News – Page 780

How did FCA go from worst to first?

For years, you could always count on Fiat Chrysler brands being doormats in surveys of vehicle quality.

In a decade of annual J.D. Power Initial Quality Studies starting in 2008, only one FCA brand — Ram in 2017 — managed to make it among the top 10. That's one for 100, a sorry batting average in any league.

FCA did better in scoring last-place finishes. During the same span, Dodge and Jeep each had one such inglorious title. And Fiat — true to its "Fix It Again, Tony" reputation — claimed four.

This is hardly what Dennis Pawley, Chrysler's former manufacturing chief, had in mind when he went public in the 1990s with his goal of topping Toyota in quality.

What we saw in late June was more like it: FCA's Dodge, in a tie with Kia, ranked No. 1 in the 2020 IQS report, the first time a domestic brand finished on top in 34 years of the study.

What's more, Ram came in at No. 3. And Jeep finished above the industry average at 11, a notch above Le…

Dealers reevaluate ad spending in pandemic

Nielsen Automotive Group scaled back much of its paid advertising this spring as it grappled with state orders from New Jersey to close showrooms to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The dealership group restarted some minimal spending in June, said Colin Carrasquillo, its digital marketing manager. But Nielsen, which has six franchised dealerships and a used-only store in New Jersey, won't approach advertising the way it did before the pandemic. Carrasquillo said that going forward, he will more strictly assess whether the group's ad sources are delivering the best results for the money.

"I will tell you, the spend is so much smarter," he said.

Many dealerships are reevaluating how they advertise — not just how much they spend and on which platforms, but whether that investment ultimately produces sales. Some retailers and dealer advertising consultants say that laser focus is an outgrowth of dealers' efforts to control costs t…

How to succeed in era of touchless auto service

In 2018, I wrote an article about how your dealership's service department is moving to your customer's home, and that message could not be more applicable today. Because of the pandemic, touchless automotive service is the name of the game. This has been a consumer preference for some time. Case in point: Apple stores have been offering no-contact service since 2001.

Dealers have long been incredible survivors. As Winston Churchill is famous for saying, "Never let a good crisis go to waste." What can you do to come out of this swinging and be even more efficient? How can your dealership further improve the customer experience with touchless service in your service department?

You can choose to be the Usain Bolt of the service world and use the right training regimen and processes to trounce your competition, or you can be stuck in the past. My advice is to study what other successful businesses have done.

Apple has been the leader…

John Mooney revolutionized catalytic converter

SAE International considers it to be among the top inventions since the dawn of the automobile. The EPA says it has saved thousands of lives and prevented hundreds of thousands of throat and lung ailments. In California, it is responsible for abating much of the yellow air, first studied in the 1950s, that has hovered over the Los Angeles basin for decades.

The modern catalytic converter, which scrubs smog- and soot-producing hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides from automobile exhaust, revolutionized air pollution controls with its invention in the 1970s.

It was the brainchild of two chemical engineers, John Mooney and his boss, Carl Keith, as well as a small team of their colleagues at Engelhard Corp.

Mooney, who died June 16 at home in Wyckoff, N.J., at age 90, was credited with the big breakthrough.

Catalytic converter development began in the 1950s, spurred by federal regulations that mandated lead-fr…

Would-be car thief should have checked Waze

A theft of a $120,000 Maserati from a dealership in New York City was foiled by a red light in the next block.

An employee of Maserati of Manhattan who noticed a white 2019 Quattroporte GTS missing from the showroom June 26 spotted it running on the street near the exit from the service department, according to the New York Post. The thief sped away but made it only about 500 feet before getting stuck in traffic at a red light.

At that point, he jumped out, handed over the keys and ran off. But other dealership employees chased down the man and held him until police arrived.

Prosecutors charged the 30-year-old with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and unauthorized use of a vehicle. He also appears to be guilty of bad planning.

The Case of the Briefly Missing Maserati was solved a day after the same dealership reported that someone stole an $87,000 Ghibli SQ4.

That theft happened at night and was captured on surveillance…

A yacht more to love from Lamborghini

What good is a Lamborghini that can drive only on land when 71 percent of the earth's surface is covered in water?

The Italian automaker has just the solution. It's collaborating with the Italian Sea Group to produce the first seaworthy Lamborghini, the Tecnomar for Lamborghini 63.

It's a 63-foot yacht with a starting price of about $3.4 million.

The Tecnomar, which pays homage to Lamborghini's founding in 1963, borrows design cues from the automaker and has a helm made to resemble a Lamborghini cockpit. The plan is to sell 63 of the boats, which are powered by a pair of 2,000-hp MAN V-12 diesel engines.

"If I had to imagine a Lamborghini on water, this would be my vision," Stefano Domenicali, CEO of Automobili Lamborghini, said in a statement. "I'm delighted to celebrate this successful collaboration."

