Trade News

As vehicle sales fell sharply in the second quarter amid coronavirus pandemic conditions, the amount of subprime consumers originating auto loans slipped to its lowest recorded level, credit bureau Experian said this month.

Melinda Zabritski, senior director at Experian Automotive, said subprime market shares have contracted for years after peaking in 2013. COVID-19 conditions likely expedited the pullback, particularly in the new-vehicle market.

"Second quarter being what it was ... the impact of quite a few people with lower credit scores being impacted a little bit more with unemployment rates, and just simply not being able to even shop in the current conditions," Zabritski said.

New light-vehicle sales across the U.S. declined 33 percent during the second quarter, according to the Automotive News Data Center.

Subprime customers made up 22.2 percent of auto loans, new and used, originated in the second quarter for …

Automobile dealerships changed digital processes radically through the coronavirus pandemic, especially the finance-and-insurance portion.

A new survey from F&I product provider Protective Asset Protection indicates more change is on the horizon — especially when it comes to allowing customers to research F&I products ahead of time.

Sixty-five percent of the survey's 400 dealership respondents said adding F&I product information to their websites was their next priority. More than half of respondents also said customers should be able to select and purchase F&I products and finalize all paperwork online.

The changes themselves are not new — but the levels of dealership adoption may be shifting toward a majority.

"Creating a digital retailing environment with access to F&I product options is paramount to the success of any online retailing strategy," Rick Kurtz, senior vice president of distribution at Protective, said in a stat…

Vehicle listings site TrueCar Inc. has expanded its leadership team and created new executive roles, including the company's first chief consumer officer, amid a restructuring prompted in part by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Santa Monica, Calif., company said Wednesday that it hired Kristin Slanina, 51, formerly chief transformation officer at information technology consultant Thirdware, to be COO, a new role. The move is effective Sept. 24. 

Beth Mach, 48, who TrueCar said has more than 20 years of experience in media-buying and planning, will be chief consumer officer, effective Oct. 12.

Elias Rokos, who has worked for TrueCar since 2011, in June was promoted from senior vice president of technology to the company's chief technology officer. The CTO position had been vacant for more than a year, TrueCar said.

All three executives will report directly to TrueCar CEO Mike Darrow.

"I'm incredibly excited and proud of the talent and d…

LOS ANGELES — Mazda North America is promoting the head of its captive ad agency, Brad Audet, to chief marketing officer effective immediately.

Audet, leader of Garage Team Mazda since 2013, was interim CMO since March, when Dino Bernacchi left the post.

Audet "has successfully guided our marketing operations during this time of unprecedented uncertainty and volatility," said Jeff Guyton, president of Mazda North American Operations.

Audet has 29 years of marketing experience and previously was executive vice president of Team Detroit, an ad agency now called GTB. Before that, he was group director at JWT agency, which has served Ford Motor Co.

The U.S. announced the removal of aluminum tariffs it slapped on Canada last month.

The decision impacts the 10 percent tariff on non-alloyed, unwrought aluminum and comes a month after the administration reimposed the tariffs on Canada, citing a “surge” of imports coming from the country. During the summer, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expressed concern about recent struggles by American aluminum producers hurting from the flow of metal into the U.S.

Canada threatened a dollar-for-dollar retaliation that was expected to be announced Tuesday. Two Canadian government officials confirmed Canada would drop the counter tariffs on U.S. aluminum following the U.S. announcement.

Groups representing automakers and suppliers expressed concern over the tariff last month, with some in the industry viewing it as another obstacle stacked on top of COVID-19 stress and compliance with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

While USTR announced…

DETROIT — General Motors filed a new lawsuit accusing Fiat Chrysler Automobiles of bribery and conspiracy in state court Monday after the dismissal of its federal racketeering case against the rival automaker.

The automaker, which is still appealing in the federal case, also is now suing two former officials — Joe Ashton and Alphons Iacobelli — who pleaded guilty to embezzling money as part of a wide-ranging corruption investigation into the UAW, according to separate filings issued Monday. Ashton was UAW vice president who later became a GM board member, and Iacobelli was an FCA labor affairs executive who later worked for GM as a spy for FCA, GM claims.

The three filings allege, as GM has since it first sued FCA in November, that FCA, Ashton, Iacobelli and others were guilty of "corporate espionage" that directly harmed the company, and includes claims GM first made in August that they used offshore bank accounts to funnel bribe money. U.S. District Judge Pau…

Welcome to Jaguar Land Rover, Thierry Bollore!

