Trade News – Page 300

Buy-Sell Q&A: Future-proofing your dealership

Q: As consolidation in automotive retail continues at a record pace, what’s the most important thing smaller auto groups and independents need to consider to not only survive, but thrive?

Haig: The forward-thinking retailers we know are focused on giving the customers what they want: a huge selection, a fair price, and a convenient way to buy. It all starts online now as the pandemic accelerated the shift towards online shopping. A world-class online experience is essential for consumers of all ages, but particularly the upcoming generation. We encourage dealers to compare their digital offerings, starting with their websites along with their consumer propositions with what buyers are offered at CarMax, Carvana and publicly traded retailers.

My kids are in their 20s and have grown up accustomed to buying almost everything they want online. They want to do what is known to them - tap some buttons on their phones or laptops for all their needs. The idea of going into a…

2023 F-150 Raptor R packs 700 hp, 640 pound-feet of torque into ‘nimble monster’

Ford Motor Co.'s 2023 F-150 Raptor R adds eye-popping V-8 punch to the automaker's off-road lineup, but it won't supplant the Ram 1500 TRX as the apex predator of the full-size performance pickup segment.

Ford said the Raptor R's 5.2-liter V-8 engine will generate 700 hp and 640 pound-feet of torque, just below the TRX's 702 hp and 650 pound-feet of torque. But Ford officials argue the Raptor R's expected curb weight of 5,950 pounds — about 400 pounds lighter than the TRX — will make it a more agile, durable beast.

"In the end, two or three horsepower doesn't really matter," Tony Greco, program manager of F-150 Raptor, told Automotive News. "It really comes down to the power-to-weight ratio. It's a nimble, nimble monster and that's what it takes to be fast in the environment we want to compete in and dominate."

The Raptor R, meant for desert-racing enthusiasts, is Ford's most powerful Raptor-badged vehicle to date. While the brand has been a hit for For…

Stellantis terminates Jeep joint venture with GAC

PARIS -- Stellantis announced the "orderly termination" of its joint venture with Chinese carmaker GAC, which has been producing Jeep vehicles.

The decision comes only four months after Stellantis said it would raise its stake in the business.

"We came to the conclusion that it was better to close the joint venture," said a Stellantis spokesperson, adding that the venture had been loss-making and that the carmaker could still operate in China through its dealer network.

GAC reprimanded Stellantis in January for announcing plans to raise its stake to 75 percent from 50 percent. GAC was not immediately available for comment.

GAC agreed the partnership in 2010 with Fiat Chrysler, which later merged with PSA to form Stellantis.

With less than a 1 percent share of the Chinese auto market, Stellantis has been looking to reshuffle its strategy in the country as part of a broader simplification of its global structure under CEO Carlos Tavares. Read more

Outdated allocation to blame for preselling

TO THE EDITOR:

Regarding "GM bars dealers from reporting sales before delivery" (autonews.com, July 1): One of the main reasons this practice happens at a dealership level is that General Motors' forecasting and allocation system is a 1980s antiquated "12-month rearview mirror system." Their turn-and-earn system is heavily weighted towards larger dealership groups that are geographically close to the plants.

They no longer preference bona fide sold orders, so dealers are trying to shorten the ridiculous lead times for repeat "true blue" customers that GM is kicking to the curb. These repeat sold-order customers are the industry's most cherished customers, and GM is abusing them.

Ford and Ram are preferencing sold orders and getting units out to their brand-loyal customers.

STEWART KREUN, Edgerton, Minn. The writer is a dealer principal.

Production, supply still ‘wild cards’ rest of 2022

Lower-than-expected U.S. light-vehicle sales in the first half of 2022 reinforced the damage and unpredictability of the global microchip shortage that has plagued the industry for more than a year.

Automakers sold 6.8 million new vehicles in the first six months of the year, down 18 percent from a year earlier, according to the Automotive News Research & Data Center. Virtually every automaker except Tesla experienced a year-over-year sales drop in the first half of 2022.

Most dealerships still lacked the more normalized inventory levels that prognosticators expected to have returned by now, and as a result many forecasters have lowered their full-year projections for U.S. new-vehicle volume. Still, some optimism remains for the back half of the year.

Demand continues to be strong despite record average transaction prices and whispers of an impending recession, and some executives have said chip supplies could improve enough in the coming months to…

Cheaper loans on EVs are possible, startup Tenet says

The marketplace is overpricing electric vehicle loans, according to a startup that says its EV depreciation projections support more affordable financing terms for consumers.

Tenet co-founder and CEO Alex Liegl told Automotive News that his company's EV borrowers save more than $200 a month. Savings tend to stem from lenders pricing the reduced depreciation Tenet calculates into their loan terms, but the company also matches customers with investors and lenders willing to offer better EV financing deals because of a "climate-friendly" mindset.

