News

Well-known dealer Terry Taylor added a dealership to his portfolio, a former Lithia Motors Inc. general manager bought his first store and other dealers expanded their store holdings in third-quarter and fourth-quarter transactions in 2022.

Here's a look at the deals involving import, luxury and domestic dealerships and stores in New Jersey, California, Tennessee and Missouri. One transaction involved a group ranked on Automotive News' top 150 dealership groups list.

Terry Taylor, who owns Automotive Management Services Inc. in West Palm Beach, Fla., bought a Hyundai-Genesis dealership in New Jersey in the third quarter, according to the store's former dealer principal.

Taylor on Aug. 29 bought Hyundai-Genesis of South Brunswick in Monmouth Junction, N.J., from Janet Feliciano, John Grifonetti and John Geraci, Feliciano told Automotive News.

Taylor renamed the store Route 1 Hyundai-Genesis of Brunswick. Monmouth Junction is between New York Cit…

Dodge, Ram, Audi, Mazda, GMC, Volkswagen, Acura and Mercedes-Benz are all in the heat of a "nomad retention challenge" in the U.S., a report from S&P Global Mobility shows.

This means these eight brands face the challenge of keeping their conquest customers from being "one and done" and going elsewhere after one purchase, the research firm said.

These brands were one of three major groupings identified in the S&P Global analysis of retention and defection of so-called nomadic customers with unidentifiable loyalty patterns.

On the other side of this challenge are Tesla, Subaru, Jeep, Kia, Hyundai and BMW — brands with a high share of the nomads returning to market and higher retention. Tesla was a standout here, with a share of first-time owners at 83 percent and the lowest one-and-done rate of all the measured brands at 39 percent.

Finding greater loyalty from conquests is both a short- and long-term necessity, S&P Global's report sa…

BERLIN -- Ford will decide by mid-February on how many jobs will be cut in Europe, a spokesperson for German labor union IG Metall said.

Union representatives will meet with Ford's management on Saturday for the next stage of talks, said the spokesperson for IG Metall, which has threatened disruption if the U.S. automaker axed roles in Germany and across the region as feared.

Management figures presented a worst-case scenario to 12,000 workers in a packed assembly hall at Ford's Cologne site on Monday of up to 2,500 job cuts in product development and a further 700 in administration.

A second scenario was also on the table, the spokesperson said, declining to provide details.

Ford has declined to comment, referring to a Jan. 20 statement in which it said that the shift to electric-vehicle production requires structural changes and it would not say more until plans are finalized.

The automaker has committed to an all-electric lineup in Europ…

TOKYO -- Honda will create a new division in a bid to strengthen and speed up its electrification business as part of an overhaul of its organizational structure.

The shake-up is part of the automaker's bid to catch up in the fast-growing market for full-electric vehicles, led by Tesla and China's BYD.

Japanese automakers have been at risk of falling behind their European and U.S. rivals in the EV market.

In changes effective April 1, the new division would consolidate Honda's electrification strategy and development of automobiles, motorcycles and power products such as generators, it said.

The automaker also said it would combine six regional operations to three, composed of North America, China and associated regions including Japan, the rest of Asia and Europe.

Integrating to the three was to "rapidly develop the implementation of resource shifts in accordance with the future lineup strategy in line with the electrification acceleration…

SAN FRANCISCO - Elon Musk told jurors on Monday he was sure he had locked up financial support from Saudi investors in 2018 to take his electric car maker Tesla Inc. private, and could even have used his stake in rocket company SpaceX to fund a buyout.

At the trial in San Francisco federal court, the billionaire, who said he was tired from a lack of sleep, spoke quietly and calmly during roughly five hours of testimony.

"With SpaceX stock alone, I felt funding was secured" for the buyout, he told a jury, referring to the aerospace company where he is also CEO. He added later that he chose not to take Tesla private due to a lack of support from some investors and a wish to avoid a lengthy process.

Musk is defending against claims that he defrauded investors by tweeting on Aug. 7, 2018, that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private at $420 per share, and that "investor support is confirmed."

The trial tests Musk's penchant for taking to Twitte…

Workers at Windsor, Ont., auto parts plant TRQSS Inc. have voted to join Unifor, notching a major organizing win for the union that President Lana Payne said gives Unifor added momentum in Canada's automotive sector.

"This is by far the largest auto parts facility that we've organized since the beginning of Unifor," Payne told Automotive News Canada.

"It's exciting that these workers have voted to have a say in their future working conditions."

TRQSS, which employs nearly 600 workers, makes seatbelts for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada and several other automakers in Canada and the United States. It is part of the TRAM Group, a North American subsidiary of Japan-based supplier Tokai Rika Company Ltd.

TRQSS also supplies General Motors, Mazda, Nissan and Subaru.

Payne said the unionization vote was the culmination of "many, many years" of discussions with staff at the plant. Workers cast their ballots over a 48-hour period in early Decembe…

Elon Musk testified that Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund "unequivocally" wanted to take Tesla Inc. private in 2018, a core element of his defense to claims that his tweets about the take-private plan misled shareholders.

The shareholders contend in a class-action lawsuit that the tweets were lies that cost them big losses from wild stock price swings over a 10-day period before the plan was abandoned.

As he resumed testifying Monday after a brief appearance on the witness stand Friday, Musk told jurors that he had met on July 31, 2018, with representatives of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, at Tesla's Fremont, California, factory, and discussed the transaction. He said the amount required for the fund was "potentially" less than $10 billion. Court filings indicate that Musk himself owned about 19 percent of Tesla at the time. The billionaire would have needed more than 50 percent to take the company private.

"The th…

An exclusive interview with Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida, who says EV growth is prompting his company to make another big investment in a U.S. plant. ZF Friedrichshafen and Wolfspeed plan to build a $3 billion factory in Germany to make chips for EV and other applications. And GM may be in the market for a new battery partner.

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

WASHINGTON -- U.S. auto safety regulators on Monday closed a six-year-old investigation into 1.47 million Ford Explorers over reports of exhaust odors in vehicle compartments and exposure to carbon monoxide without seeking a recall.

NHTSA said it conducted an in-depth investigation that included review of more than 6,500 consumer complaints from 2011-2017 model year vehicles -- including police versions of the large crossover -- and found no evidence of a safety issue.

NHTSA said its investigation found "that the 2011-2017 Ford Explorer vehicles when accurately measured produce occupant compartment (carbon monoxide) levels which fall below current accepted health standards."

Ally Financial said its revenue rose 2.7 percent to a record $8.43 billion in 2022, and the lender also produced a record net interest margin for the year.

However, the Detroit bank on Friday said its net income still fell 44 percent to $1.71 billion last year as the bank set aside more money for potential losses on loans, paid out more in expenses outside of interest and brought in less revenue from channels outside of lending.

"In 2022 Ally continued its strategic evolution while navigating a fluid macroeconomic environment," CEO Jeffrey Brown said in a statement. "The optimization across our businesses was evident in our ability to generate record net interest margin and total revenue."

Ally's 2022 ended with its net income before taxes from its key auto finance business falling to $437 million in the fourth quarter, down 48 percent from a year earlier. Looking at the entirety of 2022, Ally's auto finance income fell 34 percent year-over-year to $2.25…