News

PLANO, Texas — Those watching closely have noticed that the white-hot Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz compact pickups have already racked up nearly 50,000 sales in 2022 through May — an impressive pace in a down U.S. market from what had been an abandoned segment.

But guess who else is eyeballing those results and wondering whether it's time to rekindle its own compact pickup legacy?

The answer is Toyota, but an antithetical bit of emissions regulations might actually make it harder for the Japanese automaker to leap back into the compact pickup segment it once dominated.

"There is space" in the Toyota lineup for a pickup beneath the current midsize Tacoma, said Jack Hollis, senior vice president of automotive operations at Toyota Motor North America. "The question is, how to fill it?"

Hollis — who himself introduced the Toyota A-BAT concept compact unibody pickup at the 2008 Detroit auto show — told Automotive …

Richard Hershey is one of about 50 technicians certified to work on the Ford GT supercar, and sometimes the automaker will ask him to leave his job as lead tech at Pompano Ford in Pompano Beach, Fla., to visit other dealerships to work on the high-performance sports car.

Hershey and other Ford dealership technicians now have a new tool for their toolbox, one that paid immediate dividends in troubleshooting a recent problem with a GT.

It's called SWIS, for "See What I See," and it is very similar to a wearable small-screen computer complete with voice- activated commands. The headset's eyeglasses allow Ford's Technical Assistance Center to see what the dealership's technician sees and suggest fixes while allowing the technician to be able to work with both hands.

Hershey was sent to investigate why a GT would go into failsafe mode once it hit 160 mph on the racetrack. Without SWIS, a logical repair would have been to replace the t…

FCA US, a subsidiary of Stellantis, pleaded guilty and is paying more than $300 million in criminal penalties to resolve a federal investigation that it conspired to mislead regulators and consumers about the emissions control systems in 101,482 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 models.

The affected vehicles were equipped with the company's second-generation EcoDiesel engine spanning the 2014 to 2016 model years.

The U.S. Department of Justice, in court documents Friday, said FCA "purposely calibrated the emissions control systems on the subject vehicles to produce less NOx emissions during the federal test procedures, or driving 'cycles,' than when the subject vehicles were being driven by FCA US’s customers under normal driving conditions."

The automaker pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, commit wire fraud, and violate the Clean Air Act. The plea agreement includes a fine of $96.1 million along with the forfeiture of…

Kellen Walker gives you the top headlines. Stellantis faces federal conspiracy charges. GM Cruise scores its first permit to offer paid driverless car rides in California. Elon Musk wants to cut jobs at Tesla. Plus, Fixed Ops Digital CEO Owen Moon talks about how marketing can help dealership service departments hold onto drivers of older, out-of-warranty vehicles.

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

“Daily Drive” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Android

“Daily Drive” is available on the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Spotify

"Daily Drive" is available on Spotify. Cli…

Mercedes-Benz is transforming its product focus — going all-electric and further upmarket. But the luxury brand is also rethinking how it supports its U.S. retail network.

At a national dealer meeting in Dallas on Thursday, Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Dimitris Psillakis revealed plans to restructure dealer operations.

Mercedes will split its 383 U.S. dealers into three groups — Air, Land and Sea — based on throughput. Each group will be assigned Mercedes sales, aftermarket and service teams.

The Air group will include large, publicly-traded dealers who account for 25 percent of the brand's sales volume. The Land group has regional multi-point retailers that generate about 40 percent of sales. Smaller, single-point stores fall into the Sea group.

Psillakis said the new arrangement better aligns corporate support around dealer needs versus the current "one-size-fits-all" structure, which spreads field operations across three geographic markets.

Pu…

Atlantic Coast Automotive Group, a large privately owned auto retailer, has acquired six dealerships in upstate New York from Nye Automotive Group.

Atlantic Coast, of Miami Lakes, Fla., bought the dealerships from Nye Automotive owner William Nye on May 24, said Rob Lee, Northeast director of Tim Lamb Group, a Columbus, Ohio, dealership buy-sell firm. Lee represented the seller in the transaction.

Harold Nye, William's father, founded the Nye group in 1968 with a single Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealership. William Nye has led the group since 1998.

"The sale of my six dealerships was a large and complicated transaction," Nye said in a statement.

The Nye group included Buick-GMC, Chevrolet, Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram, Ford and Toyota dealerships in Oneida and a Volkswagen dealership in Rome. Oneida and Rome are both east of Syracuse.

In June 2021, Atlantic Coast purchased two Kia dealerships in Virginia from Bill Shepherd of Southern Auto Group.

