Coming on the heels of Fiat increasing its ownership in Chrysler thanks to another performance achievement, last week the Italian automaker reached another agreement by exercising its incremental equity call option to gain another 16 percent interest in the Big 3 OEM. Under this agreement, Fiat explained that it will exercise in full its incremental equity call […] [Read More]

Jaguar Land Rover revealed last week that a former Porsche executive will take on the top spot for the automaker’s operations here, replacing current Jaguar Land Rover North America’s Gary Temple, who is retiring later this year. Named to the role is Andy Goss, the former chief executive officer of Porsche Cars GB, who steps […] [Read More]

After the model picked up an honor at the New York International Auto Show, Nissan Americas decided to accelerate the U.S. market launch of the Nissan LEAF. Beginning May 1, the company explained it will reopen reservations to select consumers as both vehicle production and U.S. deliveries move into the many thousands. Nissan recapped that […] [Read More]

Autobytel recently promoted one of its staff members to managing editor of its primary website to head up the overall editorial direction and add exclusive articles, videos and reviews. Chosen for this position was Michelle Naranjo, who already was involved with the Autobytel.com redesign, serving as a production editor. Autobytel highlighted Naranjo has more than […] [Read More]

Toyota Motor Sales USA will recall more than 300,000 RAV4 and Highlander models to swap out the airbag sensor assembly, the company announced late last week. Included in the voluntary safety recall are about 214,000 RAV4 units from model years 2007 and 2008, as well as 94,000 Highlander and Highlander HV units from model-year 2008. [Read More]

There is a new vice president of sales and business development at Columbus Fair Auto Auction.  Named to the post is Greg Levi, whose industry experience includes time in retail auto sales and auto technology environments. Levi’s responsibilities will include heading up the auction’s institutional sales, dealer sales, telemarketing and business development. Prior to this, Levi spent time managing […] [Read More]

Group 1 Automotive has broadened its presence in the company’s home state with the purchase of a BMW and Mini dealership in El Paso, Texas. The dealer group expects that the franchises — which will be called BMW of El Paso and Mini of El Paso — will pull in yearly revenues of $55 million. […] [Read More]

Among the popular themes and topics of discussion at the recently held Auto Remarketing Canada 2011 conference was the emerging role of the dealer-to-dealer online wholesale sales of used vehicles, as well as the growing presence of auction sales that are open to the public. Do these remarketing avenues work, and are they ideal for […] [Read More]

When it comes to the certified pre-owned market, Toyota Canada’s Mitch Gauthier said his company has found that Canadian consumers place the greatest importance on three key benefits of the automaker’s CPO program. Gauthier, the company’s manager of pre-owned sales, said that according to a survey of Toyota Canada’s CPO customers, the aspect of the […] [Read More]

CarProof reported earlier this week that another automaker in Canada is now using the company’s vehicle history reports as part of its certified pre-owned program. Joining the list of automakers implementing CarProof’s reports is Volvo, whose Volvo Cars of Canada Corp. CPO program has augmented its inspection process by requiring all certified units to include […] [Read More]