Automotive News - February 11, 2008 - (Page 66) 66 • FEBRUARY 11, 2008 Nissan dealers: Super outlay for supercar GT-R sales require major investment in tooling, training Lindsay Chappell lchappell@crain.com Rules of the game U.S. Nissan dealers who want to stock the GT-R sports car, right, must Agree to sell and service the car as Nissan specifies Transact GT-R sales away from the showroom floor, handled by the dealer principal or dealership manager Allow only technicians certified to service the GT-R to work on the car Have the service manager or senior service writer greet GT-R service customers Source: Nissan North America FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Most automakers wouldn’t bother even introducing a car projected to sell just 1,500 units a year. Not so for Nissan North America Inc. Nissan plans to launch its $70,000 GT-R sports car in the United States in June. Annual sales expectations are 1,500, more or less. Nissan wants U.S. dealers to invest in tooling and training to service the cars in a way that emphasizes they are rare vehicles. Nissan long has sold the GT-R in various versions in Japan, but the new-generation GT-R is a technological departure from every other Nissan and Infiniti-brand vehicle. A team of racing engineers at Nissan Motor Co.’s r&d center in Atsugi, Japan, developed the GT-R. It has a six-cylinder engine coupled with a new four-wheel-drive transaxle. The wheels and tires were specifically developed for the GT-R. So were the brakes and suspension system, body panels, dual-clutch transmission, exhaust system and headlights. To introduce the 480-hp, Japanesemade supercar, Nissan is requiring training specific to the car. They also must complete an online course. “For a dealer to take his top technician out of the shop for a week is a loss of revenues,” Nissan’s Childs concedes. “Normally we would ask only one to two days of training on a new model, but the GT-R requires a lot of learning.” Last year, as the GT-R was emerging from development, Nissan’s Japanese executives said U.S. dealers would have to send their GT-R technicians to Japan for four weeks of training. But that plan proved unrealistic, Childs says. have to get the car regardless of the payback. It’s a halo car for the franchise. I’ve already talked to people about it who normally drive Porsches.” The key GT-R goal, Nissan executives say, is not moving metal. Rather, it is creating a high-end sales and service experience that will bring new cachet to the Nissan brand and benefit other dealership operations. “The GT-R is very significant for us, more than other new models” says Allen Childs, Nissan North America’s vice president of parts and service. “This customer is someone we know has high expectations,” Childs says. “They know technology, and they expect the people who work on their car to have a high level of knowledge of the car and its racing heritage. This is one where we can’t have a miss in any way, shape or form.” Most U.S. Nissan dealerships already have one of the systems, says Ed Hibma, Nissan’s senior manager for technical support. The GT-R uses nontraditional materials, such as carbon fiber structural pieces and lightweight aluminum. Body shops will have to work with those materials and use a special jig created for carbon fiber applications during the GT-R’s development. The car also uses a new chip-resistant paint compound; U.S. dealerships must learn the same technique used at the Japanese assembly plant. The engine requires a separate software system for running diagnostics. Hibma says other required new tools include wrenches that allow a technician to deal with the car’s oversized Brembo brakes, and ramps that allow the low-slung car to be rolled onto garage hoists at the correct angle. Every dealership that sells the GT-R must designate its top technician to work on it. That employee must be certified as a master technician or get that rating by year end. Certification requires 250 hours of classroom study and 20 hours of online work. retailers to move service technicians through a special training program, invest in tooling, and adopt service and customer-handling procedures. GT-R sales must occur off the showroom floor, handled directly by the store manager or dealer principal. The car’s warranty will require owners to have its engine retuned annually, at Nissan’s expense. To work on the GT-R, dealerships must have in their service garages a device called an image-based alignment rack, which costs $25,000 to $30,000. All this for a car that will sell less than two units a year per U.S. dealer. For your hands only Once technicians complete the fiveday training, only they will be authorized to work on a GT-R that rolls into a service department. Dealers who own more than one Nissan store must have an authorized GT-R technician on staff at each dealership. Should a GT-R customer come in for service while the designated mechanic is out sick or on vacation, Childs says, Nissan