During the Q&A portion of Penske Automotive Group’s latest quarterly earnings call, chairman Rogers Penske was asked if his viewpoint on CarShop and CarSense had changed since the dealer group purchased the respective used-car standalone retailers.  “Yeah, it’s changed. I like it more,” Penske said with a laugh. “I think we’re very fortunate to get […] [Read More]

Sonic Automotive’s newest EchoPark used-car store in Colorado Springs, Colo., was “cash positive” in its third month of operation — about six months ahead of when the company’s initial EchoPark stores reached cash positive positions, said Sonic president Scott Smith. “EchoPark results were in line with expectations,” Smith said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call […] [Read More]

CarMax chief operating officer Cliff Wood will retire by the end of next summer, the company said Monday. Taking on the COO role at that point will be Ed Hill, who has been CarMax’s executive vice president, strategy and business transformation since 2016. Wood has been with the company since 1993, when he was a […] [Read More]

The significant damage Hurricane Harvey left in Texas gave Group 1 Automotive the opportunity to watch new and used vehicles roll over the curb at daily sales rates during the last three weeks of September that “were the highest we have ever seen,” says president and chief executive officer Earl Hesterberg. During the dealer group’s third-quarter […] [Read More]

While contending with the ramifications of Hurricane Harvey, Group 1 Automotive watched its used-vehicle retail sales soften by 3.3 percent year-over-year during the third quarter. According to its financial report released on Thursday, Group 1 stores in the U.S. turned 26,304 used vehicles during Q3. That’s down from the 27,201 used vehicles that the company’s […] [Read More]

When Asbury Automotive Group announced in July that it was discontinuing the Q auto standalone used-car store business, leadership emphasized this did not mean Asbury was scaling back on used cars. Not by a long shot. “With our investments in digital technologies and lead management initiatives, we have reassessed our brick-and-mortar investment in Q auto […] [Read More]

Used-vehicle retail sales have continued tracking at an annual pace near 39 million units, according to a sales forecast released this week by Edmunds.  The company is projecting 3.2 million used-car sales for October, which would be even with September. The seasonally adjusted annualized rate for used sales in October would be 38.9 million units, […] [Read More]

Honda currently outpaces all brands when it comes to reliability, according to a new analysis based on real-world vehicle repair. Three of Honda’s most popular models — the CR-V, Civic and Accord — are among the top 10 most reliable cars on RepairPal.com’s recently introduced Reliability Rating that is based on vehicle repair orders from the […] [Read More]

ACE Rent A Car, Advantage Rent-A-Car, Mercedes-Benz and Fox Rent A Car are the top ranking retailers for customer loyalty, according to this year’s Temkin Loyalty Index, which examines the loyalty of 10,000 U.S. consumers to 329 companies across 20 different industries. The three rental car companies and luxury automaker outpace retailers of all other […] [Read More]

GPB Capital affiliate Capstone Automotive Group said Monday it now has a majority equity stake in Prime Motor Group. With the stake in Prime — which has more than 25 businesses throughout Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine — this marks Capstone’s first foray into New England. The acquisition also adds the Acura, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, […] [Read More]