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]

Contact At Once has acquired the Direct Chat business of Outsell, and the companies also announced an agreement Wednesday in which they will integrate Contact at Once’s live chat software with Outsell’s Digital Engagement Platform for mutual customers. Outsell decided to “spin off” its Direct Chat unit in order to be able to put more […] [Read More]

Thanks to a new agreement announced on Wednesday between the companies, dealers and manufacturers will be able to include Carfax Vehicle History Reports with their used cars listed on Edmunds.com. An advantage for Carfax-using dealers is that when they are able to offer free reports as part of their used-car listings early next year, it […] [Read More]

Certain auto dealers could benefit from the real-time information exchange created by a newly-announced integration between two companies’ products. Early this week, Auto/Mate Dealership Systems announced its dealership management system is now integrated with Innovative Aftermarket System's suite of SmartDealerProducts for automotive dealerships. The company said dealers using both Auto/Mate's DMS and IAS' SmartDealerProducts solutions […] [Read More]