After announcing its first batch of franchisees last month, Spiffy has officially opened its first franchise location. The debut franchise for Spiffy, an on-demand car care, technology, and services company, is in Wilmington, Del. The franchise will provide mobile maintenance services to Upper Chesapeake-area customers. Rick Crook is the owner of Spiffy’s first franchise, and he brings […] [Read More]

Cars.com has appointed Jenell Ross to its board of directors, noting that her 28 years of auto industry experience includes 11 years as president of Bob Ross Auto Group, a Buick-GMC and Mercedes-Benz dealership based in Ohio. Cars.com said Bob Ross Auto Group was the first U.S. African American-owned Mercedes-Benz dealer and added that Ross […] [Read More]

Chad Caswell is the new chief executive officer for connected-car platform Zubie, with Caswell saying he will work toward an increased focus on growing Zubie’s technology and software capabilities and leading the company’s growth in the rental and fleet markets. Caswell replaces former CEO Gary Tucker, who will become a consultant focused on strategy and […] [Read More]

Digital marketing technology company Orbee has appointed co-founder Atul Patel as its new chief executive officer. Patel, who recently served as the company’s chief operating officer, replaces Daniel Kim, who was the CEO since he co-founded the company with Patel. The company said Patel and Kim have worked together for the past five years to […] [Read More]

Jaguar Land Rover North America and SiriusXM are expanding the factory installation of SiriusXM’s audio entertainment service, and beginning with 2021-model year vehicles, SiriusXM is now a standard feature in all U.S. Jaguar and Land Rover models. Since 2004, Jaguar and Land Rover have worked together to deliver SiriusXM’s programming to Jaguar and Land Rover […] [Read More]

AI-powered digital assistant provider Carlabs.ai is using a new Dealer Direct platform to expand its offering to the almost 18,000 franchised U.S. dealers. CarLabs is an AWS Advanced Technology Partner conversational platform that allows consumers to interact directly with an automotive brand’s data and digital assets. That interaction takes place as if they were talking […] [Read More]

Recalls as a Service company AutoAp has hired Mark Allen as executive vice president, describing him as an automotive industry technology leader. Allen was most recently a senior vice president for publicly traded dealership management and retail systems and services provider, Quorum Information Systems. AutoAp, which provides safety recall services to help clients increase profitability, […] [Read More]

motormindz, an auto industry venture consultancy, said that through its new strategic partnership with Connected Strategy Advisors, the company will continue its presence as an automotive tech accelerator and use CSA’s knowledge to bring connected vehicle services to market faster. Connected Strategy Advisors is a Detroit-based advisory firm focused on connected cars and products, and […] [Read More]

Marketing executive Melanie Borden, one of Auto Remarketing's 2020 Women in Retail honorees, has joined LotLinx as vice president of marketing. Borden has worked in the automotive industry with public tech companies and private startups, and she was most recently with a New York dealer group. LotLinx said Borden joins the company at an important time […] [Read More]

A new product called the autoniq Retail Index provides dealers with live retail listing data within a 150-mile radius. The data includes average sale price, mileage and days on lot for vehicles of a specific year, make, model and trim. autoniq is a business unit of KAR Global. With the new product, available by subscription […] [Read More]