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A customer has accused a Florida dealership of tacking on hundreds of dollars in unauthorized fees when he sought to buy his vehicle at the end of its lease period.

Darrell Evans alleges Sunrise Volkswagen of Fort Pierce failed to disclose those fees would be added to his purchase option price when he agreed to lease a new 2019 Atlas. The purchase price was listed as $20,843 plus "official fees" such as tags, taxes and registration, according to the suit, which seeks damages under the federal Consumer Leasing Act and Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Evans went to the dealership in August 2022 to exercise his purchase option and was surprised to learn that he would have to pay two pre-delivery service fees: a $399 "electronic registration filing fee" and a $32 "third-party private tag agency fee," the suit said, calling them "profit" for the dealership, not official taxes or fees.

In addition, Sunrise Volkswagen ch…

When Germany last convened its biennial car show, Ola Kallenius couldn’t have sounded more bullish about China.

Mercedes-Benz Group had enjoyed a string of successful years in the country, the CEO said, but the best was yet to come. “If we look at the GDP growth, if we look at how many buyers come into the segment that is relevant for Mercedes,” he said, “the next 10 years presents probably the biggest absolute growth opportunity for our company.”

Two years later, Källenius delivered a glum assessment of China’s prospects, telling Bloomberg Television ahead of the 2023 Munich auto show that the luxury-car maker can’t count on the country for brisk expansion.

“After 30, 40 years of an economic wonder, they’re reaching a level of maturity,” the CEO said of China. “We have to take a little bit of a cautious stance on that and see how things develop, and not expect rapid growth as far as the economy is concerned in the short term.”

The change in tune…

MUNICH — Mini will bring a pair of new battery-powered models to market next year as it races toward an all-electric future by the start of the next decade.

But geopolitics will keep them out of American garages for now.

That's because the new subcompact crossover and two-door hardtop will be made in China and would be subject to a 25 percent U.S. tariff. Importing them would tack several thousand dollars onto their sticker prices.

But Mini has a plan.

"Either we find a way to produce [the models] at a lower cost standpoint, or we produce [them] in another region of the world," Mini chief Stefanie Wurst said ahead of the Munich auto show last week. "We are well underway evaluating those cars for the [Americas] region."

Michael Peyton, vice president of Mini of the Americas, said the automaker will announce a decision on the U.S. prospects in the fourth quarter.

"It'll be good news for North Ameri…

Never in the UAW's 88-year history has it attempted a national strike at each of the Detroit 3 simultaneously.

But that unprecedented — and economically devastating — scenario remains in play as contract negotiations with the automakers enter a critical post-Labor Day stretch, with UAW President Shawn Fain declining to pick a traditional target company.

A mass walkout of nearly 150,000 workers would give Fain, who has a penchant for theatrics, the kind of headline-grabbing moment he often seeks. But it would rapidly deplete the UAW's $825 million strike fund, a fact not lost on members who have publicly questioned whether the union can sustain a simultaneous strike long enough to strong-arm the automakers into better deals.

At $500 a week per member — potentially plus health care costs — the union has a few months' worth of strike pay on hand.

"Let me assure you, the VPs, myself, all the leadership at this level, the…

Used-vehicle dealership operator America's Car-Mart said Tuesday its president, Doug Campbell, will succeed Jeff Williams as CEO on Oct. 1.

Campbell will remain the company's president and also join its board of directors, America's Car-Mart said in a news release. Williams will stay on the board and hold a CEO emeritus title through the end of fiscal year 2024.

Before he joined America's Car-Mart in October 2022, Campbell worked as senior vice president and head of fleet services for the Americas division of rental car company Avis Budget Group Inc. He also previously worked at public dealership group AutoNation Inc. in corporate and field leadership roles, according to the release.

America's Car-Mart, of Rogers, Ark., also reported earnings for the three months ended July 31. Quarterly revenue rose 8.6 percent year over year to $368 million. Net income was $4.2 million, a 69 percent drop from the year-earlier period.

In a research note publish…

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The nation's transition to EVs is fracturing by region. While EV purchases are rising overall, adoption is declining in the states that already had the lowest rates, according to J.D. Power.

Nationwide, 21 percent of consumers who have an EV option that matched their model preference purchased an EV in the first half of this year, compared with 20 percent a year earlier, according to J.D. Power's August E-Vision report.

But at the state level, there is a glaring division between EV-friendly and EV-lagging states. In the bottom 10 states for EVs, the pace of adoption sunk 24 percent from a year earlier. In the top 10 states, pace of adoption grew 1 percent.

(J.D. Power divides EV retail share by market availability to calculate adoption. Availability measures whether an EV exists at the price and size consumers want and from their preferred brand.)

EV share is growing overall. Battery-electric sales made up 8.6 percent of retail share nationwide i…

Chinese automaker Leapmotor -- a potential Volkswagen partner in China -- will expand sales of its vehicles into new European market starting next year.

The company, which already sells the T03 electric minicar in France through a local importer, will launch in Germany and other European countries, said the head of international operations Matt Lei.

Leapmotor presented the C10 electric SUV, its first model developed for international markets, at the IAA Mobility auto show in Munich on Monday.

The automaker plans to launch five globally oriented models over the next two years.

Leapmotor is counting on its software-defined Leap 3.0 architecture to win buyers.

The architecture integrates four domains -- cabin, intelligent driving, powertrain, and body control -- into a unified platform,

This ensures the "best smart mobility experience" in the industry, Lei said.

Leapmotor's models will not cost more than comparable combustion e…

Magna International is in talks to produce vehicles for Chinese brands in Europe as they expand in the region.

The supplier’s Magna Steyr contract manufacturing facility in Graz, Austria has some spare output capacity, according to Magna Europe President Uwe Geissinger.

“Whether we make them in Graz or a new facility depends on how the talks turn out,” he said in an interview.

The Canadian supplier has been producing cars for the Chinese market for BAIC at a joint-venture facility in the Asian country but will tread carefully when it comes to future partnerships.

"We are closely studying the financial standing of any new production partner," Geissinger said.

Only one in 10 of new entrants in the market have the potential to succeed, he said.

In June, leading automotive buy-sell advisor Haig Partners negotiated a record-setting sale in which Florida-based Morgan Automotive Group bought Al Hendrickson Toyota in Coconut Creek, Fla., for what’s believed to be the highest price ever paid for a car dealership. What factors enter into forging a landmark sale like this? And what lies ahead in the buy-sell arena as dealership profits begin to normalize after an unprecedented run during the past few years? Alan Haig, the company’s president and founder, provides insights below.

Q: We are reading about declining dealership profits, but you recently sold Al Hendrickson Toyota for an amount that set a record for the highest price ever paid for a single dealership. How does that happen? 

Alan Haig: I’m going to make an analogy about great cooking. It’s all about the best ingredients: A well-crafted recipe and the right timing.

We knew we had a special opportunity when one of my partners, Kevin Nill, start…