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Used-vehicle demand gone? Not so fast.

Days ago, in the midst of writing for this week's used-vehicle special section, I picked up the phone and dialed a dealer for her insight. I asked her if, so far this year, she'd seen any notable fluctuation in demand for used cars and trucks.

Back in January, dealers who responded to an outlook survey by Automotive News indicated major concern about how rising interest rates might affect used-vehicle demand through the rest of the year.

What she told me was interesting: Consumers are still buying, but it's now on a need basis, not on a whim basis.

It lined right up with what other dealers told editorial intern Abigail Ham and I for our article that recaps most of the spring selling season. As one told Ham: "There aren't as many shoppers, but there are still a lot of buyers."

Said another to me: "The used-car business, historically, is still very good."

That spring lookback is just a taste of …

Here's one way to sell lots of used cars: Source them from as many places as possible.

Kunes Auto Group, founded in 1996 by CEO Gregg Kunes, follows that strategy. Kunes Auto Group in Delavan, Wis., owns 28 franchised dealerships throughout Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa.

"We'll use [wholesale vehicle auction operation] Manheim, SmartAuction, ACV Auctions … we use CarOffer," Kunes said. CarOffer is CarGurus' digital wholesale business.

"In this day and age where the U.S. vehicle market has become so competitive, we had to make sure that we're taking advantage of every single channel we possibly could," he said.

That expanded acquisition strategy, a 90-day write-down policy and a focus on vehicle variety are among key moves that have helped Kunes Auto maintain its strong used-vehicle sales performance.

Kunes Auto sold 17,875 used vehicles in 2022, dwarfing the 9,233 new vehicles it sold last year, as it a…

Joining CarMax on this inaugural list is a mix of national and regional used-vehicle retailers with high-volume, multistore operations. There are also publicly traded online used-vehicle retailers that gained more prominence in the last decade and grew sales volumes substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Used Sales Used Revenue Wholesale Sales Wholesale Revenue Location Phone Top Executive 2022 used-vehicleretail unit sales 2021 used-vehicleretail unit sales 2022 used-vehicleretail revenue 2021 used-vehicleretail revenue 2022 wholesaleunits 2021 wholesaleunits 2022 wholesalerevenue 2021 wholesalerevenue Total numberof stores Richmond, VA (804) 747-0422 Bill Nashpresident & CEO 807,823 924,338 $23,034 $24,437 585,071 706,212 $5,990 $6,764 240 Tempe, AZ (800) 333-4554 Ernest Garcia IIIchairman & CEO 412,296 425,237 $10,254 $9,851 193,260 170,056 $2,119 $1,920 180 Tempe, AZ (888) 418-1212 Scott Worthingtonpresident & CEO 102,649 106,187 - - - - - - …

Online used-vehicle retailer Vroom Inc.'s initial public offering in June 2020 arrived at a fortuitous time.

It happened during a pandemic that necessitated more consumers buying vehicles partly or entirely online. As a result, Vroom sold more used cars and trucks and its shares skyrocketed to a record high closing price of nearly $74 in September 2020. Then came 2022, a year in which investors in Vroom and its competitors grew wary of how much cash the companies were still burning through to grow and the net losses they were recording.

In May 2022, Vroom announced plans to scale back. The company appointed COO Tom Shortt — who previously oversaw an e-commerce supply chain strategy at Walmart and held roles at Home Depot and ACCO Brands, among others — to become CEO and lead a long-term business plan that prioritized improving vehicle economics and reducing costs.

Shortt, 54, spoke with Staff Reporter C.J. Moore this month about V…

TO THE EDITOR:

There has been much talk about the need for more electric vehicle charging stations, but one subject that is not mentioned is personal security at these locations. Many of the current locations are in the open and somewhat remote. Who would feel safe on a cold, rainy or snowy night waiting in their car for 30-plus minutes for it to charge? A car running to keep the heat on would make a tempting target for a carjacker.

