Trade News

The minivan market is shrinking, but it isn't a lost cause.

Chrysler, Toyota, Honda and Kia are doing battle for the remaining consumers still drawn to the segment's practicality even as three-row crossovers eat into the base of would-be minivan buyers. Conquest opportunities may be slim, but brands are working to stand out with bolder styling, hybrid engines and all-wheel-drive capability.

Those still loyal to minivans are seeing automakers raise the bar as the minivan segment evolves.

Toyota said it deliberately avoided a boxy look with the 2021 Sienna, which will be offered only as a hybrid. Chrysler, on the other hand, believes it can bring in some of the 700,000 people who switched from passenger cars to utility vehicles last year with its sleekly designed Pacifica, which is gaining the option of all-wheel drive and the next-generation Uconnect system this year.

Meanwhile, Kia gave a preview of the next-generati…

General Motors is temporarily cutting the third shift at its midsize pickup plant in Wentzville, Mo., due to worker absenteeism as cases of COVID-19 in the area increase.

The production cutback, which likely will result in about 1,250 layoffs for an undetermined length of time, is not related to low demand for the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon that are built at the plant northwest of St. Louis, GM said Saturday. There is enough demand for three shifts, and GM is working on a staffing plan to resume a three-shift schedule as soon as possible, spokesman David Barnas said.

"We believe in the short term, a two-shift operating plan will allow us to operate as efficiently as possible and accommodate team members who are not reporting to work due to concerns about COVID-19 in the local community," Barnas said in a prepared statement.

It's the first known instance of a U.S. automaker reducing its production schedule due to absenteeism s…

Data sets that auto lenders typically use to determine who is creditworthy have been upended by the fallout of the coronavirus, consumer credit experts say.

As a result, lenders concerned with loan losses and fraud have clamped down on access for customers they believe pose more risk to their business. Subprime customers, with credit scores typically below 620, especially are having a harder time getting approved and dealers say that customers on unemployment are being rejected out of hand.

To make matters worse, sorting through the confusion prompted by massive job losses and unprecedented federal intervention could take years for lenders as the industry struggles to compete in a market with wild swings in supply and demand. This means over the long term that lenders could increasingly be exposed to potential losses and limited in taking on new business while they grapple with who is creditworthy.

The federal government's pandemic provisions protect c…

Change comes slowly to some British automakers.

The original Land Rover, for instance, came out in 1948 and soldiered on with minimal changes until 2016. The first-generation Mini Cooper debuted in 1959 and hung around until 2000.

But one British automotive architecture is the granddaddy of them all: the steel ladder frame under the Morgan Plus 4 sports car.

The shape of the car changed a few times since the steel ladder frame was introduced in 1936, but the rugged frame remained true to the original design, featuring a leaf-spring rear suspension and an unusual sliding-pillar front suspension.

The setup ensures the tire tread stays flat on the road as the shocks compress and rebound.

Morgan last week built its last steel-framed sports car and shipped it to one of the company's most loyal customers.

Morgan has switched to a lighter, stronger bonded-aluminum platform, an architecture introduced …

U.S. luxury auto sales stirred to consciousness last month after having been KO'd by the coronavirus pandemic early this spring.

While results for the April-June quarter look grim, with the segment tumbling 31 percent from a year ago, June heralded a brisk bounce back from the global economic crisis. The segment sustained only a 5.5 percent year-over-year decline for the month, J.D. Power data showed.

At the end of June, luxury brands accounted for 12.9 percent of total U.S. industry sales, according to the Automotive News Data Center. That's up from a 12.7 percent share midway through 2019, a record year for premium sales.

And the momentum continues to grow. For the week ending July 5, premium retail sales were 11 percent above the pre-virus forecast, compared with 8 percent above in the prior week, J.D. Power reported.

April was a grisly month for premium brands, with sales cratering by nearly half from the prior year,…

DETROIT — Oliver Schmidt, the former Volkswagen engineer who was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for his role in covering up Volkswagen's diesel emissions scandal, could be extradited to his native Germany up to two years early to face charges there, the Detroit News reported Friday.

Schmidt, 51, who's been in prison since his arrest at Miami-Dade County Airport in January 2017 while returning from a Christmas holiday in Florida, filed a request two years ago to finish his sentence in Germany, the newspaper reported.

Citing a notice filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, the newspaper said a federal magistrate could approve the request next week.

