Trade News

DETROIT — Edward Robinson, a top aide to former UAW President Gary Jones, pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to conspiring to embezzle more than $1 million in union funds and conspiring to defraud the U.S.

Robinson, who was charged in October, agreed to cooperate in the federal government's investigation, which also targets Jones and his predecessor, Dennis Williams. Coupled with the cooperation of former UAW Regional Director Vance Pearson secured last month, the Robinson plea indicates prosecutors could be closing in on the two former union leaders, although neither has been charged with a crime.

Robinson, 72, will be back in court on June 30 for sentencing. He faces up to five years in prison, although as part of the plea agreement prosecutors recommened his sentence be between 30-37 months. It could be further reduced if he provides significant help in their ongoing probe. 

He also has been ordered to pay up to $42,000 in restitut…

Honda Motor Co. said on Tuesday it will temporarily cut back production in Japan due to difficulty in sourcing parts amid the coronavirus outbreak.

"Honda has slightly adjusted its production plan at the (two) plants in Saitama. The overall impact is limited," a company spokesman told Reuters.

"For certain models, we are swapping originally intended trims to others and adjusting production to other models as needed," the spokesman added, without providing further details.

Japan's third-largest automaker has seen its profitability decline by more than half in the past two years, led by a series of quality-related issues.

The cutbacks, which will last for a few days beginning early March, will see a reduction in output by a few hundred vehicles at two plants in Saitama Prefecture, the Nikkei reported on Monday. 

The facilities produce the Vezel utility vehicle and the Odyssey minivan, Nikkei reported. In recent weeks, "components fo…

When the heavily re-engineered, eighth-generation Volkswagen Golf arrives next year, just two versions of the long-running sporty hatchback will be available: the GTI and the high-performance Golf R. The entry-level Golf — a staple in VW's U.S. lineup for decades — isn't scheduled to be offered in the United States at launch and may not come here at all.

"The GTI and the Golf R are confirmed for this market. The other models are under consideration," VW spokesman Mike Tolbert said. Another VW spokesman, Mark Gilles, said the company is close to a "go/no go" decision.

VW told U.S. dealers last year that the brand will pare the Golf lineup, eliminating the Golf SportWagen station wagon as well as versions of the base Golf. The GTI now fills the Golf family's entry-level role.

If the entry-level Golf does not return to the U.S., it would follow hatchbacks such as the Ford Fiesta and Focus and the Chevrolet Cruise, which were dropped …

I'm not really a Vegas guy — I had only been there three times before I joined Automotive News a year and half ago. But I've since doubled my visits and have been there twice already this year: for CES and for the NADA Show.

No doubt, Las Vegas is a good place to hold big events. It has a lot of hotels, a good-sized convention center and a very efficient airport.

Dealers seem to like Las Vegas. And it's fairly handy for Silicon Valley's tech startups, too. Every day of owning a business is a gamble, so why wouldn't entrepreneurs enjoy the gaming capital?

CES and the NADA Show are each important events for the auto industry, but the overlap between them is rather limited. So I was struck by the similar undertones I heard from the two events: Call it a new appreciation for incremental progress.

Everyone can see the world is changing. But it isn't changing overnight.

It was at CES in January where I met Dennis Clark from Honda Innovations. He'…

The year was 1996. Helmut Kohl still ran Germany as chancellor. The country was the three-time champion of European soccer. And Mercedes-Benz was constructing an assembly plant in Alabama, its first ever outside of Germany.

That also was the last time Germany's auto factories made fewer than the 4.66 million light vehicles they produced last year.

A combination of issues — some of them temporary, some of them long term — have Germany's auto manufacturing base in an unfamiliar decline.

Industry leaders there are wondering whether the volume trend is the look of a new normal for the next generation, or whether it is actually an industrial emergency that the government should step in and help fix.

"It's crucial that politicians start improving underlying business conditions rather than just announcing them," Bernhard Mattes, the German auto industry's former chief political lobbyist, warned before stepping down as VDA b…

General Motors kept an early prototype of the midengine Chevrolet Corvette under wraps by disguising it as an Australian utility vehicle.

GM engineers hid the Corvette C8's chassis and suspension in the body of a Holden Ute, which has a pickup-style flatbed. They gave it the code name Blackjack.

Engineers considered using mules that looked like station wagons or small vans but decided the Ute hid the midengine layout best. They affectionately called it the "clown suit" over the body structure, said Mike Petrucci, the C8's lead development engineer.

GM built the car at its technical center in Warren, Mich., in 2014 and tested it at its proving grounds near the village of Milford.

Some spy photographers hired helicopters to fly over the proving grounds to spot the mule, according to the Detroit Free Press. By then, Blackjack had been replaced by 11 other disguised mules that looked more like the finished product.

Auto retailers feeling pressure from Carvana on used-vehicle sales have a new area in which to compete with the digital newcomer: inventory acquisition.

Carvana Co. executives are making it clear that sourcing more vehicles from consumers remains a priority in 2020, after the company more than tripled that aspect of the business in 2019.

"This is potentially the most remarkable progress we've made in any area of the business, in any year," CEO Ernie Garcia said last week in a conference call with analysts after Carvana reported a wider net loss for the fourth quarter.

Carvana bought more than 104,000 cars and trucks from consumers in 2019 vs. about 31,000 the year before.

The effort has not been without growing pains for the online retailer, which has not been profitable since launching in 2013.

Carvana CFO Mark Jenkins said last week that the "exponential growth" in this area led to pinch points in the …

SHANGHAI — Here in China's biggest city, spring has arrived and the weather is getting warm. But the chill of the coronavirus epidemic is still wreaking havoc with the city's car dealerships.

While automakers around the world worry about factory production and the supply line of Chinese parts, China's retail market — the world's biggest — has fallen catastrophically. New-vehicle sales for the first two weeks of February were down 92 percent as citizens were instructed to stay home. Many continue to stay home, or at least stay out of dealerships.

A visitor stepping into the Volkswagen dealership on Wuzhong Road in southwest Shanghai last week might have thought he had mistakenly walked into a clinic.

The scene: Everybody was wearing face masks. A desk was set up at the gate where visitors are required to fill out a form with their contact details. All customers must have their temperature taken before being allowed into the store.…