A small dealership group doubled in size with the acquisition of two stores in Iowa. Alex Tovstanovsky and his mother, Yelena, of Sky Auto Mall have purchased Van Horn Ford and Van Horn Chevrolet in Newhall, Iowa from Van Horn Automotive Group, according to Performance Brokerage Services, which brokered the transaction. The Tovstanovskys immigrated to […] [Read More]

Orbee, a provider of automotive data management and middleware software, announced it has received additional capital funding from investors that include two dealership groups. The company plans to use the funding to expand its sales and customer support efforts and accelerate its ongoing product development. The amount of the investment was not disclosed. The Presidio […] [Read More]

Sunbit and Reynolds and Reynolds announced an integration partnership last week. The move is meant to enable dealerships to convert more repair orders by utilizing the Reynolds Retail Management System and Sunbit’s financing technology to leverage real-time data and prescreen customers at different stages of the service journey. According to a news release, the service […] [Read More]

The majority of dealerships are experiencing data gaps between the core systems that run their operations:  customer relationship management, dealer management and finance management systems. The vast majority are saying that better quality integrations and workflows between website tools and core platforms could improve efficiencies at the dealership by at least 20%. Those assertions are […] [Read More]

Along with rolling out new resources for dealerships, CUDL highlighted last week that its credit union vehicle financing platform closed 2024 with $41.16 billion in funded contracts. Last year, the company said a growing number of credit unions embraced the technology fueled by artificial intelligence available through CUDL, resulting in faster decisioning and funding. Credit […] [Read More]

Cherokee Media Group asked Satyan Merchant whether finance companies opened the year with an optimistic outlook, a pessimistic view or something in the middle. The senior vice president and auto and mortgage business lead at TransUnion shared his assessment amid this backdrop: many consumers who are now considering auto financing may be reentering the market with far more complicated credit pictures than they did even just a few years ago. “Cautious optimism is the way I would describe it with auto finance companies. Again, that theme of ... [Read More]

Pickup trucks and SUVs have long been the dominant vehicles in the U.S. market, but that dominance could be diminishing, according to the latest study by the Dave Cantin Group. The automotive M&A advisory firm’s semiannual Market Outlook Report, released this week in conjunction with the NADA Show, said its data shows American consumers have […] [Read More]

The week ending Jan. 18 was a relatively strong one for Canadian wholesale used-vehicle values. The overall market was down just 0.17% for the week, according to Canadian Black Book’s weekly Market Insights report, with seven of the 22 segments gaining value. Midsize cars rose 0.35% ($59) to lead the way, with luxury cars ($54, […] [Read More]

Dealership profits are expected to fall in 2025 – but franchise dealers are still bullish on what’s ahead this year. That’s one finding of a pair of reports issued this month by buy-sell advisory firms based on survey data and projections for the coming 12 months. The 2024 Kerrigan Dealer Survey, a survey of more than 635 franchise dealers conducted by Kerrigan Advisors late last year, found an equal number (43%) believe ... [Read More]

The industry’s wait for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to release more findings stemming from its project associated with auto financing finally ended on Thursday morning. The CFPB said its resulting report showed that the rate of auto repossessions at the end of 2022 surpassed pre-pandemic levels. Additionally, the bureau said finance companies were […] [Read More]