With more than seven days into May already in the books, Black Book is seeing even stronger signals that the spring market might be in its closing stages for 2018. This week’s Black Book Market Insights report highlighted how most car values finally are cooling off from the last several weeks of increasing price activity. […] [Read More]

In mid-April, it was announced that Tim Russi, the longtime leader of auto finance at Ally, would depart the company in October. Look back at his impact at Ally in this podcast conversation with Nick Zulovich, recorded at AFSA's Vehicle Finance Conference in March. They talk about changes in the auto finance landscape, consumer behavior […] [Read More]

Westlake Financial Services has teamed up with Ally Financial to include its cars on Ally's SmartAuction online auction platform. The Westlake vehicles, which include a variety of brands, have been available to dealers registered on SmartAuction since May 1. "We are excited to team with Westlake, a growing national leader in the automotive industry, to be part of […] [Read More]

Thanks mostly to two fewer selling days, used-car retail sales last month declined an estimated 2 percent from April 2017 — but they’re pacing ahead of year-ago figures and reached the highest SAAR yet in 2018, according to Cox Automotive. The seasonally adjusted annualized rate of used-car sales was at 39.7 million, company analysts estimate in […] [Read More]

An attorney general who previously had taken aggressive regulatory and enforcement actions within the automotive space has resigned amid allegations of physical abuse against women. According to a report published on Monday afternoon in The New Yorker, New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman resigned within three hours of the online recap of on-the-record allegations from a […] [Read More]

Is there a “wisdom” app for my phone? What’s the relative value of intelligence and wisdom? If there is anything that experience teaches, it is that wisdom has a far greater value than intelligence. Even Solomon prayed for wisdom knowing that intelligence alone would not achieve his goals. Every buy-here, pay-here dealer is confronted with the […] [Read More]

In April 2017, CarGurus — still a private company at that point — launched its first-ever mass-media ad campaign, aiming to drive awareness among the general public. “We want to get people to think first and foremost about us as their shopping destination when buying a car comes to mind. And I think that’s something […] [Read More]

Here’s an alert for auction managers and dealership personnel to look for a pair of recalled, older-model compact pickups that might be in the next sale or currently in inventory. There are 21 locations in particular where the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is deeply concerned that certain higher-risk 2006 […] [Read More]

UnityWorks recently promoted one of its own executives. The provider of nicro-targeted video campaigns for automotive dealers announced the promotion of Jeff Grice to vice president of strategic development. Grice joined the company in 2013 as director of strategic development with a focus on building scalable and customized, data driven video experiences for the company’s […] [Read More]

Along with the launch of a new Vovlo Cars joint venture with Google to embed services into the Swedish automaker's infotainment system, recent technology development in the industry includes new augmented reality tech from Mercedes Benz USA and Kia Motors America, as well. Volvo Cars announced Monday that customers can now access Google Assistant, Google Play Store, Google Maps and other Google services through its newly […] [Read More]