Larry H. Miller Dealerships announced a chief financial officer appointment late last week, as another dealer group launched a sales drive for the month of March. Dean Fitzpatrick, president of Larry H. Miller Dealerships, named  Rourk Kemp CFO for the dealership group. Kemp previously served as vice president of finance for Miller Automotive Operations. In […] [Read More]

For their respective certified pre-owned programs, Hyundai and Volkswagen both celebrated their best February ever, and Mercedes-Benz pushed its CPO sales up 26 percent. These are just a few of the storylines that were developing in the certified market as automakers began reporting monthly CPO sales late last week. Starting with VW, its 7,301 certified […] [Read More]

Dick Hannah Dealerships gave away a brand-new car this month, as part of an annual project to give back to the community.   For the eighth year running, Dick Hannah Dealerships participated in the Valentine’s Day for CCA event held to raise money for children diagnosed with cancer and to benefit the Children’s Cancer Association. […] [Read More]

Joe Verde announced the winner of the sales and management training workshop package from Joe Verde Sales & Management Training stemming from a drawing held at the Best Training Day Ever on Feb. 8 in Orlando, Fla. The recipient was Patrick Sexton, general manager at Legacy Ford Hyundai in Rosenberg, Texas. Verde spoke at the […] [Read More]

The concept of your local Costco as a resource for car-buying in addition to being a market’s goods-in-bulk outlet is not a new one. In fact, the Costco Auto Program has been around in one iteration or another for more than two decades. But in the last few years, the program has expanded to include […] [Read More]

Dealers — particularly franchised stores — are expected to show growth in their used-car departments this month, but the same can’t be said for private-party sales, which are expected to fall nearly 10 percent year-over-year, according to CNW Research. The firm’s latest Retail Automotive Summary explains how changing consumer behavior and the dealer’s approach to […] [Read More]

Although down from last month's rate, February's seasonally adjusted annualized rate for used-vehicle sales is expected to stay above the 37 million mark, according to Edmunds.com, which put out a forecast for monthly new- and used-car sales late last week. Specifically, Edmunds anticipates there will be 3.35 million used sales this month, versus 3.12 million […] [Read More]

Last week I mentioned dealers who expressed less optimism than their peers about a strong used-vehicle market this coming spring. These dealers were saying things like: “I’m taking every used vehicle deal I can. I’m not holding out for gross because I believe the supply will be there to replace it. I’m trying to get […] [Read More]

Along with sharing their perspective on Chrysler’s stair-step incentive program, Lithia Motors’ top executives joined the parade of large publicly traded groups answering questions about their acquisition strategies. In Lithia’s case, president and chief executive officer Bryan DeBoer said the company’s dealership footprint is going to have to grow in order to achieve its revenue […] [Read More]

When Auto Remarketing talked to Sonic Automotive’s Jeff Dyke this past summer about the retailer’s new inventory tool, the executive vice president of operations said the Sonic Inventory Management System would “change our whole company.” At the time, SIMS was being used by a third of Sonic’s dealers. The group finished moving all of its […] [Read More]