Automakers: Page 414

200,000 - No, 220,000 - Wait! - 240,000

"We've changed our 2000 sales estimates three different times." Robert Cosmai, vice president of national sales for Hyundai Motor America, has reason to be confident in 2001 after its sales performance in 2000.His company initially projected sales of 200,000 units in 2000. By June, they increased that estimate to 220,000. Now, they are saying they 240,000 is more like it. That represents a 46% increase

By Cliff Banks • Jan. 1, 2001

Audi gets a lift from its new Allroad

At first glance the new Audi AG Allroad looks like just another station wagon on steroids, one of a growing list coming from SUV-less automakers hoping to get a piece of the lucrative light truck market.While some automakers pursue new customers with increasingly car-like SUVs, Subaru, Volvo AG and now Audi are chasing potential SUV buyers with station wagons beefed up to be more truck-like. Jacked

By Drew Winter • Jan. 1, 2001

Explore the Trendline➔

Artificial Intelligence

Automakers and dealers alike are increasingly seeing the use case for AI within their operations. Explore some use cases in this trendline.

By WardsAuto staff

Toledo Gives Birth

It's industry chic cheap. The new Toledo North Assembly Plant is home to the latest member of the Jeep family, the '02 Liberty sport/utility vehicle (SUV), and it represents the latest in flexible manufacturing technology. But if you ask Frank Ewasyshyn, DaimlerChrysler Corp. senior vice president of advance manufacturing engineering, what makes this new $750 million plant stand out from the crowd,

By Alisa Priddle • Jan. 1, 2001

Liberty Call!

CHELSEA, MI If DaimlerChrysler AG can just hurry up and get this new Jeep compact sport/utility vehicle (SUV), the 2002 Liberty, to market, it'll go a long way toward balming the cross-continental squabbling. It's usually easier to bury the hatchet when you've got a winner on your hands, and after viewing and driving the all-new Liberty (internally known as KJ) at DC's proving grounds here, we're

By Bill Visnic • Jan. 1, 2001

BMW leading on sleeves?

American Metal Market says BMW AG is ahead of Ford Motor Co. in developing powder metal-type metal matrix composite cylinder sleeves for aluminum engine blocks. The sleeves are lighter than conventional cast-iron liners. If development work is successful, they will be used in an upcoming BMW aluminum V-6 engine.

Dec. 21, 2000

GM to build homes for Delphi employees in Mexico.

General Motors Corp., fresh from the huge Renaissance Center real estate deal in Detroit, is building homes for several thousand Delphi Automotive Systems employees in Mexico. An agreement with Mexico's housing authority and Michigan-based homebuilder Pulte Corp. will result in some 6,000 starter homes for Delphi employees. "Without this partnership between government and private industry, such housing

Dec. 21, 2000

Auto people on the move

Delphi President J.T. Battenberg is selected as general chairman of the SAE International Congress and Expo in Detroit Feb. 24-27. Other personnel moves: Yoshio Ishizaka becomes president and CEO of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., replacing Shinji Sakai, who returns to Japan as senior managing director. GM's Robert W. Hendry is named president and CEO of Saab Automobile AB, while GM taps Bell Atlantic

Dec. 21, 2000

Ford, UTA settle: new VP-quality named

United Technologies Automotive says it's a coincidence, and maybe it is, as it appoints a new vice president of quality and enterprise productivity just as the dust settles from the 8.7 million-vehicle recall of Ford vehicles equipped with UTA ignition switches. More than 1,000 fires have been linked to the switch. Michael O'Day takes over the post as the automaker and the supplier agree to share

Dec. 21, 2000

Slip slidin’ away: Cadillac ICCS keeps you on straight and narrow

PHOENIX -- While Cadillac's big news for the '97 model year will be the German-built Catera, engineers from General Motors Corp.'s Cadillac/Luxury Car Div. have been busy refining the integrated chassis control system (ICCS) for up-level versions of its front-drive models: Seville STS, Eldorado ETC and DeVille Concours.Antilock brakes and traction control have reduced collision risks, but when you

By Gardner, Greg • Dec. 21, 2000

Aston-Martin back in the U.S. market

EAST HAMPTON, NY -- You pull up to the club in your brand new 12-cyl. BMW 850 coupe and ... drat, everyone seems to be driving one. What's a refined multimillionaire to do? Ferraris are so obvious, and $120,000 Mercedes SL600s are so, well, common.Here in the Hamptons, where you can spend $150,000 to $300,000 renting a home for the summer, this is a serious concern.British supercar manufacturer Aston

By Drew Winter • Dec. 21, 2000

Toyota North America

2 million sales target set for American market Toshiaki (Tag) Taguchi doesn't mince words about the space North America occupies in the pie chart of Japan's leading vehicle maker: more than one-third and rising.In fact, Mr. Taguchi, president of Toyota Motor North America, says "the U.S. and Canadian markets not only fit into Toyota's past, present and future but are crucially important to our global

By Mack Chrysler • Dec. 1, 2000

Buick banks on Tiger and Rendezvous to attract younger buyers

A TV ad during the Summer Olympics featured golf superstar Tiger Woods winning a gold Buick, rather than a gold medal. The humor of Mr. Woods throwing an iron instead of a javelin and hitting an archery bull's eye with a golf ball is an indication of the division's attempt to attract a younger audience to its vehicles."We view 2000 as a year when we're setting the stage," says Roger Adams, Buick's

By Tim Keenan • Dec. 1, 2000

LincolnMercury looks to Mountaineer to boost Mercury side of house

The year 2000 has been an up-and-down period for Ford Motor Co.'s Irvine, CA-based LincolnMercury Division. But, the unit's general marketing manager, Jim Rogers, says 2001 should be more up than down with the addition of a new Mercury Mountaineer SUV.LincolnMercury's total 2000 sales are expected to be down 7% overall from 1999's 614,493 tally. Lincoln sales will be up about 14% while Mercury sales

