On today’s show…Karl-Thomas Neumann may go back to Volkswagen, again…General Motors shuts down the GM Foundation…and new car sales are on fire in Mexico. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.
VW EYES OPEL’S FORMER CEO
Earlier this year, General Motors agreed to sell Opel to PSA but the CEO of the German automaker won’t stick around to see it happen. Reports surfaced this weekend that Karl-Thomas Neumann will resign. He left VW in 2013 to become the head of Opel and now Reuters reports that VW wants him back again, possibly to run Audi. The luxury brand’s current CEO, Rupert Stadler is in trouble over how he’s handled the diesel emissions scandal. When he was at VW, Neumann was the head of China and also in charge of its electric car program.
GM CLOSES FOUNDATION & DROPS THE DREAM CRUISE
Under Mary Barra’s leadership, General Motors is undergoing the greatest changes in its history. The company sold off its European operations, stopped manufacturing in Russia, Indonesia, South Africa and Australia. And it stopped selling cars India. Now come two changes that are not quite as momentous, but are surprising nonetheless. First, Chevrolet is dropping its sponsorship of the Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise. The annual event in the Detroit area attracts tens of thousands of classic cars and a million spectators. Chevrolet was the main sponsor for the last 6 years. And second, the Detroit News reports that GM will close the GM Foundation, which gives out $30 million a year to charitable causes. Instead, GM will focus its donations to improve vehicle safety and reduce accidents, to advance STEM education and increase high-school graduation rates in cities. And it will support efforts for sustainable economic development in cities around the world in which it has operations.
CAR SALES ON FIRE IN MEXICO
New car sales are on fire in Mexico. Ward’s Auto reports that sales just set an all time record last month, with sales of nearly 123,000 vehicles. And just like we’re seeing in so many markets around the world, truck sales are growing faster than car sales. But cars still outsell trucks in Mexico. They have about 63% market share compared to 37% for trucks.
Coming up next, even though it’s only been in the market for three years, Honda decided it was time to give the Fit a styling update.
HONDA REFRESHES THE FIT
Here’s a great example of how popular crossovers have become. Take the Honda Fit and HR-V. Both are built on the same platform and the newest version of each came out as a 2015 model. Today the Fit’s sales are down slightly at nearly 22,000 units sold so far this year. The HR-V on the other hand has sold nearly 38,000 examples, which is up over 26% compared to last year. But maybe in a hope to attract some new customers, Honda just unveiled a refreshed version of the Fit. The grille, headlights and lower fascia have all been reworked and a character line now runs the length of the bumper in the back. There’s also a new sport model that slides between the LX and EX trim lines and has its own unique touches. And Honda’s suite of driver assist features are now standard on EX and above.
HOLDEN REVEALS NEXT-GEN COMMODORE RACECAR
GM may have stopped manufacturing in Australia, but it’s not giving up on the Australian Supercar racing series. Holden just released images of the next-generation Commodore racecar, which will debut in the Australia Supercar Championships in 2018. For next season, the car will be powered by a V8 but after that the team plans to switch a new, turbocharged V6 that’s currently being developed by GM’s Performance and Racing Center in Pontiac, Michigan. The car is currently undergoing development with Holden’s official racing team, Triple Eight Race Engineering.
TOYOTA EXPERIMENTS WITH CAR SHARING
Car sharing could be the mega trend that upends the auto industry. So it behooves automakers to learn how to do it on a massive scale. Toyota is experimenting with this in Australia. The automaker’s Fleet Management company in Australia just launched a new web-based car-sharing scheduling, booking and reporting system. Users can access a list of all vehicles at any time, can easily see which ones are available and schedule a booking. There’s even a keyless entry option with a smartphone or swipe card. And some businesses might be able to make a little extra cash on the side by making their vehicles available in the evenings or on weekends.
Coming up next, Lincoln was inspired by piano keyboards to shift gears on the new Navigator.
LINCOLN NAVIGATOR’S UNIQUE SHIFTER
On last week’s Autoline After Hours we were joined by Andrew Kernahan, the Chief Program Manager of the Lincoln Navigator. And he explained how they came up with it’s unique “shifter.”
