Asbury Automotive Group has sold Kia of Owings Mills in Maryland and its related real estate to Stivers Automotive Group, according to a news release from The Presidio Group, which advised Presidio on the transaction. With this move, Asbury continues its portfolio management efforts aimed at concentrating its resources on core business and key expansion […] [Read More]

Hertz Car Sales has expanded its program that lets potential customers try before they buy. The used-car retailer’s extended test drive program is now available at more than 300 participating Hertz neighborhood rental locations, the company said. TestDrive+, previously called Rent2Buy, allows shoppers to pay a daily drive fee and then test drive a vehicle […] [Read More]

Automotive M&A advisory Dave Cantin Group has named a former Asbury Automotive Group senior executive and business partner to baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron as its senior vice president of strategic initiatives. Hired for the role is Sid Barron, who spent more than a decade at Asbury, where he served as vice president of […] [Read More]

Ben Sporn is the chief marketing officer of VIP Automotive Group on Long Island, N.Y. , where he runs operations and artificial intelligence projects at his family’s 10-store dealer group. He also has a tech background, having worked for Google before joining the family business. In this episode of the Auto Remarketing Podcast, Sporn talks […] [Read More]

Avondale Toyota, located in the Phoenix metropolitan area, routinely makes Toyota’s list of top 10 certified pre-owned vehicle sellers in Auto Remarketing’s annual “Best CPO Dealers in the USA” issue. That includes four consecutive years in the top five for Toyota CPO sales. For general manager Alex Cosenza and the team at Avondale Toyota — […] [Read More]

A seat on the Goodyear Blimp flying high above a stadium might be the best view in all of sports. The company’s chief executive now has a seat of a different kind. Mark Stewart, CEO and president of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and former North American chief operating officer at Stellantis, has been […] [Read More]

Fields Auto Group has sold two North Carolina dealerships to Memphis, Tenn.-based Dobbs Family Automotive, according to a news release from Kerrigan Advisors, which represented the sellers. The Dobbs group has purchased Fields Mazda and Fields Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram in Asheville, marketing the group’s first entry into this city. Dobbs now owns 14 stores […] [Read More]

“Rush delivery” might best describe the moves Carvana made this week. In addition to extending its partnership with Rush Soccer (more on that below), the automotive ecommerce platform announced that it would be expanding same-day vehicle delivery to the greater Jacksonville, Fla., area. Through this expansion, select Jacksonville area customers can receive their vehicle the […] [Read More]

For months, we’ve been warning dealers that the Federal Trade Commission’s focus on vehicle price transparency should not be dismissed as political noise, regulatory saber-rattling or another government initiative that might eventually disappear. We discussed this at our Compliance Unleashed Conference. We’ve written about it in publications, and we’ve spoken on this subject at industry […] [Read More]

I recently saw a news story in the Austin American-Statesman that caught my attention because it affects the dealership service lane. In Austin, amateur mechanics have taken over an Auto Zone parking lot and, for a couple of hundred dollars, will fix vehicles, the Statesman reported. They look over the vehicle, determine what needs fixing […] [Read More]