News – Page 162

Tool gives lenders look into dealership loan approvals

Artificial intelligence and data provider Point Predictive Inc. has gone into the matchmaking business.

The company recently unveiled a product called DealerExplorer that helps lenders decide if they want to work with a certain dealership.

The new platform gives lenders insight into the potential fraud risk of a dealership's customers before they decide to fund a loan. It shows lenders the quality and quantity of loans a dealership originates by flagging defaulted loans and fraudulent applications.

Frank McKenna, co-founder and chief fraud strategist for the company, told Automotive News the current system of lenders' sales representatives signing up dealerships is "a blind process."

"They don't know who has a good history and who doesn't," McKenna said. "We give them a portal to see how [dealership customers'] apps are scoring, number of defaults, volume, risk insights so they can determine if they're going to sign up tha…

Cars.com CEO: Digital is the future of retailing

There's no holding back anymore. For auto retailers, the choice is between digitization or being left behind, according to Alex Vetter, the longtime CEO of Cars.com, the 25-year-old third-party marketplace company.

"If you're not trying to digitize your operation and make everything begin online, you're out of touch with what the consumer is expecting," Vetter told Automotive News at last month's NADA Show in Dallas.

Digitization must be a top priority for dealers everywhere in today's market, said Vetter, a founding executive of Cars.com, which has branched out to retail technology products and services.

Vetter, 52, spoke with Staff Reporter Mark Hollmer and Retail Director Amy Wilson about market evolution, consumer expectations, the journey forward for digitization and more. Here are edited excerpts.

On addressing current consumer expectations for digitizing auto shopping experiences:

Over the next several years, as dealerships wrestle…

Inventories retreat slightly to 1.73 million

New-vehicle inventories pulled back slightly last month, interrupting a string of recoveries that stretched back to summer, but still remain significantly above where the industry was a year ago and far below where it has been historically, according to estimates from Cox Automotive and the Automotive News Research & Data Center.

Cox estimated U.S. inventories at 1,726,828 in its most recent assessment, a 57-day supply, down from the 1,803,717 vehicles, or a 58-day supply, it said were available for sale the previous month. The inventory figure is about 62 percent above where it was a year earlier but was still nearly a million vehicles short of where it was at the same point in 2021, and less than half of where it stood at this point in 2019. Cox attributed the decline to increased sales.

Among the volume segments, supplies were tightest in compact, midsize and subcompact cars, Cox said, and highest among full-size cars, EVs and sports cars.

Of th…

Reynolds, CDK, Cox Automotive looking at acquisitions in 2023

Reynolds and Reynolds Co., Cox Automotive and CDK Global are all seeking or contemplating new acquisition deals in 2023 as they work to modernize their offerings. And they may have their pick of potential targets because of a tough fiscal environment for startups.

Leaders of the three biggest retail technology companies confirmed to Automotive News that they're looking to buy other companies or products or are at least open to opportunities should they arise. While none offered details, they'll likely target dealer management software technology that includes legal compliance, consumer data platforms, robotic process automation and new-vehicle inventory tools, said Steve Greenfield, CEO of venture capital firm Automotive Ventures.

"The three legacy DMS providers have the benefit of thousands of existing paying dealer customers and are thus ideally positioned to acquire 'tuck in' acquisitions to cross-sell into their installed dealer base," Greenfield told Auto…

See Ram’s innuendo-packed Super Bowl ad, Jeep remix of ‘Electric Boogie’

Anyone overhearing Ram's Super Bowl ad from another room might confuse it with a run-of-the-mill male enhancement pitch.

Ram's spot, however, is about providing a different kind of spark. The truck brand is taking on range anxiety ahead of the 2024 launch of its electric pickup that will be known as the 1500 REV.

The innuendo-packed commercial planned for the fourth quarter is one of two from Stellantis after the company sat out last year's Super Bowl. Jeep is also using Sunday's game to spread the word about its electric ambitions. It's the first time Jeep created a Super Bowl spot to be deployed at a global level, the company said.

Stellantis is expected to be joined by only a few other automakers. General Motors is promoting its transition to EVs, while Kia is touting a new off-road version of its gasoline-powered Telluride crossover.

Ram's 60-second commercial provides the first glimpse of the production version of the 1500 REV and explores "…

Automakers in the Super Bowl, and their ads

GM, Kia and Stellantis have ponied up the money for 60-second ads during Super Bowl LVII. Here is a look at the ads.

Ram: Premature Electrification

Comedian Jason Jones, a former correspondent on "The Daily Show," offers a reassuring message for those who might be suffering from EV range anxiety. The upcoming electric 1500 REV pickup has a cameo.

Jeep: The Jeep 4xe “Electric Boogie”

This second Stellantis offering for the big game features a remix of the popular "electric slide" line dance by Jamaican Reggae singer Marcia Griffiths. Reggae artist and producer Shaggy joins Griffiths for the new track, which also has performances by up-and-coming artists Amber Lee, Jamila Falak and Moyann.

