BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. — Penske Automotive Group isn't satisfied with F&I gross profit per retail sale in 2012 coming in at $1,000 when others franchised dealer groups have higher levels. Chairman Roger Penske explained this week that F&I is a target for improvement through what he said would be a combination of efforts, including "adding […] [Read More]

CINCINNATI — Automobile Consumer Services, a provider of direct-to-consumer financing and leasing services, recently entered into a joint agreement with LendingTree Autos and CreditSmarts.com. The deal is designed to offer competitive financing options for consumers of LendingTree Autos and to dealers of the CreditSmarts.com lending platform. Officials highlighted this new partnership is meant to bring […] [Read More]

Canadian debt levels continued to creep up in the last quarter of 2012. In fact, TransUnion's quarterly analysis of Canadian credit trends found that the average consumer's total debt (excluding mortgage) increased nearly 6 percent from $25,960 at the end of 2011 to $27,485 in Q4 2012. “The year-over-year increase was the largest of its […] [Read More]

After what NADA Used Car Guide called a slight “plateau” in the lanes since the new year began auction prices as a whole are expected to increase slightly over the course of the current week. According to NADA UCG, the overall industry average price is expected to grow by 0.2 percent, or $25, versus last […] [Read More]

As was reportedly coming, Chrysler Group and Santander Consumer USA joined forces Wednesday for an agreement to provide a full spectrum of auto financing services to Chrysler and Fiat customers and dealers under the name Chrysler Capital. In a move that will end a three-year, post-bankruptcy association with Ally Financial, Chrysler Capital will be launched […] [Read More]

As part of record company profitability in the fourth quarter, Penske Automotive Group dealerships retailed 16.2 percent more used vehicles during the last segment of 2012 compared to the year-ago period. Penske reported Wednesday that its stores turned 34,991 used units in the fourth quarter, up from 30,124 vehicles to close 2011. While the company […] [Read More]

Along with analysis of what commercial produced the biggest impact, Cars.com is looking to continue to leverage its spot shown during this past Sunday’s Super Bowl. In front of an audience of 108 million viewers, Cars.com debuted the first ad of its new campaign that has been asking the question, “why drama?” The site answered […] [Read More]

Liquid Motors said Wednesday that it has rolled out a new tool that can help dealers improve inventory control and merchandising. Wholesale Max allows dealers to set up auto-launch rules to major online wholesale marketplaces for the vehicles they want to sell, based on age of the unit and other metrics. Dealers only have to […] [Read More]

vAuto’s Genius Labs revealed Wednesday that is new AutoVisor toll will be integrated with a few of the industry’s top third-party sites and leading companies. The new tool, set to debut at the upcoming NADA Convention & Expo, now integrates with AutoTrader.com, KBB.com, Carfax and DealerRater. [Read More]

Many dealers are employing live chat with potential customers via the dealership website. A new partnership between Dealer.com and Contact At Once aims to expand that reach to the third-party sites often used by car shoppers. Dealer.com on Wednesday announced its partnership with Contact At Once, to offer greater visibility to its automotive customers into […] [Read More]