As the retail auto world braces itself for the impact of tariffs on new-car sales, AutoNation sees used-car sales as a potential cushion against that impact, but supply remains a challenge, its executives said on the auto retailer’s first quarter earnings call. Used is an area that is less impacted by tariffs, AutoNation CEO Mike Manley said, so it is an area of ... [Read More]

News watchers who have seen continuous coverage of government-imposed tariffs didn’t get much of a break during Sonic Automotive’s first quarter 2025 earnings call last week. Sonic’s chairman and CEO David Smith said in his opening comments of the earnings call that the company is still dealing with the “uncertainty” of the tariff situation. Tariffs, along with the strong performance of Sonic’s used-vehicle business, EchoPark, received a great deal of discussion time during the earnings call, and the topics of tariffs and EchoPark ... [Read More]

Lithia and Driveway’s used-car segment had a strong first quarter highlighted by robust sales in what the auto retailer characterizes as “value” units. “Used autos are foundational to our model and we expect to see ongoing positive trends in the quarters ahead,” said Bryan DeBoer, Lithia’s president and CEO, during the earnings call. Used-vehicle sales in the first quarter ... [Read More]

The merger of XLerate Group and America’s Auto Auction — announced in late 2021 and completed in early 2022 — to form what’s now known as America’s Group was “about more than just a business transaction,” CEO Chuck Tapp says. “It was an opportunity to create a more robust, capable network that would ultimately serve our customers better,” Tapp said in a news release earlier this year. “Our goal was to build a stronger company that could not only meet the demands of today’s automotive market but also adapt to its evolving needs.” Some 40 months into that merger, America’s Group has ... [Read More]

A customer buys a car from a franchise dealership. They take the car back to the dealership for service during the new-car warranty period. And that might last about four years, give or take And then?  Here comes an “enormous drop-off in retention” ... [Read More]

When it comes to leasing, it has been well documented that electric vehicles have bucked the overall industry trend in recent years: EV leases are rising, while overall leasing numbers have dropped. In fact, 31% of new EV transactions in 2023 were leases, according to Experian’s Q4 2024 State of the Automotive Finance Market report, […] [Read More]

As the tariff era begins, perhaps the two biggest concerns for the overall used-car market, now and down the road, are rising prices and the dwindling supply of off-lease cars. To which used electric vehicles say, “What, me worry?” As used wholesale prices begin to creep upward thanks to rising demand coupled with diminished supply, used EVs represent ... [Read More]

Dining at a restaurant. Attending a concert. Going to school. Storing your furniture and other belongings. Buying a car. These are activities that have traditionally been, and still largely are, done in person. But digitization has improved some of the processes around these events, leading to more enjoyable, or at least easier, experiences. That improvement-by-digitization has been a common thread in the career of Matthew Crawford, who has been chief product and innovation officer at Cars Commerce since January 2022 ... [Read More]

With a 25% tariff on imported autos in place, much of the focus has been on its effect on vehicle prices. But the supply of vehicle inventory, already an issue in the used-car sector, looms as a factor in both the short and long term. In 2024, used supply sank 8% year-over-year to end the year 28% below pre-pandemic levels, and in its original 2025 forecast, Cox Automotive projected that trend to continue as the impact of COVID-induced slowdowns in new-vehicle sales and production ripples through the used-car market. And that was before tariffs became a thing ... [Read More]

CarMax is seeing a lot of momentum in its business. Just ask the company’s president and CEO, Bill Nash. He and others said the word, “momentum,” several times during the company’s fourth quarter fiscal year 2025 earnings release conference call. In fact, he used the word three times in one sentence during the Q&A portion of the earnings call. “We expect that momentum that we’ve been seeing for the last three quarters, we’re coming into the year very strong, and we’ve got some good momentum, and we would expect to continue that momentum ...” Nash said. Earlier in the call, Nash provided examples of that momentum, noting that digital tools and enhancements have ... [Read More]