Just before Christmas, Santander Consumer USA Holdings wrapped up the purchase of  a $1.1 billion indirect vehicle loan portfolio from Gateway One Lending & Finance, the finance company announced. Also included in the deal is an additional conversion of $0.5 billion in indirect auto loan assets. Santander plans to sub-service those assets for Gateway One, […] [Read More]

Westlake Financial and Nowcom Corp. say that their new strategic partnership with Source One Financial Corp. allows Westlake expansion to continue in what they say is a large and growing Canadian non-prime automotive finance market. Through the partnership, Westlake will provide backing for Source One to originate and service loans to near-prime customers in Canada.  The companies note […] [Read More]

Sonic Automotive and EchoPark Automotive chief executive officer David Smith says the company’s EchoPark business is experiencing rapid nationwide growth, and he described that as “a great testament to our model and the value of exceeding customer expectations.” The company announced the latest example of that growth on Dec. 16 with the grand opening of […] [Read More]

EBlock and EDealer said its chief executive officer and founder Ryan O’Connor will now serve in the role of chief innovation officer, and the companies have promoted their chief operating officer and president Jason McClenahan to chief executive officer. The companies said they are making the moves “to expand the companies’ footprint while continuing to […] [Read More]

Avis Budget Group on Monday said its board of directors has appointed president of the Americas division Joe Ferraro as interim chief executive officer. Ferraro’s appointment was effective Wednesday and takes place in the wake of former president and chief executive officer Larry De Shon departing at the end of last year. The company also […] [Read More]

PointPredictive says machine learning in its Auto Fraud Manager with Auto Fraud Alert Reporting mines historical data from applications across the industry “to pinpoint where fraud is happening.” PointPredictive launched Auto Fraud Manager with Auto Fraud Alert Reporting to help address what it says is a $6 billion-dollar annual problem of misrepresentation and fraud that […] [Read More]

Late this summer, Transport Canada announced it was utilizing Amazon’s Alexa for a safety-based service that engages the Amazon tool in a new way — making sure consumers stay up to date on the latest vehicle recalls that impact their regular day-to-day use vehicles. Simon Rivet, senior adviser for media relations in the communications group […] [Read More]

In the wake of the U.S. House of Representatives passing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, this past December, AI company LevaData revisited some of the findings of its survey from last January showing that 78% of automotive executives foresee a positive long-term impact of the agreement. As the saying goes, however, no pain, no […] [Read More]

The vehicle affordability factor: Think of it in terms of a great big elephant. KAR Global chief economist Tom Kontos says that in purchasing a vehicle, people can consider various moving parts, such as lowering their monthly payment or putting more money down, “to try to make that elephant … something you can consume.” “I […] [Read More]

New-car prices are at all-time highs. Auto industry digital marketplace Cars.com expects that to continue. We are in an affordability crisis, the company says. Because of that, Cars.com expects more consumers to consider leasing, and the company predicts continued growth for certified pre-owned car sales. That is one of the “Top 5 Trends That Will […] [Read More]