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Ralph Paglia, a dealership software advocate known affectionately to industry insiders as the "godfather of automotive digital marketing," died Dec. 21 of complications caused by COVID-19, his daughter confirmed to Automotive News. He was 63.

Paglia was director of digital marketing for ADP Dealer Services, departing before it became CDK Global Inc. in 2014. He worked at two dealerships in his career and briefly at Reynolds and Reynolds. He had been working as an automotive digital marketing consultant since 2013.

Paglia's belief that the Internet would become a dominant force in retail was prophetic, Dale Pollak, former auto dealer and founder of inventory management software vAuto, said in a blog post.

"Ralph instantly understood how retail market-based pricing would benefit the dealership's desire to connect customers with used cars online," Pollak said. "He wasn't just one of the good guys, he was a great guy. His loss is our …

Chevrolet's freshenings of the Equinox and Traverse crossovers will launch this year after pandemic-related delays in 2020.

"Both of those were delayed a bit due to resource reallocation, but they're going to be a big part of our plans for '21," Steve Majoros, vice president of Chevrolet marketing, told reporters Wednesday.

The 2022 Equinox, which is slated to launch this summer, will get an RS trim option. That trim has been popular on the Trailblazer and Blazer. In the third quarter of 2020, Trailblazer RS orders more than doubled Chevy's forecast, and Blazer RS orders nearly doubled the forecast, a Chevy spokeswoman said at the time.

The compact crossover will also have redesigned front and rear fascias, new LED headlamps and a more aggressive grille, Chevy says.

Sales of the Equinox, Chevy's second-highest seller behind the Silverado pickup, fell 22 percent in 2020 to 270,994.

The 2022 Traverse, due in t…

DETROIT — Jeep on Thursday plans to unveil the three-row version of the redesigned 2021 Grand Cherokee, a first for the model.

Production will begin in the first quarter at a new assembly plant created from a former engine factory in Detroit.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Mike Manley said last year that the new three-row SUV would enter a "white space that offers the potential for a very strong margin." At the time the company hadn't revealed whether it would be part of the Grand Cherokee lineup or a separate nameplate.

Jeep confirmed the reveal date and the use of the Grand Cherokee name in an email to customers this week, saying, "The most awarded SUV ever is adding something new to the adventure — a third row."

The roomier Grand Cherokee is part of a larger product offensive that will help diversify the Jeep brand's portfolio in 2021 as FCA moves ahead with its merger with France's PSA Group to form a larger automaker called Stellantis. The W…

New-vehicle sales in Canada fell 20 percent during pandemic-ridden 2020, just “as expected.”

After slowly reporting sales figures over two days, the tally stands at 1.55 million sold, down precisely 20 percent, according to the Automotive News Data Center in Detroit and just as forecasters had predicted.

From the outset of the pandemic, which began to take hold in March 2020, both DesRosiers Automotive Consultants and Rebekah Young of ScotiaBank Economics forecast a decline of 20 percent by the year’s end.

Using its own figures, DesRosiers said Wednesday that the 19.7 percent drop in sales was the second-biggest percentage decline on record, falling in between the 23 percent decline of 1982 and the 17 percent drop of 1954.

Canadians bought the fewest number of new vehicles since 2009, “wiping away [at least temporarily] a decade of growth,” the firm said in a statement.

“It may be difficult to take a market decline of 19.7 percent in a…

TOKYO – Kia has unveiled a new, more modern, script-like brand logo to replace its aged oval mark and help jumpstart the South Korean carmaker’s planned brand relaunch.

As part of the makeover, Kia Motors Corp. has also adopted a new slogan: Movement that Inspires. The new emblem and catchphrase were both unveiled Wednesday during a pyrotechnical display in the skies above Incheon, South Korea, that used 303 drones launching fireworks.

“The introduction of the new logo represents Kia’s ambitions to establish a leadership position in the future mobility industry by revamping nearly all facets of its business,” Kia said in a release.

The reworked logo and fresh tagline will herald an updated business strategy that Kia CEO Ho Sung Song plans to unveil on Jan. 15. In an interview with Automotive News late last year, Song said Kia would dump its long-in-the-tooth oval and embark on a brand “relaunch” this month.

The Jan. 15 event, dubbed a digital “New…

Hyundai and Kia posted single-digit gains in December on record U.S. demand for their growing stable of crossovers such as the Hyundai Palisade and Kia Seltos, while Genesis came to life with the launch of its first SUV after struggling with a three-sedan lineup and inventory problems for most of the year.

Hyundai posted an overall sales increase of 2.4 percent in December compared with the year earlier, but retail sales rose 12 percent. Fleet shipments, which remain weak but have improved as rental companies return to the market, fell 34 percent last month, the company said.

Kia, which shares parent company Hyundai Motor Group with Hyundai and Genesis, reported a 4.9 percent gain in volume last month. It also reported a yearly retail sales gain of 3.1 percent for its highest annual retail tally ever in the U.S., the company said.

