Trade News

Dianna du Preez, a more than 30-year Daimler veteran, has been appointed vice president of customer services at Mercedes-Benz USA.

Du Preez, 55, replaces Christian Treiber, who is leaving after 28 years at Daimler. Du Preez takes over May 1.

It's the latest change in management in Mercedes-Benz's second-biggest market. Mercedes' U.S. business is on its second CEO since 2019. Dimitris Psillakis took over as CEO on Jan. 1 after previous chief Nicholas Speeks left the company after less than a year in the top job.

In her new role, du Preez will oversee customer service operations, engineering services, after-sales business development and parts logistics, Mercedes-Benz Academy and MBUSA's customer assistance center. Du Preez will report to Psillakis.

"Dianna is a proven leader whose broad experience and steadfast focus to advance our customer experience will continue to be a great asset for our company," Psillakis said i…

BERKELEY, Calif. -- The fatal crash of a Tesla with no one apparently behind the wheel has cast a new light on the safety of semi-autonomous vehicles and the nebulous U.S. regulatory terrain they navigate.

Police in Harris County, Texas, said a Tesla Model S smashed into a tree on Saturday at high speed after failing to negotiate a bend and burst into flames, killing one occupant found in the front passenger seat and the owner in the back seat.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Monday that preliminary data downloaded by Tesla indicate the vehicle was not operating on Autopilot, and was not part of the automaker's "Full Self-Driving" (FSD) system. Tesla's Autopilot and FSD, as well as the growing number of similar semi-autonomous driving functions in cars made by other automakers, present a challenge to officials responsible for motor vehicle and highway safety.

NHTSA, the top U.S. auto safety regulator, has yet to issue specific regulations or perform…

Auto retail giant AutoNation Inc. is poised to make its first franchised dealership acquisitions since 2018, after it signed an agreement to acquire 11 stores from Peacock Automotive Group of Hardeeville, S.C.

AutoNation said Tuesday that it plans to buy 11 stores and a collision center in the Hilton Head and Columbia areas of South Carolina and in Savannah, Ga., from Peacock Automotive, a group owned by Warner Peacock. The group dates to 2001 and counts baseball great Ken Griffey Jr., lawyer Jay Brennan, and another unnamed lawyer as its investors, Warner Peacock said.

Peacock's dealerships represent a mix of import, domestic and luxury brands including Hyundai, Genesis, Jaguar, Land Rover, Audi, Porsche, Subaru, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Volkswagen.

AutoNation, the largest new-vehicle retailer in the U.S., did not release the price it will pay to acquire the stores but said the deal is expected to close in the summer following necessary approvals…

Braman Dealerships in Florida has experienced a system outage that has affected operations, one that may be linked to a ransomware incident, according to a local news report.

"We recently experienced a network outage which is currently impacting our operations," David Leibowitz, secretary and general counsel for Braman Management Association, which includes the dealerships, said in an emailed statement to Automotive News on Friday evening. "We are working diligently to restore systems at our dealerships as quickly and as safely as possible. Our investigation into this matter is ongoing."

The Miami dealership group has not confirmed whether the outage is connected to a cyberattack. The group also did not respond to additional questions about when the outage began, whether it affected the entire group or selected stores or whether customer data was affected.

Braman Dealerships is ranked No. 29 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups in th…

Federal prosecutors unsealed charges against two Italian nationals Tuesday for their alleged role in a conspiracy to defraud U.S. regulators and customers about the fuel efficiency of more than 100,000 diesel vehicles sold in the U.S. by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

Sergio Pasini, 43, of Ferrera, Italy, and Gianluca Sabbioni, 55, of Sala Bolognese, Italy — two senior diesel managers at FCA Italy, a subsidiary of Stellantis N.V. — conducted their alleged scheme with Emanuele Palma, 42, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., who was charged in 2019.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said in an email that the two Italian managers are not in custody. The indictment says they worked for an Italian diesel manufacturing company called VM Motori S.p.A. in Cento, Italy, which was 50 percent owned by Fiat Chrysler in 2010 and became a fully owned FCA subsidiary in 2013.

Palma remains free on bond while awaiting trial.

The indictment says Pasini, Sabbioni and Palma were …

These are unprecedented times for used cars. Almost anything that runs, drives and has brakes, regardless of year, make or model, is a valuable commodity in these days of chip shortages and low new-vehicle inventories.

In June 2018, it wasn't that way.

That month, I paid top dollar — $10,000 cash — for a 2010 Mini Cooper S, an off-lease car with just 16,700 miles under its wheels. I found the Mini on Cars.com and bought it over the Internet. Three days later, it was deposited in my driveway.

