George Chamoun briefly touched on ACV Auctions’ “Project Viper” during the opening comments of the company’s first quarter earnings call , but he later expanded on the potential of the service product during the Q&A portion. “I never, ever in my entire career have had a product where I’ve had this much demand,” Chamoun, who is CEO of ACV, said Wednesday.  ACV has described Project Viper as ... [Read More]

After reporting strong first quarter results, used-car retailer Carvana set a goal of selling 3 million units with significant profit within five to 10 years. It is well on its way to achieving its “mission” of changing the way people buy cars, Carvana chairman, president and CEO Ernie Garcia said during the earnings call. “Given the position we're in and the fundamental gains we see in front of us, the path to that goal, which we currently view as both very exciting and very achievable is that we ... [Read More]

Tariffs are here. Already high new-car prices are likely to continue climbing and what’s going to happen to sales going forward is anybody’s guess. Is Roger Penske worried? Not a bit. In the first three months of 2025 ... [Read More]

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]