Trade News

In early summer 2020, Infiniti of Denver debuted a vehicle pickup and delivery program for its service customers. It was an effort to keep customers from defecting because the dealership knew it was going to be without a critical vehicle for months.

Production of Infiniti's previous-generation QX60 midsize crossover would end in December 2020, and a redesigned version wouldn't arrive at U.S. stores until a year later as a 2022 model.

"While we were offering lease extensions to current customers, I was concerned about them leaving the brand altogether," Infiniti of Denver dealer principal Christopher Smith told Automotive News. "We needed something to differentiate ourselves, especially in this time of a product void."

The convenience for customers has also helped draw new business to the out-of-the-way dealership in Aurora, Colo.

"We are difficult to find and not necessarily in the best part of town," Smith said. "What better way to get customer…

With new-car supplies disrupted, Nissan Motor Co. is helping its dealers step up their used-vehicle game.

This fall, the automaker will launch a certified pre-owned program for non-Nissan brand vehicles.

The vehicles will receive an 84-point inspection and a 6-month/6,000-mile limited warranty, compared with a 167-point inspection and a 7-year/ 100,000-mile warranty for Nissan-brand CPOs.

Nissan hopes the expanded program will draw shoppers who might not have otherwise considered the brand to its stores, creating an opportunity to flip them into a new or used Nissan when it's time to upgrade or buy a second vehicle.

"We want to build connections with customers about the Nissan brand and the Nissan experience," Dan Mohnke, Nissan U.S. vice president of eCommerce, told Automotive News. "The biggest benefit for the dealer is new customers that they wouldn't have normally seen."

Tyler Slade, operating partner…

A West Virginia jury ruled Tuesday that Ford Motor Co. must pay $7 million to the family of a 19-year-old woman who was killed in a 2016 accident involving her Ford Mustang.

According to the suit, a pickup struck the 2014 Mustang, which subsequently caught fire, and Breanna Bumgarner was ultimately killed.

The lawsuit, filed in February 2018 in Charleston, W.Va., alleged the Mustang was "defectively designed thus creating an unreasonable propensity to ignite into flames under normal and foreseeable operating conditions."

According to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the jury ruled Ford was 99 percent at fault for Bumgarner's death because the Mustang did not reasonably prevent leakage from the brake fluid reservoir during the crash. The jury reserved the remaining 1 percent of fault for the driver who struck the Mustang.

Mike Andrews, an attorney representing Bumgarner's family, wrote in an email to Automotive News that Ford knowingly hid important sa…

ELLABELL, Ga. — Hyundai Motor Group — solidly No. 2 in the U.S. electric vehicle market in the first quarter — will plow $5.5 billion into its first dedicated EV factory in the world in this Georgia town, the South Korean automaker said Friday. Suppliers will invest an additional $1 billion.

The plant, about 30 miles northwest of Savannah, Ga., is a cornerstone of Hyundai's long-term investment in electric vehicles, and would make it the first Asian automaker to commit a North American plant exclusively to EV output. All vehicles produced there will be sold in the U.S.

Along with the new plant, the automaker is planning to build a battery-manufacturing factory with a joint partner, the automaker's CEO told Automotive News. An announcement will come "shortly."

Hyundai Global COO José Muñoz, who is also the head of the automaker's North American operations, confirmed that up to six models will be built there by 2028, and that the factory will bu…

Lear Corp. is acquiring a German automotive supplier of temperature-controlled seats and steering wheels for nearly $150 million, beefing up its comfort seating capabilities.

The suburban Detroit seating and electronics supplier agreed to buy Gruendau-Rothenbergen, Germany-based I.G. Bauerhin in a deal expected to be finalized in the next six to nine months, according to a Friday statement.

Lear is also purchasing Romania-based software supplier Thagora Technology SRL for an undisclosed sum, giving it scalable industry 4.0 software to help reduce scrap and lower energy usage during production, the company announced Thursday.

The I.G. Bauerhin deal follows Lear's acquisition last year of Kongsberg Automotive, a $200 million play for increased vertical integration and capturing more vehicle content, including massage seating, lumbar support, heating and ventilation.

"Combining Lear's industry-leading seating expertise and Kongsberg's products and ca…

HAMBURG – Volkswagen Group supervisory board has called on management to present a reworked plan for the automaker's software division, which forms the backbone of its strategy but has run into problems, two people familiar with the matter said.

