Operations: Page

Former AutoNation execs rise at JM Family Enterprises Inc.

Two executives, both with former career ties to AutoNation Inc., are rising at JM Family Enterprises in Deerfield Beach, FL. Scott Barrett, promoted to executive vp and chief information officer, will oversee the firm's information technology systems and strategies. He joined the company last year. Brent Burns, who joined JM in 2000, is promoted to executive vp of JM and president of its World Omni

June 1, 2002

Japan’s Dark Decade

TOKYO One year after taking office as a political maverick with enough charm and charisma to produce the economic reforms Japan so badly needs, Junichiro Koizumi is viewed here as a disappointment for doing too little too slowly. The economy is bottoming out, but the Japanese people realize Koizumi has done almost nothing to correct the serious problems in our economic and political system, says Mamoru

By Mack Chrysler • June 1, 2002

Laser-Measurement Renaissance

DETROIT It was gee-whiz stuff in the early '80s: laser-guided gauging systems that could at a vehicle body at the end of the assembly line and compare its tolerances to the ideal, assuring that the vehicle was being assembled within specification. Since then, the auto industry has witnessed hundreds of similar process-control and assembly miracles, as electronic/optical/laser innovations came fast

By Bill Visnic • May 1, 2002

Expect 1, maybe 2 UAW strikes in 2003

At least one United Auto Workers' strike is next year, says auto analyst James Hall of AutoPacific. A UAW strike is usually targeted against one of the Big Three, leading to a new contract that the other auto companies take cues from in negotiating their own labor agreements. But it will be different when existing contracts expire next year. Each of the Big Three has their own set of issues, says

By Steve Finlay • May 1, 2002

CRM on the verge of something big

Customer Relationship management (CRM), which has been around for a couple of years, is on the verge of something big. It's a technological advancement that allows computer access to much more data, and the ability to use that automated information to sell more to serious prospects and repeat buyers. In the information technology world it's called integration the ability of computer systems to assimilate

By Cliff Banks • May 1, 2002

ODOMETER FRAUD KEEPS ON ROLLING

MILD-MANNERED RICHARD MORSE LEADS A LAW enforcement crusade against odometer rollbacks. Sometimes he wonders if he's making inroads as manager of the U.S. Department of Transportation's odometer fraud enforcement program. He's headed it since it began in 1978. Things haven't changed much, says Morse, whose low-key demeanor belies his federal crime fighting job as well as a 20-year stint as an Army

By Steve Finlay • May 1, 2002

Isuzu Sales Sliding South

Isuzu Motors America hopes the December launch of its new Ascender SUV will dig it out of a big sales hole in the U.S. Right now, it appears questionable whether even an aggressive restructuring program that calls for a re-freshening of several of its lackluster products, a buffing-up of its tarnished brand image and cost-cutting consolidation of its U.S. operations will be enough to turn around Isuzu's

May 1, 2002

He sold Pontiacs for six decades

Woodrow W. Woody, a Lebanese immigrant who sold Pontiacs in the Polish-American community of Hamtramck, MI, for six decades, died last month at age 94. Over the years, he became a local legend, giving $1 bills to children, donating to charities and making folksy TV commercials with his trademark sign-off, So long. See you soon. Drive carefully. When he first applied for a dealership franchise, a GM

May 1, 2002

What would Michelangelo do as a car designer?

PHOENIX David Schembri grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood that rubs shoulders with Detroit City Airport. As a young man, he worked the midnight shift loading beer trucks at the old Stroh Brewery. His dad worked midnights maintaining assembly line equipment at the defunct Fisher Body plant nearby. We'd meet for at 2 a.m., recalls the son. That was great. Schembri's automotive career has driven him

By Steve Finlay • May 1, 2002

Certified used-car sales could top 1 million this year

Certified used-vehicle programs are turning up everywhere, prompting some people to ask if it's just another marketing gimmick or is the industry on to something. General Motors Corp.'s Jeff Heichel thinks the latter, as GM after getting things right with dealers who disliked the automaker's original program, vintage 1996 is getting in on the current action and setting aggressive sales goals. The

By Steve Finlay • May 1, 2002

Dealers getting more Internet-savvy

To see the 2002 Ward's e-Dealer 100, click here. Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader For free download, click here. Ken Smith set a 2001 goal for Internet sales to total about 40% of his overall business. The Kellogg, ID-based dealer was off by about 22% - his 4,384 Internet sales in 2001 were 62% of his total volume. Revenue from the Internet department was 57% of the dealership's total. Smith's sales

By Cliff Banks • April 8, 2002

The ideeeeeeeeea began at dinner five years ago

The idea began at dinner five years ago Since then, dealership group's Internet sales staff has had a lot on their plates It began at dinner five years ago, according to Mirza Thomas, Internet services director for the Jim Koons Automotive Companies. Thomas, then a dealership group trainer, owner Jim Koons and vice president Jim O'Connell were dining and developing an Internet strategy. "We were very

