Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F39

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

ROUNDUP
News items from the world of fixed operations
Replacement-tire
sales war heats up

dependent shops and retailers sell Genuine
GM and ACDelco parts.

Two developments on the same day last
month are likely to intensify competition between franchised dealerships and aftermarket
providers for replacement-tire sales, especially online.
Sears Auto Centers said May 9 that it will install and balance tires of any brand for customers who buy them on Amazon. Sears Auto
operates more than 400 service centers nationwide.
Amazon also now sells Sears' DieHard passenger tires. The online vendor already was
selling DieHard-branded products including
batteries, battery chargers and jump starters.
Under the Amazon-Sears collaboration,
Amazon customers can select their tires, identify the preferred Sears Auto location for installation and schedule a date and time. Sears
Auto will contact customers to confirm the
appointment.
Meanwhile, Dealer Tire said it is making a
"significant" but undisclosed investment in
SimpleTire, an online retailer that operates a
platform for independent tire distributors.
Dealer Tire is the nation's largest distributor of
replacement tires to more than 10,000 franchised new-vehicle dealerships.
SimpleTire's business links tire distributors
across the country in an e-commerce network
that includes more than 3,000 supply points.
Dealer Tire manages tire and parts programs
for more than 20 automakers and operates 39
U.S. distribution centers.
Franchised dealerships account for about
8.5 percent of replacement tire sales, trailing
independent tire dealers, mass merchandisers and warehouse clubs.

Most Americans
unprepared to pay
for car repairs, survey says

Study: Replacement parts
drive growth in Amazon sales
Most growth in automotive aftermarket
sales is occurring online, and Amazon is leading the trend, a new study concludes.
The report by One Click Retail, an e-commerce data measurement firm, estimates that
Amazon earned $1.8 billion from first-party
sales of aftermarket products in 2017 - an 18
percent increase over the previous year. In
first-party sales, a vendor sells inventory
wholesale to Amazon, which acts as a retailer
and sells the products to consumers in its online marketplace.
Replacement parts account for 44 percent of

One in four Americans has not set money
aside for auto repairs, and three in four lack a
plan to pay for essential vehicle maintenance,
according to a new survey.
The study by Liberty Mutual Insurance concludes that 60 percent of Americans have
saved less than $500 to deal with auto problems - not enough to cover the average cost
of replacing four tires.
Some sort of vehicle protection plan is especially important for older cars and trucks for
which the factory warranty has expired, the
insurer says.
The survey collected responses in March
from more than 2,000 U.S. consumers over
age 18. Liberty Mutual says it is the sixth-largest auto and home insurer in the U.S.
Amazon's total automotive sales, the report
says. Amazon is increasingly attractive to
parts buyers, both in service shops and among
do-it-yourselfers, because of its competitive
pricing algorithm, economy of scale and free
shipping, the study's authors say.
Although truck accessories remained Amazon's largest automotive category last year, the
rate of growth of those sales trailed replacement parts and automotive equipment and
tools, the study adds. ACDelco is Amazon's
largest automotive sales brand.

GM expands warranty
coverage for service
replacement parts
More than 281,000 Genuine GM and ACDelco service replacement parts are now covered by a two-year, unlimited miles warranty.
The updated program doubles warranty coverage for many of the affected parts, General
Motors says.
Among the products covered by the new
warranty are engine and transmission components, emission parts, wipers and water
pumps. Some product lines will continue to
have limited lifetime warranty terms, including shocks and struts, wire sets, radiators and
fuel pumps. ACDelco's Advantage line will be
covered for 12 months and unlimited mileage.
About 4,000 GM dealerships and 28,700 in-

NHTSA urges Ford
and Mazda truck owners
to get airbag repairs
NHTSA, worried that too many 2006 Ford
Rangers and Mazda B-series pickups with defective Takata airbags remain on the road, is
pleading with owners of the trucks to schedule a free repair at an authorized dealership.
In January, Ford Motor Co. urged 2,900
Ranger owners to stop driving their trucks until they can get replacement parts, after a second death was linked to airbag inflators from
the same production lot.
Ford has since expanded the "do not drive"
warning to 33,000 owners. Mazda has issued
similar appeals covering more than 2,205
trucks.
The automakers offer to tow vehicles to a
dealership for repair, and provide free loaner
vehicles to affected owners.
"These airbags are dangerous," said Heidi
King, NHTSA's deputy administrator. "Every
vehicle must be accounted for now."
Owners may go to NHTSA's Safercar.gov
website and search by vehicle identification
number to determine whether their truck is
included in a recall. Defective Takata airbags
are linked to 22 deaths worldwide, most of
them in the U.S.
- Staff reports

JUNE 2018

PAGE 39

http://www.Safercar.gov

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018