WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. — J.D. Power and Associates recently shared some details stemming from their Franchise Assessment which summarizes all the information they collect from consumers, PIN and its forecasting group. Brands such as Chevrolet, Ford, Hyundai and Lexus all received ratings that fell into J.D. Power's "excellent" category. Meanwhile brands such as Chrysler and Infiniti struggled […] [Read More]

FAIRFIELD, Calif. — Copart announced earlier this week that it has been chosen to be the exclusive national provider of vehicle sales and auction services for Allstate. "We chose Copart because of its proven track record in meeting the needs of our customers and assisting us in realizing our strategic objectives," shared Bill Daly, Allstate's assistant […] [Read More]

LONDON — Analysts from automotive research firm Frost & Sullivan projected Toyota's repair costs for ongoing recalls could reach $1.5 billion compounding yet-to-be determined market share losses. Vigneshwaran Chandran, Frost & Sullivan's program manager of its business strategy and innovation group, went on to pinpoint what element of the Toyota turmoil could be most costly. "One […] [Read More]

CARY, N.C. — The last of three Cherokee Automotive Group Analytics' surveys will conclude at the end of February. The surveys gather much-needed research data and trends for the remarketing, prime and subprime industries. The findings are compiled into a report and provided at no cost to survey participants. CAGA's first two reports covered both remarketing […] [Read More]

HANOVER, Md. — The National Automotive Finance Association revealed plans for a Webinar featuring Melinda Zabritski, director of automotive credit for Experian Automotive. The Webinar titled, "A Special Review of the Below-Prime Automotive Finance Market," is scheduled for Feb. 23 beginning at 2 p.m. Some of the highlights Zabritski plans to share are: —Overall automotive finance […] [Read More]

COLUMBIA, Md. — Credit Management Solutions and Black Book revealed an agreement to provide CMSI eXchange with what executives described as an affordable, monthly valuation and analytics service for auto portfolios. Officials went on to highlight that the timely and accurate valuation information via CMSI eXchange is geared to benefit consumer lending, collections and portfolio managers. […] [Read More]

NEW YORK — This morning, Zoombak announced the coming launch of Locate Assist, which by utilizing cell tower data gives dealers another way of tracking units under the company's GPS Recovery Finance Track Buy-Here, Pay-Here product. Basically, if a Zoombak device is unable to lock onto a high accuracy GPS signal, the device will still send […] [Read More]

HOUSTON — As I reviewed the year-end results of buy-here, pay-here operators throughout the nation, I noticed that 2009 produced some diverse results. Although my analysis (preparatory to compiling the industry benchmarks) is still in progress, here are some preliminary observations: 1. Some operators had lower sales in 2009 compared with 2008 but made more bottom-line […] [Read More]

TOKYO — Speaking out in response to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's probe into three of his company's recalls and the situation in general, Akio Toyoda alluded to the fact that the quality issues came from Toyota's rapid growth in manufacturing and marketing. In fact, in a press conference today the Toyota Motor Corp. president announced he is […] [Read More]

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — Ford's strengthening retail position received another boost Wednesday when Experian Automotive released its customer brand loyalty analysis for the third quarter of 2009. Of the top five vehicles highlighted, Ford had four units in this contingent with a brand loyalty percentage of 56 percent or higher. The four vehicles in this cluster included […] [Read More]