Trade News

Scott Tarwacki helped sell thousands of Jeep Wranglers in his five years with LaFontaine Automotive Group's Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram store in Fenton, Mich.

Tarwacki, as the store's general manager, had a front-row seat while Jeep posted record sales and dominated the off-road market with a diverse customer base.

"It was a little bit of everything — the loyal buyer who had multiple Wranglers but also younger people and families who just wanted a cool ride," he said. "Jeep's done a fantastic job building what they have."

Now he's trying to take a piece of it.

Tarwacki last year became LaFontaine's Ford brand general manager, in charge of two Blue Oval dealerships. After years of getting to know Jeep buyers, he thinks the 2021 Bronco, unveiled last week, appeals directly to that clientele.

"There's a loyal, lifetime Wrangler enthusiast that we might not be able to pull away," he told Automotive News. "However, I think there are a lot of peopl…

General Motors, which already had the most minority-owned dealerships in the U.S., increased its count by more than any other automaker in 2019, according to data from the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers.

GM finished the year with 287 minority-owned dealerships, a gain of nine, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was No. 2, with 181, a gain of four. Toyota added seven to jump past Hyundai into the No. 4 spot, with 81.

Overall, minority dealership numbers continued an upward trajectory after taking a dive during the Great Recession. There were 1,243 at the end of 2019, 29 more than a year earlier but 31 percent less than the peak of 1,805 in 2005.

Ford Motor Co. had three fewer minority dealerships than a year earlier, remaining in third, with 165 stores. Hyundai had a net loss of seven minority-owned stores last year, dropping to fifth place, with 76. 

“GM continues to push forth our decades-long commitment to create a dealer…

Two years ago, Daimler kicked off production of its newest U.S. model — the millennial-targeted Mercedes-Benz A-Class — at its $1 billion joint-venture factory with Nissan in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

Now Mercedes has reversed course and is shipping production of the compact sedan back to its plant in Rastatt, Germany, supply chain and dealer sources told Automotive News.

Mercedes' focus at the Mexico assembly plant, known as COMPAS, is now the GLB, a compact crossover that launched in the U.S. last year.

In a communication with A-Class suppliers this month, obtained by Automotive News, Daimler said: "The current dynamic development of the automotive market under the influence of the pandemic requires constant monitoring and adjustment of production strategies.

"Therefore, we have decided to focus on the X247 [GLB] project at COMPAS and discontinue the V177 [A-Class] production in Mexico."

A Daimler spokesma…

When actor Dax Shepard tells the audience of his popular podcast that they should buy a Chrysler Pacifica, they tend to listen more than people who just see an ad for the minivan on TV or in a newspaper.

That's why Chrysler has sponsored more than 30 episodes of "Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard," which averages 1.4 million downloads per show, since 2018. It's one of an increasing number of automotive sponsorships in the podcasting genre, which is proving to have the kinds of listeners whom most brands covet: young, environmentally conscious, educated and affluent.

A Nielsen study this year found that half of vehicle shoppers who heard about products during a podcast visited a website for more information. More than 55 percent of podcast listeners have a household income of more than $75,000 a year, compared with 41 percent of U.S. households overall, according to Nielsen, which concluded that comedy programming appeals most to online auto shop…

The coronavirus has forever changed automotive retail, and creating efficiency will be critical for dealerships going forward.

That theme will be a central part of the biggest decisions auto retailers make as they reorganize their businesses around COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, dealership technology executives said last week during the inaugural Automotive News Retail Forum: Dealer Discussion panel.

That includes how to be more efficient with staffing. With technology and processes. With the customer experience. Many of these ideas aren't new, the CEOs of vehicle listings company TrueCar and dealership technology company CDK Global Inc. told Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein in a conversation about pandemic-induced forces changing retail.

Dealership adoption of tools to help consumers complete more of the vehicle purchase online has been an emerging trend for years. But the virus outbreak quickly catapulted the industry int…

Nemak posted a net loss of $125 million in the second quarter compared with a gain of $42 million a year earlier as the supplier halted production for about eight weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic.

But Nemak said that its earnings before interest, taxes and other adjustments would have remained stable at $1 million if adjusted for nonrecurring severance expenses, crediting "additional operational efficiencies."

The powertrain and body structure components supplier said it still managed to win about $150 million in new business to produce e-mobility, structural and powertrain applications.

