Automakers: Page 421

PT Cruiser leading Chrysler growth crusade in Europe

With a relatively new product lineup, including the PT Cruiser and the '01 Sebring family, DaimlerChrysler Corp. is setting ambitious sales goals around the globe for its Chrysler brand. While executives are forecasting only a slight increase in worldwide vehicle sales - 100,000 units to 3.3 million worldwide in 2000, the real growth is expected to happen during the next 10 years, especially in Europe.

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

The GM Story: From Near Bankruptcy to Global Powerhouse

It's February 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, and all Michigan banks are temporarily closed by order of the governor. Soon it becomes apparent that the two largest institutions, First National Bank and Guardian National Bank of Commerce, do not have the wherewithal to reopen, posing a serious problem for General Motors Corp., which relies heavily on both to fund future vehicle development.

By Alan k. Binder • May 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

Ford wins the battle of the best automaker’s financial statements

There's discussion about dealers using a standard financial statement versus using a different financial statement for each manufacturer.There's also talk that some dealer groups will be adopting one manufacturer financial statement for all its dealers.Below are of my comments on the issue, based on being on the business for more than 25 years, writing and teaching about how to read dealer financial

By Carl Woodward • May 1, 2000

Don’t Saturnize the PT Cruiser

The wonderful thing about the automobile business is that every so often one comes through, and you know it's great. The PT Cruiser is one of the greats.It wasn't easy, you know. Not the PT. Imagine the conflicts among the highest levels at Chrysler Corp. Bob Lutz, who is always so sure of himself and ready for a fight; Tom Gale, the best designer of tomorrow's cars, not yesterday's.Months go by without

By Jerry Flint • May 1, 2000

“In Reno instead of Vegas, Spokane instead of Seattle”

Two years ago, Lithia Automotive Group ranked 75th on the Ward's Dealer Business list of top 100 megadealers. Last year, Lithia went to No. 24. This year, the Medford, OR-based company climbed to the No. 12 slot on sales of 68,700 units and revenues of $1.24 billion.This rise is the result of an aggressive acquisitions strategy that includes the addition of 13 dealerships (revenues of $585 million)

By Fred Bonnie • May 1, 2000

Ford hit with lawsuit over Rouge explosion

Ford Motor Co. finds itself involved in another lawsuit because of an explosion on Feb. 1, 1999, that killed six workers at the automaker's Rouge manufacturing complex. Five insurance companies of Rouge Industries Inc. have filed a $25 million lawsuit against Ford alleging the automaker's negligence led to the blast. This newest lawsuit, filed in Wayne County, MI, comes a mere week after another Rouge

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

Audi Allroad Marks Successful quattro Era

GENEVA - Audi AG celebrates 20 years of quattro (all-wheel-drive) technology with the launch of its '01 Allroad quattro, a beefy luxury car-based crossover.Top Audi executives held a private anniversary dinner with a candlelit cake here preceding the Allroad's European introduction at the recent Geneva auto show. The car, which goes on sale in Europe in May and in the U.S. this fall, makes its U.S.

By Barbara McClellan • April 1, 2000

Speedy Delivery

General Motors Corp. has, for years, been groping for ways to arrest its declining market share. One of its latest brainstorms is to jump onto the Internet band-wagon with a plan that would allow customers to order precisely the models and the options they want, over the Internet, and have the car delivered in four to 11 days.Wow! That sounds great, considering the car I just bought took three months

By STEPHAN SHARF • April 1, 2000

Fiat, GM Ripe with Overlap

When they announced a strategic alliance and stock swap in March, General Motors Corp. and Fiat SpA said that despite their new relationship, they wanted to remain competitors. That shouldn't be difficult considering the overlap they have in product segments, manufacturing footprints and world markets.The deal calls for GM to pay $2.4 billion for a 20% stake in Fiat's auto operations. In exchange,

By Brian Corbett and Andrea Wielgat- with Bill Diem • April 1, 2000

From ‘Drive by Wire’ to Adjustable Pedals

It started out as a small contract held by a company Teleflex Automotive acquired in 1997.Teleflex, a supplier of automotive cables and shifter control systems, wanted Comcorp Technologies of Warren, MI, for its expertise in "drive by wire" electronic throttle controls. Today, that small contract for adjustable pedals on some Ford Expeditions has blossomed into much more.Besides being offered as standard

By Drew Winter • April 1, 2000

Back to Basics for BMW

Wanna buy BMW?That's a question WAW asked a year ago (see WAW - April '99, p.28), and the answers came back loud and clear. A resounding "Yes" from nearly every carmaker in the world with the means, an even more emphatic "We're not for sale" from BMW AG executives and controlling shareholders, the Quandts (48%).Officially, those positions haven't changed. But with last month's sale of Rover to turnaround

By David E. Zoia- with Said Deep • April 1, 2000

Ford dealer victorious in Disney race

Indianapolis area Ford dealer Robbie Buhl won the first major auto race of the millennium when he took the checkered flat at the Delphi Indy 200 at Walt Disney World.Mr. Buhl, who owns Robbie Buhl's Smart Ford-Mercury in Danville, IN, started 22nd and worked his way to the front with a masterful pit strategy and tenacious driving."We had a car capable of winning and put ourselves in a good position,"

April 1, 2000

VW Dealership Breaks Ground in Texas

Park Cities Volkswagen in Dallas, TX, broke ground last month on a new stand-alone dealership.Currently part of Leo Griggs' Park Cities Chrysler-Plymouth-Jeep-Volkswagen, the new VW store will be a 36,000-sq.-ft. building formerly occupied by Friendly Chevrolet."Volkswagen is to this decade what Honda was in the '80s," says Mr. Grigg. "They have the designs and features consumers demand, and with

