While some “details were generally encouraging,” experts are continuing to project that it will take some time before dealerships and finance companies see the amount of gainfully employed workers making vehicle purchases as they did back in February. Those experts dissected the July jobs data from the U.S. Department of Labor, which reported on Friday […] [Read More]

National Automotive Experts and NWAN (NAE/NWAN) finalized a partnership with Ultimar this week. The companies explained the partnership allows NAE/NWAN to provide direct manufacturer access to Ultimar’s interior and exterior surface protection product technologies. NAE/NWAN said Ultimar and the entire Granitize line of products are known throughout the chemical industry for their high-performance appearance protection […] [Read More]

Fintech and automated loss mitigation provider Constant rolled out an enhancement to its solution aimed at helping finance companies limit delinquencies and charge-offs as they navigate through modifications offered because of the coronavirus pandemic. The company launched AutoCare, a module on its cloud-native Software as a Service platform intended to fend off delinquency and prevent […] [Read More]

J.D. Power’s analytical horsepower is about to get much stronger. Late Thursday afternoon, TrueCar announced that it has entered into an agreement with J.D. Power to sell its ALG subsidiary for $135 million. According to TrueCar’s news release, the total consideration includes an upfront cash payment of $112.5 million at closing and total deferred payments […] [Read More]

The recovery in pre-owned sales continued in July, with Cox Automotive’s 13-month rolling used-vehicle SAAR climbing from 36 million in June to 38 million last month. The company estimates in a Data Point report released Thursday that there was a 4% year-over-year decline in used-vehicle sales for July and that the month’s SAAR fell from […] [Read More]

Auto dealers around the country have embraced the unthinkable during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are now offering online sales. Roughly 85% of General Motors dealers were signed up to offer the manufacturer’s “Shop Click Drive” e-commerce program by May of this year, and dealerships ranging from the massive AutoNation chain to smaller, family-owned stores have […] [Read More]

In addition to string of record sales at Hyundai Auto Canada Corp. reported here previously, more automakers shared signs of an improving certified pre-owned market in Canada. At Subaru Canada, sales are down slightly year-to-date, but the program saw a major boost in July. With 560 sales last month, certified was up 47.4% year-over-year for […] [Read More]

America’s Car-Mart recently marked the opening of its 150th dealership in one of the largest markets in Tennessee. On the last sales day of July, the chain of buy-here, pay-here dealerships began retail operations in Chattanooga, Tenn. The location is Car-Mart’s seventh dealership in Tennessee and the second store opening of its 2021 fiscal year. […] [Read More]

Some franchised dealerships don’t have a robust new-vehicle inventory since the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the volume pipeline from automaker factories around the globe. Black Book explained how retailing certified pre-owned vehicles could be leveraged by franchised stores to get into better position for new models among other potential benefits. “For some dealers, there is additional […] [Read More]

While the acceleration of wholesale prices moving higher dipped a bit, Black Book indicated dealerships with the most robust financial resources continue to have the best opportunity to secure used-vehicle inventory during the coronavirus pandemic. Black Book specifically mentioned large operations such as CarMax and Carvana showing their “dominance in the lanes” as analysts released […] [Read More]