This month’s Testimonial Tuesday is by AIADA Board member and former chairman Jason Courter, COO, Honda Auto Center of Bellevue for Federated Insurance. “The team at Federated Insurance have been outstanding partners, consulting with my management team to identify potential risk throughout our organization. The result is identifying and addressing issues that can drive up premiums. As one of the largest mutual insurance companies in the nation, they have developed a portfolio of robust solutions that have helped us address exposure and reduce cost.” Click here to learn more about Federated.
U.S. Seeks New Pedestrian Safety Rules Aimed at Increasingly Massive SUVs and Pickup Trucks
The U.S. government’s road safety agency wants the auto industry to design new vehicles including increasingly large SUVs and pickup trucks, so they reduce pedestrian deaths and injuries. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday that for the first time it’s proposing a new rule setting testing and performance requirements to minimize the risk of pedestrian head injuries.The rule would cover all passenger vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds or less, but it’s aimed largely at big SUVs and pickups, which have grown in size and hood height over the years, causing blind spots for drivers., reports AP.NHTSA said pedestrian deaths increased 57 percent from 2013 to 2022, from 4,779 to 7,522. The agency says the rule would save 67 lives per year.Data show that nearly half of all pedestrian deaths when hit by the front of a vehicle are most common for SUVs and trucks. The proposed rule, required by Congress in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, would set test procedures to simulate head-to-hood impact as well as requirements to reduce the risk of head injuries. Human-like head dummies that simulate children and adults would be used in testing, NHTSA said in a prepared statement. Click here for the full story.
Toyota’s Future Bright, Exec Says
Toyota dealers have a lot to celebrate this week as David Christ, group vice president/general manager of Toyota, and other leaders detail the automaker’s recent successes. The 1,200-plus U.S.-based dealers gathering in Las Vegas from Sept. 10-12 will hear about an array of new proprietary tools and plans to continually support increased profits and strong sales.“We don’t publish numbers, but dealer profits are very healthy and historically strong,” Christ tells WardsAuto. “Our incentive spend is about half of the industry average and part of the reason for that is our days’ supply is very low.” Cox Automotive reports the average industrywide July incentives were 7.0 percent of average transaction prices, up from 6.4 percent in June. That makes incentives 59.1 percent higher compared to one year ago, when the average incentive package was 4.4 percent of the average transaction price in July 2023. Although days’ supplies of cars on dealer lots fluctuate dramatically by brand, Toyota shares numbers with WardsAuto that show Toyota Motors North America arguably has the lowest numbers in the industry: a 29-day supply of trucks and a 21-day supply of cars. Click here for the full story.
Now an Established Luxury Brand, Genesis Is Refining Strategy to Win Loyal Customers
Genesis’ build-out of a sleek product lineup since its introduction to the U.S. in 2016 has helped drive steady growth for the premium brand, but leveling up against legacy rivals in a competitive luxury market will require refining the ownership experience. This means enticing car shoppers away from established luxury players, keeping Genesis customers loyal and creating a luxury dealership network for the brand.”Our biggest challenge right now is meeting new customers and introducing ourselves, but once you experience Genesis, it’s a pretty cool thing,” Ash Corson, Genesis’ director of product planning, told Automotive News in August. Corson said the brand approach to loyalty is two-pronged — delivering the right product at the right time, and developing what he calls a “supporting infrastructure” tailored to the customer’s needs. Introducing performance variants for dedicated electric models under its new Magma subbrand, a recent freshening across its core 80 series vehicles and the addition of hybrids to every model line is designed to grow the portfolio in multiple dimensions. Click here for the full story.
New Tech Features Can Cause Headaches for Buyers
New cars are packed with all sorts of tech and safety features, but more isn’t always better for buyers. J.D. Power’s 2024 U.S. Tech Experience Index Study found that the loads of features in new vehicles can be polarizing for owners, with some praising the tech and others saying it was frustrating. The organization ranks vehicle features on a “problems per 100 vehicles” (PP100) scale. Owners reported 43.4 PP100 for gesture controls, with 21 percent of them saying that the feature lacks functionality, according to a new performance metric J.D. Power included in this year’s study. Other tech, such as the myriad of hands-free driving assistance systems, received low scores for usefulness, and more advanced versions of those systems didn’t fare much better in the study, reports Autoblog. That said, some advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) received favorable ratings. Owners like features like blind spot monitoring, which address a specific need while driving rather than introduce an innovation that they don’t understand. Click here for the full story.
Around the Web
2025 Bentley Flying Spur Revealed with 771-HP Hybrid V-8, Refined Bumper [Car and Driver]
Volvo CTO Says Automakers Can’t Rely on Subscription Options for Revenue [The Drive]
Toyota to Launch Solid-State Battery Production By 2026 [CBT News]