Following what has been some rather challenging times recently, Saab revealed some more good news on Monday.  The company announced the signing of final agreements securing investments with China’s auto dealership chain Pang Da Automobile Trade Co. and automaker Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. that have been in the works since last month. The company […] [Read More]

Under a partnership between the two companies announced Tuesday afternoon, Japanese conglomerate Marubeni Corp. will obtain a 20-percent share of Westlake Financial Services. The deal, which closed Friday, is valued at $250 million in newly issued equity. In addition to owning a fifth of Westlake, Marubeni will also have two executive board seats. [Read More]

Considering the same relative softness on the retail side of the market, the current movement in the wholesale arena doesn’t come as a “major surprise” to Black Book’s Ricky Beggs, who spotted overall price declines on both the car and truck sides of the market for the third straight week. He said in the latest […] [Read More]

Veteran industry analyst James Bell has a new position — this time with a member of the Big 3. Bell, who previously worked as vice president of corporate communications and executive market analyst at Kelley Blue Book , was appointed by General Motors as the automaker’s head of consumer affairs. “James will provide expertise on […] [Read More]

It was revealed Tuesday that Dealix — which is part of the Dealer Services Group of Automatic Data Processing — now powers the new-car quote and dealer selector platform for NADAguides.com. The partnership adds to the list of auto websites already employing Dealix in their new-car quote processes — those being Yahoo Autos, MSN Autos […] [Read More]

In what appears to be a good sign for Big 3 dealers, AutoNation’s June retail new-vehicle sales showed a slight uptick year-over-year, due in part to a large increase in domestic sales. The company announced Tuesday that its retail new-vehicle sales last month came in at 16,564, an increase of 3 percent year-over-year.  Also, year-to-date […] [Read More]

John Hine has seen a number of good things come out of Mazda’s certified pre-owned program since the automaker revamped it a year ago. Mazda’s CPO program builds value and fosters greater consumer confidence, Hine said, and it has helped his San Diego dealership see greater used Mazda sales. “And it’s also improved our gross-profit […] [Read More]

Now almost four months after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, Edmunds.com wanted to see the difference between new-vehicle inventory levels now and shortly after the March disaster that disrupted production industry-wide. What site analysts found might surprise franchise dealers. Using a statistically representative sample of U.S. inventory, Edmunds.com discovered, as expected, that dealer inventories for […] [Read More]

Though the inventory shortage has certainly caused some real issues for automakers, there is a bit of a silver lining, according to TrueCar’s Jesse Toprak. Not only are OEMs spending less on incentives, but June transaction prices were the strongest of all time, Toprak said. Thus, more profits. “The upside to a lack of inventory […] [Read More]

Dealers looking to move more specialty units such as heavy trucks, Rvs and motorcycles might find a new partner in Manheim Financial Services. The company announced late last week that it is expanding its specialty division and looking for dealers in need of financing — treating this market sector as an avenue for potential growth. […] [Read More]