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Much of ACV Auctions’ third quarter 2023 earnings call on Nov. 6 focused on supply of new and used inventory in the market, with CEO George Chamoun saying, “we have in our planning that the market returns by 2026.” “Normal” and “normalize” were frequently used words during the earnings call, and Chamoun made that 2026 market return comment during the Q&A portion of the earnings call in response to a question on when ACV believes the industry will “normalize.” Chamoun answered with ... [Read More]

Note: After a tumultuous two years, the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association has emerged in 2023 with new leadership and a new outlook. In this three-part series, Auto Remarketing examines the state of NIADA now, the events that led to the transition and what’s ahead in the future. The question was an obvious one. In the Expo Hall of the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association Convention in June, just two days after he had begun his term, Gordon Tormohlen was asked about his first priority as NIADA’s 74th president. “There’s a plan in place,” he replied, “and the first thing is to ... [Read More]

Canadian Black Book is seeing a pretty poor level of sales rate in the auctions right now, and they are monitoring this data daily and adjusting values on a weekly basis. “But if nothing's converting to an actual transaction, nothing's moving out there, and that's causing the sellers to hopefully bring down their prices. But they're kind of fixated on not doing that,” said Daniel Ross, CBB's senior manager of industry insights and residual value, in an interview with Auto Remarketing Canada. Instead, dealers are trying to ... [Read More]

The key to a good customer experience is customization, said panelists at the “Top CX strategies to set dealers up for success in 2024” panel during Used Car Week, which was held earlier this month in Scottsdale, Ariz. Creating a good customer experience starts with your choice of digital marketing vendors, said panelist Samantha Splane, marketing and customer experience director at Sterling Auto Group. Sterling Auto Group in Louisiana has 15 locations including seven used-only stores. In a vendor, Splane looks for ... [Read More]

Inventory shortages the last few years may have hurt new-car sales, but they were a boon for used-vehicle sales, including those that were certified pre-owned. New inventory may be improving, but consumer interest in CPO models will remain and dealers and manufacturers should take note, said participants on the “Top Used Car Strategies from ‘Best CPO Dealers’” panel during Used Car Week. “We saw a huge value in ... [Read More]

Lithia & Driveway’s expanding international footprint and customers who keep their vehicle payments affordable by opting for used vehicles instead of new ones, were among the topics discussed during the dealership company’s conference call detailing its earnings for the third quarter that ended Sept. 30. “You have a lot of customers that manage their overall payment by going into the used market,” said Chris Holzshu, who is chief operating officer at Lithia and joined the Oct. 25 earnings call with CEO Bryan DeBoer. “We lost 10 million units in production (because of pandemic constraints), which is ... [Read More]

AutoCanada is in its 30th year of existence and its 18th year as a public company. This also marks the five-year benchmark of its “Go Forward” plan, which included stabilizing the company in 2018, as well as contemplating and acting on what the future holds. With continuing this growth in mind, AutoCanada held a series of operational strategy sessions this past summer, which were used to “create the playbook that’s going to lead our organization for the next five years ... [Read More]

When OPENLANE wanted to know what dealers want when they do business on wholesale used-vehicle digital marketing platforms, it simply surveyed over 1,000 dealers in the United States and Canada. From a collective standpoint, dealers said they want a large variety of used vehicles offered for sale on platforms that are easy to navigate and they want reliable condition reports. And of course, everything has to be backed by responsive customer service, the survey said. Now, as its recent rebranding continues and with that dealer feedback in mind, OPENLANE is consolidating its ... [Read More]

Officials at Carvana spent a good portion of the company’s third quarter 2023 earnings call on Nov. 2 talking about the three-step plan Carvana implemented in the fourth quarter of 2022 to achieve positive free cash flow. And they spent most of that time talking about step 3, which is to return to growth after completing the first two steps. Those first two steps are to ... [Read More]

While Vroom continues to suffer a negative financial impact from aged inventory, it did make progress selling down older units in the third quarter. The online used-car retailer sees brighter days ahead and aims to raise capital in 2024, it said during the NASDAQ-listed company’s third quarter earnings call. “This has been a challenging year as we work through ... [Read More]