Supreme Court Ruling Against Vax Mandate Could Trigger New Rules
Large private companies, for now, will be able to set their own work force vaccination and testing requirements voluntarily, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision last week that blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a federal mandate. The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued an emergency temporary standard in November that would have required companies with 100 or more employees to ensure their workers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or require them to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis. The mandate would have affected more than 84 million U.S. workers. But the court may have left open the possibility for OSHA to issue a narrower set of regulations targeted at certain work environments, including manufacturing. Several automakers told Automotive News last week that they were encouraging eligible employees to get vaccinated. No major automakers thus far have required vaccinations for all employees. For the full story, click here.
Chairman's Blog: Dealers Must Remain Vigilant
In the final weeks of December, a small Christmas miracle took place in Washington, D.C., writes AIADA chairman Steve Gates in his latest blog post. Bowing to external pressures and inter-party fighting, President Biden’s trillion dollar Build Back Better plan, and with it the un-American union-only tax credit for electric vehicles, was placed on the back burner as legislators returned to their home districts. This was good news for dealers – but you didn’t hear a lot of celebrating from AIADA. That’s because while it may be paused, this battle is far from over. We must remain vigilant in 2022 as our opponents in Washington regroup and prepare to once again find a way to apply their protectionist world view to the transactions taking place in our stores. They won’t be satisfied until the only vehicles American consumers can afford are union-built, just as they long ago ensured, through the despised "Chicken Tax," that the only light trucks sold in the united states are domestically built. To read Chairman Gates’ full blog post, click here.
Rolls-Royce, Bentley, BMW Sales Surge as Cheaper Brands Lag Behind
A surge in luxury-car sales and the shifting of scarce semiconductors to the most profitable vehicles helped many auto makers achieve robust profits last year, even as sales of mainstream vehicles lagged behind and supply-chain disruptions crippled car production. The Wall Street Journal reports that most auto manufacturers, confronted with the double blow from the pandemic and a shortage of chips and other components, had to cut production throughout the year. Given generally robust demand, many opted to shift available resources toward their most expensive–and most profitable–vehicles in an effort to protect their margins. The most luxurious brands such as Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Porsche and BMW have reported record sales. With international travel stalled during the pandemic and many avenues of flashy spending closed to them, a young generation of luxury-car consumers went on a shopping spree last year. For the full story, including the resulting sales numbers, click here.
Could Hot Used-Vehicle Market Lead to Burns?
After used-car sales reached record volumes in 2021, strong demand — and the higher price tags attached — will stick around for 2022. That means dealers will go to great lengths to source used cars and trucks to stock their lots this year even as they continue to benefit from pricing power and higher profits amid the industry's persistent new-vehicle shortage. But facing another year of scarcity and soaring prices, some dealers are worried about the longer-term impacts of changes in shopping patterns or customers carrying too much debt. For instance, high prices could cause consumers to hang on to their vehicles longer, and that could hamper the flow of used vehicles coming back to the retail market, dealer Troy Duhon told Automotive News. "It's not evident yet, but my concern is, with the rising transaction prices, will that cause the average trade cycle to go from three and a half years to five years?" said Duhon, president of Premier Automotive Group, with 28 stores in Louisiana, Texas, California, Kansas, and Missouri. For more perspectives on the used market outlook, and how dealers are preparing for the future, click here.
Smart Headlights Are Finally on Their Way
I am driving in the California hills high above Malibu, in a deep-blue electric Audi E-tron, and I turn onto a pitch-black winding road. Instinctively, I reach to turn on the high beams. But before I have a chance to do so, the low beams automatically rise and spread out like a hand fan, filling the entire roadway with light and projecting it far into the distance. A few seconds later, the headlights of an approaching vehicle set my headlights in motion; the high beams angle down. I had just experienced adaptive driving beam, or A.D.B., headlights, one of the most important advances in vehicle lighting technology in decades. The bad news, according to the New York Times, is that while widely used in Europe and Asia for over a decade, these smart headlights are illegal in the United States. The good news is that after years of unsuccessful attempts to allow the technology, A.D.B. lights will soon be on American cars and trucks, thanks to a section in the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that mandates their use. For more on how the new technology works, click here.
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