Trade News

Automotive supplier Forvia is planning to close its seating plant in Highland Park, Mich., and lay off 511 employees in the latest round of job cuts.

The company expects the permanent layoffs to be complete around Sept. 23, according to a WARN notice filed with the state, dated July 17.

The layoffs will be in the just-in-time department and constitute a plant closure, the notice said.

The company, which changed its name from Faurecia last year after a merger with Hella, notified the state last December that it would be eliminating 268 jobs at the plant. Waymon Halty, vice president at UAW Local 155 representing the employees, said at the time those cuts were the result of the company moving the metals division to Mexico to reduce costs.

An explanation for the plant closure was not provided by the company, though it looks to coincide with a loss of business. The plant supplies seats for the Jeep Wagoneer program at Stellantis' Warren Truck Assemb…

A new report says Tesla created a secret team to suppress thousands of range complaints. Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares says $25k is the sweet spot for affordable EVs. Plus, we’ll hear from Toyota Motor North America’s Nick Sitarski about the company’s new ADAS suite and its different approach to safety features.

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In many industries, including automotive, it is an increasingly common practice for companies to contract with a business process outsourcing organization to help manage the more mundane, but necessary, functions that keep their operations running. Customer service tasks are most typically relegated tobusiness process outsourcing in addition to other tedious duties such as data entry, collections and certain accounting functions. The prevailing wisdom has been that for front-of-the-house activities, like inside sales and targeted marketing activities, a business is better off assigning these responsibilities to their own employees, since they are trained on the products and services they sell, are familiar with the corporate culture and have a suitable understanding of customer needs.

But is this the optimal strategy? Sophisticated business process outsourcing can now deliver "smart sourcing," an enhanced iteration of outsourcing that can help companies im…

The automotive industry is transitioning from internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric and autonomous vehicles. A wide variety of factors are driving this change, including recent technological advancements that have made the transition more feasible to shifts in government policies and consumer demand for sustainable transportation that accelerated electric vehicle adoption. This report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the key factors driving this transition and how component suppliers must react to market needs.

"Let me put it in a bigger context, where we're looking at what's happening in the industry going forward. And I say this with a smile — last week, about 17,000 dealers walked out the front door of the dealership, looked up and said, 'Hey, it's not raining money anymore.' Of course, everybody looks to fixed operations; fixed ops is always the backstop, right? There are two primary revenue streams in fixed ops — customer pay and warranty. We're in a rising interest rate [so] people pull back on expenditures; that has a [customer pay] effect. Warranty — my company, Warrcloud [is forecasting] — a 19 percent increase in warranty dollars between now and the end of 2025. Two things impact that. We're going to start selling more new cars [so] we're going to see millions more warranty-covered vehicles on the road. That's the obvious reason. The not-obvious reason is, according to JD Power, we predict the average warranty costs on an electric vehicle are 300 percent higher — yo…

The fixed ops community is rallying around one of its own.

Shawn Butler, fixed operations manager at Bristol Honda, Johnson City Acura and Johnson City Mazda in Tennessee and friend to many, is battling cancer. A fundraising campaign has been established to help defray expenses not covered by Butler's medical insurance.

Butler wasin Automotive News' Fixed Ops Journal as he tackled turning around the service department at Bristol Honda in Bristol, Tenn.

His friends at the weekly Zoom show, of which Butler was a founding member, took to LinkedIn to voice their support and encourage people to donate.

"He's our guy. He's a member of the family and damn if we aren't going to support him to win because as we say on the show, winning is important," wrote show co-host Joe Chambers.

"No win has ever been more important for Shawn Butler. He needs all of the support he can get so step up and help the guy that has hel…

Ryan Mutalib is fixed operations director at Jeff Wyler Honda of Colerain, a Cincinnati suburb, and a recent 40 Under 40 honoree.

First car: 1987 Toyota Supra.

First concert you attended: Kriss Kross.

Name a pet peeve: Being on hold for customer service.

Most thrilling/adventurous thing you've done: Had a baby at 39 years old.

First job: Golf course caddy.

Something on your bucket list: Visit all 50 states.

One thing you learned on the job you never forgot: Always think differently from your competition.

If you could pick up a new skill, what would it be? Rock climbing.

3 people you'd invite to dinner, living or dead: Comedians Chris Farley, Dave Chappelle and Adam Sandler.

What did you want to be when you were a kid? Auto technician.

What's your Netflix binge show? "Succession" on HBO Max.

You're king for a day. What's your fi…

Computer vision is here, and it promises to improve dozens of processes in auto dealerships. Computer vision, also known as visual AI, is a type of artificial intelligence that leverages security cameras to turn them into intelligent eyes that can recognize patterns and processes for the purpose of improvement.

The way to think about this type of AI is to imagine hiring a dozen assistants for your employees to walk the showroom, the lot, the service drive and the shop. These assistants are trained to ensure customers are greeted in a timely manner, look for process bottlenecks, alert employees when problems arise and assist with manual data entry. They are not designed to replace employees; instead, they help employees do their jobs better.

An example of a process AI can improve is vehicle exchange — sourcing and acquiring vehicles from service customers. Many dealerships have one or more vehicle exchange specialists whose job is to ask custo…

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday increased its benchmark rate target 0.25 points to 5.25-5.5 percent, a decision that could leave auto dealerships and customers coping with higher interest rates on auto loans. It is the highest U.S. central bank policy rate in 16 years.

The Federal Reserve's benchmark interest rate decisions affect the price lenders pay to borrow money, costs that might be passed on to consumers in the form of higher interest rates.

The Fed had hiked its target rate 5 percentage points prior to the July 26 move through a series of increases dating to March 16, 2022, when it bumped the benchmark from a 0-0.25 range to 0.25-0.5 percent. It had stood at 5-5.25 percent since May 4, 2023. The Fed has raised rates 11 out of the last 12 meetings.  

"The (Federal Open Market) Committee will continue to assess additional information and its implications for monetary policy," the Fed said in language that was little changed from its June st…

Goodyear Chief Technology Officer Chris Helsel joins the show to talk about new technologies as well as the Goodyear Ventures fund he leads. Stellantis says earnings and revenue gained momentum during the first half of the year. And some big automakers challenge Tesla with their own new EV charging network.

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UAW President Shawn Fain this month criticized Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares for not attending the opening of contract negotiations that he calls "the most critical set of bargaining in this company and our workers' history."

Tavares on Wednesday defended his absence, saying he doesn't need to be everywhere and has a "very powerful leadership team in North America" with the authority to lead those discussions.

He said he understands the union's "posturing" but believes it doesn't add "any value to what we need to do and what we must do for our employees."

UAW negotiations kicked off this month, with Fain visiting Detroit 3 plants on the first day instead of doing the ceremonial handshakes of years past with automakers.

"I will be where I think will be the most useful to the organization, to our employees," Tavares said during a media roundtable Wednesday. "With our local management, we have everything we need to have constructive, open-minded an…