June 7, 2015 — May was a monster month for dealership acquisitions setting a monthly record for number of transactions since January 2013. Notable deals included Group 1 Automotive, Lithia Motors, Bill Jacobs, Tom Durant and Euro Motor Cars, Victory Automotive and AutoNation. At least 33 transactions accounted for 41 dealerships changing owners in May, according to…
June 6, 2015 — An erupting scandal involving former Fiat Chrysler and Mercedes Benz executives in Australia snags website provider MotorTrak and potentially threatens its business globally while raising questions about its deal to provide websites to Mercedes Benz retailers in the U.S. For the last week, media outlets in Australia and New Zealand have been… Continue Reading
May 28, 2015 — The acquisitions in the automotive retail space keep coming. The latest is J.D. Power and Associates’ acquisition of NADA Used Car Guides, announced minutes ago. It’s a move that will shake up the used vehicle pricing guides space, which includes Hearst Corporation’s Black Book and Kelley Blue Book, which is owned by…
May 27, 2015 — UPDATED: First it was non-dealer customers, then it was its dealer customers in California suing TrueCar — now its investors have filed a lawsuit against the online vehicle shopping site. Is it just noise or do the lawsuits indicate a deeper problem for TrueCar? Following last week’s announcement that the California New Car…
May 22, 2015 — Yesterday, Autobytel announced the acquisition of competitor Dealix for $25 million from CDK Global, confirming a prediction The Banks Report made in February. We have the inside story and a full analysis of the deal and what it means for the industry and Autobytel’s future. Meanwhile, numbers show the leads business may…
May 17, 2015 — New Country Motor Cars Inc. recently added six top-line franchises to bring its total number of locations to 30. It’s only the seventh transaction since January 2013 that included six or more dealerships and is the second biggest acquisition of the year. Michael Cantanucci’s New Country Automotive Group in Hartford, CT is turning into…
May 8, 2015 — The public dealer groups are off to a slow start in 2015 on the acquisition front. Asbury Automotive Group announced its first purchase of the year last night, acquiring Capitol City Nissan in the Atlanta area. The transaction is only the ninth this year completed by the six public groups according to data…
May 7, 2015 — With all the chatter of private equity and names like Warren Buffett getting into the automotive retail space, there have been few large deals completed. Only two transactions for more than eight stores and only six that have been for five or more have been signed since January 2013, according to data compiled… Continue Reading
May 7, 2015 — Audi is testing different car sharing models throughout various international markets, the latest being piloted in the U.S. The Banks Report first reported on March 26, 2014 that Audi was putting together a pilot program in San Francisco similar to its Audi Select initiative in Berlin that allows people to pay a monthly…
A story in Reuters last week reported that Guangzhou Auto is planning to launch its GS4 SUV in the U.S. in 2017 and is looking for dealers to partner with. It’s the latest Chinese automaker to announce plans to come to the U.S. — BYD (Warren Buffett owns a reported 10% — but don’t get starry… Continue Reading