Automakers: Page 423

From dirty warehouse stunning dealership stunning to leadership

Dealer Mike McGrath knew that he faced a formidable challenge: turning a 95,000-sq.-ft. former frozen seafood processing building in downtown Chicago into a dealership worthy of Lexus's affluent heritage.Equally daunting was the task of convincing corporate Lexus that the urban site was worth the major investment."They were a little skeptical about how this big old dirty warehouse could be made into

By Laurel Wright • Feb. 1, 2000

Auto Talk: OK, Regis, Ask Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn

Regis Philbin stares intently at contestants who have just answered a question on the outrageously popular Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and asks: "Confident?"Carlos Ghosn, who wants to stop billions in red ink flowing from Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., needs no prompting: He's confident, so much so that he and his Nissan "revival" team have staked their jobs on a turnaround at Japan's No.2 automaker.A

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Feb. 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

A KINDER, GENTLER TIME FOR DEALERS

PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH COINED THE TERM A "kinder and gentler nation." He envisioned the American Dream as too aggressive and unforgiving in its daily pursuits.Mutual distrust has been one of the most glaring dynamics of the relationship between new-car dealers and their manufacturers.Time was when unethical dealers played havoc with warranty reimbursements as factory audit teams descended on the general

By Nat Shulman • Feb. 1, 2000

“MR. CHEAP” BUILDS UPSCALE FACILITY

FINDLAY, OH - The home of the "dirt-cheap deal" is moving to new quarters which are far from cheap.Based in a town of only 40,000 and a county of nearly twice that many, Findlay Ford-Lincoln Mercury has achieved such success that its impending new home is a $7 million complex being built right off busy I-75.Owner Stan Kujawa sees the new site as a sign of the growth Findlay Ford-LM has experienced

By Maynard M. Gordon • Feb. 1, 2000

A DEALERSHIP THAT’S TOO TALL?

Few dealerships violate local zoning codes because their buildings are too high.After all, dealership facilities are far from skyscrapers.But Bill Cook of Bill Cook Buick took some flak from the city of Farmington Hills, MI, when he planned to turn his dealership into Buick's sixth "flagship" store.Part of the flagship look is a 42-foot-high clock tower, which at ground level contains a 24-hour information

By Steve Finlay • Feb. 1, 2000

The 4s: Honda Motor Co. Ltd.

2L DOHC I-4 You just don't ignore an 8,900-rpm redline. You definitely don't ignore it when the tach in Honda Motor Co. Ltd.'s S2000 roadster sweeps past 6,000, your boot's hard on the throttle and the 2L DOHC VTEC 4-cyl. has cleared its pipes to bark the howl of Cerberus at you and every other road user in the parish.The hellish allusion is apropos. Because Honda's 2L screamer, when opened up in

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

Auto Talk: Stallkamp Lands at MSX, Talks of Merger Pitfalls

With his chances of advancement stifled at DaimlerChrysler AG, Thomas Stallkamp finally lands a top job - as vice chairman and chief executive officer at MSX International Inc.For Mr. Stallkamp, who was ousted from his job as DaimlerChrysler president at the end of the year, the new post is a fitting achievement for a man who nurtured a new era in supplier relations.Headquartered in Auburn Hills,

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

Ford Motor Co.

3.9L DOHC V-8 Hey, the Ford Motor Co. itself admits it. Right in the press kit, it says the Lincoln LS 3.9L DOHC V-8 "is derived from the acclaimed 4L AJ26 in the Jaguar XK8."A Jag engine - and a cracking good engine it is - for Lincoln money? We call that the bargain of this young century.Alright, so displacement is down a tenth of a liter from the Jag 4L (actually, it's a just a single millimeter

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

The Contrarian: Accentuate the Positive

This was going to be another column about the mistakes of the automakers, which is easy because fresh mistakes are always being made.I was going to call the column "Foibles." I would explain how killing Plymouth was dumb and would cost Chrysler business. I would explain to Jac Nasser why a table of organization is absolutely necessary (Jac seems to want to do without one) and why you get chaos without

By Jerry Flint • Jan. 1, 2000

Toyota Motor Corp.

4L DOHC V-8 All right, we've finally got our arms around the gem-quality Toyota Motor Corp. Lexus 4L DOHC V-8. Here it goes:Think of some of the existing luxury/sport V-8s out there as representing various members of the Corleone family of Godfather fame. There are very telling similarities that get to the "personality" of V-8s.The Godfather himself? It has to be BMW's strong, silent and confident

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

Auto Talk: Ford: ‘C’ Stands for Underachiever

Remember in school when a "C" was acceptable, a mark of an average student who lagged behind the brains but stood ahead of the truly challenged?Forget those days. At Ford Motor Co., a new evaluation system is under way to trim marginal employees from its salaried workforce (100,000 strong), and as many as 2,000 employees annually could be looking for new work because of it, Ward's has learned.The

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

Auto Talk: Hughes Working On Daewoo Deal

Once one of General Motors Corp.'s golden boys, not much has been heard from or about Louis R. Hughes since he was sidelined during GM's reorganization a year ago. Mr. Hughes had headed International Operations (IO), which was abolished when it was combined with its North American Operations (NAO) to form a single global structure. NAO President G. Richard Wagoner moved up to corporate president in

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

Automotive Insight: Jac Be Nimble, Jac Be Quick

Ever since Jac Nasser barn-stormed into the driver's seat at Ford Motor Co., he's been all action. He tore into the organization, cutting headcount, tossing out deadwood and yanking layers of bureaucracy. He re-jiggered the Ford 2000 organization, promoted non-Americans to positions of prominence, and brought in new faces from outside the industry. He also proved he knows what he's doing, providing

By John McElroy • Jan. 1, 2000

Pipeline: Fears For Tiers

After more than a decade, it appears the neat little boxes used to categorize automotive suppliers are crumbling all around us.With good reason, the industry has classified suppliers based on their position in the chain that feeds parts to the automaker's assembly plant. "Tier 4" might constitute a producer of raw materials used in components packaged neatly into a module by the "Tier 1" systems integrator.But

By Tom Murphy • Jan. 1, 2000

The 8s: Ford Motor Co.

