CarStory’s parent company and data-as-a-service platform, Vast, announced Tuesday that it has received a $14 million investment from Capital One Growth Ventures. The aim of Vast’s data services is to connect buyers and sellers of cars and homes through data-driven discovery experiences. CarStory.com uses Vast’s data platform to match shoppers with vehicles. With the investment […] [Read More]

A new survey from TransUnion again emphasized the value of accurate information available to collectors as a pathway to improve skip-tracing success. Officials found that more than nine in 10 collectors — 95.2 percent to be exact — have improved their right party contact rate since using online databases and sophisticated technology. TransUnion also determined […] [Read More]

Consolidated Asset Recovery Systems (CARS) is hosting a free, one-hour webinar aimed at answering common questions about the purpose and importance of service level agreements (SLA). Garrett Cline, CARS’ director of sales for the Eastern U.S., will lead the session that’s scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. ET on Feb. 16. Cline intends to cover: […] [Read More]

As fourth quarter outstanding auto loan balances reached the highest level on record since Experian Automotive began publicly tracking the data in 2006, Melinda Zabritski reminded the industry how to view a slight uptick in 60-day delinquencies. According to its most recent State of the Automotive Finance Market report released on Tuesday, Experian determined 30-day […] [Read More]

General Motors’ Factory Pre-Owned Collection service has gone live, the automaker announced Tuesday morning. The company said more than 1,000 GM dealers say they will participate in the program, which offers U.S. consumers online access to an exclusive inventory of low-mileage former company-owned, off-lease and daily rental vehicles. The inventory includes more than 40,000 vehicles, each of […] [Read More]

Rapid Recon Inc. announced Monday that it has integrated recall management into its time-to-market reconditioning software for dealers. According to Rapid Recon, the solution can move cars from the start to the finish of the recon process in three to five days. Rapid Recon’s new Open Safety Recall Management solution, under license from AutoAp, updates […] [Read More]

The recent Iowa caucuses are in the books and it’s time to shift the political focus to Tuesday’s New Hampshire primaries. Similar to the tight legislative races vying for each party’s presidential nominations, the Edmunds.com data for New Hampshire shows that many of the state’s new-car buying tendencies are similar to the national averages. Let’s […] [Read More]

The Denver Broncos may have prevailed over the Carolina Panthers to clinch the Vince Lombardi Trophy this weekend, but there were many more competitors vying for viewer attention during Super Bowl 50. And as usual, the competition within the automotive space was particularly potent. Honda’s singing sheep did a fine rendition of Queen’s “Somebody to Love” while […] [Read More]

Bankruptcy filing trends to begin 2016 mimicked the ones observers noticed as last year concluded. The American Bankruptcy Institute reported that total U.S. filings decreased 11 percent year-over-year in January. According to data provided by Epiq Systems, bankruptcy filings totaled 52,522 last month, down from the January 2015 total of 59,092. ABI mentioned consumer filings […] [Read More]

Franchised dealers have increased their used-car sales for six straight years, according to data from NADA cited in Manheim’s 2016 Used Car Market Report. But one caveat shouldn’t come as a surprise: Used margins are slimmer. In fact, the 25 straight quarters (through Q3) of increasing same-store used unit sales for the public dealership groups is […] [Read More]