Automotive News - April 19, 2010 - 3

APRIL 19, 2010 • 3
84th year — No. 6408

briefs
Judge sets first Toyota hearing for May 13
The federal judge overseeing lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp. related to unintended acceleration ordered lawyers in the cases to an initial conference in his Santa Ana, Calif., courtroom May 13. Toyota faces at least 180 consumer and shareholder lawsuits seeking class-action status and at least 57 individual suits alleging personal injuries or deaths caused by sudden-acceleration incidents. The federal lawsuits were combined April 9 in a multidistrict litigation before U.S. District Judge James Selna. The judge will oversee the lawsuits, deciding issues such as evidence gathering and allowable legal arguments. The May 13 hearing is an initial organizing conference. — Bloomberg News

Learning from past mistakes
Using diversity panel as model, Toyota hopes new group can help quality image
Kathy Jackson
kjackson@crain.com

LOS ANGELES — Toyota is reviving a successful model from the past to address its quality and safety problems. Toyota will rely on an independent council headed by former Clinton administration Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater. The new panel, which has yet to meet, will be impaneled for one year, says Jim Wiseman, vice president of corporate communications at Toyota Motor North America Inc. The council’s other members will be named soon. The template for forming a panel to solve an important issue harkens back to 1999, when Toyota advertis-

ing irritated the black community. Toyota ran a Corolla ad in Jet magazine with the tag line: “Unlike your last boyfriend, it goes to work in the morning.” It also sent an advertising postcard showing a smiling black mouth with a gold inlay of a RAV4 on a front tooth. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson vowed to boycott Toyota unless measurable increases were made in minority dealers, suppliers, ad agencies and executives. Toyota calmed that controversy after forming a seven-member independent council in 2001 chaired by Alexis Herman, a former Labor secretary in the Clinton administration. The panel has overseen a 10-year ef-

Minority marketing takes a hit ➤ 34
fort to help mend the company’s relationship with minorities. “The diversity panel has been a great resource for us,” Wiseman says. “It has helped us avoid missteps and take the company in a new direction. So since that was so positive, it encouraged us to do the safety and quality panel.” Among the council’s tasks will be to investigate Toyota’s electronic throttle system, which some allege has caused unintended acceleration of Toyota and Lexus vehicles. Toyota insists that electronics are not to blame for runaway cars. It is not clear whether the broad-based panel will

include engineers or technical specialists. It also will work closely with Toyota’s North American leadership team, including the new global task force on quality that will be headed in the United States by Steve St. Angelo, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. But Wiseman says Slater’s panel will be free to draw its own conclusions. “It’s a commitment to more transparency on safety controls,” Wiseman says. “They can have access to any information they need. If they want to do additional testing, they
see PANEL, Page 34

UCLA psychologist is named to GM board
DETROIT — General Motors Co. has appointed clinical psychologist Cynthia Telles as a director, giving the automaker a 13-member board. Telles, 57, is on the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she leads a psychosocial clinic for people who speak Spanish. She previously served on the board of the railway company Burlington Northern Santa Fe with GM CEO Ed Whitacre. — Chrissie Thompson

Fisker plans Karma tour
Fisker Automotive is taking its Karma plug-in hybrid on a 10-week tour of its U.S. and Canadian dealerships starting April 27. The events will provide the first opportunity for many of the 1,600plus people who have put down $5,000 deposits on the $90,000 sedan to see the Karma in person. The events will not include test drives of the sole touring vehicle. Fisker expects to begin delivering Karmas in the first quarter of 2011. — Jean Halliday

AMANDA SMITH

Derrell Alexander is 95. He works six days a week at a Chevrolet dealership in Casper, Wyo., and has sold more than 5,000 cars and trucks since 1949.

At 95, this Wyo. salesman still moves the metal
Donna Harris
dharris@crain.com

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C O R R E C T I O N
A story on Page 18 of the April 12 issue incorrectly stated the configuration for the Cummins diesel engine available in the Ram pickup. It is an inline-six.

Car salesman Derrell Alexander amazes fellow employees at White’s Mountain Chevrolet by driving himself to the Casper, Wyo., dealership six days a week, working from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and showing up with a smile on his face. What’s extraordinary about Alexander’s job performance is that he was born in 1915 — the year Ford Motor Co. assembled its one millionth Model T, the automotive speed record was 102.6 mph, and the city of Detroit installed the very first stop sign. “There weren’t a lot of cars in 1915,” he says with a chuckle. “There were more horse-and-buggies.” Alexander, who turned 95 on March 17, still has a spring in his step and a knack for remembering names, fellow employees say. Although now he closes just two or three car sales a month, in his heyday during the 1950s and 1960s, he says, he would close 30 deals monthly. “We have conservatively estimated that Derrell has sold over 5,000 cars

“

It was a lot different when I started selling cars. It was a lot easier and more fun.
DERRELL ALEXANDER
White’s Mountain Chevrolet

”

and trucks,” says Tim White Jr., western region manager for the White Family Cos., the Dayton, Ohio, dealership group that owns the Chevy store. Alexander “was 83 when we took over the store,” White says. “You can always count on him.”

Long history
Alexander moved west from South Carolina with his father in 1933 during the Great Depression, hopping aboard a boxcar because they had neither an automobile nor train fare. They found work in Wyoming with cattle ranchers, and Alexander still worked part-time tending cows and mending fences when he got his start in the car business as a technician for Ideal Chevrolet in Douglas,

Wyo., in 1946. In 1949 he transferred to the sales department because he didn’t like the smell of fumes in the garage. Alexander moved to Casper to sell cars and trucks for Nolan Chevrolet — his current store — in 1962 and saw it change owners four times. Trace Swisher, White’s Mountain Chevrolet’s general manager, began working with Alexander when the Whites took over the store in 1998. Swisher had been in banking for 30 years and was new to car sales. Alexander, he says, “taught me about the car business. As a banker I dealt with wealthy people — not rough-and-tumble ranchers who come here in bib overalls. “You can’t judge customers by

what they look like. You have to talk with them and work with them so you can understand them. That’s the most important thing he taught me.” Swisher says Alexander also set an example of hard work. He would go until midnight if he had to, trolling for prospects or delivering vehicles. Wyoming’s small population is scattered. Casper is considered a large community with its population of 55,000. And customers sometimes drive 150 miles just to get an oil change.

Cell phones? ‘Stupid’
Now Alexander spends much of his time sitting by the dealership’s fireplace. He spurns modern conveniences, including e-mail. Swisher has heard him call cell phones “stupid.” “It was a lot different when I started selling cars. It was a lot easier and more fun,” Alexander says. Younger salespeople “can’t do nothing withsee SALESMAN, Page 36

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Automotive News - April 19, 2010

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