Duke Hale, CEO of HAAH Automotive Holdings, top center, leads the Vantas staff in a team-building exercise to build on company culture. Hale's Sunday morning cheer included, "What are we going to do today? Win!"
BMW set to keep up momentum this year
If BMW had a banner year in 2019 because of product, the brand has still more reason to be optimistic about 2020: The automaker will have 12 new products this year.
"If I look at 2019, we had a real momentum in the market after Q1," Shaun Bugbee, BMW executive vice president of operations, told Automotive News outside of its make meeting Sunday. "That momentum is driven by product."
Bugbee told dealers in the meeting that the momentum will continue. "We feel we have our mix in the right spot between cars and crossovers," he said. "We expect to grow more than the premium segment. The goal will be to gain market share."
BMW had a banner year in 2019, besting German rival Mercedes-Benz to take the luxury sales crown. BMW delivered 324,826 vehicles in the U.S. last year, up 4.4 percent.
But the meeting also touched on retailer profitability. The outlook improved last year, but more can be done, said BMW National Dealer Fo…
Equifax unveils digital retailing products
Credit bureau Equifax Inc., through its Equifax Automotive unit, introduced three new products to help auto dealerships sell cars digitally. The options work alone or as a bundle.
Digital ID will let shoppers authenticate their identity online and capture consent; Digital Qualify allows dealers to give customers pre-qualified credit offers; and Digital Accelerate enables the online deal.
Equifax said in a news release that the products are geared to dealers, lenders and third-party retail vendors.
Cars.com rolls out Prizm data analytics platform
Cars.com launched a business intelligence system called Prizm to give dealerships more data about the performance of their marketing efforts and products.
The Chicago company’s Dealer Inspire unit, which provides dealership software tools, said Prizm will allow dealers to track data about such things as marketing spending, marketing effectiveness, website performance and online chats across an entire dealership group within a single database. If changes are needed, the system offers recommendations, Dealer Inspire CEO Joe Chura told Automotive News.
Funds to aid independent vehicle repair at Nev. base
In conjunction with its expo here, NADA donated $50,000 to the Nellis Support Team, a nonprofit that supports more than 30,000 service members and their families at Nellis Air Force Base, Creech Air Force Base and Nevada Test and Training Range in southern Nevada.
The donation is NADA’s second. Funds from the first donation in 2018 helped to reopen the base’s Auto Skills Center, allowing service members and their families who live on the base to independently repair their vehicles.
Baker elected to lead ATAE
Rick Baker, president of the South Florida Automobile Dealers Association, was elected chairman of the Automotive Trade Association Executives at its winter meeting Friday.
ATAE represents more than 100 state and metro new-car and commercial-truck dealer associations in the U.S. and Canada, working on legislative and regulatory issues facing dealerships and providing training and business services.
Chicago’s class of fresh lines and touch-ups
CHICAGO — The 2020 Chicago Auto Show did not premiere a single new global concept vehicle, or present a completely new or redesigned model this month. But Chicago did give the industry a new wave of refreshed models, most of them cornerstone nameplates for their brands.
That means there will be a class of new faces arriving at dealership lots — some of them only subtly different from the outgoing models, but all of them giving retail sales associates something new to point out to shoppers.
From minivan to crossover to sports car to sedan, here's a look at the refreshed models that broke cover in Chicago.
2021 Volkswagen Atlas
A refresh just three years into the Atlas' life cycle rounds out the blocky face that Volkswagen's large crossover previously presented.
2021 Chevrolet Equinox
The Equinox crossover, GM's second-bestselling vehicle overall, gets some new headlights that bring it closer to the look of its Blazer sibling.
…Ford plans Bronco reveal in March; dealers learn details
LAS VEGAS — The wait for the Bronco is nearly over.
Ford Motor Co. plans to introduce the off-road SUV next month, dealers were told at the brand's annual make meeting at the NADA Show here. The introduction of a smaller off-road crossover, called the Bronco Sport, will follow in April, likely at the New York auto show.
