Chase Auto's Urness finds gold in seeing family, colleagues, customers thrive
Monday, Sep. 16, 2024, 03:43 PM
Future of the dealership buy-sell market remains unclear
Wednesday, Sep. 11, 2024, 02:51 PM
How wholesale vehicle supply & prices are behaving through 8 months of year
Tuesday, Sep. 10, 2024, 01:42 PM
Premium Articles
Growth not quite as dramatic, but used EV sales continue to accelerate in both wholesale & retail markets
Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, 11:39 AM
Joe Overby, Senior Editor
The year-over-year growth isn’t quite as steep as it was in prior months, but used electric vehicles are still flying off dealership lots and auction yards, according to respective analyses from Cox Automotive and the National Auto Auction Association.
In its latest EV Market Monitor, Cox Automotive reported there were ... [Read More]
OPENLANE, ACV each post solid Q3 results, though inventory remains an issue
Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, 03:46 PM
Alysha Webb, Correspondent
Two online wholesale vehicle marketplaces had satisfying third-quarter results and touted their technological advantages as their strongpoints, with artificial intelligence looming large.
They continued to face inventory headwinds, however, and that's an issue that is expected to continue for at least several more quarters.
OPENLANE reported third quarter revenue of ... [Read More]
CPO vehicle supply more plentiful, but at higher average age
Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, 04:13 PM
Joe Overby, Senior Editor
Good news for dealers and consumers, alike: there are now more certified pre-owned vehicles available and they are also less expensive.
Not quite as good news: these CPO vehicles are older than usual, though their mileages haven’t increased dramatically.
That’s according to the latest Intelligence Report from CarGurus, which included a special spotlight on the certified vehicle market this month ... [Read More]
EV charger availability, vehicle AI among hot topics at Automotive USA 2024
Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, 03:06 PM
Arlena Sawyers, Correspondent
Many electric vehicle skeptics are reluctant to consider the purchase of an EV until the availability of chargers is equivalent to that of gasoline stations.
But that 1-to-1 ratio of charger availability to gas stations mindset tends to disappear among actual EV owners who live in single-family homes because many EV owners typically use EV home chargers to charge their vehicles overnight.
That’s noteworthy because 53% of Americans ... [Read More]
Off-lease volumes to spike in ‘complicated’ used EV market
Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, 03:04 PM
Joe Overby, Senior Editor
Some 215,000 electric vehicles are expected to come off lease in 2026, which would be a 230% year-over-year rise following an expected 2% decline in 2025, according to J.D. Power.
That’s part of what appears to be a “complicated” market for used EVs going forward — one that hinges on governmental policies, OEM decisions and other tentacles, the company said in its E-Vision Intelligence Report for October.
Driving this expected off-lease surge of EVs is ... [Read More]
A former ‘tech guy’ makes sharp career turn that leads to owning used-car dealership
Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, 02:08 PM
Arlena Sawyers, Correspondent
In 2012, Colin Li moved to Newark, N.J., from Hangzhou, China to study computer science with a career of goal of landing a computer programmer job with the likes of Microsoft or Google.
Today, Li holds a master’s degree in computer science from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and is currently pursuing an MBA at New York University on a part-time basis.
But his career path took a sharp turn ... [Read More]
Dealer group transforms with a North American focus
Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, 01:30 PM
Daryl Lubinsky, Correspondent
Dalton Motors operates 50 auto dealerships in Mexico and three in the United States. But if you ask the company’s CEO Juan Carlos Rodriguez Villava about the Mexico dealerships, he will tell you he likes to think of his company in different terms.
He elaborated on that as he talked about winning the International Dealer Group of the Year award, presented by Mach10 Automotive. The dealer group will be recognized at Used Car Week later this month.
“We like the name, ‘international,’ but we like more the name North America,” said Villava, who works out of the company’s dealership group in National City in southwestern San Diego County, Calif. “I was born and raised proudly in Mexico, schooled here in the U.S., also have some school in Canada, so I personally feel like there’s no better region in the world than North America, for those three countries as a region.”
He continues on that theme when asked to ... [Read More]
Used-car retail prices, surprisingly, aren’t climbing
Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, 01:47 PM
Joe Overby, Senior Editor
You would think that used-vehicle prices would be rising right now.
After all, CARFAX opines in an analysis around its latest price index that supply of late-model vehicles has fallen (thanks to the 2021 leasing declines) and used-car demand has climbed thanks in part to lower interest rates and recent hurricanes have managed up to 347,000 cars — fueling the need for vehicle replacement ... [Read More]
Update on used-car sales & profit margins for dealers through Q3
Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, 04:26 PM
Joe Overby, Senior Editor
Used-car profits soared during the pandemic. But as the market turns the corner toward the end of 2024, “used vehicles may be finding their new normal on profitability.” That’s just one key finding from the latest quarterly Presidio-NCM Average Dealership Performance Benchmark Report, which found that, pre-owned or otherwise, “the downward spiral in profitability for […] [Read More]
Mississauga dealer is driven to educate women about career opportunities in automotive
Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, 11:45 AM
Arlena Sawyers, Correspondent
When Susan Gubasta’s dad first urged her to join the family-owned dealership business more than 30 years ago, she just wasn’t interested.
After all, she reasoned, retail automotive was dominated by men who either sold cars or repaired cars and there was no career path there for her.
Since she “wasn’t a math person,” working in the dealership’s accounting office wasn’t appealing either.
Turns out that not only was Gubasta mistaken about joining the family business, it was ... [Read More]