In what Black Book’s Ricky Beggs called a stable week for the used-car market, the proportion of changes made to wholesale values last week that were positive was substantially higher than the previous week. “Last week (during the report), I mentioned the very limited 29 percent of the adjustments being increases to the vehicle values […] [Read More]

The year’s opening reading of the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index extended the pattern established through much of 2010 — a steady move higher. Manheim’s Tom Webb pinpointed January’s mark at 124.9. The figure represented a 0.4-percent uptick from the previous month and a 6.2-percent jump from a year ago. The index has moved higher […] [Read More]

Despite IntelliChoice reducing the amount of honors by more than half, two brands, in particular, still led the industry on the firm’s list of the 2011 Best Overall Value of the Year Awards, released Monday at the National Automobile Dealers Association Convention & Expo. Combining to claim 11 of the 21 spots were Toyota and […] [Read More]

Created to mirror the front-line inventory that franchise dealers have on their physical lots, AutoTrader.com on Monday launched a new feature dealing with how new-vehicle listings are presented through searches on its website. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0in […] [Read More]

On Monday, TrueCar officially rolled out its ClearBook.com used-vehicle value index, a tool it says gives dealers and consumers a detailed picture of the entire used-car market’s behavior. ClearBook creates a used-vehicle price report for dealers and shoppers after analyzing millions of used-vehicle listings by year, make, model, mileage and condition. The site aims to […] [Read More]

Along with bolstering its collaborative relationship with Polk, Reynolds and Reynolds announced this past weekend it will offer its basic mobile website solution free to all U.S. franchised dealers, regardless of their dealership management system or website provider. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; […] [Read More]

ATLANTA — Findings contained within Manheim's annual Used Car Market Report insisted buy-here, pay-here dealer sales rebounded faster than the overall market last year. Why? Officials believe that although credit loosened in the subprime segment in 2010, BHPH dealerships often were the only places customers with FICO scores below 570 could buy vehicles. Manheim couldn't […] [Read More]

SAN FRANCISCO — At the National Automobile Dealers Association's Convention over the weekend DealerTrack unveiled several new initiatives, including a new tool within its CreditOnline solution for dealer websites that allows consumers to submit credit applications, giving dealers the opportunity to automate loan pre-qualification. Basically, CreditOnline provides consumers with an immediate response about their auto loan […] [Read More]

DETROIT — Experian Automotive's AutoCount data revealed Ally Financial financed more consumer new-vehicle purchases in the U.S. than any other lender last year. All told in 2010, officials discovered Ally financed more than 803,000 new-vehicle purchases, resulting in nearly $23 billion in consumer retail contracts in the U.S. They calculated the figure represents approximately a […] [Read More]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Small Business Administration officials announced at the National Automobile Dealers Association's convention this weekend that a pilot loan program aimed at increasing access to inventory financing for auto, boat, RV and other dealerships will be relaunched Wednesday. SBA indicated the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 included a provision for relaunching SBA's […] [Read More]