News

Traffic at dealership body shops should slowly return to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, though it may not be until the following year before the numbers are back to normal.

That's the view of Susanna Gotsch, director at CCC Information Services, a collision software provider. She says most shops reported a 15 to 20 percent decline in business last year — recovering from the first few months of the pandemic when some saw business drop by half.

"Our expectation is that we will continue to see people start to get out more, we'll continue to see improvement" in collision repair numbers, she says. "The second half of the year could be pretty healthy from a volume perspective. Well above where we were in 2020 and maybe only slightly down from where we were in 2019."

Traffic levels — as well as accidents — plummeted during the pandemic as many people worked from home and rarely ventured out. Gotsch says CCC research indicates typical bone-shaped driving routes …

Jason Trevisan took over the top role at vehicle-listings company CarGurus shortly after the year began.

The former finance chief, who succeeds company founder Langley Steinert as CEO, will steer CarGurus through the continuing pandemic while also expanding beyond its core listings business with new retail and wholesale tools — most recently, with the acquisition of wholesale trading platform CarOffer.

The Cambridge, Mass., company is testing new capabilities that allow consumers to build online deals with "penny perfect" pricing, and will allow dealers to use CarGurus' platform to complete tax, title and registration information on transactions involving out-of-state buyers.

"We want to be able to provide whatever retail features consumers and dealers are looking for," Trevisan said. "Some consumers are looking to do the whole thing, soup to nuts, online. Others want to do some things online and some things in the dealership. And…

Waymo duo will double down on AV expansion

Dmitri Dolgov believed from the beginning. A member of the Stanford University team that finished second in the DARPA Urban Challenge in 2007, he was captivated by the early promise of self-driving technology. Soon after the race, he became an original member of Google's self-driving car project.

"That got me hooked," he said. "It became very clear to me that this is the most important thing I could be working on, and the most impactful, exciting thing I could be doing."

Tekedra Mawakana arrived with an outsider's trepidation. A Columbia Law School grad who practiced telecom law and led teams at eBay, Yahoo and AOL, she joined Waymo in March 2017 as the company's global head of policy. She viewed autonomous-driving technology with the same lens as ordinary citizens.

"That healthy skepticism is important, and I think it just led me to ask all the right questions," she said in October 2…

Big and bigger.

That's becoming the norm for nameplates adorning the newest crossovers, SUVs and even minivans.

Already routine on pickups, a fierce segment where owner loyalty runs deep, big, bold badges are now gaining popularity on other light trucks.

Call it pride. Or just Marketing 101.

But when you are a challenger brand such as Rivian, with only two models, you gotta go big with the badging to get noticed by the public.

In the case of Kia's Telluride, introduced for the 2020 model year, the big badging appears both on the hood and around back on the liftgate.

At Ford, CEO Jim Farley wants to create passion brands under the Blue Oval — thus the oversized Bronco name on the new SUV.

But even established SUVs with some of the industry's most dedicated owners are mixing things up.

Chevrolet has moved the badging on its redesigned Tahoe and Suburban from its tasteful spot in the past, the lower left corner of the tail…

WASHINGTON -- General Motors will cancel some truck production shifts this weekend at two U.S. auto plants because of the ongoing semiconductor shortage, the company said on Friday.

The largest U.S. automaker is canceling scheduled overtime production for Saturday at its Fort Wayne Assembly plant in Indiana and canceling a Friday night shift as well as overtime shifts for Saturday and Sunday at its Flint assembly plant in Michigan.

GM said it plans to operate all but one of its plants during two traditional summer shutdown weeks to boost production.

DETROIT -- GMC plans to limit, and in many cases eliminate, floorplan costs for the electric 2022 Hummer pickup and 2024 Hummer SUV long term to help protect dealer profits and simplify the sales process, the brand told dealers Friday.

"We're going to take the risk on that now," Duncan Aldred, vice president of global Buick-GMC, told Automotive News.

As General Motors begins to launch its EV roster this year, the automaker has emphasized a need to reform much of the retail transaction. Chevy is considering a pilot of regional EV lots dealers can pull from as needed, and GM will soon launch a new digital retail tool, powered by Tekion, to help dealers facilitate EV sales.

GMC also plans to work with dealers individually to estimate their market opportunity with Hummer. So far, more than half of GMC's dealers have signed on to sell Hummer EVs, and most must make an investment of about $200,000 in their facilities to support EV sales and service.

