CarMax has chosen a new chief marketing officer and senior vice president, hiring Jim Lyski for the job, whose accolades include promoting The Scotts Miracle-Gro brand. The move is effective immediately, and Lyski now will be responsible for directing and managing all of the company’s marketing functions, including consumer insights and strategic direction, brand, creative, digital, […] [Read More]

There were 20 different brands represented among the more than three dozen segment category winners in the second annual Vincentric Best Certified Pre-Owned Value in America awards released earlier this week. That’s up from 17 different brands in last year’s inaugural list, but the key here, says Vincentric president David Wurster, is to compare this […] [Read More]

Last week’s second quarter conference call with Penske Automotive Group resonated several commonalities with other public dealer groups in the country, primarily the continued search for qualified automotive technicians. The group’s chairman and chief executive officer, Roger Penske, noted that although his company is not as affected by recent recalls, with only 4 percent of their […] [Read More]

The Ford Motor Co. will host its 2014 Ford Neighborhood Awards for the eighth consecutive time this weekend. For the first time in Atlanta, the ceremony, hosted by Steve Harvey, will continue its tradition of honoring local leaders and organizations for their contributions to their neighborhoods. For the second year, a $30,000 check will be given for the […] [Read More]

The Big 3 beat year-ago certified pre-owned sales by nearly 13 percent in July, and all continuous brands saw their numbers rise year-over-year, most by double-digit percentages. That’s according to Autodata Corp.’s preliminary data set sent on Tuesday, which indicated that domestics moved 69,231 CPO units in July. That was good for a 12.7-percent rise from […] [Read More]

The certified pre-owned programs among many import automakers fared well in July — European-brand CPO sales were up 20.6 percent year-over-year, and Asian brands climbed 3.6 percent, according to Autodata Corp. — but one particular trio of brands enjoyed their strongest months of all time. Autodata said in its preliminary set of data released Tuesday […] [Read More]

Reinsurance provider SideCars announced this week the launch of SideKick, its new online reinsurance software platform for dealers. The software, which is cloud-based, allows dealers to monitor their reinsurance companies online by giving access to limited warranties, service contracts, GAP insurance, collateral protection and business risks including cession statements, financial statements, tax returns and more […] [Read More]

There was just a shade under 200,000 certified pre-owned sales in July, according to preliminary results released this morning from Autodata Corp., which said this monthly sales figure is more than a 9-percent year-over-year increase. Specifically, there were 199,950 CPO sales for the month, up 9.4 year-over-year but off 10.4 percent from June. This monthly figure […] [Read More]

This year’s Vincentric Best Certified Pre-Owned Value in America awards were unveiled this morning, and leading the pack among OEMs were Ford and Toyota, each of which were represented by their respective brands’ vehicles in seven segment CPO category awards. Named best CPO value passenger car brand once again was Honda, which also won the […] [Read More]

A start-up retail vehicle company aiming to serve the sell-by-owner and corporate fleet markets recently closed a $5 million equity capital transaction to push its expansion efforts. CarLotz highlighted this capital was raised from the company’s existing investors as well as funds from a small handful of investors and executives with experience in national multi-site […] [Read More]