As the group’s used-vehicle sales jumped by 10.6 percent in the U.S., the segment of Group 1 Automotive’s business that shined brightest during the first quarter was the finance and insurance department. Delving into more U.S. results, F&I revenue jumped 13.3 percent while Group 1 established an F&I gross profit per unit record. That back-end gross […] [Read More]

Penske Automotive Group announced its earnings results for the first quarter of this year and held its quarterly conference call Tuesday. The company sold a total of 48,057 used retail units (U.S. and international) in the first quarter, representing a year-over-year increase of 6.7 percent.  Sharing more overall pre-owned results, Penske's used-vehicle revenue rose 6.8 percent year-over-year, up […] [Read More]

There’s one thing in particular that Will Amiri notices about buyers of certified pre-owned vehicles that may make them different than most used-car buyers. As part of our annual “Best CPO Dealers in the United States” special edition this winter, Auto Remarketing asked Amiri — the used-car director of Longo Toyota & Lexus — what […] [Read More]

Auction Direct USA is jumping into the certified pre-owned space.  It was announced Monday that Auction Direct USA, which is one of the largest independent used-car retailers in the U.S., has partnered with the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association and will be offering NIADA Certified Pre-Owned vehicles at its stores. “We couldn’t be more excited […] [Read More]

Lithia Motors president and chief executive officer Bryan DeBoer isn’t backing down from his objective that each of the group’s 130 dealerships in 14 states turn at least 75 used vehicles each month. In fact, DeBoer pointed to a pair of reasons as to why the company can see a lift from the average of […] [Read More]

MD Johnson, which provides guidance on purchase, sale, analysis, succession, valuation and restructuring of dealerships, recently helped to orchestrate the successful sale of BMW of Tri Cities from Tim Bush to Ralph Martinez. Officials indicated the dealership will remain named BMW of Tri Cities at its current state of the art facility off of Interstate 82 […] [Read More]

Porsche Financial Services announced Thursday its agreement with Safe-Guard Products International to offer a fully branded suite of Protection Plan Products through Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini dealers in the United States. Non-Porsche products for Bentley and Lamborghini pre-owned vehicles, at participating dealers, will use the QualityShield name as a non-branded private label program. “Safe-Guard is […] [Read More]

Texoma Hyundai of Sherman, Texas, ranked No. 1 in service customer satisfaction in the U.S. for 2014, marking the second year in a row the dealership was the national champion for the Hyundai brand. The store bested more than 820 Hyundai dealerships to notch the title. "We are proud of the service department at Texoma […] [Read More]

AutoNation hosted a conference call on Wednesday to recap its first-quarter performance, which was highlighted by a record Q1 earnings per share from continuing operations of $0.97, a 29-percent increase compared to 2014, as well as year-over-year net income gains and total revenue increases. But perhaps a more telling note was spoken by the company’s chairman, chief executive officer and president, Mike […] [Read More]

One figure appeared four different times when Lithia Motors reported the highest first-quarter adjusted net income in company history on Wednesday. Lithia enjoyed 11-percent increases in four major performance categories, including: — Used-vehicle retail same-store sales — New-vehicle same-store sales —Total same-store sales —Service, body and parts same-store sales The Q1 performance of those four […] [Read More]