Nemak is one of several auto suppliers that are releasing second-quarter earnings in the coming weeks. Industry insiders will be watching to assess the full impact of the crisis on the automotive supply chain, which has largely remained financially viable so far.

Nemak said revenue for the quarter plunged 60 percent to $403 million due to light-vehicle producti…

Net income fell nearly 60 percent for Ally Financial Inc., one of the largest U.S. auto lenders, in the second quarter as the lender absorbed further impact from the coronavirus pandemic. Volatile used-vehicle values, record-high unemployment and more than a million consumers exiting forbearance protections were among the reasons the bank allocated more funds to shield from potential auto loan losses for the second half of the year.

Ally reported net income of $241 million Friday, down from $582 million in the second of quarter 2019, though an improvement from the $319 million net loss it suffered in the first quarter. Adjusted revenue slid 1.9 percent to $1.53 billion in the second quarter.

The Detroit lender is bracing for losses in the back half of the year as expansive payment deferral programs are set to expire. Thirty percent of the auto customers Ally granted payment deferrals were slated to come out of forbearance in the second quarter, with the r…

Public trust and engagement from stakeholders are critical to developing safe autonomous vehicles, several government transportation agencies said Thursday in an online discussion.

The discussion hosted by NHTSA comes after the U.S. Department of Transportation launched its AV Test Initiative to improve the "safety and testing transparency" of automated driving systems.

King Gee, director of safety and mobility at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said state departments of transportation have been working with other organizations to test automated driving technology and gain public support for it. He added that some states have an interagency task force that guides autonomous vehicle testing and deployment.

"We believe that sharing and cooperative development is the fastest way to advance a technology like ADS across the country," he said.

Jane Williams, acting administrator of the Federal Transit Administrati…

Join Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein for a daily podcast series about the coronavirus crisis. He’ll speak with industry experts, insiders and Automotive News reporters about how the virus is impacting and reshaping the automotive industry.

Kia Motors America marketing chief Russell Wager on the automaker's move away from its bargain origins to a more-affordable alternative to premium brands -- and why it's sticking with sedans.

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LOS ANGELES — Honda remains committed to its core car models in the U.S. but can no longer make an economic case for the Fit subcompact, Civic coupe and six-speed manual version of the Accord sedan, all of which are being discontinued after the 2020 model year.

The HR-V subcompact crossover will become Honda's entry-level vehicle along with lower trims of the Civic. The Civic hatchback has grown in popularity at the expense of the Fit and the Civic coupe, and production of the hatch will move to the U.S. from the U.K. next year.

"We are discontinuing one car, but for us the real story is how committed we are to our core car products," said Gary Robinson, assistant vice president of product planning. "We're going to be very much focused on the Civic and the Accord, which effectively created the image of the Honda brand in the U.S."

Robinson said important changes are coming for Civic — which helped establish the Honda brand in the U.S. during the early 19…

STOCKHOLM -- Sweden's Autoliv , the world's largest producer of airbags, said Friday it was seeing signs of recovery after running a deeper-than-expected quarterly loss as lockdowns due to the pandemic slammed car production and demand.

The company, which moved quickly to slash spending and boost its cash position as auto production in Europe and North America ground to a halt early in the second quarter, said it would continue to cut costs to adapt to the situation.

But the company, which competes with ZF TRW as well as Joyson Safety Systems, also said it had seen a recovery taking hold from the middle of the quarter.

"We must balance the cost reduction responses against the need for capacity to manage the recovery that started mid-quarter and continues in the first weeks of July," CEO Mikael Bratt said in a statement.

"I am also pleased that order intake for the first half year was in line with last year," he added.

The group reported a s…

BEIJING -- Volkswagen Group said Friday it expects its China sales to fall a single-digit percent this year as new SUVs and premium models help it recover from a sales slide in the world's biggest auto market.

The automaker sold 1.59 million vehicles in China in the first six months of 2020, down 17 percent from 1.92 million units in the same period last year. For all of 2019, VW sold around 4.23 million vehicles in the country.

VW is China's biggest foreign automaker, followed by U.S. rival General Motors.

The country's overall auto sales, which include passenger cars and commercial vehicles, dropped 17 percent in the January-June period. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers has forecast full-year sales to fall 10 percent to 20 percent.

VW China chief Stephan Woellenstein said the automaker's sales in the second half this year will likely be level with same period last year, though a possible second wave of the novel coronavirus outb…