Trade News

As the auto industry eyes an electrified and digitized future, Guggenheim Securities' John Casesa says companies must shift their business models to remain relevant.

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Volkswagen's freshened 2022 Jetta sedan will feature a slightly larger engine, more standard equipment, an additional trim level and modest styling changes intended to keep the brand's entry-level vehicle attractive to newcomers to VW.

Due in U.S. dealerships by the end of the year, the latest Jetta gets new front and rear fascias and a new grille to differentiate it from the outgoing model. It receives interior upgrades as well, including a standard 8-inch digital cockpit instrument cluster, heated side mirrors and Wi-Fi capability, along with VW's Car-Net infotainment software suite.

Under the hood, the previous standard 1.4-liter base engine has been replaced with a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine that makes 158 hp, up 11 hp from the previous model. The engine is mated to either a six-speed manual gearbox or an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, giving the Jetta more torque at lower rpms than the current engine.

The sporty Jetta GLI …

KAR Global has agreed to buy Carwave, an online dealer-to-dealer marketplace, in an all-cash transaction valued at $450 million.

KAR, which owns auction giant ADESA, said in a release Monday that the purchase will build on the company's growth in the dealer-to-dealer segment, enhance its position in the highly fragmented wholesale used-vehicle market and accelerate the firm's transformation to a digital marketplace company.

Carwave has a network of franchised and independent dealers in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and California, where it was founded in 2009. The online platform allows dealers to wholesale and buy vehicles from anywhere. It's described in KAR's release as "displacing the $100 billion traditional brick-and-mortar wholesale automobile auction industry with its innovative, Internet-based business model."

The transaction, subject to typical regulatory approvals, is expected to close before the end of the year. After closing, Carwave's co-f…

The crown jewel. The franchise. That's what the Range Rover is to the Land Rover brand. And never in the 51-year history of the vehicle — the first luxury SUV — has the debut of a new generation been so important. Here's the clearest look yet at the next-gen Range Rover that is expected to be shown ahead of a production start late this year or in early 2022.

The shape is familiar, the lines are cleaner and the iconic design cues, such as the clamshell hood and sloping roof, remain. The headlights and grille appear to be smaller. Under the skin, the new Range Rover rides on Jaguar Land Rover's aluminum-intensive MLA platform, which can accommodate internal combustion, hybrid and battery-electric powertrains.The varying gaps between the wheels and body in the series of spy photos appear to show the Range Rover will retain its adjustable suspension system.

Jaguar Land Rover design chief Gerry McGovern promised the fifth-generation version — expected to go far up…

Retail veteran Tammy Darvish quietly departed AutoCanada Inc. this year after leading its U.S. division since 2019, when she was tasked with turning around its previously struggling Illinois stores.

"I just kind of felt like I completed my mission," said Darvish, AutoCanada's former president of U.S. operations. She is taking some time off before deciding on her next step.

The dealership group, based in Edmonton, Alberta, said in April that it had tapped James Douvas, a 20-year veteran of automotive retail in the Chicago area, to become its vice president of U.S. operations. He has now effectively taken over for Darvish, reporting directly to top executives in Canada, as was evidenced by his role on the second-quarter earnings call this month.

Darvish, one of Automotive News' 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry in 2020 and 2010 and a former executive at DARCARS in Maryland, was tasked with restructuring and rebranding the group's Illino…

It’s especially tough to climb the corporate ladder while working down in your basement.

This year’s class of Automotive News Rising Stars kept advancing while having to build relationships with clients over Zoom calls. And, refreshingly, with more flexibility to focus on their personal lives, too.

They have helped keep North American automakers and suppliers running smoothly through unprecedented rockiness for the industry and in their own lives during the pandemic. 

They possess the ability to adapt quickly, constantly finding innovative ways to overcome ever-changing obstacles, to serve customers virtually and to foster collaboration among co-workers they hadn’t been in the same room with for months.

Some came to the auto industry in search of a more-fulfilling second career. Several dreamed of working with cars as they grew up in other parts of the world.

