UpShift Digital Articles

Will 2012 Off-Lease Vehicles be even Lower than 2011?

January 13, 2012 by John Druien

The OEM's are warning dealers to be prepared for an even slower off-lease year in 2012 than they saw in 2011 according to AutoRemarketing. Off-lease vehicles are part of the most significant universe of vehicles that can be CPO'd due to maintenance and mileage requirements. That said, 2011 still turned out to be a record breaking CPO sales year with over 1.74 million sales, a 6.4 percent increase over the previous year.


The OEM's are advising dealers to continue marketing very agressively to their new car customers to keep the influx of low mileage, newer trade-ins…

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AutoNation sees New Car Sales Climb 7% in 2011

January 10, 2012 by John Druien

AutoNation is reporting that the dealer group saw a 7% overall new car sale climb in 2011, led by their domestics that saw a 17% YOY increase. Imports remained flat and luxury models climbed 15%.

AutoNation chairman and chief executive officer received the 2011 National Retail Leadership Award from the Detroit Free Press as part of the North American International Auto Show.



Read more: http://bit.ly/A02J3a

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2011 Dogs - Slow Sellers

January 9, 2012 by John Druien

Since everyone has been talking about the great year that 2011 was, I thought I would join USA Today (what? UpShift Digital is following a newspaper?) and have a look at the 5 worst selling vehicles for 2011. I found it interesting that each of these vehicles were from Asian OEM's - considering how much we're talking about how great Hyundai is every other day.

1 - Toyota Land Cruiser - uh, ok - it is $68,000 and probably the only Toyota that was left on the lots this summer and it still wouldn't move. They sold a…

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2012 Car and Truck of the Year Named at the Detroit Auto Show

January 9, 2012 by John Druien

The Detroit Auto Show named the 2012 Hyundai Elantra the Car of the Year. The Truck of the Year honors go to the Evoque.

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Cars So Hot, They're Out of Stock

December 16, 2011 by John Druien

When was the last time we got to say that cars were running out of stock? Well, tsunami aside (forgive me Toyota, Honda and Nissan etc. dealers). New car vehicle sales are hitting some of the highest numbers in five years, and November's stats from Auto Observer were out of this world for many brands.

So what are the hardest to find models, according to Auto Remarketing? Here they are in order.

10. Hyundai Elantra
Days to Turn: 12
Price: $16,445
Configuration: 4-cylinder, 4-door

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Ford's 3Q Income Lower - Remain Confident

October 27, 2011 by John Druien

Ford's YOY income dropped by $38B or 2 cents per share in the third quarter. The company remains positive about their earnings though, and it is a comparison against some of their best earnings ever.

http://bit.ly/smJf3Y

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Hyundai is the Top Brand for Driver Loyalty - Second Quarter in a Row

October 18, 2011 by John Druien

Although Hyundai's loyalty rating dropped 4.4 percentage points over second quarter, it remains the brand with the most loyalty at 48 percent. Toyota is right behind it with 47.9 percent. Makes you wonder, with all the trouble that Toyota has had, how it maintains such strong loyalty and what would happen to Hyundai if a major recall, an earthquake or some other dire situation befell its brand. Or is the earthquake part of the reason that Toyota IS so high?

How loyal are you to your brand?


http://bit.ly/psLaIe

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Will Fourth Quarter Mean an Incentive War?

October 3, 2011 by John Druien

So to make up for the off year for Toyota and Honda due to the tsunami and earthquake, will there be an incentive war in the fourth quarter? AutoNation's Mike Jackson does not think it will be as wild as sources such as Kelly Blue Book feel it will, however he agrees that it will be a strong quarter in new car sales. Jackson feels that incentives will be better than have been seen in the last 6 months, but not enough to trigger a price war.

What are your thoughts on this? I personally think that OEM's…

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Finally Some Good News for Saab

September 22, 2011 by John Druien

Some good news for Saab Automotive, NV as it announced on Wednesday that they had received approval to reorganize.

 

http://bit.ly/otVNMY

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Hey Dad, can I get a Ride?

September 21, 2011 by John Druien

Chevy discovers that more dads are running car pools these days. Read about the rise of the "Dad Mobile."

http://bit.ly/q0wPqk

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