News

When Craig Courtney became finance director in 2017 for Taylor Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in Bourbonnais, Ill., about 55 miles south of Chicago, his vacation days often were spent leading church mission trips to the Dominican Republic.

With just one full-time F&I manager and one assistant, no department guidelines and a dot matrix printer, Courtney wanted to ensure his department was prepared to handle the dealership's F&I operations anytime he was in the Caribbean with no cell service. So Courtney wrote and printed an 18-page manual on everything — from how to book a sale and lease to detailed updates on every open deal. He told his two staffers: "It's just so you don't get lost."

In late 2019, Courtney further regulated his store's F&I operations introducing e-contracting to speed up contracts in transit and Darwin digital F&I menus to make the sales process more consumer-friendly.

With updated systems and a new F&a…

Lucid Motor's Gravity crossover is heading into a new phase of development before its 2024 launch. The luxury three-row electric vehicle will begin testing in camouflage on U.S. roads, the automaker said.

New images reveal the Gravity's visual similarity to the highly aerodynamic Air sedan that's been on sale since late 2021. Lucid has promised to set records for range and efficiency with its first crossover.

The EV maker, which has said preorders for the Air are falling, is expected to open order books for the Gravity in the first half of this year. Pricing has not been announced. The Air starts at $89,050 with shipping.

"This luxury electric SUV will offer comfortable seating for up to seven adults and their gear, the driving dynamics of a sports car, and greater electric range than any SUV," Lucid said in a statement.

Derek Jenkins, Lucid's senior vice president of design, said last month that the Gravity would have…

Land Rover is expanding the Defender 130 lineup for 2024 with a new trim, the Outbound.

Also, a thumping 493-hp supercharged 5.0-liter V-8 will be optional for some models of both the 110 and the 130.

The Outbound, powered by JLR’s 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline six-cylinder engine, is a luxurious five-seat version of the long-wheelbase Defender that offers 88.85 cubic feet of storage space behind the second row of seats, a cargo area designed to hold camping gear, wetsuits and other off-road excursion items. The Defender 130 Outbound starts at $85,975 including shipping.

A flat tire helped Phil Almas pump up his technician ranks.

Serge Akilimali's Volkswagen had a flat tire in the impound lot across from Ganley Subaru in Wickliffe, Ohio, where Almas has been service director for more than seven years. When Akilimali asked if he could get his flat fixed, Almas learned the Congo immigrant was a service technician at a local Toyota dealership.

Like most service directors, Almas is always on the lookout for new wrench turners. The 12 technicians working in Ganley Subaru's service department handle around 65 repair orders a day, six days a week.

"After talking with him, I had him fill out an application and eventually hired him," Almas said. "His work ethic is out of this world."

Akilimali had attended an Ohio automotive technical college but still had much to learn. He's now working to get his certification as a master tech. But Almas recognized the young man had drive and an eagerness to …

Mary Barra's total compensation in nine years as CEO of General Motors has surpassed $200 million.

Barra received a pay package worth just less than $29 million in 2022, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. That made her the highest-paid Detroit 3 CEO for an eighth consecutive year.

Barra, 61, earned 0.5 percent less last year than she did in 2021. Her salary was unchanged at $2.1 million, option awards increased 24 percent to $4.9 million and nonequity incentive compensation declined 18 percent to $6.3 million. Stock awards, which account for the majority of Barra's compensation, increased 0.3 percent to $14.6 million.

In determining her pay, GM's board of directors noted that the company achieved records for adjusting pretax earnings, global revenue and profit-sharing for hourly workers, according to the filing.

Barra's compensation topped the $25.6 million that Stellantis shareho…

California regulators on Friday approved new rules requiring all medium- and heavy-duty vehicles sold in the state in 2036 be zero-emission, a day after the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted reduced emission regulations for locomotives.

"With these actions requiring all new heavy-duty truck sales to be zero emission and tackling train pollution in our state, we're one step closer to achieving healthier neighborhoods and cleaner air for all Californians," said Governor Gavin Newsom.

The rule also require transitioning existing fleets to zero-emission vehicles. Big rigs, local delivery and government fleets must transition to zero emission by 2035, garbage trucks and local buses by 2039, and sleeper cab tractors and specialty vehicles by 2042.

The board estimates the reduced pollution from the truck rules would result in $26.6 billion in health savings from fewer asthma attacks, emergency room visits and respiratory illnesses, and save $48 bil…

General Motors plans to build a $200 million electric vehicle parts plant that would create 1,000 new jobs and support assembly of the upcoming Chevrolet Silverado EV.

