Automotive lending technology platform SelectFI last week announced its official launch in The Shop by FordDirect, making SelectFI’s financing technology available to Ford and Lincoln dealers across the United States. Following year-long vetting process and a pilot program at multiple Ford dealerships, here are four primary benefits: —Shorter sales cycles: Less time in F&I means […] [Read More]

Alfa, provider of Alfa Systems, strengthened its data migration toolbox last week with the launch of Alfa Recon, a new artificial intelligence-enabled reconciliation module. Designed to help customers migrate legacy data and acquired portfolios to Alfa Systems more quickly, more accurately and with greater confidence, the company highlighted Alfa Recon is designed to bring new […] [Read More]

Let’s begin the week with a little positive news for the auto-finance space, courtesy of TransUnion’s April Credit Industry Snapshot. While TransUnion reported the 30-day delinquency rate for auto rose 16 basis points sequentially to 3.97%, analysts also noticed the 60-day delinquency rate on the same comparison slid 13 basis points lower to 1.44%. Furthermore, […] [Read More]

Artificial intelligence in auto retail, says Zeigler Auto Group chief operating officer Sam D’Arc, is in a similar place as digital retail was 4-5 years ago. There’s a lot of excitement, but perhaps not a complete understanding of how AI should be deployed at dealerships. “There is a ton of solutions out there. There are […] [Read More]

Sam D’Arc doesn’t remember what his query was when he first used ChatGPT, but the response was fast and accurate. “It caused a little bit of awe and surprise in how well it extracted information into the answer to the question,” said D’Arc, who is chief operating officer of Zeigler Auto Group in Kalamazoo, Mich. […] [Read More]

Sourcing used inventory at the right price and accurately assessing reconditioning costs are two pain points for dealerships. In days past, dealers often had to rely on their gut to handle the two tasks. No more. Cox Automotive’s vAuto suite of product uses artificial intelligence to help dealers buy the best used inventory mix including […] [Read More]

You can pick a Car of the Year, but that vehicle isn’t going to work for everyone. A family on a budget, say, might not be interested in a luxury car. So for its inaugural Confidence Awards, CarGurus selected the best vehicle in four specific categories that the company said “reflect the needs of today’s […] [Read More]

The service drive is an inherently loud environment. There is the roar of impact wrenches, the constant ringing of phones, the pressure of waiting customers, and rapid-fire coordination between parts and service. The baseline operating volume is chaotic, and in this daily turbulence, the most ineffective thing a fixed ops director can do is add […] [Read More]

The sixth annual automotive research study by Urban Science in collaboration with The Harris Poll highlighted that nine in 10 U.S. car buyers said a traditional dealership is their top choice for purchasing a vehicle. Now let’s delve deeper into the Urban Science research data collected from 252 franchised dealers across the United States with […] [Read More]

myKaarma’s stated goal is to support innovation in technology for dealerships. But it doesn’t want to do it alone. The customer interaction and payments platform has launched its Partner Portal, a new platform it called “an absolute necessity for forging a truly open, flexible and developer-centric ecosystem” for auto dealers, OEMs and technology providers. “Dealers […] [Read More]