Trade News – Page 784

Sometimes more urgent plans take precedence

In early March, the team at Outsell held an off-site, multiday meeting to create the dealership marketing company's long-term product development road map.

There were plans for a new content management system, more product integrations and new reporting tools.

But within weeks, the situation changed. The pandemic prompted states across most of the country to order retailers to shutter showrooms, with sales and service business being slashed.

"We took that road map we had just spent weeks trying to finalize and set it completely aside," Gary Marcotte, Outsell's senior vice president of customer engagement innovation, told me.

Outsell, which automates dealership marketing messages aimed at consumers across their life cycles, shifted gears to focus instead on products that retailers would need to get through the virus-induced economic crisis. They included a new equity-mining tool to help dealers identify people in the market who might want to trade …

Harvey aims to build on Cadillac's momentum

DETROIT — Rory Harvey, Cadillac's next global boss, will continue the plan he plotted out with departing chief Steve Carlisle, but at higher speed.

Harvey, vice president of Cadillac North America sales, service and marketing, has been Carlisle's right-hand man for the past two years. They took their posts at Cadillac within a month of each other in early 2018.

"Now is the opportunity to accelerate," Harvey told Automotive News.

Cadillac boasts the luxury segment's newest lineup as it launches a new vehicle about every six months for three years, starting in 2019. It debuted a redesigned version of the iconic Escalade SUV in February, and the brand will lead General Motors' charge into electric vehicles and the expansion of Super Cruise, GM's driver-assist technology.

Cadillac dealer profitability, customer satisfaction, vehicle quality and sales effectiveness also have improved over the past two years, Harvey said. Read more

Subscriptions haven't paid off but worth the try

The early results from the Great Auto Subscription Experiment are in, and ... they've been canceled.

As reported recently in Automotive News, Mercedes-Benz USA, like Cadillac before it, will wind down its subscription program this summer after testing it in a few cities for a couple of years. Demand, according to sales chief Adam Chamberlain, was "just OK" — which doesn't scream "moneymaker!"

A lot of smart people at automakers, retailers and vendors such as Clutch Technologies have put considerable time and thought into the subscription model. It offers consumers an alternative to traditional ownership or leasing by bundling in the costs of maintenance and insurance, and some allow clients to swap vehicles to match their needs or moods.

To be sure, a handful of consumers have found a vehicle subscription appealing. Porsche plans to expand its U.S. program to cities beyond Atlanta. But other brands aren't seeing the scale or pricing to operate efficientl…

Rail porter allegedly stole nearly 2,000 key fobs

A Michigan man is accused of stealing nearly 2,000 key fobs from new vehicles that passed through a CSX rail yard where he worked.

Jason Gibbs, 41, was charged last week after a two-year investigation into why so many vehicles made by General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles had been arriving at their destination with one of their two key fobs missing. All of the vehicles missing fobs had been shipped from the CSX yard in New Boston, Mich., near Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Investigators cracked the case after finding some of the missing fobs for sale on eBay. They bought three Ford F-150 fobs and traced the payment for postage to Gibbs' debit card, according to an affidavit from a U.S. postal inspector.

The return address was an abandoned home in Detroit where Gibbs had grown up.

Gibbs worked for a CSX contractor as a utility porter, a job that involved preparing vehicles to be loaded onto rail cars and fixing problems with…

USMCA: Toolbox, not obstacle course

TO THE EDITOR:

Almost all the commentary I have read from trade experts on USMCA's rules abruptly conclude with, "They're complicated." That's a cop-out; anyone glancing at the text sees that. Stopping there, the private-sector trade community, particularly the auto industry, is left high and dry without desperately needed practical guidance on what it must do to ensure business complies with the rules and, more importantly, captures all the duty-free benefits of the "new NAFTA." If more of my colleagues were to step up and plunge into the jumble drawer of Notwithstanding, Footnote 75, Annex B and Table A-2 as I have, the trade community would have some tangible advice. USMCA is much more a tool kit of extremely useful rules than it is a compliance obstacle course. By properly understanding and applying USMCA's rules — the province of trade experts — the trade community will understand, appreciate and maybe even celebrate it as the rule set to facilitate and nurture N…

Rethinking parking after COVID-19

Traditional parking spaces and lots were already the subject of attention pre-pandemic. The seemingly one-dimensional blocks of real estate are the source of fierce frustration when unavailable — or utter joy when a spot magically appears and life seems to effortlessly fall into place.

Parking is a universal issue: To some degree, we've all experienced adding in travel time to circle blocks to find a space; managing our tempers when construction takes over a parking zone; running down the block to beat a parking enforcement officer to avoid a fine; breathing in excessive exhaust from idling cars waiting for a spot; and wondering why the parking-to-population ratio just never seems realistic.

For a while, it seemed like the ride-hailing and public transport lifestyle was a quasi-solution and a step in the right direction. These modes for getting from Point A to Point B supported emotions and logistics in not having to deal with finding a parki…

Tesla slashes Model Y price by $3,000 as pandemic upends market

Tesla Inc. has cut the price of its Model Y crossover by $3,000 less than four months after starting sales.

The starting price is now $51,190, including a $1,200 destination and documentation fee, according to Tesla’s website. The electric-car maker had been charging $54,190 since beginning deliveries in mid-March.

The Model Y reduction is the second significant price cut Tesla has made to its vehicles in roughly six weeks. In late May, the company lopped $5,000 off the Model S and X and $2,000 off the Model 3, which some analysts viewed as a bearish signal of demand.

Tesla ended up delivering 90,650 cars to customers in the second quarter, beating analysts’ estimates and sending its shares soaring. The 269 percent surge in the stock price this year has vaulted CEO Elon Musk past Warren Buffett on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company started deliveries of the Model Y in Ma…

Tesla slashes Model Y price as pandemic upends market

Tesla Inc. cut the price of the Model Y crossover by $3,000, just four months after its launch, as the electric carmaker seeks to maintain sales momentum during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The reduction follows price cuts in May on the Model 3, Model X and Model S.

The company this month posted a smaller-than-expected decline in new-vehicle deliveries in the second quarter, resilient results despite the pandemic that hit the global auto industry.

The Model Y now starts at $49,990, down nearly 6 percent from a previous price of $52,990, according to the carmaker's website.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company started deliveries of the Model Y in March, promising a much-awaited crossover that will face competition from European carmakers as Volkswagen Group and others roll out their own electric rivals.

In April, Tesla had said the Model Y was already profitable, marking the first time in the company's 17-…

First half scoreboard for 2020 U.S. sales

U.S. auto sales rebounded in May and June, but not enough to overcome abysmal results in March and April. Here’s how the first 6 months of 2020 compare with last year.

Toyota moves Lexus LS to a higher level of automation

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. will deploy its most advanced automated driving system to date in a freshened Lexus LS sedan later this year, pitching the setup as a lidar-based Level 2 system that can automatically change lanes and pass other vehicles in highway driving.

The rollout furthers Toyota's bid to catch competitors, especially in the luxury segment, that have been more aggressive in introducing self-driving vehicles.

Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk told a technical conference audience that Tesla could have the technology for completely autonomous Level 5 driving within the year. But some in the industry now doubt that automakers will ever achieve commercially viable, completely autonomous driving.

Toyota, preferring a more conservative approach, has steered clear of labeling its system self-driving or autonomous. Toyota instead calls its systems automated, a nod to the system's reliance on human interaction.

The n…

Minivan competition intensifies as segment keeps shrinking

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…

GM cuts shift at pickup plant for absenteeism due to COVID-19

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…