Carvana redeemed itself in 2024, emerging as one of the most profitable and fastest growing publicly listed auto retailers. In the company's latest earnings call, CEO Ernie Garcia said 2024 “will always be a defining year in the Carvana story.” For the full year, Carvana sold 416,348 retail units ... [Read More]

For Cars Commerce vice president of sales and auto brand advertising Brian Miller — and likely many others closely involved with auto retail — electric vehicles have “been a really fascinating space to watch on the used-car side.” And the pre-owned segment “might be the key to unlocking growth” for the EV market, given some […] [Read More]

The supply of late-model used vehicles, which remains tight, appears to be the biggest thorn in the certified pre-owned vehicle market’s side. However, CPO demand — and opportunity — are plentiful. Getting ahold of those cars is the issue. [Read More]

AutoNation’s recent earnings call included good news ... and some challenges. AutoNation’s used unit sales were flat year over year, and sequentially down 2% from the third quarter, while supply availability for used vehicles has continued to be a challenge. But looking to the near future, AutoNation expects the normal seasonal swing to used vehicles for the spring selling season to occur, AutoNation chief financial officer Tom Szlosek said during the company’s fourth quarter and full-year 2024 earnings call on Feb. 11. And the company expects that used-vehicle unit sales ... [Read More]

When Jon MacPhee and his wife booked their flight to New Orleans for the 2025 NADA Show, they were looking forward to what they thought would be a warm getaway from the Canadian winter. The reality, of course, was just a bit different. A record-breaking blizzard covered New Orleans with eight inches of snow on Jan. 21 — two days before the auto retail industry’s largest annual event was to begin — paralyzing the unprepared city and shutting down its airport. For Canadian dealers and vendors determined to attend, that was the beginning of an odyssey filled with delays, cancellations, unexpected detours, last-minute changes and in many cases multiple modes of transportation. The trip to the Big Easy turned out to be anything but ... [Read More]

Acquiring enough used inventory is the usual problem for dealerships. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Sonic Automotive faced the opposite problem — it had too much used inventory. Poor results in the EchoPark Automotive used-car segment pulled down Sonic’s overall performance in the fourth quarter, Sonic executives said on the earnings call. EchoPark revenue in the fourth quarter ... [Read More]

Incentives on new vehicles: remember those? They’re back in a big way. After hitting a trough of 2.9% of Equipped Retail Typical new-car prices in 2022, according to Black Book, new-vehicle incentives have climbed the past two years. That was especially evident towards the end of 2024 ... [Read More]

In 2024, Group 1 Automotive went big into Britain, acquiring 59 dealerships — 54 of them in one mega-transaction — to more than double its U.K. presence. Now comes the hard part: integrating all those new stores into the company’s existing structure. Since the $439 million purchase of Inchcape Retail’s 54 locations in England and Wales closed Aug. 1, getting them on the same page as the 55 dealerships Group 1 previously owned in the U.K. has been ... [Read More]

The Toyota RAV4. Honda Civic. Honda CR-V. Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD. Lexus RX. Ford Edge. Chevrolet Silverado 1500. What do these vehicles have in common, other than being popular rides? They were the top-selling Canadian-built vehicles in the U.S. during 2024, according to CarGurus. Likewise, the Toyota Tacoma, Chevrolet Equinox, Honda HR-V, Silverado […] [Read More]

Asbury Automotive Group’s less-is-more used-car strategy is making headway. The dealership group’s fourth-quarter 2024 financial results showed a $19 rise in gross profit per used unit retailed on a same-store basis from the previous quarter, while unit sales declined just 1% — just the sort of results president and CEO David Hult was hoping to see. “Our performance in used vehicles is consistent with our shift in ... [Read More]