Trade News

LOS ANGELES — Honda Motor Co. is moving beyond an aggressive expansion of its certified pre-owned vehicle business by launching an updated sales website that now lists non-certified used vehicles up to 10 years old.

American Honda is using HondaCertified.com for the non-CPO listings. The updated Web portal launched on Monday.

"With the continued rise in new-vehicle prices, the first vehicle purchase for many buyers will come from the used-car market, and our upgraded website makes this process more simple and enjoyable," said Dan Rodriguez, manager of auto remarketing at American Honda.

"Expanding our branded website to include used vehicles up to 10 years old offers customers more high-value options with quality Honda products and their local Honda dealer standing behind their purchase," Rodriguez said in a statement.

The CPO website now has three "program" choices:

Honda Certified Plus, a program launched last year that offers the longest wa…

Toyota Europe will align its CO2-reduction goal with the European Union's tougher fleet emissions target.

"We are just as ambitious [as the EU] and we will have the portfolio of electrified products available to make it happen," Toyota Europe CEO Johan van Zyl told Automotive News Europe in a video chat.

EU policymakers want to automakers to slash fleet CO2 emissions by 50 percent in 2030 compared with the 95 grams per km requirement that takes effect this year. The EU had previously wanted to cut CO2 output from vehicles by 37.5 percent over the next decade. The EU aims to be climate neutral by 2050 under the so-called European Green Deal.

To do its part, Toyota says that zero-emissions vehicles will account for a third of its sales in Europe by the end of the decade. "We should sell about 35 percent of zero-emissions vehicles by 2030," van Zyl said.

Right now, Toyota and its premium brand Lexus offer one zero-emissions model each in Europe, the h…

Toyota's first full-electric vehicle based on its e-TNGA platform will be a utility vehicle similar in size to the RAV4.

The vehicle will go on sale in Europe "in couple of years," Toyota Europe’s sales and marketing chief, Matt Harrison, said in a video chat. "We are moving into launch mode for the vehicle."

Toyota Europe's product and marketing director, Andrea Carlucci, said the utility vehicle will be the automaker's first pure electric car developed for Europe.

In a statement on Monday, Toyota said it will announce further details in the coming months.

The model will be one of the 10 zero-emissions vehicles the automaker plans to launch in Europe by 2025, executives from Toyota’s European division said.

The utility vehicle, developed with Subaru, will be the fifth of the 10 models. Toyota and Subaru announced their EV cooperation last year.

The others include the Proace City electric compact van developed by Toyota’s van partne…

This year will go down as one of the worst in history. Words like "new normal," "pivot," "distancing," "national shutdown" and even "mask" all took on new meanings in the American lexicon in 2020.

Auto dealers, like many organizations, took it right on the chin financially and otherwise. Dealerships grappled with shifting definitions of the word "essential." The service lane was usually OK, but the sales floor often was not. Or it was, but only with appointments. Changes in what was allowed month to month and state by state presented unique challenges for retailers.

Our firm was thrilled again to partner with Automotive News to research and determine 2020's Best Dealerships to Work For. We conducted the employer questionnaire and the employee surveys, the results of which determined the winners. The deadline to register for this program was March 20. Yup, March 20. That was pretty much when we all realized that we were going into a deep, dark place, as establi…

At Larry H. Miller Hyundai Peoria in Arizona, all employees have a job to do, but they're never alone in striving to achieve their personal goals.

The dealership's 106-person staff leans on one another like family. When the store gets busy — or upended by the unthinkable, as seen this year with the coronavirus pandemic — all employees take on multiple responsibilities to help each other out.

"That helping culture is something you can't even put a price on," said Rick Trinkl, the dealership's general manager since August 2016. "Everybody wants to help the person next to them and isn't working at their expense. They're working with them — and for the betterment of everyone."

The store, which sold 1,678 new and 932 used vehicles in 2019, is once again being honored as an Automotive News Best Dealership To Work For, after first receiving the award last year.

For 2020, Larry H. Miller Hyundai Peoria tops the large dealershi…

DETROIT — The first electric pony car is getting a little extra kick.

Ford Motor Co. said last week that the Mach-E GT Performance Edition will go from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, get 480 hp and produce 634 pound-feet of torque. The automaker is targeting a range of 235 miles.

"We already pushed the envelope by creating an electric vehicle with the pony badge, so it's only natural that we push it even further," Darren Palmer, Ford's global director, battery electric vehicles, said in a statement. "Mustang Mach-E GT Performance Edition not only gives you the added performance you expect from the GT name, but accentuates the thrill with the responsiveness of an all-electric powertrain."

The optional package comes with a few cosmetic upgrades, including 19-inch front brakes, an aluminum applique on the instrument panel and a special badge on the rear of the vehicle. It's available in eight colors.

Ford said customers who ha…

Strong lease returns, a push from fleet and being one of the few automakers still in the high- volume sedan business helped Toyota escape a broad industry sales fall in November, a month made worse by a calender quirk that pushed three selling days into December.

Across the industry, the seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of sales finished at 15.88 million in November, according to Motor Intelligence. The SAAR fell under 16 million for the first time since August, when it was 15.22 million, and was significantly weaker than October's 16.38 million.

Toyota Motor North America finished November down 1 percent — including a flat month at Toyota Division and a 6.8 percent slide at Lexus — yet posted record November sales for its lineup of hybrids and year-over-year gains for its two pickups.

Bob Carter, head of sales for the Japanese automaker, said he went into the final weekend in November believing the industry was experiencing…

The new year won't magically wipe away the coronavirus or erase the political strife of 2020. But the mere changing of a numeral on the calendar at least brings hope that the next 12 months will be different, and Kia Motors America is seizing on the rare moment of optimism in otherwise dark times.

Kia is unleashing its first-ever large-scale New Year's marketing campaign.

The effort includes using a redesigned 2021 Sorento to haul the "2021" New Year's Eve numerals from the brand's U.S. headquarters in Irvine, Calif., to New York City, where they will be installed at the top of One Times Square.

The Sorento will make stops at dealerships along the way, with the goal of luring some local media coverage. And the brand will try to make a national splash with TV ads running during ABC's "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2021." The deal with ABC includes an in-show integration that will spotlight the Sorento road trip using footage of n…