On today’s show…Tesla has the highest brand loyalty in the business…Audi is pioneering a new painting process to customize cars…and Lincoln turns to a symphony orchestra to come up with the warning chimes in its cars. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily the voice of the automotive industry.
LINCOLN PARTNERS WITH ORCHESTRA TO CREATE CHIMES
Warning buzzers and chimes in cars are usually obnoxious. But Lincoln decided that a soothing and melodic approach better suited its philosophy of quiet luxury. So it partnered with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to create chimes in the new Aviator that provide alerts for about 25 features in the vehicle. Here’s symphony members recording the chime if you left the parking brake on. Here’s the chime if your door is ajar. This is a hard warning for taking critical actions. We commend Lincoln for making warning chimes something of a musical performance.
CADILLAC CANCELS SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE
Cadillac is going to cancel its subscription service. That was the lease program that charged customers $1,800 a month to choose any Cadillac they wanted, whenever they wanted. Cadillac didn’t say why it’s stopping the service, which is called Book by Cadillac. But here’s our Autoline Insight. Either not enough people signed up for it, or it turned into a logistical nightmare. No doubt Cadillac had a bunch of cars sitting around doing nothing, just waiting for a customer to schedule them. And we bet that Cadillac is not the first to deep six their subscription service.
HARVICK WINS AT TEXAS
In racing news over the weekend, Kevin Harvick dominated at the Texas Motor Speedway, leading 177 laps in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. His only real battle? Having to survive two late-race restarts. Harvick now joins Joey Logano to compete for the Championship title.
Audi has a new paint process to customize cars and that’s coming up next.
AUDI PIONEERS NEW PAINT PROCESS
Audi has a new paint process that will allow customers greater individualization of their vehicles. They call it partial matting. A template is placed over a painted part, then put under vacuum and sprayed with a fine powder of crushed glass. This removes a tiny amount of the clear coat and roughs up the surface enough to make it stand out from the painted part. Audi says this pattern of crosses on the sideblade of a special edition Q2 only took about a minute to do. And everything from lettering, logos or photos can be displayed on the sheet metal. Audi also says it’s the first manufacturer to use partial matting in volume production.
CAR BRANDS WITH HIGHEST LOYALTY
Subaru owners are extremely loyal to the brand. When it comes time to buy a new car 72.1% of them go back and buy another Subaru. And Ford owners are right on their heels. 72% of them buy another Ford. But Tesla has the highest owner loyalty in the business, according to Experian. Over 80% of the people who buy a Tesla, go back and buy another one. Automakers know it’s far cheaper to keep existing owners than it is to conquest new ones. So loyalty has a big impact on profitability.
LAND ROVER SALES SOAR WHILE JAGUAR SLUMPS
Last week we reported that Jaguar Land Rover posted one of the biggest sales increases in the U.S. market. Well, the credit really goes to Land Rover, because sales at Jaguar fell nearly 12%, while Land Rover had a blowout month. The only Land Rover model that was down was the Velar, and it only lost 9 sales compared to a year ago. As for the rest of the line, the Discovery was up 30% while the Range Rover Sport was up a mind blowing 87%. Here’s what really stood out. Sales of Jaguar’s SUVs, the F-Pace and E-Pace are going nowhere. As for the I-Pace? Well, the electric SUV is only just hitting the market. They sold 5 of them last month.
Ford went with an aluminum pickup truck. Chevrolet did not. And we’ll tell you why coming up next.
GM’S PICKUP WEIGHT SAVING STRATEGY
Ford made a big splash when it decided to go with an aluminum body for the F-150. But when it came time for GM to re-do its full-size pickups, it decided to take a different approach. On last week’s Autoline After Hours, Tim Herrick, GM’s Full Size Truck Chief Engineer talked about their strategy.
(The AAH preview is only available in the video version of today’s show.)
You can watch that show on our website or you can find it on our YouTube channel. And then join us this Thursday when we’ll have Mike O’Brien, the head of product planning for Hyundai Motor America in the studio with us. We’ll ask him to stare into his crystal ball and share what kind of products customers will want in the future.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and we’ll see you tomorrow.
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Comments (41)
November 5th, 2018 at 11:46 am
I’d think one good reason Cadillac might cancel their “subscription” service, and others might follow, is that the dealerships would end up with a lot full of used cars, and no new ones, as people switched cars every few weeks.
November 5th, 2018 at 11:51 am
I’m not surprised that Jaguar’s tall wagons are not doing well. People who want an expensive, unreliable tall wagon from Tata would much rather have a Land Rover. That name fits the type of vehicle, while the Jaguar name goes with cars.
