Steve Roennau’s automotive career includes time as a training consultant for nearly a half dozen OEMs — Chrysler, General Motors, Ford, Mitsubishi and Hyundai. Roennau’s professional life also includes tenures in important roles at a dealership such as salesperson, used-car manager, new-car manager and F&I manager. With that much experience and a knack for public […] [Read More]

WalletHub recently released a report highlighting the top 20 cities where consumers took on the largest amount of financing to acquire a vehicle and where they also absorbed the least, generating extreme debt-to-income ratios. In order to identify the cities with the highest and lowest vehicle finance debts, WalletHub’s analysts divided the average debt by residents’ income […] [Read More]

On Wednesday, Edmunds announced it honored 817 dealerships throughout the country for delivering rewarding car shopping experiences with its Five Star Dealer Award. The award  recognizes car dealers who have received the highest overall rating for customer satisfaction in Edmunds' dealer sales ratings. "Today's car shoppers are incredibly savvy, and we know that more than […] [Read More]

Digital marketing solution for car dealers LotLinx announced the appointment of Eric Brown as president, chief product officer on Wednesday. Brown joined the company in September, and he has since brought new partners and product technology to the LotLinx product suite, according to the company. "Thanks to our strong growth over the past year, we're […] [Read More]

Carvana announced Wednesday that it is bringing its online auto retail platform and as-soon-as next-day delivery option to customers living in the Virginia’s Hampton Roads metropolitan area. This is the company’s 22nd market overall, and the second in Virginia. It is also its first new market of the year.  “We couldn’t be more excited to […] [Read More]

Sonic Automotive retailed a best-ever 119,174 used vehicles last year, including record fourth-quarter used-car unit sales of 29,621, the retailer said in results released Tuesday. And prospects for its EchoPark used-car standalone stores are pretty rosy, too. Some of the original Colorado stores were cash-flow positive in Q4, with the initial Thornton, Colo., store profitable […] [Read More]

This year’s Manheim Used Car Market Report projects that repossessions will total 1.7 to 1.8 million units in 2017, representing an increase “in the neighborhood of 100,000 units,” according to Cox Automotive chief economist Tom Webb. Webb elaborated about the expected figures and what factors could impact whether repo agents, forwarding companies and auctions will […] [Read More]

Cox Automotive chief economist Tom Webb acknowledged the past few years probably constituted the most difficult span ever encountered by buy-here, pay-here dealers. Finance companies specializing in the subprime space took on contracts deeper down the credit spectrum, leaving operators wondering where their customers went. But Webb thinks this year could be much better for […] [Read More]

TRADER Corp. and Dealertrack Canada said Tuesday they have teamed up to launch a transaction communication platform for Canadian car dealers, as part of a partnership to “bridge the gap between the online and in-store consumer experience while enabling the transformation of auto retailing through connected car buying technologies.” The companies will launch these digital retail […] [Read More]

Dominion Dealer Solutions announced that it has improved its new-car incentives application and newly partnered with AIS Rebates, a part of Cox Automotive, to deliver incentive data instantly to dealers nationwide. “Managing the application of pertinent incentives to new car inventory has been a longstanding pain-point for dealers across the country,” Dominion general manager of […] [Read More]