Having been captain of his college basketball team, General Motors’ Ed Peper is bringing the same mentality to his current position as general manger of GM fleet and commercial operations. Peper highlighted what’s in GM’s vehicle pipeline for commercial buyers, as well as how he plans to lead the automaker’s team to meet the demands […] [Read More]

Given that a white paper from DMEautomotive recently discovered that younger consumers are steering more and more to other sources for their service needs, dealers can likely find some solace in what a different study suggested about customer satisfaction with service facilities. Consumers turning to the dealer to take care of their service needs are […] [Read More]

Mercedes-Benz USA revealed Wednesday it has promoted one of its own to the newly created position of senior vice president of sales.  Tapped for the position is Michael Slagter, former vice president of sales for MBUSA. The promotion is effective immediately, and Slagter will report to MBUSA president and chief executive officer Steve Cannon.   [Read More]

Polk discovered on Wednesday that 2011 used commercial vehicle registrations reached a record level for a calendar year, ending up at 791,288 units. The total surpassed the previous record of 671,887 units registered in 2010, and the rise represented a 17.8-percent increase in year-over-year registrations. Polk’s analysis of new and used commercial vehicle registrations (GVW […] [Read More]

With speakers including Manheim’s Sandy Schwartz, Kia’s Tom Loveless, Asbury’s Ed Curry and DARCARs’ Tammy Darvish, auction executives have descended on Caesars Palace in Las Vegas today for the start of the National Auto Auction Association/CAR event, which also features a meeting of the International Automotive Remarketers Alliance. On Tuesday, a bit of business was […] [Read More]

On Tuesday evening, Manheim’s 24/7 Bid or Buy now wholesale vehicle marketplace OVE.com  held its third annual Otto Awards ceremony at the NAAA/CAR conference in Las Vegas , honoring five auctions with the accolades. “Named for the company’s ferret mascot, the Otto Awards are broken into five winning categories, each including one Manheim and one […] [Read More]

When last March’s Japanese earthquake and tsunami constrained the supply of new vehicles, wholesale channels stepped in again to fill the role dealers have come to expect. Leading wholesale analysts cheered the role auctions and other remarketing outlets played as the automotive industry recovered from a wide array of setbacks the horrific natural disaster caused. […] [Read More]

As expected for the start of 2012, wholesale prices declined moderately in February, falling less than 2 percent from the year-ago period. The drop-off, though, was also strongly influenced by the decline in truck prices amid high gas prices, in addition to the seasonality that impacted used pricing, according to the latest report from ADESA […] [Read More]

Black Book’s Ricky Beggs believes the wholesale market took a “major turn” a week ago as editors spotted a record number of price increases. The managing editor indicated the number of vehicles adjusted on a daily basis was “reasonably in line” with most other recent weeks, averaging 1,734 per day a week ago. “The results […] [Read More]

In a report from CBS affiliate WBZ-TV from Boston, online car shoppers have reason to be wary.  What WBZ reported as “thousands of used-car buyers,” may be walking right into a scam, which the FBI told the station could be the work of an international organized crime ring. And the scammers might be working their […] [Read More]