Sonic Automotive reported record first-quarter pre-owned unit sales and its EchoPark standalone used-car outlets moved more than 900 vehicles. Sonic, one of three publicly traded dealer groups to release quarterly results Tuesday, said it retailed 29,333 used cars during the quarter, a 4.3-percent year-over-year improvement. The EchoPark stores sold 941 cars. In a news release, […] [Read More]

Melinda Zabritski watched her credit-market workload at a previous post steadily increase with responsibilities in the automotive space. The topic, as well as the people connected to vehicles and how they are financed, prompted Zabritski to seek her current position as senior director of automotive finance at Experian Automotive. “No offense to other areas of […] [Read More]

While an enthusiastic NASCAR follower, Kathy Williamson acknowledged she had never been to an auto auction prior 2003. Although the vehicles in the auction lanes don’t travel nearly 200 mph, the pace at which Williamson helped to develop technology leveraged in the wholesale vehicle space still moves pretty fast, too. Williamson and her husband purchased […] [Read More]

Five trends uncovered in new research from CDK Global reinforced how much vehicle shoppers are willing and likely to start the buying process online. In a recent survey, CDK found that nearly 70 percent of shoppers expected to find the ability to configure a payment on a dealership website, and 83 percent indicated that online […] [Read More]

When the automotive market came out of the recession’s tailspin, new-car demand picked back up quicker than used-car demand, a special report from TD Economics explains. Household balance sheets were getting healthy, consumer confidence and financing conditions were stronger. And there just wasn’t a whole lot of used-car supply, the report said. But now there […] [Read More]

Yes, subprime auto lending has grown in recent years. However, don’t sound the alarm bells. This is not mortgage crisis 2.0. It’s probably not even subprime auto lending crisis 2.0. The level of subprime auto lending is not even close to where it was in the mid-2000s, just before the financial crisis and automotive tumble at […] [Read More]

The National Independent Automobile Dealers Association bolsters its stable of advisors who can help buy-here, pay-here operators. On Tuesday, long-time auto industry veteran Mark Dubois joined NIADA’s recently expanded Dealer 20 Groups as its newest 20 group moderator. Dubois has more than 35 years of experience in the automotive business, including sales, management, recruiting and training, […] [Read More]

More than just the recent decline in the Manheim Used Vehicle Index has Lithia Motors upbeat about supply availability, especially coming on the heels of double-digit gross profit rises within what dealer group executives classify as their core used-vehicle sales segment as well as their certified pre-owned division. “We’re finally getting the cars that we […] [Read More]

The shopper is on your dealership lot. Game over, right? The shopping and research process: done and done.   Not anymore it isn’t. In an interview here at the NADA Convention & Expo, Jeni Pecard of Cars.com said that, “because of these mobile devices and having this information available to you at all times, the […] [Read More]

When asked to name some of the people she finds professionally inspiring, Leslie Vander Bann points to Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Sheryl Sandberg, among others. “These individuals won’t accept ‘no’ for an answer,” said Vander Baan, a 2016 Women in Remarketing honoree. “They are not limited by their own imagination and they engage in interesting […] [Read More]