Kia: Binky Dad

A desperate dad needs a vehicle that will help him retrieve his baby's binky, and his odyssey becomes a viral sensation. Kia is presenting three alternate endings for the ad on its TikTok channel to generate engagement.

Bryan Reimer examines the balance between safety and convenience in driver-assistance technology (Episode 185)

The MIT research scientist discusses his work with the Advanced Vehicle Technology Consortium probing how new driver-assistance tech influences human behavior, and how these systems differ by manufacturer.

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Stellantis told to kill odors, move residents

Detroit's City Council is calling for Stellantis to resolve long-standing complaints about foul odors emanating from a Jeep assembly plant by relocating some of the nearby residents.

The council last week approved a resolution urging the automaker to "offer home buyouts at fair market value." It also asks Stellantis to cover the costs of retrofitting homes near the plant with air filters, air monitors, HVAC systems and new windows — or to "completely and permanently eliminate the noxious odors emanating from the facility."

Stellantis has agreed to a $1.8 million fund to repair residents' homes to protect them from local environmental effects, the resolution said, but the money is "apparently insufficient" to meet residents' needs.

Air pollution issues near the Detroit Assembly Complex - Mack date to 2021 when the plant began production and neighbors started complaining of foul paint smells.

Since September 2021, Stellantis has been subject to a ha…

Shrooms take the place of vrooms at old Holden factory

Manufacturing has resumed at the location in Australia where General Motors closed the last Holden plant more than five years ago.

Instead of cars, though, the site is producing mushrooms. It's now the home of a $110 million plant that government officials say will become the "exotic mushroom capital of Australia."

The plant's owner, Epicurean Food Group, expects to eventually produce about 22,000 tons of raw mushrooms and mushroom products a year there.

"We start with white oyster mushrooms, then we will go into shiitake, enoki and king oyster," Epicurean CEO Kenneth King told Australia's ABC News.

But in contrast to the thousands of people who used to build cars and station wagons there, the plant has just 37 full-time staffers, including some who used to work for Holden. The work force is expected to reach about 350 by the middle of next year.

"I've got a number of ex-Holden people and they're wonderful workers. They've been really well …

Dealers anticipate knocks to floorplan, F&I, demand

Auto dealers fear higher interest rates will affect consumer vehicle demand in 2023, and some expect the increased borrowing cost to erode finance and insurance product sales volume or force lower rate reserve margins.

Automotive News' 2023 Dealer Outlook Survey of 264 dealers and dealership managers in January found interest rates were overwhelmingly dealers' biggest concern for 2023, with 70 percent of respondents ranking higher rates among their top three worries for the year.

Dealers said higher interest rates would affect not just their ability to sell vehicles but their ability to stock them, with higher floorplan costs expected by many dealerships.

Thomas Castriota, dealer principal of Castriota Chevrolet in Hudson, Fla., said dealers are beginning to regain access to inventory and vehicles are not turning as quickly. So inventory expense is likely to grow in 2023, he said.

But he thought dealers also were concerned about interest rates "…

Column: Teflon Elon wins again

A week later, it's hard for me to understand how Elon Musk won his defense from a lawsuit by investors saying they were misled when he inaccurately tweeted that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private.

It was a case of a CEO publicly stating something that was important, relevant and not true.

Musk had already settled a Securities and Exchange Commission suit over the tweets, with the automaker and him each paying fines of $20 million, which is a lot of money for most of us.

In May, a U.S. District Court judge said Musk's comments were inaccurate and irresponsible, as discussions over Saudi funding were "clearly at the preliminary stage."

Said Judge Edward Chen: "No reasonable jury could find that Mr. Musk did not act recklessly given his clear knowledge of the discussions."

He would leave it up to a jury to decide if the false comments led the stock to rise.

Seeing how the share price jumped dramatically, it seemed like a n…

It’s not sci-fi: Hawaiian dealership group lets robots do the data-entry work

Imagine a tiny army of software "robots" that perform mundane and repetitive data-entry tasks for dealership employees — actions such as inputting online sales leads or determining the value of trade-ins.

While that may sound far-fetched, it's a reality at the nine stores owned by Servco Pacific on the Hawaiian islands of Oahu, Maui and Kauai. (Servco also owns 19 stores in Australia.)

Since early 2022, the stores have been using an advanced technology called robotic process automation that automates the manual transfer of data, said Brandon Kamigaki, auto retail product manager at Servco.

"Our employees used to come to work in the morning and review and input leads and type vehicle information into valuation tools, then send a price back to the customer," Kamigaki said.

"But now the robots do all that work," he added. "And they can create a valuation and send it back to the customer in about 15 minutes, rather than having the customer wait unti…