The board is expecting an update at the last supervisory board meeting before the summer break, one of the people said, adding no date has been set yet.

"What the [management] board has presented is not enough," said the other person.

VW declined to comment.

VW has called its software division, Cariad, which is the central element in its autonomous driving push, "the most ambitious project of our entire industry to tap into the most relevant profit pools of the future."

Cariad plans to challenge existing software incumbents, including Apple and Tesla, but has hit bumps in the road, which could become a problem for VW boss Herbert Diess, who is responsible for the unit on the group's management boa…

It took Wally Darwish more than 20 months to bring his first dealership purchases across the finish line — something he said he had prepared decades for.

Darwish last month purchased 10 franchised dealerships in New York state from Billy Fuccillo Jr. and Fuccillo Automotive Group, picking up four Ford dealerships and three Stellantis stores, plus Mitsubishi, Volkswagen and Nissan outlets to form Wally's Auto Group. In total, he was awarded 19 franchises.

The acquired stores are located in Nelliston, Seneca Falls, Adams, Watertown, Latham, Schenectady, East Greenbush and Amsterdam.

"This is the never-ending deal," Darwish said. "I made this deal right when COVID hit."

Darwish, formerly a minority partner in a New Jersey Audi dealership and a platform manager for Napleton Automotive Group, said that after entering into an agreement with Fuccillo in August 2020, he ran into several delays. His lawyer's office shut down because of COVID-19, and Darw…

Executive Editor Jamie Butters gives you the top headlines and Fixed Ops Journal Editor Dan Shine talks about the challenges dealers are finding fully staffing their service departments and how they can ease that problem with Dave Foy, fixed operations VP at Quantum5 and host of the "Fixed Ops Mastermind" podcast.

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Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter late on Thursday to denounce as "utterly untrue" claims in a news report that he had sexually harassed a flight attendant on a private jet in 2016.

Business Insider reported earlier on Thursday that Musk's SpaceX paid $250,000 in 2018 to settle a sexual harassment claim from an unnamed private jet flight attendant who accused Musk of exposing himself to her.

The article quoted an anonymous person who said she was a friend of the flight attendant. The friend had provided a statement as part of the private settlement process, according to the article.

"I have a challenge to this liar who claims their friend saw me 'exposed' – describe just one thing, anything at all (scars, tattoos, …) that isn’t known by the public. She won’t be able to do so, because it never happened," Musk tweeted.

Reuters was not able to verify the Business Insider account. Musk and SpaceX did not respond to Reuters requests for comment…

The four-door Vision AMG show car previews full-electric models from the Mercedes-Benz Group's high-performance brand that will be sold starting in 2025.

The Vision AMG – which Mercedes calls an "electric supercar" -- is based on the automaker's AMG.EA platform, which will be used for full-electric performance models.

"With this study, we are now offering a first glimpse of how we are transferring the AMG DNA in the all-electric future, starting in 2025," Mercedes-Benz Group CEO Ola Kallenius said in a statement at the concept’s unveiling on Thursday in Nice, France.

Under Kallenius, the AMG brand will play an increasing role in Mercedes’ profitability, along with other so-called Top End vehicles from Maybach, G-Wagen and the coming Mythos limited edition series.

Mercedes already sells a number of AMG-branded EVs, but there will also be dedicated models in the future.

The platform and electric drivetrain for the Vision were developed "fro…

TOKYO – Nissan and Mitsubishi took an important next step in their electric vehicle ramp up plans with the start of production of a pair of jointly developed mini-EVs for the Japanese market.

The sibling nameplates, the Nissan Sakura and Mitsubishi eK X EV, aim to tap huge domestic demand for tiny runabouts in the minicar segment by floating a new all-electric variant.

Mini vehicles comprise around 40 percent of Japanese light-vehicle sales. But EVs have only a paltry presence, accounting for just 1.7 percent of total Japanese passenger car demand.

The new entries join Toyota’s C+Pod 2-seater as the only mini EVs on the passenger market. Mitsubishi also sells a full-electric commercial vehicle called the Minicab MiEV.

The Sakura is Nissan’s first all-electric entry in the segment. Mitsubishi pioneered the technology with the now discontinued i-MiEV, an EV minicar launched in 2010.

Honda said in April it is also developing a new EV platfor…