November 5th, 2018 at 12:15 pm
Another day, another bunch of lame moves by the usual suspects:
a. Lincoln… poor Lincoln and its local Orchestra Chimes. I may be the biggest fan and user of Classical music (daily at work, instrumental in the background, and opera in the car), but I did listen to the chimes, and the last one was really annoying. Even the best classical music piece can be ruined if you hear it too many times. (Chinese torture). Apparently Clueless Hatchet still has no clue what Lincoln really needs. It does not matter, since the average age of Lincoln buyers is 85… while I bet Model 3 demographics are three generations younger.
b. Caddy subscription service. It was an idiotic idea. At that lofty price, $1,800 I would not even buy a Porsche Subscr. Service. Seriously, Caddy?
c. Loyalty. I am actually surprised that Tesla owners are not even higher than 80%…
d. Land Rover and Gag. A TON of comments here.
First of all, the Indian Tata genius owners at Jag have forgotten what a PROPER Jag should be inside, and have turned them into HYUNDAIS. No wood whatsoever in the so-called Jag SUVs. TERRIBLE Interiors.
Second, even if they DID succeed, at whose expense would they sell their mangy so-called SUVS? Obviously, ROVER’s! Same owner, cannibalization. Great Job, Tata!
Third, I have seen several Land Rovers on the street recently, and ALL of them are unimpressive Wagons, looking a lot like the Ford Flex, even the so-called SPORT, the cheapo Velar, and all the other poor relatives of the ONE, Only ONE Land Rover I would ever consider: And that of course is the RANGE ROVER, an iconic, Rolls-Bentley quality interior, really tall, so you can look down on the commoners…
November 5th, 2018 at 12:20 pm
When one thinks Jaguar, British luxury and timeless elegance come to mind. When the Pace came out I looked it over one weekend. While the exterior was OK but nothing special I felt the biggest letdown was the interior. The Pace comes at a high price but the interior looked to me like it belongs in a $25k-$30k vehicle.
November 5th, 2018 at 12:21 pm
Love the idea of Lincoln paying attention to the warning chimes!
November 5th, 2018 at 12:25 pm
Lincoln needs to learn how to sell cars forget about classical music as a warning chime. Perhaps the warning is the upcoming demise of the brand.
November 5th, 2018 at 12:28 pm
I’m surprised there is enough “loyalty” data on Tesla to even rank them. Are people trading down from Model S to Model 3?
November 5th, 2018 at 12:38 pm
I stopped watching Tim Herrick last Thursday because it felt like the show was taped 20 years ago the way he spoke. It’s far nicer to listen to chief engineers or others that aren’t so insecure.
You’ve had quite a number of guests in the last year that are knowledgeable and able to speak about products across the industry without any cute, practiced put downs.
I appreciate it when a guest is knowledgeable, generous and comfortable. Not a Ford owner, just love cars.
November 5th, 2018 at 12:44 pm
#2 If you listen (or read transcript) carefully, the ‘last one’ is for “a hard warning for taking critical actions”.
I’d think that if it is irritating to you and it is for “critical action”, that would make it very appropriate. You wouldn’t want to drive for miles listening to it.
Of course, you have a backup source for your contention of the average age of a Lincoln purchaser . . .
#5 I agree with you and Sean. I like the new chimes.
November 5th, 2018 at 12:47 pm
Brand loyalty- Subaru, does someone who likes there AWD wagon have much choice elsewhere? Tesla is kind of the same thing.
November 5th, 2018 at 12:53 pm
I don’t feel the need for sterophonic warning sounds. Perhaps an answer to a question nobody asked. Lincoln has bigger fish to fry.
November 5th, 2018 at 12:57 pm
I’m thinking that the failure of subscription services is/will not be limited to Cadillac. Maybe Cadillac was smart enough to get out while the getting was good (thus cutting their losses).
November 5th, 2018 at 1:02 pm
Mari Hulman George Dies At 83.
https://speedsport.com/indy/indycar-series/mari-hulman-george-dies-83/
November 5th, 2018 at 1:07 pm
6, 11 I think there’s an element of sweating the details of the whole interior environment/experience that represents a change in Lincoln. It’s a long game, no doubt, but remember The things that matter in 10 and 20 years from now are going to be quite different than what was 10 years ago and we were in a crossover season.
November 5th, 2018 at 1:09 pm
4 my impressions, precisely.
9 I prefer warning lights. I try to irritate my ears as little as possible, partly due to my outstanding hearing, partly due to my appreciation of great music (that’s NOT chimes). It seems you did not understand the points I made in the post of mine you referred to. Read it again.
