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Unlike last year, the 2023 Detroit auto show has no giant rubber duck or monster trucks.

The show, which runs through Sunday, Sept. 24, features 35 brands. Organizers said 16 of the brands have corporate-sponsored displays; the rest were put together by dealers.

"The thing we learned last year is we had a whole bunch of cool displays and, I don't want to say gimmicky, but [we had] non-automobile-related activities going on, and we learned that the cars are really the stars," said Thad Szott, chairman of the show, which is owned and produced by the Detroit Auto Dealers Association.

Rod Alberts, executive director of the association, said he was hoping to attract 250,000 to 300,000 visitors this year. Organizers did not disclose attendance figures from 2022, though Alberts said the latest iteration will be far superior.

"This show is, by far, 100-fold better than last year," Alberts told Crain's Detroit Business, an aff…

Dodge is about to put its stamp on electric performance, with a battery-powered Charger arriving in 2024.

But that doesn't mean the brand is giving up on internal combustion. In fact, it's finding new uses for powerful gasoline engines.

Stellantis began rolling out its Hurricane twin-turbo inline-six engine in the Jeep Wagoneer line of luxury SUVs for the 2023 model year.

Dodge put a spotlight on the Hurricane by putting it in a Challenger Drag Pak during the Roadkill Nights muscle car event in the Detroit area in August and testing it out on the drag strip. The engine is capable of up to 550 hp.

When asked whether Dodge plans to use the Hurricane engine in production, CEO Tim Kuniskis said, "We have plans to put it in some other cars that we'll probably announce shortly." He said the brand could share more product news later in the year.

Electric crossover: A five-passenger electric crossover is expected in early 2026.

Durango: T…

The American automotive industry has a big problem. A bigger than big problem. One that is significantly impacting dealership operations, customer retention and profitability. And if not resolved, the heartburn will only grow. Though dealers are aware of it, most struggle to address it.

It's the shortage of automotive technicians and the dilemma dealers face in fixing it.

Long a major pain point, it's escalating into an outright obstacle to future success. Like never before, dealers are straining to find and retain technicians to properly care for their customers and simultaneously generate profit. It seems most dealers are continuing to look into their rearview mirror to past solutions that have become mostly ineffective.

There's a national shortage of nearly 800,000 technicians, and it's expected to grow to 900,000 by 2026. In some markets, more than 30 percent of dealership service bays go unused because of the worker shortage.…

Jeep is getting several electrified additions in 2024.

The Recon and Wagoneer EVs are coming, while a Wagoneer 4xe plug-in hybrid joins the lineup next year as well.

The lineup will offer a diverse range of powertrain options.

Wagoneer S: The Wagoneer S EV is an upscale midsize entry with a design language that separates it from its larger three-row counterparts. Jeep is targeting a range of 400 miles and aims to have 600 hp and a 0-to-60 mph time of around 3.5 seconds. Production will start in 2024. It will be sold in major markets around the world, including Europe.

Recon: The electric Recon is an eco-friendly off-roader inspired by the Wrangler that will have removable doors and glass to offer open-air experiences. Production begins in 2024.

Gladiator: The midsize pickup is getting freshened this fall for the 2024 model year. Updates unveiled at last week's Detroit auto show mirror the 2024 Wrangler, including the new grille and the i…

Fiat is adding some spice to its lineup with the electric 500e after a stretch when it had only one vehicle in the U.S., the 500X.

At the 2022 Los Angeles Auto Show, Fiat CEO Olivier Francois said the brand is bringing the 500e back to the U.S. to take advantage of the industry's electric "revolution."

Fiat doesn't expect to do big volume with the 500e, Francois said, and there are no plans to expand the portfolio further.

500e: The redesigned 500e is scheduled to reach the U.S. in the first quarter of 2024. The reveal is slated to take place at the L.A. show in November.

500X: Francois told MotorTrend the 500X crossover won't be replaced with another model once its product cycle ends. A spokesperson said 500X sales will continue in 2024.

