Automakers: Page 426

Mazda looks to move ahead with new MPV

Mazda Motor Corp. believes its all-new front-wheel-drive '00 MPV (multipurpose vehicle) will be the siren's song that lures young families to its brand. The stylish short-based minivan is one of the smaller vehicles in its segment and is priced affordably, starting at $19,995.Mazda wisely benchmarked the Honda Odyssey, which can't be produced fast enough to meet U.S. demand. MPV offers dual sliding

By Barbara McClellan • Oct. 1, 1999

Honda spans the spectrum

Honda Motor Co. Ltd.'s model-year 2000 lineup includes two new sporty little 2-seaters that couldn't be less alike.The Honda S2000 is a rocketing push-button-start roadster, which couples a sky-high-revving, 2L 4-cyl. engine with a close-ratio 6-speed manual transmission. What we have is Honda's second rear-drive car ever to hit U.S. pavement, sporting 240 hp, and the ability to do 0 to 60 mph (97km/h)

By KATHERINE ZACHARY • Oct. 1, 1999

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

ANX Urged for B2B

With only 200 trading partners connected so far, the Automotive Network eXchange (ANX) has a long way to go before it is the dominant mode of business communication within the auto industry.But the ANX, the private network linking suppliers and automakers, remains a priority for the industry. The purchasing chiefs of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler Corp. recently sent a letter

By Tom Murphy and Brian Corbett • Oct. 1, 1999

Falling Out of Love with Front-Wheel Drive

If you're not young enough to be a Gen-Xer, you know the tale:It's 1973. The Arab oil embargo throws a thunderous scare into the industrialized world, particularly the car-happy U.S., heavily dependent on inexpensive imported crude oil.A year before The Embargo, General Motors Corp., true to its reputation for conducting exhaustive in-house research, formed a group dubbed the Energy Task Force. An

By Bill Visnic • Oct. 1, 1999

A new meaning to ‘wind-cheating’

In a quest to create its own super family sedan, General Motors Corp. says it has designed the slipperiest midsize car ever.At 0.163 Cd, the car even beats GM's own EV1 electric vehicle, hailed at its launch as the world's most aerodynamic production car.The aerodynamic efficiency exercise is a component of GM's Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) effort. PNGV is a coalition of U.S.

By NATALIE NEFF • Oct. 1, 1999

‘If Possible, Make a U-turn’

It's interesting that the approach to in-vehicle navigation has come from an eclectic batch of companies with varied expertise. Bosch made its name in braking and steering components. Siemensbegan as a telegraph company in 1847, Alpine came from the car audio side of the dashboard and Denso first earned its reputation in engine components.Now they're battling it out in a big part of what the GPS Industry

By Mike Arnholt • Oct. 1, 1999

European Importers--VW sales surpass even executives’ projections

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, 1999

With a new PAG, is Ford in the driver’s seat?

If there ever was a chance for Ford Motor Co. to make money in the small car market, 2000 is the year.With the arrival of the Focus, Ford believes it has the product to go bumper-to-bumper with the imports and still pad the company's bottom line.It won't be easy. The small car buyer has no less than 31 models to choose from, but the Focus does represent the company's best shot at compact-car profit-making

By SAID DEEP • Oct. 1, 1999

Thinking Outside the Box

There's a new spin on the industry's hot design term "thinking outside the box."General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. last month officially outlined plans to offer composite boxes on vehicles in 2000, touching off a round of competition over a component that has been untouched by innovation - save some outboard plastic fenders and bed liners. "A pickup box has been a pickup box for 50 years," says

By Brian Corbett • Sept. 1, 1999

A Hot Time in Spring Hill

SPRING HILL, TN - Saturn Homecoming was a hot time both figuratively and literally.Homecoming '99, the automaker's sec-ond national owner appreciation event, featured main-event entertainment, a celebration of American heroes and activities for participants of every age.It also was 110 degrees (including heat index) as the central region of the country was gripped in a record- setting heat wave in

By Tim Keenan • Sept. 1, 1999

Lincoln LS -- Let’s just say it’s close, but no cigar

I once asked the head of a German car company in the U.S. what he would do if he were running Cadillac. He hesitated, then said, "Well, I wouldn't have brought out the Catera." The Catera is the $32,000 "entry level" made-in-Germany Cadillac, selling now for a few years without much success. You remember: "The Cadillac that zigs."His answer puzzled me. Cadillac needed a car in that "entry" market,

By Jerry Flint • Sept. 1, 1999

Training on the Tube

School bells are ringing in dealerships thro-ughout America as salespeople, technicians and other staff gear up for the '2000 model vehicle launch. But there are fewer teachers, fewer books, let alone dirty looks.Product, service and finance training courses from the major automakers are beamed into the dealership via satellite or World Wide Web. Employees can access information on demand, almost

By Maureen McDonald • Sept. 1, 1999

Cadillac Searches for Its Roots-GM’s flagship sets course to regain lost glory

"When you worked at Cadillac it was almost as if they tattooed a wreath and crest on your chest. You'd fall on a sword for Cadillac."- Del Schroeder, who joined Cadillac as a young engineer in 1962 and retired from General Motors Corp. as an executive engineer in 1994.adillac hasn't competed in the grueling 24-hour LeMans race since 1950, but come next June 12 it'll go head-to-head in the French classic

By DAVID C. SMITH and DREW WINTER • Sept. 1, 1999

PLATO MIGHT HAVE BOUGHT A CAR HERE

MILWAUKEE, WI - The late Harold L. Wilde used his hands to demonstrate why he became such an innovator at his store, the biggest Toyota dealership in Wisconsin."If you're here," he'd tell his staff, cutting his right hand through the air in a sidewise motion, "someone else is rising."You have to keep moving up yourself, doing new things constantly to stay ahead, or they'll catch up and go ahead of

