Last week I mentioned dealers who expressed less optimism than their peers about a strong used-vehicle market this coming spring. These dealers were saying things like: “I’m taking every used vehicle deal I can. I’m not holding out for gross because I believe the supply will be there to replace it. I’m trying to get […] [Read More]

Last week, the Westlake Financial Services Remarketing Department named its top auctions for 2012, with four locations taking home the honors. The honorees are as follows: Rawls Auto Auction (Leesville, S.C.) was named the Eastern Region Auction of the Year; Kansas City Independent Auto Auction (Kansas City, Mo.) takes top honors for the Midwest, and […] [Read More]

Auction Academy, which saw industry participation that exceeded first-year expectations, will start its second year off with a new president. Pierre Pons, president and chief executive officer of TPC Management Co., which developed Auction Academy, announced that Richard Curtis will serve as president of the professional education program for the auto auction industry. “The independent […] [Read More]

NEW YORK — Chase Auto Finance appointed a new chief executive officer today, succeeding Marc Sheinbaum who has asked to pursue other opportunities. Moving into the role is Thasunda Brown Duckett who previously was part of Chase's consumer and community banking division. Duckett also served as national retail sales executive for Chase's Mortgage Banking division. […] [Read More]

BANDON, Ore. — While approvals for subprime deals is one of the factors that appears to be taking some steam out of new-vehicle sales momentum this month, CNW Research also noticed that the percentage of used-vehicle contracts with buyers having FICO scores below 670 is at the highest point since January 2010. The firm indicated […] [Read More]

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — As more lenders are buying deeper into subprime pools, buy-here, pay-here dealership chain America's Car-Mart managed to post a 16-percent increase in the number of units sold during the third quarter of its fiscal year. Car-Mart turned an average of 29.2 units at each of its 118 stores in operation during the […] [Read More]

LOS ANGELES — In a state where more regulation went into place this year specifically targeted at buy-here, pay-here stores, Nowcom Corp.'s DealerCenter and the Independent Automobile Dealers Association of California announced today that they have entered into a memorandum of understanding for co-marketing and co-branding purposes. IADAC and dealer management solutions provider DealerCenter agreed […] [Read More]

Along with sharing their perspective on Chrysler’s stair-step incentive program, Lithia Motors’ top executives joined the parade of large publicly traded groups answering questions about their acquisition strategies. In Lithia’s case, president and chief executive officer Bryan DeBoer said the company’s dealership footprint is going to have to grow in order to achieve its revenue […] [Read More]

On the same day insurance officials came out with revised damage estimates, KAR Auction Services chief executive officer Jim Hallett certainly had the numbers to back up an assertion that Superstorm Sandy was the most catastrophic event in the history of Insurance Auto Auctions. Because of additional equipment and manpower as well as logistical obstacles […] [Read More]

When Auto Remarketing talked to Sonic Automotive’s Jeff Dyke this past summer about the retailer’s new inventory tool, the executive vice president of operations said the Sonic Inventory Management System would “change our whole company.” At the time, SIMS was being used by a third of Sonic’s dealers. The group finished moving all of its […] [Read More]