AD #2071 – Glut of New & Used Cars, Toyota’s Big Apple Debuts, Custom Citroen DS’s
March 22nd, 2017 at 11:42am
Runtime: 6:42
To watch this episode on YouTube click here.
- Glut of New & Used Cars
- Small Is Not So Beautiful
- Toyota’s Big Apple Debuts
- Custom Citroen DS’s
- Bolt Sells Out In Hours in South Korea
- Peugeot Creates Food Truck
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On today’s show…The Chevy Bolt EV sells out in Korea in a matter of hours…BMW may stop making small cars…and Peugeot makes a food truck. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.
GLUT OF NEW & USED CARS
So many cars are coming off lease right now in the American market that there’s a glut of used cars, and prices are starting to fall. The National Automobile Dealers Association’s Used Car Guide index declined 3.8 percent in February, the steepest decline since the early days of the Great Recession. Worse, there is a glut of new cars as inventories start to pile up. And all this could hurt the finance arms of automakers. When car companies lease a car, they enter it on their books as an asset. But if that car loses value, that is if the residuals go down, they have to write down the value of the car. Late last year Ford Credit reduced its profit forecast by $300 million, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see other automakers have to do the same thing.
SMALL IS NOT SO BEAUTIFUL
Looks like BMW may not replace the 1-Series or even its lineup of MINIs. Reuters reports that BMW CEO Harald Krueger told analysts the company is going to concentrate on large cars and SUVs because they’re more profitable. He said that small cars in very competitive segments will probably not get replaced.
JEEP COMPASS ON AAH
Be sure to join us for Autoline After Hours tomorrow. We’ve got a great show coming up, all about the new Jeep Compass and we’re going to have the head of Jeep design, Mark Allen, in the studio with us. There’s a great backstory to how they came up with the design that you’ll want to hear. And of course, we welcome your questions, so shoot an email to viewermail@autoline.tv if you’ve got something you want to ask the head of Jeep design. Then join Gary Vasilash and me for some of the best insider views in the industry.
Coming up next, some of the wildest custom Citroen DS’s the world has ever seen.
TOYOTA’S BIG APPLE DEBUTS
Toyota is bringing two refreshed models to the New York Auto Show next month, the Sienna minivan and Yaris hatchback. Let’s start with the Sienna where the biggest changes happen on the inside. Toyota’s suite of active safety features, called TSS-P are now standard on all models. Same with the new Entune 3.0 infotainment system. Outside, there’s a new upper grille, a much larger lower grille, and 3 new exterior colors. The Yaris gets styling updates in both the front and rear, though it’s not all that different from what you can get now. Inside, the changes are mainly audio and convenience features, which now include the Entune Audio system. Both vehicles go on sale later in the fall.
CUSTOM CITROEN DS’S
Over the years Citroen had some pretty wild looking vehicles in its lineup, but a viewer named Charles sent us pics of custom Citroens, the likes of which we’ve never seen before, like this DS that kind of looks like an old cop car with a black and white paint job. And the roof and trunk have definitely been modified. Here’s a couple of other DS’s that have been rodded into trucks, one of them a rust-colored rat rod. I have no idea what this car started out life as, maybe you know, but I could see ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons climbing out of it. My favorite of them all is this DS that’s been chopped down to a two-door and features a bubble-top-like roof. It’s so simple looking yet at the same time it has a ton of lines for your eyes to follow that all flow into one another. I could look at this car for hours, but there’s more news to get to.
Coming up next, looks like Chevrolet has a hit in South Korea with the Bolt EV.
BOLT SELLS OUT IN HOURS
The Chevy Bolt EV isn’t officially on sale in South Korea. Not just yet. It makes its official debut at the Seoul auto show next week. But EV enthusiasts are well aware of the car. Wards Auto reports that the company started taking pre-orders last Friday and sold out the entire shipment in less than two hours. That was the first shipment of 400 cars. Chevy took in 2000 preorders and placed a new order immediately to get more Bolts on the boat. The car starts at nearly $40,000 in South Korea but thanks to generous EV subsidies the price drops to only $20,000.
