Trade News

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…

SHANGHAI -- Jaguar Land Rover expects premium car sales to continue to grow this year in China, the automaker's chief finance officer for the country said.

Tim Howard was speaking to reporters at the 2021 Shanghai auto show.

Jaguar Land Rover will start making its first plug-in hybrid vehicles in China this year.

Overall auto sales in China surged in March for a 12th straight month, as the world's biggest car market leads the sector's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

TURIN -- Spanish executive Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos will be Alfa Romeo's new design chief, sources said, as the troubled brand heads for a turnaround under its new owner, Stellantis.

Mesonero will join Alfa's design team based in Turin in July, people familiar with the matter told Automotive News Europe.

Mesonero, 53, will replace Daniele Calonaci, who will continue to lead Jeep design for Stellantis in Europe.

Stellantis was formed in January by the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group.

Mesonero quit as design boss at Renault's Dacia budget brand earlier this month after just six months in the post. He had been recruited to Renault by CEO Luca de Meo. He had worked under de Meo at Seat, Volkswagen Group's Spanish brand.

Mesonero's appointment to Alfa was first reported by Auto & Design magazine.

A Stellantis spokesman declined to comment on the appointment to ANE.

Mesonero strengthens the top management t…

Volvo has signed an agreement to provide cars to the autonomous driving technology unit of China's top ride-hailing firm, Didi Chuxing, for its self-driving test fleet.

Volvo will provide XC90 crossovers equipped with backup steering and braking systems that DiDi Autonomous Driving will integrate with DiDi Gemini, its new self-driving hardware platform, the automaker said in a statement on Monday.

Didi is currently working toward an initial public offering with a valuation of at least $100 billion.

Last week self-driving startup Cruise, which is backed by General Motors, said it had raised $2.75 billion in its latest funding round from investors including retail giant Walmart, taking its valuation to more than $30 billion.

Volvo, which is owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding, will initially provide Didi with hundreds of vehicles, with the aim of adding more as the self-driving test fleet expands, head of strategy Alexander Petrofski told Reuter…

A 6-foot-5 "mountain of a man" who turned down a college basketball scholarship for the chance to study engineering.

A "brilliant mind" who brimmed with enthusiasm and held ingenious ideas on engineering the EV1, the first auto of the modern age designed from the ground up as an electric vehicle.

A "true gentleman" who loved extravagant dinners, bold wine selections and big expense reports.

Byron McCormick heard all about Jon Bereisa, his new General Motors colleague. As he slunk into a corner booth at a Disney World-area restaurant during a GM executive retreat, finally getting a chance to meet Bereisa, he wondered whether the man would match his companywide legend. The ensuing conversation between two leading engineers did not disappoint.

"All of a sudden, we were just going back and forth, and the faster I'd go, the faster he'd go," McCormick said. "There was stuff flying every which way. I went, 'Oh, my God, every…

A Tesla Inc. electric car that “no one” was driving crashed late Saturday in Texas, killing the two passengers, according to local media reports.

One of the victims was in the front passenger seat and the other was in the rear, according to KPRC 2, an NBC affiliate in Houston. The car ran into a tree and burst into flames in the Carlton Woods subdivision near The Woodlands after traveling at high speed and failing to navigate a turn, the television station reported.

“No one was driving,” Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman told the station, which didn’t report whether the Autopilot feature was engaged.

Authorities said it took 32,000 gallons of water to extinguish the fire because the car’s batteries kept reigniting, according to the TV station. Tesla and representatives for Harris County Precinct 4 didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.

Federal officials have criticized Tesla for fire risks related to the battery pa…