A new alternative used-vehicle sourcing service is testing the market in Chicago. Swap Motors launched with an initial physical and virtual auction site in suburban Skokie. Chief executive officer Alex Johnson described Swap Motors as a private-party inventory source, primarily for independent dealers. Though originally launched in 2016 as a peer-to-peer site for consumers to […] [Read More]

Have you registered for Used Car Week yet?  If not, make haste.  We will be publishing the list of 2018 Used Car Week registered attendees (so far) on Wednesday, and we want to make sure your name is included.  Our 2017 attendee list included 1,477 professionals from across a broad range of automotive sectors. Last year’s group included […] [Read More]

When roughly 70 percent of its applications resulted in turn downs, Prestige Financial Services responded by taking a significant step toward using machines instead of human manpower to examine applications and finalize underwriting. ZestFinance, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) software company that uses machine learning to vastly improve credit underwriting, recently announced a partnership with […] [Read More]

As the firm itself pushes additional resources into its blockchain division, KPMG pinpointed how much fintech investment grew during the first half of this year. According to KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech report, investment in U.S.-based fintech companies surged to $14.2 billion across 427 deals during the first half of 2018 as investors poured money into […] [Read More]

HyreCar added another executive to its leadership team this week. The carsharing marketplace for ridesharing announced the appointment of Scott Brogi as its chief financial officer, effective Thursday. Brogi previously led finance and operations for Teaching Channel, which was successfully sold earlier this year. “We look forward to leveraging Scott’s deep experience and financial acumen,” […] [Read More]

It’s been about two weeks since Hurricane Florence lashed the Carolinas with rain measured in feet in some places. Now the task given to the wholesale industry — contending with flood-damaged vehicles — is gaining steam. To accelerate catastrophe response in the Carolinas and Virginia, Insurance Auto Auctions (IAA), a business unit of KAR Auction Services, announced […] [Read More]

One of the presenting sponsors of Used Car Week 2018 recently collected another accolade. Jayne Bronchetti, president of Millennium Capital and Recovery Corp., has been named one of Profiles in Diversity Journal’s Women Worth Watching for 2018 based on her lifelong pursuit of equality in the workplace at public and private companies. Along with Bronchetti, […] [Read More]

Familiar names now have new roles at Sonic Automotive. This week, the publicly traded dealership group announced that its board of directors has elected David Smith as chief executive officer and Jeff Dyke as president, both effective as of Tuesday. Sonic also said Scott Smith, the company’s co-founder, resigned as chief executive officer and president […] [Read More]

Audi has launched a monthly vehicle subscription service, partnering with five Dallas-Fort Worth-area dealerships, including two Group 1 Automotive stores. Through the Audi select subscription program, which costs $1,395 per month, subscribers will be able to use the Audi A4 sedan, A5 Cabriolet, Audi Q5 and Audi Q7 SUVs, and S5 Coupe models. They will […] [Read More]

The Federal Open Market Committee at the Federal Reserve voted unanimously to push the target range for the federal funds rate to 2 percent to 2.25 percent. Wednesday’s development marked the fourth rate hike this year, building expectations for at least one more before 2018 closes. The Cox Automotive team of analysts and economists examined the […] [Read More]