There were two key factors driving down used-car gross margins for Asbury Automotive Group during the third quarter, but the period had some very positive results in both pre-owned and overall results.  Starting with some of the used operational results, Asbury’s Q3 same-store used retail gross profit was up 1 percent at $31.9 million.  Executive vice president […] [Read More]

Sonic Automotive reported its third quarter results today, highlighted by several all-time records. In addition to setting an all-time record for new retail unit sales (36,301 units, up 6.5 percent year-over-year), Sonic also set a new all-time record for pre-owned gross profit, revealing a 5.8-percent increase year-over-year with a pre-owned gross profit of $41.2 million. […] [Read More]

Two of the companies participating at this year’s Re3 Conference — Consolidated Asset Recovery Systems and van Wagenen Financial Services — announced a strategic marketing agreement to create a one-stop solution for reducing risk and charge-offs on auto loan and lease portfolios.  Under the partner agreement, the companies explained they will cross-sell each other’s products, […] [Read More]

Dealers who participated in KeyBanc Capital Markets’ monthly automotive retail industry update survey gave some candid comments about their used-vehicle prospects, especially in light of 44 percent of respondents saying they expected gross profit per unit to soften by about $50. Despite that gross-profit expectation, the vast majority of dealers surveyed in September (78 percent) […] [Read More]

Prices for all segments in the lanes were falling last month, but one more fuel-efficient SUV segment lead the pack with a sizeable drop. According to the ADESA Canada Used Vehicle Price Index, compact SUV prices fell by 7.6 percent, or $891, in September. This was by far the largest decline after the index fell […] [Read More]

Auto/Mate Dealership Systems announced this week a product development that company management says will streamline dealership workflow. The company has integrated its dealerships management system with etfile’s electronic document management solution. Now, dealers using the etfile document imagining, filing and retrieval system can now get deals from F&I and repair orders from service, via delivery […] [Read More]

Remarketing of America announced this week its new partnership with WALZ. The communications compliance services offered by WALZ will help ROA provide compliant, critical default notices to its clients during the early- to late-state collections process to help comply with the various complex regulatory conditions throughout the United States. Emory White, the president and chief […] [Read More]

Cox Automotive announced this week the integration of two of its dealer management tools. With this integration, data from VinSolutions CRM can be accessed via the vAuto Provision suite, helping dealers make better inventory management decisions while using Provision. Randy Kobat, the vice president and general manager of vAuto, believes the integration will be mutually […] [Read More]

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urges owners of more than 4.7 million vehicles originally manufactured by Toyota, Honda, Mazda, BMW, Nissan and General Motors to act immediately on recall notices to replace defective Takata airbags. Federal officials stressed that their message comes with added emphasis, especially for owners of vehicles affected by the regional […] [Read More]

Since regulatory arms such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau turned their sites on the automotive business, NIADA — like many in the industry — has made compliance top of mind. Steve Jordan, executive vice president of the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association, explained that dealer education is one of the association’s big focuses these days. […] [Read More]