He said Tenet built its EV depreciation model using EV data that predates the pandemic and today's outlier of an automotive market. If its customers consent, Tenet also draws live data from their vehicles to both refine its models and offer motorists emissions and value insights.

According to Liegl, an EV has far fewer moving points, can be upgraded over time with software updates and requires less maintenance tha…

The Intersection 7-17-22

A self-driving pioneer stumbles

A crash resulting in injuries. Incidents in which robotaxis cluster at intersections and block traffic. A car operating without headlights at night, which then repositions itself before a police officer can complete a traffic stop.

Now an alleged whistleblower's letter has emerged, highlighting safety concerns.

Self-driving tech company Cruise has endured a bumpy ride in recent months, and that’s being kind. A series of mishaps have raised serious questions about the company’s San Francisco operations, and those only grew in number and scope this past week when a letter purportedly written by a Cruise employee cast doubt upon the company’s readiness for commercial operations, which started just last month.

“Employees generally do not believe we are ready to launch to the public, but there is fear of admitting this because of expectations from leadership and investors,” the person wrote in a letter to regulato…

Detroit 3 sticking with AM radio

Audio problems caused by electromagnetic interference has prompted some automakers to omit AM radio from their electric vehicles, but the Detroit 3 say they intend to keep the aging technology even as they transition their lineups to battery power.

Volvo and BMW told The Drive for a report this month that the power their EVs draw from the batteries generates too much audio interference for their liking. Audi, Porsche and Tesla also sell EVs without AM radio.

But General Motors and Ford Motor Co. aren't as eager to toss the AM dial aside. The Ford F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E, Cadillac Lyriq, Chevrolet Bolt and GMC Hummer EV all offer AM radio and have not been inundated with complaints about poor sound.

The Drive contacted GM, Ford and Stellantis — whose predecessor included AM radio on the Fiat 500e — and found that the difference likely has more to do with the fact that AM radio has all but disappeared Europe. In the U.S., meanwhile, AM radio r…

Palmer: Nissan could have been as valuable as Tesla

Tesla Inc. is worth as much as the next nine most valuable automakers combined.

Nissan isn't among those top 10. But it could have had a valuation similar to Tesla's if it had stuck with its electrification program, former Nissan executive Andy Palmer said.

Palmer, now working with multiple electric startups, led the development of the Leaf, Nissan's first full-electric car, which launched in 2010. The compact hatchback was regarded as the world's first mass-produced full-electric car. Nissan has since fallen behind competitors in the electric race.

"For one reason or another Nissan did not remain on the electric track," Palmer told the Automotive News Europe Congress in Prague last week. "If they had, there was a very clear rollout plan for [electric] cars. If they had followed that they could have had a valuation not dissimilar to Tesla."

Nissan's actions were likely a response to the high cost of the Leaf, Palmer said.

Nissan likely ro…

Tomlin: Using pigs ‘not cool’ Ford: That’s in the past

Actress and Detroit native Lily Tomlin recently criticized Ford Motor Co. as "not cool" for a past decision to fund a research study that used pigs to understand how crashes can affect small children.

Tomlin asked Ford, on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, to adopt "a compassionate, animal-free testing policy" — which Ford says it already has done.

"When I heard from PETA that Ford had bankrolled a Wayne State University study using pigs in crash tests, I was deflated," Tomlin wrote in the June 27 letter released by PETA. "I thought those bleak days were in the rearview mirror, and hearing that they are recurring is like suffering backlash."

The research Tomlin referenced is, in fact, well in the rearview mirror by now. Ford told the Detroit Free Press that the study, which was funded nearly a decade ago and published in 2018, adhered to Wayne State's ethics protocols and the automaker's policy to not use animals in testing except …

FTC needs better insights before adding new rules

The Federal Trade Commission's proposed dealership compliance rule may be well intended, but the development of the guidance has been rushed and uninformed. It's time for the commission to get auto industry stakeholders involved — and listen to them.

The proposed regulation would prevent dealers from selling customers products that provide no value, ban them from running misleading pricing advertisements, and require them to offer additional pricing disclosures and a list of add-on products with prices online. It also puts confusing and likely onerous limits on how dealerships communicate with shoppers and adds bureaucratic burdens for consumers who choose to negotiate or purchase voluntary protection products.

The FTC estimates that compliance will cost dealers $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion over 10 years. The National Automobile Dealers Association and the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association say the rule is likely to increase consumers' already…

Kyle Wiens fights for the right to repair cars (Episode 157)

The co-founder and CEO of online repair community iFixit describes the auto industry’s attempts to use copyright law to restrict who can repair cars. He further explores the meaning of ownership in a software-defined era.

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