Carfax announced Wednesday that it has broadened its role in General Motors’ certified pre-owned program. With the expanded role, every certified Chevrolet, Buick and GMC vehicle will include a Carfax vehicle history report that consumers will receive for free from the selling dealer. Also, Carfax Used Car Listings will include all CPO Chevy, Buick and […] [Read More]

Operating successfully in the buy-here, pay-here industry has become more challenging due to increased regulatory pressures and competition. Independent BHPH dealers have lost approximately 33 percent of their market share during the last 24 months, and best operating practices are not working like they used to. In this article, I will discuss what is “driving” […] [Read More]

In light of the economy developing what analysts called a “split personality,” the S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices showed the auto loan rate for January remained stable on a sequential comparison. According to S&P Dow Jones Indices and Experian, the January auto loan default rate came in at 1.04 percent, just 1 basis point higher […] [Read More]

CDK Global has acquired NewCarIQ and RedBumper from Pearl Technology Holdings. CDK said Wednesday it will combine the solutions of NewCarIQ (which focuses on new-car stocking and management of OEM incentives for dealers) and RedBumper, which focuses on used-car inventory management. This will give dealers a combined platform offering “a comprehensive set of tools for […] [Read More]

This week, CUNA Mutual Group announced it is investing in a new direct-to-consumer lending platform SpringboardAuto.com. Officials indicated the relationship means this new technology solution can provide a direct online auto loan platform so credit unions can lend to members with below-prime credit ratings without creating additional credit or operational risk for the credit union. […] [Read More]

Teledata Communications (TCI), a provider of cloud-based loan origination solutions, hired Mark Gleason this week as director of sales for the consumer finance industry. In this capacity, TCI highlighted that Gleason will oversee the company’s sales activities in this expanding marketplace. Based in Costa Mesa, Calif., Gleason brings more than 10 years of experience in […] [Read More]

Lithia Motors finished 2015 with full-year and fourth-quarter used sales both up by double digits, and the dealer group also experienced a spike in new-car sales, as well. The company said Wednesday morning it sold a total of 24,010 used vehicles during the fourth quarter of last year, up by 11.4 percent from the same period of 2014. And […] [Read More]

St. Louis. Austin. New Orleans. Memphis. Nashville. Those might be pushpins on a barbecue- and gumbo-stained road map to music’s meccas, but they're also a sampling of cities where consumers are having the best experiences shopping for a car at the dealership.  CarGurus recently released a study ranking the top 10 cities with the most satisfied car shoppers, based on […] [Read More]

Edmunds.com named over 800 car dealerships as recipients of its fourth-annual Five Star Dealer Awards on Tuesday. According to the company, the awards recognize the car dealers that earned the highest overall rating for customer satisfaction in Edmunds.com’s dealer “sales ratings.” "Providing excellent customer satisfaction has never been more important than it is in today's […] [Read More]

The year began with lease credit approvals down, but levels are rising slowly from December lows. That's according to trends Swapalease.com spotted on its own site, as the company said car lease credit approvals started the year off lower than trends showed during the last two quarters of 2015. But January’s performance definitely showed an improvement from the December […] [Read More]