Less than five months after debuting the Q auto program in Tampa, Fla., another stand-alone used-car store from Asbury Automotive Group has officially opened, the retailer announced this morning. The second store under the Q auto brand is located in Jacksonville, Fla. The company is aiming for Q auto to be a “different approach to car […] [Read More]

I’ve discussed the various issues that are putting gross margins under pressure. Those factors aside, there’s another barrier that dealers have to contend with — the fact that consumers come to the dealership armed with more knowledge than ever. When the amateur knows more than the professionals on your lot, it’s difficult for salespeople to […] [Read More]

So far I’ve discussed two factors that are putting gross profit margins under pressure: market-based pricing and the impending increase in the supply of used cars. There’s a third element to this equation: the fact that dealers have fundamentally changed their pricing strategy without also changing their sales and marketing approach. That has led to a […] [Read More]

A little more than a week after Ford announced a formal recall of more than 850,000 midsize sedans, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration formally launched an investigation into another estimated 938,000 late-model vehicles from the Blue Oval. The investigation is connected with the Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ from the 2010 through 2012 model […] [Read More]

Larry H. Miller Toyota Murray, the flagship store for the dealer group of the same name, sold the group's 1.5 millionth vehicle recently. The store, open since May 1, 1979, sold the landmark car — a 2013 Toyota Corolla — to customers Bob and Betty Griffin, who purchased the vehicle for their daughter, Priscilla. “Our family […] [Read More]

With one import notching its seventh straight best-ever month, European and Asian-brand certified pre-owned programs both increased total CPO sales by double-digit percentages in September. According to Autodata Corp., there were 88,033 CPO vehicles sold by Asian brands last month, a 12.8-percent increase from September 2013.  Their year-to-date sales stand at 823,789, a 4.4-percent gain. […] [Read More]

Along with instructing dealers to halt deliveries of the automaker’s new midsize pickup trucks, General Motors made three more recall announcements on Thursday and Friday, raising its campaign total for the year to 71 and including more than 29.9 million units worldwide. On Friday, the two recalls to come from the automaker covered 379,401 cars and […] [Read More]

In my previous post I discussed why pre-owned profit margins are under pressure. The factors driving this trend include transparency from the Internet, market-based pricing, and rising overhead costs from new dealership buildings. And that’s not the bad news — the bad news is that the problem is only going to get worse over the […] [Read More]

Domestics continued what has been a strong year for certified pre-owned operations for the Big 3, increasing their combined September CPO sales by more than 25 percent year-over-year, according to Autodata Corp. More specifically, their dealers moved 67,526 certified vehicles during the month for a 25.1 percent hike, pushing the year-to-date sum to 612,560 CPO […] [Read More]

If one needs proof of the value that auto dealerships can potentially bring to the business community at large, just look at the announcement coming out of Berkshire Hathaway on Thursday — and the reaction it got from one of the top leaders of the remarketing business. Berkshire Hathaway — headed by one of the […] [Read More]