Automakers: Page

Nissan settles repossession suit

The U.S. District Court in San Francisco has approved a $68 million settlement of a class-action suit against Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp., in which owners of repossessed vehicles said they were asked for payments unlawfully.Plaintiff Yvonne Moultrie claimed the Nissan Motor Co. subsidiary said she still owed payments after her car was repossessed in 1998. The suit was filed on behalf of about 16,000

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

Japan Bloodied But Up Off the Mat

Japan finally is joining other nations in rebounding from the crippling 1997 Asian financial crisis. But it's not an easy process - particularly in the automotive sector.With the gradual return of consumer confidence, the country's automakers had hopes of regaining lost ground during 2000.But in a year characterized by equity tie-ups galore, currency problems, several scandals and the recall-du-jour

By KATHERINE ZACHARY • Nov. 1, 2000

Explore the Trendline➔

Top 5 stories from WardsAuto

Automakers are evaluating their long-term strategies, revisiting their product mix, and approach to both retail and manufacturing approach along the way.

By WardsAuto staff

FORMER DEALER TRIES SOMETHING NEW

Rob Mancuso gave me a copy of a 1976 Automotive News column my dad did on Rob and his dad, James Mancuso.Rob back then was 25 years old and running the family Cadillac dealership in suburban Chicago. The article centered on him as a young dealer and on his father as a success veteran of automotive retailing.The elder Mancuso trained his son well as a next-generation dealer. Young Mancuso's ads back

By Steve Finlay • Nov. 1, 2000

Rollovers: Understanding Key to Prevention

Automakers are introducing rollover protection systems at a time when interest in them has never, arguably, been higher.The harsh reality remains that while today's vehicles are equipped with safety features such as sensors, air bags and restraint systems, the 9% of accidents that result in rollover are responsible for a disproportionate number of fatalities.The key to preventing rollover fatalities

By Alisa Priddle • Nov. 1, 2000

CUSTOMER-FIRST FOCUS UNIQUE AT TOYOTA UNIVERSITY

Highly professional training solves consumer satisfaction shortfalls The problem was the same - whether at Crown Toyota of Knoxville, TN or the top-volume Longo Toyota in southern California. Plainly stated, it was customer satisfaction.That Toyota's 10-year-old Lexus franchise placed high in CSI while Toyota did not has been a heavy-duty problem.Studies by Toyota Motor Sales and Toyota dealers centered

By Maynard M. Gordon • Nov. 1, 2000

Industry Sets Sights on Night Vision Systems

The jury is in.General Motors Corp.'s Cadillac Motor Car Div., which pioneered the use of night vision with its '00 model DeVille sedan, appears to have a solid hit on its hands - and other automakers are beginning to take notice, suppliers say.Raytheon Corp., which provides the thermal imaging-based system used on the DeVille, says it now expects to sell 500,000 to 1 million Night Vision systems

By Dave Zoia • Nov. 1, 2000

At Large with Dave Smith

Those Jailhouse Blues New safety defect law could be tough on automakers I can't imagine Jac Nasser in prison stripes. As the automotive industry's most smartly, elegantly tailored executive, the image of Ford Motor Co.'s president and CEO behind bars for producing defective, unsafe vehicles simply doesn't fit.Yet, that's what theoretically could happen if he were to be found guilty under a new hastily

By David C. Smith • Nov. 1, 2000

Brazil’s Automakers Wage War in a Land of Promise and Crisis

If there's one country where global automakers are drawing their lines in the sand both longer and deeper than any other, it's Brazil. Not only have imports been driving into the market in greater numbers in recent years, but also foreign carmakers increasingly are inaugurating new plants, bringing other new investments along and quickly transforming Brazil into a manufacturing laboratory for innovative

By Barbara McClellan • Nov. 1, 2000

MAZDA TO BUILD 5-DOOR SPORTY PROTEGE WAGONS FOR 2002 MODEL YEAR

Amid a preview for its 2001 models, Mazda announces that it will build a sporty, five-door wagon for 2002, based on the Protege. The vehicle - called Protege 5 - will debut at the Los Angeles and Detroit auto shows in January.While most details about the new vehicle were kept close to the vest at the surprise sneak preview, it was revealed that Protege 5 will appear in the spring of 2001 as a 2002

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

From giddy-up to getting on line

Internet conference participants embrace these fast-changing times SAN DIEGO - Angel Grajales remembers his younger years when he'd get around on horseback. Now he's galloping into the age of the Internet.He's learned a lot about on-line auto shoppers in the year he's been Internet manager at Davis Chevrolet in Houston."People are different," he explains. "Some people dive right into a swimming pool,

By Tim Keenan and Steve Finlay • Nov. 1, 2000

Which way is GM going as it reinvents itself?

General Motors Corp.'s reinvention is under way. But does anyone have the answer to this inquiry: Which way is it going?It's hard to tell, even for some of the company's closest observers.GM rolls into 2001 with several key new products - including the quirky Pontiac Aztek - that finally address the shortcomings of some divisions. But market share continues to decline, "brand management" increasingly

By Brian Corbett • Oct. 1, 2000

Good Lord! They called these the good old days?

