It’s possible the outage at CDK Global didn’t just limit the actual sales of used vehicles in June. The crisis may have affected the reporting of the pre-owned vehicle sales that did happen. In fact, Cox Automotive found that “reporting was more disrupted than actual sales,” but noted that July will likely make up for June’s disruption in the used-car market. And even with disruption, dealers increased ... [Read More]

A little inside baseball here (or football, rather): One of the best training grounds for journalism, and not just sports reporters, is to cover high school football for a newspaper — or at least the version of the latter that existed through the 2000s. It requires precise and constant notetaking, especially if you are recording […] [Read More]

The theme of Cox Automotive’s 2024 midyear review is… wait for it … No, I mean, that’s the theme: Wait for it. Uncertainty is the name of the game right now in the automotive market, according to chief economist Jonathan Smoke and Cox’s team of analysts, as consumers wait for any number of things — including ... [Read More]

Electric vehicles have become extremely polarized along political lines, said participants on “The Charged EV Debate in the 2024 Election” panel during Industry Day at the Electrify Expo in May. To overcome that polarization, EV marketing should focus strongly on ... [Read More]

Things are changing at CarMax. With retail used-vehicle sales and gross profit down 3.1% year-over-year for the quarter ending May 31 – the first quarter of the company’s 2025 fiscal year – CarMax’s emphasis has turned to making the most of what it brings in through cost reduction. “What we’re focused on is ... [Read More]

Understanding the perspective from the other side of a business transaction — or even the other side of an organization’s operations — can be quite valuable, especially in an industry weaving as many moving parts and niche silos as wholesale automotive. Stephanie Compton, who is vice president of asset remarketing for Exeter Finance, has built an award-winning career on the consignor side of the business, including being named by Cherokee Media Group as the 2023 National Remarketing Executive of the Year and a 2020 Women in Remarketing honoree. But she has also walked a mile (or several miles, on sale days) in the shoes of folks who would now call her a customer: the auto auction ... [Read More]

The heartland is in a sweet spot for electric vehicle adoption in some ways, but EV ownership is low in most states in the middle of the U.S. Price is one issue, said panelists at the “What’s it going to take to drive EV adoption in the heartland?” session at the Electrify Expo Industry Day conference in Long Beach in southern California in late May. But other factors play a role, and dealers need to ... [Read More]

NAPA Auto Parts sees potential in electric vehicle repair and is preparing its branded stores and its independent partners to capitalize on a potentially huge market for aftermarket parts. “There is a big opportunity for NAPA to get into the electrification space,” Donovan Ringo, NAPA’s senior manager, emerging markets, told Auto Remarketing on the sidelines of the Electrify Expo Industry Day conference in Southern California in late May. NAPA considers EVs, ADAS, and vehicle connectivity emerging technology for ... [Read More]

The road to broader consumer acceptance of vehicle electrification is fraught with slowdowns, challenges and bumps in the road. Still, wider-spread acceptance of EVs is on the horizon and dealers — both franchise and independent — with support from automakers and/or industry partners such as Cox Automotive, are critical in helping that journey go more smoothly. That’s according to Cox Automotive executives, who highlighted key findings in the company’s “2024 Cox Automotive Path to EV Adoption Study ” during a panel discussion here, May 9. “We’re on this electrification journey.” ... [Read More]

During a May 9 forum with industry media in Detroit, Cox Automotive held a panel discussion on how it is using artificial intelligence to assist its wholesale customers with more accurate vehicle inspections and condition reports and marketing opportunities. Participating in Cox Automotive’s AI panel discussion was Marianne Johnson, chief product officer at Cox Automotive, who said machine learning has been around for 20 years and predictive algorithms based on historical data is not new, either. But over the last two or three years, technology has evolved into ... [Read More]