A pilot program between Wal-Mart and Asbury Automotive here to sell used cars at Wal-Mart Supercenters ended on July 11, 2003, because the volume of customer traffic did not meet expectations. Asbury Automotive, the country’s fourth-largest automobile retailer, shut down its Price 1 Auto Stores at Wal-Mart stores in Richmond, Uvalde, Pasadena and Orange, TX.
CenterOne Financial Services (CenterOne) announced on July 14, 2003, that it has entered into an agreement to manage pro-active lessee contact and vehicle remarketing of the Florida region lease portfolio for The Huntington National Bank (Huntington). Headquartered in Columbus, OH, Huntington provides indirect auto retail, lease and commercial lending products and services through more than 3,000
Automobile Consumer Services, Inc., (ACS) specializing in online, direct-to-consumer automotive leasing, has launched a new Web site, bringing consumers an online marketplace for late-model, used vehicles. The site, called FrontRowCars.com, offers vehicles which are available for purchase, finance, or lease.
DaimlerChrysler announced on July 22 that it has added a three-month/3,000-mile limited warranty to its Certified Pre-Owned Vehicle program. Units that qualify for the warranty already carry the seven-year/70,000-mile transferable new vehicle warranty, which includes 2003-model vehicles and those to come.
According to industry analyst Art Spinella, nationally, online sales of used cars topped 500,000 in May, and could hit 1 million a month by the end of the year. He added that two major advantages for the consumer of Internet sales are the wide selection and quick responses.