Trade News

There are two schools of thought on how dealerships should approach advertising in a time of low inventory.

One, said Sariah Heaton, marketing director for Jerry Seiner Dealerships in Salt Lake City, is to pull back on spending while dealerships have so few cars to sell.

"A lot of dealerships are really, really slashing their budgets down because the demand is there either way," she said, "and we are subscribing to that for the most part."

The second: Keep a foot on the pedal and stay top of mind with consumers through brand awareness messaging until vehicle supply normalizes.

For a second year, dealership marketers are evaluating their advertising strategies in a challenging sales environment. But unlike last year, the point isn't to contain costs to survive showroom and factory closures and plunging demand. Instead, profitability is setting records, and demand for new models is so hot that vehicles are selling before…

LOS ANGELES — HAAH Automotive Holdings' decision to give up trying to import Chinese cars to U.S. showrooms is the latest in a history of would-be distributors that have underestimated the difficulty of such an endeavor.

But HAAH's failure also is likely to dampen future attempts by others — at least in the current political climate.

HAAH CEO Duke Hale told Automotive News that his seven-year labor proved impossible, given rocky U.S.-China relations. In addition to growing political and economic skirmishes between the two nations, Chinese vehicles now bear a 27.5 percent tariff to enter the U.S.

"All of our big investors, all of them, have moved away from the deal because of U.S.-China relations," Hale said. "They do not see it as the right place to invest."

Hale told dealers early last week that HAAH would be liquidated through bankruptcy after failing to raise about $200 million needed to move ahead with his plan to …

CHICAGO — In a world where shopping for electrified vehicles can be confusing, Chrysler has created a website to promote the benefits of its Pacifica Hybrid in simple ways.

The automaker uses everyday items to help people understand how long the lithium ion battery will last.

The microsite, whypacificahybrid.com, says the plug-in minivan's battery could outlive a couch, laptop computer, microwave, pool liner or clothes dryer. The same page informs consumers that the Pacifica's battery can be recharged thousands of times and has a 10-year/150,000-mile battery warranty.

The site, launched this month, aims to dispel myths around EVs while making the pitch for the Pacifica Hybrid as Stellantis moves to electrify 98 percent of its lineup by 2025.

"There's a lot of different technology, so it's good to be able to have the site that answers questions," Josh Culbert, a product manager for Stellantis, told Automotive News at the Chicago Auto Show. "One of…

Tesla Inc. continues to dominate in the burgeoning electric vehicle market, but its share of the segment has slipped, as has its grip on the sales charts.

Through May last year, Tesla made four of the top five new EVs registered with state governments, according to data gathered by Experian. This year, it has two of the top 10.

On top of production slowdowns that have snarled Tesla's output of the Model S sedan and Model X crossover, the brand faces increased competition from rivals' offerings, such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E and the Porsche Taycan. While Tesla's new-vehicle registrations through May rose 81 percent, the EV total jumped 116 percent.

"As this vehicle type becomes more mainstream and there's just more choices out there for consumers, I think that's why we do expect to see Tesla's share — not their volume, because that's going to grow as they add more products — but their share of the segment is going to fall," said Jeff Schuster, presiden…

DETROIT -- General Motors and its Cruise automated driving subsidiary said early Saturday they have asked a U.S. federal court to stop Ford Motor Co. from using the name "BlueCruise" to market its hands-free driving technology.

In a statement and documents released shortly after midnight, GM said Ford's use of the BlueCruise name infringed on GM's Super Cruise and other GM trademarks for automated driving, such as Hyper Cruise, as well as Cruise's trademarks.

"While GM had hoped to resolve the trademark infringement matter with Ford amicably, we were left with no choice but to vigorously defend our brands and protect the equity our products and technology have earned over several years in the market," GM said in its statement.

Ford, in a statement, called GM and Cruise's claim "meritless and frivolous." GM filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which is based in San Francisco.

"Drivers for decades have unde…

When Nick Anderson isn't working as general manager of Chuck Anderson Ford, he's often at a nearby track racing his Dodge Viper Competition Coupe.

In both roles, he's learned speed is key.

Anderson knew he could squeeze more profit out of the Excelsior Springs, Mo., store's used-vehicle operations if he could quicken the pace at which the cars move from acquisition to customer purchase. That meant convincing his service, sales and marketing teams to move faster.