By Cliff Banks • April 5, 2002

SALES MEETING

I remember being told by my sales manager to follow up on my sold customers. I was reluctant and procrastinated for as long as I could. He said my future sales and income depended on it, but I was young and unfocused on long-term success. Wake up and smell the coffee for me literally meant smell the coffee. By my first year in the business, I realized how the senior sales people made $100,000 plus

By WITH DARIN GEORGE • April 1, 2002

Delphi demos unified chassis approach

Delphi Corp. demonstrates the potential of its Unified Chassis Control at its winter testing facility at the former K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base near Marquette, MI. ABS is not new, nor is stability management, traction control, electric power steering or Dynamic Body Control, but they're good technologies made even better when combined. With sophisticated algorithms, two or more of these systems can

By Compiled by Senior Editor Tom Murphy [email protected] • April 1, 2002

Appointments enhance selling chances

Ninety-eight percent of sales people sell from nine to 11 vehicles a month and stay with a particular dealership about 10 months. The others the top 2% sell between 21 and 24 vehicles a month and stay with a particular dealership about 60 months. The top 2% also deliver more value to their employers, points out John Traver, president of Traver Technologies. The top 2% not only sell more vehicles a

By Jim Leman • April 1, 2002

Say a Prayer

BARCELONA, Spain There is a cathedral here in this partying port city that the Spanish have been working on for more than a century. When the Sagrada Familia Church is completed in about 25 years, huge amounts of money will have been spent, years of hard work logged. All for the hope that the finished product will be viewed as a benchmark throughout the world. So it's appropriate that the church is

By Brian Corbett • April 1, 2002

Caution’s Back in Style

Australian speed skater Steven Bradbury isn't your classic Olympic hero. He is the first Australian ever to win a gold medal at the winter Olympics, but he freely admits he isn't the best short track speed skater in the world, or the second best, and probably not even the third. But even if he isn't the fastest, he probably is the smartest or at least he was on a fateful day last February. That's

By Drew Winter • April 1, 2002

What’s a Body to Do?

Not all that long ago I had the chance to personally meet Giorgietto Giugiaro, the ultra-famous Italian car designer. I gushed, you certainly had a vision of where body styles would be headed in the future. Twenty years ago you said that the one-box design would become the dominant body style in the future. he said matter of factly, you're wrong. I said that 30 years ago. Giugiaro knew that space

By John McElroy • April 1, 2002

Valuing Technology

The new Oster Perfectionist has 63 settings, touch bubbles in stead of dials, an LCD display screen, and a thick owners manual. It's a toaster. The Detroit Free Press technology writer reviewed it recently and said something that scared me: The LCD (liquid crystal display) is harder to see than the LEDs (light emitting diodes) on my old toaster, and those touch bubbles sometimes have to be pushed

By Drew Winter • March 1, 2002

Rewriting the Rules

SAN ANTONIO, TX My driving partner and I are sitting at a stoplight in trendy downtown San Antonio when a well-dressed businessman stands at the crosswalk and gives us a big thumbs up. That the new 7-Series? he asks. we say. What do you think? he says. What about the rear end? my partner yells out the window as we drive off. In the rear view mirror we see him looking hard and giving us another big

By Drew Winter • March 1, 2002

Dealership general manager heads state business alliance

Brad Majercin, vice president and general manager of Childress Auto Mall in Phoenix, AZ, was elected president of the Arizona Business Alliance. The alliance is a sales, leads, referrals and networking organization with more than 60 members representing a range of businesses.

March 1, 2002

Study: Big 3 share slides for the next 5 years

Despite a flurry of interesting new products coming from Detroit-based auto makers, Asian and European brands are going to continue to steal global market share from them for the next five years, a recent study finds. The reason is because the foreign vehicles are more exciting and appear to offer better value to consumers. That's one of many gloomy predictions for Detroit emerging from a new report

By Compiled by the staff of: WARD'S AUTOMOTIVE REPORTS • Feb. 1, 2002

Wake Up Before It’s Too Late

Maybe what this country needs is a good alarm clock one so shriekingly loud that it blows you right out of bed. How else can you explain the widespread apathy toward the nation's reliance upon foreign sources for 50% to 60% of its oil, especially from the increasingly volatile Middle East, making us vulnerable to all sorts of unpleasant scenarios. And if you think it can't happen, remember 9/11. Ironically,

By David C. Smith • Feb. 1, 2002

HOW TO TURN MIRRORS INTO WINDOWS

Here are two quotes on the benefits of training, and the potential results: Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know. Daniel J. Boorstin. The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows Sydney J. Harris. These are more insightful when you consider what is being said. Think of the personnel in your organization that have the potential to step up to the next level,

By Tony Noland • Feb. 1, 2002

PSA sales rise in 2001

PSA Peugeot-Citroen says its overall sales were 3.1 million units in 2001, an 11.3% jump over 2000 sales levels. The company says it expects overall sales for 2002 to rise 3.7% to 3.25 million units and maintains its commitment to sell 3.5 million units by 2004. The sales increase for 2001 is attributed to the success of the Peugeot 206 and 307 models, as well as the Citroen Xsara Picasso minivan.

By Compiled by Senior International Editor Barb McClellan [email protected] • Feb. 1, 2002