Trade News

Rough waters forced authorities on Wednesday to postpone a salvage operation for the ship packed with VW Group cars that has been on fire for a week in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a port official said.

With teams unable to board the Felicity Ace, heavy tug boats sprayed water to cool the vessel, which is carrying around 4,000 vehicles including Porsches, Audis and Bentleys.

The 22 crew members were evacuated last Wednesday, the day the fire began.

Some vehicles are electric and their lithium-ion batteries have made the fire very difficult to extinguish, port officials have said.

João Mendes Cabeças, the captain of the nearest port on the Azorean island of Faial, said the blaze had lost its intensity, probably because there was little left to burn.

Salvage teams hoped to board the ship, adrift around 105 miles southwest of the Portuguese islands of Azores, to assess its condition and start preparing it for towing, the navy said in a st…

Ford Motor Co. is recalling 330,784 Mustang muscle cars in the U.S. because of a defect that causes the rearview camera to malfunction.

A notice filed with NHTSA on Feb. 16 said that certain 2015-2017 Ford Mustangs have damaged or loose camera wiring that can cause a distorted or blank image on the screen.

The NHTSA filing said that Ford is aware of two reported minor crashes related to the defect, although the automaker is not aware of any injuries.

The wire harness causing the issue in some of the models was taken out of production in 2017, while the recalled rearview camera was taken out of production in 2015.

Dealers have been notified of the defect, and affected owners will be notified by mail on March 7.

Owners can take their cars into Ford or Lincoln dealerships for an inspection and possible replacement of the wire harness or rearview camera.

A Ford spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.

Vehicle listings company TrueCar posted a $15.8 million loss in the fourth quarter, roughly double the loss from continuing operations a year earlier, as it felt the effects of a shortage of new-vehicle inventory on its dealership customers' lots.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company reported Tuesday that the loss in the quarter that ended Dec. 31 compared with a loss from continuing operations of $7.7 million in the year-ago quarter and with net income of $86.9 million a year earlier — a figure that includes TrueCar's discontinued ALG business. TrueCar sold its ALG subsidiary to J.D. Power in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the company has classified it as discontinued operations when reporting quarterly earnings.

Revenue in the quarter fell 28 percent to $45.9 million, TrueCar said.

The shortage of microchips that slowed the vehicle production pipeline last year "created unique headwinds for TrueCar since we have traditionally had a large presence in …

Hundreds of police on Feb. 13 moved in to end a six-day standoff at the foot of the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont., arresting close to 50 blockaders who paralyzed Canada’s auto industry.

As truck traffic resumed crossing the Detroit River later that night through the reinforced corridor, the industry tallied the cost to production and weighed the new threat to Canadian competitiveness.

Estimated losses to cross-border automotive trade ranged from more than $383 million to $1 billion, but some stakeholders fear the toll will be even greater for the future of Canada’s auto sector.

“You don’t go play the Super Bowl with 10 guys on your side of the ball. That’s what we’re doing now,” said Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA).

In every capital investment or vehicle-program discussion going forward, Volpe said, Canada will enter shorthanded, with the blockade being a risk that must be “addressed if not m…

California Attorney General Rob Bonta last week tore into guaranteed asset protection coverage and backed a new bill to regulate the auto finance and insurance product.

An attorney general's office news release Feb. 16 called GAP "a costly add-on product of little value to consumers" and "a bad deal" unless a customer was underwater on a loan. It promoted Assembly Bill 2311, which would establish new rules for GAP sales and cancellation in California.

"When Californians walk into a dealership to buy a car, they should feel confident that they're not getting ripped off," Bonta, a Democrat, said in a statement Feb. 16. "Unfortunately, auto dealers often play off our anxieties around making this big purchase, convincing us to add on unnecessary products for hundreds of additional dollars. Paying off your auto loan is hard enough without these junk products tacked on."

Asked about the harshness of these comments, Bonta's press office said some GAP could hav…

Recall the last time you were behind the wheel of a vehicle. Let’s assume the best-case scenario: the road and weather conditions were smooth. Maybe your journey revealed ocean-coast vistas on a sunny day. 

