AD #2525 – Ford Reveals New Super Duty, Car Brands That Are on Life Support, Trump Could Go After GM Tonight
February 5th, 2019 at 11:57am
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Runtime: 8:02
0:14 Trump Could Go After GM Tonight
1:52 Geely Steals Jaguar Designer
2:35 Honda Goes for The Gold
3:18 Electrify America Turns to Tesla
3:44 Tesla Buys Battery Tech Company
4:13 Car Brands That Are on Life Support
6:01 Kei Car Sales Jump in Japan
6:34 Ford Reveals New Super Duty
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TRUMP COULD GO AFTER GM TONIGHT
Hi, I’m John McElroy, it’s February 5th of 2019 and now to the news. President Trump will be giving his State of the Union address tonight and General Motors is probably going to be in his crosshairs. Two UAW leaders from two different plants that GM is closing were invited to be there tonight by Democrats. But it wouldn’t surprise us if Trump calls on them to stand and be recognized. The UAW and the Canadian union Unifor have put out videos criticizing GM for closing plants in the US and Canada, but expanding production in Mexico. Unifor is even calling for a boycott of GM products made in Mexico. Yesterday, GM also began laying off 4,000 white collar employees and Trump could attack that as well.
Here’s our Autoline Insight. While it’s true that GM expanded production in Mexico, it’s only gone up by 160,000 vehicles since 2013. That’s about half of one assembly plant of production. So even if that Mexican expansion was cancelled GM would still have to close plants. Here’s the issue. GM has 18 assembly plants in North America, but it only needs 14 plants to make all the cars and trucks it can sell in North America. So it’s damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t. We also think GM got caught out by the government shutdown which postponed the state of the union address. No doubt GM originally planned to announce thousands of white-collar layoffs a week after POTUS made the SOTU. But with the shutdown, GM ended up making its announcement the day before.
GEELY STEALS JAGUAR DESIGNER
Geely just pulled off a major coup. It stole Jaguar’s Chief Designer, Wayne Burgess, who will become the Head of Design and Vice President of the automaker’s newly established UK design center. Geely Design UK will expand to around 100 designers and staff within the next five years and will create vehicles for several brands in the group, including Geely, LYNK & CO, Proton, Lotus and the London Electric Vehicle Company. Burgess will report to Peter Horbury, the Executive VP of design at Geely, and it wouldn’t surprise us if Mr. Burgess is being groomed to replace Mr. Horbury.
HONDA GOES FOR THE GOLD
Honda’s Australian subsidiary had a little fun celebrating 50th birthday by wrapping some of its products in gold. You likely see the color red when thinking of a Honda lawn mower or generator, but even Honda admits, “everyone who’s seen it wants one.”
There are three or four car brands that probably won’t survive and we’ll tell you who they are coming up next.
ELECTRIFY AMERICA TURNS TO TESLA
Electrify America will install Tesla Powerpack battery storage systems at more than 100 of its charging stations throughout the US in 2019. Each site gets a 210-kW battery system with roughly 350 kWh of capacity. The Powerpacks can be used during times of peak demand to reduce stress on the grid.
TESLA BUYS BATTERY TECH COMPANY
And speaking of Tesla, it just bought a company called Maxwell Technologies which has expertise in supercapacitors, which are good at charging and discharging large amounts of electricity very quickly. Tesla hopes to use that technology to greatly speed up charging times. It’s amazing to us how charging times are becoming the new metric for EV performance. Even Porsche is bragging more about how fast it’s charging stations are, than bragging about how fast its EVs are.
CAR BRANDS THAT ARE ON LIFE SUPPORT
Scion was the last brand to get killed off in the American market, but we think there are three or four other brands that probably won’t survive. First on the list is the smart brand. We wonder why Mercedes-Benz keeps the smart brand on life-support. Last month smart only sold 83 cars, so what’s the point? Next on the endangered species list is Fiat, which only sold 751 cars. We wonder how the dealers can possibly keep their doors open. In fact, Alfa Romeo doesn’t look very healthy either. It only sold 1,150 vehicles, down 30% compared to a year ago. Mini is another brand that’s going wobbly. It sold 2,457 cars last month. That works out to 19 cars per dealer on average, which means it’s got to be a money loser. There’s one other brand that is struggling and that’s Genesis. It only sold 1,224 cars last month, down 24% compared to a year ago. But 2018 was a disaster for Genesis and it’s starting to get its act together. If you compare sales to December, they’re up 107%, and if Genesis keeps that up all year it is the one brand on this list that has a shot at surviving.
