As 2015 was wrapping up, Lithia Motors Inc. announced it added a new store to its lineup in Washington. The dealer group bought Barton Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Alpha Fiat, located in Spokane, Wash. Lithia management said the store will bring in $50 million in estimate annual revenues for the dealer group. Bryan DeBoer, president […] [Read More]

Swapalease.com conducted a vehicle shopper survey in December, asking consumers about how interest rates might impact their decisions as well as the influence automaker advertisements had on their potential model choices. According to the survey results released on Wednesday, just 6.8 percent of people said they would not shop for a vehicle when interest rates […] [Read More]

The certified pre-owned market has now posted five straight years of record sales. According to industry sales figures released Wednesday afternoon by Autodata Corp., there were 2.55 million CPO sales in 2015. Not only was this the best year ever for CPO, but it beat last year’s tally by more than 9 percent, Autodata said. […] [Read More]

Obviously, there’s a lot of competition out there. You compete with dealerships from other OEM’s, dealerships from the same OEM’s, heck, some of you even have to compete with dealerships within your dealer group, and why not, competition is good — especially when you win! With all of this competition, you and your dealership need […] [Read More]

AutoNation finished 2015 off on a strong note as new-vehicle sales for the month of December, the fourth quarter and the full year were all up for the dealer group. New sales increased by 9 percent year-over-year, coming to a total of 35,962 new vehicles in December. For Q4, AutoNation retailed 89,764 vehicles for an […] [Read More]

AutoAp leveraged its proprietary safety recall discovery and verification capability this week with the launch of what it’s calling Recall Status Now; a tool developers believe is the industry’s first real-time safety recall status verification mobile app. AutoAp explained that its automated, multi-sourced and validated recall verification process can deliver more accurate and timely safety […] [Read More]

Along with finalizing a relationship with McLaren Automotive North America, Ally Financial this week responded to demands from a hedge fund that amounted to what the finance company chairman called a “clear agenda to force a sale of Ally.” Ally indicated the series of events leading up to the current situation included various document submissions, […] [Read More]

Covington — a law firm with a global footprint and whose stable of professionals includes former Attorney General Eric Holder, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff — created a new consumer financial services practice aimed at assisting clients with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau investigations, examinations and enforcement actions. Leading this new practice will […] [Read More]

DominionACCESS, a division of Dominion Dealer Solutions, recently finalized integration of its ACCESS Dealer Management System with RouteOne’s eContracting platform. Officials explained this new collaboration can streamline the contract and payment funding processes for their dealership customers nationwide. “A major focus for Dominion DMS this year has been improving vendor integrations within the ACCESS dealer […] [Read More]

Management at the Automotive Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) has been busy, announcing its third deal this week in less than a month. To start of 2016, the REIT reported it has agreed to purchase the Audi Barrie dealership property in Innisfil, Ontario, for approximately $11.1 million. The real estate deal is expected to […] [Read More]