Automotive market intelligence firm Polk has named a new director of market reporting solutions, choosing a former employee and Experian executive for the job. Polk, which was recently acquired by IHS Automotive, announced the appointment of Jeffrey Anderson has to the role, saying he will lead the company’s Loyalty Solutions and Loyalty Management practice. The […] [Read More]

Immediately after announcing the move that Dealertrack Technologies’ top executive contends will leave the company “positioned to transform automotive retailing,” dealers evidently gave Mark O’Neil their approval of the acquisition of Dealer.com in a deal approaching $1 billion. During a conference call less than two hours after the company made the acquisition announcement public while […] [Read More]

Late Thursday afternoon, Dealertrack Technologies announced it has reached a deal to acquire Dealer.com. The companies entered a definitive agreement, under which Dealertrack would purchase the entire equity of Dealer.com for about 8.7 million shares of Dealertrack common stock and $620 million cash. The deal is subject to customary post-closing adjustments, the companies said, and […] [Read More]

vAuto is officially entering the new-car market. The company said Wednesday it is launching an inventory management and pricing system for dealers’ new-car departments that aims to boost sales, profitability and transparency. Through this new tool — called Conquest — dealers have “a new way to win in new vehicles,” where they can simultaneously lift […] [Read More]

In what officials contend is a first by a major third-party automotive classified website, AutoTrader.com is launching a new feature that will alert vehicle shoppers via text or email when there are updates to saved vehicle listings or searches. Officials highlighted that when shoppers save a search or vehicle listing to their My AutoTrader account, […] [Read More]

While it might be that traditional advertising venues are where dealers go to reach consumers, here’s the interesting twist: digital is where consumers are trying to reach dealers. Hence, the biggest take-away from FordDirect’s latest Consumer Marketing Survey: dealers need to invest in digital. After all, that’s where the customers are, said FordDirect vice president […] [Read More]

Auto Master Systems, a software provider for buy-here, pay-here dealers, recently formed a systems integration partnership with iMETRIK Global for its vehicle loan tracking platform. Officials highlighted the partnership will provide Auto Master clients with a single interface to gather GPS asset tracking data. They contend this functionality will enable customers such as subprime lenders […] [Read More]

Walk into almost any auction across the country on sale day. You’re likely to see most dealers there looking at the phones as they go through the process of buying cars for their lot. That’s one example Black Book’s Mike Williams shares as he illustrates the mobile usage in the wholesale market by dealers, a […] [Read More]

TrueCar.com has more resources at its disposal thanks to $30 million of funding from Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital the site announced it raised on Thursday. TrueCar management indicated that it intends to use the funds to fuel market expansion, invest in product development and further build the site’s brand.  Officials noted this investment was made […] [Read More]

Once again last month, Ford was the most talked about brand throughout social media, widening its lead in overall online discussions even further. According to the November Social Buzz Report from Phoenix Marketing International’s Automotive Practice, Ford was talked about 1.3 million times on the Web this past month. In second place was Chevrolet, which […] [Read More]