Trade News

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.…

Ford Motor Co. plans to follow its rivals by offering a credit card that would allow customers to more easily finance repairs and earn them money toward service or new-vehicle purchases.

The Visa card, which will be tied to the FordPass Rewards system and is expected to launch in the second quarter, would allow users to accumulate points for any purchase, automotive-related or not, that could be redeemed in Ford showrooms or service centers, according to dealers briefed on Ford's plans.

Cardholders can earn 5 percent back on certain Ford transactions, plus another 5 percent through FordPass Rewards. The card will offer 3 percent back for gasoline, auto insurance, parking and other auto-related purchases, as well as on dining, and 1 percent back on all other purchases.

Users would be eligible to get 0 percent interest for six months on purchases of $499 or more at Ford, Lincoln or Quick Lane stores and could earn credits for hitting annual purchasing thr…

Despite years of near-record sales of new cars and trucks in the U.S., dealers are increasingly being forced to diversify into new business enterprises to stay profitable. The culprit: new-car margins that don't pay the bills anymore amid intense competition.

Automakers have stepped up their certified pre-owned programs. Service departments are looking at tire sales and body shops.

Some retailers say they preload vehicles with F&I products or accessories to add some margin to each sale.

Some retailers have even experimented with creative, nonautomotive ideas: One Montana store sells firearms ammunition and hunting bows.

But they need to dig deeper, according to dealership consultants, who are urging retailers to look at every aspect of their business for more cash. They need to get involved in store operations such as marketing, warranties and insurance rather than relying only on vendors — and some stores are do…

Global automakers and suppliers are scrambling to respond to the massive dislocations in their supply chains caused by the coronavirus that broke out in China.

How did we get here? China does offer colossal market opportunities and unmatched industrial scale. But it is not a place to put all of your eggs. No market is.

But American automakers and suppliers could not resist. For the past 20 years, they put virtually all of their Asian investments into the People's Republic.

We know what happened next: Chinese incomes soared. Car sales exploded from 1 million in 2001 to 24 million in 2019. China became the world's largest producer and consumer of vehicles — by far.

Times were not just very good; they were sensational. "We are making more money than God," the president of GM China confided over a lunch during the halcyon years.

Suppliers such as BorgWarner, Lear, Magna and Aptiv followed quickly. They built…