(The AAH preview is only available in the video version of today’s show.)
To learn more about the development of the all-new Lincoln Navigator, you can watch that entire show on our website, Autoline.tv or you can find it on our YouTube channel.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
| 
| Listen on Phone 
| 
Share
Embed
Permalink
Comments (30)
June 12th, 2017 at 12:13 pm
Can’t watch today’s episode.And it’s not on youtube yet.It stops about every 8 seconds or so.
June 12th, 2017 at 12:16 pm
Sean,
I’d be interested in knowing how the prices of the cars stack up next the same models sold in the US. I want to see if there is a massive difference in price. If there is , why? If not , how are the Mexican buyers affording them considering the extermely low pay rates there.
June 12th, 2017 at 12:20 pm
That’s a nice Opel/vauxhall racecar parading as a Holden.
June 12th, 2017 at 12:25 pm
The push button gear selector in my opinion is terrible. The 2018 GMC Terrain also has a push button gear selector. I think vehicles with push button gear selectors have historically experience lower sales than those competitive models with column or center console stick gear selectors.
I hope GMC drops the push button gear selector in the 2018 GMC Terrain for the more familiar and pleasing center console stick gear selector already in it’s corporate twin the Chevy Equinox.
June 12th, 2017 at 12:31 pm
Did anyone else notice the Volvo XC90 TV commercial which states that they are having a “MID-SOMMAR” sales event? Isn’t “SOMMAR” miss spelled? Shouldn’t it be MID-SUMMER”?
Who is the Advertising agency behind this campaign? Maybe Volvo should hire Peter Delorenzo to take over the XC90 campaign.
June 12th, 2017 at 12:32 pm
If you’re having trouble watching today’s show here on the website, it’s now available to watch on YouTube.
June 12th, 2017 at 12:45 pm
Thanks Sean,I just watched it on youtube. I like the new ‘typewriter’ drive on the Navigator.
June 12th, 2017 at 12:48 pm
Yep, went to U-Tube today.
If you are going to come up with a new type of a shifter, make sure it is better than the one it is supposed to replace. Push buttons never made a dent back in the ’50′s/’60′s for Chrysler and I don’t think Lincoln’s will move the needle either. I don’t particularly like GM’s new shifter for the 8-speed (I think it will the same for the 9 and 10 speeds too) but at least it is a handle/lever type that most of us are familiar with, and have been, for a pretty long time now.
June 12th, 2017 at 12:52 pm
@Lex – Sommer is summer in Swedish.
June 12th, 2017 at 12:59 pm
Good show today.
Your reporting and presentation keeps getting better, except;
time to get the dress shirt IRONED properly.
It looks like Jr. takes it right from the dryer and puts it on.
Also, do I detect collar wear on last Friday’s broadcast.
Time to look professional like the rest of the show.
June 12th, 2017 at 1:18 pm
Lutz’s next book – Car Guys vs Designers. Push button shifters are all about looks and nothing about function. Pretty much any lever type controller can be used without looking, push button… not so much.
June 12th, 2017 at 1:23 pm
@2 the Mexican prices are not very different from the US prices when factoring exchange rates. Hence very few can afford new vehicles. Only about 1 million new vehicles are sold annually in a country with a population of 127 million.
June 12th, 2017 at 1:34 pm
I am not a fan of the new Honda CR-V! I think the styling is awful and the tiny engine choices are ridiculous! The tail light are troublesome visually. I had previously suggested here that Honda should bring the to market vehicles with similar front grills, and rear tail lights. That lasted all of one model year with the 2016 Pilot and CR-V. Now Honda jacked it up the new CR-V which now looks more like the Toyota Highlander than a Honda Pilot. From the side view you can mistake the CR-V for a Nissan Rogue or Chevy Equinox or GMC Terrain. The Honda SUVs should all look similar, family resemblance. While doing the same for the Honda cars. The HR-V looks more like a Honda Car, while the Honda Ridgeline looks like what the next generation Pilot should look like. Good Help Honda Designers! I just hope they leave the Acura RDX and MDX alone.
June 12th, 2017 at 1:40 pm
@Sean #9. What about the “a” in Sommar. Most consumers like myself do not understand or speak Swedish. This is America, and Volvo is owned my the Chinese so proper spelling goes out the window?
