It’s not just the retail operations of dealerships that are being impacted by the Takata airbag stop-sale. There is also a “backlog” of cars that would otherwise be hitting the wholesale market, KAR Auction Services chief executive Jim Hallett said during his company’s earnings call Wednesday. KAR is the parent company of auction company ADESA. […] [Read More]

Instagram recently launched a completely new feature set called Instagram Stories. The company describes it as “a new feature that lets you share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile. As you share multiple photos and videos, they appear together in a slideshow format: your […] [Read More]

Commercial consignment for ADESA was up 24 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, helping to lift the auction company’s vehicle sales by double-digits, parent company KAR Auction Services said Wednesday. The number of vehicles sold via ADESA climbed by 18 percent year-over-year in Q2. Excluding numbers from acquired locations, sales were up 9 percent, with […] [Read More]

In the first part of his series, Intellaegis president John Lewis offered three suggestions on creating a mock audit to prepare for a potential examination by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. To wrap up the blog endeavor for SWBC, a diversified financial services company that has interests in the automotive world along with insurance, mortgage […] [Read More]

Carvana continued its East Coast expansion Wednesday, launching in Washington, D.C. This is the online car retailer’s 15th market overall and the sixth it has added in 2016. Most recently, Carvana opened up shop in Richmond, Va. “Washington, D.C. is the largest market we’ve launched in to date, so we’re tremendously excited to be here,” Carvana […] [Read More]

More than 70 percent of respondents in a recent Xtime study considered cost estimates “extremely important” or “very important” when scheduling service appointments. In fact, the assurance that they are getting a transparent estimate outranked all other factors among the 668 drivers surveyed, including the ability to choose the time or day of the appointment, […] [Read More]

Black Book on Wednesday announced an agreement to be one of the trade appraisal resources for online car-buying platform GoGoCar. GoGoCar will now be able to leverage Black Book appraisal and valuation data for its customers. Powered by Black Book, GoGoCar will allow dealers to obtain accurate trade appraisal data on any vehicle offered during […] [Read More]

In the executive boardrooms at automakers and finance companies, challenging conversations are being conducted. With sentiment intensifying about “plateauing” new-vehicle sales and institutions consistently looking for yield in light of where the Federal Reserve has kept interest rates, deciding whether to crank the incentive machine or buy a contract a little deeper down the credit […] [Read More]

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]