CBT News Market Update: Jeremy Beaver, Del Grande Dealer Group & Len Short, LotLinx

Welcome to another edition of the CBT News Market Update. To quickly recap this week’s numbers, the retail SAAR came out to 12.7 million, up 2% from 12.4 million in 2019. New-vehicle sales hit 276,556, a modest 9.7% increase from last year when the number of units sold was 252,070. Used vehicles are on track to stay ahead of last year’s numbers. Used-vehicle sales sat at 197,883, up 9.1% from the year prior’s total of 181,324. As expected, inventory levels among all new vehicles were down 19.5% from 2019, however, used car inventory was up 6.1%. However, weekly trends show a slow and steady recovery.

Here to break down these sales results and how these numbers reflect larger industry trends are Len Short, Chairman and CEO at LotLinx, and Jeremy Beaver, president of Del Grande Dealer Group.

In today’s segment, our panel breaks down the following:

• Are dealerships shying away from this technology now that inventory is more scarce?
• Is there still a push to reinvent the retail experience?
• How dealers should realign their goals
• How we see OEMs engaging customers differently and how their expectations of dealers have shifted
• How do Q3, August, and September results compare to what Del Grande Dealer Group has seen across its brands?
• The current shortage of ’21 models. Does this provide an opportunity for some brands to gain market share?
• How will the numbers of ’20s vs. ’21s impact the rest of the year?

Did you miss last week’s CBT News Market Update? Watch it here now and be sure to visit the CBT News Market Center powered by LotLinx for current data on the retail auto market.