No doubt, Tesla has become a highly successful car brand with a growing roster of fans. The company recently introduced a new, guaranteed "buy back" program that offers to buy back a Model S between 36 – 39 months at a guaranteed residual.



On the surface this is positioned as a lease program. But it's really not a lease because you have to finance and pay taxes on the full vehicle.



Why can't you just lease a Tesla? Government regulations mean the $7,500 Plug-In Electric…

Despite growing supply challenges, profitable portfolio growth opportunities remain for automotive lenders according to a new white paper from Black Book Lender Solutions. The new white paper: “Finding Portfolio Growth Amidst Changing Supply Levels” may be downloaded by clicking here.



Increasing supply has become more of a focus in the automotive industry causing concern over accelerated…

Yes, there are car shoppers in 2014 that still look for a cassette deck in a vehicle. Swapalease.com analyzed more than 20,000 vehicle searches on its popular car lease marketplace to find items and features people still seek in a car or truck. Some items were popular decades ago, while others have traditionally been only for select tastes.



T-Tops: If you’re old enough to be a fan of “Smokey And The Bandit,” you’ll realize why T-Tops are still a fan favorite for some. These car…

According to Black Book data, the average price of a used vehicle for model years 2008-2012 overall increased in price during April, capping a strong spring selling season. Average segment prices saw +0.9% retention in value compared with the previous month (-0.3% depreciation in March). Domestic cars gained +2.7%; import cars gained +0.2%; domestic trucks gained +2.2%; and import trucks gained +0.5%. Average pre-recession depreciation is historically between -1% and -2% monthly, and Black…

Welcome to this week’s edition of Beggs on the Used Car Market, with the latest valuation data from Black Book. Now that we have reached the fifth month of the year, unless you are in Dutch John, Utah, or some other location of 8,000 feet of elevation or higher, we are probably through with the winter type weather, finally. We may also be past the peak of spring used car activity and overall strength…

Black Book, a division of Hearst Business Media Corporation that provides new- and used-vehicle valuation services, custom data licensing solutions, as well as lender origination and risk analysis, has partnered with Chicago-based Cars.com to become the company’s official vehicle valuation service.



“Cars.com is a leader in providing consumers with the resources they need during the buying and selling process,” said Black Book’s Jared Kalfus, vice president of data licensing. “We…

Swapalease.com, the nation’s largest car lease marketplace, reports lease credit approvals during the month of March were at 69.6%, up from last month’s yearly low of 66.7%. The 69.6% approvals mark is also the level of the last three months, indicating a credit approvals landscape that continues to hover near the “healthy” mark of 70%.



The credit approvals rate over the last twelve months stands at 71.7%. Prior to March, the approvals rate had continuously dropped from early fall…

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Beggs on the Used Car Market, with used car pricing data from Ricky Beggs and Black Book. Just when most all parts of the country thought winter was gone and pollen from the budding trees was the dominate particles in the air, we hopefully had the final blast of winter weather that swept across the Midwest and actually left Detroit enough of the white fluffy flakes to set an all-time record level of snow for the winter season.



As the Black…

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Beggs on the Used Car Market with used car valuation data trends from Black Book and Ricky Beggs. We trust the market has been good to each and every one of you as a buyer, a seller or a player in the lending side of the business. As I stood on the lanes this week I truly appreciate the comments that were made about the market strength, how some vehicles are identified and listed within the guides, and even the effects that actual VIN decoding…

According to Black Book® data, used vehicles model years 2008-2012 overall depreciated -0.3% in March, showing continued strength in seasonal retention compared to the -1.1% rate in February. Domestic cars gained in value by +0.7%; import cars depreciated -0.6%; domestic trucks gained in value by +0.6%; and import trucks depreciated -0.8%. Average pre-recession depreciation is historically between -1% and -2% monthly, and Black Book expects overall 2014 depreciation of -13.5%.



March…

How much influence does ‘change’ have on today’s car shopper? In the past, financial motivations drove the behavior of car shoppers, but our desire to simply change is viewed as the main reason we shop for a car today, according to a new study from the car-leasing marketplace Swapalease.com.

 

According to results of an online survey presented to more than 1,000 drivers across…

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Beggs on the Used Car Market, with the latest vehicle valuation data from Ricky Beggs and Black Book. We trust you have had a good week on the retail lots, in the auction lanes and airwaves and within the finance offices.



For those of you who have commented over the past several weeks that you expect the market to soften, you will…

With reports of the “sellers are happy” and “it’s a sellers’ market”, the results of the weekly market changes were bound to show continued strength. The only question remaining was just how strong it would actually be after a full week of auction activity. Welcome back to this week’s Used Car Market Report with insights from Ricky Beggs from Black Book.



As I reviewed the various comments…

Swapalease.com, the nation’s largest car lease marketplace, reports that the average monthly payment for a car lease on the road in February is $591.70, up from last month’s average of $572.42 and compared with an average payment of $569.23 a year ago.



Compared with year-ago payments on today’s most popular vehicles, the Chevrolet Volt has had the largest monthly payment decline dropping from $424.50 a year ago to $297.56 today. The aggressive lease deals and incentives on Volt…

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Beggs on the Used Car Market from Black Book. And by springtime, not just because the calendar says we have reached that point in the year, but after talking with a couple of industry folks in Detroit, the DC area and even from two mid-west states, there was a freshness in their voices due to no snow in the air or on the ground, with some sunny skies bringing…

Swapalease.com, the nation’s largest car lease marketplace, reports lease credit approvals during the month of February were at 66.6%, down from the 70.5% level in January and 73.3% level in December of 2013. February’s rate was the lowest since September of 2013, when the marketplace saw just 62.9% approvals from credit applicants.



So far in 2014 the credit approvals rate stands at 68.3%, close to the…

Hello and welcome to this week's edition of Beggs on the Used Car Market, with used car highlights from Black Book. The experienced editors at Black Book have been busy making all the necessary changes to the values. Since the first of February we have averaged 1820 adjustments per day with the lowest daily average during any one week being 1619. This past week the 2150 adjustments per day was the second…

How do women view their car lease experience? Swapalease.com wanted an inside look at how women drivers feel about leasing a vehicle, the shopping experience for a lease, and whether they would like to return to leasing in their next vehicle choice. Highlights from its latest report, "The State Of Women And Car Leasing" is below, and full results may be found on the …

Here is this week's Used Car Market Report from Ricky Beggs, Editorial Director of Black Book. Everywhere I turned this past week I was being told of 70% to 80% sales conversions definitely indicating a booming market. One buyer even said the opening bid was many times higher than his planned top bid. And the actual…

Here is this week's Used Car Market Report with analysis from Ricky Beggs and Black Book. Judging from the overall comments Black Book received this past week and the ultimate level of adjustments based on the auction results and…