Dealers Do Good
Through our Dealers Do Good campaign, AIADA is recognizing dealers for the good things they do for the communities they serve. If you’re a dealer doing good, let us know here, tag us on Facebook or Twitter, or join the conversation with the #DealersDoGood hashtag.
Bob Ross Auto Group in Centerville, Ohio, is donating $75 for each car sold in October to the Norma J. Ross Memorial Foundation in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The foundation was started by dealer and former AIADA Chairwoman Jenell Ross in honor of her late mother. Throughout the year, the foundation hosts mammogram clinics for underserved women and raises funds for awareness, aid, and research around breast cancer. Read more about the foundation here.
AutoNation, whose charitable donations have all gone towards fighting cancer since 2013, will host October "Drive Pink" events at DRV PNK Stadium with InterMiami CF and 2021 Indy 500 Winner Hélio Castroneves, reports Auto Remarketing. On Oct, 12 and Oct. 20, AutoNation will host events at DRV PNK Stadium, in an effort to continue raising awareness and funds to drive out cancer. First up, on Oct 12, in celebration of the 6th Annual DRVPNK Across America Day, Inter Miami CF players will join AutoNation associates to fill comfort bags for cancer patients at AutoNation-sponsored, DRV PNK Stadium. Then on Oct. 20, fans are encouraged to support the DRVPNK cause at the Inter Miami CF versus Toronto FC match with opportunities to honor loved ones touched by cancer by wearing pink that evening. Read more here (Source: Auto Remarketing).
Tesla Moving Headquarters to Texas from California
Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Thursday the electric carmaker plans to move its headquarters from Silicon Valley's Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas, where it is building a massive car and battery manufacturing complex, reports Reuters. Tesla joins Oracle, HP and Toyota Motor in moving U.S. headquarters to Texas from California, which has relatively high taxes and living costs. While Silicon Valley also is a hive of development of new ideas and companies, Texas is known for cheaper labor and less stringent regulation. "I'm excited to announce that we're moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas," Musk told the company's annual meeting, held in the Texas car factory. Billionaire Musk himself moved to the Lone Star State from California in December to focus on the electric-car maker’s new plant in the state and his SpaceX rocket company, which has a launch site in the southern tip of Texas. Read more here (Source: Reuters).
Dealers Pay Record Prices for Used Cars, Reversing a Trend That Pointed to an Easing of Inflation
One of the most closely watched leading indicators of inflation on Wall Street has hit a record high, a sign that upward pressure on prices could last for months to come, reports The New York Times. The prices that dealers pay for used cars in the wholesale market jumped 5.3 percent from August to September, according to the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index. It’s up 27.1 percent from last year. Used car prices have soared since the pandemic hit, when production snarls at automakers cut the supply of new vehicles as many Americans left urban centers for the suburbs, pushing up demand for personal vehicles. While used car prices are normally a tiny contributor to the overall movement of the Consumer Price Index, one broad measure of inflation, they have become a key influence on the direction of prices. “The new-vehicle production problem worsened instead of getting better in Q3,” wrote Jonathan Smoke, the chief economist for Cox Automotive, the company that produces the index. “Used inventory issues were further exacerbated by damage to vehicles caused by Hurricane Ida in late August, putting pressure on an already historically tight market.” Read more here (Source: The New York Times).
Nissan's New SUMO Assembly Technique Wrestles with EV Production
Nissan’s most advanced factory yet takes green production of green vehicles to a whole higher level, delivering efficient, flexible manufacturing firepower to make next-generation electric vehicles for the new era, including the highly-anticipated Ariya crossover. According to Automotive News, the so-called Nissan Intelligent Factory, shown to reporters for the first time Friday, deploys a host of new production methods, including several world-first techniques, to enable a 10 percent production cost improvement over older methods, despite building far more complex vehicles. A key innovation is a new powertrain assembly technique called SUMO, short for simultaneous underfloor mounting operation. It foreshadows Nissan’s approach to next-gen EV production. The Intelligent Factory has already begun pre-production of the Ariya at Nissan Motor Co.’s Tochigi assembly plant north of Tokyo, replacing a Line 1 that used to make some of Nissan and Infiniti’s top-tier products. Read more here (Source: Automotive News).
Subaru Drivers Are Most Likely to Get Speeding Tickets
Subarus are lauded for the go-anywhere capability, and it appears their owners attempt to get to those places more quickly than anyone else — the brand has three entries in on the top 10 list of cars with the most speeding tickets. According to The Detroit Bureau, not only does it have three of the top 10, Subaru claims two of the top five spots with the BRZ at No. 5 and, not entirely unsurprisingly, the WRX sitting at the top of the heap at No. 1. The Impreza is the third Subie on the list, coming in at No. 9. Also no shocker, the WRX has held the crown for three straight years. For 2021, the WRX owns the title by a substantial margin with 18.8% of all WRX owners having at least one speeding ticket on their record. Additionally, they get 49% more speeding tickets than the average American driver, making their violation rate the highest in the country. Read more here (Source: The Detroit Bureau).
Around the Web
First Two Bugatti Super Sport 300+ Hypercars Delivered, Both in the U.S. [MotorAuthority]
2023 Toyota Tacoma Will Add to Toyota's Reinvigorated Truck Lineup [Car and Driver]
Here Are the Cars You Think Have the Least Convincing Performance Branded Versions [Jalopnik]
