Hyundai creates digital dealership with Rockar

By Rebecca Chaplin HYUNDAI will be collaborating with Rockar to open the first digital car retailer this November. Figures show that customers visit a car dealership just 1.3 times before they purchase a car. Plus, 93 per cent of all new car buyers conduct their research online and only step on the forecourt when they wish to sign on the dotted line. Rockar Hyundai claim their new system will integrate in-store, online and mobile platforms...

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UK car production down in August

UK car production fell 22.1 per cent in August, SMMT figures reveal. Just under 995,000 cars were built in the UK during the month – up one per cent on January to August 2013 but down compared to the rest of 2014. The SMMT says that this fall led to some manufacturers taking additional holiday shutdown. Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: ‘The month of August – typically the quietest of the year – saw a 22.1 per cent drop in car production...

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Car dealers threaten to take London fight to Ontario Municipal Board

By Norman DeBono, London’s car war won’t be over any time soon. Both sides in the automotive spat over where a new car dealership will be located pledged Thursday to take the battle to the Ontario Municipal Board if they lose an upcoming city council vote on the issue. “If council refuses the application . . . it will be appealed to the OMB,” said Alan Patton, a lawyer with Patton Cormier Associations representing Competition Toyota. The proposed dealership reflects sound planning, won’t have an adverse impact and wouldn’t cause a...

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August auto sales reach an 11-year high

By Jerry Hirsch Consumers streamed into auto dealers last month, pushing industry sales to their highest level for an August in 11 years. Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai all posted gains while General Motors and Volkswagen saw sales slip, according to monthly figures reported Wednesday. "It was a fabulous month for the industry," said John Krafcik, president of car shopping company TrueCar Inc. Automakers sold nearly 1.6 million vehicles in the U.S. in August, a 5.5% increase from the same period a year earlier, according...

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Dealers in Georgia petition to shut Tesla down

by: Amy Wilson Auto dealers in Georgia are the latest seeking to shut down Tesla Motors’ factory-owned stores. The Georgia Automobile Dealers Association filed a petition of enforcement Friday with state regulators arguing that Tesla’s direct-sales model violates state law. Tesla has one store in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta and is planning two more stores in metro Atlanta. “It’s just very simple -- we want them to comply with the law the way others are,” Bill Morie, president of the Georgia dealers association, told Automotive News. Tesla...

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Massachusets High Court Rules in Favor of Tesla

Source: Auto Dealer Monthly BOSTON — The state’s highest court on Monday upheld the right of Tesla Motors to sell directly to Massachusetts consumers, rather than through a dealership network. Dealers including Herb Connolly Chevrolet sued to stop Tesla from selling its high-end electric cars from its store in the Natick Mall, saying Tesla was essentially operating its own dealership. The Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association argued that a 2002 change in state law barred manufacturers from owning dealerships. But the Supreme Judicial...

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Automobile dealers told to protect consumers rights or face action

BY: The Peninsula DOHA: The government has asked automobile agencies to comply with rules that guarantee the protection of consumer rights or face the music. Car agencies must provide spare parts for new vehicles for three years after their sale as per rules, the Ministry of Economy and Commerce has said. The ministry summoned senior officials from car dealerships that offer new vehicles for sale and asked them in a meeting to mend their ways and adhere to consumer protection rules. In a statement, the ministry said if a dealer fails to provide...

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Incentives could push September into the record books

By: James Batchelor   FINANCIAL incentives for both motorists and dealers may push September into the car registration record books. That’s according to CAP Automotive. Research by the company into the number of cars registered during the first half of September suggests a double digit increase on the same period last year. If the trend continues, the new car market could even exceed the widely forecast total for this year of 2,450,000. But behind the scenes, many dealers are increasingly unhappy about the pressure to increase new car...

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Tesla Breaks the Auto Dealer Cartel

By: John Kerr It was not entirely surprising that Nevada last week ponied up $1.3 billion in tax breaks to win the business of Tesla Motors. TSLA -1.83% State officials for decades have struggled to diversify an economy based on gambling and tourism, and the prestige of attracting the high-end electric-car company's massive new lithium battery factory was too great to resist. But who could have guessed that the Silver State's auto dealers would help usher Tesla into the state? As Nevada lawmakers celebrated luring billionaire Telsa CEO Elon...

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Toyota Sees Strong But Slowing Growth In 2014

BY: Admin Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. has projected a slowing rate of growth in auto sales in 2014, and is taking a slightly less optimistic posture than most analysts regarding this year's sales tally. Still, Bob Carter, Toyota senior vice president of automotive operations, said Toyota "hasn't been this bullish on the auto business in a lot of years." Toyota expects the industry to finish 2014 at 16 million sales -- less than some forecasts as high as 16.4 million -- but Carter allowed for possibly stronger results. This fifth consecutive year...

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U.S Auto Sales Seen Ending Summer Without A Sizzle

 By Bernie Woodall (Reuters) - U.S. auto industry sales in August will be about even with a year ago, not quite ending the summer in a sizzling fashion but still warm enough to continue the recovery from a recession now five years in the rear-view mirror. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect monthly sales of about 1.5 million new vehicles when automakers report them on Wednesday, with a seasonally adjusted annualized sales rate of...

