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How to Hire Effectively

When your normal staff includes three service advisors and one leaves, find a replacement as soon as possible. It's difficult to determine your actual revenue loss when you are one service advisor short, but it's costly. During your search for a replacement, this is what can happen within the ranks: Your two remaining advisors become stressed, even over a short time period, when they cover the responsibilities

By RICK BOUDREAU • July 1, 2004

New Wind Tunnel

Two years after opening its new North American headquarters and technical center here, Behr America Inc. unveils its $15 million climatic wind tunnel. Hans Lange, president-Behr America, says the tunnel is the most advanced facility of its kind in the world, surpassing the productivity of even Behr's own three Stuttgart wind tunnels and a smaller Fort Worth, TX, tunnel. Behr Group Chairman and CEO

June 1, 2004

Live Fast, Die Young

Despite the market's ups and downs, high-priced sports cars have fared relatively well in the U.S. since 1995, when the segment's sales hit a 15-year low. Since then, luxury sports cars have increased their share of market from a tiny 0.4% to a surprisingly high (considering their price and impracticality) 0.7% so far this year. And as small as it is, this segment is one of only two car sectors to

By Haig Stoddard • June 1, 2004

Scion xB Not So Cool After All

Scions may be cool, but they're certainly not cold. This is what many buyers, particularly in the Gulf States, have discovered after cranking up the air conditioning in their new xBs. The AC, says Scion Vice President Jim Farley, is in the surprise hit market of Texas, where humidity often soars as high as the temperatures. Farley says Scion has been talking to Japan, where the xB is built, regarding

By KATHERINE ZACHARY • June 1, 2004

Lost Opportunity?

In the world of extreme sports, ESPN X-Gamer and off-road motorcycling maestro Travis Pastrana is big Michael Jordan big. The 20-year-old motocross racer has a high-profile video game named after him, he's inked high-dollar deals with Puma AG and American Suzuki Motor Corp., and has been competing in motorcycle stunt events funded by multimillion dollar corporate sponsorships since before he could

By John D. Stoll • June 1, 2004

CENTRIX Hooks Up with NASCAR

CENTRIX Financial, a subprime financial management and services company will become the Official Auto Finance Company of NASCAR. It will also back a program that identifies and develops Afro-American and Hispanic drivers and crew members. CENTRIX and NASCAR are both engaged in the process of peeling back layers of stereotype and misinformation to reveal the true nature of our core consumer bases,

June 1, 2004

Fierce Competition

Plastics applications are falling behind aluminum usage in new European cars. Reinforced plastic composites, which for 25 years have been used on European body panels, now are facing a recycling challenge that may limit growth. Counting all cars produced in Europe, plastic parts averaged 133 kg (293 lbs.) in 2003 and aluminum 110 kg (243 lbs.), says Michel Costes, CEO of consultant group Mavel SA,

By William Diem • May 1, 2004

5-Step System Teaches Average Joes to Sell Cars

A big problem facing dealerships is a lack of talented sales people, says Ross Rossano, founder of the Rossano Institute, an automotive sales training firm. This problem gets worse every year, he says. Dealerships are looking for the ever-elusive sales pro, usually without much luck. Dealerships and salespeople need a system for selling cars that helps ordinary sales people achieve extraordinary results.

May 1, 2004

A Few Questions, Please

Is your computer managed or owned by your dealership management system (DMS) provider or is it yours? Is it secure from unwanted intrusions? Are you comfortable with your dealership network environment? How effective is its usage? No, I am not referring to your DMS network. I mean your own computer network, servers and all. Servers? Network? I just want to sell cars, you say. Well, we all know it's

By Don Ray • May 1, 2004

Perfectly Queer

As the sun rises on a Manhattan morning, it's just another day for the Fab Five of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the hit TV show screened on both NBC and the Bravo cable network. The Five: Carson Kressley, Thom Filicia, Jai Rodriguez, Kyan Douglas and Ted Allen, are rushing to the aid of some helpless hetero shlub in flannel plaid who has no idea what the difference is between zhushing and schussing

By Christie Schweinsberg • May 1, 2004

Websites Are More Than Advertising

Many dealers today consider their websites only to be an advertising medium. Even some third-party lead generators refer to dealership websites as simply another way to advertise. The thought process goes like this: Sure, the Internet can generate sales, but people really can’t buy cars online (when was the last time a car was delivered over the Internet?). Until people can take delivery online, the

By Cliff Banks • April 7, 2004

Land Rover LR3 ‘Questions Convention’

NEW YORK – In a U.S. market flooded with SUVs, Land Rover North America is hoping a “polarizing” design will serve as a key differentiator for its new midsize, body-on-frame LR3 that replaces the Discovery in the company’s U.S. lineup. “The goal for the new LR3 was to design a vehicle that would be instantly recognizable as a Land Rover,” says Geoff Upex, director of design. “It is a very single-minded

By John D. Stoll • April 7, 2004

Look Out For Pine Trees

When I was a kid, I had a dog named Dash. His mamma was a Collie. His daddy was from a good neighborhood, if you get my drift. Dash's favorite pastime was chasing rabbits among our yard's Georgia pines. Dash was fast, but challenged in the brains department. Sensing that, the rabbits started taking advantage of him. A rabbit would roar towards a pine tree, gauging his speed so that Dash's snarling

By THOMAS B. HUDSON • April 1, 2004

Born Again

Just three years old, the Great Designs in Steel Seminar is pushing capacity limits at its current home, and may be looking for a new location next year. More than 1,200 attendees up from 750 in 2003 and 450 in 2002 were in Livonia, MI, this year for the symposium, which is hosted by the American Iron and Steel Institute's (AISI's) Automotive Applications Committee. Sessions were standing room only.

