News

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said last week that the central bank's benchmark interest rate won't be raised until 2023, but the news won't be much help to car buyers. Rather than a positive note, the move signals a slow economic recovery as the U.S. continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.

While the fed's interest rate remains near zero, Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke said consumers haven't seen substantially lower rates during the pandemic. As the boom in factory incentives of late March and April faded, rates in auto lending began to climb, Smoke said.

"The data clearly show that these low rates are not accessible to everyone," Smoke wrote in a blog post Sept. 16. "Furthermore, as fiscal stimulus fades while unemployment remains high, loan performance is likely to deteriorate, leading to even further tightening at least in the short term as the economic direction remains uncertain."

Economic act…

Ford Credit is offering payment relief to customers impacted by wildfires in Oregon as well as those recovering after Hurricane Sally, the lender said Tuesday. Qualified customers may delay one or two monthly payments, resuming their regular payment schedules when their situations improve.

Alongside other leading lenders, Ford Credit extended relief earlier this month for customers affected by the Iowa derecho and California fires, as well as those in the path of Hurricane Laura, which made landfall in Louisiana and cycled through Arkansas and Texas.

Hurricane Sally caused massive devastation on the Florida-Alabama state line last week, the Associated Press reported, with 105-mph winds and rainfall that measured in feet rather than inches.

The West Coast continues its battle with wildfires, which have killed at least 21 people and damaged millions of acres in California, Washington and Oregon. As it ripped through the Rogue Valley …

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., the Chinese company whose stable of brands includes Volvo and Lotus, said the underpinnings of a new electric model coming next year will be offered up to other manufacturers.

The architecture Geely developed for the Lynk & Co. Zero Concept unveiled Wednesday is an open-source platform available for other companies to use. Geely is in talks to license the technology to several other manufacturers, including Daimler, according to a Geely spokesperson.

“Our development of this transformative electric-vehicle architecture marks the biggest leap forward at Geely in more than a decade,” Li Shufu, the automaker’s billionaire founder, said in a statement. “This far-reaching innovation will greatly expand the volume and scalability of our zero-emission models.”

While demand for electric vehicles is outpacing cars running on combustion engines, they still represent a small portion of global sales. With batteries still years a…

NEW YORK -- Volkswagen's ID4 battery-powered compact crossover will hit U.S. dealerships late this year with an estimated 250-mile range from its 82-kilowatt-hour battery pack, three years of free charging and a $379-a-month lease price to announce its presence.

The long-awaited U.S. start to VW's $50 billion-plus investment in electrification, the ID4 will go on sale first in California and other zero-emission vehicle states. It will carry a sticker price of $41,190 including shipping but excluding any federal and state incentives.

Sales in 2020 are expected to be limited — VW begins taking $100 reservations today — but they will fulfill a legal obligation that EVs be offered across Volkswagen Group by the end of this year, as part of the German automaker's multibillion settlement of its diesel emissions cheating scandal. However, by mid-2021, the ID4 is expected to be available for purchase or lease across nearly all of VW's 650 U.S. dealerships.

Init…

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk described a new generation of electric vehicle batteries that will be more powerful, longer lasting and half as expensive than the company's current cells at Tesla's Battery Day event Tuesday.

Tesla's new larger cylindrical cells, called 4680, will provide five times more energy, six times more power and 16 percent greater driving range, Musk said.

"We do not have an affordable car. That's something we will have in the future. But we've got to get the cost of batteries down," Musk said.

Musk described planned improvements including changes to electrode materials, as well as improved cell design, production processes and integration into vehicles.

Tesla will produce the new battery cells initially on a new assembly line near its vehicle plant in Fremont, Calif., with planned output reaching 10 gigawatt hours a year by the end of 2021. Tesla and partner Panasonic Corp. now have production capacity of around 35 gigawatt hours…

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will idle its minivan plant in Windsor, Ontario, for three weeks beginning Sept. 28, just as contract talks between the automaker and Unifor are set to kick into high gear.

The shutdown comes after FCA scheduled production on each of the last two Saturdays.

“The Windsor Assembly Plant is planning to adjust its upcoming production schedule to better align with market demand,” FCA Canada spokeswoman LouAnn Gosselin said in a statement. “This includes scheduling down time from Sept. 28 through Oct. 16.

“Normal shift schedules are expected to resume the week of Oct. 19.

“As always, production schedules are subject to change.”   

The decision was made Monday, a day before Unifor reached a tentative three-year collective bargaining agreement with Ford Motor Co. and said FCA would be the next automaker it negotiates with.

When asked specifically, FCA Canada didn’t say whether the decision w…

LOS ANGELES — Kia's fourth-generation Sorento, unveiled in Euro-spec trim in March, is coming to the U.S. with new hybrid and plug-in hybrid options.