June 12th, 2017 at 1:50 pm
I liked the push button shifters in my 1957 Chrysler and 1964 Dodge Dart. Really, though, hasn’t their time come and gone?
My favorite recent automatic shifter is in a Prius. It’s a smoothly operating thing that you move left, and then forward or back for reverse or drive. It always returns to the same place when you release it. The thing I like, is that it goes into park automatically when you turn the car off with the start/stop button. Do some of these new push button shifters do that?
June 12th, 2017 at 2:07 pm
@ Sean: In regards to the new vehicles being sold in Mexico,do they have to have the same emission standards as we do?
June 12th, 2017 at 3:44 pm
Giving those millions of dollars never help GM in any way while the other automakers just watched. It high time GM contributes money where both sides can benefit.
June 12th, 2017 at 4:15 pm
#15. Nope, Mexican emissions regulations are more lax. But they are starting to tighten up.
June 12th, 2017 at 4:35 pm
15,17 They badly need to tighten up. The air, at least in Mexico City, is pretty bad, and I suspect vehicles (of all types) are a lot of the reason.
Still, it will take a long time to make big improvements, unless they forcibly get old vehicles off the road. They don’t have the road salt to take them off the road, like in Indiana, Michigan, etc.
June 12th, 2017 at 6:30 pm
Regarding the pushbutton shifters, I like them and always have ever since I used them on my mom’s ’64 Plymouth Fury and the US Army trucks I used to drive when I worked at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, why go through the other gears just to get to Drive when you can just push a button for it? Simple and effective.
June 12th, 2017 at 6:46 pm
Remembering that the VW Bug was still being built in Mexico long after it didn’t meet emissions in the U.S. and sales ceased (here). I don’t remember when the ‘Bugs’ finally ended production but I bet there are millions down there (still polluting).
June 12th, 2017 at 7:26 pm
Air cooled Bugs were built into the 2000′s in Mexico. The later ones had fuel injection and some semblence of emission control, with cat. converter, etc. They wouldn’t be very crashworthy, though.
June 12th, 2017 at 7:28 pm
19, Ziggy, were the army trucks Dodge, or did other companies also use push buttons?
June 12th, 2017 at 7:36 pm
John,
What’s your take on GM doing away with the GM Foundation and pulling their support of the Woodward Dream Cruise? There’s got to be more than their explanation.
June 12th, 2017 at 9:11 pm
Knowing that GM sponsored tbe Dream Cruise for only 6 years, rather than 60 years, that seems like no be deal. Shutting down the foundation seems more significant. Also, why would they quit selling in India? Isn’t that one of the biggest growth markets in the world?
June 13th, 2017 at 7:59 am
I think I found out why GM would stop selling in India. They have less than 1/2 percent market share.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/185842-march-2017-indian-car-sales-figures-analysis.html
June 13th, 2017 at 8:05 am
I like the idea of GM contributing to advance STEM Ed., very much needed in the US.
June 13th, 2017 at 10:39 am
Mexico and emissions… A large source of used vehicles in the Mexico market is from the USA. Vehicles older than ten years can enter Mexico tariff free. Legal (and illegal) season workers from Mexico often purchase used vehicle(s) in the US when they return where they can re-sell them in Mexico. There is a huge market for used vehicles in Mexico because new vehicles are so expensive relative to wages. So all these used vehicles will make improving emissions a long-term issue in Mexico.
June 14th, 2017 at 8:32 am
I never thought about this before, but is there any effort by the Mexican government to push electrification or to cut down on vehicle traffic in Mexico City? They seem to have Chinese-level problems with dirty air.
June 15th, 2017 at 8:12 pm
AD #2128 – Toyota Experiments with Car Sharing. Guys I know that you used stock footage on this story, but really! While talking about Toyota in the Australian market you showed footage of vehicles not even sold in OZ and left-hand drive at that – obviously stock footage from the US. While Australia and the US share many things in common, two of the most obvious differences are the vehicle fleet and the the fact that they drive on the other side of the road. There are a number of Australian Toyota car commercials that you could have used instead.