Trade News

Ayman Moussa is doing more with less.

The co-owner of Carnamic in Hayward, Calif., leverages technology and a lean organizational structure to operate his eight Bay Area stores with about half the employees of a typical dealership.

The group, which has Nissan, Infiniti, Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Kia stores, sold 4,286 new and used vehicles last year.

Carnamic stores have six salespeople vs. the 12 found on a typical sales floor, said Moussa, who launched the company with his brother Chadi more than a decade ago.

The salespeople are product specialists tasked with walking potential customers through the vehicle, answering questions and conducting test drives. The product specialists are not involved with making the sale.

That's the responsibility of the store's two sales managers, who also handle arranging financing and selling aftermarket products.

"Our sales managers control the entire sales…

It doesn't take advanced knowledge of Newtonian physics to understand the forces at play right now in the U.S. auto market.

But it helps.

Consider Newton's Third Law of Motion. "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

That played out in September — and indeed throughout the third quarter — across the U.S. auto industry as automakers and dealers struggled to find a balance between opposing forces. Continuing production and logistical bottlenecks at some automakers kept inventory from recovering more quickly; rapidly rising interest rates and prices squared off against consumers' concerns about their ability to pay.

The result: The seasonally adjusted, annualized rate came in at 13.67 million last month, Motor Intelligence said, above analysts' projections and much improved from the 12.38 million in September 2021, the lowest pace of sales since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. September 2021…

DUBLIN, Va. —Freightliner has led its U.S. diesel big rig rivals for years, commanding a market share no competitor could catch. But the nascent transformation to electric trucking provides other players an opening, and Volvo has jumped ahead.

Sales of electric trucks are still almost immeasurable compared to the roughly 150,000 heavy-duty diesel trucks manufacturers are on track to sell in the U.S. this year.

Yet Volvo holds an early lead in the U.S., according to registration data collected by S&P Global Mobility. Fleets have purchased 51 Volvo VNR Electric regional haul trucks through July. Peterbilt is at 10. Volvo's sibling company, Mack, is at seven, and Navistar's International Truck is at six. The data doesn't include 40 prototype battery electric Freightliner eCascadias and eM2s from Daimler Trucks North America in various test programs.

Volvo's lead is slight — now up to about 60 registrations, the company said — but…

Audi’s 5.2-liter V-10-powered R8 supercar, which debuted in 2006, is bowing out with the R8 GT, with a production run capped at just 333 globally.

The model has rear-wheel drive, 602 hp and 413 pound-feet of torque. The transmission is a seven-speed dual-clutch, though the GT gets an altered gear ratio that allows for a higher top speed: 199 mph. It vrooms from 0-62 mph in 3.4 seconds.

Audi also equips the R8 with an adjustable traction control system. In the GT, drivers can choose from seven levels, each allowing different amounts of slippage. 

Electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc. will recall about 13,000 vehicles it delivered to customers after discovering a minor structural defect.

Irvine, California-based Rivian will recall the vehicles because a fastener “may not have been sufficiently torqued,” CEO RJ Scaringe said in a letter to customers that was seen by Bloomberg News.

The electric truck and SUV maker said it discovered a fastener connecting the upper control arm and steering knuckle may have been improperly installed. In rare cases, the problem could lead to a loss of steering control, the company said.

The company is recalling about 13,000 vehicles -- nearly all of vehicles delivered to customers -- even though the issue was discovered only in seven, “out of an abundance of caution.” The company said it isn’t aware of any injuries resulting from the issue. The cost of the recall isn’t material, according to a person familiar with matter.

The recall is a setback to Rivi…

Used-vehicle retailer Carvana, facing another setback, had its license suspended by Michigan on Friday for repeated violations covering titles, registrations and odometers.

Michigan's Department of State on Friday said that the license for Carvana had been summarily suspended for several alleged violations of the Michigan Vehicle Code. The violations were discovered during an investigation of multiple no-title complaints from consumers, the state said.

