Trade News

Software developer Bryan Levenson worked for more than 20 years in Silicon Valley before setting his sights on Detroit and the auto industry.

In meetings with manufacturers, he learned how work stalled when dealership service department technicians had to put down their tools to find a computer to research vehicle parts or repair information.

Levenson saw an opportunity to supply both experienced technicians and a new generation of digital-savvy ones with a tool that would give them comprehensive information to fix vehicles.

"We discovered the great inefficiencies that happen when a tech puts down his or her tools and moves away from the vehicle," he said. "There may be one computer workstation in the shop, the printer may be out of paper, or there were typing mistakes when entering VIN information. We felt that if we could enable techs with accurate information that would not result in their moving away from the vehicle, we could increase repair and se…

Lithia Motors Inc. continued its expansion last week, buying nine dealerships in southern Florida and one in Nevada, all of which are expected to add nearly $1 billion in annual revenue to the growing auto retailer.

Lithia, the nation's No. 2 dealership group, has been on an acquisition spree and wants to grow to $50 billion in annual revenue by 2025 from $22.8 billion last year. The company is closing in on the annual revenue of AutoNation Inc., the nation's largest new-vehicle retailer, with $25.8 billion in revenue last year.

The 10 dealerships Lithia purchased last week are expected to generate $950 million in annual revenue — part of $2.1 billion in annual revenue from dealerships it has acquired so far this year.

Other potential acquisitions are in play. In April, Lithia had dealerships under contract worth $1.9 billion in annual revenue.

Tom Dobry, vice president of marketing for Lithia, said he couldn't commen…

Ram burnished its 2022 lineup with the new Uconnect 5 infotainment system that puts an emphasis on personalization for passengers.

But the added bells and whistles came with a cost for the truck brand in the latest J.D. Power Initial Quality Study.

Ram dropped from first place in the 2021 rankings to No. 18 this year after being dinged in the infotainment category that has perplexed many automakers in the era of touch screens and voice controls. J.D. Power said it was the largest fall ever for a brand that led the industry the previous year.

Infotainment hiccups slammed other manufacturers as well in 2022, accounting for six of the top 10 problem areas in the J.D. Power study. Consumers complained about Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity, built-in voice recognition, difficulties with touch screens and other display screens, and built-in Bluetooth systems.

David Amodeo, J.D. Power's director of global automotive, said Ram is experiencing…

The FTC wants to hear from you, the dealers at home

Citing repeated complaints from consumers, the Federal Trade Commission last month proposed 14 pages of new regulatory language targeting car dealership bait-and-switch advertising and certain finance and insurance business practices.

The pejorative language and prospect for additional regulatory obligations was not appreciated by the National Automobile Dealers Association.

"The FTC's proposed rule would impose a vast array of new, completely unwarranted, redundant and ineffectual requirements that will cause great harm to consumers by increasing prices, extending transaction times, and making the customer experience much more complex and inefficient," NADA CEO Mike Stanton said in a statement Thursday.

It seems unlikely the agency will accept this argument and retreat.

The FTC said in its notice of rulemaking June 27 it received more than 100,000 complaints each of the past three years…

Elon Musk and four of his sons met with Pope Francis at the Vatican last week and the Tesla Inc. CEO then broke 10 days of silence on Twitter to share a photo of the audience.

Musk, the world's richest individual, who is in the midst of a $44 billion takeover of Twitter Inc., wrote Friday: "Honored to meet @Pontifex yesterday."

The Vatican did not issue a public statement about the meeting, according to The Associated Press. Pope Francis often meets with corporate leaders to urge them to use their wealth and technology to aid the poor, the AP reported.

Over the years, the Holy See has made public appearances with auto executives to take delivery of popemobiles. Last year Pope Francis met with Fisker Inc. CEO Henrik Fisker to see the design for an all-electric papal vehicle. Fisker said it will covert its all-electric Ocean SUV for use by the pope, providing a retractable glass cupola and sustainable interior materials, such as the carpets.

Pope …

A quarter of the way through the '20s, it seemed like a good time to step back and look at the efforts to shift the U.S. auto industry to half zero-emission vehicles by 2030.

At this stage of the road trip, the team at Automotive News took a company-by-company look at the transition to electric vehicles as well as key government efforts on the matter. Check out the coverage on Pages 16-21.

The destination is pretty clear: Replacing millions of gasoline-burning vehicles with battery-powered ones every year. If half of the market is electric, it will be a big proof point that the industry is doing its part to address global warming and leave a livable planet for future generations. (Reducing pollution in the manufacturing process is also important, but separate, and harder to measure.)

EV share needs to grow tenfold by the end of the decade, and challenges abound: cost, quality, charging infrastructure.

Mining and mineral refining operations — suc…

Advanced driver-assistance systems are touted as today's answer to road safety. The technology is mandated across Europe, as "technical progress in the area of advanced vehicle safety systems [like ADAS] offers new possibilities for reducing [pedestrian and driver] casualty numbers." Meanwhile, regulators in the U.S. plan to address road safety issues with similar advances that prevent distracted driving in privately owned vehicles.

Such regulation could be met with resistance from the average driver. A report assessing drivers' attitudes toward advanced driver-assistance systems found that 70 percent of drivers disable "bothersome" lane-keeping assist and lane-centering systems. Furthermore, a staggering 84 percent of drivers feel that driver-assistance features don't promote safe driving at all and could actually lead to a preventable collision.

Though regulators understand the potential of this technology, drivers haven't bought in — yet. I…

After 11 years of running our 40 Under 40 recognition program honoring talented young people working in dealerships — and asking them about their early careers — we had some questions of a different sort.

What are they seeking from their employers in the area of professional development? What factors are most important to them in creating job satisfaction? How important is diversity, equity and inclusion to them and their employers?

And how good is the auto retail sector in general in laying out defined career paths and offering professional development opportunities for younger employees working in dealerships?

We'll be writing about our findings in the next week and talking about these topics Wednesday, July 6, with a couple of past 40 Under 40 honorees in a LinkedIn Live session in advance of next week's announcement of the 2022 honorees.

The vast majority of respondents to our survey so far are still working in dealerships.

And most o…

The journalist and author delves into the details of her new book, There Are No Accidents, and explains how the word protects the status quo and hinders us in taking pragmatic steps to thwart preventable crashes.

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European auto plants are cutting 68,000 vehicles from their production schedules this week and North American factories 36,000 because of the ongoing microchip shortage, according to the latest report from AutoForecast Solutions.

Those plan changes and others around the world have caused AFS to raise its projection for total lost 2022 auto production related to chip shortages by almost 167,000 vehicles. AFS now forecasts that automakers will cut a total of 3.3 million vehicles from their schedules worldwide by year end.

But trimmed factory plans do not tell the whole story of the chip shortage at the moment. Last week, General Motors said in a regulatory filing that it had built 95,000 vehicles in the second quarter that were incomplete because of missing components. Most of the incomplete GM vehicles were produced in June.

The filing said that GM expects to get the vehicles finished and delivered to retailers by the end of this year.

Source: Au…