Fiat now owns a quarter of Chrysler Group’s shares thanks to the automaker reaching the first performance-related metric in a series of three milestones detailed in Chrysler’s Operating Agreement, each of which automatically adds 5 percentage points to the stake owned by Fiat. [Read More]

Certified pre-owned sales closed 2010 with 10 consecutive months of year-over-year improvements and 13 brands posted full-year CPO records, as the certified market showed improvement from a sluggish 2009. According to statistics provided by Autodata Corp., the industry moved 1.64 million CPO units during 2010. While this marked a 7.1-percent year-over-year gain, the industry has […] [Read More]

Sparking what he believes will be double-digit percentage gains for new-vehicle sales, Paul Taylor, chief economist of the National Automobile Dealers Association, rattled off five factors he expects to ignite that growth. “The auto industry is coming back strong from what has been a difficult economy,” Taylor projected. “Auto sales are playing a key role […] [Read More]

The last year was certainly one of great transition for Saab Automobile AB, but company executives said Friday they are pleased with the progress the Swedish automaker has made since being purchased by Spyker Cars N.V. in February. For full-year 2010, Saab’s wholesale unit sales — defined by officials as revenue-generating sale to dealers — […] [Read More]

While it appears that the market “still has a long way to go,” the increase in Canadian new-vehicle sales during 2010 was stronger than what was expected going into the year, according to analyst Dennis DesRosiers. He attributes the sales uptick to the bevy of incentives offered from automakers.   [Read More]

Toyota scored a major legal victory this week when an arbitrator upheld the automaker’s claims against a former in-house attorney while also dismissing the man’s remaining claims against the car company. The arbitrator also issued a permanent injunction against Dimitrios Biller — the ex-employee involved in the case —and ordered that he pay damages totaling $2.6 […] [Read More]

Hertz Corp. recently expanded its partnership with the Allied Business Network to boost its Rent2Buy, an online used-vehicle sales program. The revamped partnership means ABN members, which include businesses, entrepreneurs and small business owners, can obtain a $100 discount on their vehicle purchased through Hertz Rent2Buy. As some may know, Hertz Rent2Buy works like this. A shopper […] [Read More]

Kia Motors America has teamed up with OneCommand to roll out a new service reminder program to help its dealer body bolster customer loyalty and service retention, while also trimming marketing costs. The Kia Owner Retention Experience — which is run by OneCommand and includes important aspects of the Kia Customer 360-degree Service Experience — can […] [Read More]

Auto Remarketing reached out to five industry analysts Wednesday to obtain their perspectives on how used-vehicles sales might behave in 2011. Each one pointed toward  toward positive gains in the industry stemming from factors such as a slowing improving economy, thawing credit availability, pent-up demand and new-vehicle sales on the move upward, too. Art Spinella, president […] [Read More]

Now that dealers have turned the page to a new year, the Pre-Owned Automobile Dealers Alliance is rolling out its first free Webinar of 2011 to get dealership management ready for the retail market ahead. The next installment of Pre-Owned: LIVE, titled “The Value of Front-Line Ready Vehicles,” is gathering a trio of industry experts […] [Read More]