Many are tasked with forging a path into the world of electrification, a po…

Frederick "Fritz" Hitchcock, a high-profile California dealer who took an active role in the state's politics and advocated free trade, died Aug. 14 after a fall the day prior. He was 81.

A dealer since 1971, he was CEO of Hitchcock Automotive Resources, a holding company that he founded in 1979 in City of Industry, Calif., to oversee his growing automotive empire that at points included stores representing Toyota, BMW, Ford, Hyundai and Volkswagen brands.

Hitchcock started as a Ford dealer. "He would bring home order sheets and ordered cars at his desk at home," recalled his son, Ted Hitchcock, now general manager at Northridge Toyota. "He had a passion for this business, and he liked to say he was a student of the game."

After the gasoline crisis hit in the early 1970s and Ford sales tumbled at his Southern California store, the elder Hitchcock was introduced to the Toyota brand. He took a chance with the promise to be on the grou…

LOS ANGELES — Hyundai continues its heavy emphasis on new product as it gains U.S. market share and pledges to become a leader in hybrids, plug-in hybrids, battery-electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell technology.

The Korean brand's approach going forward is to accelerate an "all of the above" philosophy to its vehicle lineup and trim offerings to take market share from Asian rivals such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan.

Unlike some other automakers, Hyundai is generally sticking with its core passenger cars in the coming years, along with an expanded crossover lineup and the launch this fall of its EV subbrand, Ioniq.

For the 2022 model year, there's a new rugged XRT appearance trim for crossovers and an expansion of the track-ready N performance package to more models.

Accent: The subcompact sedan will return for 2022 with minimal changes. When Hyundai rolled out the entry-level Venue subcompact crossover in 2019, the automaker said it would con…

Loyal Final Assembly readers might remember the story this month of a Chevrolet service technician who took a customer's Corvette on a high-speed joyride that was unknowingly captured on video. The dealership, Fremont Chevrolet in California, agreed to give the car's owner an extended service contract to make up for it, and the situation seemed to have been resolved amicably.

But the store's owner, Inder Dosanjh, ended up going much further than that. He's taking back the customer's Corvette and giving him a brand-new 2022 model instead.

"After I saw the video, I felt this is the right thing to do," Dosanjh told The Drive last week. "I heard it, and then it was worse when I saw it. Until you see things, sometimes, you don't really understand them."

The customer, identified only as Michael, met with the general manager and placed a new order with General Motors. He even was able to get a few options that his 2021 model was missing.

Dosanjh said h…

LOS ANGELES — Give Hyundai credit for courage.

The new Santa Cruz adventure vehicle now rolling into showrooms faces a U.S. market that has not been kind to small, car-based trucks with quirky styling — among them, the Dodge Rampage from 1980s and the Subaru Baja from the 2000s.

And tougher still, the Santa Cruz is coming to market just as a mighty competitor, the new Ford Maverick, goes into production. The Ford is also a crossover-based vehicle, but one that looks like it's ready for tougher jobs.

For all of Hyundai's "adventure vehicle" marketing and deliberate avoidance of the truck moniker, the Santa Cruz is a compact pickup, and so is the Maverick, though they may be intended for different audiences.

The Santa Cruz can handle 6-foot surfboards or mountain bikes with the cargo bed's tailgate up, and a 4-by-8-foot sheet of plywood or an adult-sized motorcycle with the tailgate down, according to a Hyundai presentation. It can also tow up to …

TOKYO — Not too long ago, Nissan was wrestling with what to do about its iconic Z car.

Sports cars are a shrinking niche in a market conquered by crossovers. Then there is the industry's new obsession with all things electric, and Nissan's considerable financial woes don't help either.

Splurging to invest in a rubber-peeling internal-combustion car — especially one that seats just two people — seemed a bit out of sync, if not outright overindulgent.

But instead of hitting the brakes, Nissan Motor Co. has doubled down to make the seventh-generation Z car the most powerful in the line's history, a fire-breathing, twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 speedster that delivers 400 hp and plenty of old-school street cred for petrol-head purists.

For Nissan, which has been struggling to reignite brand excitement amid waves of red ink and falling sales, keeping the Z alive was an almost spiritual imperative for rebooting the entire company.…