Automotive News - March 24, 2008 - (Page 36)

36 • MARCH 24, 2008 Saturn will choose store system soon With Reynolds out, Canadian company becomes a contender Ralph Kisiel rkisiel@crain.com Estimated Europe light-vehicle registrations by manufacturer, February & 2 months Feb. 2008 Feb. Percent 2007 change 2 mos. 2008 2 mos. Percent 2007 change Saturn dealers should learn by the end of the third quarter what dealership management system they will use. Saturn’s franchise operations team — the brand’s version of a dealer advisory council — will make the call. Reynolds and Reynolds Co. was going to install the General Motors Integrated Dealer Management System in all 413 Saturn dealerships. But Reynolds, embroiled in a breach-ofcontract lawsuit with GM, abruptly bowed out in February. Saturn dealers are not overly concerned, says GM spokeswoman Susan Garontakos. Their dealership management system contract with an ADP Dealer Services unit runs through December. GM chose Reynolds, ADP, Quorum Information Technologies Inc. and AutoSoft International Inc. as the sole vendors to sell the GM Integrated Dealer Management System to its 8,000 dealers. Maury Marks, Quorum’s CEO: “We’re definitely going to give it our best shot.” “We’re still in discussions with Reynolds,” Garontakos says. With Reynolds out, Quorum — a small, publicly traded company in Calgary, Alberta — has become a more important player in GM’s initiative. So far, Quorum has installed 205 GM Integrated Dealer Management Systems. It will install 25 more over the next few months. Quorum CEO Maury Marks has signed up PEQ Inc., of Miamisburg, Ohio, to help it install the system. “We’re pretty excited about our future this year,” Marks says. Quorum would like to get the Saturn assignment, he says. “We’re definitely going to give it our best shot.” Lower monthly bills Bill Thompson, general manager of a Canadian Cadillac and Chevrolet dealership, praises his switch to the GM Integrated Dealer Management System. The dealership, Victoria Motor Products Ltd. in Victoria, British Columbia, now works off one customer database and can exchange most data automatically with GM. Thompson’s dealership has been using the system for 14 months. “We’re on IDMS, so it’s fixed pricing,” he says. “Our Reynolds bill here for a lot less functionality was in the $5,000-a-month range, and we’re under $3,000 now with the new Quorum system. There’s far more functionality than we ever had.” c 4 vendors Dealers buy the system directly from GM, but the four vendors provide the system hardware, software and services. GM negotiated the price of the system with each vendor and dictated the software applications and level of services that the system must provide. Reynolds had not installed the system in any Saturn dealership when it dropped out. But Reynolds sold and installed it in about 400 non-Saturn GM dealerships. It’s unclear what GM and Reynolds will do about those 400 dealerships. Volkswagen division 118,739 Audi 46,307 Seat 30,920 Skoda 35,445 Other 283 VOLKSWAGEN AG 231,694 Peugeot 93,854 Citroen 73,457 PSA GROUP 167,311 Ford division 88,775 Volvo 19,250 Land Rover 4,308 Jaguar 1,072 FORD MOTOR CO. 113,405 Opel/Vauxhall 90,203 Chevrolet/GM Daewoo 14,813 Saab 4,800 GM U.S. 489 GENERAL MOTORS 110,305 Renault division 93,281 Dacia 16,255 RENAULT 109,536 Fiat division 87,137 Lancia 10,869 Alfa Romeo 6,135 Other 491 FIAT GROUP 104,632 Toyota Division 64,757 Lexus 1,865 TOYOTA MOTOR 66,622 Mercedes-Benz 49,350 Smart 5,250 DAIMLER AG† 54,600 BMW division 48,147 Mini 10,000 BMW GROUP 58,147 NISSAN 27,710 HONDA 19,490 HYUNDAI 22,364 SUZUKI 19,340 MAZDA 18,784 KIA 18,866 MITSUBISHI 10,140 CHRYSLER LLC† 8,041 OTHER 19,854 TOTAL 1,180,842 103,802 14.4 43,919 5.4 29,087 6.3 35,886 –1.2 248 14.1 212,942 8.8 82,713 13.5 73,559 –0.1 156,272 7.1 85,974 3.3 18,959 1.5 4,840 –11.0 1,428 –24.9 111,201 2.0 88,728 1.7 14,669 1.0 5,133 –6.5 422 15.9 108,952 1.2 86,030 8.4 10,335 57.3 96,365 13.7 77,458 12.5 12,044 –9.8 12,442 –50.7 301 63.1 102,245 2.3 66,408 –2.5 2,121 –12.1 68,529 –2.8 44,567 10.7 3,293 59.4 47,860 14.1 39,190 22.9 6,656 50.2 45,846 26.8 17,137 61.7 19,227 1.4 21,630 3.4 19,814 –2.4 14,898 26.1 16,966 11.2 9,858 2.9 7,702 4.4 9,232 115.1 1,086,676 8.7 248,782 95,259 60,695 73,945 601 479,282 183,844 153,784 337,628 199,507 40,698 12,028 2,769 255,002 191,626 31,412 10,539 1,136 234,713 187,031 31,327 218,358 179,586 21,854 14,267 1,219 216,926 137,228 4,791 142,019 111,210 12,309 123,519 100,923 22,446 123,369 61,622 45,356 44,850 42,716 40,617 40,462 