The two business partners that have driven the Conference of Automotive Remarketing for almost two decades sealed a long-term deal in early January to extend their efforts on behalf of a transforming industry.

The agreement between the International Automotive Remarketers Alliance (IARA) and Bobit Media, which owns and runs CAR, deepens the connection between the two organizations and reaffirms their mutual commitment to the remarketing industry. It strengthens CAR by allowing them more time and flexibility to collaborate strategically on planning and growth.

"IARA's goal is to help our members be more competitive with the necessary tools, training and resources,” said IARA President Doug Turner. “Our partnership with Bobit delivers a key communication conduit to our members and prospective members on topics that will give them an edge to support their teams and customers."

The agreement is the first one between the organizations that stretches beyond previous agreements. The IARA, founded in 2001, held its first conference in 2002 that evolved into their signature annual Summer Roundtables.

The IARA started partnering with Bobit on CAR in 2006. Since then, the IARA has hosted committee meetings, workshops, panels, and keynote addresses at CAR that complement the educational agendas developed by Bobit.

"IARA's community of remarketers engages in an open exchange of ideas about challenges and opportunities in our industry,” said Mark Coleman, executive director of the IARA. “Our partnership with Bobit will provide additional venues and media outlets to carry on that exchange of ideas."

This year’s CAR event, to be held March 26-28, 2024, in Phoenix, Arizona, has convened annually in Las Vegas since it launched in 1995. CAR only skipped 2020 when the COVID pandemic shut down conference gatherings.

“Bobit and the IARA are embarking on a new journey as the two organizations pivot to attract more remarketing professionals as industry members and participants,” said Martin Romjue, a managing editor in the Bobit fleet media group and chairman of CAR since 2022. “The IARA brings to the CAR table the qualities of industry clout, experience, and street cred. Combined with the digital media, event content, and marketing resources of Bobit, CAR will stand taller as the center of industry networking and business connections.”

While the IARA acts as the “Voice of Consignors,” and CAR as the legacy remarketing conference that connects fleet consignors with other remarketing segments, the two partners have widened their initial appeal to a broader mix of auctions, industry services, logistics companies, technology providers, financial transactors and institutions, and an array of specialists and vendors serving the used vehicle market.

In 2001, Bobit, which has run its flagship Automotive Fleet magazine and digital brand since 1961, helped a core group of Southern California automotive remarketing executives form the International Automotive Remarketers Alliance. Bobit Dealer Group publisher and current division president David Gesualdo and the late publisher Chuck Parker briefly served as the first managers of the alliance.