9 I do not need any backup sources for my EYES. I see who drives all the several lame Lincolns where I live and work. Including several retired colleagues. I also see who drives the Model 3. So should you. Google it if in doubt.
November 5th, 2018 at 1:10 pm
14 the stupid chimes remind me of the Band of the Titanic while it was sinking. “And the band played on”… to the delight of Clueless Hatchet…
November 5th, 2018 at 1:31 pm
The average age of Lincoln buyers is 61 years, the oldest in this list. Number 3 is not one you’d think for a list like this.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/10/04/24-7-wall-st-cars-oldest-buyers/16587437/
November 5th, 2018 at 1:33 pm
17 That article is old, 2014, but I doubt if the numbers have changed much.
November 5th, 2018 at 1:37 pm
Subscription service is worth trying and yes expensive. Dealers dont like it of course.
Tesla is probably the only one who could do a subscription service due to their name and lack of stealerships.
As for Lincoln, who under 40 cares. Navigator looks nice though let hope its not too late.
November 5th, 2018 at 1:42 pm
Hey Larry, the Lincoln average age may be a little lower as each of my kids bought one. They were under 30 when they took delivery. They love their Lincolns. I suspect the average age of a Lincoln buyer is 20-30 years younger than your claim.
@7 Kit – Great perspective. It makes Ford’s loyalty rate look more impressive as Ford products have dozens of direct competitors.
The GM full-sized truck weight savings is impressive. The looks, however, are repulsive (imho).
November 5th, 2018 at 1:48 pm
What cars are even available for these “subscription” services? If I buy a new car, and trade it in a week later in perfect condition with 1000 miles, I probably lose 10%. The dealers wouldn’t want to make all of their inventory available to subscribers, or they would have a bunch of pre-depreciated cars. Maybe that $1800/month price of the discontinued Cadillac program would have covered that for the dealers, (or maybe not).
November 5th, 2018 at 1:52 pm
20 Seriously, just because you know of TWO young people who bought Lincolns (what possessed them to? or did their grandparents made them a present for their birthdays?) you think this will… raise the average age? Even for a brand that has dismal sales, 8,000 a month vs 21,700 for Tesla (and that was 30,000 last month) and about 200,000 each for each of the so-called domestics and Toyota, you think 2 young buyers in a sea of 60-80 year olds will matter?
November 5th, 2018 at 1:54 pm
20 I suspect the high loyalty for Ford is largely because of F-150, which I’ve long heard has very high loyalty.
That body color wrapping under the headlights of the Silverado just doesn’t look right. Other than that, it looks “ok” to me, for a pickup truck.
November 5th, 2018 at 1:54 pm
20 Do you sell Lincolns for a living? I know very well what they are like, they are all dismal failures in the markets and also from the point of view of automotive design and performance. They are not competing even with Caddilac any more. Their rebadged Ford offerings compete with BUICK, and no coincidence, their aged buyers share common demographics. Lincoln would kill for the demos of the Model 3. Whether you want to admit it or not.
November 5th, 2018 at 1:58 pm
22 As I found, the average age of Lincoln buyers is 61. I ran across a couple sites in addition to the one I linked, which said about the same thing.
November 5th, 2018 at 1:59 pm
Drew, me too. At one time, both my son and daughter-in-law had Lincolns before they were 40.
I have a 400hp Lincoln MKZ. I don’t take mine to the track but members of my MKZ club that do are running ¼-mile times in the 12s with tunes. They’re a bit younger than 85 and have shut up a lot of people who had preconceived notions about Lincoln owners.
November 5th, 2018 at 2:15 pm
Sorry to ad to the fight above but I think Lincoln is kind of another dead brand walking. Here in the DC area I see very few around and the dealers are very few and far between. I can only think of one dealer within 25 miles and that was one transfered from the one close that went under and the other three closed when Merc went away.
November 5th, 2018 at 2:28 pm
17 I live 5-6 miles from a Lincoln/Jaguar/Land Rover dealership, and I don’t see many of any of those brands on the road. It seems like I see more Jaguars than the others, but maybe most of the Land Rover products look enough like the mass market CUV/SUVs that I don’t notice them.
The name of the dealership was “Island Lincoln-Mercury” when I first moved to the area. When Mercury was dropped, I thought they might add a mass market brand to replace it, but they never did.
November 5th, 2018 at 2:44 pm
Larry, I like to deal in facts. I know the ages of my kids (Art does, too). I don’t factually know the ages of strangers in other cars (do you guess ages and weights at a circus!?!?!?).
Kit found some data. Do you refute it?
