January 16, 2016 — General Motors’ Factory Pre-owned Collection, announced last week during the North American International Auto Show, looks to be an intriguing opportunity for the automaker’s dealers, but it does raise questions. There are benefits, but numerous dealers have emailed TBR expressing concern that GM is trying to provide a solution to a problem that doesn’t…
January 6, 2015 — Automaker shares took a hit yesterday as December’s auto sales were much softer than analysts projected. Predictions of a December SAAR (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate) being the fourth straight month exceeding 18 million missed by nearly a million units. But this is where you have to dig into the numbers. The softer… Continue Reading
Faraday envisions a future where vehicles are autonomous and personal ownership becomes a relic of a bygone era. It’s coming out party is tonight at the Consumer Electronics Show — we’ll see if it brings anything new to the conversation. January 4, 2016 — Over the next few days, headlines will trumpet announcements from the…
December 1, 2015 — Industry-specific domain extensions are coming to the automotive industry next week and could create a digital land grab reminiscent of the Oklahoma land rush in 1889. Cars Registry Ltd, a joint venture between XYZ and Uniregistry, which owns and operates the new extensions, is making the domains, .cars, .car and .auto available for purchase… Continue Reading
November 3, 2015 — Since the middle of 2013, the automotive retail space has been in a period of upheaval as what can only be classified as big money has entered the industry. The last 28 months have probably been the most intense period vendors have ever seen in the history of the industry…
November 2, 2015 — It’s been 10 years since the McGraw-Hill Companies acquired J.D. Power and Associates for nearly $400 million. Now, according to media reports late last week, McGraw-Hill is exploring strategic alternatives for the market research firm and could command as much as $1 billion for a sale. J.D. Power generates about $265 million in…
October 15, 2015 — Fremont Private Holdings is acquiring Morrie Wagener’s 11 dealership-group in Minnesota. Partnering with Fremont is Karl Schmidt, who has run Morrie’s Automotive Group since 2009 as its CEO. Fremont, which is the investment firm established by the family that owns construction company Bechtel Corp., has been rumored for about two years to… Continue Reading
October 12, 2015 — A little more than a week ago, the simmering battle between DMS firms and other automotive retail vendors over data access and integration went nuclear. To be fair, the issue has plagued the automotive retail space for more than 20 years as certain DMS firms have sought to restrict or control third party…
September 18, 2015 — Why you need corporate security; Changes in car buying; Preparing for normalization; Why you’ll never buy a driverless vehicle; OEMs slack approach to cyber security; Co-op money – what’s it good for? Hyundai’s future dealership. The TBR Weekly Top 10 is our list of what we believe are the week’s must-read stories… Continue Reading
September 9, 2015 — A torrid July and August in the dealership buy-sell market saw 81 rooftops change hands bringing the 2015 total to 322 through the first eight months of the year — just two shy of all of 2014’s total. Averaging about 40.25 buy-sells a month this year, the industry is on pace to…