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Steven Cliff leaves NHTSA after just 78 days on the job. An appeals court rejects GM’s racketeering lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler. Inventory drops even more. Rivian adds a second shift as its second quarter loss widens. Plus, industry expert Mike Vogel talks about how service departments can create customer advocates.

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Prohibiting drivers from using handheld devices leads to lower traffic fatalities, according to an analysis of NHTSA data by driver education company Zutobi.

Zutobi ranked states by a "distracted driving severity score" based on state population, the number of distracted driving-related fatalities in 2020 and the percentage of fatalities due to distraction.

New Mexico ranked worst, with a severity score of 99.98 — nearly double that of the next-worst state, Kansas. New Mexico experienced 148 distracted-driving fatalities in 2020. That was a rate of just over 10 per 100,000 licensed drivers. Around 38 percent of fatal crashes in the state involved distracted driving, Zutobi's report said.

Second-worst Kansas logged a severity score of 51.21 and 4.5 distracted driving fatalities per 100,000 drivers. It had 90 distracted-driving fatalities, and nearly 22 percent of fatal crashes involved distracted driving. Louisiana, Wyoming and Kentucky rounded out the fi…

WASHINGTON — NHTSA chief Steven Cliff is leaving the nation's top auto safety regulator and will join the California Air Resources Board as its executive officer on Sept. 12, the state regulatory agency said Friday.

Ann Carlson, NHTSA’s chief counsel, will assume Cliff’s duties when he leaves the agency next month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.

Cliff was confirmed by the Senate on May 26 — only 78 days ago — as NHTSA’s 16th administrator. The agency had been without a permanent leader since 2017, when Mark Rosekind resigned as the Trump administration took over.

He previously was the agency's deputy administrator — a role he had filled since shortly after President Joe Biden was inaugurated in 2021, a year that saw 1,093 issued recalls, "the most in NHTSA's history," Cliff told Automotive News last month.

“This is an exciting time in transportation, and I am grateful that Congress has provided NHTSA with un…

Just 17 months after LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. bought its first franchised dealerships — and with public goals to grow to 80 to 100 stores by the end of 2022 — the small public auto retailer appears headed for dissolution, as it has agreed to sell six dealerships to Atlantic Coast Automotive Group.

LMP, in a regulatory filing Wednesday, said it entered into asset purchase agreements with Atlantic Coast Automotive on Aug. 5 for its Florida Kia dealerships in Port Charlotte and Cape Coral, plus Kia and Subaru stores in Mount Hope, W.Va., a Chevrolet dealership in Oak Hill, W.Va., and a Buick-GMC store in Beckley, W.Va.

LMP said it anticipates cash proceeds of $133 million from the deal, which is slated to close by Oct. 31, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

LMP's move to sell the six dealerships (a seventh dealership also is under a sales contract) and pursue a liquidation plan follows a tumultuous several months …

WASHINGTON — U.S. auto safety regulators are investigating certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles from the 2020-22 model years after allegations of exploding seat belt pretensioners that have been linked to three injuries.

The investigation could affect an estimated 275,000 vehicles and will initially cover the:

• 2021-22 Hyundai Elantra and Elantra Hybrid

• 2021 Hyundai Venue

• 2021 Genesis GV80

• 2022 Genesis GV70

• 2020-21 Hyundai Accent

• 2022 Kia Sorento Hybrid and Sorento Plug-in Hybrid

NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation said it was aware of three separate incidents alleging faulty seat belt pretensioners.

"In all three incidents, the driver-side seat belt pretensioner deployed abnormally, causing metal fragments to enter the rear cabin resulting in injuries to the rear occupants," according to a report released Friday.

The agency said the "failure mechanism and contributing factors remain unclear." Read more

Porsche has collaborated with Pixar Animation Studios to develop a one-off Porsche 911 inspired by the Sally Carrera character from the animated flick Cars.

The 911 Sally Special is based on the 473-hp 911 Carrera GTS. The manual-drive car features a custom Sally Blue Metallic color.

The Turbo-inspired wheels are redesigned by Style Porsche designers, with their five-spoke design receiving a subtle modification to match the 20/21-inch diameter of current-generation wheels on the 911.

The vehicle will be auctioned by RM Sotheby's on Aug. 20 during Monterey Car Week. Proceeds will support young girls through Girls Inc. and USA for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

WASHINGTON — U.S. auto safety regulators have opened a safety probe into more than 1.7 million Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ midsize sedans after reports alleging front brake hose failures.

NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation said it had received 50 complaints alleging such failures on Fusion and MKZ vehicles from the 2013-18 model years and was aware of one crash allegedly related to the issue.

Many of the complaints claim "the brake hoses are rupturing, leaking brake fluid and occurring with little to no warning," according to a report released Friday.

Front brake hose ruptures and leaking brake fluid can result in increased stopping distances, the agency said.

Ford Motor Co. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In August 2020, Ford recalled more than 488,000 2015-18 Ford Edge and 2016-18 Lincoln MKX vehicles because the front brake hoses on the midsize crossovers may rupture prematurely…

Electric-vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc reported that revenue was $364 million in the second quarter while the EV maker's net loss widened to $1.71 billion, from $580 million a year earlier.

The company said a ramp-up in production helped it deliver more SUVs, pickup trucks and vans.

The company has in recent months started overcoming the supply chain issues and semiconductor shortages that have curtailed its ability to meet soaring demand for electric vehicles.

Rivian reiterated its annual production forecast of 25,000 units and said it expects to add a second shift for vehicle assembly at its Normal, Illinois plant towards the end of the third quarter.

In the second quarter ended June 30, the EV maker delivered 4,467 vehicles, up from 1,227 units in the previous three months.

The company said it has received about 98,000 pre-orders for its R1S SUV and R1T pickup truck.

The revenue of $364 m…

A U.S. appeals court upheld a 2020 ruling that tossed out a racketeering lawsuit General Motors filed against rival Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, now part of Stellantis, and former executives.

GM filed the racketeering lawsuit in November 2019, alleging FCA bribed UAW union officials over many years to corrupt the bargaining process and gain advantages, costing GM billions of dollars.

"Even accepting GM’s theory as true, the chain of causation between FCA’s bribes and GM’s injury is still too attenuated," said the opinion of the three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

There are a lot of assumptions about Generation Z. Those born between 1997 and 2012 are generally thought to be hyper-online and at the leading edge of consumption trends.

But when it comes to buying a car, Gen Z is much different than the stereotypes portrayed on social networks. In a recent survey, CDK Global asked over 1,100 people of all ages, including Gen Z shoppers 18–25, about the car-buying experience. The results found that Gen Z can be more thoughtful, spending more time weighing decisions, but they also found the car-buying process more difficult than any other age group and were least likely to recommend their dealership experience.

81% of Gen Z shoppers want to take their time to understand all of their options when purchasing a vehicle Gen Z wants more expert guidance from sales representatives than any other generation This group is also least likely to recommend their dealership experience to a friend Gen Z was more frustrated by added fees than any ot…