Disasters

Automakers will scrap 15,000 new vehicles damaged by Sandy

9:36 am U.S. ET | Nov. 7, 2012
Toyota, Chrysler, Nissan and Honda plan to scrap about 15,000 vehicles damaged by Hurricane Sandy as automakers and dealers continue assessing the storm's impact. Including used autos and those of individual owners, as many as 200,000 may have to be replaced, said Larry Dixon, senior analyst for the National Automobile Dealers Association.... Read More »

 

HURRICANE SANDY: THE AFTERMATH

Impact on sales is expected to be brief

12:01 am U.S. ET | Nov. 5, 2012
Insurance checks cut in November and December are expected to help automakers and dealers more than make up for the sales that Hurricane Sandy wiped out at the end of October.... Read More »

 

HURRICANE SANDY: THE AFTERMATH

Prep work helped dealership group weather the storm

12:01 am U.S. ET | Nov. 5, 2012
DCH Auto Group has 15 dealerships with many millions of dollars in inventory in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Nine stores were in Sandy's path. But DCH was spared devastation.... Read More »

 

HURRICANE SANDY: THE AFTERMATH

Penske surveys New Jersey store damage: 'It was devastating'

12:01 am U.S. ET | Nov. 5, 2012
Penske Automotive Group CEO Roger Penske found devastation when he visited his company's dealerships in Jersey City, N.J., on Wednesday, Oct. 31.... Read More »

 

HURRICANE SANDY: THE AFTERMATH

Used-car prices expected to rise

12:01 am U.S. ET | Nov. 5, 2012
Customers replacing damaged vehicles in the wake of Sandy will push up used-vehicle prices across the country, used-vehicle experts say.... Read More »

 

HURRICANE SANDY: THE AFTERMATH

Limited time, lack of storage hurt N.Y. dealers

12:01 am U.S. ET | Nov. 5, 2012
When auto dealers on New York's Long Island and in the boroughs of Brooklyn, Staten Island and Manhattan learned that Sandy was approaching, they faced an alarming challenge: lack of vehicle storage space on higher ground.... Read More »

 

HURRICANE SANDY: THE AFTERMATH

European brands take worst sales hit from Sandy

12:01 am U.S. ET | Nov. 5, 2012
Sandy's biggest impact may be felt by European brands that depend heavily on sales in the hard-hit region.... Read More »

 

EDITORIAL

After the storm, finding the good in a bad situation

12:01 am U.S. ET | Nov. 5, 2012
The auto industry is only beginning to tally its share of the damage caused by last week's terrible hurricane, which wreaked havoc and created unbearable situations for people up and down the East Coast.... Read More »

 

DIANA T. KURYLKO

New Jersey struggles in the storm's aftermath

2:56 pm U.S. ET | Nov. 2, 2012
New Jersey is a mess. Dealerships where I live in northwest New Jersey were all closed yesterday, mainly because the power hasn't been restored. Lines for gas are miles long. Some stations will only fill containers people carry to the pumps.... Read More »

 

Automakers donate to charities, offer customers support in storm's wake

4:40 pm U.S. ET | Nov. 1, 2012
Superstorm Sandy has triggered an outpouring of charitable outreach from automakers. For example, Toyota Motor will give $1 million to the American Red Cross and other non-profit groups to aid relief efforts for storm victims in regions that took the heaviest damage, the company said late Wednesday.... Read More »

 

Group 1's East Coast dealers expect $2 million in inventory losses

4:21 pm U.S. ET | Nov. 1, 2012
Group 1 Automotive's 24 East Coast dealerships are facing $2 million in inventory losses after Superstorm Sandy. Group 1, the nation's fourth-largest dealership group, estimates it will incur a $250,000 pre-tax deductible charge for facilities damages in the fourth quarter and $2 million in inventory losses.... Read More »

 

JAMIE LaREAU

For one dealer Sandy brings strong memories of Carol

11:50 am U.S. ET | Nov. 1, 2012
Bob Tasca Jr. had a bit of deja vu this week. “My father's first Ford dealership was in Bristol, R.I., and it was destroyed in 1954 by Hurricane Carol,” Tasca said. “I was a very little kid at the time, but it wiped my father out.”... Read More »

 

Dealers still reeling after Sandy's wrath

4:07 pm U.S. ET | Oct. 31, 2012
Many dealerships in New Jersey and parts of New York are still recovering and assessing damages caused by Hurricane Sandy, which hit the East Coast Monday evening. Mark Schienberg, president of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, said about 60 percent of their dealers are still without power and were closed Wednesday.... Read More »

 

Fisker checks report of Karma fires after Sandy

3:25 pm U.S. ET | Oct. 31, 2012
Fisker Automotive is looking into a report that 16 of its Karma plug-in hybrids caught fire at a New Jersey port after being submerged in seawater during Hurricane Sandy.... Read More »

 

VINCE BOND JR.

