Automotive News - December 1, 2008 - (Page 6) 6 • DECEMBER 1, 2008 New cheap-car champ: Hyundai Accent, by $20 Kathy Jackson kjackson@crain.com LOS ANGELES — The Hyundai Accent has backward-leapfrogged Nissan’s Versa to become the cheapest car sold in the United States — by $20. Both recently limboed under the symbolic $10,000 bar — if you don’t count shipping — in search of some low-end buzz in this depressed market. The base Mexican-built Versa grabbed that title when it went on sale Nov. 18, undercutting the Kia Rio’s $12,145, which includes shipping. Now Hyundai’s Accent GS has the title, and dealers are “thrilled,” says Scott Fink, incoming chairman of the Hyundai dealer council. “We’ve always been the low-cost leader,” Fink says. “Now we’re back, leading the charge.” With shipping, the base Accent is $10,665; the Versa is $10,685. Hyundai says it cut the price of the Accent GS without eliminating features. The car — equipped with a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine and a five-speed manual transmission — had sold for $11,745, including shipping. The GS makes 110 hp and gets 27 mpg city/33 highway. The new base Versa has a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine. Previously, Nissan’s lowest-priced Versa was equipped with a 1.8-liter. The new Versa comes with the standard five-speed man- ual transmission, makes 107 hp and is rated at 26 mpg city/34 highway. The 1.8-liter engine, with a six-speed manual, makes 122 hp and gets 26/31. “Consumers are more price-sensitive than ever,” says Jesse Toprak, senior analyst with Edmunds.com. “That’s why Nissan did it with Versa. These are price leaders to bring in traffic. “It’s an ad tool. It also can be a pre-emptive strike against the Chinese entrants expected to come in the next few years at low prices.”c Ford will tease global design at Detroit show Rick Kranz rkranz@crain.com BMW’s expansion of Spartanburg plant is on track April Wortham awortham@crain.com LOS ANGELES — The Ford brand will unveil the next step toward its global design language next month at the Detroit auto show. Ford has refused to identify the vehicle, but industry sources expect it will be the 2010 Taurus. “If you look at our lineup in North America and what has to be replaced, you can put two and two together,” said J Mays, Ford design chief. While the vehicle debuting in Detroit “is not the next-generation design language, it will be a big step in the direction of the global design DNA,” Mays said. For the past two years, Ford Motor Co.’s design teams in EuFord’s J Mays is rope and North Americrazy for kinetic. ca have been developing a global design for the Ford brand. Essentially, it is an evolution of the successful kinetic design philosophy created by Ford of Europe. Kinetic design, evident in the Fiesta and Mondeo, strives for a muscular, sporty appearance. Mays said the first vehicle to adopt what he called post-kinetic design is more than a year away. He did not identify the vehicle. The new design “is going to have the best attributes of kinetic, but I would say that it is going to be possibly a little more simple, a little more elegant,” said Mays, who was interviewed at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Globally, post-kinetic design will be seen on Taurus-sized vehicles and smaller. Vehicles generally have minor differences from continent to continent. In North America, the design will appear on the Focus and Fusion in the next decade. c Amy Wilson contributed to this report DALE JEWETT Bentley showed off the Azure T in Los Angeles, with a price starting near $400,000. Only 400 will be made. Bentley boom is over — for now Diana T. Kurylko dkurylko@crain.com LOS ANGELES — The global sales slump finally has caught up with high-flying Bentley Motors. Volkswagen AG’s British superluxury brand has enjoyed a terrific decade, but its rapid growth has come to a screeching halt this year. Sales in 2008 will decline about 30 percent both worldwide and in the United States, said Stuart McCullough, Bentley’s board member for worldwide sales and marketing. At the Los Angeles Auto Show, McCullough said he expects Bentley’s global sales to fall to about 7,000 units this year from 10,014 in 2007. And he said North American sales will skid to about 3,000 from 4,290 last year. Through October, U.S. sales were down 30.1 percent to 2,333. Bentley, which has 37 U.S. dealers, has almost three months