News

The Federal Trade Commission acted against auto dealer Passport Automotive Group for deceiving consumers by tacking hundreds to thousands of dollars in illegal junk fees onto car prices and for discriminating against black and Latino consumers with higher financing costs and fees. Passport, its president, Everett Hellmuth, and its vice president, Jay Klein, will pay more than $3.3 million to settle the FTC’s lawsuit, which will be used to refund consumers harmed by Passport’s conduct.

The Federal Trade Commission at its meeting Thursday voted to publish an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) on “junk fees.”

FTC Chair Lina Khan and Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter voted in favor of publishing the ANPR, and Commissioner Christine Wilson voted against it. GOP Commissioner Noah Phillips stepped down from the FTC this month, according to a news release.

The item considered at the FTC’s open meeting states it will “initiate a rulemaking proceeding addressing junk fees that are charged for goods or services that have little or no added value to the consumer. The ANPR seeks comment on the prevalence of junk fees and the consumer harms arising from junk fee practices, among other questions.”

TAYLORSVILLE — A man who police believe has helped orchestrate catalytic converter thefts across Salt Lake County has been arrested and charged by the Utah Attorney General's Office.

Omar Ernesto Martinez-Gomez, 47, of Salt Lake City, was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with money laundering, engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, and possession of stolen property, all second-degree felonies.

The investigation dates back to at least July 2021 when Taylorsville police arrested a man in possession of a stolen vehicle and two stolen catalytic converters, according to charging documents. The man told investigators he would steal the converters and sell them to a man named "Omar," the charges state.

“Where do we even begin?” It’s a question being asked at car dealerships across the country as they race to comply with updates to the FTC Safeguards Rule released late last year. With the deadline less than two months away, automotive dealers are in a sprint to understand the specific steps they need to take to get into compliance.

Mike Pedrick, VP of Cybersecurity Consulting at Nuspire, and Tony Haux, CISO and Chief Compliance Officer at Accelerate2Compliance, recently hosted a webinar to help auto dealers navigate the complexities of the Rule. Read on to hear their tips.

The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against auto dealer Passport Automotive Group for deceiving consumers by tacking hundreds to thousands of dollars in illegal junk fees onto car prices and for discriminating against Black and Latino consumers with higher financing costs and fees. Passport, its president, Everett Hellmuth, and its vice president, Jay Klein, will pay more than $3.3 million to settle the FTC’s lawsuit, which will be used to refund consumers harmed by Passport’s conduct.

As many dealers are aware, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently issued new requirements to its Safeguards Rule that take effect Dec. 9. The rule requires auto dealerships with more than 5,000 customer records in their database to develop, implement and maintain an information security program to protect customer information.

To help with compliance, many dealers have hired third-party service providers such as a DMS vendor, law firm or information technology (IT) firm to write, implement and supervise the required information security program.

It’s restating the obvious, but the car business doesn’t operate in a vacuum. This is especially the situation when it comes to the pre-owned side of things. Record-setting new vehicle prices and rising interest rates are driving customers to used offerings as shiny new rides become less affordable.

All of this coincides with a drop in second-hand vehicle values. The Manheim Used Car Price Index, which tracks wholesale numbers, dropped almost 13% since the beginning of the year. The figures aren’t as dramatic on the retail front, but average transaction prices are declining, according to the CarGurus Used Car Index. The online marketplace’s data shows the typical pre-owned vehicle now sells for $30,361 (as of this writing), down from a July record of $30,844. At the start of the year, the number stood at $30,524.

Wholesale used-vehicle prices (on a mix, mileage, and seasonally adjusted basis) decreased 3.0% in September from August. The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index declined to 204.5 and is now down 0.1% from a year ago. The non-adjusted price change in September was a decline of 2.1% compared to August, moving the unadjusted average price down 2.3% year over year.

In September, Manheim Market Report (MMR) values saw larger-than-normal declines that were consistent over the month, culminating in a 2.5% total decline in the Three-Year-Old Index over the last four weeks.

Electric Vehicle (EV) fires are in the news. While vehicle fires are nothing new, there is a concern that EVs might be more prone to fires than ICE vehicles, even if recent studies with the limited data available do not support the concern. It is no debate, however, that when a lithium-ion battery from an EV catches fire, the fire presents unique challenges:

• An EV battery fire is a lot hotter (up to 4,900 degrees Fahrenheit compared to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit),

• An EV battery fire takes a lot more water to extinguish (sometimes as much water as needed to extinguish a house fire), and

• An EV battery fire lasts a lot longer (over an hour in some instances)

Oct 3 (Reuters) - Major automakers are expected to report modest declines in U.S. new vehicle sales on Monday but analysts and investors are concerned that a darkening economic picture, not inventory shortages, will lead to a drop in future car sales.

