March 28, 2025 — After months of speculation and delays, President Trump’s 25% automotive tariffs on all imported vehicles are set to take effect at 12:01 am Thursday, April 3. President Trump cited national security concerns in Wednesday’s White House proclamation as the reason for the tariffs. According to information from the Department of Commerce… Continue Reading
August 18, 2024 — CDK Global has agreed to pay $100 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by 25 dealers seven years ago as part of a series of antitrust allegations. The lawsuit alleges that the DMS vendor conspired with competitor Reynolds and Reynolds to eliminate competition in the Data Integration Services market,… Continue Reading
August 5, 2024 — The world’s economy looks much different than it did last Wednesday. Overnight, Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index plunged more than 4,400 points – 12.5% – the biggest drop since 1987, forcing a suspension of trading. The Nikkei’s Monday decline follows a series of troubling economic news in the U.S. at the… Continue Reading
June 27, 2024 — Late Thursday afternoon, CDK Global began rebooting the systems for a test group of dealers, following a two-pronged cyber attack more than a week ago. (UPDATED July 11 — According to a CNN report, CDK likely paid a ransom of $25 million to the hackers on June 21 — in numerous… Continue Reading
June 26, 2024 — Here we go again. We’re nearly 25 years into this century, and already, the industry has had to grapple with at least five events that have severely impacted operations at U.S. dealerships and the vendors serving them. And again, dealers and the industry will survive. Not since 1918 – 1945, when… Continue Reading
May 8, 2024 — In late April, headlines across numerous media outlets reported that Vietnamese electric vehicle automaker VinFast has added 12 dealerships, bringing its total to 16 (five of which will open this quarter) across seven states. This is in addition to the 15 stores it owns in California. Several more franchised stores should… Continue Reading
March 12, 2024 — At the start of 2024, conventional wisdom held that Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell would initiate a series of interest rate cuts throughout the year as inflation began to slow. Some optimistic economists even predicted up to six cuts in total for this year. However, the financial narrative took an unexpected… Continue Reading
A modern-day automotive Godzilla, the likes of which we have not seen before, is how China expert Michael Dunne described China’s automotive juggernaut last week in a presentation at the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association Summit. Chinese automakers “could be the single biggest disruptor this decade” in the auto industry, Dunne said. The question is whether… Continue Reading
Here we are – January 3rd, and we still don’t have a firm grasp of how many electric vehicles qualify for the full $7,500 consumer tax credit in 2024. Reading the headlines, the number of eligible vehicles ranges from five to 20. What we do know is that several vehicles that qualified on December 31st… Continue Reading
January 3, 2024 — After opening Leith VinFast in Cary, NC the last week of December, Vietnamese automaker VinFast Auto announced deals with another four dealerships this week to sell its electric vehicles in the U.S. The first group of VinFast dealers are: VinFast began selling its VF 8 electric SUV last March via 13… Continue Reading