You dismiss Lincoln’s as re-badged Fords. I agree they were, particularly the 1st Gen MKZ and MKX. But Lincoln sedans and CUVs no longer share any exterior panels or interior panels. Heck, they don’t even share windshield wipers (MKC, MKZ, MKX have traditional parallelogram mechanisms whereas Escape, Fusion, Edge have butterfly mechanisms).
Every manufacturer re-uses engines, trans, and underbodies across their product portfolio. Do you think the “greasy bits” of the Lexus ES, Lexus RX, Infiniti QX50, QX80, BMW X1/X2, Cadillac XT5, and M-B GLA are of pure pedigree? If you do, then you are as wrong about this as you are about the average age of a Lincoln owner. And if you dismiss these vehicles as not true luxury vehicles, then at least respect most of these vehicles as the volume sellers that allow their luxury brands to exist.
November 5th, 2018 at 2:51 pm
ISTM that we’ll see who the new Aviator appeals to later this month when it debuts.
Will be interesting to also see/hear reactions about the new “chimes” from general public. I’ll bet the younger gens will like them.
Anecdotal = not necessarily true or reliable, because it is based on personal accounts (or observations) rather than facts or research.
But I agree with Drew in that all the peeps that I know-that own Lincolns-are under 55 . . . and love them. (that’s anecdotal too) But they purchased them, did not lease them – like the majority of three German marque drivers.
November 5th, 2018 at 3:53 pm
Sean, Is there a non Larry D version of your comment section available?
November 5th, 2018 at 4:32 pm
I wish all automakers would make the car chimes programmable like ring tones to your phone. People would probably even pay a buck or two to download and customize the sounds used. I also wish they would make it easier to disable the very annoying seat-belt chimes that go off every 10 seconds.
November 5th, 2018 at 5:52 pm
I don’t care what chimes they use, as long as all of them can be disabled. Probably seat belt sounds are required by law. I always use seat belts, so I never hear them. They did result in my fastening the belt before, rather than after starting the engine.
November 5th, 2018 at 6:16 pm
32 The way to disable seat belt chimes is, you know, fasten the seat belt, at least with cars I have.
November 5th, 2018 at 6:17 pm
My understanding for intensive Al use in F-150 was only possible due to a strategic supply agreement, which left no room for competitors to use aluminum in such scale. Of course GM still needs to find functional explanations for not having Al available to compete head to head.
On Jaguar SUVs slowdown, I know one potential buyer who is holding back until he can purchase their electric SUV. I wonder if Jaguar is cannibalizing gas SUV sales with their e-SUV.
November 5th, 2018 at 6:21 pm
Cadillac only offered the subscription service in LA, Dallas and New York and found out quickly that (according to the Washinton Post) “Analysts say having customers rotate in and out of cars regularly can be hard to manage. The logistics of repairing damaged cars, cleaning them between uses and delivering them within 24 hours are tedious and expensive”.
I believe all the subscription services will find this to be the case and decide to close shop or just raise prices to the very elite price range. Seems like a better way to get people into your cars in hopes of gaining customers that want to own a Cadillac would be for GM to provide them as loaners when your other GM vehicle is in the dealer for work. Could be a win win for GM as people who take a Chevy Cruise in for service would probably be pretty happy getting a Cadillac to drive for a couple days and might persuade them to look at making one their next car purchase.
November 5th, 2018 at 6:35 pm
35 It seems that aluminum bodies don’t give that much weight saving, and not just with pickup trucks. Audi A8 has been aluminum body for 2 or 3 generations, and it is only a little lighter than S-Class or 7 Series. AL is lighter than steel, but you need more of it.
November 5th, 2018 at 7:04 pm
Nice show as usual but Audi’s new paint process seems problematic: are these “rough surfaces” given any final protection? Without that, any mildly abrasive car wax or protective coating could smooth (and damage) those rough surfaces.
November 6th, 2018 at 8:49 am
34 Yes Kit thats the obvious solution, however many times if I take my truck out in the woods and happen to be going 10 mph getting in and out of the truck many times, I dont typically put the belt on. But yes I wear my belt on the road. Most vehicles can be shut off with many You tube videos online showing how.
November 6th, 2018 at 8:57 am
39 Are there software ways to disable them, or do people shut them off by clipping the wire to the transducer?
I bet people working in repair shops and dealerships get tired of hearing the beepers, and some people’s radios, when they move cars a few feet.
November 6th, 2018 at 12:07 pm
Sounds like ‘Larry D’ is having a bad day. Get out of bed on the wrong side or did your favorite coffee store run out of what you wanted??
Anyway you are WAY OFF BASE on Lincoln. Seems you are out of touch with reality because sales at Lincoln are going gangbuster and up over 60% from last year. They have also climbed in consumer satisfaction surveys.