Trade News

If Brian Godfrey could wave a magic wand, Pat Milliken Ford would have four more service technicians on the payroll.

The suburban Detroit dealership could keep that many additional technicians busy, said Godfrey, its president. Service sales, including parts for service operations, are increasing — up 15 percent year over year through September and exceeding levels seen before the pandemic in 2019.

Yet business could be even stronger, Godfrey said, if the dealership had the capacity to grab it.

With more help on the service drive, "it would put us in a position where we could go market ourselves for new business as opposed to kind of being on the defensive and trying to handle the business that's coming in the door," he said. "We're doing the best job we can, primarily to take care of our loyal customers, but we'd like to go out there and be more aggressive to bring new business in."

Across the industry, franchised dea…

Cox Automotive's third-quarter Dealer Sentiment Index survey (July 26 to Aug. 9) asked 574 franchised dealers about the Federal Trade Commission's plan for new dealership advertising and finance and insurance rules. How familiar are you with the new rule and corresponding regulations that were proposed by the FTC at the end of June? Aware and very familiar 14% Aware and somewhat familiar 21% Aware, but not very familiar 16% Aware, but not at all familiar 9% Not aware 40% What parts of this regulation do you think should be kept and which ones should be removed? Pricing information in advertising must match what is offered in-store. Keep as is 59% Revise 27% Remove 14% Ban on all add-on products that do not provide a benefit to the consumer. Keep as is 27% Revise 28% Remove 45% Dealers must list all optional add-ons and their prices online. Keep as is 55% Revise 25% Remove 20% Dealers must present consumers with a form that lists the cos…

Hyundai Motor Group has out-galloped Ford Motor Co. for the No. 2 spot in the U.S. EV horse race.

Through August, the South Korean auto group reported 43,072 new registrations of electric vehicles across its Kia, Hyundai and Genesis brands — accounting for a combined 9.4 percent segment share, according to data from Experian Automotive. Hyundai registrations more than doubled; Kia's more than quadrupled. Ford's also more than doubled, but it still slipped to third place.

The landscape is changing however, as the Korean brands' EVs, which are all imported, stopped qualifying for $7,500 tax credits when President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act on Aug. 16. Ford's North America-built Mustang Mach-E crossover, F-150 Lightning pickup and E-Transit 350 van all qualify for a $7,500 EV tax credit for the remainder of 2022.

Through August, Ford reported 33,354 new EV registrations, up 111 percent, for 7.3 percent of the EV market, powered by strong…

Chris Mackey, managing member of Mackey Auto Group, distinctly remembers when he decided servicing commercial vehicles at his Ford dealership wasn't going to cut it.

Mackey, who formed the group in February 2019 with his son, Christopher, after having bought a Ford and a Subaru dealership, was not long into his store ownership when he had the revelation.

"It was 90 degrees. We had an ambulance and we had a motor home in the middle of August in our parking lot," Mackey recalled. "I had two technicians with these huge vehicles up on jack stands melting in the sun. I looked at them and said, 'One of these guys is gonna get hurt.' That moment the alarm went off and I said, 'Wait a second — we're not the only one with this problem.'

"And I took a complete gamble."

For Mackey Auto, the gamble was purchasing and renovating a 26,800-square-foot former FedEx warehouse a mile away from the Ford and Subaru dealerships in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and turning…

Though dealership trade groups have opposed the Federal Trade Commission's proposal for new auto sales regulations, majorities of retailers polled by Cox Automotive said the agency should keep key transparency provisions in the plan.

Concepts such as online cost disclosures, a guaranteed universal price, clear consent for finance and insurance products and true advertising found favor among retailers. The FTC's plans for record-keeping and banning valueless F&I products, however, were accepted by less than half of the dealers polled.

Cox didn't delve into the results and had no analysis to share, spokesman Mark Schirmer said last week.

An F&I consultant and a compliance expert who works with dealerships explored the data with Automotive News last week.

Some of the findings might indicate dealership leaders think their stores already are practicing the behavior prescribed by the FTC "when in fact they're not," said Becky Chernek, presiden…

Automotive News has added two retail reporters in Detroit.

Gail Kachadourian Howe will cover the finance and insurance industry and other retail topics. Howe, 50, has been a freelance reporter for Automotive News and was a staff reporter at Automotive News 16 years ago.

She holds a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree in advertising from Michigan State University.

Julie Walker will cover dealership mergers and acquisitions and other retail topics. Walker, 40, spent the last two years as a freelance writer and copy editor for Automotive News, Catena Media, BridgeDetroit, Planet Detroit and the Detroit Free Press. Before that, she worked for nearly a decade at The Detroit News as a reporter, copy editor and lead sports designer.