By Brian Corbett • April 1, 2004

How to Cut Overhead

A respected dealer told me, My dealership overhead is set up to sell so many monthly units. Based on what I'm seeing in my market, this volume may no longer be realistic or attainable. I told him, It's obvious that if you can't attain the vehicle sales and gross required to be profitable with your current overhead, your only choice is to reduce your overhead to a level where you can obtain the desired

By Tony Noland • April 1, 2004

Hauling Or Handling?

Cross/utility vehicles and SUVs present a challenge for shock absorber and damper makers because they are sold as passenger vehicles that also can be used as pack mules. Designing a shock absorber for load-handling isn't troublesome, as millions of pickup trucks prove. Pickups can handle heavy loads just fine, but because their shocks are designed largely for that purpose, there's usually a ride-quality

By Bill Visnic • April 1, 2004

We’ll Boost F&I Profits or Write a Check

If a dealership averages a hefty $1,500 or so in F&I profit per vehicle sale, it might be hard to come in and boost that by $200 per sale in 90 days, acknowledges Jim McDavid, vice president of North America sales for JM&A Group. But the company's F&I specialists will give it a shot as part of the JM&A challenge to dealerships signing up as customers. Says McDavid, If it's $1,000 per retail finance

By Steve Finlay • April 1, 2004

Budget for Obsolescence

While the year is still young, it's a good time for the parts manager to quantify potential parts inventory obsolescence and think about devising ways to deal with its possible excess beyond eliminating it through manufacturers' programs. Many parts managers wait until the end of their fiscal year, then scramble to solve revealed problems. Instead, evaluate your ability to get rid of obsolescence

By GARY NAPLES • March 1, 2004

Expect F&I Adjustments

Obviously I attend the NADA Convention each year in hopes of adding members to our 20 Groups and acquiring additional business for NCM. But as it turns out, that is only a side benefit. The real value I receive is from speaking with dealers and their managers to find out what's on their minds and to renew relationships. I, too, share the positive attitude of most of the convention attendees. Economic

By Tony Noland • March 1, 2004

Jaguar Unveils XK-RS Concept

CHICAGO – Early February in The Windy City seems like an odd time to unveil a convertible. But winter makes no impression on Jaguar Cars North America, which debuts what it calls the most-powerful street-legal convertible ever – the 550-hp XK-RS concept car – here at the Chicago auto show. Developed by Lansing, MI-based Rocketsports Racing and Jaguar, the XK-RS is based on the British auto maker’s

By Brian Corbett • Feb. 5, 2004

Mini to Offer Commemorative Cooper S

CHICAGO – Continuing its drive to offer new varieties of its niche cult car, Mini USA says at the Chicago Auto Show here it will produce a limited-run model this year. Limited-edition Mini Cooper S MC40 commemorates brand’s most memorable racing win. The auto maker will produce 1,000 Mini Cooper S MC40 models for North America. The MC40 commemorates the original Mini’s underdog win of the 1964 Monte

By Bill Visnic • Feb. 5, 2004

Mitsubishi to Discontinue Montero Sport

CHICAGO – In the wake of slower-than-expected sales for the Mitsubishi Endeavor cross/utility vehicle, Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc. is pulling the plug on its Montero Sport SUV, Ward’s has learned. The ailing Japanese auto maker blames Endeavor’s slow out-of-the-box start on cannibalization from its truck-based Montero Sport. The SUV and CUV compete in the same size segment and at similar

By KATHERINE ZACHARY • Feb. 4, 2004

Try This, Not a Chill Pill

Oh the weather outside is frightful But the fire is so delightful And since we've no place to go (there is no other business I love) Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! I am writing this on a cold and dreary day in Memphis drinking my hot tea, looking out my office window at the frozen parking lot below. Certain parts of the country have already had a lot of snowfall. It gets cold in Memphis, just

By Don Ray • Feb. 1, 2004

Minivans Stable

The shine gradually is fading for the front-wheel-drive minivan as sales decline and marketers decide the soccer mom image doesn't cut it on the sales floor anymore. Minivan sales peaked in 1999 and 2000, when they reached 7.7% of the North American light-vehicle market, and since have fallen steadily to a 9-year low of 6.6% in 2003, according to Ward's data. The numbers suggest cross/utility vehicles

By Haig Stoddard • Feb. 1, 2004

Changing of the Guard

It took Edward T. Welburn 42 years to become GM's chief of design. Why so long? He started lobbying for the job when he was 11 years old. It's a corny story, but its true, says Welburn, 53. At an age when most kids are fantasizing about being an astronaut or sports star, he was writing GM saying he wanted to design cars. He didn't officially start work at GM until about 11 years later, after he graduated

By Drew Winter • Feb. 1, 2004