AD #1752 – Buick Attracting Younger Buyers, VW Using 3D Smart Glasses at Plant, New Ford GT Details
November 25th, 2015 at 11:51am
Runtime: 7:25
- FCA’s Complicated Production Plan
- Kia Shows New Production Cadenza
- Buick Attracting Younger Buyers
- VW Using 3D Smart Glasses at Plant
- New Ford GT Details
- Quiet EV Rule Delayed
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On today’s show… Buick is attracting younger buyers to the brand, VW is using 3D glasses to improve production and new details about the Ford GT. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily for November 25th, 2015.
FCA’S BYZANTINE PRODUCTION PLAN
FCA has a great problem. It can’t build enough Jeeps or Ram pickups. So it’s looking at a very complicated plan to shuffle vehicles around to get more production. According to AutoForecast Solutions, the Dodge Dart, Jeep Patriot and Compass will move out of Belvedere and go to Mexico. That frees up Belvedere to be retooled for the Jeep Cherokee. And as it moves out of the Toledo North plant, the Jeep Wrangler moves in. But overflow production of the Wrangler will be handled by the Toledo Supplier Park, where they are also going to add a pick-up based on the Wrangler. Then, the Chrysler 200 which is made in the Sterling Heights plant, will move to Mexico and the Ram 1500 will move into Sterling Heights. The Warren Truck plant will start building the Jeep Grand Wagoneer and will also handle overflow production of the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500. Whew! Got all that? Wow is it complicated. If FCA sticks to the plan this all starts at the end of 2016 and should be done two years later.
CRISPER CADENZA
A few weeks back Kia teased the new Cadenza with these sketches but now the company is showing off the production version. As you can see the exterior styling has been updated and features the new look of what the company calls its “tiger-nose” grille. The headlights are a bit narrower and more angular and the wraparound taillights are sleeker than before. Kia didn’t release any pictures of the interior, so we’ll have to wait to see what that looks like. The new Cadenza, which is Kia’s version of the Hyundai Azera by the way, goes on sale next year.
Still to come, Buick is doing an impressive job of getting younger people to buy its cars.
NOT JUST FOR GEEZERS
For what seems like decades, Buick was seen as just a brand for old people. But Tony DiSalle, the VP of Marketing at Buick and GMC told us on the most recent Autoline After Hours that’s starting to change. Thanks to a broader line-up of vehicles, especially crossovers and it’s “That’s Not a Buick” ad campaign, the average age of its buyers has dropped up to 7 years and is closer to the industry average. Not only is Buick bringing in younger buyers, the company is conquesting sales from other brands. DiSalle told Autoline and I quote “non-GM source of sales is now up to 46% for Buick, that’s up four points in the last year.” So in other words Buick is attracting younger customers and nearly half are coming from other car companies.
WHERE ARE MY GLASSES?
Increasing production efficiency is a great way for an automaker to save some cash and improve build quality. Back in August, we reported how BMW had started using smartwatches to alert production line workers that a vehicle with special requirements was approaching and now Volkswagen is rolling out 3D smart glasses at its plant in Wolfsburg. Users control the glasses with touch or voice commands to get information like storage locations or part numbers, which show up in their field of vision. The camera in the glasses can also be used as a barcode reader. If the correct part is pulled, a green light is shown, while an incorrect part will show a red light. Currently 30 employees in various areas in the plant use the smart glasses but after positive reviews from a 3-month trial period, other departments, plants and brands also plan to use the glasses.
Coming up next, we’ll give you a peek inside the Ford GT.
RACING IMPROVES THE BREED
Want to learn a lot more about the Ford GT? There’s a terrific article in Racer magazine that shows this machine is a thoroughbred. It’s more like an open wheel race car with a slick body rather than a GT production car converted for racing. Some of the details include a pushrod suspension both front and rear to get the springs and shocks out of the airflow. To further optimize weight balance, the turbochargers are located very low on the car, sitting on either side of the engine’s oil pan. In fact, the whole car is a masterpiece of packaging. That should give Ford an advantage over its competitors. But new race cars typically have teething problems, and the Ford GT will be racing against some formidable competitors, so success is not guaranteed. Even so, it’s going to be exciting to see the Ford GT fighting it out on the race track. Look for its first outing at the 24 hours of Daytona at the end of January.
