Sticks and carrots: Why furor over facilities won't go away

Martin NeSmith personifies the boiling point over manufacturer facility programs. NeSmith just built a Chevrolet-Buick-GMC store in Jesup, Ga., spending an extra $500,000 to comply with General Motors' Essential Brand Elements program. But with hefty volume-based payouts for complying and a shrinking dealer margin, he figures he had little choice. Read More »

• Mercer report examined

Saab dealers urge GM to pay warranty costs
A group of Saab dealers is asking General Motors to cover warranty repairs for 2010 and 2011 models. GM says it will only honor warranties through the 2009 model year, be ...
Buick: Loaners boost sales
General Motors wants Buick-GMC dealers to offer courtesy loaner vehicles and is considering new advertising standards as ways to move the brands up the premium scale, exe ...
Ford to help dealers renovate
Ford brand unveiled its Facilities of the Future program to dealers at the make meeting. Ford will offer dealers financial help to improve their stores in line with Ford' ...
Toyota refilling dealer stocks
After months of inventory shortages triggered by last year's earthquake, Toyota dealers should return to full volumes within a few weeks. Carl Swope, chairman of the Toyo ...
Chevrolet targets 13% sales gain
General Motors, seeking to gain market share this year, is gunning for a 13 percent U.S. sales increase for Chevrolet. GM expects Chevrolet to increase its market share i ...
Acura aims for 180,000 sales in '12
After a year in which their sales were limited by a devastating earthquake in Japan, Acura dealers were told here that production of Acura vehicles is back to normal and ...
Cadillac sees retail sales rising, less fleet business
General Motors is seeking to increase Cadillac's retail sales about 13 percent this year as it prepares for its busiest product-launch schedule in many years. Cadillac ex ...
Kia dealers expect 100,000 more units
Kia pledged to get its U.S. dealers 100,000 more units this year than last year to keep up the brand's momentum. An extra 100,000 sales would be about a 20 percent gain f ...
Mazda will boost marketing 25%
Mazda North American Operations will use the launch of its Skyactiv powertrain technology and the arrival of the new CX-5 crossover as the impetus to boost its marketing ...
Nissan goal for 2012: 1.1 million
Nissan was the only major Japanese automaker whose U.S. sales were not hurt significantly by the March 11 earthquake. Now it is looking to add to its 2011 momentum with a ...
BMW dealers told bonuses are safe
For dealers attending the BMW make meeting, it was all about listening to the new CEO talk about improving communications -- and assuring them no bonus programs will be c ...
Suzuki plans to refresh its lineup
Suzuki dealers need a refreshed product lineup and consistent supplies if they are to hit the automaker's goals of increasing sales in the United States by 20 percent in ...
Chrysler dealers cheer Eastwood's pep talk
Chrysler Group dealers received a special early preview of the automaker's two-minute "Halftime in America" Super Bowl commercial during their make meeting. They predicte ...
Audi wants to join CSI elite
Audi of America COO Mark Del Rosso challenged dealers here to keep making store and process improvements to raise Audi's customer satisfaction scores into the top three a ...
Infiniti bumps ad budget, offers local-area choices
Infiniti will spend more on advertising and give dealers a new menu of TV commercials for local markets, dealers were told at the make meeting. Also, the brand will broad ...
Lincoln's product show won't snub small stores
Lincoln will invite all its dealers to a Lincoln product show in Detroit in November, executives told dealers at the make meeting. That will be in sharp contrast to a mee ...
Allocation system, SUV shortages rile Land Rover dealers
Dealers at the Land Rover meeting said vehicle allocation and balanced supply throughout the year are their biggest concerns, prompted in part by shortages of the new Ran ...
Saab parts flow is top priority, dealers told
Tim Colbeck, president of Saab Cars North America, told about 25 dealers at the make meeting that the automaker will not contest a move by dealers to force it into Chapte ...
Porsche will review store capacity
Porsche Cars North America starts a four-city tour this month to talk with dealers about how they'll handle the coming wave of new products and whether they need to expan ...