Still, another factor invariably loomed: unpredictability. 

Because it is annoyingly impossible to know what’s literally around the corner, car manufacturers are focusing on developing tools that preempt and safeguard against the unforeseeable. And what makes your safety on the road possible given incomplete knowledge regarding a patch of black ice or a truck running a red light? Data.  

Whether your vehicle is conventional, connected, or autonomous, a great deal of road-tested data is needed to make your travels safer. The more your vehicle can sense and anticipate, the safer the ride. Data is the fuel. 

The world runs on data: successful companies recognize this. Not enough of them though: McKinsey cautions that to date …

SAN FRANCISCO -- A former Tesla Inc. construction manager has filed a lawsuit against the EV company alleging he was fired for reporting widespread safety violations and race discrimination at Tesla's factories.

In the lawsuit filed with Alameda County Superior Court on Friday, Marc Cage, an African American, claimed to have reported safety violations that risked massive explosions at Tesla's battery factory in Nevada and systematic failures by the company to disclose serious on-the-job injuries.

"Tesla’s commitments to unrealistic production goals and frantic efforts to ramp up its production, often to make good on rash promises, overrode any commitment to employee safety," the complaint says.

He also alleged that Tesla employees, with the full knowledge of the company's management, denigrated and harassed him on the basis of his race.

"Virtually every restroom in Tesla’s Fremont facility contained writings or carvings of racist symbols and slurs…

Mazda's new CX-50 compact crossover will start at $28,025 with standard all-wheel drive and shipping charges, putting the base model $900 above the existing CX-5 in the same segment.

The CX-50 goes on sale in March and is the first Mazda vehicle out of the automaker's new manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Ala., a joint venture with Toyota. Production of the CX-50 began in late January.

In keeping with Mazda's upmarket intentions, the 2023 CX-50 can be loaded with options, such as a turbocharged engine, panoramic moonroof, premium sound system, leather seats, bigger wheels and premium-vehicle amenities.

The top trim for now is the CX-50 2.5 Turbo Premium Plus, starting at $42,775 with shipping. Premium paint colors include the brand's popular Soul Red Crystal Mica for $595.

Mazda also plans to add a trim-topping Meridian Edition later in the year, with distinct alloy wheels, all-terrain tires and an accessories package geared toward off-road use. …

Group 1 Automotive Inc. sold Honda and Toyota dealerships in Massachusetts, the company said last week.

The auto retailer sold Ira Honda in West Roxbury — a dealership it owned for just a few months — and Ira Toyota of Tewksbury to Automotive Management Services Inc., according to Pete DeLongchamps, Group 1's senior vice president of manufacturer relations, financial services and public affairs, and AMSI.

AMSI, of West Palm Beach, Fla., is owned by Terry Taylor.

The transaction date wasn't immediately available. Group 1 said the two dealerships combined generated about $125 million in revenues over the past year.

Ira Toyota of Tewksbury was renamed AutoFair Toyota of Tewksbury, AMSI confirmed. AMSI acquired AutoFair Automotive Group, a seven-store group in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, in December.

Ira Honda was renamed Parkway Honda. Gregg Vitello, a partner in Parkway Honda, told Automotive News he had been waiting for the chance to …

The burned hulk of the vacated vehicle carrier Felicity Ace could be under tow and on its way back to a European port as early as Wednesday, less than a week after it caught fire while on its way to deliver a load of nearly 4,000 Volkswagen Group vehicles from their factories in Europe to U.S. dealerships.

Meanwhile, dealerships across the U.S. spent the weekend and the early part of this week assessing their potential losses and beginning to contact customers whose ordered vehicles are aboard. Estimates of the loss from the fire are as high as $335 million.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that flames were no longer visible from the ship, and that a salvage crew hopes to get aboard Wednesday to hook up a tow line and bring the Felicity Ace back to port. Authorities do not yet know the cause of the blaze, but the crew reported that the fire had broken out on one of the cargo decks where vehicles, including battery-electric vehicles, were stored for transpo…