Operations: Page 235

Don’t fear the reaper - yet

Uh, oh. Look out, steel's getting complacent again. After battling back against plastic body panels in the 1980s, it's starting to lose ground to sheet molding composite (SMC) and aluminum. Just look at the evidence:The SMC Automotive Alliance (SMCAA) brags that its material is the fastest growing plastic replacing steel for automotive components and projects a 20% jump in SMC use by automakers in

By Drew Winter • Dec. 21, 2000

ITT gives web green flag

AUBURN HILLS, MI -- ITT Automotive has found a home on the Internet's World Wide Web, using the address http://www.ITTAUTOMOTIVE.com, which is linked to ITT Industries, corporate home page. Its debut was in time for the ITT Automotive Detroit Grand Prix, allowing race fans and Internet surfers to make a pit stop to access current Grand Prix information and download photos from the previous day's events.

Dec. 21, 2000

Explore the Trendline➔

Automotive Manufacturing

Production strategies are changing rapidly as tariffs and shifts in consumer buying patterns affect the industry.

By WardsAuto staff

Going car crazy: Thailand is fast becoming the Detroit of Southeast Asia.

BANGKOK -- If the crowds mobbing the 17th Annual International Bangkok Motor Show in April were any example, the Thais are going noisily car crazy.And that's just for openers.Vehicle sales here have almost tripled since 1989, reaching 571,580 units last year, more than 9 out of 10 of them assembled in the country. Today, Thailand is not only the world's second biggest market for pickup trucks (after

By Mack Chrysler • Dec. 21, 2000

Latest fad: when in doubt, consult: hiring consultants often defies business sense

I've been in the automotive business a long time, and I've seen many fads come and go. I've also seen companies embrace certain fads, then later discard them as worthless, only to embrace them again years later as new management concepts. There are no new fads, only recycled ones. Consequently, I'm amazed not only by how they get started, but also how quickly they make their way from company to company.This

By Sharf, Stephan • Dec. 21, 2000

Five alive!

The outgoing 5 series, launched in 1989, itself was no slouch, a benchmark luxury-performance sedan continually improved such that seven years into its lifespan it still was judged an industry standard. The '97 is larger (wheelbase, at 111.4 ins. [283 cm] is 2.7 ins. longer), stronger and more equipment-laden -- yet lighter overall.Innovative material usage is one of the big stories here. The one-piece

Dec. 21, 2000

Competition not dead yet; new joint ventures just cut costs, waste.

The Death of Competition is the name of one of today's most popular business management books. To a casual observer of the plastics industry, it's easy to accept the book's premise at face value.In the past year some of the biggest rivals in the chemical and plastics businesses have decided to link up to make either plastic resin or parts. These aren't big fish swallowing little fish, or little companies

By Drew Winter • Dec. 21, 2000

China: watchword is patience

BEIJING -- Now that trade negotiators have defused another time bomb between Washington and Beijing, the flood of American automotive investment in China will resume. Still, patience is the watchword as China's torrid economic growth of the early 1990s starts to slow.The June Auto China '96 automotive exhibition here became Asia's second largest auto show after Tokyo. Chinese consumers, who still

By Gardner, Greg • Dec. 21, 2000

Not Crazy Like A Fox

No election year collapse predicted for Mexico This time it's the U.S. and not Mexico that's stumbling through an election year.While a history-making voting fiasco delayed the naming of a U.S. president-elect, Mexicans were cruising to the scheduled Dec. 1 inauguration of Vincente Fox with little or no signs of the economic collapse that has accompanied the previous four presidential elections.Determined

By Brian Corbett • Dec. 1, 2000

FUN, FUN & PROFITS, PROFITS, PROFITS

Growing sport compact performance segment gets Big Three attention - finallyLAS VEGAS - California dealers have known for years about the sport compact performance market. Young drivers there enthusiastically accessorize and upfit and add power to street race, make statements and look cool. And have done so for years. Most of this activity has been with import vehicles. Now the Big Three want in on

By Tim Keenan • Dec. 1, 2000

SONIC SETS MEGADEALERS’ PACE BY BUYING FIVE DEALERSHIPS IN TEXAS

Publicly owned consolidators continue to acquire dealerships and franchises in so-called sunbelt markets, although at a much slower rate than in the last two years.Second-ranked megadealer Sonic Automotive sets the pace for the segment, purchasing five Texas dealerships with 1999 revenues totaling about $458 million. This raises Sonic's dealer count to 123, with 14 in Texas.With a revenue "run rate"

By WARD'S DEALER BUSINESS STAFF • Dec. 1, 2000

Visteon Unveils Agreement, Shows off New Multimedia Products

Emphasizing that it is intent on expanding further into the fast-growing telematics and in-car entertainment areas, Visteon Corp. announced Monday at Convergence 2000 a new agreement that it says will enable it to bring Bluetooth wireless technology into the vehicle - plus a new line of OEM and aftermarket multimedia products.Bluetooth is a wireless communication technology that is becoming an industry

By Drew Winter • Nov. 1, 2000

SATURN LOOKS TO MAKE A COMEBACK

Saturn, the only GM domestic division that's unprofitable, should be in the black around 2003 and potentially could post annual sales of 500,000 vehicles by 2005, says Saturn President Cynthia Trudell.She says it all depends on future products that are under consideration. Those products include what are best described as a minivan and a pickup truck.They would join Saturn's original S-Series, the

