August 17, 2015
ON THE WEB: Drivers Keep Cars Longer
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Hacking Sparks Fear in Auto Industry
The combined average age of all light vehicles on the road in the U.S. has climbed slightly to 11.5 years, according to IHS Automotive. Registrations for light vehicles in operation in the U.S. also reached a record level of 257.9 million. .
KAR Accelerates Buyback
KAR Auction Services Inc. announced it plans to enter into an accelerated share repurchase agreement under which the company expects to repurchase up to $200 million of common stock. It expects to receive an initial delivery of approximately 4.5 million shares of common stock.
Electric Vehicles Depreciate Faster
New data from Black Book shows where mainstream electric vehicles (EV) are feeling some their heaviest depreciation curves, especially in comparison to traditional gasoline models.
Rush - Dated Material
LOSING CONTROL: Hackers were able to take control of a Jeep like the one above, according to an article in Wired magazine. Researchers will bring their findings to a hacking conference in Las Vegas.
The bytes had barely settled from the Wired magazine article revealing how hackers were able to take remote control of a Jeep Cherokee, when another duo of cybersecurity researchers blogged in early August about taking control of a Tesla Model S by hacking into the car’s entertainment system.
The Wired piece, by cybersecurity researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, prompted Fiat Chrysler Automotive to recall 1.4 million vehicles equipped with certain radios. Tesla officials said an overthe-air software fix has been distributed to all Model S cars. The Tesla hackers, cyber-
security expert Kevin Mahaffey, who is co-founder and chief technology officer of cybersecurity firm Lookout, and Marc Rogers, principal security researcher at web security company CloudFlare, will present their research at the upcoming Def Con hacking conference in Las Vegas. The FCA recall aligns
with an ongoing software distribution that insulates connected vehicles from remote manipulation. Further, FCA US has applied network-level security measures to prevent the type of remote manipulation demonstrated in the article. These measures – which required no customer or Continued on page 5
Trade Associations Join Together, Defeat Recall Provision The U.S. Senate passed this year’s Highway Bill without an amendment that would have forced car dealers to fix any recalls before selling a vehicle. The amendment, introduced by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, would have prohibited the sale or lease of used cars subject to a recall until the defect or noncompliance had been remedied. It was voted down by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and was not included in the bill that won approval in the full Senate. The National Automobile Dealers Association, the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association, the
National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers and the National Auto Auction Association opposed the amendment. NIADA members pointed out to lawmakers that it would cause severe logistical problems for independent dealers, raise consumers’ costs and lower the value of their vehicles, all without increasing the number of recalled vehicles being repaired. “The response by our dealers to this call speaks to their commitment to our industry, and the result of their action speaks to what we can accomplish as an association and as an industry when we speak with a united voice,” said Steve Jordan, NIADA executive vice president.
OFF-LEASE CARS FRESH INVENTORY. LOWER BUY FEES.
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