not since the high-flying days of Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith has Dallas … hosted the National Automobile Dealer Association convention. After a 28-year absence, Dallas will be the site of NADA Show in 2023, the association said Monday in a blog post. NADA held its annual convention there in 1995 and 1992. […] [Read More]

CarGurus is now a certified vendor in Jaguar Land Rover Retailer Marketing Program, making the online car marketplace a top recommended option for the automaker’s dealers for listings, search engine marketing and co-op programs. Jaguar Land Rover dealers can now tap into 100-percent co-op program reimbursement on all CarGurus products, with the reimbursement program being […] [Read More]

Jasen Rice learned well his lessons as an inventory performance manager for vAuto. He left that organization in 2013 to start Lotpop, a company providing online and on-lot inventory analysis and management services for smaller dealerships. Zach Klempf worked part-time at a dealership while attending Emory University. He “fell in love” with the business, but […] [Read More]

Rick Ricart is now the president of Ricart Automotive Group. He was previously the vice president and director of sales and marketing at the Columbus, Ohio dealer group. Ricart will be among the speakers at Used Car Week next week in Scottsdale, Ariz.  He will be a panelist on the Executive Suite: The View from the Top […] [Read More]

Lithia Motors and Shift Technologies will continue to operate separately, but their recently announced partnership creates a wide range of synergies, said Lithia president and chief executive Bryan DeBoer.   Lithia is keenly interested in Shift’s used-vehicle procurement technology, which is key to both companies’ growth strategies, DeBoer said.   Shift, based in San Francisco, […] [Read More]