With less than two weeks to go before the start of the 2010 National Remarketing Conference and 2010 CPO Forum in San Diego, conference organizers have released a preliminary attendee list for the conferences.   [Read More]

TrueCar said Tuesday that it will soon roll out a used-vehicle pricing index that it contends can provide a precise picture of used-vehicle asking price trends and actually help dealers sell these vehicles quicker. [Read More]

The 2010 Annual Auto Survey by Consumer Reports revealed a considerable improvement for Chevrolet with regards to predicted reliability.   After having just 50 percent of its vehicles achieve average or better scores in this survey a year ago, Chevrolet shot up to 83 percent this year. [Read More]

Strength in the used-vehicle segment, among other factors, was pivotal in helping Asbury Automotive Group achieve stronger profits in the third quarter, the company said Thursday as it released its quarterly earnings report. Specifically, Asbury saw its net income increase from $7.4 million to $12.5 million on a year-over-year basis. Income from continuing operations was […] [Read More]

Thanks to gains in retail revenue — especially for used vehicles — Sonic Automotive posted an uptick in third-quarter adjusted earnings from continuing operations. Company executives reported Tuesday the earnings climbed to 27 cents per diluted share, up from 26 cents during the same quarter last year. “Our total revenues were up approximately 9 percent over […] [Read More]

R.L. Polk & Co. and Hook — a company that provides incentive programs to help increase traffic for various lead-driven businesses, including auto dealerships — recently conducted a pilot program for a test-drive incentive at MileOne dealerships. Officials said results were quite positive. In fact, dealers who participated saw their closing rates climb 20 percent […] [Read More]

A myriad of factors are pushing dealers toward online auctions. Economic conditions continue to pinch both consumers and businesses. Lagging new-vehicle sales have tightened wholesale volumes for months. Technological advances now allow dealers to scour for inventory at 2 p.m. or 2 a.m., not just during the weekly sale day. As a result, auction companies […] [Read More]

Swapalease.com sees the sales performance of luxury brands becoming a new sweet spot for improved leasing activity in the coming future. The website noted eight luxury nameplates that posted anywhere from 8- to 19-percent increases in sales to date as compared to the same time last year. The growth Swapalease.com highlighted includes: —Audi: 19.1 percent. […] [Read More]

Volkswagen of America touted the half dozen new elements associated with  the completely redesigned website that the automaker launched on Monday. It’s all meant to augment the brand’s global digital business strategy to enhance the user experience in both shopping for and owning a VW. The automaker noted the redesigned site is on a globally hosted […] [Read More]

Dealer Specialties said late last week that it will be offering an integration application that is designed to enable its dealer customers to make instantaneous pricing and vehicle comment updates through vAuto. In essence, when a dealer customer uses vAuto to make an adjustment, the change will be instantaneously reflected in the Dealer Specialties inventory management tool, officials explained [Read More]