April 17, 2018 — Online used vehicle retailer Carvana announced this morning it has acquired Car360, an Atlanta-based start up that developed a mobile app with one the first commercially available uses of 3D computer vision, machine learning and augmented reality technology for the automotive industry. The acquisition adds 3D and augmented reality technology to the… Continue Reading
April 10, 2018 — Leucadia National Corporation announced yesterday it is selling its equity and real estate interests in dealer group Garcardia to the Garff family, its partners in the joint venture that began in 2006. Leucadia, a publicly traded holding company (LUK – NYSE) holds a 75% interest in Garcadia, which includes 28 dealerships…
March 8, 2018 — CDK Global is launching a flexible pricing dealer management system aimed at dealer groups consisting of one or two stores. The new DMS, being called DriveFlex, will be built from the ground up on the Amazon Web Services Cloud platform and will come with a new user-interface while providing for a… Continue Reading
March 6, 2018 — Despite industry perception that dealership consolidation is on the rise, buy-sell activity of U.S.-based stores declined in 2017 for the second consecutive year, based on data compiled by The Banks Report. Even with the downward trend the last two years, the buy-sell market has been vibrant since 2013 as the industry… Continue Reading
February 5, 2018 — One of the splashier stories coming out of this year’s Detroit Auto Show is the prospect of the Guangzhou Automotive Co. Group (GAC) entering the U.S. market sometime in late 2019. And in a few weeks, representatives from GAC Motor will be in Las Vegas at the National Automobile Dealers Assn.… Continue Reading
February 1, 2018 — A judicial panel in Miami ruled this morning that five of the antitrust cases in which Reynolds and Reynolds and CDK Global are defendants will be classified under the multi-district litigation and transferred to the Northern District Court in Illinois. The panel issued the ruling after listening to oral arguments from… Continue Reading
January 30, 2018 — Fair announced this morning a strategic partnership with Uber along with the acquisition of the lease portfolio of the ride-hailing firm’s XChange Leasing program. As part of the agreement, Fair will become Uber’s exclusive U.S.leasing partner for drivers leasing vehicles for a month or longer. Financial terms of the acquisition were… Continue Reading
January 25, 2018 — The Banks Report research has found 21 companies that offer some type of online vehicle transaction solution. In the last four years, companies offering such solutions have exploded onto the scene attracting more than $1 billion in investment money — more than $200 million since July (Not including Fair’s $1 billion… Continue Reading
January 24, 2018 — Over the last several months, numerous automakers and dealers have launched flexible ownership models creating a new means of interacting with customers beyond the typical loan or lease. The question is whether flexible ownership and vehicle subscriptions will move beyond being a novel and cool idea to becoming an accepted method of…
January 9, 2018 — The Asbury Automotive Group acquired Terry Lee Honda in Avon, IN this week and renamed it Hare Honda. The acquisition follows Asbury’s purchase of Hare Chevrolet in Noblesville, IN in 2017. The two acquisitions indicate Asbury, the country’s seventh largest dealer group with more than $6.5 billion in annual revenue and… Continue Reading