The state said the violations by Carvana include:

Failing to make application for title and registration within 15 days of delivery for 112 customers since agreeing to an earlier probation extension Committing fraudulent acts in connection with selling or otherwise dealing in vehicles where Carvana employees admitted to destroying title applications and all applicable documents pertaining to the sale of three vehicles that were sold to customers and Carvana took the vehicles back Failing to maintain odometer…

When Chris Thomas worked as an intern at Ford Motor Co. in the depths of the Great Recession, he finagled his way into a meeting with Bill Ford Jr. and asked the company chairman to put him on the most interesting project possible.

Thomas spent his summer analyzing transportation trends in cities with more than 10 million residents. He quickly parlayed that research into a role crafting business plans for potential transportation startups, long before "mobility" became an industry buzzword.

Today, Thomas, who is based in Detroit, is a partner at Assembly Ventures, the venture capital firm focused on global transportation investments that he co-founded in 2020. He was a guest on the Oct. 2 episode of "Shift: A Podcast About Mobility" with Staff Reporter Pete Bigelow. Here are edited excerpts from their conversation.

Q: The Detroit auto show was underwhelming. How can the organizers recapture the magic? Could it be combined with the B…

The key to delivering a seamless and transparent sales experience to vehicle buyers is to figure out how to reduce the clunkiness that often interrupts the process.

One way to get there: By cutting down on the number of logins, windows and toggling back and forth that dealership sales employees have to navigate while working on a car deal.

It's one of the biggest pain points for dealership employees, and it is passed on to dealership customers in the form of extra time and potentially less transparency, which could lead to less trust, dealership leaders and industry experts said last month at an industry conference hosted by dealership software giant CDK Global Inc. in Detroit.

"In our stores, we have so many different logins to so many different programs," Sam D'Arc, COO of Zeigler Auto Group, which has dealerships in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, said during a panel discussion. "That's a friction point in delivering t…

Wholesale used-vehicle prices tumbled once again in September, marking another month of cumulative price declines that have defined the wholesale market in 2022.

Cox Automotive said Friday that wholesale prices declined 3 percent in September compared with August. The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index — an indicator of used-vehicle market pricing trends — declined from 210.8 in August to 204.5.

Cox Automotive reported prices were 0.1 percent lower in September than the same time last year when the index stood at 204.8. It's the first time since May 2020 wholesale values declined year-over-year, according to Cox Automotive. Those numbers are adjusted for mix, mileage and seasonality.

On a nonadjusted basis, the index fell 2.1 percent in September from its August level, with prices down 2.3 percent year-over-year.

"Vehicles are once again depreciating assets," Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke said in a news release. "As we look at the …

Stellantis has been hit with another odor violation at its Detroit Assembly Complex on Mack Avenue, marking the sixth time in a year that state regulators have flagged the Jeep plant for air pollution.

The assembly and paint complex on the city's east side was cited Tuesday for "nuisance odors" recorded by inspectors Sept. 30, according to the violation notice from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

"During the investigation … (Air Quality Division) staff observed persistent and objectionable paint/solvent and chemical odors of moderate intensity (Level 3) impacting residential areas downwind of the facility," the notice said.

According to investigators, the odors were of "sufficient intensity, duration, and frequency" to constitute an "unreasonable interference with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property."

Stellantis said it is investigating the incident.

"Stellantis has been implementing corrective act…

NADA charts a new auto retail path. Cobalt mining returns to the U.S. after three decades. Tesla says it will finally deliver Semi trucks. Plus, a conversation about the ways the pandemic has changed how customers communicate with dealership service departments.

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Four growing dealership groups, including two of the largest in the country, completed acquisitions in the second, third and fourth quarters.

Here's a look at the deals involving domestic and import stores in California, Michigan, Texas, and Indiana.

Four of the deals involved a group ranked on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups.

Lithia sells Northern California Toyota store

Lithia Motors Inc., fresh off two separate store divestitures in California last month, sold another dealership this week in the Golden State.

Lithia on Monday sold Lodi Toyota to Lahham Automotive, the auto retail giant confirmed. The dealership's name remains. Lodi is south of Sacramento.

In May 2021, Lithia sold a Kia dealership in Stockton, Calif., to Lahham Automotive.

The Toyota store is Lahham's second dealership overall, said Joe Ozog, president of Ozog Consulting Group in Scottsdale, Ariz. Ozog Consulting represented Lithia in…