Trade News

A demand problem taking root in the used-vehicle industry is forcing Carvana Co. further into cost-cutting territory.

The Tempe, Ariz.-based online used-vehicle retailer said last week that a multitude of economic factors — including rising interest rates — are converging to disrupt consumer demand and hinder the sales volume growth the company had anticipated for the third quarter. Instead, volume and revenue dropped for the period, and Carvana racked up its third and most significant quarterly loss of 2022: $508 million, bringing its total loss for the first nine months of the year to $1.45 billion, a period for which revenue rose 19 percent and retail volume by 4.2 percent.

Company leaders point to affordability concerns as a major factor that led to lower demand in the most recent quarter. Higher interest rates meant vehicles in stock took longer to sell and at lower profit levels.

"Cars are an expensive, discretionary, often…

Improving inventory and steady demand helped automakers post their best U.S. light-vehicle sales month since April, according to LMC Automotive, another sign the ongoing microchip shortage may be easing.

October volume rose 11 percent to 1.17 million, LMC said. Among the seven automakers that publicly reported monthly figures, sales increased 5.9 percent.

The seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of sales came in at 15.28 million for the month, according to Motor Intelligence, up from 13.39 million a year earlier.

Toyota, Mazda, Hyundai-Kia, Subaru and Volvo all posted October sales gains, while Ford and Honda reported declines. Sales increased even as rising interest rates and surging new-vehicle prices continue to threaten affordability.

"The vehicle market is being supported by improving inventories and product selection for some, but not all, brands," Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist at Cox Automotive, said in…

Most dealers keep their new, unsold luxury vehicles far away from mud pits, dirt roads, deep water, jagged rocks and other things that can potentially cause damage.

Larry Zinn is not most dealers.

Long before the market filled with upscale SUVs, Zinn's Land Rover stores held yearly events that brought customers into the wilderness to drive Land Rovers and Range Rovers in rugged conditions.

Now that the segment that Land Rover helped create in the late 1940s with the original Series 1 and then 40 years later with the luxurious Range Rover is chock-full of competitors, the stores' yearly off-road driving events have taken on far greater importance.

"From a loyalty perspective it's super important for us. It helps keep us connected with our customers, and we have a great time together," said Zinn, 36, executive general manager of Miami-based Warren Henry Auto Group.

In early October, Zinn's two Land Rover stores, Land Rover North Dade and La…

Honda, one of the few automakers still committed to stick shifts, is being realistic as the electric era unfolds and pushes the manual transmission toward obsolescence.

In an interview with Car and Driver, Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe and Shinji Aoyama, global head of the company's electrification efforts, downplayed hopes that Honda would adopt some type of artificial manual transmission for electric vehicles. Honda's EV plans include two sports cars — what the automaker describes as a flagship and a "specialty" model.

"Artificially, we can do it. Mechanically, it is not easy," Aoyama told the magazine, referring to a simulated manual as "like an extension of active sound control."

Aoyama said Honda will pursue other ways to make EVs fun to drive. The company sees battery technology and the packaging, programming and engineering of electric motors and direct-drive systems as a key differentiator. Mibe wants Honda EVs to be "edgy" with driving dynamics dis…

Two myths undercut the long-term profitability of dealerships.

Myth #1: That which is good for the customer is bad for profit.

Myth #2: That which is good for one department is bad for others.

Rather than advancing profitability, these myths—both of which feed upon the common yet counterproductive, zero-sum mentality of competition over collaboration — drive behaviors and decision making that undercut both the health and wealth of dealerships.

For example, imagine a service manager and a salesperson compete to greet a customer. The service manager accuses the salesperson of stealing work from the service department.

Then, when the customer asks for a ride back to their office, the service manager asks the sales manager if a member of the sales team could make the run. The sales manager tells him no way, adding that he can't risk a customer walking in while his guy is out running errands for the dealership.

Examples like these point …

Toyota is borrowing a successful play from rival brands and bringing more of its accessories business in-house, allowing dealers to sell and install them directly and customers to roll their purchases into their financing agreements, all without voiding the initial warranty.

The blitz comes at the midpoint of the redesign of Toyota's "Four Brothers:" the Tundra and Sequoia, which are already on market, as well as the coming redesigns of the Tacoma, due next year, and 4Runner, due in 2024.

There are two parts to the push, at least initially. First, the brand has developed lift kits in-house, first for the Tacoma and then this year for the redesigned Tundra. The kits provide extra ground clearance without altering the vehicles' suspension performance or compromising its driver assistance and safety technologies.

"We started with the Tacoma lift kit last year and then we released the Tundra lift kit this year, and we could not be more…

Volvo's EX90 electric crossover will offer an "invisible shield of safety" with a novel placement of lidar, the remote sensing technology that uses laser light pulses to render precise images of the environment around the vehicle.

While automakers typically embed safety sensors in the grille or front fascia, Volvo positioned the lidar unit on the EX90's roofline. For good reason.

Volvo Cars exterior design boss T. Jon Mayer describes the unit as the eyes of the vehicle, and placing it in the grille would be like having "eyes on your knees," limiting vision to the vehicle directly in front.

"If you put it up high, you can see above that car and beyond," Mayer said.

Volvo said the EX90's lidar, from Luminar, can detect pedestrians up to 820 feet away, even at highway speeds.

Designers considered integrating the lidar under the windshield but discovered the rake compromised performance.

Beyond early detection, the roof mount protects …

Record heat waves in California and severe hurricanes in Florida point to a weakness in electric vehicle adoption: How do people charge during extreme weather events when power may be lost?

It's not a theoretical question. California leads the nation in EVs. During a record Labor Day heat wave, state officials asked EV owners to avoid charging during peak electricity use times to avert power outages.

Three weeks later, Hurricane Ian landed as a Category 4 storm on Florida's southwest coast and knocked out power for weeks in the hardest-hit areas.

As EV adoption grows, charging before, during and after natural disasters presents a challenge, especially given a shortage of public chargers, lack of access to home charging and the increasing regularity of such events.

"We're starting to see the impacts of climate change more and more frequently," said Katherine Stainken, vi…

Carvana Co. said Thursday it recorded a net loss of $508 million in the quarter ending Sept. 30, noting it continues to grapple with inflationary pressures and rising interest rates that are causing consumer demand for used vehicles to wane.

The loss is larger than both Carvana's $506 million first-quarter loss and the $68 million loss it posted for the same period a year ago. The Tempe, Ariz.-based company said high used-vehicle prices and rising interest rates, in particular, led to softening demand as consumers zeroed in on affordability. The online used-car giant also said the current interest rate environment forced lower sales conversion rates and fewer profits per vehicle sold, resulting in fewer profitable sales.

Carvana generated revenue of $3.4 billion for the quarter, down 3 percent compared with the same period a year ago. The retailer sold 102,570 cars and trucks in the third quarter, down 8 percent. The profit it made per vehicle retailed fe…

National Automobile Dealers Association CEO Mike Stanton joins Jamie Butters to talk about the NADA's new guiding principles for the evolving retail landscape and how they are being received. Stellantis revenue jumps with help from better chip supplies. GM names a new OnStar chief. And BMW wants existing suppliers to provide parts for its EVs.

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