The hybrids use a new turbocharged four-cylinder engine for greater power and efficiency.

All of the midsize crossover's powertrain choices are updated with the latest generation, and the highest-output engine gets a new wet dual-clutch automatic transmission. The dual-clutch eight-speed unit adds quicker shifts compared with the outgoing conventional eight-speed automatic.

While the base engine on the redesigned 2021 Sorento remains a non-turbo four-cylinder, it's bigger at 2.5 liters vs. the outgoing 2.4-liter base. It gets a 6-hp power bump to 191 hp, Kia said.

IMG-01The base Sorento offers optional all-wheel drive. It comes standard with a conventional automatic transmission with eight gears — a gain of two gears over the outgoing base automatic.

The numbers…

The BMW 507 is launched at the Frankfurt auto show on Sept. 22, 1955.

The hand-built, aluminum-bodied, V-8-powered roadster — championed by Max Hoffman, BMW's influential American importer — was created to move BMW beyond being just a builder of stodgy sedans.

Hoffman convinced BMW to hand over total control of the car's design to Count Albrecht Goertz, a German-born industrial designer who worked under Raymond Loewy at Studebaker.

Goertz's design was considered a success, with proportioned lines differentiated with very little chrome. One of the roadster's novelties — chrome engine bay vents behind the front wheels — became so popular they're featured on the BMW Z3 and Z8. The 507's frame was a shortened version of its big brother, the 503 grand tourer.

Initially intended to be exported to the U.S. at a rate of thousands per year, the 507 ended up being too expensive to build, resulting in a production run of just 252 …

Joining GMC's lineup this year is the redesigned 2021 Yukon Denali. The large SUV's top trim offers a new perk: an exclusive interior for customers who want a more luxurious cabin without the luxury badge, GMC says. It includes four color theme options with authentic wood, a unique instrument panel and 14 Bose speakers. Under the hood is a 6.2-liter V-8 engine with 420 hp and 460 pound-feet of torque. Here's a roundup of initial Yukon Denali reviews from the automotive media.

"It features the best of GM's full-size SUV powertrain and chassis selection: the 6.2-liter V8 making 420 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque that offers significantly better acceleration than the standard 5.3-liter engine. Cruising up on-ramps is comfortable, and the engine itself is smooth and emits a gentle growl. The 10-speed automatic paired with it is also similarly smooth and unnoticeable."

— Joel Stocksdale, Autoblog

"The 10-speed automatic "is just as competent here a…

Ford Motor Co. plans to invest $1.46 billion in its Canadian operations and build five electric vehicles in Oakville, Ontario, beginning in 2025, Unifor President Jerry Dias said Tuesday.

The announcement comes as part of a tentative three-year labor contract the Canadian union and Ford reached early Tuesday after weeks of negotiations. Dias said the investment gives the Oakville factory, which will undergo a $1.35 billion retooling and will also assemble batteries, a new lease on life.

“It’s fair to say today, that as an organization, we hit a home run,” Dias said during a news conference in downtown Toronto. “Not only does it solidify the jobs for our members in Oakville, but it starts the discussions about the supply chain and the jobs that are created that will follow this type of an announcement. It also starts a discussion as a nation.”

The tentative contract must be ratified by workers before it takes effect. Unifor represents about 6,300 Ford wor…

We've written about how condition reports have become more crucial than ever to the wholesale vehicle-buying process, and the reason for this is obvious. The coronavirus pandemic has forced large numbers of dealers to buy more used inventory remotely.

Within condition reports, images are a key component intended to give buyers confidence in the vehicles on which they're bidding. Good pictures can tell potential buyers a lot about what they could be buying from a Michigan auction and shipping to their Texas store, for example.

A new investment in Black Widow Imaging, a company that specializes in imaging technology for the auto sector, underscores not only the value that quality photos can add to the car-buying equation, but also how important they've become to wholesaling in the COVID-19 era.

Black Widow last week said it had secured $1.5 million in private equity investment, adding to the $3.5 million it had raised previously. The money will go toward u…

Carvana expects a record third quarter across several metrics, reflecting how well-positioned the online used-vehicle retailer has been for the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the market.

Carvana said in a release Tuesday it expects to post company records in retail vehicle sales, total revenue, total gross profit per vehicle and EBITDA margin in the third quarter. The company, which has not posted a net profit since going public in April 2017, said it also expects to be approximately breakeven in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the quarter.

The pandemic forced many dealers into online-only sales and temporarily sapped used-vehicle sales in March and April. But used-vehicle sales have since rebounded on pent-up demand and low new-vehicle inventory.

In May, Carvana told investors it had seen a sales trough in early April — about a 30 percent decline — but had since enjoyed a swift improvement in business. That imp…