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]

Dealers will now be able to take advantage of ClassicCars.com’s Certified Classic Vehicle program, announced the company late last week. The program, which was previously limited to private sellers, has also gained quite a few dealer-specific enhancements through its recent expansion, noted company officials. Additionally, ClassicCars.com also introduced a credit program for qualified dealers, allowing […] [Read More]

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers is launching a bundle of new value-added services for its customers in the U.S., Canada and throughout the world. These new services — which include detailed equipment information, real-time auction results through its website, equipment financing, powertrain service warranties and property and cargo insurance — are geared to complement and further enhance the […] [Read More]