21,778 17,418 44,178 2,489,812 226,453 95,759 60,466 74,545 768 457,991 175,163 157,054 332,217 197,565 43,138 13,024 4,163 257,890 201,102 30,194 11,861 962 244,119 185,554 19,070 204,624 163,991 23,834 26,455 908 215,188 146,575 6,012 152,587 104,244 7,978 112,222 87,274 15,896 103,170 39,778 43,852 47,889 42,781 36,078 35,919 21,741 17,107 34,084 2,399,237 9.9 –0.5 0.4 –0.8 –21.7 4.6 5.0 –2.1 1.6 1.0 –5.7 –7.7 –33.5 –1.1 –4.7 4.0 –11.1 18.1 –3.9 0.8 64.3 6.7 9.5 –8.3 –46.1 34.3 0.8 –6.4 –20.3 –6.9 6.7 54.3 10.1 15.6 41.2 19.6 54.9 3.4 –6.3 –0.2 12.6 12.6 0.2 1.8 29.6 3.8 VW thinks modular for flexibility at auto plants Diana T. Kurylko dkurylko@crain.com †DaimlerChrysler sold the Chrysler group on Aug. 3, 2007; Chrysler LLC and Daimler AG totals through July 2007 are extracted from DaimlerChrysler. Note: Reflects estimated registration data from 28 European countries; excludes most commercial vehicles Source: ACEA Germany, new EU members send up European sales Jesse Snyder jsnyder@craincom.de FROM 0 TO100 IN UNDER 30 SECONDS! Non-Recourse Financing Turndowns in reserve money paid to dealers since 1999 We approve every customer in writing in 30 seconds or less… so you can convert your turndowns into approvals and sales. Our Guaranteed Credit Approval Program allows you to eliminate customer turndowns and provides 3 different financing programs to meet your customers’ needs and your profit requirements. Isn’t it time you got on the road to capturing incremental business from a growing sub-prime market with Credit Acceptance? NASDAQ: CACC Changing lives since 1972. creditacceptance.com or 1-800-873-0512 When Germany and new members of the European Union pull together, they move the European market. February gains of more than 20 percent in hot central Europe and a resurgent Germany boosted European sales 8.7 percent to 1.18 million units in February. That was enough to turn Europe’s year-to-date from negative to positive, up 3.8 percent to 2.49 million new passenger vehicles. Central Europe has been strong for two years as increasing prosperity fuels car purchases there. But Germany’s resurgence follows a dismal 2007. Consumers stayed away from dealerships after the value-added tax on car purchases was raised to 19 percent from 16 percent on Jan. 1, 2007. But even compared with 2006, German sales are higher in the first two months this year. Among Europe’s other top markets, only France is higher in the first two months of 2008 than in the same period of 2007. Italy’s 5.5 percent decline from a year earlier was similar to declines in the United Kingdom and Spain. The buoyant European market helped most manufacturers. Among the big groups, only Toyota, General Motors and Ford lost volume in the first two months. On a percentage basis, BMW Group led the gainers among European automakers, up 19.6 percent to 123,369. The BMW brand recorded a double- digit increase, but the entry-level brand Mini rose 41.2 percent on the introduction of the Clubman wagon. The Volkswagen brand led its group to an above-the-market gain despite virtually flat sales for sister brands Audi, Seat and Skoda. c Estimated Europe registrations by country 2 mos. Percent 2008 change Italy 450,105 –5.5 Germany 449,365 17.3 France 337,242 2.4 United Kingdom 231,707 –3.1 Spain 223,020 –5.9 Netherlands 116,705 6.1 Belgium 112,787 7.7 Ireland 71,569 –1.2 Greece 56,875 10.4 Poland 56,567 26.3 Romania 50,918 35.6 Austria 43,871 2.1 Switzerland 40,216 8.6 Sweden 38,283 –6.4 Finland 33,541 22.1 Portugal 33,186 16.2 Denmark 26,056 15.7 Hungary 24,216 –4.6 Czech Republic 20,728 13.0 Norway 20,468 –8.9 Slovenia 12,156 20.2 Slovakia 10,096 21.7 Luxembourg 8,133 –3.3 Bulgaria 7,196 6.9 Estonia 4,646 –2.6 Latvia 4,049 –21.5 Lithuania 3,644 39.1 Iceland 2,467 28.4 TOTAL 2,489,812 3.8 Note: Excludes most commercial vehicles Source: ACEA The Volkswagen group is developing modular architectures that will allow all brands to share major components — and possibly build the vehicles in the same plants. Vehicles on the same architecture will share components such as air conditioning and climate control, engines and gearboxes. Exteriors and interiors, including seats, will be unique for each brand, says Michael Dick, Audi AG board member for technical development. Not only do the shared architectures shave development costs; they also mean Audi vehicles could be built in the factory Volkswagen plans for the United States, Dick says. Here are the architectures: The biggest vehicles will use the architecture VW calls Colorado. It will be used