Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and corporate travel restrictions, the International Automotive Remarketing Alliance has “revised its strategy” for its 2020 IARA Summer Roundtable Conference and will produce the “2020 IARA Virtual Summer Roundtable.” “IARA’s first consideration is the health and safety of its members and guests,” IARA president Paul Seger said in a news […] [Read More]

Vehicle sales aren’t the only retail category to drop because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kerrigan Advisors’ first quarter 2020 Blue Sky Report outlined the decline of the dealership buy/sell market impacted by the same trigger. Kerrigan Advisors reported this week that Q1 activity fell by 9.3% year-over-year. The firm indicated transactions slated to close at […] [Read More]

Amid the recovery in the overall used-vehicle retail market, the certified pre-owned segment was an especially bright spot in May. According to a Cox Automotive analysis of data from Motor Intelligence, there were 237,495 CPO sales for the month. While that’s down 6% from May 2019, last month’s certified sales tally is 87% stronger than […] [Read More]

Sonic Automotive and its chain of standalone used-car stores, EchoPark Automotive, have chosen Darwin Automotive as their digital retailing partner for their 95 dealerships across 12 U.S. states. The companies said the partnership marks an extension of Sonic and EchoPark’s existing relationship with Darwin following the implementation of Darwin’s F&I presentation software in its dealerships. […] [Read More]

CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA) understands operators’ accounting activities became much more complicated this year if they participated in the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). To provide crucial assistance, CLA recently announced new solutions to help borrowers tackle loan forgiveness. PPP guidance is released frequently, and the related calculations are complex as a new law was signed by […] [Read More]

Especially now during the coronavirus pandemic, operators need other ways of reaching their customers other than a face-to-face conversation. Textmaxx Pro, a national text message communication platform with special expertise in the automotive retail marketplace and part of the Leedom Group, recently entered a new partnership with the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association’s National Member […] [Read More]

Delinquency rates on auto financing declined during the first quarter, according to Experian’s latest State of the Automotive Finance Market Report. But Experian experts acknowledged the metrics might be ripe for change as the automotive industry grapples with the impact of COVID-19 and financial hardship felt by consumers. What might be most noteworthy for finance […] [Read More]

Canadian auto auction ESP Auction and its president Alain Boisvert, along with former ADESA president and chief executive officer Stephane St-Hilaire, have acquired a majority stake in auction platform, TradeHelper. ESP Auction is a physical wholesale auto auction in Montreal. TradeHelper is an online dealer-to-dealer auto auction platform in Eastern Canada. The two plan to […] [Read More]

PowerBand Solutions continued its recent stretch of development activity on Monday by announcing it’s accepting an additional $2.7 million investment from Texas-based D&P Holdings as it prepares vehicle lease originations in the United States to begin this month. PowerBand chief executive officer Kelly Jennings said the company has completed its mission that’s taken more than […] [Read More]

On Tuesday, Digital Matrix Systems (DMS) enhanced its suite of solutions to assist finance companies to navigate through new mandates federal officials have put in place in response to COVID-19. The company announced the availability of a new subset of its DMS Summary Attributes that have been tailored to help finance companies and other lenders […] [Read More]