Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America said Monday that it has seen an 80-percent decrease in reports of acceleration-related concerns from customers since April when its SMART evaluation program was rolled out. With these efforts to address acceleration-related issues being so successful, TEMA said its SMART program will be enlarged to tackle other areas of […] [Read More]

While acknowledging that import brands have the lead in the San Francisco Bay area where her family dealership resides, dealer Carolyn Lehmer Anderson contends that the product her store offers is stronger.   Concord Buick-GMC chief financial officer Darren Anderson — her son — even boasts that the “right marketing” can help the dealership grab even more conquest sales.   [Read More]

Import automakers saw year-over-year lift in new-vehicle sales during September as they remain on a “gradual” and “steady” uptick, according to the American International Automobile Dealers Association. Sharing figures from Autodata Corp., AIADA noted that import brands moved 525,483 units in September, a year-over-year gain of 25.4 percent. Through nine months of the year, import dealers have […] [Read More]

NADAguides.com revealed Monday that it has appointed a director of business development. Named to the post is Skip Esch. His role will have him heading up all business development areas. His duties include leading overall business development strategy, existing client management and finding new market segments for the company to enter. Esch’s experience includes auto advertising and […] [Read More]

Ford and its Northern California dealers recently contributed $25,000 to help in the aftermath of the gas explosion that took place in San Bruno, Calif., earlier this month. The funds were given to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s San Bruno Fire Fund, which will determine which non-profits benefit. Basically 100 percent of the donation will […] [Read More]

NEW YORK — Flagship Credit Acceptance, a national indirect auto finance company that originates and services non-prime loans, was taken over this week and given new leadership by investment firm Perella Weinberg Partners. To take majority ownership interest in Flagship, Perella Weinberg Partners committed to invest up to $50 million in the lender's platform. Meanwhile, Perella […] [Read More]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Bankers Association's Consumer Credit Delinquency Bulletin found that both direct and indirect auto loan delinquencies dropped in the second quarter. ABA revealed that direct auto loan delinquencies declined from 1.79 percent to 1.67 percent. Meanwhile, indirect auto loan delinquencies fell from 3.03 percent to 3.01 percent. Across the board, ABA discovered […] [Read More]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Through the first nine months of this year, the American Bankruptcy Institute revealed that U.S. consumer bankruptcy filings are 11 percent higher than during the same time span last year. According to data provided by the National Bankruptcy Research Center, the amount of bankruptcies filed through Sept. 30 totaled 1,165,172 nationwide. During the first […] [Read More]

FORT WORTH, Texas — General Motors Financial, formerly AmeriCredit, announced it has successfully been incorporated into General Motors. Basically, GM Financial is the surviving corporation of AmeriCredit's merger with Goalie Texas Holdco Inc. and became a wholly owned subsidiary of GM Holdings and a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of General Motors. The effective date of the merger […] [Read More]

In today’s transient society we see people moving from residence to residence, from city to city and from state to state. The financial and collection divisions of automobile sales companies are faced with a major obstacle: “What do we do when mail returns and we do not know where our secured collateral is located?”   [Read More]