Executives told dealers Sunday that they expect sales of the Bronco family of vehicles — which will initially include two-door and four-door versions of the Bronco as well as the Bronco Sport — will hit at least 200,000 in 2021 as the seek volume to challenge Jeep.
The Bronco Sport will go on sale late this year, while the Bronco won't be available until early 2021.
Ford is planning an aggressive rollout of hundreds of Bronco accessories to help boost profitability. The automaker has made changes to its accessories business following the launch of the Ranger midsize pickup in 2019 to ensure parts will be available at launch, deale…
NADA party time
Infiniti Americas Group Vice President Jeff Pope, second from left, chats with Mario Murgado, CEO, Miami Automotive Group, second from right; Ali Khan, Glendale Infiniti in California, left; and Gail Faulkner of Faulkner Automotive Group in Pennsylvania on Saturday at the Park MGM Resort.
National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers President Fernando Varela, right, chats with 2019 NADA Chairman Charlie Gilchrist at the NAMAD reception at the Encore Resort on Saturday.
Allyson Witherspoon, Nissan vice president of marketing, communications and media; David Marvin, dealer principal of Metro Nissan of Texas and California; and Scott Shirley, Nissan vice president and chief marketing manager; at the brand's reception at the Wynn Resort on Friday.
Members and guests enjoy the NAMAD reception Saturday.
A glimpse into Lexus’ dealer edge
Las Vegas, 2016. Las Vegas, 2018. Las Vegas, here again in 2020.
About the only thing as reliable as this city's place on the NADA Show schedule is Lexus' dominance in NADA's twice-a-year Dealer Attitude Survey.
Lexus picked up another No. 1 ranking in the latest study, released to Automotive News this month. It was the luxury brand's 12th in the last decade.
How does Lexus keep its edge with dealers? An unpublicized program, called Elevate Lexus, may provide a clue.
Paul Clark, a Toyota veteran who heads Lexus College, says the effort was inspired by dealers. They sought the factory's help in guiding their employees through an expected era of profound change.
The series of three-day seminars, 11 in total, began last fall. The program combines leadership training and a deep-steeping in what Clark calls the brand experience. It's aimed at dealership managers, not principals — the folks who don't normally get to rub elbows with Toyota bosses.…
AutoNation focuses on retailing and future
Seven months into her job leading the nation's top new-vehicle retailer, Cheryl Miller said she is focused on growing AutoNation Inc.'s core auto retail business, while also keeping a foot in the future.
Miller told the audience at Automotive News Retail Forum: NADA that AutoNation struck a balance with its new-vehicle volume vs. profitability model toward the end of last year.
"Last year, we started out the year with a little bit of a lag in units, but we caught up and delivered profit there," she said.
AutoNation last year opted to pivot toward improving new-vehicle margins over volume, and same-store sales fell by double-digit percentages.
But that strategy was altered mid-year to more of a balanced approach. And this week, AutoNation posted higher fourth-quarter net income in which same-store new-vehicle sales fell 3.1 percent, but same-store gross profit per new vehicle rose 4.5 percent.
Heading into…
Loyalty rules, but not without conquest
Brand loyalty remains the magic ingredient for automakers as they fight for position in 2020.
But that's not enough, a panel of industry trackers told an audience at the annual Franchise Assessment Review here Friday at the J.D. Power Auto Summit.
Brand loyalty must be coupled with an automaker's ability to reel in new customers if the brand expects to grow, said Tyson Jominy, vice president for data and analytics at J.D. Power.
"Customer loyalty illustrates how well a brand is doing," Jominy said. "But if it's not also conquesting new customers, the business won't be sustainable in the long run."
Retaining customers lowers business costs by taking the pressure off of marketing and incentive spending, Jominy said outside the assessment review, which is an off-the-record discussion of brand specifics for a mostly dealer audience.
The factors driving loyalty in the market are product quality, residual value…