Bob Sight Auto Group has acquired Dale Willey Automotive in Lawrence, Kan., from Greg Maurer, according to Performance Brokerage Services, which brokered the sale. The longstanding Kansas City-area operation, founded in 1970, includes Honda and Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram stores. Maurer joined the ownership group in 1998 and became sole owner in 2014. Bob Sight […] [Read More]

A Reynolds and Reynolds executive has been elected to a prestigious position. Director of industry relations Shawn Leibold was selected in a special election to fill a vacant seat on the board of directors of automotive information technology standards organization Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail. Leibold had previously been a STAR board member, and […] [Read More]

Kanchana Sundaram acknowledged dealerships are fertile places for fraud to happen. But Experian’s senior director of product and innovation for automotive offered several suggestions for how stores can remain car retailers, not vehicle victims, during this episode of the Auto Remarketing Podcast recorded in Las Vegas at NADA Show 2024. Listen to the episode in […] [Read More]

Vero and Privacy4Cars finalized an exclusive partnership aimed at helping consumers from personal data abuses through vehicle data deletion and ID theft recovery. The fruit of the partnership is Identi-FI, which pairs Privacy4Cars’ patented AutoCleared and Vehicle Privacy Report tools with Vero’s three-generation fully managed recovery (FMR), providing a comprehensive solution that is available now […] [Read More]

Merger-and-acquisition activities surfaced again this week in the F&I space. Brown & Brown chief acquisitions officer Scott Penny and DealerMax owners Jim Maxim Jr. and Jim Maxim Sr. announced that Brown & Brown Dealer Services (BBDS) has acquired the assets of DealerMax. DealerMax, founded in 1982 by Jim Maxim Sr. as Maxim Automotive, serves dealer […] [Read More]

MileOne Autogroup has joined Universal Technical Institute’s early employment program for automotive technicians at the institute’s Exton, Pa. and Mooresville, N.C. campuses. Selected UTI-Exton and NASCAR Tech students enrolled in the automotive technology program can work 20-30 paid hours weekly as part of the early employment program. Participants who remain with MileOne after graduation will […] [Read More]

FordDirect’s e-commerce platform has added another vendor to its roster. One Step Secure IT, an outsourced IT company specializing in cybersecurity and protecting customer data from breaches, is the latest company to join The Shop, the e-commerce platform launched in January by FordDirect – a joint venture between Ford and Lincoln dealers and Ford Motor […] [Read More]

Customer satisfaction with the dealer service experience is up, even as wait times for appointments and vehicle service continue to rise, according to the latest research from J.D. Power. The company’s 2024 U.S. Customer Service Index Study found overall customer satisfaction rose by five points on its 1,000-point scale, to 851. The study, in its […] [Read More]

AutoCanada wrapped up its fiscal fourth quarter with stronger new-car sales pushing total year-over-year revenue up by 6.9%. But while demand for new cars and parts, service and collision repairs was high, the dealer group experienced softer used-vehicle sales, especially in the U.S. Chief financial officer Azim Lalani said during the call to discuss fiscal full-year and Q4 results that Canadian same-store used retail vehicle units sold decreased by ... [Read More]

Wholesale vehicle prices continued a slow decline last week with a 0.31% drop, right after finishing February with prices down by 9.0% year-over-year, according to the latest weekly report from Canadian Black Book. The car segments saw bigger price drops last week, with prices declining by just over a half-percent. Trucks and SUVs experienced a […] [Read More]