"Our sales were strong, but the bottleneck in the whole operation was the time it took to get our used cars front-line ready," he told Automotive News. "It's not that [employees] don't care; it's just not necessarily their job to think about the big picture. Incentivizing them to buy into the big picture makes everybody more money."

He started paying service techs at the retail rates used for customer repairs if they could move used vehicles through the syst…

TOKYO — It seemed like sure- fire marketing magic when Toyota became a top sponsor of the Olympics after the home country was tapped to host the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.

But then the pandemic pushed the global athletic competition into 2021. And then, a new COVID- 19 state of emergency was declared in Tokyo less than two weeks before the Friday, July 23, opening ceremony. Organizers have barred spectators from nearly all sporting events.

Now, Toyota has canceled all marketing and media events connected to the Olympics. The global sponsor won't air any advertisements with Olympic tie-ins in Japan. And President Akio Toyoda, who made a cameo in the torch relay, even bowed out of the opening ceremony.

In making its big bet on the Games, Toyota Motor Corp. seems to have rolled snake eyes. Still, all might not be lost for the automaker.

Several of the vehicles and robots Toyota developed to showcase at the Olympics ar…

Not all the hot new technical innovations these days are about advanced autonomous driving and futuristic artificial intelligence-infused components.

There also are windshield wipers.

"You still have to change your wiper blades, right?" reasons Jean Marie Thrower, an industry business development adviser who works with auto suppliers in different segments. "Maybe it's not as sexy as autonomous driving, but automakers still want to hear about it."

Thrower, a former Army Airborne logistics officer and former Visteon steering operations manager, represents the other side of the industry's innovation wave. It's one thing to dream up and perfect a technological breakthrough — it's another to sell it.

For the past three and a half years, Thrower has been assisting ClearBlade Inc., a Denver startup that is standing by to produce original equipment double-bladed wiper systems for automakers.

ClearBlade claims that its twin-blade design — with outl…

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct Tom Dobry's new title, which Lithia has confirmed is different than what is stated in its 8-K filing.

Lithia Motors Inc. is shuffling its executive marketing positions, bringing back a former executive and media expert as the new leader of the department.

The dealership group hired Marguerite Celeste as senior vice president and chief marketing officer, effective immediately, according to a government filing. Celeste held positions at NBC Universal, DreamWorks Animation and Walt Disney Co., where she worked as director of global creative operations from 2002 to 2011.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Celeste also was Lithia's director of creative services from 2011 to 2013.

Tom Dobry, the Medford, Ore., company's current chief marketing officer, will be Lithia's vice president of marketing.

Lithia ranked No. 3 on Automotive News' most recent list of the top 150 dealership groups ba…

Electric vehicle startup Rivian said on Friday it has closed a $2.5 billion fundraising round led by investors Amazon.com, Ford Motor Co. and T. Rowe Price.

The announcement came the day after the California-based company said it was exploring building a second U.S. assembly plant. Reuters, citing unnamed sources, reported on Thursday that Rivian's planned plant, dubbed "Project Tera," will include battery cell production.

“As we near the start of vehicle production, it’s vital that we keep looking forward and pushing through to Rivian’s next phase of growth,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said in a statement.

“This infusion of funds ... allows Rivian to scale new vehicle programs, expand our domestic facility footprint, and fuel international product rollout,” he added.

Rivian, which has a plant currently in Normal, Ill., said it has raised about $10.5 billion to date. It will seek a valuation of well over $50 billion in a potential public listing late…

Auto retailing veteran and entrepreneur Franklin McLarty's special-purpose acquisition company is branching into automotive finance and insurance. 

Vehicle protection plans provider Olive.com and its affiliate PayLink Direct have agreed to go public in a deal with a MDH Acquisition Corp. that will give the combined business a valuation of about $960 million including debt.

McLarty, who has links to three prominent U.S. dealership groups, is chairman of MDH, which launched in February. The public investment company trades under the MDH.U symbol on the New York Stock Exchange. It closed an initial public offering of $276 million. At the time McLarty told Automotive News that while auto retail was a potential target for the special-purpose acquisition company, there weren't plans to pursue traditional franchised dealerships.

The transaction with MDH values the combined business at 6.4 times estimated 2023 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation a…