PEUGEOT CREATES FOOD TRUCK
Gillardeau is the name of a well-known oyster company in France. One of its co-directors wanted to offer samples in cities across the country, so she tapped Peugeot to create a food truck for the company. It’s based on Peugeot’s Expert van and includes a sink, fridge, water-heater and a fold out bar that slides out from the rear of the vehicle. The first truck is on display near the island of Oleron in France and more will be added to the Gillardeau fleet in the future. I don’t know, what do you think? This thing looks too neat and tidy to have any street cred. At the very least they should have dented one of the fenders and given it a faded paint job.
And that wraps up today’s show. Thanks for watching.
Thanks to our partner for embedding Autoline Daily on its website: WardsAuto.com
March 22nd, 2017 at 12:09 pm
John, that DS you mention looks like a police car reminds me of a Packard that my uncle owned many years ago.
March 22nd, 2017 at 12:28 pm
If my MINI becomes an orphan, will that make it more valuable?
March 22nd, 2017 at 12:46 pm
Where is the Bolt made?
March 22nd, 2017 at 12:47 pm
That black one is either a heavily modified 1959 Chevrolet Impala or an homage to one made from a DS.
March 22nd, 2017 at 1:01 pm
3 Orion, Michigan
March 22nd, 2017 at 1:54 pm
All of the dealers that built exclusive and very distinctive dealerships for Mini are not going to be happy with this news!
March 22nd, 2017 at 2:36 pm
Glut of cars coming off lease, car lots full of new cars for sale, class 8 truck sales down significantly, fed raising interest rates, is it time to be looking at doom and gloom?
March 22nd, 2017 at 2:40 pm
For now, it looks like MINI is going to continue, but with fewer models. The Paceman, the funny looking “coupe,” and the two-seat “roadster” are gone, leaving only 5 models. Still, sales are off, at least in the US, so the dealers probably aren’t too happy.
March 22nd, 2017 at 2:41 pm
7 I’m going to be out of the market for a few years, having bought two cars in the last year and a half.
March 22nd, 2017 at 3:28 pm
I think French people that like white wine and fresh raw oysters like their vehicles black, shiny and perfect. You American…
March 22nd, 2017 at 3:29 pm
Lost a smiley emoticon when submitted.
March 22nd, 2017 at 3:56 pm
Maybe the Mini is suffering from perceived bad quality and indifferent customer response. At least here in Canada, we’ve heard of stories such as a automatic transmission failing prematurely (probably just outside the warranty) and BMW/Mini not caring about the multi-$1000 replacement bill. I could never understand how a car company would let customer experiences like that get out in the media. These catch up to you and sales drop off as you are handing that customer over to a competitor.
March 22nd, 2017 at 4:14 pm
Unless something bad happens economically over the next six months, I’m either buying a new 2017 Mazda3 Touring hatchback or a three year old Nissan Leaf SL.
March 22nd, 2017 at 4:16 pm
I have a 2010 base MINI, with a manual gearbox. It is in Indiana, where I spend 4-5 months of the year. It has been reliable, but it has only about 30K miles.
I like the car; it is fun to drive, and gets good mpg, but it is unlikely that I will buy another MINI.
I know one, but only one person who has become a MINI enthusiast to the point of having three of them (sequentially, not at once), mainly to have the “latest and greatest.” Other MINI owners I’ve known have either kept the first one, as I have, or moved on to something else. Repeat sales seem low.
March 22nd, 2017 at 9:54 pm
John,
With all those Bolt Ev’s going to S. Korea, maybe Trump might be happy to see a US made car being exported and give Mrs. Barra a little breathing room! Haha
March 23rd, 2017 at 1:28 pm
I’d like to know where the custom car photos were taken, America or France?