As JLR's new CEO, you hold the reins of two of the industry's most storied brands. Land Rover, the industry's sole manufacturer of premium SUVs only, could not be better positioned to prosper as consumers ditch sedans for rugged, go-anywhere vehicles and as luxury light trucks replace luxury cars.

Jaguar has the most diverse lineup in the brand's nine-decade history. They're the best-built, most technologically advanced and aerodynamic, and fastest Jags ever made.

With fresh products, such as the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Defender, selling well and the next-generation Range Rover coming, as well as the new electric Jaguar XJ flagship, you take over a company that your predecessor, Ralf Speth, left poised to grow.

But there are huge challenges, some in your control, and some — such as Britain's trading relationship with the European Union — that are not.

…

DETROIT -- General Motors is exploring options in the aerial taxi market, including whether to build the vehicles known colloquially as "flying cars," as part of a push by the U.S. automaker to look for growth in related transportation markets, two people familiar with the matter said.

CEO Mary Barra on Monday briefly made her first reference ever to Detroit-based GM's interest in the air taxi market, saying that it fit with development of electric vehicles and its Ultium advanced electric battery.

"We believe strongly in our EV future and not just for vehicles," she said at an RBC conference. "The strength and flexibility of our Ultium battery system opens doors" for many uses, she added, "including aerial mobility."

Air taxis are vertical take-off and landing aircraft that use electric motors instead of jet engines. Designed to avoid the need for long runways, they have rotating wings and, in some cases, rotors in place of propellers.

Electric a…

The Audi TT debuts as a concept at the Frankfurt auto show on Sept. 14, 1995.

The coupe featured a simplified nose, tail and roofline, with nearly horizontal speed lines streaking back from the headlights to the wraparound taillights.

Audi described the interior in simple terms: "as much as necessary and as little as possible."

In 1994, Audi designers Freeman Thomas and J Mays began sketching a coupe with Bauhaus-inspired cues. It recalled the rounded shapes of prewar race cars and postwar sedans.

Audi Chairman Herbert Demel described the 1995 concept as "an enthusiast's car with great charisma."

The Wall Street Journal once called the car "high geometric cool."

It was powered by a 1.8-liter, four-cylinder engine borrowed from the A4, a manual transmission and Quattro all-wheel drive. While the press and show visitors heaped praise on the TT, Demel insisted it was a design study, not a preview o…

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, an auto dealer, is supporting a federal judge's ruling Monday that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's coronavirus shutdown orders were unconstitutional.

Kelly, a Republican who is running for reelection this November, owns Mike Kelly Automotive, which retails Cadillac, Chevrolet, Kia, Hyundai and Toyota vehicles in Pennsylvania — a state where auto sales were banned in response to the pandemic. The congressman was diagnosed with COVID-19 in March and has since recovered.

Wolf permitted online auto sales in April and the following month lifted additional restrictions on businesses, enabling dealerships in certain counties to reopen, while requiring a number of health and safety practices. As of July 22, dealerships in all counties are open, but masks are required.

In the 66-page ruling, U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV said orders from Wolf and state Health Secretary Rachel Levine that placed restrictions on gat…

FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen Group named Porsche veteran Klaus Zellmer as the new head of sales and marketing at the automaker's namesake brand.

Zellmer succeeds Jürgen Stackmann, who is leaving the company, VW said in a statement on Tuesday. Zellmer, 53, moves to the new post from his role as head of Porsche North America.

Kjell Gruner, 53, will take over as CEO of Porsche Cars North America. Gruner is Porsche's chief marketing officer and global vice president of marketing.

Zellmer's appointment is the latest in a number of changes at VW in recent months.

Company veteran Ralf Brandstätter was promoted to VW brand CEO in July from chief operating officer after VW Group CEO Herbert Diess was forced to relinquish control over the core brand's day-to-day operations following a clash with the automaker's supervisory board.

Since March, VW has had a new finance chief, a new purchasing boss, and a new head of production.

Zellmer has been with…

If I were to summarize the retail technology trends of the past six months, I'd use two words: accelerate and pivot.

The coronavirus pandemic has sped up retailers' use of technology to help them sell and service cars, and companies that provide those tools quickly changed course to build products that would help dealerships operate in a sudden and unexpected shutdown.

I wrote this week about another example of that: dealership management system giant CDK Global Inc., which developed a process to remotely install its DMS products and other tools to accommodate retailers once COVID-19-related business restrictions kept the company from sending teams into some dealerships.

Before the virus, CDK employees visited dealerships as they went live with a new DMS to help them work through the conversion. There are benefits to being on-site, John Akalaonu, the company's senior vice president of customer delivery, told me. Among them: observing the dealership's set…