Forty years ago, a General Motors executive summed up the retail automobile market with the phrase, "There are two types of automobile dealers, Chevrolet dealers, and those who would like to be Chevrolet dealers."Big Three dealers were as prolific then as corner drug stores. In the Greater Boston area, there were 34 Chevrolet dealers. Now there are a dozen.Selling agreements among all manufacturers

By Nat Shulman • Oct. 1, 2000

Arrow Chevrolet’s web site appears right on target

Phil Fagen, Arrow Chevrolet's general manager, does not envision purchasing vehicles online as a standard practice in the future. Instead, he expects the future of vehicle shopping will be much the same as it is today - prospective buyers using the Internet to search for information about the vehicle they wish to purchase, then heading for the dealership to do business.Mr. Fagan believes that advertising

By Cliff Banks • Oct. 1, 2000

Tech & Trends

Plant Magic: Honda's At It Again Another manufacturing revolution from the masters of the quick changeoverEAST LIBERTY, OH - By now, it's generally accepted that Honda Motor Co. Ltd.'s got a pretty good handle on the manufacturing thing.We began to acquire a close-up understanding when formerly faraway Honda started assembling vehicles in the U.S. 18 years ago. Since then, the industry (and the media)

By Bill Visnic • Oct. 1, 2000

FORD DEALERS DIG IN DURING THE FIRESTONE SUV TIRE RECALL FIASCO

Jolted by customer and factory squabbling in one of the most publicized recall crises of modern times, Ford dealers are taking remedial action to protect their reputations and that of the products they sell, particularly the segment-leading Explorer SUVs.Ford's decision to allow Explorer owners to choose their replacement tire brands - an industry first - was welcomed by dealer leaders, like Jerry

By Maynard M. Gordon • Oct. 1, 2000

CHRYSLER TOPS IN SERVICE CONTRACTS

Sell 'em a DaimlerChrysler service contract or "convenience package" and the boost in customer loyalty translates into 12% more sales of Chrysler-branded vehicles.That's what R.L. Polk Co. determined in sustaining the automaker's Service Contracts division's nine-year record as the industry's leader in sales of home-brand agreements on Chrysler vehicles."We're forecasting another 1.1 million Chrysler-vehicle-brand

By Maynard M. Gordon • Oct. 1, 2000

European Importers

Consistently beating sales records month after month, Volkswagen AG is riding a virtual sales tidal wave into the new millennium.Thanks to new products and improved quality, VW is enjoying stellar U.S. results. During the first eight months of the year, the automaker's sales jumped 38.5% to 211,629 units.Even VW seems surprised by its U.S. performance. When the company launched the New Beetle in January

By Andrea Wielgat • Oct. 1, 2000

The Stork is bringing a baby Jaguar

After several years of talking about it, 2001 finally brings the long-discussed "baby Jag" to the British automaker's range of vehicles. Due to be launched at the Geneva auto show in the spring, the vehicle will be added to the ranks later that year.Built at the rehabilitated Ford Motor Co. Halewood, U.K., plant, the vehicle is codenamed X400, but rumors say it will bear the T-Type name. Experts say

By Andrea Wielgat • Oct. 1, 2000

Subaru has one word: V-6 (is that a word?)

Okay, the buff magazines (and presumably the public) have carped long enough: Subaru has seen the light and will for the first time offer a 6-cyl. engine for its segment-defining Legacy Outback line.Despite gradually pulling up the horses in its 2.2L and later 2.5L I-4s from an original 135 hp to 165 hp, it just wasn't enough for the throbbing U.S. market. So Subaru relents and fits the Outback H6-3.0

By Bill Visnic • Oct. 1, 2000

DC: New products suddenly critical to Chrysler bottom Line

The minivan is credited with saving the former Chrysler Corp. in 1983 and it has been a cash cow ever since.To hear some tell it, the Chrysler division of DaimlerChrysler AG is in need of a white knight again, just as the fourth-generation minivan gallops into showrooms.At press time, forecasts of dire third-quarter results for the Chrysler division are attributed to plant downtime for model changeover,

By Alisa Priddle • Oct. 1, 2000

Together Again in the Headlines

Ford, Firestone faced much worse in '78 The 1978 editorial cartoon still is remembered by a few veteran automotive journalists: Two cops stand next to a burned-out Ford Pinto with four flat tires. "The guy was driving a Pinto with Firestone 500 tires," one cop says to the other. "We ruled it a suicide."It was a very bad year for Ford Motor Co. and Firestone Corp.Early in 1978 a jury made a $128 million

By Drew Winter • Oct. 1, 2000

Cost control + service/ training = success at Jack Madden Ford

NORWOOD, MA - John P. Madden Jr. admits freely to being a party animal in his younger years, but since the mid-1970s, his focus on Jack Madden Ford on the Auto Mile in this town south of Boston has been intense."In May of 1974, the Middle East shut off the oil and we were really up against it," Mr. Madden recalls. "My father called me in and said, `If you can keep this together, you can have it.'

By Tim Keenan • Oct. 1, 2000

PeopleFirst.com buys big stake in Giggo.com

DaimlerChrysler's "maverick" online direct lender, Giggo.com, has become a subsidiary of PeopleFirst.com in a transaction providing for a $20 million loan from DC and transfer of 77% of DC holdings in the Dallas-based company.Giggo, which facilitates direct loans to purchasers of all brands of vehicles, and recently rankled some dealers in a pungent series of full-page magazine ads aimed directly

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

Here Come the KOREANS . . . Again

Hyundai leads the comeback It was a scene right out of the TV show M superscript *A superscript *S superscript *H. Whirring helicopters swarming in formation over the hardscrabble mountains of South Korea. Up and over one last rise and the landscape suddenly plunges away in a dizzying rush to the sea. Below lay an enormous harbor filled with gleaming cargo ships of every description earmarked for

By Barbara McClellan • Oct. 1, 2000

HOW TO SELL WELL IN a TOUGH MARKET

Chevy store thrives in AutoNation's homelandPOMPANO BEACH, FL - Growth is a given at Lou Bachrodt Chevrolet, despite problems of doing business seven days a week in a market that's heavy with big-name retail competitors."Southeastern Florida is one of the toughest markets in the U.S.," says owner Louis C. Bachrodt III at his remodeled dealership, which finished 152nd on the Ward's Dealer Business

By Maynard M. Gordon • Oct. 1, 2000