Let’s imagine that you own a gas station. A week ago, the supply truck filled the underground tanks at your station at a wholesale cost of $3.30 per gallon. Today, as you opened the station for business, you learned that the wholesale cost had dropped to $3. You look across the street and see a […] [Read More]

Audi defends its Le Mans 24 Hours endurance title this past June, winning for the second consecutive year. Mercedes AMG Petronas prepares for the Silverstone British Grand Prix. As OEMs continue to sponsor and participate in motorsports, it seems this extra limelight is paying off on dealer lots. According to Foresight Reasearch’ 2012 Automotive Marketing […] [Read More]

For dealers that might use the phrase “up to” in connection with vehicle incentives or performance, the National Automobile Dealers Association pointed managers toward a study just released by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC-commissioned study indicated that when marketers — which can include dealers — use the phrase “up to” in claims about their […] [Read More]

One million electric vehicles on American roads by 2015 — that’s the goal of the Obama administration. But will America reach it? Despite ramped-up production of plug-in electric vehicles — or PEVs — by U.S. and Japanese automakers over the past two years, it seems the challenge is larger than automakers or policymakers foresaw when […] [Read More]

As incentives remained relatively flat in June, possibly seeing slight declines, some OEMs notched their highest average transaction prices for the second consecutive month.  Both Toyota and Honda recorded unusually high transaction rates for this past month. According to TrueCar.com, Toyota enjoyed an 8 percent year-over-year rise and a 0.4-percent rise from May of this […] [Read More]

The Skip-Tracers National Certification Program, rolled out earlier this year by veteran Alex Price, has been named one of the top training programs in the country by an industry website. Officials from PINow.com tapped Price’s program as one of the top 25 available nationwide. Price took nearly 30 years of industry experience and created an […] [Read More]

Recovery Database Network’s May Analytics Update showed both recovery volume and orders increased month-over-month. Analysts indicated May recovery volumes increased 2 percentage points from April as the index reading moved up to 51 from 49. They added May recovery orders increased 3 percentage points from the previous month, pushing the index figure up to 56 […] [Read More]

Automotive retail is a competitive business. Competition thrives between dealers, brands, suppliers, and manufacturers — driving us all to do better. As any dealer will tell you, to succeed in this industry you must have a competitive edge — and enjoy going head to head with your rivals. Competition undoubtedly makes us a healthier, sharper […] [Read More]

General Motors had its best month in almost four years, Chrysler had its strongest June in five years and Ford reported record sales for two of its models. What’s more, Toyota was up significantly from tsunami-impacted June 2011 as its U.S. dealers moved close to 178,000 new vehicles. These were just some of the highlights […] [Read More]

Auto dealers know that e-commerce offers big opportunities for boosting performance and profitability, but some, arguably, aren’t quite on the road to reach that destination and are missing out on potential growth. That’s the premise behind a new NCM Associates program geared for those dealers looking to boost their Internet and e-commerce sales and savvy, with […] [Read More]