QUIET EV RULE DELAYED
When electric cars started to sell in bigger numbers a few years ago, safety advocates worried that the quiet EVs would cause more pedestrian accidents. And there was a lot of talk about regulations that would force those cars to emit some kind of noise at lower speeds. Early versions of the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf and Fiat 500e that were shown to the media all included some sort of generated noise, or in the case of the Chevy Volt, it would honk the horn at half volume if you hit the flash to pass stalk at low speed. But then all that talk of mandating a generated noise sort of went away. None of the automakers we talked to knew what was going on. And now a report from Reuters says NHTSA has delayed any rulemaking until next March at the earliest, saying it needs to do more coordination, whatever that’s supposed to mean. NHTSA expects any rule to cost automakers $23 million the first year as they have to add a waterproof speaker in the front end of each EV.
A programming note here. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the United States and we’ll be taking the rest of the week off. If you’re celebrating Thanksgiving, we hope you have a lot to give thanks for. Autoline Daily will be back on Monday, giving you our insights into what’s really happening in the global automotive industry. But that wraps up today’s report, thanks for making Autoline Daily a part of your day.
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Comments (42)
November 25th, 2015 at 12:17 pm
Congrats to Buick on attracting the younger buyers (finally).
It’s these types of measurable advancements (in a companies bottom line) that I have no problem being used as justification for an auto exec’s high salary. Because reversing public sentiment on something as ingrained as the natural assumption that ‘Buick makes cars for old-farts’ is no easy task.
November 25th, 2015 at 12:17 pm
Thanks for the great shows! and happy thanksgiving to all.
November 25th, 2015 at 12:25 pm
Maybe VW would have been helpd by some “smart glasses” for their engineers when developing their diesel engines.
Have a great Thanksgiving.
November 25th, 2015 at 12:26 pm
Excuse my ignorance ,but aren’t most Buicks rebadged Opels? If so Buick hasn’t won more younger buyers it is Opel that did it for them.
November 25th, 2015 at 12:27 pm
I heard that VW executives also wear a version of the smart watches, it alerts them anytime they are in the vicinity of an EPA official allowing them time to hide.
November 25th, 2015 at 12:42 pm
We stared thawing out out 15lb bird yesterday.Today is ‘pie day’.This is my favorite holiday,and my number one favorite meal.Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!
November 25th, 2015 at 12:55 pm
I hate to rain on the Buick parade, especially as I am a fan of the marque. But if you think about the figures being quoted and remember that Buick sales increases have basically kept pace with the overall market over the last 3 years rather than outperforming it, you come to realize that if 46% of their buyers are coming out of non-GM makes, then only 54% of their buyers are current Buick or other GM make owners. Why aren’t they retaining more of their current owners? If they were doing a great job in retaining their owners AND attracting new customers to the brand, Buick sales would be substantially outpacing the overall market on a consistent basis.
November 25th, 2015 at 12:55 pm
4 The Regal is basically an Opel Insignia. Some of the other Buicks have some Opel DNA, but are not very close to being rebadged Opels.
November 25th, 2015 at 1:02 pm
re #4., the Regal and soon-to-arrive Cascada convertible are rebadged Opels with a few Buick changes and updates. The Encore is a sister vehicle to the Opel Mokka and Chevy Trax, but was engineered and is built in South Korea. The Verano is a Buick sister to the Chevy Cruze and the Enclave shares a platform and powertrain with the GMC Acadia and Chevy Traverse. The LaCrosse is a standalone carline, but shares a platform and powertrain components with the Chevy Impala and Cadillac XTS. So, a couple of their current models are rebadged Opels, and at least one more is under consideration for the future (maybe two).
November 25th, 2015 at 1:09 pm
9 I thought about listing all of the Buicks, but was too lazy.
7 It seems that one place, you read that “conquest” sales are good, but somewhere else, you read the “loyalty” is good. It can get confusing.
Whether conquest or loyalty is “good” might be related to the average age of your buyers. A brand with an average buyer age of 80 would clearly need conquest sales, while owner loyalty would be a good thing for a brand with an average age of 25.
November 25th, 2015 at 1:11 pm
Is anyone really surprised that the 200 and Dart is moved to Mexico while truck production is moved back to the US from the Saltillo Mexico plant?
Taxes as well as the simple fact they can ship a lot more Darts than Ram trucks in a boxcar or carrier makes sense.
