Automakers: Page 419

Florida dealer hosts college auto show

Autocity Buick-Pontiac-GMC in Homestead, FL, was host dealer at a Miami-Dade Community College auto show, a joint effort to market GM vehicles to students at the school's Kendall campus.A business marketing class created an ad campaign that targeted fellow students. The program aims to give students real-life experience and advertising skills.The dealership provided 14 new vehicles displayed on the

July 1, 2000

Extreme teamwork

SALINE, MI - When Debbie Crispin winds down from a hard day as general manager of Bill Crispin Chevrolet, it's not on a barstool with a brewski.Instead, she straps a 25-pound pack on her back and launches into an intense 50-minute endurance-training workout that would make most of her male counterparts scream "Mama!""It gives me an attitude adjustment. Euphoria. I always feel better when I exercise,"

By Patty LaNoue Stearns and Maureen McDonald • July 1, 2000

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

Rising to the Top

Harold Kutner has Rick Wagoner's old office in Warren, MI, the one he occupied as president of North American Operations before his ascension to chief executive of General Motors Corp.Thomas Sidlik used to have an office in the Chrysler Technology Center in Auburn Hills, MI, and now has an office with a view of the Chrysler pentastar on the prestigious 15th floor of the headquarters building.Co-Chairman

By Tom Murphy • July 1, 2000

Toyota Moves at WARP Speed

Remember when the fax machine was a techno-marvel, a strange new box that let you send a photocopy of your waving hand to a friend half-way around the world? Today, office administrators can't imagine life without one.But in the manufacturing world, the fax machine just doesn't cut it when compared to the instantaneous nature of communicating on the Internet.A fax machine is good at quickly moving

By Tom Murphy • July 1, 2000

Get a ‘Car Guy,’ Rick

Rick Wagoner doesn't need my advice; he didn't make it to the top of General Motors Corp. by relying on his pals in the press for counsel. And besides, he has never paid much heed - at least publicly - to our rantings and ravings.Still, because I know he's a good listener, has a sense of humor and doesn't hold grudges, I'll offer some unsolicited advice as he takes charge at what is (still) the world's

By David C. Smith • July 1, 2000

UAW’s Don Ephlin Was a Winner

Donald F. Ephlin Parkway is the main drag running through the home plant of Saturn Corp., General Motors Corp.'s subsidiary, in Spring Hill, TN.It's named for a United Auto Workers union executive who retired in 1991 after 42 years as a UAW official, starting at GM's Framingham, MA, plant in his hometown. His final post was international vice president for the union's huge GM Dept.Don Ephlin never

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • July 1, 2000

GM’s Cherry Says He’s Staying, At Least Until 65

Despite rumors suggesting the contrary, General Motors Corp. North American design chief Wayne K. Cherry says he won't leave GM before hitting the company's mandatory retirement age of 65 in 2002."I'll be here until I retire, until I'm 65," says Mr. Cherry, who turns 63 in September. "I can remember the day I drove in the Mound gate entrance to (GM's) Technical Center (in Warren, MI) in my '55 Chevy.

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • July 1, 2000

Ford Wins Bid for Daewoo

SEOUL--Ford Motor Co. today sped past international competitors to be named the sole bidder for the insolvent Daewoo Motor Co. Ltd. Sources here say Ford bid $6.9 billion, besting archrival General Motors Corp.'s initial offer of $6 billion last May. GM's bid this time is said to have been between $4.2 billion and $5 billion. A spokesman for the committee representing Daewoo Motor's creditors said

By Vince Courtenay • June 29, 2000

Is Ford/Daewoo a Better Fit?

SEOUL-- Partial employee-ownership of Daewoo Motor Co. Ltd. by Daewoo employees is one of the possibilities Ford Motor Co. is studying in its current bid for the flagging No.2 Korean automaker Ford Vice Chairman Wayne Booker tells Ward's Automotive International. Daewoo is due to be auctioned off to one of a select group of foreign bidders later this year or early next, with most observers convinced

By Vince Courtenay • June 16, 2000

WARD’S DEALER BUSINESS ASSOCIATE EDITOR FRED BONNIE DIES AT AGE 54

I'm thinking of the note Fred Bonnie, our associate editor, included with his last Christmas card.Fred had just moved from North Carolina to Columbiana, AL, and being the fine writer and astute observer that he was, he offered slices of life in that Southern town.His holiday note told how he and his wife, Rhonda Carter, a doctor at a local medical facility, enjoyed sitting on their porch, soaking

By Steve Finlay • June 1, 2000

Tight Tether for Mazda

HIROSHIMA - To the surprise of many inside and outside Japan, Mazda Motor Corp. is struggling with management problems.The easy start and seemingly smooth ride since Ford Motor Co.'s May 1996 acquisition of a controlling 33.4% stake in the Japanese auto company was shaken in December by the sudden resignation of Mazda President Jim Miller, just two years into his five-year posting, and the appointment

By Roger Schreffler • June 1, 2000

High Stakes in Battle Over Daewoo

The battle for possession of South Korea's Daewoo Motor Co. Ltd.-- fought mainly by General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. -- may be as much about competing successfully in the U.S. market as it is about securing a foothold in Asia. GM, Ford, Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd. and DaimlerChrysler AG all are bidding on the rights to acquire Daewoo, which is mired in $16 billion in debt and in desperate

By David E. Zoia • June 1, 2000

Covisint - It just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?

