Industry Trends

Electric vehicles should be a no-brainer for most consumers. While somewhat pricier during initial purchase, in the long run, electric cars save most drivers thousands, particularly in gas expenses. Additionally, electric cars are usually safer, more up-to-date and eco-friendly than diesel and gas vehicles....

We’ve all seen at least one CarMax superstore making a large blue and yellow presence on the side of the road somewhere. The giant used car seller is not slowing down – in fact, it plans to open dozens of new stores within the...

We have all heard tale of days long ago when doctors used to make house calls. This was a common practice 50 years ago. In fact, folks used to get local milk and eggs delivered to their door, along with other many other products...

What gives automobile dealership owners chills at night? Stiff competition. A threat from Mother Nature. Rising gas prices. Gas prices, indeed, are on the rise, climbing from a relatively comfortable national average of $1.65 per gallon in the early 2016 to a market-altering $2.84 per...

Last year, “Automotive News” published a rather startling study entitled, “Project XX - Sexism Alive and Well in Auto Industry." Nearly 900 women took the Project XX survey, which looked at four main areas: feedback and promotion; harassment and safety; inclusion and unconscious bias. The...

Certainly, all dealers and managers understand the challenges facing automotive retail today: flattening sales; buyers visiting fewer lots; margins under pressure from all sides; never-ending staffing problems; etc. In so many ways, these day-to-day issues are simply a part of selling cars in 2018. So...

The automotive retail industry has ebbs and flows, no question. The national and global economies are factors in year-to-year fluctuations, and new model releases have an impact also. But there’s a larger influence at play in the automotive retail market, and the correlation is...

Automotive dealers across the country have likely noticed the margin squeeze in the past few years. They may have wondered if they were alone, but margin compression is a wide-spread issue in the industry. According to the 2017 NADA report, from 2015 to 2016...

In the movie “Moneyball.” Brad Pitt’s character, Billy Beane, looks at a longtime Major League Baseball scout and says, “Adapt or die.” The scout is aggressively challenging Beane, the Oakland A’s general manager, on using data to decide which player to sign to the team....

Dealership groups, whether big or small, are becoming more commonplace. Dealer group owners recognize that running multiple dealerships together is more cost effective than running them individually. There are many other advantages as well, but they all revolve around uniformity and teamwork. A well-functioning dealer...