• With the opening of a Plaza Tire Service shop in Bowling Green, KY, the Sun Auto Tire & Service network reached the 600-location mark. Since 2017, the platform has expanded from roughly 30 shops to one of the largest independent tire and automotive service retailers in the United States.
• Charlotte-based Straightaway, a national automotive repair platform, has surpassed 100 shops, growing from 43 locations and five founding brands at its formation in 2023 to a network that now spans six regions.
• RepairWise is now Fixlane. The company connects car owners with repair shops and provides instant online quotes, transparent pricing, service appointment scheduling and more. “This is a new chapter for us, and it’s about much more than a name. Fixlane is the next step toward the job we set out to do from day one: fixing auto repair for everyone,” the company stated in announcing the change. “Starting today, we serve every car owner, not just EV owners.”
• Steer now integrates with AutoLeap, allowing the customer and vehicle data already in AutoLeap’s shop management system to work across Steer. The goal of the collaboration is to help shops personalize interactions, uncover opportunities to bring customers back and see what’s driving revenue across the customer journey.
• ASE has made nearly 50 free webinars available for on-demand viewing. The webinars were presented by ASE industry partners during the past year and include a range of topics. For more information, to receive information about future webinars or to view a list of previous webinars, click here.
• Dave Johnson, president and CEO of ASE, has authored a letter to the industry encouraging all OEMs to explore the development of their own ASE equivalency programs. Click here to read Johnson’s letter.
• TOPDON USA has announced that the ArtiDiag700, ArtiDiag800 BT 2 and ArtiDiag900 Lite now include free lifetime software updates. Effective Aug. 18, 2026, current and future owners of these tools can keep their diagnostic software up to date without paying additional update fees.
• RHD Tire — which serves tire dealers, repair shops and dealerships across the Chicago area — has opened a distribution center in South Holland, IL to boost its inventory, speed and service.
• Michael Azo has started a new job as director of operations at K&M Tire. Azo had been director of operations for KSI Auto Parts.
• The Jack Demmer Automotive Group is deploying drones to deliver parts within a 12-mile radius of Jack Demmer Ford dealerships in Southeast Michigan. This is being done in partnership with drone technology companies Airspace Link and Blueflite and with support from Centrepolis Accelerator and a $740,000 grant from Michigan’s Advanced Air Mobility Activation Fund. Click here to read an announcement from Airspace Link about this initiative.
• Jennifer Garcia has joined OEC as director of product for the certified repair network. Garcia had been director of product management for CLARA Analytics and, before that, director of product operations at CCC Intelligent Solutions.
• The Caliber family of automotive repair and service brands — including Caliber Collision, Caliber Auto Glass and Caliber Fleet Solutions — has expanded into three new states (Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont) with the acquisition of Key Collision, which has 10 shops.