Kia America’s certified pre-owned program has hit the million mark. Kia’s 1 millionth U.S. CPO vehicle was sold April 21 at Kia of Brandon in Tampa, Fla. The 2024 Kia EV6 Light Long Range was purchased by Bryce Ashmore — but Kia picked up the check. “The EV6 had really great reviews, and I always […] [Read More]

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell quipped during an appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago earlier this month, saying, “As that great Chicagoan Ferris Bueller once noted, ‘Life moves pretty fast.’” Nowadays, many consumers don’t appear to be liking how life is going, with Cox Automotive chief economist Jonathan Smoke acknowledging on Monday that consumers’ […] [Read More]

Black Book has added three new sales leaders to its team. Rick Evans has joined the vehicle data and analytics provider as director of captive and lender licensing, and Andrew Ferrara and Brent Fosnaught have come on board as directors of automotive licensing. “These talented individuals bring the innovative leadership needed to deliver next-generation solutions […] [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]

On Monday, the Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) announced the election of its 2025 board of directors and officers. The automotive IT standards organization said the board consists of three representatives elected from its member organizations of technology providers, three representing its retail dealership members and dealer associations, and three from its membership […] [Read More]

World champion auto auctioneer Michael Adcock has joined the ranks of Warren Young Fellows. Adcock was presented the honor by the National Auto Auction Association last week during the 2025 World Automobile Auctioneers Championship’s dinner and draw event at Manheim Phoenix in Tolleson, Ariz. Adcock, a third-generation auctioneer, became the youngest world champion auto auctioneer […] [Read More]

Do electric vehicles really offer a lower cost of ownership than gas-powered vehicles? According to a new study by Vincentric, that’s true for less than half of EVs. The automotive data firm’s 2025 Electric Vehicle Cost of Ownership Analysis found 44% of the 54 EV models studied had a lower total cost of ownership over […] [Read More]

One of the emerging companies honored during the Automotive Intelligence Awards at this Auto Intel Summit recently hit an important milestone. BlytzPay announced on its website last week that it reached 100 active customers that have chosen the company to help drive engagement, streamline collections, and power smarter payments “This isn’t just a number — […] [Read More]

Lendbuzz is looking to help dealers get financing for applicants with thin to no credit history. Last week, the fintech company launched Express Contract, its expedited approval offering that uses Lendbuzz’s proprietary Artificial Intelligence Risk Analysis (AIRA) to approve and fund qualified loans in a fraction of the time it takes using traditional methods. From […] [Read More]

Millions of dollars move back and forth between consumers and auto insurance companies nowadays, so Dream Payments wants to make those transactions smoother. Last week, the company launched the DreamPay Insurance Payment Hub — a two-way insurance payment network operating seamlessly across North America, leveraging J.P. Morgan Payments’ capabilities. Dream Payments said that for the […] [Read More]