Wonder if we would see more production stay in the US if pass-car was taxed like trucks are.
November 25th, 2015 at 1:17 pm
#7. Perhaps a big part of the reason the majority of Buick’s sales are conquest has to do with mortality taking much of that 46% off the grid (permanently).
November 25th, 2015 at 1:17 pm
You are right on Kit. A successful brand needs both conquest sales and loyal owners that re-purchase. And in the case of Buick, (known in the past as catering to “last time buyers”), having a higher rate of loyal owners is even more important since some of them won’t buy any more cars and also may tend to own them for a longer time on average than younger buyers.
Both type of sales are good and important to growth. You will note that the marketing exec was boasting about their conquest sales, but did not mention their loyalty rate. This explains, at least in part, why Buick sales have not risen more sharply.
I am always wary when marketing execs are bragging but their sales are just average. Then again, to be fair, he may have had more to say than was covered in this report.
Happy Thanksgiving!
November 25th, 2015 at 1:32 pm
11 The “chicken tax” does not apply to trucks from NAFTA countries. Until recently, and maybe still, some F-series, Dodge, and maybe GM pickups have come from Mexico.
November 25th, 2015 at 1:36 pm
You indicated a few days ago that 19 US car assembly plants had been idled in recent years. Perhaps FCA should consider bringing one or more of them back into production rather than shifting a substantial amount of work and workers to Mexico?
November 25th, 2015 at 1:37 pm
I have contributed substantially to “conquest” sales over the last 12 years. My most recent new car purchases, in order, have been VW, Chevy, MINI, and Toyota. I guess I’m not sure if an additional car counts at all for these stats, or if only a replacement counts.
November 25th, 2015 at 1:56 pm
So what is the Buick buyer’s average age now,60?
November 25th, 2015 at 2:02 pm
We have a Prius Plug-In and it makes a typical back up alarm noise when you put it in reverse. One day my wife said to me hey the alarm can’t be heard outside the car only inside. I went by my Toyota dealer and the service manager checked and told me that you can only hear the alarm inside not outside. I asked the dumb question “I know it’s in reverse I thought that we were warning the pedestrians isn’t that what the alarm is for?” Isn’t that why trucks have reverse alarms? All this time I thought I was warning pedestrians that we were going to back up. I guess the EPA need to come up with some rules…
Happy Thanksgiving to the entire Autoline Team!
November 25th, 2015 at 2:10 pm
18 I don’t know why a Prius has that alarm, but it makes no sense.
Fortunately, the dealer can disable it, at least on a regular Prius liftback. I had it disabled, for free, the day I bought my car. I assume they can disable it in a Prius Plug-in.
November 25th, 2015 at 2:45 pm
18, 19 They need to use an electronic scan device to disable the beeping.
November 25th, 2015 at 3:10 pm
A happy thanksgiving to all denizens of Autoline, past and present.
November 25th, 2015 at 3:46 pm
Buick is the new Saturn?
November 25th, 2015 at 3:58 pm
Google search yielded average age of new car buyer at 51.7 (so that should put Buick into perspective somewhat). 51 or 55; not a lot of difference; Buick makes some very good stuff and has topped reliability surveys for decades (at least in relation to the best that GM offers). Hope this helps. And a very happy Thanksgiving to all.
November 25th, 2015 at 4:14 pm
A couple of years ago, I rode in a neighbor’s Prius V. The reverse beep-beep was maddening. It proved Toyota often does very stupid things, including the hard plastic load floor in a Venza rental car that made lots of noise from shifting luggage cases.
Then there is Toyota’s dirty little secret about poor paint durability in the sun belt states. That could be great future ALD topic – OEM paint standards for UV durability and stone pecking protection. I know my European and Asian fleet vehicles are greatly substandard to my Ford vehicles.
November 25th, 2015 at 4:31 pm
My 98 Corolla’s paint has withstood the hot Fl sun and heat. Never garaged. While the tint has not fared that well, even though it was a good brand that I used. The only paint that is gone is the trunk lid, which was re-painted 10 yrs ago after an accident. I suppose the same will happen to the hood, which was replaced 2 yrs ago after another accident.
November 25th, 2015 at 6:11 pm
24, 19 I agree the the reverse beeping in a Prius is stupid, but you can get it disabled for free.
As far as paint, isn’t it now pretty much a commodity, with only 3 or 4 companies in the world making car paint? At one time, there seemed to be big differences in paint durability, like when GM was still using lacquer. Now, I don’t see much difference.
