“Not so bad” meaning “equally good and bad on either side of the coin,” is how Cox Automotive chief economist Jonathan Smoke sized up the economic outlook for 2020. Unemployment is at a 50-year low, consumer sentiment continues to be “relatively high” and consumers are seeing strong wage and income growth, he said. But there are […] [Read More]

Admittedly, Asbury Automotive Group didn’t start 2019 as strong as it would have liked on the used-car side. But it was a different story in the fourth quarter, with same-store used-vehicle sales climbing 10% year-over-year. The big driver? Certified pre-owned, where sales jumped 16% year-over-year in Q4, president and chief executive officer David Hult said […] [Read More]

Through a strategic collaboration between automotive business-to-consumer (B2C) chat company RAPID RTC and Cox Automotive Canada, RAPID RTC will integrate its chat service into Cox Automotive Canada’s Dealer.com and Dealertrack Digital Retailing systems. That, according to the companies, will “combine the personal touch of an in-store dealership experience with the convenience and transparency of best-in-class online […] [Read More]

Subaru’s high residual value is a main reason that the automaker has won the top brand ownership cost category in the 2020 Kelley Blue Book 5-Year Cost-to-Own Awards, Eric Ibara said. “Subaru claims the top brand position for the second year in a row, right on the heels of winning a Kelley Blue Book award for […] [Read More]

SureSale, which offers a standardized certification-as-a-service platform designed to broaden dealers’ certified pre-owned inventory beyond OEM programs, has closed a $7 million Series A round of funding led by Upfront Ventures. Upfront Ventures, which has previously provided funding for the likes of TrueCar and Dealertrack, was joined by seed-round leader Coffin Capital and Ventures and […] [Read More]

A new vehicle is one of the worst investments you can make. We’ve all heard it before: “Half the value is lost as soon as you drive it off the lot.” The fact is, however, that vehicles today are hanging on to more of their value for longer than ever before because the quality, reliability […] [Read More]

Black Book watched its Used Vehicle Retention Index start 2020 with an upward move. Analysts reported this week that their index reading for January came in at 114.5, representing a rise of 1.2 points from the December mark of 113.3. In news release, Black Book executive vice president operations Anil Goyal explained why the firm’s […] [Read More]

Competition within the buy-here, pay-here dealership space became even more intense on Thursday as Tricolor now has more financial horsepower to meet the transportation needs of Hispanics. According to a news release, the company announced it received a $30 million preferred equity investment from a global institutional investor to scale what Tricolor described as its […] [Read More]

ReconVelocity has made its second purchase since its 2019 launch, announcing Thursday it has acquired Recon Ninjas, a competitor in the vehicle reconditioning space. The combination of the two companies will result in what ReconVelocity calls, “the largest provider of integrated vehicle management and reconditioning software solutions exclusively focused on the automotive industry.” This move […] [Read More]

For the longest time, sales leads have been the standard benchmark for measuring the effectiveness of marketing activity in the automotive industry. Leads have always been seen as the holy grail that determines whether a dealership’s marketing mix is effective or not, playing a significant role in determining where and how future marketing resources are […] [Read More]