Trade News

Joyson Safety Systems Japan, a unit of the company that took over failed airbag maker Takata Corp., discovered that falsified production data at its Japanese seatbelt factory was used to pass safety standards for a European certification agency, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The issue comes on top of revelations last week, confirmed by Japan’s transport ministry, that Joyson Safety Systems Japan, or JSSJ, had given faulty data to automakers on seatbelts shipped from its factory in Hikone, Shiga prefecture, which it took over from Takata in 2018. The Nikkei newspaper reported on Oct. 15 that as many as nine million seatbelts supplied by JSSJ to Japanese automakers fell short of strength standards.

JSSJ is ultimately owned by Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp., the Chinese company whose subsidiary acquired the bankrupt Takata in 2018. The Japanese company became aware of the faulty inspection data at the Hikone factory in April, with certain data also app…

Bert Ogden Auto Group outlined three ambitious goals at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic: Cut costs wherever possible, close deals quickly and avoid layoffs.

The 18-store south Texas dealership group has focused on cash management throughout the pandemic, permanently eliminating $150,000 in expenses and saving $400,000 more through temporary cost reductions and renegotiations with vendors. The group also tightened deadlines in its mid-month close-sales initiative, urging sales staff to finalize deals by the middle of the month, rather than letting them linger until month end.

"Cash management is the biggest area of opportunity that a dealership can have," said Jorge Gutierrez, corporate strategist for the group. "You can be very successful at selling cars. You can make a lot of money off of it. But if you're not collecting on your money, then what are you doing?"

Despite the pandemic-related challenges, Bert Ogden recorded some of its highest sale…

As COVID-19 state mandates shut down dealership retail sales, more targeted marketing efforts with bigger budgets were shifted to fixed ops departments that remained open as essential services.

"Many dealers made massive cuts to their marketing budgets, but they didn't touch service," says Alexi Venneri, CEO of marketing firm Digital Air Strike.

The sudden importance of service marketing in the early days of the pandemic led many dealers to closely examine new strategies. While dealership budgets have largely returned to normal, Venneri says a bigger-than- usual piece of the pie has gone to service marketing.

"If a dealership was only spending $5,000 a month on service marketing, it may have grown to $10,000," she says. Dealerships should do even more but "it's a step in the right direction," Venneri says.

Other marketing companies report similar changes. From April to July, dealerships increased their service market…

For most dealers, running an express service lane generally makes more sense than cents. That's because the financial aspect of offering fast oil changes is often not the most important consideration.

For example, at Tempe Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in Arizona, Service Manager Mike Purtle uses his express lane to boost the dealership's customer satisfaction scores, raise retention and funnel loyal service customers to the sales department when it's time for a new vehicle.

Express service also combats a top consumer complaint with dealers — waiting for service, according to a 2018 Cox Automotive survey. It's one of the best options for fixed ops directors looking to prevent time-conscious customers from going elsewhere for oil changes and other maintenance.

"I've never had anyone tell me: 'I can't wait to go to the dealership so I can hang out in the lounge,' " says fixed ops consultant and author Jim Roche. "People are busy, and as m…

A little over a year ago, Tucson Subaru in Arizona began having its express service advisers use iPads as a way to speed up the customer intake process.

But along with checking in customers quickly and getting them on their way, the iPads also have helped keep the dealership's three express advisers on task and following processes.

"Express advisers are a little more green, so it prompts them to do the video walk-around and take the pictures and check the different things," Service Director Scott Gregg says. "They have a little checklist on there — they have to check off wiper blades, tires, things like that. So it assists them in developing good habits."

Franchised dealerships across the country constantly strive to boost customer service rankings by doing things such as minimizing wait times and improving communications. To achieve this, some dealership service drives will consider embracing the latest technology by having their s…

Dealership service departments across North America are plagued by troubling customer retention and satisfaction scores, and any increase in customer-pay sales per repair order is likely the result of higher prices, not growing demand.

This sobering assessment came from Carlisle & Co.'s 2020 North America Service Benchmark report. Carlisle collected 2019 data in February from a group of participating automakers representing 15 brands, which the company then analyzed for key trends.

Eliza Johnson, who leads the company's service benchmarking practice, shared the findings to kick off the first installment of the 2020 Automotive News Fixed Ops Journal Forum. (The online event aired Oct. 8; replays at autonews.com/fixed-ops-journal-forum.)

Despite the bleak outlook, Johnson told attendees that the coronavirus pandemic offered an opportunity to make positive change in the service lane.

Among the report's troubling trends is stagnant or declining …

The service slowdown caused by the pandemic hit Woody Buick-GMC in Naperville, Ill., hard, says General Manager Jerry Roberts.

Repair order counts were down about 35 percent, he says. "We had to go out and attract more business to keep people employed."

The dealership's service marketing budget is still modest, but it grew by 70 percent after the pandemic began.

As part of those efforts, Roberts says the dealership is now spending $2,500 a month on highly targeted social media and SEO efforts. It also spent time and money setting up better Web landing pages to capture leads when customers click through the dealership's website.

Instead of blanket spending on Google ads, the dealership now uses digital marketing company Sincro's tools to micro-target social media audiences defined by its customer lists. That includes existing relationships but also informs "lookalike audiences" that are demographically similar but further outside the store's geog…

When service department traffic plummeted in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, dealerships quickly shifted gears to ease the minds of customers worried about human contact.

We'll come get your car, service it and bring it back to you, service departments told customers. You stay at home. No extra charge.

A concierge service that had been chiefly offered by luxury brands suddenly became a must-do for mainstream brands to keep their service bays busy while their customers were hunkered down under state-mandated stay-at-home orders.

But when the urgent need to pick up and deliver cars ends, should dealerships continue to offer the service? And if they do, should it still be free?

That is something Ed Roberts, fixed operations director at Bozard Ford-Lincoln in St. Augustine, Fla., mulled for a long time. Roberts was convinced the service to customers' homes should continue but wasn't sure it should remain compl…

TOKYO — Just as critics were wondering about the viability of General Motors' fuel cell truck partnership with electric heavy-truck startup Nikola, two Asian competitors jumped headlong into the segment.

This month, Hyundai and Toyota each unveiled plans to ramp up development and commercialization of hydrogen-fueled commercial vehicles to be launched from North America to Europe to Asia.

The push into heavy trucking is an uncertain gambit on a nascent technology for all parties. But it could help Hyundai and Toyota achieve scale on the costly fuel cell components and infrastructure necessary for the technology. That, in turn, could speed their rollout of passenger vehicles.

That aggressive foray contrasts with the marketplace murmurings GM heard in September upon announcing a partnership with Nikola Corp. Shortly after word of the GM deal emerged, Nikola founder and CEO Trevor Milton voluntarily stepped down amid public controvers…

During homecoming festivities at Prairie View A&M University in Texas and North Carolina Central University in Durham last fall, Ford Motor Co. invited football fans to check out a tailgate — and the rest of its F-150, too.

Ford provided more than 500 F-150 test drives to fans at the two schools and at the annual Southern Heritage Classic, which attracted nearly 50,000 spectators in Memphis, Tenn., through its Historically Black Colleges and Universities Truck Tour.

"As we talk about reaching and growing, it makes sense to talk about growth audiences," Damoni Hurt, Ford's cross-brand strategy and growth audience manager, told Automotive News. "We do well with our core; we always strive to do better. But some of the bigger opportunities to grow our brand and grow our market share, grow our sales, are to some audiences that we should talk to in a different and more meaningful way."

That sort of authentic outreach, through experie…