November 25th, 2015 at 6:19 pm
I avoided a red car fifteen years ago because of how I saw the surfaces deteriorating. But these days? They look good to me.
btw, I saw a dark grey Z06 yesterday. Holy crap. That’s a scary car.
November 25th, 2015 at 6:29 pm
Years ago, silver and light blue seemed to be bad colors, especially on GM cars when they still used lacquer. Now, most car paint seems to do pretty well, helped out by clear coat. Whatever the color, avoidance of sunlight makes paint last about forever. My red Rabbit convertible looked like new when 27 years old, because is was almost always garaged, except when being driven. My 26 year old silvery blue van still looks good because it has been garaged most of its life.
November 25th, 2015 at 6:37 pm
Noise makers for EVs are the epitome of stupidity.
November 25th, 2015 at 8:04 pm
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2015/11/25/takata-employees-repeatedly-reported-issues-with-air-bag-tests/?intcmp=hplnws
November 25th, 2015 at 8:08 pm
W. L. – the EV sounders are not stupid if you are blind. But NHTSA over-spec’d them to the point they were going to cost $60-80 per HEV, plug-in, or BEV. Every time there is a new regulation or law, hold on to your wallet!
November 25th, 2015 at 8:16 pm
29, 31 When I’m driving, I look for pedestrians, whether going forward or backing, but I guess a lot of people don’t. Still, with the background noise most places, do you really hear an individual regular car, unless it is unusually loud?
November 25th, 2015 at 8:20 pm
31 The $60-80 for the beeper is probably more than it should be, but I’m not too worried about the effect on my wallet, since the cost would be about a penny a day over the life of the car.
November 25th, 2015 at 10:15 pm
If you examine Buick buyers, some Buick models probably attract younger customers than others like the Verano, Encore and Enclave while the Regal and LaCrosse are still probably getting older customers.
November 26th, 2015 at 12:49 pm
One way or another, Buick needs to improve their image. LaCrosse is a good alternative to a Lexus ES, but people don’t view it that way.
November 26th, 2015 at 1:14 pm
While ambitious, the FCA plan would seem to be routed in plant fundamentals – the wrangler is stuck at the center of its supplier park. Belvidere has been an albatros of some of the crappiest cars in the market for decades and has a small paint shop/product roof height limitation (unless they got a big investment in the last 5 years) so the cherokee is about as big as it can go. BVP should be excited about a cross-over.
Both warren/dodge city and shap are huge plants and can take the larger vehicles. Shap is especially under-utilized so moving truck production across town seems like a logical move.
My 2c – but it will be expensive!
In the end, the small, low margin, lower selling vehicles are shuffled to mexico with large, high profit units filling out unused floor space.
November 26th, 2015 at 5:28 pm
I figured Compass and Patriot would be long gone by now, but they are moving production? I guess they are cheap, for “crossovers,” but they are really crude, underwhelming vehicles by today’s standards.
November 27th, 2015 at 1:00 pm
vw
John Hindough of Midweek Motorsport Report said he had heard vw might leave the american market as a result of the emissions scandal. He didn’t say it was going to happen, just that it was possible. It sounds to me like such a threat would be an interesting bit of leverage for the company to use as a restraint on the govt.
November 29th, 2015 at 12:28 pm
F1
After today’s race in Abu Dhabi, Merc’s boss Toto Wolff wouldn’t deny that they would supply RedBull with an engine next year if Renault pulls out of F1. This weekend Renault delayed their announcement of a decision on what they’ll do.
It’s fascinating, I know.
November 30th, 2015 at 7:50 am
F1
F1 has been a joke the last few years. After being a fan for the 15 years, I no longer care. In my opinion, they need to get rid of the hybrid engine, DRS, mandated tire changes, fuel limits, and sole tire supplier.
November 30th, 2015 at 8:17 am
#38 I’d call that bluff. If they want to leave the US market, Dont let the door hit ya! Pleanty of other cars to choose from. Besides what kind of threat as I’m sure they wouldnt pull Porshe and Audi too. If they did they would just be cutting off their nose to spite their face.
December 2nd, 2015 at 8:10 am
Buick may be getting younger customers, but yesterday’s sales numbers show Buick way down, pretty much across the board. Time to refresh the ad campaign IMO