5.4L Triton SOHC V-8 5.4L Supercharged V-8 There is a bushelful of great V-8s around these days. Unfortunately, a lot of them happen to come in vehicles that cost more than the $50,000 cap that governs the 10 Best Engines competition. So one place we didn't expect to find an excellent, affordable V-8 with honest-to-gosh refinement was in a pickup truck.Ford took a gamble with the 5.4L SOHC Triton

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

Nissan

3L DOHC V-6 It's becoming a habit, this business of telling readers that Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.'s "VQ" 3L DOHC V-6 has won yet another 10 Best Engines Award. Securing a place on this year's list ties Nissan with BMW as the only manufacturer to place the same engine for six consecutive years.How else to describe the VQ but pre-eminent? The inherent excellence of this design absolutely stunned us - and

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

BMW

3.2L DOHC I-6 What's to say about BMW AG's "Motorsports" or M-edition, 3.2L DOHC I-6 that hasn't been said? Best Engines watchers will note that in winning a 10 Best Engines 2000 award, the BMW 3.2L I-6 is one of only two engines to win the award in each of the six years since the competition's inception.There just isn't any beating a creamy inline 6-cyl. that also happens to have power in abundance,

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

The 6s: Audi AG

2.7L Twin-turbo DOHC V-6 Audi AG engineers say they've had it with hearing the press - and more than a few customers, no doubt - whine about Audi's ostensible disdain for competitive engine performance. After all, Audis are supposed to bring technology to the fore - and in the automotive milieu, performance and technology always have been inextricably linked.We've sung past praises for Audi's 5-valve-per-cylinder

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Jan. 1, 2000

Automaking in 2025 Japan

TOKYO - It's back to the future for the Japanese auto industry.Seventy-five years ago, in 1925, Ford Motor Co. arrived with a relief shipment of 1,000 Model-Ts, all knock-down and needing assembly, to help rebuild Tokyo's public transportation system which a year before had been severely damaged by a killer earthquake. General Motors Corp. landed the following year, and combined the two companies

By Roger Schreffler • Dec. 1, 1999

Auto Talk: ‘Th!nk’ Ford First in Norway

Ford Motor Co., which kicks off production of its Think electric car in Norway, plans to unveil a sweeping North American program for the Think brand at the Detroit auto show in January."This small car represents the beginning of something much bigger at Ford," Ford of Europe Chairman Nick Scheele said earlier this year.Capacity at the factory in Aurskog-Holand, Norway, is 5,000 a year, and the goal

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Dec. 1, 1999

LANDERS LOOKS TO LAND IN TOP SPOT

The 25th anniversary supp-lement of the Arkansas Times headlined its single dealer success story in a one-word headline, "LANDERS."The story focused on the three-dealership chain operated by Steve Landers and owned by United Auto Group since 1995. The stores are in Benton and North Little Rock, AR.The Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge-Jeep, Ford and Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealerships are top sellers in President

By Maynard M. Gordon • Dec. 1, 1999

Auto Talk: BMW Worries That Cars Aren’t ‘Involving’

TURIN - BMW AG executives and engineers are worried that their cars - renowned worldwide for their impeccable driving characteristics - are becoming too good. Or too refined. Or too expensive.Or all three of the above.What has BMW thinking this way? It's owners are growing older. A decade ago, the average age of BMW buyers was almost 10 years younger than Mercedes-Benz drivers. Today, the difference

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Dec. 1, 1999

GENERAL MOTORS GOES TO (MO)TOWN WITH EXTRAVAGANT NEW AUTO SHOW EXHIBIT

General Motors Corp. is constructing the largest auto show exhibit ever built in North America.The colossal 164,456-sq.-ft., two-level showcase is under construction for the North American International Auto Show, a January event spon-sored by the Detroit Auto Dealers Association.The exhibit will be called "The GM Experience." It will house all the automaker's brands, including Saab and Saturn, plus

By Steve Finlay • Dec. 1, 1999

Auto Talk: Ford Launches ‘Mass Customization’

Coming to a Ford showroom near you - the model of your choice, with performance tires, powerful sound systems, bodyside cladding and other goodies generally reserved for the aftermarket.Ford Motor Co. has figured out that if young car buffs are eager to spend most of their paycheck to make their cars unique, why not ship the car from the factory already zooted up?With an eye on the lucrative aftermarket,

By WARD'S AUTO WORLD STAFF • Dec. 1, 1999

Shanghai Makes Room for a Minivan

SHANGHAI - Shanghai General Motors Co. Ltd. (SGM) in September took a great leap past what it considers a major milestone: the 10,000-unit mark.By now, some 12,000 Shanghai Buick sedans have rolled off the line at the General Motors Corp./Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. joint venture, to fill the 18,000 sales orders received since production began in April.The plant will build some 20,000 vehicles

By KATHERINE ZACHARY • Dec. 1, 1999