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U.S. dealership buy/sell activity up 75% in first six months of 2014

by: DealersEdge Buy/sell action for U.S. dealerships continued to increase dramatically in the first half of 2014, up 75% year-over-year, according to The Blue Sky ReportTM, released recently by Kerrigan Advisors. Laying out the high, average and low multiples for each franchise in the luxury and non-luxury segments for the quarter, the report offers a detailed view of public and private company dealership acquisition activity. In addition to the continued rise in transaction activity - 95 dealership transactions in the first half of the year,...

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Fast Track Your Dealership with Document Management Software

By Jeff Frankel As one of the most highly regulated industries in the country, automotive dealers and service companies are burdened with an overwhelming amount of paperwork - from managing customer deal jackets, vendor files, inventory and parts delivery, to safely and accurately handling employee records, accounting files and service orders - not to mention stringent audit and inspection requirements, FTC Privacy Rules and ISO compliance.  But there is a better way to efficiently and securely store all the necessary paperwork while maintaining...

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NADA: Used-Car Prices Will Fall, but Gradually

By Jonathan Banks Is a sharp correction in used-vehicle prices imminent? The National Automobile Dealers Association expects used-vehicle prices will indeed start to fall—but gradually, not all at once. After the Great Recession, a sharp decrease in new-vehicle sales greatly reduced the supply of late-model used vehicles. At the same time, price-conscious consumers opted for more affordable used vehicles rather than new vehicles. These two...

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China Said to Consider Relaxing Rules for Car Dealers

By Bloomberg News Chinese authorities are considering relaxing restrictions on car dealers so they would be able to sell vehicles from multiple brands in the same store, people familiar with the matter said. The Ministry of Commerce, responsible for regulation governing auto sales, met with dealers and carmakers last week to discuss changes to the rules, three people said, asking not to be identified as the talks were private. The government...

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F1 legend Nigel Mansell to Open New Mitsubishi Dealership

By Dave Brown FORMULA ONE legend Nigel Mansell is taking the driving seat for a new team – Mitsubishi Motors in the UK. The former World Champion will open a Mitsubishi franchise at his family-run dealership on Jersey. The new showroom and service centre, which will be managed by his son Leo, will open for business on September 16. Nigel, who is chairman of The Mansell Collection dealership, which opened in St Helier in 2013, said: ‘Our dealership has gone from strength to strength and the time is right to get a franchise on board. We wanted...

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Owners of 8 N.J. Dealerships Reach $1.8M Settlement For Deceptive Practices

By: Admin The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs has reached a settlement of $1.8 million, plus consumer restitution, from eight auto dealerships and their owners. The settlement resolves an investigation into alleged deceptive sales tactics at the dealerships. Carmelo Giuffre and Ignazio Giuffre are accused of failing to disclose existing mechanical defects or past damage to used cars; charging for supplemental warranties and other costly “after-sale items” without customers’ consent; and failing to honor the negotiated or advertised prices...

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MPI Changes How It Enforces Rules For Auto Dealers, Garages

By Vera-Lynn Kubinec When you buy a car at an auto dealership, you want to know whether the dealer has a good track record or a sketchy one. Likewise, if you need to get a safety inspection done on a vehicle, you want to know if you can count on the garage doing the work. In 2010, the Manitoba government announced a new era of transparency when it said it would start naming car dealerships and garages that ran afoul of regulations. The move followed a number of stories by the CBC News I-Team that highlighted consumers' problems with buying...

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GA auto dealers want Tesla's sales license revoked for selling too many cars

By David Yirchott Tesla Motors and their Model S electric car are becoming more popular among Atlantans. But the company is upsetting other Georgia automobile dealerships. Those dealerships are saying Tesla is not complying with a state law that regulates how many vehicles a dealership can sell. So, right now, it is a little east coast versus west coast argument with the California automaker. The Georgia Automobile Dealers Association filed a complaint claiming Tesla's sales out of the Marietta store violate Georgia laws. That industry group...

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Georgia dealers want Tesla store shuttered for selling too many Teslas

By Steven Lang Imagine owning the most popular automaker in the United States. Now imagine a special ​interest group eliminating your ability to serve over 10 million Americans unless you did business with their unique cartel. That's in essence what happened right before Labor Day weekend, when the Georgia Auto Dealer Association filed a petition with state officials seeking to cancel Tesla's license to sell its cars in the state of Georgia. Tesla's crime? Selling 173 cars directly from a factory-owned store located 25 miles away from Atlanta,...

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Dealers gear up for record new car registrations in September

by: John Kirwan Dealers are gearing up for what is expected to be a record September plate-change for new car registrations. Registrations continue to be driven by a cocktail of attractive PCP and finance deals, low interest rates and strong trade in values for used cars. Sales in September last year were up 12% to 403,136 units, easily outstripping the 394,806 recorded in the March plate month, traditionally the strongest of the two months. September...

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Tesla Banned From Selling Cars By Georgia Car Dealers

By Julie S julie.s@hngn.com Auto retailers in Georgia filed a petition to the Georgia Department of Revenue to ban Tesla Motors Inc. from selling its sedans within the state. According to the Georgia Automobile Dealers Association, the electric carmaker is selling more than the allowed number of cars, which violates the state's rules. The group consists of 500 dealerships that want the government agency to revoke Tesla's license to sell. "It's just very simple -- we want them to comply with the law the way others are," Bill Morie, president...

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