Trade News

GMC has been pushing prices and content for its premium trucks and SUVs into luxury vehicle territory — and that upward climb may not yet have peaked.

The brand's average transaction price last year was $59,031, according to GM Financial data that GMC provided to Automotive News. It rose to $62,367 in the first quarter of this year, the data show.

GMC's average pricing in 2022 was $60,069, compared with average luxury pricing of $66,242, according to data from third-party auto research site Edmunds. GMC's average price has continued to rise, to $63,731, this year through February.

Data from auto research site Kelley Blue Book shows similar trends.

And GMC will stretch even higher as the brand anticipates two newer top trims — Denali Ultimate and AT4X — will come to market in greater numbers this year after supply constraints limited their availability in 2022, said Duncan Aldred, vice president of global Buick and GMC.…

New groups on 2023 list 2022 rank Dealership group 53 Envision Motors 65 McGovern Automotive Group 86 Page Auto 95 Hiley Automotive Group 101 Great Lakes Auto Group 107 Georgica Auto Holdings 110 Young Automotive Group 119 Healey Brothers Automotive Group 137 Dobbs Family Automotive 141 Preston Auto Group 144 Castle Automotive Group 146 Bakhtiari Auto Group 149 Capitol Auto Group Source: Automotive News Research & Data Center

Thirteen dealership groups are new to this year’s list. Of the new arrivals, Envision Motors in West Covina, Calif., ranked highest at No. 53. McGovern Automotive Group in Newton, Mass., was next at No. 65, followed by Page Auto in Coral Springs, Fla., at No. 86.

Hyundai and Kia racked up more U.S. sales gains in March, setting records for the month, as inventories continue to improve across the industry.

Volume rose 27 percent to 75,404 last month at Hyundai, with retail deliveries increasing 15 percent to 68,312. Hyundai said sales to fleet customers represented 9.4 percent of March volume.

The company ended March with 53,119 cars and light trucks in U.S. inventory, down slightly from 54,156 at the close of February but up from 17,271 a year earlier.

U.S. sales advanced 20 percent to 71,294 at Kia, its fifth-straight month of a gain of 20 percent or more.

Kia said four models — Carnival, Sportage, Telluride and Forte — set March records while sales of electrified models increased 10 percent, even as deliveries of the EV6 slumped 69 percent to 988 from 3,156 a year earlier.

Kia has one of the lowest days-supply of vehicles across the industry and on Saturday said production and avai…

Jeep's latest collection of Easter Jeep Safari concepts features a mix of eco-friendly powertrains, luxury and the brand's trademark ruggedness.

The seven concepts were scheduled to be tested the first weekend in April on the off-road terrain in Moab, Utah, for the 57th annual gathering of Jeep enthusiasts — one of the largest off-road gatherings in the world, hosted by Moab's Red Rock 4-Wheelers club.

Jeep uses the event to glean insights from off-roaders and give designers and engineers hands-on experience in the wilderness to help them develop future models.

Mark Allen, head of Jeep exterior design, said team members who are first-time participants in the Moab adventure always come back "a changed person" with a "different perspective of their role in creating Jeeps."

"I always say, if you work on Jeep — you're an engineer, designer or if you touch it in some way or the other — I need you to know Jeep," Allen said. …

Disclaimer: This TV show will be a dramatization of real events.

Who better to portray a heavyweight in the auto industry than a heavyweight in the entertainment industry?

"Fall of the God of Cars," a six-part dramatic TV miniseries on former Renault Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn and his Great Escape to Lebanon from Japanese custody, will star Tony Shalhoub. The American actor with Lebanese roots made his big break as the title character of "Monk," a detective dramedy that aired from 2002 to 2009. He is currently cast in the critically acclaimed comedy series "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."

The versatile Shalhoub has five Emmys, a Tony and a Golden Globe on his resume.

"Carlos Ghosn was a superstar of the car industry, the first person ever to have simultaneously been CEO of two Fortune 500 companies," British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom said in a statement. "It is wonderful to have Tony Shalhoub on board to play this complex…

DETROIT — The UAW's International Executive Board — fractured into different ideological camps for the first time in more than 70 years — attempted to project unity at the union's quadrennial bargaining convention here as it heads into consequential contract talks with the Detroit 3 later this year.

But for all the talk of solidarity against a common foe, not so subtle signs remained of a messy election that concluded just hours before delegates convened.

Members who spoke of their affiliation with the Unite All Workers for Democracy reform caucus were booed, some resolutions from anti-establishment groups were voted down and the invocation of former President Ray Curry's name drew some of the loudest applause over the course of the three-day event.

Still, union leaders, even those from rival factions, tried to rally members for what UAW Vice President Chuck Browning called a "window of great opportunity" to win better wages and benefits from the autom…

Jeep's electrification plans have at least one dealer charged up to get a new Jeep dealership.

Las Vegas dealer Josh Towbin sold his previous Jeep store, but now he wants back in as the brand reshapes its lineup with electrified vehicles. This includes the Recon and Wagoneer S battery-electric vehicles that made appearances at a Stellantis dealer meeting last month in Las Vegas.

Stellantis detailed more than 30 new products for numerous brands at the meeting, the first of its kind in eight years for retailers who were with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles before the 2021 merger that brought it and France's PSA Group together as Stellantis.

The Recon is an eco-friendly off-roader inspired by the Wrangler, while the Wagoneer S is an upscale midsize entry with a design language that separates it from its larger three-row counterparts. Both models are slated to go into production in 2024.

Towbin, who owns Towbin Automotive Group, said the Recon's off-road p…

Service departments must start bolstering their customer retention efforts now or risk significant revenue declines in two to three years when warranties on new cars purchased in 2022 expire and typical levels of customer defections ensue, warns a service and parts trainer.

Lee Harkins, CEO of M5 Management Services, said the steep decline in new-car sales in 2022 is driving this scenario. According to the Automotive News Research & Data Center, lingering supply chain and inventory woes caused light-vehicle sales to drop 8 percent last year compared with 2021, to 13.4 million — the lowest number since 2011.

Here's Harkins' premise: It's not unusual for a typical dealership service department to experience customer defection levels of 60 to 70 percent after a conventional new-car warranty of three years and 36,000 miles expires.

With a significantly reduced pool of new-car customers, that 30 percent group of nondefecting custom…

Elon Musk is in tweeting purgatory again.

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the billionaire must delete his 2018 Twitter post suggesting that Tesla Inc. workers could lose stock options if they formed a union and joined the UAW, as it violated labor law.

The decision is a victory for the National Labor Relations Board and a blow to Tesla, which has vehemently opposed the UAW's years-long effort to unionize the EV maker's workers.

It also puts Musk in the awkward spot of having to retract one of his many incendiary tweets after he's become the owner of Twitter Inc.

The tweet said: "Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing?"

The labor board had ruled that Tesla repeatedly broke U.S. law, including by firing a union activist, and directed the company to ensure that its chief executive officer's threatening tweet is eras…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday said it was approving California's plans to require a rising number of zero-emission heavy-duty trucks as the state pushes to cut pollution.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said as a result of the plan, "half of all heavy duty trucks sold in CA will be electric by 2035."

"Time to stop playing small ball," he added.

Under an executive order Newsom signed in 2020, California plans to mandate by 2045 that all operations of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles be zero emission where feasible, shifting away from diesel-powered trucks.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) had sought waivers from the Clean Air Act to set heavy-duty vehicle and engine emission standards. California has been joined by Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington and Vermont in adopting the rules.

CARB has noted heavy-duty vehicles greater than 14,000 pounds comprised 3 percent of vehicles on Calif…