This week, I deposited the Mini — now with 39,433 miles — in the driveway of its new owner, one town over. He paid me $10,000 cash, which is full retail and then some, based on the ads I scanned on Edmunds, Cars.com, Autotrader and elsewhere.

I never imagined I could drive a car for almost three years and sell it for what I paid for it. Welcome to 2021.

Carvana would have bought the Mini from me for $8,004, according to the company's website valuation p…

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden will virtually tour a South Carolina electric bus and battery manufacturing plant on Tuesday as the White House touts his proposal to boost the production of zero-emission buses and cars.

Biden will tour a facility of U.S. electric bus manufacturer Proterra. He has proposed spending $20 billion to electrify at least 20 percent of school buses and $25 billion to electrify some transit vehicles as part of his $2.3 trillion infrastructure and jobs plan. In total, Biden has proposed a $174 billion boost for EVs, including $100 billion in consumer rebates.

The White House's push to electrify vehicles comes as China has dominated the world electric bus market. But Proterra estimates 50 percent of all new North American-built buses in 2025 will be electric.

The U.S. has over 475,000 school buses and 65,000 transit buses and most run on diesel fuel, the White House said. Biden "made a commitment that all American-made …

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Monday said hourly and salaried workers at a handful of its U.S. manufacturing plants could begin to receive COVID-19 vaccinations on-site.

The automaker said it is partnering with the UAW and various pharmacies and health care providers to offer the shots in southeast Michigan; Lima, Ohio; and Kansas City, Mo.

In Michigan, workers at Ford's Flat Rock Assembly Plant, Rouge Complex, Van Dyke Transmission Plant and Rawsonville Components Plant can receive the Moderna vaccine through Rite Aid. Workers at its Lima Engine Plant and Kansas City Assembly Plant can receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine through local health systems.

"COVID-19 vaccines are a major tool to help reduce the risk of infection, so we want to ensure our employees have access to vaccines," Dr. Francesca Litow, Ford corporate medical director, said in a statement. "We are grateful to partner with various health providers across the country to protect the health a…

The president of a luxury used-vehicle dealership in Texas is growing his business in the state with the acquisition of a Chevrolet-Buick store.

Michael Handwerger, president of Alpha One Automotive Cos. in Round Rock, last week bought Miller-Starnes Chevrolet-Buick in Rockdale from Allan Miller and Kerry Starnes.

"We were looking for a store within a certain area range from Austin because that's where home base is for us," Handwerger told Automotive News. "This store, its proximity is one thing. Just its history is one of the main reasons we bought it."

Handwerger said the dealership was owned by the same family since 1963 and brothers-in-law Miller and Starnes operated it. It's about 45 miles from Round Rock, a suburb of Austin.

"It was an honor to acquire that store and continue that legacy," Handwerger said.

Terms of the transaction weren't disclosed. The store has been renamed Alpha One Chevrolet-Buick.

Handwerger, who got his…

Mercedes-Benz's new U.S. CEO, Dimitris Psillakis, talks about the German luxury automaker's plans for the all-electric EQ subbrand, starting with the launch of the EQS sedan this fall.

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Car configurators have been a standard sales tool for automakers for some time now. Whether they’re customizing a new purchase in the dealership or testing out different looks online, customers expect to be able to explore different options before putting their money down. 

Leading brands such as Pagani, Audi, BMW, McLaren, and Mercedes have turned this aspect of the sales process into an art form, harnessing powerful rendering techniques like ray tracing to create configurators that are ever more photorealistic and interactive.

So how are these interactive digital showrooms built? Well, Epic Games has just released a new sample project that enables anyone to find out for themselves.

The Automotive Configurator is a free real-time configurator sample, built in 3D creation tool Unreal Engine. The project shows off a completely interactive Audi A5 convertible model provided by Audi Business Innovation, set in an all-new immersive salt flat environmen…

The Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition kicked off on Monday in China’s financial hub, a multiday event aimed at showcasing the best and brightest car innovations in the world’s biggest vehicle market.

Electric cars and intelligent-driving technology were a major theme, with everyone from startups to the most venerable automakers -- and a new cabal of tech players, including Chinese telco giant Huawei Technologies Co. -- plowing money into cleaner transport.

In a day full of highlights perhaps two stood out. The moment when Nio Inc. CEO William Li and Xpeng Inc. CEO He Xiaopeng, two leading lights of China’s EV onslaught, staged a very public walk around of each other’s booths, attracting scores of onlookers who whipped out their mobile phones to record the moment.

At one point, Li crouched down on his haunches to check out the undercarriage of Xpeng’s P5 sedan, which is coming out later this year. Li also listened carefully to He’s in…