North America will send one of its own GT-R technical employees to the dealership. Nissan also is setting rules for how service departments deal with GT-R customers. A dealership’s service manager or senior service writer must greet the customer. Those employees must be trained on the GT-R to ensure their technical familiarity with the car. The idea, Childs says, is to assure the owner of the GT-R that it is in good hands. He says employees must convey that the components of the GT-R are unique, that its performance characteristics differ from those of other Nissan vehicles and that answers to mechanical questions about a Maxima or even a 350Z probably do not apply to the GT-R. “This customer is going to know his stuff,” Childs says. “We want him to have full confidence that we do, too.” c Image campaign Not all of Nissan’s roughly 1,100 U.S. dealerships are on board with the GT-R program. The company declines to say how many dealers have agreed to become certified GT-R retailers by committing to all of the new service policies. Some dealers are deciding not to sell the car rather than take on the cost and procedures. But for many dealers, the decision was obvious. Saul Rosen, who owns Nissan dealerships in Milwaukee and suburban Chicago, says the size of dealer investment is not the issue. “If I end up making some money, fine,” Rosen told Automotive News. “But if you’re a dealer of any size, you Need Salespeople, Tech’s, Managers & Other Employees? The Auto Industry’s #1 Recruiting, Training & Marketing Company Salespeople~BDC~Detailer~Porter~Technician Body Tech~Service Advisor~Service Manager Parts Counter~Parts Manager~Sales Manager Finance Manager~Office Staff~GSM~GM New tools required The required investment in tooling and training to sell the GT-R will vary among dealerships, Childs says. He estimates the average at $20,000. The image-based alignment device generates a computer image of the chassis alignment. The tolerances of the GT-R chassis are much tighter than those of other Nissan vehicles. Dealer service shops must be able to measure more precisely, executives say. 5 days of school GT-R technicians must attend one of Nissan North America’s seven regional training centers for five days of 800-421-4550 www.clickhereforadvice.com Brian C. Hall, President & CEO U.S. sales drop a rare weakness in Toyota quarterly earnings Hans Greimel hgreimel@crain.com No stopping a profit Toyota continued impressive global gains in OctoberDecember quarter, despite soft sales in North America. Fiscal 3Q Change Revenue $59.38 billion 9.2% Operating profit $5.32 billion 4.7% Source: Toyota Motor Corp. TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp.’s sales in North America fell in the October-December quarter, but the automaker still posted record sales and a 4.7 percent increase in global operating profit. In the quarter, North American sales dipped 1 percent to 756,000 vehicles from 764,000 a year earlier. Toyota blamed the subprime loan problem for the decline. As a result, Toyota trimmed its North American sales forecast to 2.97 million units for the fiscal year ending March 31 from an earlier outlook of 2.99 million. But it kept its global forecast steady at 8.93 million units, saying expanding business in Asia and developing markets would offset the U.S. slowdown. The bigger picture showed continued gains. Toyota booked a 9.2 percent increase in revenues to a record ¥6.71 trillion ($59.38 billion) for the third quarter. Meanwhile, operating profits climbed 4.7 percent to ¥601.5 billion ($5.32 billion). That result marked the second-highest quarterly operating profit in Toyota’s history. It was topped only by the first quarter of the current fiscal year, from April to June. Despite the third-quarter stumble in North America, Toyota is still aiming for a 1 percent increase in regional volume to 2.97 million vehicles for the year. That means Toyota has to sell 717,000 vehicles in the Jan- uary-March period to meet its goal. So far, the company is off to a weak start, with U.S. sales down 2.8 percent in January. In October-December, North American operating profit fell for the second straight quarter. It tumbled by more than a third to ¥63.6 billion ($562.8 million). Toyota cited higher incentives to move its cars and a ¥23.8 billion ($210.6 million) write-down of valuation losses on interest rate swaps, a result of the Federal Reserve’s rate cuts. The write-down is expected to be a one-time charge. Like other Japanese carmakers such as Nissan Motor Co., Toyota said it has seen an increase in loan losses at its financing unit because of the U.S. financing crunch. But Senior Managing Director Takeshi Suzuki said the loss ratio was small and said Toyota’s default rate was only half or a third of that suffered by other auto loan companies.c http://www.clickhereforadvice.com http://www.clickhereforadvice.com http://creditacceptance.com http://creditacceptance.com
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