By Tim Keenan • Dec. 1, 2000

Deville, Escalade catapult Cadillac

The strength of Cadillac's new Deville and its first SUV, Escalade, are expected to give the division a 10% increase in sales in 2000 compared to 1999.Cadillac dealers will sell close to 100,000 Devilles in 2000, up 20% over the previous year. Escalade, which is an admitted re-badge job of a GMC Denali - a stop-gap until a true Cadillac SUV was ready - has been very good for GM's luxury division."The

By Tim Keenan • Dec. 1, 2000

In the Driver’s Seat

GM's new CEO is optimistic but ready for a downturn Next time you see a Pontiac Aztek coming down the road, look carefully at who's driving. It might be G. Richard Wagoner Jr., General Motors Corp.'s chief executive officer. The Aztek is his latest company car.It's a fitting choice for Mr. Wagoner. The quirky Aztek symbolizes what is arguably his biggest challenge for the next several years: spicing

By Drew Winter • Dec. 1, 2000

GM plans to shore up entry-level market share losses

LAS VEGAS - Admitting that nearly all of General Motors' widely publicized market share loss since 1977 has come in the entry level segment, the company's president for North America, Ronald L. Zarella, says the world's largest vehicle manufacturer has a plan in place to regain some of that lost share."In the next four years, we will introduce seven all-new new vehicles in a coordinated effort to

By Tim Keenan • Dec. 1, 2000

Reinventing the Rouge

Ford merges environmental design with industry icon History is being rewritten at Ford Motor Co.'s manufacturing icon, heretofore known as The Rouge.That name is out. Now it's officially called the Ford Rouge Center.This poster child of the industrial revolution will be replaced by an eco-factory with air and natural light skylights, meadows and a 454,000-sq-.ft. (42,000-sq.-m) roof sprouting groundcover

By Alisa Priddle • Dec. 1, 2000

Pontiac-GMC’s Lynn Meyers says “Keep the momentum going”

We'll pretty much keep the momentum going we have now, which is very strong," says Lynn Meyers, general marketing manager for Pontiac-GMC, about her 2001 goals for the division she has led for two years.In 2000, Pontiac will sell about 20,000 more vehicles than it did in 1999. GMC, during the same period, could set its eighth straight sales record."We're feeling pretty good about that," says Ms. Meyers.

By Tim Keenan • Dec. 1, 2000

Olds wants to woo the young crowd

Oldsmobile is General Motors' oldest nameplate, with, alas, many of its oldest customers. That has fueled rumors of its impending demise over the last several years.Now it has established itself as GM's up-scale import-fighting division, separating itself from Buick and Cadillac. For Oldsmobile, that repositioning was like a trip to the fountain of youth.Last year, the division dropped the last of

By Tim Keenan • Dec. 1, 2000

Ford’s Nasser Upbeat Despite Firestone Fallout

Give Jacques Nasser credit for candor. Asked what he has learned about tires in the wake of the Firestone tire recall, he throws his hands up and replies: "More than I ever dreamed I really needed."Most arrows for Ford and the 32-year Ford Motor Co. veteran and president and CEO since Jan. 1, 1999, were pointing upward until the Firestone firestorm erupted in August, triggering the recall of 6.5 million

By David C. Smith • Dec. 1, 2000

Dealer Website Review

"Oldtimer" brings his dealership into the new-age web world When it comes to the Internet, Ed Rufo of James Corlew Chevrolet - Cadillac - Oldsmobile in Clarksville, TN, has acted like anything but the "oldtimer" he claims to be.Mr Rufo, the dealership's general manager, saw the value two years ago of getting in on what he calls "the wave of the future." He began to transform himself into an Internet

By Cliff Banks • Dec. 1, 2000

GM, Ford unveil biggest and fastest pickups at SEMA

LAS VEGAS - SEMA is as interesting a show for new-car dealers as any auto show. Not only can retailers get an idea of what's coming from the automakers but they can get ideas on what accessories are available to make the new models more profitable.Vehicles revealed at SEMA are usually equipped with the latest and greatest accessories, most of which are currently available or will be soon.This year,

By WARD'S DEALER BUSINESS STAFF • Dec. 1, 2000

DOWN-HOME DEALERSHIPS

His family is big on small-town stores PINCONNING, MI - Thirty years ago, Dean Arbour, age 32 at the time, decided it was time for a change."I was selling cars for Jerry McCarthy Chevrolet in Detroit," he recalls, "and frankly wanted to find a small-town Chevy dealership to buy. Our kids were small and we were anxious to get out of the fast lane and settle down near the lakes and the forests."But

By Maynard M. Gordon • Dec. 1, 2000

Ford expects to continue winning ways in 2001

2000 should set record despite Firestone recall and uneasiness about Blue OvalLAS VEGAS - Sitting amid the new and hopped-up Ford vehicles in his company's SEMA exhibit, it's easy for Ford Div. President Jim O'Connor to be optimistic, even at the end of a year marred by one of the worst customer-satisfaction crises since the Pinto.Despite the Firestone tire recall on millions of Explorers, Mr. O'Connor

By Tim Keenan • Dec. 1, 2000

GM’s dealer relations “a hell of a lot better”

Things settle down after last year's donnybrook General Motors dealers were furious with the company at this time last year. The reason? The automaker's plan to acquire up to 800 dealerships throughout the U.S.Dealers went ballistic, then mobilized for a fight. Law suits were threatened. The National Automobile Dealers Association loudly decried GM's proposal to join the dealer ranks. Feeling the

By Steve Finlay • Dec. 1, 2000