Al…

Lithia Motors Inc. is about to take control of southeast Michigan's Suburban Collection, in a move that will mark one of the largest dealership buy-sell transactions in the past decade while cementing the Oregon group's reach in the Midwest.

Suburban Collection dealerships in Michigan are slated to close Saturday, April 10, through 1 p.m. April 12 for "necessary system updates," according to a message on the group's website.

A source told Automotive News on Friday that inventory will be assessed over the weekend and the stores will reopen Monday under Lithia ownership.

Suburban CEO David Fischer Jr. declined to comment on Friday, as did a spokeswoman for Lithia.

Lithia's planned acquisition of Michigan's Suburban Collection, one of the nation's largest privately held dealership groups, was reported by Automotive News in January.

Adding the Suburban Collection will bring the nation's third-largest new-vehicle retailer closer to its goal of…

Auto retail giant AutoNation Inc. is now the exclusive and official automotive partner of Major League Soccer's Inter Miami CF, complete with naming rights to its 18,000-seat stadium, which has been renamed after AutoNation's DRV PNK initiative to support cancer research and treatment.

AutoNation, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Friday that its deal with Inter Miami also includes branding rights on the club's first team training kits.

And with the three-year partnership, AutoNation will expand its reach to Spanish-speaking customers. The deal includes "extensive TV and digital exposure" through livestreaming via the Inter Miami app and Inter Miami Spanish language streaming show, the companies said in press releases.

Financial details about the partnership weren't disclosed.

AutoNation also will sponsor goalkeeper saves during games. The auto retailer and the club will make donations to cancer research for each Inter Miami save, up to $100,000 each…

Steve Faulkner, a relatively new Midwest dealer, has acquired two stores on both sides of the Wabash River in southern Illinois and southern Indiana.

Faulkner on March 29 acquired J Wilderman Autoplex in Mount Carmel, Ill., a single rooftop selling Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram vehicles, and Patriot Chevrolet-Buick-GMC in nearby Princeton, Ind., from Jim Wilderman.

Terms of the transactions weren't disclosed.

J Wilderman Autoplex was renamed Steve Faulkner Automotive, while Patriot Chevrolet-Buick-GMC was renamed Steve Faulkner Chevrolet-Buick-GMC.

The J Wilderman Autoplex dates to 1917 when it started as Kamp Motors Sales, according to a 2017 Associated Press article. Wilderman bought the Chrysler dealership in 1974 and added Ford in 1985, according to the article.

Faulkner now has at least three stores. Last year he acquired Merle Kelly Ford in Chanute, Kan.

Performance Brokerage Services represented Wilderman in the two tran…

Foxconn Vice Chairman Jay Lee explains how big data, analytics and artificial intelligence are helping automakers and suppliers create a ''worry-free'' manufacturing environment.

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Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. are spending millions of dollars to provide drivers with access to COVID-19 vaccines and offering tens of millions of free or discounted rides to vaccination sites for people in communities that lack access to transportation and healthcare services.

The effort is both public-spirited, and self-interested.

Ride-hailing demand is ramping up throughout the U.S. from pandemic-induced lows, but drivers are still slow to return to the road, slowing the companies' efforts to rebuild revenues.

Lack of transportation is a major hurdle to healthcare equity and vaccine access, and studies show fewer options for medical care in low-income and Black communities, which are frequently poorly served by public transit and have lower car ownership rates.

At Uber, a large team of employees has started calling thousands of drivers who left the platform over the past year, asking them what they need to return, Uber U.S. and Canada …

New-vehicle sales in China spiked 75 percent in March to approach 2.53 million deliveries despite the ongoing microchip shortage, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Friday. The stronger-than-expected rebound was due to abnormally low volume a year earlier when the coronavirus outbreak severely affected Chinese business activities including auto sales, the industry group said. Last month, deliveries of new light vehicles -- sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses – surged 77 percent to top 1.87 million. Demand for new commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses also jumped 68 percent to some 651,000 deliveries. In the month, sales of EVs soared 240 percent to around 226,000. The number includes some 190,000 full electric vehicles, 36,000 plug-in hybrids and 59 fuel cell vehicles. For the first quarter, industrywide new-vehicle sales rebounded 76 percent from a year earlier to exceed 6.48 million deliveries.&n…