Volvo forms finance arm; dealers cheer
Volvo Cars of North America delighted dealers by announcing at the make meeting the launch of a captive finance arm with services beginning this year. A captive will incr ...
Honda is fixing inventories now, the Civic in the fall
Honda will bring out a significant midcycle change to the Civic compact this fall, just 18 months after it was launched, executives said at the make meeting. The rapid ch ...
VW raises output for U.S., seeks more sales per store
Volkswagen plans to crank up production specifically for the United States 50 percent this year, executives told dealers at the make meeting. VW brand aims to boost U.S. ...
Subaru boosts output, will target Sun Belt
Subaru inventories will be high enough to meet or exceed the brand's U.S. sales goal of 320,000 vehicles, executives told dealers at the make meeting. Subaru is increasin ...
Mitsubishi predicts 100,000 sales by 2014
Mitsubishi Motors North America executives laid out plans to increase sales to 100,000 by 2014, said dealers who attended the make meeting. In an interview after the meet ...
More cars for Hyundai stores in '12
Three factors could bring more vehicles to hungry U.S. Hyundai dealers in 2012: new and redesigned models, manufacturing efficiency and a soft European market. "It appear ...
Jaguar dealers applaud new U.S. ads, better Web site
Jaguar's new marketing campaign and U.S. Web site are driving more customers into showrooms, dealers said after their meeting. "Everybody recognizes that over the years t ...
New AIADA chairman: We must prepare for battle
AIADA Chairman Ray Mungenast isn't as confident as others that 2012 will be a smooth year for manufacturers. As the election season kicks into high gear, the spotlight is ...
Asbury CEO Monaghan: 'The industry is back'
Craig Monaghan smiles a lot these days. The CEO of Duluth, Ga.'s Asbury Automotive Group Inc., the sixth-largest dealership group in the country, sees rising auto sales, ...
AutoTrader assembles car-shopping powerhouse
AutoTrader.com Inc. CEO Chip Perry has rapidly created a car-shopping behemoth. It helps 30 million consumers research vehicles every month and helps dealers sell to thos ...
Mercer report examined
As dealers digested the results of the National Automobile Dealers Association's facilities study last week, they found common ground with challenge after challenge prese ...
Missouri dealers elect officers
The Missouri Automobile Dealers Association has new officers for 2012. ...
Retailer: 8 projects, many challenges
Ron Redfern attended the NADA convention to spend money -- lots of it. His company, Summit Automotive Partners of Centennial, Colo., is spending $25 million during the ne ...
Dealers bullish on U.S. sales outlook, survey says
More than 75 percent of dealers expect their sales to increase by 10 percent or more this year, according to a survey released this week by Ally Financial. ...
Group 1 on the lookout for more acquisitions, Hesterberg says
Group 1 Automotive will snap up more dealerships in 2012, CEO Earl Hesterberg said, but he doesn’t expect the retailer to make more acquisitions than it did in 2011 ...
Group 1's Q4 net income nearly doubles on new vehicle sales
Group 1 Automotive, the fourth-largest U.S. dealership group, said earnings nearly doubled in the fourth quarter on higher sales of new vehicles. ...
Corky Talbert dead at 89
Longtime Pontiac dealer Corky Talbert died Feb. 6. He was 89. Talbert began his automotive career as a Packard salesman. He and partner Eddie Beck had a Pontiac dealershi ...
NADA's Underriner: 54.5 mpg fuel-economy proposal threatens sales
The proposal to increase federal fuel economy standards to 54.5 mpg by 2025 threatens to price millions of consumers out of the market, the incoming chairman of the Natio ...
Credit thaw driving auto loan approvals, sales
The steady thaw in credit markets and rebound in auto sales is spurring lenders to approve buyers faster and at better rates to compete for a piece of an expanding market ...
New vehicles' fuel economy rises nearly 3 mpg from 2008-12 models, study says
New cars and trucks for sale on U.S. dealer lots today get nearly 3 mpg more than new vehicles for sale four years ago, University of Michigan researchers said. For all 2 ...