Thus far, a shortage of cars due to supply disruptions, combined with a preference for personal transport, has seen consumers willing to shell out more money, largely protecting profits at automakers and auto dealers who have pulled back on discounts.

But used-car dealer CarMax Inc (KMX.N) rang the alarm bells on Thursday, suggesting consumers were beginning to pull back from big-ticket purchases due to decades-high inflation.

SALT LAKE CITY — There's a lot of excitement surrounding electric vehicles these days, and more of them on Utah roads. Rocky Mountain Power hosted an electric vehicle car show Tuesday to show off the latest options.

EVs are changing and becoming a choice for more drivers.

It's National Drive Electric Week, and with recently announced federal tax incentivesand expanding charging infrastructure, more Utahns are driving electric, saving money and polluting less.

"We're at the beginning of the change," said James Campbell, the innovation and sustainability director for Rocky Mountain Power. He said we're at the threshold of rapid adoption of electronic vehicles. "We're right at that spot where it's about to take off."

Tires are one of the major keys to customer retention. It has taken a decade or more, but most dealers now realize this is true. But what if I told you tires could play an even bigger role in the future of your dealership. Electric Vehicles are coming at us like a train on the tracks, and there is one aspect of these vehicles no one is talking about: They don’t need an oil change! So what, not a big loss, right? Wrong! The oil change has been the reason or trigger for the service visit for the last 50-plus years. It’s not about the lost revenue from this service. It’s the fact that without the oil change as the trigger for the scheduled visit, the customer has no reason to come back to your service department. Every maintenance package on every car has one thing in common: an oil change. We have built packages around this simple service since the ‘50s. And it’s gone with EVs.

The Fed raised the target for the Federal Funds Rate by three-quarters of a percentage point today, making another aggressive move to, as Fed Chair Jerome Powell suggests, induce “pain in the economy” as the cost of reducing inflation. The biggest news was not today’s increase, but the plans for where rates go from here.

Combined with the increases made in June and July, the Fed has now moved the target rate more in 120 days than at any point since 1981.

The Federal Reserve is set to escalate its battle against inflation this week with another substantial interest rate hike, risking deeper economic "pain" for millions of households and businesses nationwide.

With inflation unexpectedly accelerating in August and the job market still growing at a healthy clip, the U.S. central bank is widely expected to approve another 75-basis-point rate hike at the conclusion of its two-day meeting on Wednesday. Some investors are even betting on a full-percentage point move as the Fed faces mounting pressure to tame demand and slow surging consumer prices.

Agora Data, Inc., the FinTech company transforming automotive financing by providing U.S. independent auto dealers and finance companies precision loan performance analytics and access to ample, affordable capital, closed a $100 million revolving credit facility with Credit Suisse Group AG. This latest transaction facility allows Agora Data to accelerate and expand its ability to deliver efficient capital to loan originators who offer in-house financing solutions for non-prime auto buyers.

In a wide-ranging conversation with Scott Pelley, President Biden answers questions on Taiwan, inflation, the classified documents found in former President Trump’s home and more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1UC89H4Swc

WASHINGTON – Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) became the first federal agency to debut a battery electric vehicle (EV) fitted for performing law enforcement functions at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers’ Office of Cheltenham Operations. The Ford Mustang Mach-E is the first of a variety of EVs DHS plans to field across its varied law enforcement missions throughout the homeland.

Used-vehicle inventory volume held steady from July to August, as did prices – a sign of market stability, according to the Cox Automotive analysis of vAuto Available Inventory data.

The total supply of unsold used vehicles on dealer lots, both franchised dealers and independents, across the U.S. stood at 2.46 million units at the close of August, about the same as the revised number at the end of July.

The Federal Trade Commission is sending payments totaling more than $415,000 to 3,508 consumers who financed a car or truck at a Tate’s Auto dealership after Jan. 1, 2013, and later had the vehicle repossessed. Tate’s Auto, which operated dealerships in Arizona and New Mexico, allegedly deceived consumers about payment information and falsified information on consumers’ financing applications.

Wholesale used-vehicle prices (on a mix, mileage, and seasonally adjusted basis) decreased 4.0% in August from July. The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index declined to 210.8 but is up 8.4% from a year ago. The non-adjusted price change in August was a decline of 2.6% compared to July, leaving the unadjusted average price up 5.9% year over year.