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]

People whose business it is to know and monitor the Canadian wholesale automotive industry are keeping a watchful eye on wholesale prices and inventory and three potential curve balls that could impact both: — U.S. President Trump’s announcement that his administration will impose 25% tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico (a move that has since been paused) — A change in Canada’s political landscape as a result of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to resign — Interest rates and inflation Canada’s wholesale used-car industry is concerned about ... [Read More]

The wholesale car market rang in the year with two major acquisitions involving corporate entities and large players in the space:  On Friday, Cars Commerce announced the acquisition of DealerClub, a reputation-based dealer-to-dealer digital wholesale auction founded last year by ACV founder Joe Neiman, for approximately $25 million, plus additional performance-based considerations.  Just four days earlier, America’s Group announced the purchase of  AuctionVcommerce, a tech platform provider in the auto auction space. That move continues ... [Read More]

Retail used-car shoppers may want to strike while the iron’s hot. (And the metal is relatively inexpensive to move). Especially considering what could be on the horizon in the wholesale used-car market ... [Read More]

Andrew Lemoine expects to see increased digitization as a trend in auto finance, as consumers are “demanding a lot more seamless online buying experiences.” Consumers want that seamless experience in the overall vehicle purchase transaction, and Lemoine, who is founder and CEO of autocorp.ai, said that includes the financing portion. Autocorp.ai provides tools to allow dealerships to sell cars and engage with consumers online. “When it comes to things like pre-approvals and taking the finance deal further in a digital format, I think we can expect to see ... [Read More]