April 1, 2000

Hyundai Finance honors 10 dealers

Hyundai Motor Finance Company gave its new Pre-sident's Club Award to 10 dealerships that produced the largest dollar volume of vehicles financed through HMFC in 1999.The dealerships are: College Park Hyundai, College Park, MD; Rick Case Hyundai Group, Fort Lauderdale; Ben Stepman Hyundai, Henderson, NV; Automax Hyundai, Killeen, TX; Lee Hyundai, Fayetteville, NC; Carl L. Gregory Hyundai Group, Columbus,

April 1, 2000

FORD E-ALLY SEEKS OK FOR DEALERSHIPS

A website development agreement between Ford and the privately owned computer software giant Trilogy Inc. has given a shot in the arm to a controversial e-commerce auto sales project.That is the ongoing dealer-purchase initiative of CarOrder.com, a subsidiary of Trilogy and the recipient of $100 million from its parent to shop for and buy dealerships.Carorder's zealous president, 23-year-old Brian

By Maynard M. Gordon • April 1, 2000

PT Cruiser is hot, hot, hot; DC increasing production

Dealers began receiving DaimlerChrysler AG's PT Cruiser just last month, and the automaker already is boosting production of its all-new segment-redefining crossover vehicle. Because of the unprecedented demand, DC will supplement production of the Cruiser at its Eurostar factory in Graz, Austria. The DC plant in Toluca, Mexico, assembles the Cruiser and is scheduled to build 120,000 units this year

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

CHRYSLER PT CRUISER IS A VEHICLE FOR ‘BIG AL’ - AS WELL AS LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS

SAN DIEGO - Al Capone might have liked the Chrysler's new PT Cruiser."It reminds me of the cars the gangsters drove in those old movies," says a middle-aged woman who came upon one parked in La Jolla, CA as she walked her dog.Then again, it's expected to appeal to a lot of different people. That includes:* Young people who think it's too cool.* Older people who think its retro look is the cat's meow.*

By Steve Finlay • April 1, 2000

Small fish in a big pond make a decent splash

Stewart Management Group makes its first appearance on the Megadealer 100 list this year by virtue of its sole 1999 acquisition, Hoover Toyota in a suburb of Birmingham, AL.The Michigan-based group is among interesting players who are large enough to make the Ward's Dealer Business 100 Megadealers list, but are small compared to titans such as AutoNation Inc.Stewart (which ranks 90th) also operates

By Fred Bonnie and Maynard Gordon • April 1, 2000

Intrigue Could Get Cutlass Revival

Hoping to boost Oldsmobile Intrigue sales, General Motors Corp. says it likely will increase marketing efforts for the sport sedan and is considering reviving the Cutlass brand as an Intrigue model."Dealers are asking for Cutlass, possibly a Cutlass version of the Intrigue, which would help us kill two birds with one stone by bringing back a popular name and at the same time getting recognition for

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

Toyota gets set to start the e-business parts revolution

Toyota Motor Sales is predicting that its new e-business initiative with i2 Technologies Inc. - iStarXchange - will revolutionize the automotive replacement parts market. The revolution is set to start within the next three months.The new southern California-based company, in which Toyota holds a majority stake, is designed to provide installers, dealers and retailers with an on-line marketplace to

By Tim Keenan • April 1, 2000

2000 Geneva Auto Show

The story at this year's Geneva auto show might just be what isn't going to be there.Virtually every auto journalist expects to see the all-new C-Class on the Mercedes-Benz stand. But Stuttgart's big-selling mid-size sedan won't be showing at Geneva's Palexpo.Instead, DaimlerChrysler AG is holding the C-Class for a show closer to its May launch, hoping to sell out the hefty remaining inventories of

By Andrea Wielgat, William Diem, Giancarlo Perini, Peter Robinson • March 1, 2000

Daewoo: Let the Bidding Begin

The world's automotive powerhouses, in an effort to grow mightier, have dedicated teams of experts and major resources to answer one important question: What is the deal with Korea?General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are leading the charge into the largest country in Asia as-yet untouched by the West, with their interest in the purchase of the insolvent Daewoo Motor Co. Ltd.South Korea's No.2

By KATHERINE ZACHARY • March 1, 2000

Injection Molding for Low-Cost High Mileage

For years, the argument's been "steel versus aluminum" for taking body and chassis construction into a new era. But Daimler-Chrysler AG's recent unveiling of its latest Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) prototype may change that discussion to "steel and aluminum versus plastic."Quietly but resolutely, DC is pushing the envelope in plastic-body engineering. It's latest ESX3 - a prototype

By Bill Visnic • March 1, 2000

Common Ground

The Chinese invented paper, gunpowder, the compass.But these days, if you want to be innovative, you've got to have state-of-the-art technology. And that's where modern-day China lags far behind, says Tai Chan, president of the Detroit Chinese Engineers Assn. (DCEA).Mr. Chan, an environmental engineer who works at General Motors Corp. as Executive Secretary of the GM-China Advisory Board, says when

By KATHERINE ZACHARY • March 1, 2000

Auto Talk: GM Rings in Era of e-Commerce

Harold Kutner was hearing bells recently, and it was music to his ears.The General Motors Corp. group vice president is the purchasing chief for the world's largest automaker, but in January he was playing salesman and enjoying it. GM was selling several stamping presses, and it turned to Commerce One, its partner in the newly launched GM TradeXchange, for help.Commerce One, with a Canadian auction

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