Walker holds a master's degree in liberal and interdisciplinary studies and a bachelor's degree in communications/print journalism, both from the Uni…

New technology from Point Predictive and a CreditMiner-TransUnion partnership allow dealerships to take a more active role in preventing borrower fraud.

BorrowerCheck for Dealers is "the first in a planned series of products for dealers" leveraged from the fraud analytics firm's vast database of records including income reports, loan applications, fake employers and fraudulent loans. It is a resource previously only available to lenders.

Dealerships can check the customer's name, address and Social Security number and see if more proof is necessary, according to Point Predictive. The company also has created a new phone verification mechanism.

CreditMiner's new "Identify" software leverages TransUnion's ability to check a customer's driver's license image against a selfie and the records on the person ostensibly described in the license. It also evaluates the credibility of the customer's phone. Ken Luna, CreditMiner strategic partnerships vice preside…

One of the biggest attractions at this year's reborn Detroit auto show stemmed from a grassroots movement that began as a way to spread cheer among Jeep owners during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After watching the social media-fueled phenomenon known as "ducking" spread rapidly, Jeep embraced it by setting up the world's largest rubber duck, a six-story bright yellow inflatable, outside the convention hall's front entrance last month.

But Jeep, which collaborated with auto show organizers to bring the duck to Detroit and give it prime real estate, has no intention of ruining the trend by commercializing it, said Marissa Hunter, Stellantis' senior vice president of marketing. The movement has spread organically among Jeep owners, a testament to the tight-knit nature of the off-road brand's community, and will remain a movement that's of the people, Hunter said.

"We've seen the sharing of the duck among the fans and the followers, and think…

Slowing sales helped inventory levels recover further to 1.32 million vehicles in September, a significant jump over where they were a year earlier but still historically low, according to Cox Automotive and the Automotive News Research & Data Center.

Cox said the figure — the highest since June 2021 — represented a 42-day supply, based on its practice of using the selling rate from the last 30 days.

It was nearly a half million vehicles higher than where inventory stood at the same point last year and about 90,000 higher than where it stood a month earlier.

But inventory remained more than 2 million vehicles down from the same month in 2019, before the pandemic.

Mass-market and luxury brand inventories collectively rose from the previous month, Cox said. Within individual segments, stocks of compact and midsize cars remained tight, along with minivans and electrified vehicles, while selections were best among full-size pickups and high-end …

Hyundai Motor America didn't run a Super Bowl spot this year, but it still grabbed some attention from the sidelines for its Ioniq 5 electric crossover.

The Korean automaker instead opted for an expansive digital strategy by leveraging TikTok, the video-sharing social hub known for its daily frenzy of people dancing to catchy music and using the plethora of editing tools to express themselves.

Automakers including Hyundai and Toyota and numerous dealerships have descended on TikTok to tap into its diverse user base, build up their brand and move some metal.

A March study from consumer-intelligence platform Suzy that found 44 percent of TikTok users are planning to buy or lease a car within the next six months, said Jodi Porter, U.S. vertical director of auto, dining and multicultural for TikTok Global Business Solutions. TikTok released a dealer playbook this month to help retailers tap into that consumer pool.

"We kn…

Pressure continues to build on Hyundai Motor America and Kia America to solve a design glitch that makes millions of their older models easy to hotwire and steal. This comes as the automakers continue to attempt to steer customers to an aftermarket fix.

Owners and attorneys have filed 26 class action lawsuits in courts around the U.S. against Hyundai and Kia, seeking monetary damages for owners and a nationwide recall. That is an increase from 15 class action suits last month.

An estimated 10 million Hyundai and Kia vehicles on the road lack engine immobilizers, which would deter theft.

Instead of initiating a recall, which one attorney estimates could cost as much as $5 billion, the automakers have turned to the aftermarket.

Hyundai tapped aftermarket remote-start maker Firstech to pull together a bundle of suitable off-the-shelf components from its Compustar line of security systems that would protect certain trim leve…

Stellantis multicultural advertising chief Juan Torres wants the automaker to be in tune with the "majority of tomorrow."

The U.S. Census Bureau projects that minority groups will make up a majority of the population by 2045, and Torres says it's a competitive advantage to engage these audiences now with messaging that is culturally relevant. Authenticity, Torres says, is key when trying to connect with minority shoppers.

Torres, 51, spoke with Staff Reporter Vince Bond Jr. about how the automaker tailors content for multicultural viewers, recent campaigns aimed at African-American and Hispanic consumers, and how the marketing space has changed over the past decade.

Torres, who also oversees advertising in international markets, was born in Colombia and split time between that country and the U.S. while growing up. This upbringing, with a Colombian father and American mother, helped shape how he approaches multicultural marketing. Here are edited excerp…