Additionally, we Americans are not a particularly patient lot. A scenario where someone just about out of a charge finds all the charging stations at a mall or restaurant filled and the vehicles possibly fully charged, with no idea when an owner will return, is just asking for trouble.

As the country is adding charging stations, the security of customers needs to be a top concern.

J.C. CONWAY, St. Augustine, Fla.

The Biden administration has dropped, for now, a plan that would have awarded automakers such as Tesla Inc. credits for using renewable natural gas to power EVs.

That proposal was excluded from drafted regulation setting biofuel-blending quotas for the next three years that is undergoing final review at the White House, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the decision isn’t public. 

Under the proposal, carmakers would be folded into the 18-year-old Renewable Fuel Standard that requires refiners to blend biofuels into gasoline and diesel. EV manufacturers would be able to claim new, tradeable credits in exchange for using electricity generated from natural gas harvested from landfills or farms.

EPA spokeswoman Maria Michalos declined to comment, citing the proposed rule’s ongoing interagency review. The draft regulation could still change before its formal, final release.

EPA officials were concerned…

The percentage of "cash deals" has grown over the past year, a trend that can eat into auto dealership finance-and-insurance revenue.

Dealerships earn money from arranging indirect loans between lenders and consumers, revenue they can't collect when a consumer has cash, a cashier's check or a personal check in hand. Cash deals might also jeopardize finance-and-insurance product sales because consumers typically finance F&I coverage within auto loans. If a customer is paying cash, the finance manager must persuade the consumer to pay those premiums out-of-pocket or take out a loan for the coverage.

G.P. Anderson, finance manager at Thielen Motors in Park Rapids, Minn., recalled a run of 38 deals in 2022 that either involved either cash or outside financing.

"It's like you're losing your brain because you don't get paid on a cash deal in your brain," he said. "And what happens is 99 percent of the finance people, they just get absolutely hellbent for…

A car accident involving a Robert Bosch engineer sparked an idea that could cut down on the severity of similar crashes.

In 2019, Rameez Ahmad, an engineering manager at Bosch USA, was traveling in Pakistan with friends from college when a motorcycle hit the passenger side of their vehicle. No one was hurt, but the accident drove home to Ahmad how serious, dangerous and common such collisions are.

"Off-zone" side collisions, as they are referred to, often occur corner-to-corner as vehicles change lanes or pass through intersections, according to Bosch, the world's largest parts supplier. They can occur with little warning, and the impact can be catastrophic depending on the size and speed of the vehicles.

"Even though I had a minor accident, I could imagine if it was a major accident with more speed or a bigger vehicle, the impact could be devastating," Ahmad told Automotive News. "That triggered to me and the team to rethink how to …

Used-vehicle-only retailers and some of the six publicly traded dealership groups in their latest quarters said they favored boosting gross profit per used vehicle they retailed and not necessarily growing sales volume.

For used-retail giant CarMax Inc., keeping gross profit per vehicle stable was a priority, CEO Bill Nash said last month. Online used-vehicle retailers Carvana Co. and Vroom Inc. also said they swapped sales volume growth — which they chased as the e-commerce used-vehicle market heated up in 2020 and 2021 — to work on improving per-vehicle gross profit.

One of the public groups, Asbury Automotive Group Inc., said it focused on profitability in its used-vehicle side of the business.

"We just determined that it didn't make sense to chase volume," CEO David Hult said during Asbury's earnings call on April 25.

The retailers and dealership groups also said they grappled in their latest quarters with other …

McLaren’s new 750S coupe may not appear radically different from the 720S it replaces for 2024. But look closer at those wheels.

McLaren engineers wanted the 750S to be more powerful and faster, with a 0 to 60 mph time of under three seconds, and that meant the new model needed to be lighter.

The project eliminated more than 30 pounds from the wheels alone — with no compromise to structural integrity — by milling out parts of the nonload-bearing section of the 10-spoke forged alloy rims. The results are the lightest wheels ever fitted as standard equipment on a series production model McLaren.