Online car buying and virtual-reality test drives are among the technologies generating the most attention in auto retail. And a move Tuesday by Vroom brings those worlds closer together. The direct-to-consumer online car retailer has launched a virtual reality showroom where shoppers can “explore” cars available on Vroom.com through HTC Vice headsets. Shoppers can use […] [Read More]

With a couple of pockets where dealer activity in the lanes seemed a little more upbeat, Black Book summarized that wholesale prices moved at a “humdrum pace” to close out July. This week’s Black Book Market Insights report noted car segments depreciated at nearly double the percentage of trucks this past week. Also, midsize car […] [Read More]

Columbus Fair Auto Auction's recent decision to establish a compliance department was an easy one, given the arguably dizzying pace at which regulatory issues across a variety of domains have accelerated since the 2010 signing of the Consumer Financial Protection Act and the bureau that grew out of it.  “We recognize our consignors, customers, partners, vendors and employees […] [Read More]

The average per-vehicle amount automakers spent on incentives in July was up 12.5 percent over a year ago, leading some to wonder if we’re heading into dangerous territory. “The sky isn’t falling yet,” said Alec Gutierrez, senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book, “but we are on an unhealthy path." Gutierrez was speaking during a conference call […] [Read More]

Spireon highlighted on Monday that it has achieved its 20th consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth. The record revenue growth arises as the company added more than 1 million new connected devices in the past year across all major vehicle telematics segments, including buy-here, pay-here dealers, finance companies, small- and medium-size fleets, transportation, trailer and rental […] [Read More]

With new-vehicle transaction prices climbing, automakers are ramping up incentives. In return, models are rolling over the curb at a pace that multiple analysts who sent their assessments to Auto Remarketing believe to be plateauing. One of the most relevant observations for used-car managers is what Edmunds.com noticed about new-vehicle leasing activity in July since […] [Read More]

BMW sold a record 11,877 certified pre-owned vehicles in July, beating year-ago figures by 23.1 percent, the company said in a news release Tuesday. Meanwhile, the MINI brand at BMW Group U.S. posted a July record 1,197 CPO sales, which beat year-ago sales by 8 percent. Among other brands reporting July CPO results so far, Mercedes-Benz […] [Read More]

At last check (including June activity), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said the agency has handled approximately 930,700 total complaints across all products since opening its complaint database in June 2012. While only a small fraction of that complaint figure stems from auto finance issues, the CFPB announced through a post in the Federal Register a […] [Read More]

Back in April, Manheim announced it was expanding its Retail Solutions operations to provide clients greater access to high-quality services that can produce retail-ready vehicles. During a discussion about its second-quarter results last week, Sonic Automotive described how Manheim is a “great business partner for us,” especially as the dealer group is looking to gain […] [Read More]

Perhaps it takes a shopper longer to decide which vehicle they want from your inventory than it did for the acquisition of DealerRater by Cars.com to close. Cars.com announced on Monday that it closed the acquisition of DealerRater, a transaction first announced a week ago. The companies reiterated that terms of the transaction were not […] [Read More]