When they ask you in 10 years, "What was the look and feel of new cars back in 2023?" don't be a downer. Don't tell them that the Detroit auto show was so lacking in inspiration that most automakers couldn't muster the enthusiasm to participate in the biggest show in America.

They won't understand.

Tell them this: The cool waning days of summer in Detroit provided a brilliant mirror of what consumers were thinking. That after three exhausting years of pandemic disruption, deprivation and anxiety, the auto market was suddenly awash in brighter colors. Blues were inexplicably deep and electric. Reds were an unearthly ruby, and splashes of green, gray and orange were being lathered onto bodies like thick lacquers of olden days.

Tell them one color was not enough, that carmakers were shifting fast to two-tone coatings, with flashy black cladding and trim popping like glossy glass.

Tell them that in 2023, designers had f…

The end of every month at Sam Pack's Five Star Chevrolet in Carrollton, Texas, is marked by the "tick, tick, tick" of a spinning prize wheel. And, if the top-performing employee is lucky, General Manager Alan Brown will announce the biggest amount: "Five hundred dollars!"

The game is the center of the staff's regular "pep rallies," celebrations that have revived the store's camaraderie and competition. On the last Friday of every month, the staff gathers to recognize the top employees in each department, review the previous month's performance and hear the targets for the next month.

Brown began the pep rallies in January 2020 as a core part of his strategy to turn around a store that was losing money and known in the Dallas suburb as an undesirable place to work. The store, which sells about 2,000 new and used vehicles a year, has since grown 840 percent in true net profit and now has "very little turnover," he said.

"People g…

A former finance and insurance manager has sued an Indiana dealership, alleging wrongful termination, retaliation and sex discrimination.

Mary Zipp's lawsuit, filed in federal court in Indiana on Sept. 5, seeks damages from John Jones Chevrolet-Buick of Corydon for alleged mental anguish and lost wages and benefits.

The discrimination and harassment were severe and pervasive, Zipp's suit alleges, creating "an intimidating, hostile, offensive and abusive working environment."

In a filing this year with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the dealership said it fired Zipp for a "documented pattern of tardiness, as well as absences" and failure to meet the store's attendance expectations.

The store hired Zipp in October 2020; she was its only F&I employee.

She received three disciplinary reports for lack of punctuality, and "in the months following her final warning, missed two days without notice an…

DETROIT — After Hurricane Idalia pummeled Florida in August, about 300 flood-damaged Teslas were sold during an insurance auction.

Within days, two burned to the ground, said Dalan Zartman, COO of Energy Security Agency, a Piqua, Ohio, company that trains first responders to combat EV fires.

Those developments underscored what Zartman and others on a panel last week at The Battery Show said is the most pressing issue with EV safety: Fire departments, emergency responders, insurance companies, consumers and others are ill-equipped to handle EV fires.

Safety was top of mind at the show, which attracted nearly 800 exhibitors to the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, northwest of Detroit. Almost every row on the convention floor showcased thermal management products.

Each panelist highlighted different areas in need of attention, but there were common denominators: Just about every entity involved in handling or caring for lithium ion batteries…

The Honda brand is in the midst of a swift recovery from a pandemic and chip shortage-related sales slump and is on track to close 2023 with sales of 1.2 million vehicles now projected.

"We expected at this point to be up around 25 percent, so we are growing past that," Lance Woelfer, Honda brand's sales chief, told Automotive News.

Last year, with microchip shortages still causing widespread production interruptions, Honda sold 881,201 vehicles. In 2019, the last full pre-pandemic year, the brand sold 1.5 million.

But through the first eight months of this year, Honda volume is up 30 percent with sales of 757,375 vehicles, according to the Automotive News Research & Data Center. And it closed August up 56 percent compared with August a year ago, well ahead of the industry's estimated growth of 17 percent.

It is enjoying a tailwind of having redesigned key models in its portfolio for 2023, including the Accord sed…