CLEVELAND — Ford Motor Co.'s plan to invest $3.7 billion and create 6,200 union jobs across three Midwest states secures the futures of some of its most at-risk plants well ahead of contract negotiations that typically decide such matters.

The automaker's announcement this week includes promises to build the next-generation gasoline-powered Mustang coupe in Flat Rock, Mich., as well as expand Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake, outside Cleveland, for production of a new commercial electric vehicle.

Such guarantees in the back half of a four-year contract are not always certain. While General Motors in 2015 committed $5.4 billion to its U.S. plants months ahead of negotiations, it left numerous plants in limbo heading into 2019 bargaining, which ultimately resulted in a costly 40-day strike.

Ford says its plan, which also includes investment in Missouri and two other Michigan plants, is a sign of the quickness required to become an EV leader and the need …

Stellantis said its Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario will produce vehicles on the automaker's new STLA Large platform that will support electric vehicles.

Retooling at the plant, which produces the Chrysler Pacifica, Voyager and the Canada-only Grand Caravan, is slated to begin in 2023. The company says the site will have the "flexibility to adjust production volumes as needed to meet changing market demand over the next decade."

Chrysler said the electric Airflow crossover concept it debuted this year will reside on the STLA Large platform. AutoForecast Solutions predicts that the next Dodge Challenger and Charger muscle cars will be housed on the platform.

The automaker has said the STLA Large platform can achieve up to 500 miles of driving range.

Workers at the Windsor plant have had to contend with frequent downtime and layoffs.

"There has been a lot of speculation, and while we're not prepared to discuss any product details today, we'…

WASHINGTON — The nation's top auto safety regulator is requesting more information from Tesla Inc. to aid its investigation of certain Model 3 and Model Y vehicles equipped with Autopilot after reports alleging "phantom braking."

NHTSA's request comes after the agency in February opened the investigation into an estimated 416,000 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles from the 2021-22 model years after receiving 354 complaints of unexpected braking while using Autopilot's driver-assist features.

In a letter sent May 4 to Eddie Gates, Tesla's director of field quality, NHTSA said the number of reports of unexpected brake activation in those vehicles had increased to 758.

The agency is now seeking further details from Tesla, including any complaints or lawsuits related to the alleged defect as well as reports involving a crash, injury or death.

Tesla has until June 20 to respond, or it could face civil penalties of up to nearly $115 million.

According …

General Motors Cruise on Thursday became the first company to secure a permit to charge for self-driving car rides in San Francisco, after it overcame city officials' objections.

Self-driving test cars with human safety drivers have become a constant sight in San Francisco, and completely driverless ones are increasingly common too. Turning them into a fledgling business in a major U.S. city marks a milestone in the long, delayed journey toward driverless taxi service.

The permit was Cruise's final hurdle in California. Cruise said it would launch paid services within the next couple of weeks using up to 30 driverless Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles.

The California Public Utilities Commission approved Cruise's permit late Thursday in a 4-0 vote.

Commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen said during the meeting the panel had been "taking a careful, incremental approach" to regulating autonomous vehicles.

"This resolution marks another important s…

Dave Gardner, American Honda Motor Co. executive vice president of national operations, is tasked with shifting 800,000 Honda and Acura new-vehicle sales to electric vehicles in the next eight years. Globally, the company hopes to phase out the internal combustion engine by 2040 and transform itself into a carbon-neutral entity by 2050. Considering that Honda is the world's largest maker of internal combustion engines, the mission is daunting.

But Gardner says that, despite the industry instability caused by supply chain problems and the never-ending microchip shortage, Honda's path to electrification in North America is clear. It starts with turning up the hybrid mix of its high-volume vehicles and the introduction of the Prologue electric compact crossover, the company's first volume EV, built with rival-turned-partner General Motors. Honda also will build its own all-electric vehicles on what it's calling its e:Architecture, and continue its work with GM to roll o…

SAN FRANCISCO -- Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a "super bad feeling" about the economy and wants to cut about 10 percent of jobs worldwide at the automaker, he said in an email to executives seen by Reuters.

The message, sent on Thursday and titled "pause all hiring worldwide," came two days after the billionaire told staff to return to the workplace or leave. It adds to a growing chorus of warnings from business leaders about the risks of recession.

Tesla employed almost 100,000 people at the company and its subsidiaries at the end of 2021, according to its annual SEC filing.

Tesla was not immediately available for comment.

Tesla shares fell nearly 3 percent in U.S. pre-market trade on Friday and its Frankfurt-listed stock was down 3.6 percent after the Reuters report.

High-profile message

Musk has warned in recent weeks about the risk of a recession, but his email ordering a hiring freeze and staff cuts was the most direct and high-pro…