GM: Full-size SUVs power 4.8% advance in Q4
For all of 2020, GM’s sales fell 12 percent to 2.5 million vehicles.
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Tag Archives: Auto Dealers
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Jan 21
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Jan 21
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Dealership matriarch Mrs. G dies at 101
Ruth Grappone started the day she married her husband in 1940 and kept showing up to work for the next 77 years.
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Jan 21
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Ga. car salesman loses job days after Capitol invasion
Dominic Box was let go from the Vaden Nissan dealership in Savannah, Ga., after reportedly participating in the attack in Washington.
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Jan 21
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Google My Business 101
This guide outlines everything you need to know about Google My Business — how you can harness its unparalleled strength to generate more website traffic, bolster your reputation, and kick off a new day of explosive growth for your business.
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Jan 21
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Biden’s pick for CFPB chief outspoken about enhanced regs for dealers
In deciding to nominate Federal Trade Commission member Rohit Chopra to oversee the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, President Joe Biden tapped a vocal advocate of regulation by enforcement.
Chopra’s appointment as head of the federal watchdog comes at a particularly sensitive time for the auto industry, where subprime customers face heightened scrutiny when applying for auto loans and are all but vanishing from the new-vehicle market.
As an FTC commissioner, Chopra has been an outspoken critic of how some dealerships are compensated for arranging customer financing.
Chopra aired his views on indirect auto lending as part of a particularly egregious case of unfair and abusive practices the FTC pursued against New York dealership Bronx Honda.
The retailer agreed last May to pay $1.5 million to settle a gamut of FTC charges, from deceptive advertising to double-charging consumers taxes on vehicle purchases.
In particular, allegations that management knowingly discriminated against African American and Hispanic car buyers, who, as far back as 2010, were charged “statistically significant” higher markups than similarly situated white customers, were particularly heinous. According to the FTC, “The defendants told employees that these groups should be targeted due to their limited education, and not to attempt the same practices with non-Hispanic white consumers,” the agency said in a statement.
In his remarks on the Bronx Honda case, Chopra chided the FTC for not following the lead of Congress in establishing more protections for consumers and against auto lending abuses, particularly members of the military: “Given the many unscrupulous actors that target military families, the FTC’s rule-making authority is a particularly useful tool,” he said. “Nevertheless, the agency has not even solicited comment or otherwise initiated a rule-making process to combat these harms.”
Additionally, Chopra cites other areas pertinent to auto finance the FTC could exact rule-making to mitigate: “fake recall notices, yo-yo financing schemes, deceptive advertising, GPS trackers and kill switches, and add-on products” such as finance and insurance products.
The term of current CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger, appointed by President Donald Trump, officially ends in 2023, though Chopra’s nomination suggests her time at the helm won’t last much longer. As the light blue wave sweeps across the White House and Congress, dealerships should keep a close eye on compliance concerns in the finance office.
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Jan 21
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Hank Aaron, baseball Hall of Famer and former Georgia auto dealer, dies at 86
The legendary home run king for several years owned an Atlanta-based auto group that consisted of BMW, Mini, Honda, Toyota, Jaguar and Land Rover franchises.
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Jan 21
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GM posts 4.8% Q4 gain; light trucks lift Toyota, VW, Kia
GM racked up its best fourth-quarter U.S. retail sales since 2007 while light trucks fueled Toyota, Subaru, Kia, VW brand and Mazda gains. Ford Motor, FCA, Honda and Nissan Group all posted lower volume in the final three months of 2020, amid signs consumer demand spiked across the industry in the closing days of December.
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Jan 21
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Brockman case will continue in Texas
A federal judge agreed to move the federal tax fraud case against former Reynolds and Reynolds CEO Bob Brockman from California to Texas, citing Brockman's home in Houston and medical conditions.
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Jan 21
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Lease Credit Approval Rates Rise to 72.7% in December
Lease credit approval rates rise to highest percentage of the year during holiday season.
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Jan 21
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The Passing Lane: How Car Dealerships Win With a Text
Your customers are texting you, whether you answer or not. In this eBook we take a look at the dealerships embracing business text messaging and its impact beyond the rooftop including: industry-specific research from the State of Business Texting, how premium dealers are boosting sales loyalty and the impact of messaging on consumer satisfaction.
