KAR Global certainly appears to have an interest in more than just the Canadian wholesale market stemming from its investment decisions. On Wednesday, Canada Drives, an online car shopping and to-your-door delivery platform, announced the close of $100 million in funding, led by Jeffrey Housenbold’s Honor Ventures with participation from KAR and other strategic investors. […] [Read More]

Though still up considerably from year-ago levels, wholesale vehicle prices in the first half of August were down slightly from the full month of July. That’s according to the mid-month reading of the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index. Through 15 days of the month, the index was at 193.7. That’s up 18.3% from the midpoint […] [Read More]

TradePending, which provides vehicle valuation and merchandising software to car dealers, said Wednesday it has added former CDK Global and AutoNation executive Ron Frey and AutoHook founder David Metter to its board. Frey — who in his current role as principal at RL Frey, Inc. is working as a business and transaction advisor, automotive strategist and […] [Read More]

Spiffy didn’t have to go too far for its latest franchise launch. The on-demand car care, tech and services company said Wednesday that its newest franchise has opened in Greensboro, N.C., which is roughly an hour from Spiffy headquarters. This is the sixth franchise market in which Spiffy has opened since March. The franchise owner, […] [Read More]

When Urban Science released statistics and insights from its 2021 Mid-Year Automotive Franchise Activity Report (FAR), analysts said “an interesting observation is that California has returned to the list of most active states adding the dealerships.” The report indicated a small uptick in dealership rooftops nationwide and an increase in sales throughput. But it’s the […] [Read More]

The Midwest isn’t just a fertile field for agriculture. On Wednesday, IAA announced that it has broken ground on the construction of two new branches in Minnesota and Indiana. The company highlighted that IAA Minneapolis South will become the second in Minnesota and will provide significant inventory storage and updated facilities to serve the growing […] [Read More]

The financial services industry — including auto financing — is rebounding strongly from the early impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to TransUnion’s Q2 2021 Quarterly Credit Industry Insights Report (CIIR). In fact, analysts discovered the metric that many finance company executives might be watching closest nowadays — delinquencies — is at a rate on […] [Read More]

The ACA International board of directors selected an interim director during its meeting last week. The organization that brings together third-party collection agencies, law firms, asset buying companies, creditors and vendor affiliates welcomed Tim Haag to serve on its board. ACA said in a news release that the board was tasked with selecting an interim […] [Read More]

The wholesale market is proving to be one streaky environment this year. Following the unprecedented run-up in wholesale values, Black Book reported Tuesday that prices continue to trend downward, as they dipped for the seventh week in a row. Seven consecutive weeks also represent how long analysts have seen auction sales rates below 70%. During the […] [Read More]

Privacy4Cars announced a Series A investment round Tuesday led by FM Capital, with additional investment by Automotive Ventures. The round is the first fundraising from institutional investors for Privacy4Cars, a tech company that aims to identify and resolve data privacy issues in the auto industry. Both FM Capital and Automotive Ventures specialize in the automotive/transportation […] [Read More]