The project would cover 87.3 acres of the site where the Detroit Pistons' former arena was demolished in 2020. It would consist of 1.05 million square feet of EV parts assembly and distribution space, plus about 50,000 square feet of office space, according to documents filed with the city of Auburn Hills, Mich., whose planning commission will consider the proposal next week.

It would serve GM's nearby Orion Assembly plant, which currently builds the Chevrolet Bolt EV but is getting a $4 billion overhaul for electric pickup production to begin in 2024.

The EV parts plant would have about 350 workers per shift, according to the city documents. Draft plans for the project were presented to the city in July.

Construction would begin this July and be completed in November 2024.

Online used-vehicle retailer Vroom Inc. said this week it reduced its headcount by approximately 120 employees, or about 11 percent of its Vroom-specific work force.

The reduction is included as part of an "organizational restructuring" that Vroom has implemented amid a reexamination of "all facets of the business," the company said in a Wednesday regulatory filing. Vroom employed 1,323 employees as of Dec. 31, 2022, according to its latest annual report. However, that total declined in January when the retailer reduced its headcount by approximately 275 employees.

Vroom has tied the employee reductions to its pursuit of executing a long-term, cost-cutting-focused business plan it shifted to last year.

"The decision to reduce staff this week, while difficult, is consistent with our commitment to our long-term roadmap and objectives for the year to prioritize unit economics and growth, improve our customer experience, reduce cost per unit and maximize li…

Another public retailer sees a big drop in net income. Lithia cuts a thousand jobs. GM joins an effort to develop shared software. Plus, a conversation with Vehicles for Change CEO Martin Schwartz about the organization's effort to train people who were formerly incarcerated to become service drive techs.

How do I subscribe?

Can't wait to hear the next episode of "Daily Drive"? Subscribe through a podcast app to receive episodes days in advance. If you don't have a podcast app already, here are some options. 

iPhone / iPad

Android

Spotify

Freightliner owner Daimler Truck is launching a new brand of electric class 4 and 5 trucks, the company announced Thursday.

The new brand, Rizon, will sell and service the zero-emission vehicles exclusively through the commercial vehicle outlet Velocity Vehicle Group in the U.S., starting with deliveries in California and New York in the fourth quarter of 2023.

"Our Rizon trucks do everything a diesel truck does without the diesel," said Karl Deppen, a member of Daimler Truck's supervisory board, during Thursday's presentation.

Also on Thursday, Daimler's U.S. division along with NextEra Energy Resources and BlackRock Alternatives said Greenlane will be the name of their joint venture that will build and operate a public charging and hydrogen fueling network for medium- and heavy-duty battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The partners are starting with $650 million in funding for the network. The first sites will be in Southern California. …

Three dealership groups expanded in three first-quarter transactions, while an auto retailer and partner added a pair of stores in a third-quarter 2022 deal.

Here's a look at the transactions involving domestic and import dealerships in Massachusetts, Virginia, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Village Automotive adds Stellantis dealershipRay Ciccolo, the 85-year-old president of Village Automotive Group, continues to grow his Boston-area enterprise, most recently with the February acquisition of Brigham-Gill Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram in Natick, Mass.

He plans to pursue more dealership purchases in the months ahead despite a competitive market.

"We're continuing to talk to people," Ciccolo told Automotive News. "So many people are also trying to acquire dealerships."

Ciccolo bought the Stellantis store on Feb. 14 with Village Automotive COO and son-in-law Anthony Bartolotti. The sale allowed Brigham-Gill owner Richard Gill to retire, according to Carri…

General Motors will invest more than $100 million in its largest parts processing center to add technology, create a more modern warehouse operation and improve worker safety.

The automaker said its Davison Road Processing Center outside Flint, Mich., part of the Customer Care and Aftersales division, will be updated with automated storage and retrieval and mini-load systems, as well as a conveyor system to move parts to employee workstations. Work to install the systems will begin in November, with operations up and running by April 2025.

The facility, which opened in 2019 and employs about 1,460 people, ships roughly 15,000 parts orders daily. It's the primary distribution site for GM Genuine and ACDelco parts.

GM said the technology updates are intended to help alleviate repetitive strain and improve ergonomics for employees. They come during a growth stage for Customer Care and Aftersales, which has seen double-digit business increases annually since…