Sam Swope rides into retirement -- on a Harley
When Sam Swope acquired his first dealership in Elizabethtown, Ky., on Jan. 1, 1952, the store's prior owner had sold 41 new Dodge and Plymouth vehicles the previous year ...
Bush defends GM, Chrysler loans
Former President George W. Bush on Monday defended approving the bridge loans that kept General Motors and Chrysler Group alive during the 2008 U.S. financial crisis. ...
Foreign automakers brace for battles as U.S. election looms
AIADA Chairman Ray Mungenast isn't as confident as others that 2012 will be a smooth year for manufacturers -- at least not in Washington. ...
Swelling Subaru stocks could point to record sales
Subaru of America could set a sales record this year as inventory levels return to normal, said Kirk Schneider, chairman of the Subaru National Dealer Advisory Board and ...
Saab dealers eye parts firm, press GM to cover warranties
About 25 dealers met with Saab Cars North America Monday to discuss the formation of a parts distribution company and the disposal of 2,200 new cars remaining in Saab's d ...
Nissan division aims for 1.1M U.S. sales in 2012, up 16%
Nissan Division, the one major Japanese brand whose sales were not greatly affected by the March earthquake, is looking to add to its 2011 momentum with a 16 percent incr ...
Veloster kicks off Hyundai's push for more accessories
Buyers of Hyundai's youth-oriented Veloster coupe soon will have more accessories to buy at dealerships to personalize their ride. Hyundai dealers will have about 30 Velo ...
Wade urges timeout on facility plans
After its long-awaited study of facility-improvement programs, the National Automobile Dealers Association wants automakers to put their programs on hold for review, citi ...
More dealers bring hunt for leads in-house
A growing number of dealers say they are drifting away from the third-party Internet lead providers that have dominated online vehicle marketing for 15 years. Partly it's ...
Under fire, TrueCar alters Web pricing
TrueCar.com, the online vehicle shopping service, has stopped offering vehicle prices from dealers and promises of big discounts. Instead, TrueCar shoppers now request pr ...
Do staffers like working at your store?
Automotive News is working with Best Companies Group to identify dealerships that have excelled in creating quality workplaces. The program, Best Dealerships To Wo ...
Ford sees progress on Lincoln stores
More than half of the Lincoln dealers in the top 130 U.S. markets have agreed to improve their dealerships, according to Ford marketing chief Jim Farley. ...
Shaw is Time's top dealer
Mike Shaw is the 2012 Time Dealer of the Year. Shaw, 65, was scheduled to receive the honor Saturday, Feb. 4, at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention he ...
Manheim report sees positive trends in leasing
In 2011, 20 percent of the 10.6 million new vehicles counted as sold in the United States at retail, excluding sales to fleets, were leased, one percentage point higher t ...
The new TrueCar: How things will change
To satisfy regulators in various states, TrueCar for the past month has been working on changes to its Web site and methods. The regulators said the online shopping servi ...
Ford dealers must keep pace with technology
In 2012, Ford dealers face the kind of challenge most of them relish: Lots of new vehicles are on their way to showrooms, and dealers' main job will be keeping up with th ...
NADA survey: Hyundai dealers are most satisfied
Hyundai, Subaru and Lexus dealers are the most satisfied, a National Automobile Dealers Association survey shows. For the third straight survey period, Hyundai finished f ...
Dealers
Dealerships in this report: Alton Blakley Ford-Lincoln in Somerset, Ky.; Bergstrom Ford in Neenah, Wis.; Gus Machado Ford in Hialeah, Fla.; Shanxi Dachang Automobile Ltd. ...
Dealers: Verano sells briskly, but ...
Some Buick dealers worry that the recently launched Verano compact sedan will cannibalize sales of the Regal, a mid-sized car that has helped fuel Buick's comeback since ...
Suzuki retailer: Ad support would lift Kizashi
Suzuki's Kizashi could sell better if the factory advertised it more and if dealers stocked the car in higher numbers, the brand's dealer council chairman says. James Mor ...