AutoGravity welcomed a new chief technology officer who is bringing experience from global firms such as eBay, Microsoft and Walt Disney. On Tuesday, the online vehicle sales and financing platform appointed Sheng Wang as CTO to drive the company’s global engineering efforts. Wang joins AutoGravity’s executive team with responsibility for leading product and engineering to […] [Read More]

In an effort to eliminate distracted driving during the holidays, Jim Ellis Automotive Group recently announced that employees at each of its 15 dealerships are taking a pledge to be more attentive. For every person who takes the pledge before January, the group said it will make a donation to the National Safety Council. “All […] [Read More]

automotiveMastermind announced Tuesday that it has appointed Mohamed Al-Daqa as its new chief implementation officer and Pam Perry as new chief people officer. “Bringing Mohamed and Pam on board is the right step toward an integrated company approach that ultimately improves the customer experience,” automotiveMastermind chief executive officer Marco Schnabl said in a news release announcing the new hires. […] [Read More]

Along with aligning with another online marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of used vehicles, Black Book watched its Used Vehicle Retention Index rise in November, pushing the reading higher for the third consecutive month. Editors indicated the November index reading increased 0.3 percent month-over-month, ticking up from 114.6 to 115.0. The movement triggered the third […] [Read More]

MetroGistics Holdings announced Tuesday the acquisition of greater Kansas City area-based Metro Title Services. This latest development follows recent expansion efforts to merge with AmeriFleet, which the company acquired in January. “We recognized best-in-class vehicle compliance services as a major market need, and understand that bringing in a world-class provider like Metro Title Services would […] [Read More]

In just over two years since launch, The Appraisal Lane has surpassed $100 million in used-car transactions for both live trades and aged units, the company announced Tuesday. This news comes just a month after reaching up to over 100,000 live trade submissions from dealers via The Appraisal Lane app. With over 60,000 vehicles that have […] [Read More]

J.D. Byrider recently celebrated with the buy-here, pay-here corporation’s 54 owners at the company’s annual convention in Hollywood, Fla. At the event, three Midwestern dealers won top honors as a part of J.D. Byrider’s annual award program. The Franchise of the Year winners were chosen in three categories based on size of their franchise holdings: […] [Read More]

Huntington Bank looked within its ranks to fill a position set to be open because of a retirement as the institution has promoted industry veteran Rich Porrello to president of its auto finance business. Since 2010, Porrello has served as managing director of the auto finance division where he oversees day-to-day operations and 180 professionals […] [Read More]

More service providers are working together to help dealership finance departments. This week, Dealertrack and DealerCenter announced a strategic integration partnership delivering a more connected F&I workflow. Independent dealerships using DealerCenter's DMS platform can seamlessly connect customer information to Dealertrack’s open F&I platform, allowing for a smoother workflow with credit application processing. The companies highlighted […] [Read More]

Each of the five metrics involving used- and new-vehicle financing that Edmunds tracks each month moved higher in November. That collection includes averages for terms, monthly payment, the total amount financed, APR and down payment. Edmunds manager of industry analysis Jeremy Acevedo pinpointed a reason why the metrics edged higher year-over-year and are all well […] [Read More]