Sales at upstart luxury brand Genesis rose 40 percent on the launch of the GV80 midsize crossover in lat…

Volkswagen sales in the U.S. rose 11 percent in the fourth quarter to 94,330 thanks to the addition of the Atlas Cross Sport crossover and a five-fold surge in sales of the aging Passat sedan.

For the year, the German mass-market brand's deliveries fell 10 percent to 325,784, despite three nameplates — Golf, Arteon and Passat — that actually gained volume year over year, despite the pandemic. The addition of the derivative two-row Atlas Cross Sport earlier this year meant that total Atlas sales for both models rose 7.2 percent in 2020. Sales of the three-row Atlas finished down 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter and 28 percent for the year.

Meanwhile, Audi sales fell 4.8 percent in the fourth quarter to 62,517, despite solid double-digit gains from three of its four crossovers. For the year, Audi's U.S. deliveries fell 17 percent to 186,620.

The Q3, Q5 and Q8 crossovers all gained between 11 and 15 percent in the quarter, while sales…

American Honda capped a roller-coaster sales year with a strong showing in December as light trucks helped fuel just a 0.1 percent drop in overall deliveries from a year earlier. That was a big rebound from November when sales fell 23 percent because of fewer selling days and fierce market competition.

For the year, combined U.S. sales at the Honda and Acura brands fell by 16 percent as Honda passenger car sales tanked while crossovers at both brands did relatively well considering the myriad of disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Volume fell 13 percent at Acura and 17 percent at the Honda brand last year.

Total car sales at American Honda in 2020 dropped 22 percent while light-truck deliveries fell 12 percent. That reflected an accelerated market shift toward pickups, crossovers and SUVs, driven by low-rate financing deals that made it easier for consumers to move up to bigger, more expensive vehicles.

Honda…

Subaru of America ended 2020 with slight volume increases in December and the fourth quarter, but the automaker also saw two remarkable U.S. sales streaks snapped as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact earlier in the year.

Subaru sold 63,558 vehicles in December, an increase of 1.9 percent. It was the highest monthly sales total in 2020, beating out October's 61,411 tally, and the highest since December 2019 notched 62,364 deliveries.

In the fourth quarter, Subaru's sales rose, albeit slightly, 0.3 percent to 175,382, according to the Automotive News Data Center.

For 2020, Subaru sold 611,942 vehicles, a drop of 13 percent from 2019's record of 700,117 vehicles.

The final 2020 sales figures came in higher than the 605,000 deliveries that Subaru Corp. CEO Tomomi Nakamura forecast during an Automotive News interview in December.

Prior to 2020, Subaru had been riding two streaks: 11 years of U.S. sales rec…

For financially hamstrung Nissan Group, 2020 was a year of rebuilding amid a pandemic that sucked the air out of market demand and forced dealerships to shutter for weeks.

The impact on sales was evident: Combined U.S. deliveries of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles plummeted 33 percent last year. It was Nissan's largest annual percentage decline.

In the fourth quarter, Nissan Group sales fell 19 percent to 243,133 vehicles — the automaker's 12th consecutive quarterly decline.

The Nissan division sold 819,715 vehicles in 2020, down 33 percent from the year earlier. Infiniti sales, meanwhile, tumbled 32 percent to 79,502 vehicles last year.

Nissan started 2020 strong with fresh product and a new dealer incentive program.

Then the world changed. Nissan Group's U.S. sales dived 30 percent in the first quarter as consumer demand for vehicles and much else fell in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Nissan responded with a relief package that…

The Ram and Jeep brands carried Fiat Chrysler Automobiles through a turbulent 2020 as the automaker prepares to merge with France's PSA Group next week.

Despite the circumstances, FCA's U.S. sales in the fourth quarter weren't far off from the year-earlier period, with sales down 8 percent after Ram had its best monthly retail performance ever in December. The Jeep Gladiator saw a 23 percent increase in the fourth quarter to 20,552 vehicles sold, closing out its first full year on the market.

For the year, FCA sales were down 17 percent from 2019 to 1.82 million vehicles.

Moving forward, FCA will confront the challenges of the pandemic with a partner. Its tie-up with PSA, which will be called Stellantis, is expected to become official on Jan. 16.

Brands: Fourth quarter: Jeep, down 4%; Ram, down 5%; Chrysler, up 5%; Dodge, down 31%; Fiat, down 58%; Alfa Romeo, up 23%

For 2020: Jeep, down 14%; Ram, down 11%; C…

Shirley Young, an executive who played an instrumental role in General Motors' expansion in China during the 1990s, died Dec. 26. She was 85.

Young helped steer GM's billion-dollar investment in China through a joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.

She died of complications from breast cancer, David Hsieh, one of her sons, told The New York Times.

While rising to become a top executive at Grey Advertising, Young, who had a degree in economics from Wellesley, challenged convention that successful marketing was driven only by gut instincts. She pushed the major agency to invest in quantitative market research, a standard operating practice today but one that emerged and gained prominence starting in the 1960s.

GM recruited Young in June 1988 from Grey Strategic Marketing, where she was president, according to media reports. At Grey Strategic Marketing, she consulted GM across its operating divisions and sta…