Private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo LLC announced it will acquire TRADER Corp., Canada’s leading digital automotive marketplace and software solutions provider, for $1.575 billion (CAD), from funds advised by Apax Partners. The transaction is expected to close by the fourth quarter. “We’re extremely impressed by TRADER’s growth into the largest and most trusted digital automotive […] [Read More]

Auction Management Solutions — the newly organized consulting firm formed by Tom Stewart and Richard Curtis to provide consulting services to the automotive industry that include independent auto auctions, service providers and vendors — announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with Dealers Auto Auction Group. Dealers Auto Auction Group owner David Andrews said, “We […] [Read More]

A handful of alternative-fuel vehicles are among the fastest-selling late-model used cars this year, and the market for these vehicles may be approaching an affordability “sweet spot” in pre-owned. That’s according to a study from iSeeCars.com, which analyzed more than 2.2 million sales of 1- to 3-year-old cars from January through May. With average days […] [Read More]

Ally Financial and TIME hosted a celebration last week to honor 2016 TIME Dealer of the Year winner Mary Catherine “Kitty” Van Bortel. The TIME Dealer of the Year Award honors franchised new-vehicle dealers for exceptional performance in their dealerships and distinguished community service. Van Bortel was selected from a group of 50 nominees across […] [Read More]

An increase in used-vehicle supply coupled with heightened incentive activity will push used-car prices down by 5.2 percent below current levels by 2019, according to RVI Group’s recently released Risk Outlook report. RVI predicts that leasing will increase through 2018, putting a growing supply of used vehicles into the market through 2020. According to Polk […] [Read More]

Buyer intelligence firm Autolist.com released data just before the Fourth of July holiday that shows that the $14.7 billion settlement for some Volkswagen diesel vehicle owners will compensate them “handsomely” for being dragged into what analysts coined as “Dieselgate.” The study, which is based on more than 37 million data points, described an “optimistic” story […] [Read More]

TrueCar has appointed Art Oleszczuk to be vice president of market research. Oleszczuk, who brings 15 years of automotive research, marketing, product development and sales experience, joins TrueCar as the company makes significant investments into deeper research in order to assess ways in which it can be a catalyst for improving the automotive retail experience […] [Read More]

For the seventh consecutive year, the American Financial Services Association and the National Automobile Dealers Association co-sponsored an executive forum to discuss legislative, regulatory and operational challenges facing dealers and finance sources. Led by David Paul, chair of AFSA’s Vehicle Finance Division and senior vice president with American Honda Finance Corp., and NADA chairman Jeff […] [Read More]

Heritage Acceptance hopes to increase its financing efficiency and speed by teaming up with defi SOLUTIONS. The subprime finance company announced recently that it is now utilizing the defi SOLUTIONS loan origin system (LOS), after going live with the solution on June 4. The company hopes this move will translate into a better experience for […] [Read More]

Tom Stewart of Stewart Enterprises and Richard Curtis of RW Curtis Consulting announced they have combined their companies to create one new service organization. The new organization is called Auction Management Solutions (AMS), a firm the pair says is designed to provide comprehensive consulting services to the automotive industry that include independent auto auctions, service […] [Read More]