It's not a cure for the common cold, but it sounds like it should be. "Covisint," pronounced KO-vis-int, is the new name of the business-to-business Internet portal being created by the Big Three, along with Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (see WAW - May '00, p.44). Consultants made suggestions, but the winning gem came from within. "Co" stands for connectivity and communication; "vis" is for

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • June 1, 2000

WHEN ONE DEALER TOOK ON ALL OF GM

ROBERT SCHULER, THE FAMED TV MINISTER OF THE Crystal Cathedral, spoke at a NADA Convention Sunday morning inter-denominational worship service years ago.Dr. Schuler's message was "Learn to Turn Your Success into Significance."It seems appropriate to revive that theme for the Ward's Dealer Business annual Top 500 issue in which so many eminently successful business organizations are recognized and

By Nat Shulman • June 1, 2000

Surgery at Sea

People that come up with far-fetched ideas often are considered crazy at the time. It could be that some of them are. However, those whose ideas eventually come to pass are later called visionaries.During my years at Chrysler, I liked to challenge the system with "off the wall" ideas. Sometimes, wild ideas provide fodder for a workable solution to a particularly difficult problem.I think the time

By STEPHAN SHARF • June 1, 2000

Riding the (Magnetic) Wave

COLORADO SPRINGS - If you believe some of General Motors Corp.'s most impressive recent technical achievements have come from its work on advanced suspensions, you're about to have more supporting evidence.The automaker's '02 Cadillac Seville STS will be the first vehicle in the world to offer MagneRide, a valveless suspension system - developed in conjunction with Delphi Automotive Systems - that

By Brian Corbett & Bill Visnic • June 1, 2000

LEAVING LITTLE TO THE IMAGINATION

Ford Motor Company expects a new image-based vehicle accessory configurator will help dealers sell after- market accessories to customers at the time of vehicle purchase.That's important because studies indicate that accessories acquired after the purchase of the vehicle are usually bought somewhere other than a dealership. Such as the accessory store down the street.So, it's not only a question of

By Fred Bonnie • June 1, 2000

Rolls-Royce and Bentley showroom opening in NYC

New Yorkers and tourists soon will be able to walk down Madison Avenue and window shop for not only high-end clothing, but the automobiles that go with them as well.Manhattan Motorcars, the exclusive dealers of Rolls-Royce and Bentley luxury cars has signed a lease for a 4,253-sq.-ft. corner retail space at 437 Madison Ave.The company will be opening "Bentley Man-hattan" in that street-level space

June 1, 2000

Ford, Mazda Launch Jointly Developed Compact SUVs: Ford reaches Escape velocity

Well, it's happened. Ford Motor Co., the acknowledged king of sport/utility vehicle (SUV) sellers, is into the compact SUV segment with its all-new Escape.Can't give Ford much credit for quick-to-market, mind you. Toyota Motor Corp. put compact SUVs on the map four long years ago with the RAV4. Honda Motor Corp.'s best-seller-in-the-segment, the CR-V, was launched early in '97.A large part of the

By Bill Visnic • June 1, 2000

Let the Sun Shine In - Twice

PHOENIX - It had been 100 days since the arid Arizona desert surrounding Phoenix had seen a drop of rain. With Murphy's Law being what it is, locals celebrated the end of the drought on the same day Toyota Motor Corp. chose to uncap its two new-for-'01 convertibles.The nagging drizzle did not persuade most drivers to pull over to raise the tops on Toyota's two new, limited-production image-builders:

By KATHERINE ZACHARY • June 1, 2000

BLONDES SELL DEALERSHIP’S BEETLES

A Texas Volkswagen dealership's contro-versial advertising campaign is drawing national attention and raising a few eyebrows in metro Dallas."I knew we had hit a home run when reporters from different advertising magazines called and asked if 'Blondes and Beetles' was a national campaign," Barry Stevenson says of six 9 x 19-foot advertisements making their way around town on the sides of public buses."Even

June 1, 2000

Who are the winners in all these automotive mergers?

Down in the trenches, where the rubber meets the road, it remains to be seen what the mergers will mean for the traditional dealers, says John Porcelli, owner of Capital Lincoln Mercury in Chicago and a member of the Lincoln Mercury Brand Advisory Board."The (consolidation) clearly means savings for the manufacturer, and I own Ford stock, so that's a good thing," he says. "I try to look at it in a

By Jeff Green • June 1, 2000

BMW taking a cue from GM? Say it isn’t so

In a thrust similar to GM's made-to-order scheme with Reynolds and Reynolds (above), BMW AG is rolling out manufacturing initiatives to reduce order-to-delivery time while allowing customers to make last-minute option changes. Today the process in Germany takes 28-32 working days. "Our goal is to reduce that to less than 20 days and for pre-confirmed orders to still allow customer-requested changes

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • June 1, 2000

In the Spring

In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast;In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove;In the Spring a young man's fancy is a convertible to love.I was driving from New York to Washington in this new Toyota Solara convertible. Lovely car, V-6 power, comfortable, terrific audio, tight, no rattling or wind

By Jerry Flint • June 1, 2000

FAREWELL TO A HOMETOWN DEALERSHIP

FORD MOTOR CO. CLOSED A LINCOLN MERCURY dealership in my hometown, bringing back good memories - and a horrible one - of a venerable store.Ford bought out the Royal Oak, MI franchise of David Jankovich, who owned Diamond Lincoln Mercury on a suburban downtown corner where cars had been sold for 55 years, starting with DeSotos and Plymouths.Ford's buy-out is to thin out the number of metro Detroit's

By Steve Finlay • June 1, 2000