The Toyota Certified Used Vehicles program has grown with enhancements and additions over the years, but the members of the used-car department at Longo Toyota still “know the program, basically, inside and out” because they can be fully devoted to it, says pre-owned sales director Will Amiri. The veteran used-car staff members at Longo have […] [Read More]

Penske Automotive Group revealed today that it has acquired Savage BMW/MINI of Ontario, stores located in Ontario, Calif. Officials highlighted that Savage BMW/MINI of Ontario is ranked in the top 25 percent of BMW dealerships in the United States based on new-unit volume. Penske believes the acquired dealerships are expected to contribute approximately $125 million […] [Read More]

American Honda has issued a voluntary recall of some 268,000 CR-V vehicles in the U.S., due to a potentially faulty power-window master switch that has caused at least four vehicle fires. The recall affects CR-V vehicles of model years 2002-2006, for inspection and repair or replacement of the switch. In a corporate statement, Honda said, […] [Read More]

Improved marketing resources — in not one but two languages — is the goal of Strategic Marketing Alliance in announcing a new satellite office to open this quarter. SMA Alliance Inc. announced on Monday that it will open a satellite office in Tampa, Fla., in the fourth quarter of 2012, to focus on the company’s […] [Read More]

September’s certified pre-owned vehicle sales total — a performance that included new monthly all-time highs for Porsche and Mazda — helped to push the industry to the highest amount of units sold in a single quarter ever. Autodata Corp. reported on Thursday that September CPO sales came in at 154,702 — a figure that was […] [Read More]

Ontario residents will soon be seeing a new advertising campaign highlighting the dangers and consequences of distracted driving, thanks to the joint efforts of the Trillium Automobile Dealers Association and the Ontario Provincial Police Association. Officials insisted these “hard-hitting and thought-provoking” messages come at a time when the attention of many drivers is torn between […] [Read More]

Used-car shoppers in the Lone Star State can now take part in the Ultimate Test Drive program. Avis Budget Group this week announced the expansion of its Ultimate Test Drive car sales initiative to potential car buyers in the state of Texas. In collaboration with AutoNation, the program offers consumers a wide selection of late-model […] [Read More]

Driven by a combination of factors, including “pent-up demand and cheap credit,” the American International Automobile Dealers Association indicated September new-vehicle sales came in the highest since 2008. Unadjusted for business days, AIADA declared that sales for all brands climbed 14.5 percent from September of last year. Furthermore, the association pointed out that Autodata Corp. […] [Read More]

Even though transaction prices softened, CNW Research discovered that September represented a solid year-over-year used-vehicle sales gain as the total represented an 8.76-percent rise. All told, CNW tabulated that the used-vehicle sales totaled 3.81 million units in September, a figure representing what both franchised and independent dealers turned during the month, as well as private-party […] [Read More]

California buy-here, pay-here dealers will have more compliance procedures to maintain when Jan. 1 arrives, since two of the three bills aimed at changing how the industry operates were signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. But the measure Brown vetoed — a policy that would have created a hard interest-rate cap — is leaving the head […] [Read More]