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 30, 2024 — As expected, automotive software vendor Solera filed publicly Friday for an initial public offering with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The Vista Equity-owned company filed confidentially in May indicating a likely IPO later this summer. Friday’s paperwork did not disclose the price or number of shares Vista plans to sell… 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 31, 2024 — Automotive News recently published its annual list of the industry’s top 150 dealer groups. Each year, I study the list to see the trends, and to determine whether any seismic industry changes may be lurking beneath the radar. Until a couple of years ago when Ward’s stopped publishing it, the annual… 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
May 6, 2024 — A flurry of transactions in April indicates that investment and acquisition activity among tech players in the automotive retail space is starting to heat up after a slow 2023 and early 2024. Anchoring the activity are three pending monster deals that, if completed, could raise multiples for other companies looking for… Continue Reading
March 12, 2024 — As J.D. Power was completing the acquisition of the European-based Autovista Group a few weeks ago, Bloomberg reported that the data analytics and consumer intelligence firm was on the market itself for approximately $8 billion. The $8 billion number might raise some eyebrows, but it is right in the neighborhood of… Continue Reading