The Tecnomar, which has a top cruising speed of 69 mph, goes on sale in 2021. Until then, it's best to ke…

OBITUARY: Dick Dyer Sr.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Longtime auto dealer Dick Dyer Sr. died June 27 at age . In the mid-1950s, he started as a salesman at Courtesy Ford in Charlotte, N.C. In 1969, he opened Dyer & Beck Mercedes-Benz-Toyota in Columbia, S.C., which became Dick Dyer Toyota. That store and Dick Dyer Mercedes-Benz-Volvo remain family operated. Sonic Automotive Inc. acquired Dyer & Dyer Volvo near Atlanta in 1998.

Driver-assist tech savings should benefit all

After spending billions of dollars and years of time chasing the dream of autonomous vehicles, the auto industry is beginning to realize that — while there have been some excellent technological developments along the way — true Level 5 and even unsupervised Level 4 autonomy are still well into the future. Some executives in the industry are beginning to question the potential return on their already-sizable investments.

But here's the thing: While Level 5 autonomy is still years if not decades away, returns have been won in increased automotive safety. But those returns have gone largely to insurers, whose claims have been reduced as a result of increased standard safety equipment, instead of to the industry that developed the technology. That should change.

Last month, Consumer Reports analyzed crash data and determined 16,800 to 20,500 lives in the U.S. could be spared annually if widely available driver-assist technologies were standard acro…

Desperate dealers see vehicles trickling in

The pickups that dealers have been clamoring for are at last arriving on their lots — at least in small numbers. But the dealers' sigh of relief is followed by a jolt of fear: How will such small shipments get them through the rest of the summer?

Bert Ogden Auto Group typically carries about three months' worth of inventory, which helped it boost sales in May and June while many stores had scarce inventory and lost sales. Last week, the 18-store dealership group in Texas was down to about one month of inventory.

"July worries me," said Jorge Gutierrez, corporate strategist for Bert Ogden. "July will be an atypical month because of the inventory pinch we're in."

Nationwide plant shutdowns from mid-March to mid-May wiped out many dealers' inventories. Rebounding de- mand, combined with that loss of production, has reduced inventory levels to the lowest the industry has seen in nearly nine years, according to Cox Automotive. Six weeks a…

Ford promises carbon neutrality by 2050

Ford Motor Co. has committed to achieving global carbon neutrality. It's an ambitious goal for such a large-scale manufacturer, but it's also a safe bet that hardly anyone who works for Ford today will still be on the job to see if it happens.

The automaker said in its 21st annual Sustainability Report that it would offset all of its carbon emissions by 2050. Ford said it's primarily focused on three areas that make up 95 percent of its carbon emissions: vehicle use, supply base and company facilities. The company listed a number of potential hurdles to its target, including customer acceptance, government regulations, economic conditions and the availability of renewable fuels.

"We can develop and make great vehicles, sustain and grow a strong business and protect our planet at the same time — in fact, those ideals complement each other," Bob Holycross, Ford's chief sustainability, environment and safety officer, said in a statement. "We don't …

Texas workers urge GM plant closure as virus surges

Workers at a key General Motors assembly plant want a break for coronavirus safety, but the automaker isn't interested in shutting down.

The UAW local in Arlington, Texas, has asked GM to temporarily close its SUV plant in the city for the safety of its workers as cases of COVID-19 rise rapidly in the state.

"Due to the most recent data on the COVID-19 outbreak, the Bargaining Committee has asked General Motors to shut down Arlington Assembly until the curve is flattened for the benefit and well-being of our members," UAW Local 276 said on its website. "Every day we are setting new records in the number of people who are testing positive in the Dallas-Fort Worth area."

Confirmed cases in Texas have been rising by more than 5,000 a day in recent weeks, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Tarrant County, where the plant is located, had 11,739 confirmed cases and 225 deaths as of Wednesday, July 1.

Th…

Mercedes dealer unmasks solutions to save jobs

Car dealers are a resourceful bunch. None more so than Joe Agresti.

The 48-year-old CEO of the multistore Dream Motor Group in suburban Houston has turned a health crisis into a business opportunity.

With the U.S. economy in a pandemic-induced coma by mid-April, Agresti had a problem. Revenue at the six-store group had plummeted 40 percent. And about 480 employees were depending on him for their next paycheck. Instead of jettisoning jobs, Agresti went scouting for new business to keep the main one afloat.

"We made a decision that we were going to do what we had to do to make sure that we didn't fire people," Agresti told Automotive News in June.

The entrepreneur pivoted to an improbable side line — selling personal protective equipment to the public and private sector. The venture, which is profitable, has helped Agresti keep all of Dream Motor's employees on the payroll, while also keeping them protected from the coronavirus.

Since launc…