CARY, N.C. -

As reporters and editors, our job, in a nutshell, is to gather facts — and verify, verify, verify — then report those facts in a fair and accurate manner.

Provided the above requirements check out, what often provides that extra sizzle and substance to a news report (particularly in our world of business-to-business publication) is a "home-run quote." Often, you know it's one as soon as you hear it — typically resulting in an involuntary fist-pump.  

Fortunately, we at Auto Remarketing get to talk with a lot of these home-run hitters, so to speak.

In 2015, there was too much material to include in only one post, but here is just a sampling of some of the best quotes in our Top 25 Used-Car Stories of 2015 issue and other top stories in Auto Remarketing this year:

  • “A company like (TrueCar) gets improved from the customer back. There are a lot of great ideas in Santa Monica. But many of the best ideas for improvement sit in the minds and hearts of car dealers all across America.” — Chip Perry, TrueCar. From: Chip Perry's No. 1 priority as TrueCar CEO
     
  • “So, are we short car haul capacity? As currently operating, I would say yes. And lest we tire of the historical warnings about capacity, driver crises and trucking crises, etc., and we sound a little bit like the boy crying wolf, I just tell you to remember, the wolf actually showed up.” — Kathleen McCann, United Road. From: Car Haul Capacity: 'The Wolf Actually Showed Up'
     
  • “This marketplace — and I’m not just saying it because it sounds like a PR thing — it is so competitive. We come up against products from people who are established, and we come against people who are two guys in a garage developing something today. The barriers of entry are just so low. We are always looking at ways that we’re going to be able to have products and services that are going to help dealers be more competitive, help them be more efficient. And more importantly when we think about this digital retailing process, it’s a journey that changes every day,” he continued. “We’re always going to be on the lookout for how we can create more things. Sometimes creating makes sense. Sometimes acquiring makes sense.There’s nothing I have my eye on that I would say we have to have. But I will tell you it’s never going to stop.” — Sandy Schwartz, Cox Automotive. From: Cox’s next moves are with dealers in mind
     
  • “The automotive space has always had great appeal and allure to me, because there are so many unmet needs in car-buying and -selling process. Consumers have a lot of pain points still, even after 20 years of innovation in the industry by all the different players and so much progress made by so many dealers. 

    “There’s still a lot of room for improvement. And when I look at TrueCar, I see a company that has incredible untapped potential … to be a catalyst to making that car-buying and -selling process even better for both (parties).” — Chip Perry, TrueCar.  From: Chip Perry's No. 1 priority as TrueCar CEO
     

  • “And one of the things that I’m going to be watching carefully is who does a good job of either moving people who are buying used cars into new cars, and who’s going to keep people in their fold of certified pre-owned cars. We call it the ‘defending the castle’ kind of thinking.” — Michelle Krebs, Autotrader. From: Supply of Used & CPO Cars — How It Relates to Incentives
     
  • “So, people were actually starting to think about selling products and buying products on the Internet. We just thought, ‘Cars are an interesting place to start, nobody’s doing cars. Maybe you can sell cars on the Internet.'

    “And my mother was absolutely certain that no one would ever buy a car on the Internet. But we thought at that time that there was no one else, really, in that space doing it consistently and doing it well, and we thought we could leverage our technology background and start using technology to put cars on the Internet for sale.” — Rick Williams, Texas Direct Auto. From:  'Used-car factory' approach impresses online retailer Vroom
     

  • “We don’t get to say, ‘We’ve done it this way forever because it’s made us successful.’ We always have to ask the question ‘why.’ Because there’s something we talk about internally (called) the ‘tyranny of truth.’ As soon as something becomes true, you cease to question it. As soon as you cease to question it, it will become a weakness eventually.” — Jared Rowe, Cox Automotive. From: Part I: Traditional used-car players embrace disruption
     
  • “My week runs Thursday to Thursday. I worry more about the weather on Wednesday and Thursday than the weekend. The brick-and-mortar auction houses are still an intricate facet of the automotive industry. Our dealers need us to be there for them week in and week out, if not just for the business, but also the social aspect of the day. It gets in your blood. I can’t imagine doing anything else as a career.”  —Michelle Noblitt, Dealers Auto Auction of the Rockies. From: Women in Remarketing edition (April 15 issue of AR) 
     
  • “And certainly the whole process, somehow, some way, needs to be improved. It’s really broken the way it is today, almost dysfunctional. We get it all done at the end of the day, but it’s certainly not ideal, and certainly, the customers deserve something better than what’s going on today.” — Mike Jackson, AutoNation. From: AutoNation On Recalls: ‘Customers Deserve Something Better’
     
  • “I’m trying to catch my breath. I want to get a nap this afternoon.” — Sandy Schwartz of Cox Automotive, shortly after his company's acquisition of Dealertrack Technologies was finally complete. From: 1-on-1 with Sandy Schwartz