for new generations of the VW Touareg, Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne SUV, Dick says. The VW brand is taking the lead on this architecture. The replacement SUVs go into production in 2013, he says. Audi is in charge of the MLB architecture for longitudinally mounted engines that includes the A5 coupe, A4 sedan and station wagon, Q5 SUV and the new generations of the A6 and A8 sedans, Dick says. The MQB architecture for vehicles with transverse-mounted engines is being developed by VW and includes the next-generation Audi A3 and VW Golf and Jetta in 2011, Dick says. “If the business case works, we could build an MQB-based Audi in the United States,” he says. “We have no decision yet, but the Volkswagen group is working on a scenario to see if production is possible in small numbers.” Dick also says the Audi V-6 3.0-liter turbocharged diesel engine could be headed to the United States in the new A4 sedan and http://creditacceptance.com http://creditacceptance.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Automotive News - March 24, 2008

Ford lists 6 to succeed Mulally GM pushes luxury superstores Industry straps in for rough ride Bob Irvin is a worthy addition to Hall of Fame Debate at Scion: How to grow Ford moves executives in Asia to new jobs CEO of lanelogic: We're still here Kia's N.Y. duo Chrysler's exec trio: Reports of friction mostly fiction Where others see gloom, Honda chief sees boom in U.S. Fukui: Nickel battery is best bet for hybrid Beijing conference explores key issues in China market Planworks keeps its role as buyer for GM ads Lincoln: MKS will make up for brand's slow start in '08 Deal's no big deal: Styling top reason to buy GM Penske's Smart start: He'd like 15,000 more Dodge's pitch for Challenger: A halo that you can afford Chrysler plans 'We listen' ads You go, Bob With zest, activist Ditlow remains on lemon patrol Autos did the job after 9/11; don't bet on that now Chinese cars? Dealer beware Solar power is the only answer Where will we get power for the Volt? Want higher CAFE? First, do this In N. California, hybrids are hot Detroit 3 can learn from the Marlboro Man The Prius is a phenomenon Wait 3 years, then judge Ford How many Jeeps will India buy? Lithia looks into improper sales reports at dealerships AutoNation's lead shrinks as largest U.S. dealer group Honda ad agency creates unit to build Acura brand Study: Consistent theme in auto ads builds viewer recall Big-truck sales continue slide in Feb. -- off 27.1% MazdaSpeed revs up racing accessory sales Calif. company eyes electric charging stations for Volt, Vue Indictment: Bribe scheme cost GM $83.3 million The greening of Toyota dealerships 6 more finalists in race for PACE recognition Tenneco expands Japanese work, seeks more Bosch buys diagnostic equipment firm in China JV will design vehicle platforms Citation moves headquarters NxtGen tests emissions system VW stake may help Porsche on fuel economy rules Chrysler's Project Genesis wins over Ore. dealer Germany, new EU members send up European sales Saturn will choose store system soon VW thinks modular for flexibility at auto plants Automakers eager as axles turn high-tech Talking drivetrains with American Axle Dollar halts U.S. retail sales of Audi Q7 hybrid Hyundai: Genesis Coupe offers more go for dough Maxima's target: Luxury Euro makes Pontiac adds 3 sporty variants Outsider Elmer Johnson shook up GM Importer Yanase was Hall of Fame member Obituaries Redesigned TSX has many Acura firsts Dealers Certified sales up 7.5% in Feb.; Audi leads the way eBay's new Web site has new look, more features Big pickups and SUVs lead plunge in used-vehicle prices Ex-Reynolds CEO O'Neill joins J.D. Power Auto Hall of Fame will induct 8 Liberatore looks beyond Daimler Molina gets the top job at GMAC F&I pioneer Pat Ryan to retire from Aon Study: Hydrogen research worth the cost Gulf States trial halted As yuan rises, so do prices of Chinese parts Personnel exec Laymon: Ford still seeking outside talent GE gives supplier credit Dana CEO wants Asian growth Tesla launches production Todt steps down as Ferrari CEO Union pursues Toyota effort Chrysler offers spiffs for military Land Rover ads focus on heritage Mark Rechtin Fresh heir: To turn green, must BMW create brand? GM ponders mini-muscle Camaro New Ford ads coming in April With a spiffier image, Lincoln would rock abroad Rival says Nardelli's OK Ford hails its cab, but mpg is an issue

Automotive News - March 24, 2008

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