sales

Shoppers Eye 4th of July Car Sales as Pandemic Expedites Car-Buying Plans

By Jaime E. Love 1 month ago

Some consumers may celebrate the birth of the nation by buying a new car, as Fourth of July car deals and pandemic concerns provide an incentive to shop.

Automotive marketplace Cars.com surveyed consumers who have an interest in acquiring a new car to see if the COVID-19 outbreak was impacting their plans. The survey found that not only were most respondents expediting their timeline for getting another car in part because of the pandemic, but 44% said they were prepared to close the deal on a vehicle over the holiday weekend.

A myriad of reasons to buy

Respondents gave a host of reasons for why they were quickly moving forward with their car-buying plans.

More than half — 52% — said they want something new, or at least newer than the vehicle they already own. More than a third of respondents — 42% — said they believed the deals that

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Automakers tap into nostalgia to boost sales

By Jaime E. Love 2 months ago

Welcome back to the 1990s.

It was the decade auto enthusiasts said goodbye to their cult favorites: the Supra, Bronco and Defender.

How times have changed.

Toyota revived the Supra, its celebrated sports car, last year and Ford’s Bronco 4×4 and Land Rover’s Defender will be back in dealerships before the end of the year.

“Nostalgia never goes out of style,” Stephanie Brinley, a longtime auto analyst at IHS Markit, told ABC News.

Taking advantage of a vehicle’s name recognition with consumers “is really easy for automakers … the risk, though, is that the name has to be remembered fondly,” she said.

The fourth-generation Supra, with its now iconic design features like projector headlamps and large rear spoiler, was pulled from the U.S. market in 1998 though it lived on in Japan until 2002. It was Toyota CEO and President Akio Toyoda who decided in 2012 to bring back the

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