The combined same-store new-car sales for the six publicly traded dealer groups were fairly steady in the third quarter, falling a shade under 1% year-over-year, according to company filings and Cox Automotive estimates. But their used-car sales? Same-store sales were up almost 11%, according to the same data set. As such, “the trend in our […] [Read More]

Autumns have been atypical in the auction lanes in recent years with wholesale prices behaving in ways not usually seen. Well, this fall has returned to more traditional patterns, according to the latest Black Book Market Insights report. In fact, Black Book executive vice president of operations Anil Goyal said, “Truck segments declined more than […] [Read More]

Swapalease.com reported declines in approvals for vehicle-lease credit applicants during October on both a month-over-month and year-over-year basis. But site officials classified the movements in both instances as “modest.” The site indicated its October approval rate registered in at 68.8%. That’s down from the September rate of 72.9%, as well as the October 2018 reading […] [Read More]

The economy has held up very well recently given the unemployment rate reaching 3.5% recently, but it’s getting difficult to determine which direction the economy is headed in the near future. According to a recent Duke University/CFO Global Business Outlook survey, 53% of chief financial officers believe the U.S. may enter a recession prior to […] [Read More]

One of the many experts who appeared on stage during Used Car Week 2019 quipped about how the ride-sharing vehicle taken from the airport to the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas could have used some “TLC,” likely stemming from its extensive use while in service. The anecdote provided a vivid example of what Preferred […] [Read More]

Coming on the heels of multiple discussions during Used Car Week 2019 about improving efficiencies during the recovery process, a pair of KAR Global business units rolled out key platform enhancements meant to accomplish that objective. Recovery Database Network (RDN) and Clearplan announced a pair of “innovative” improvements on Tuesday designed to enable better account […] [Read More]

The seasonal impact Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) expected to see when analysts assembled their latest prime and non-prime indices of the automotive asset-backed securities (ABS) market arrived in October. KBRA reported auto loan ABS credit performance weakened again in October with net loss and delinquency rates climbing in KBRA’s prime and non-prime indices. “The […] [Read More]

 When KAR Global spun off its Insurance Auto Auction business this year, that was about 35% to 40% of its total business. “We’ve become a much smaller company,” said Jim Hallett, who is chairman and chief executive officer of KAR Global. “We have to continue to look for ways to take costs out of this […] [Read More]

Investment firms evidently like the prospects they see in dealerships as a pair of wealth-driven operations recently made acquisitions — with one transaction involving a member of the Top 100 Independent Dealers previously highlighted by Auto Remarketing. Cerberus Capital Management, which currently possesses more than $42 billion in assets, recently acquired an 80% interest in […] [Read More]

Two familiar names in the F&I technology world — Dealertrack and CDK Global — announced an expanded integration on Monday. The companies explained their latest development brings together the CDK Drive DMS and Dealertrack uniFI platforms to enable faster funding for more dealers. Through the integration, dealers leveraging both systems can now seamlessly import their […] [Read More]