Februrary 9, 2018 — Welcome to our fourth annual TBR Automotive Retail Vendor M&A Report. Our M&A reports on vendor acquisition and investment activity are published quarterly along with an annual year-end report. The reports provide insight and analysis of each acquisition, investment and IPO from the previous year including an outlook for the upcoming…
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
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 10, 2018 — Spireon Inc. is demonstrating a vehicle subscription concept it is dubbing Drive On Demand at the International Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. Calling it a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) technology, the company says the new solution will allow new car dealers to select specific vehicles in their… Continue Reading
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
January 8, 2018 — As 2017 came to a close, two seemingly innocuous announcements hint at the pending impact LiDAR technology may have on automotive retail in the near future. First was AutoNation’s agreement with Waymo to provide maintenance and repair services to its fleet of self driving vehcles. And second was an under-the-radar press release…
November 16, 2017 — CallRevu, a dealership call management software firm founded by Chip King and David Boice in 2010, will announce later today that it has entered into an investment relationship with Serent Capital. As part of the investment in CallRevu, Serent is acquiring the interest held by marketing agency Team Velocity, which is… Continue Reading
November 6th, 2017 — “The era of the human-driven automobile, its repair facilities, its dealerships, the media surrounding it — all will be gone in 20 years.” So wrote automotive extraordinaire Bob Lutz yesterday for Automotive News as part of its Redesigning the Industry series. Lutz, who is in his mid-eighties, has a rich history… Continue Reading
November 2, 2017 — AutoNation executives aren’t buying into the hype that the autonomous vehicle era threatens auto retailers’ existence. Instead, the nation’s largest dealer group is getting into the self-driving game, announcing a few minutes ago that it is partnering Waymo, Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous driving company, to “offer strategic capabilities to maximize the life… Continue Reading