KAR Auction Services chief economist Tom Kontos spent the past few days poring over data and information that he’s encountered in connection with Hurricane Harvey; a storm meteorologists are calling a 1,000-year flood event. Kontos explained in a special edition of the Kontos Kommentary there are four primary considerations for the automotive industry to understand […] [Read More]

With Hurricane Irma remaining a dangerous storm, Manheim regional vice president for the Southeast Mark Ford shared an update on Wednesday afternoon regarding how the company plans to handle the storm projected to impact Florida as early as Friday. Ford indicated the following Manheim locations in Florida will be closed on Friday, including: Manheim Fort […] [Read More]

Entrepreneur and former auction industry executive Steve Simon has joined the board of directors at CARS Recon, the company announced this week. Simon was the founder and chief executive officer of the American Auto Auction Group, which was established in 2010 and then rebranded to XLerate Group in 2014. Simon, who retired in 2012, was […] [Read More]

As August closed and the quality of vehicles in the lanes deteriorated a bit, the new Black Book Market Insights report showed vehicle values didn’t soften quite as much as they had earlier in the month. Beginning with volume-weighted car data, editors determined that overall car segment values declined by 0.36 percent last week. In […] [Read More]

Auto Remarketing has learned that Greg Thibault, vice president of fleet disposal at Avis Budget Group, is retiring next month. Longtime dealer group executive Mark Zurales, who has been vice president of fleet remarketing since he joined Avis Budget in January, will take on Thibault’s duties (in addition to his current duties) once Thibault retires […] [Read More]

Vehicle transport and logistics provider United Road has been acquired by The Carlyle Group. Terms of Carlyle’s purchase of United Road from Charlesbank Capital Partners were not disclosed. The Carlyle Equity Opportunity Fund II provided the equity for the deal, which was announced Tuesday. Kathleen McCann will continue as chief executive officer of United Road, […] [Read More]

As part of CarMax Auctions Customer Appreciation Months for registered dealers, customers can look forward to upcoming events filled with catered meals and giveaways. Customer appreciation events are set to take place at each of the company’s 73 auction locations throughout September and October. CarMax Murrieta, the company’s largest auction facility on the West Coast, […] [Read More]

As passionate as Jim Hallett spoke about the ways KAR Auction Services is geared up to handle the wholesale market workload coming because of Hurricane Harvey, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer emphasized more than anything during an exclusive conversation with Auto Remarketing on Friday how the well-being of nearly 1,000 employees in the […] [Read More]

Cox Automotive chief economist Jonathan Smoke on Friday estimated vehicle losses caused by Hurricane Harvey to come in between $2.7 billion and $4.9 billion in the Houston market alone. While that projected figure includes dealerships’ used-vehicle inventory since those units are classified as vehicles in operation, Smoke indicated that loss figure could swell even more […] [Read More]

As auctions in the region continue to modify their businesses in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Black Book shared an estimation on Thursday morning that 500,000 to 1 million damaged vehicles will have to be replaced in the city of Houston and surrounding regions. The National Weather Service said on Wednesday that the storm dumped […] [Read More]