By Maynard M. Gordon • Sept. 1, 1999

Italian Renaissance--Fiat vows independence by planning transformation

TURIN - Fiat SpA deserves this year's title of "Most Speculated About" car company.So far, the Italian automaker has been rumored to be on the verge of a merger/alliance/joint venture with AB Volvo, Ford Motor Co., Mitsubishi Motors Corp., General Motors Corp., Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., DaimlerChrysler AG and Yugoslavia's Zastava, among several others.Some even say General Electric will buy a share of

By Andrea Wielgat • Sept. 1, 1999

DON’T LOOK FOR MERCEDES IN THIS NEW MUSEUM

The Chrysler corporate brand name may not stand alone anymore, but it now has a new museum that does.The Walter P. Chrysler Museum, adjacent to the DaimlerChrysler Corp. head-quarters in Auburn Hills, MI, pays homage to the brand lineage that began in 1924, as well as to its many associated nameplates - DeSoto, Hudson, Rambler, Nash and AMC.The 58,000-sq.-ft. museum opens to the public Oct. 5. It

Sept. 1, 1999

INVESTIGATORS SIDE WITH GM and RYDELL IN SAN FERNANDO VALLEY DISPUTE

The nine-member California New Motor Vehicle Board began its own study of the GM/Wesley Rydell dealership group after a team of investigators found that the San Fernando Valley initiative does not violate the state franchise law.Sam Jennings, executive director of the board, says several board members, before voting on whether to accept the investigators' findings, want to probe further into terms

Sept. 1, 1999

VOLVO HITS GENERATION X HANGOUTS TO HYPE 2 NEW CARS

With two new small cars coming out, Volvo Cars of North American Inc. (VCNA) is targeting 200,000 sales in North America by 2004, VCNA President Hans-Olov Olsson tells Ward's Dealer Business.That compares with 118,000 sales in Canada and the United States in 1998 and a projected 137,000 in 1999. These figures include 8,000 deliveries in Canada last year and 9,000 forecast for this year.Despite this

By David C. Smith • Sept. 1, 1999

Nissan’s Ghosn Goes After Profits

Renault SA's former "Le Cost Killer," Carlos Ghosn, is measuring his task at Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. these days with visits to the Japanese auto-maker's international operations, impressing upon everyone he meets his immediate message: profitability for Nissan by next fiscal year. "It's non-negotiable," the Brazilian native says. "We don't have a lot of time to fix Nissan's problems."Analysts say that's

By Barbara McClellan • Sept. 1, 1999

Toyota Wants to Lure Boomer Babies

CARLSBAD, CA - Toyota Motor Corp. knows it has a way to travel to bring young carbuyers into the fold. While aging Baby Boomers last year made the Toyota Camry No.1 in U.S. sedan sales, Boomer babies want nothing to do with their parent's staid and boring cars.So Toyota is looking to lure Generation Xers, as well as those coming up behind them, with a new direction for both the sporty seventh-generation

By Barbara McClellan • Sept. 1, 1999

‘Oldest’ Ford store opens stand-alone auto care facility

The world's oldest family-owned Ford dealership has become part of the automaker's newest customer concepts - the Auto Care stand-alone service facility.Tenvoorde Ford, St. Cloud, MN, opened Ford's eighth Auto Care facility on Eighth Avenue S.E. about four miles east of the dealership on Roosevelt Road.Owner Jack Tenvoorde, grandson of founder Stephen Tenvoorde, calls the Auto Care focus "bringing

Sept. 1, 1999

GM SAYS technologically advanced 2000 CADILLAC DEVILLE IS A THRILL

When the 2000 DeVille hits showrooms this November, Cadillac dealers will be able to boast selling one of the most technologically advanced and safest vehicles in the world.Backing those claims are the DeVille's night vision, ultrasonic rear parking assist, on-board navigation and On-Star communication features. Add to that the light-emitting diode (LED) taillight and center high-mounted stoplight

Sept. 1, 1999

FORD DIV. PREZ DOES THE DEALERSHIPS

"BILL, THERE'S THE TOWN'S FORD DEALERSHIP," says Ford Div. President James G. O'Connor, looking out the window of a new Ford Focus that Public Affairs Manager Bill George is driving in Manchester, NH.Mr. O'Connor wants to stop in and say hello to the local dealer. It's something he often does when he's on the road "even when he is 'off-duty' and with his wife," says Ford Public Affairs Director Anne

By Steve Finlay • Sept. 1, 1999

SPX offers a way to keep track of tools in service depts.

About 1,000 General Motors Corp. dealership service departments, a couple of Ford Motor Co. shops and at least one DaimlerChrysler service point have no problem keeping track of their specialty tools. That's because they've subscribed to SPX Corp.'s tool organization system.The manufacturer claims that a well-organized specialty tool area positively affects productivity, customer satisfaction and

By Tim Keenan • Sept. 1, 1999

Wow! What a Concept

BLACKHAWK FARMS, IL - Everyone's well aware the former Chrysler Corp. set the standard for creating over-the-top concept cars that evolved into real stuff you could buy.So stalwart Chrysler supporters will be gratified to know that the company's merger with Daimler-Benz AG hasn't squashed the "Let's-make-it-into-a-production-car" philosophy that in the last few years had made Chrysler concept cars

By Bill Visnic • Sept. 1, 1999