By WARD'S DEALER BUSINESS STAFF • Nov. 1, 2000

Import dealer association

"Increasingly necessary" Free trade advocate AIADA has different agenda than NADA's MARLTON, NJ - Now and then someone suggests merging the National Auto Dealers Association and the American International Automobile Dealers Association.The rationale is that in this global economy, one association could adequately represent the interests of both domestic and import dealers. Besides, lots of dealers

By Maynard M. Gordon • Nov. 1, 2000

A GOOD WAY TO BOOST YOUR AFTERMARKET SALES

Suppliers and dealers alike finding gold on the World Wide Web A year ago, vehicle manufacturers were explaining to their dealers just how important it is to get in on the $7 billion accessories market. There's no question that tapping into that segment of the auto industry, of which dealers hold a mere 10.5%, would improve the bottom line of any dealership or dealer group.Dealers like Stan Kujawa

By Tim Keenan • Nov. 1, 2000

JM Family Enterprises realigns its top management

A top-level realignment at JM Family Enterprises has elevated octogenarian founder Jim Moran and his daughter, Pat Moran, to the positions of honorary chairman and board chairman, respectively, and awarded the presidency to the company's longtime general counsel, Colin W. Brown.The Deerfield Beach, FL-based JM Family Enterprises made the first change in its chairmanship 32 years after the one-time

By WARD'S DEALER BUSINESS STAFF • Nov. 1, 2000

Autobytel is here to stay, says its senior vice president

Your August, 2000 article headlined, "3rd-Party Lead Providers' Future Iffy," predicting that independent online buying services would eventually become "insignificant," failed to consider one very noticeable player in its analysis of the future Internet automotive equation: the consumer.The assertion that Autobytel.com must ultimately choose whose side it's on - the consumer's or the dealer's - seemed

By Charles W. Ramsay • Nov. 1, 2000

Daewoo Motor in Death Struggle as Creditors Pull Plug

SEOUL — Daewoo Motor Co. Ltd. was expected to unveil a self-rescue plan on Oct. 31 that would include a 15% reduction in its workforce and 30% wages across the board. The plan is the first step of a restructuring scheme to appease creditor banks, which have shut-off Daewoo Motor Co. Ltd.’s life support system by refusing to grant the company any more credit, while demanding sweeping restructuring

By Vince Courtenay • Nov. 1, 2000

The Detroit of Europe - Sort of

Belgium fights for recognition and investment ANTWERP, Belgium - What country has the highest per-capita car production in the world? Japan? Germany? The U.S.? Well, as anyone in the automotive industry here in Belgium will tell you, it's none of the above. Hardly anyone on the U.S.-side of the pond knows it, but with only 10 million inhabitants and four big auto plants churning out more than a million

By Drew Winter • Nov. 1, 2000

Spirit in the showroom

Dealership's on-site clergyman ministers to 185-employee flock In today's tight labor market, many dealers are scrambling to come up with innovative employee satisfaction programs. Greenville Automotive in Greenville, SC, has taken the unusual step of hiring an on-site minister to help spiritually satisfy its staff.Owner Terry Wall hired The Rev. W. Carey Hedgpeth four years ago to serve as a spiritual

By Laurel Wright • Nov. 1, 2000

WARD’S Wrapup

FCI Flexes Connector Muscle The auto industry long has wanted to use flexible wiring onboard cars and trucks, but finding connectors robust enough to work inside the harsh automotive environment has proved problematic. France-based FCI Automotive says it has solved that dilemma with the launch of "the world's first" complete interconnection system used in the automated assembly of flex cable harnesses

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

How to motivate employees to do what you want them to do

As a consultant and coach to leaders in the automotive industry, I hear two common questions.How do I motivate employees to do what I want?How can I move my organization to the next level when I am spending so much time putting out fires?Below are the answers to those questions. If you want more information tune to ASTN for my five-part series called "Legendary Leaders; How to Develop Staff."Getting

By Gloria Gault Geary, CSP • Oct. 1, 2000

GMAC vice president sets the record straight

I was very disturbed to read the misinformation printed in the July issue under the headline, "GMAC's new system to speed up processing loan applications."There are five specific inaccurate areas:1. "We intend to reduce approval rates to two days or less on average and, in turn, reach an average rejection rate of 5%." You have mixed apples and oranges. This is a serious question of definition. We

By David L. Jones • Oct. 1, 2000

Editorial

The Boom Can't Go on Forever, Can it? A 17-million three-peat probably isn't in the cards Once again we are poised at the beginning of what we now very loosely call the "new model year," which used to officially kick off on the first of October. That means it's time to dust off the cliches about tarot cards, dart-boards and crystal balls and even make an educated guess or two about what vehicle sales

By Drew Winter • Oct. 1, 2000

TURN SERVICE WRITERS INTO SUPERSTARS

It's no surprise to service managers that good service advisors are as hard to find as good technicians.How then does one find a service advisor superstar? More real-istically, how do service managers turn their existing service advisors into superstars?No easy task to be sure. On the other hand, what separates a "superstar" service writer from a so-so service writer?Superstars know that Mrs. Jones

By DAVE SKROBOT • Oct. 1, 2000

Team effort boosts accessory sales

Auto manufacturers are working with their dealers to get a bigger piece of the accessories market. More sales of factory parts and accessories improve manufacturer and dealer profitability and give retailers a hedge against dipping new-vehicle margins.It's easier said than done, however. Franchised new-car dealers hold just 10.5% of the $6.8 billion accessories market, according to most recent figures

By Tim Keenan • Oct. 1, 2000