Schmidt has been serving his sentence at a federal penitentiary in Milan, Mich., west of Detroit.

The newspaper said Schmidt's potential transfer to Germany is part of the Justice Department's International Prisoner Transfer unit, which oversees the transfer of prisoners between countrie…

Toyota Motor Corp. said workers who were involved in a video mocking George Floyd, who was killed by Minneapolis police and has become a symbol for the Black Lives Matter movement, are no longer employed by the company.

The Japanese automaker would not provide details, but said in a statement that it takes allegations of workplace racism seriously and that the individuals no longer work at its factory in Princeton, Indiana.

The incident was reported earlier by The Independent, which said that two employees, including a supervisor, were fired after a video surfaced showing the supervisor kneeling on a file binder on June 6 and saying “that will keep them down.” Floyd, an unarmed Black man, died May 25 after a police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.

Chris Reynolds, Toyota Motor North America’s chief administrative officer, did not address the incident in a video posted this week, but said the company is redoubling efforts to fight racism …

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said Friday it would recall about 925,239 older-model vehicles in the United States to replace airbag covers on their steering wheels after 14 potentially related injuries.

Additional vehicles subject to recall are estimated at 188,249 in Canada, 24,139 in Mexico and 66,120 in certain markets outside North America.

The recall covers 2007-11 Dodge Nitro SUVs and 2008-10 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans, the automaker said.

The move follows an FCA investigation that found these vehicles were equipped with certain clips that may loosen and disengage over time, and in case of a driver-side airbag deployment the clips could act as projectiles.

Fiat Chrysler said none of the potential injuries involved occupants of front-passenger or rear seats and that the airbags were not supplied by Takata.

The company will begin mailing recall notices to registered vehicle owners next month. Customers…

Subaru's freshened Crosstrek is getting a modest price increase for 2021, highlighted by a bigger engine option, as the popular model prepares to battle more entrants in the subcompact crossover segment.

The latest Crosstrek, featuring an updated front bumper and grille, starts at $23,295, including shipping, for the base trim with a six-speed manual transmission, an increase of $140 over the 2020 base model. The starting price of the base model with a continuously variable transmission also rises by $140 to $24,645, including shipping.

Of the 19 nameplates that make up the subcompact crossover segment, only the Crosstrek and Hyundai Venue still offer a manual transmission.

Pricing for the mid-range Premium trim starts at $24,345 with the manual transmission and $25,695 with the CVT, including shipping. Both increases are also $140 over the 2020 model year's pricing.

The Crosstrek Sport trim, which is new to the nameplate with the 2021 update, sta…

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.

The former TrueCar and AutoTrader boss opens up about his new role as CEO of A2Z Sync and how dealerships and customers can benefit from a one-person sales process.

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Chip Perry, an auto retail veteran who steered vehicle listings sites AutoTrader and TrueCar, is jumping back into the dealership technology world.

Perry, 66, has been named president and CEO of A2Z Sync, which helps dealerships transition to a one-person sales process. He took over the role in late June.

The company was founded by Colorado dealer Aaron Wallace initially to help his seven-store Schomp Automotive Group transition away from a full-time F&I office. A2Z Sync provides dealerships with a customer-facing digital menu so the sales employee and the customer can walk through options together, as well as training and support to help retailers reorganize their sales teams and processes around the single-person concept.

Under the model, also known as single point of contact, a customer works with one sales employee throughout the transaction, rather than interacting with several employees on the sales floor and in the F&I office.

“I wa…

DETROIT — Rivian, the EV startup that plans to launch three vehicles next year, said it secured another $2.5 billion in investments led by financier T. Rowe Price Associates Inc.

The company's latest investors include Soros Fund Management LLC, Coatue, Fidelity Management and Research Company and Baron Capital Group. Existing shareholders Amazon and Blackrock increased their investments, Rivian said in a statement Friday.

Rivian is spending about $750 million to overhaul the plant it bought in Normal, Ill., from Mitsubishi Motors. And it is in the process of relocating most of its product development and engineering teams from Plymouth, Mich., to Irvine, Calif., and to the Illinois plant.

Since last fall, Rivian has raised more than $5 billion. Rivian expects to launch the R1T electric pickup and R1S battery-powered SUV next year, probably in the first quarter. Also, Rivian plans to begin filling an order for 100,000 electric delivery vans from Amazon, w…