of inventory in the United States but does not want to pile on incentives, McCullough said. “We’re not putting on dealer cash or cash for retailing, but we’re helping fund dealer stock levels,” he said. If a dealer is considerably above normal inventory levels, McCullough said, Bentley provides financial assistance. Bentley cut production 15 percent this year. “We saw the cascade coming,” McCullough said. At the Los Angeles show, Bentley rolled out a special edition of its Azure — the 500-hp Azure T. The Azure T will be priced about $50,000 above the standard opentop Azure, which starts at $342,495 including shipping. Only 400 will be produced, with about 100 coming to the United States. The U.S. debut is expected next summer.c BMW AG is forging ahead with a $750 million expansion of its U.S. factory even as it makes deeper cuts to worldwide production. The expansion of the Spartanburg, S.C., factory is “proceeding on time and on budget for a production start in 2010,” says Robert Hitt, a BMW Manufacturing Co. spokesman. The expansion aims to boost annual capacity in Spartanburg to 240,000 vehicles from 160,000 by 2012 and add 500 jobs to the factory’s 5,400-member permanent work force. The X3 crossover, now built at contract assembler Magna Steyr’s factory in Graz, Austria, will move to Spartanburg beginning with the next generation, likely in 2010. Next month, Spartanburg will trim its temporary work force by as many as 733 workers, according to contingency staff supplier MAU Inc. Neither BMW nor MAU would say how many temporary workers Spartanburg employs. Hitt blamed two factors for the temp-staff cuts. First, the plant built the last Z4 coupe and roadster on Aug. 28. The next-generation Z4 will be produced at BMW’s factory in Regensburg, Germany. Second is what Hitt described as the “uncertain global economy.” Last month, BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer said the automaker would need to trim its global 2008 production by at least 40,000 additional units as a result of falling sales, on top of a 25,000-unit cut announced previously. Meanwhile, the BMW factory is sending more of its vehicles overseas. A year ago, Spartanburg was exporting about 60 percent of its output. Today, Hitt said, it exports about 70 percent.c AutoNation, UAW chiefs are on World Congress speaker roster AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson and UAW President Ron Gettelfinger will be featured speakers at the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit. Jackson will speak Wednesday morning, Jan. 21, and Gettelfinger will speak that evening after dinner. Gettelfinger, 64, was elected UAW president in 2002 and re-elected in June 2006. He heads the union during one of the most tumultuous times in the industry’s history. He and the UAW negotiated a historic contract in 2007 that protected benefits for active employees and current retirees while Ron Gettelfinger heads the union during one of the most tumultuous times in the industry’s Jackson: Favors loan to Detroit 3 Gettelfinger: A force in loan talks history. ther sacrifices as part of any bailout. Jackson, 59, who has been CEO of AutoNation since September 1999, has been named an Automotive News All-Star five times and is a four-time lowering wages for new hires. Gettelfinger continues to be a dynamic force in the current congressional bailout hearings, since the UAW may be called upon to make fur- member of Advertising Age’s “Marketing 100.” Jackson has been vocal in his support of a bailout for the Detroit 3. He publicly has pointed to the financial crisis on Wall Street as the basis for the industry’s troubles. Jackson insists that Chapter 11 reorganization is not a viable choice. Previously, he was CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA LLC, where he led a resurgence of the luxury-vehicle brand’s sales and marketing efforts. He also was a dealer and managing partner of Euro Motorcars of Bethesda, Md., from 1979 to 1990. c Key facts When: Jan. 19-22 Where: Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center Cost: $1,495 early registration fee by today, Dec. 1 (save $200); daily fee $850 Information: 313-446-0485 or autonews.com/worldcongress Exclusive lead sponsors: PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM http://www.Edmunds.com http://www.Edmunds.com http://www.autonews.com/worldcongress
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