Also on Thursday, the Seat announced record operating profit for the first quarter of 2023, at 144 million euros, compared with five million euros in the first quarter of 2022. Revenue was 3.6 billion euros, 48 percent higher than the first quarter of 2022. Cupra began as a trim line of Seat and became its…
Category: Automotive News
What dealerships service managers are reading
When I was first starting at Automotive News a few years back and trying to learn the service and parts business, Lee Harkins, CEO of dealership training company M5 Management Services, let me be a fly on the wall at one of his performance group meetings. I must not have made too big of a…
Kia and Hyundai Break-Ins On the Rise in Kent
Social media challenges, which have steadily increased since 2020, range from silly and benign to downright dangerous and harmful. One of the latest harmful challenges to hit social media this summer is the “Kia Challenge”—and it continues to gain momentum across the country. The Kia Challenge is a TikTok trend that encourages social media users…
April sales up 2.3% but still below pre-pandemic levels
New light-vehicle sales in April were up 2.3 per cent compared with the same period last year, but still below pre-pandemic levels, at an estimated 144,069 units compared with 180,616 in April 2019, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants. Sales in April were also slightly below March. All figures are estimates now that the vast majority…
Study reveals drop in customer satisfaction for independents
Recent numbers from research firm Ducker Carlisle showed growing dissatisfaction with franchised dealership service departments. This week, JD Power released its 2023 US Aftermarket Service Index Study that showed an overall decline in satisfaction with independent repair facilities as well. The data firm revealed independent shops dropped in all three categories that make up the…
Ford to alter China strategy, Farley says
Farley said the region remains key to Ford. “We believe that not only is it the biggest EV market in the world, but customers digitally are ahead of the rest of the world, and so it’s a really important market for us,” he said. “And what we really see in our presence there is battery…
F&I talks over video a good option for car buyers
Jonathan Jordan, director of retail strategy for F&I product provider JM&A Group, said his company launched its so-called virtual F&I offering in 2018. He told Automotive News in late January the company had logged more than 23,000 transactions where the F&I manager and customer had never actually met — with about 20,000 occurring in the…
Quebec toughens ZEV sales mandate, frustrating automakers
Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette announced April 21 that the province was “accelerating” the yearly percentage of ZEVs that must be sold until the goal of 100 per cent is reached in 2035. The current Quebec sales mandates are already more aggressive than the proposed federal mandates and the new provincial targets widen that spread…