Auto exec gets early Halloween scare in New Jersey floods

9:55 am U.S. ET | Oct. 31, 2012
Craig Lockerd compares his terrifying brush with Sandy to a bad Lifetime movie, so we’ll call it The Horror in Somers Point, N.J. During a somewhat calm moment during the storm Monday night, the 61-year-old president of Automax Recruiting and Training in New Jersey decided to head to nearby Ventnor City, N.J., to check on his son’s property.... Read More »

 

East Coast dealerships assess damages after hurricane strikes

1:58 pm U.S. ET | Oct. 30, 2012
Hurricane Sandy, the largest tropical storm the Atlantic has ever seen, hit southern New Jersey Monday evening, affecting sales and damaging inventory at dealerships there, as well as other East Coast states. Nearly 8 million electric customers in 15 states and Washington, D.C., were without power today and the storm's death toll reached 29, CNN reported.... Read More »

 

Sandy to cost luxury-car dealers needing northeast U.S. sales

1:52 pm U.S. ET | Oct. 30, 2012
Luxury-car brands such as Honda's Acura and Daimler's Mercedes-Benz will take a disproportionate hit from Hurricane Sandy, with as much as 25 percent of U.S. sales coming from cities in the storm’s path.... Read More »

 

East Coast dealers shut stores, relocate cars as Hurricane Sandy hits

3:26 pm U.S. ET | Oct. 29, 2012
As the Atlantic's largest-ever tropical storm hit the East Coast, auto dealers closed showrooms, moved cars to higher ground and calculated the effect on October sales. Hurricane Sandy caused 65 deaths in the Caribbean and is expected to converge with two other systems to create a phenomenon the National Weather Service is calling Frankenstorm. As of 8 p.m. EDT, the storm reached land near Atlantic City on the New Jersey coast.... Read More »

 

East Coast dealers 'battening down the hatches' for Hurricane Sandy

5:54 pm U.S. ET | Oct. 26, 2012
Auto dealers in the Northeast are closely monitoring Hurricane Sandy, which some forecasters predict may become the worst storm to hit the region in more than 100 years.... Read More »

 

HANS GREIMEL

Japan's Renesas rescue: White knights or protectionism?

9:42 am U.S. ET | Sept. 24, 2012
It was the auto parts company almost no one had heard of until it brought down the entire industry last year. Now, Renesas Electronics is back in the headlines, and again not necessarily for a good reason.... Read More »

 

Mazda, Honda suspend China production as protests continue over territorial dispute

Sept. 17, 2012 14:45 CET
Mazda and Honda are among a number of major Japanese firms halting production in China as angry protests escalate over a territorial dispute between Asia's two biggest economies.... Read More »

 

Forecasts: Japan's 2011 quake could be merely a prelude to the Big One

12:01 am U.S. ET | Sept. 10, 2012
Last year's earthquake-tsunami in Japan killed 19,000 people and derailed the global auto industry for months. But that disaster could be small potatoes compared to two quakes expected to hit Tokyo and Japan's industrial heartland -- someday.... Read More »

 

Group 1 reports minor damage to its Gulf Coast dealerships

4:12 pm U.S. ET | Sept. 4, 2012
Group 1 Automotive said today that its Gulf Coast dealerships were spared major damage last week from Hurricane Isaac, but they expect light customer traffic while the region recovers from the storm.... Read More »

 

Gulf Coast dealers try to salvage weekend sales in wake of hurricane

12:41 pm U.S. ET | Aug. 31, 2012
Hurricane Isaac has dissipated after a week of floods and power outages, and now dealers on the Gulf Coast will try to rebuild sales over the Labor Day weekend. Some dealers had to move their inventory to safe ground as Isaac -- whose winds reached 80 mph at peak strength -- dropped a foot of rain in many areas in Louisiana and caused flooding.... Read More »

 

JAMIE LaREAU

Southern dealers say good riddance to Isaac, but Midwesterners welcome its remnants

3:03 pm U.S. ET | Aug. 31, 2012
Missouri dealer Lynn Thompson is consumed by the weather reports. In a soft Missouri drawl, Thompson repeatedly expresses a desperate hope that the remnants of what once was Hurricane Isaac will reach his community.... Read More »