September used vehicle sales were up 8.76% from a year ago, at 3,811,375 units, says Art Spinella, president of CNW Research. Franchised dealer used sales were 1,338,368 and up 12.46%, Independent 1,334,118 and up 13.56%, and Private Party (Casual) 838,889 and down 2.89%.
Tom Kontos, Executive Vice President, Customer Strategies & Analytics for ADESA Analytical Services says improving trade-in volume from several months of strong new vehicle sales has franchised dealers less hungry for cars at auction and more prone to wholesale some units. Both dynamics are putting downward pressure on wholesale prices.
Toyota Motor Corp. displayed a small concept car, called the Smart INSECT, at the CEATEC tradeshow in Japan. It’s loaded with the latest connected car features packaged as Toyota Virtual Agent and included a motion detection system (from Microsoft’s Kinect), voice recognition software that opens the car door and other functions, and features now commonly […]
Not long ago, car interiors from all the automakers were relatively primitive compared to technology seen in living rooms and offices. That’s been changing fast in recent model years as automakers rolled out digital rearview mirrors, large color touch screens, connectivity, and sophisticated recognition technology. BMW’s ConnectedDrive could step up the game a couple of […]