Coming up next, Ford expects to make massive profits on a new line of trucks and we’ll show you those trucks after this.
KEI CAR SALES JUMP IN JAPAN
As the saying goes “bigger is better” but not when it comes to the Japanese car market. Sales of mini-cars or Kei cars, were up over 4% last year in the country, totaling 1.9 million units. Sales of larger vehicles hit 3.3 million units, a drop of 1.3%. Seven of the top 10 selling models in 2018 were Kei cars, including the top four. Toyota was the top automaker in Japan last year, followed by Honda, Suzuki, Daihatsu and Nissan.
FORD REVEALS NEW SUPER DUTY
GM and Ram recently showed off their new heavy-duty trucks, so naturally it’s Ford’s turn. The 2020 F-Series Super Duty debuted today with updated styling and a number of new features. A Ford designed and built 7.3L V8 gas engine has been added to the lineup, while the 6.7L Power Stroke diesel is upgraded with more power and torque. Both engines will be mated to a 10-speed automatic. All trucks receive new front-end designs that allow for better cooling and lighting performance. And for the first time dual-rear-wheel trucks are fitted with a unique high-airflow grille. In addition to new and enhanced trailering technologies, 4G connectivity is standard as is driver assist features, like automatic emergency braking, on XLT trims and above. The new Super Duty will start shipping to dealers this fall.
We’ll also be headed out to Flint, Michigan today where the all-new Silverado HD is built to learn about that truck, so expect to see more heavy-duty new tomorrow.
But that wraps up today’s report, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.
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Comments (37)
February 5th, 2019 at 12:20 pm
Of those endangered brands, smart and Fiat should go. The products are mediocre, at best, and certainly don’t “fit” well in the US market. I hope MINI stays, since if they leave, I’d have an “orphan” which would suffer extra depreciation, but the sales numbers as they are, it wouldn’t surprise me if they left the US market.
As far as Alfa, maybe they need more time to get established, and to improved quality. The Giulia and Stelvio get mostly good reviews for how they drive, but horrible reviews for reliability, even while in the hands of magazine people.
To me, Genesis deserves to do better. They have some decent products, at relatively good prices. Of course, part of, or maybe most of their problem is that they have cars, not CUVs. If their CUVs are good, when they arrive, their prospects should improve a lot.
February 5th, 2019 at 12:22 pm
Don’t GM and other car companies like building cars in Mexico, because they can sell them about everywhere in the world without those nasty trade wars, or threats of them?
February 5th, 2019 at 12:23 pm
Why should Trump go only after GM? Ford is planning to layoff workers just like GM is doing. These companies have the right to reorganize for new products which will include many EV’s
February 5th, 2019 at 12:45 pm
For GM and other brands I can give them a little slack in that the US is balls deep in a trade was so why build something in the US that you may have major grief in exporting. That said, GM at least, is building trucks in Mexico that will only be sold in the US or Canada. But that’s how free enterprise generally works, it’s never enough profit, they are always looking for more.
February 5th, 2019 at 12:48 pm
3 Trump has also been very critical of Ford before, and may well be critical of them tonight, so he does not look like singling out GM and especially Mary Barra (you can be sure some lunatics may claim, with a straight face, that he blames GM only because it has its first ever Female CEO).
it shows how smart Trump is that he takes a classic Dem issue (Corporation bashing and pretending they care about the little guy worker) and OWNS it. This is how he got elected in 2016 and how he will get re-elected in 2020. I see nobody of the extreme lefties Dem cands so far that can even come close, they will be “McGoverned” if they are nominated. Or should I say “Mondaled”. meaning they will be lucky to win their own state and lose the other 49. Especially if this STELLAR economy continues for a year or two.
I have no sympathy for GM, it was bailed out and it took tens of billions of both US and Canadian $. That gives the bailer-outers the right to tell GM what to do. It would have been INFINITELY better if GM was left to go broke like SO MANY OTHER Auto suppliers have been left to do, and then become a HEALTHY and INDEPENDENT company accountable to no one in Wash DC.
February 5th, 2019 at 12:52 pm
Also the more manufacturing goes to Mexico the more others will want to, and the suppliers. At some point it will just be far easier to do business there – may already be- just like electronics and China.
February 5th, 2019 at 12:54 pm
1 Fooled me once, shame on you, fooled me twice, shame on me. This applies to FIAT AND ALFA, both of whom tried, and FAILED, miserably, to enter the US market. The late sergio was brilliant in many ways, esp. how he exploited Jeep and Ram, but not in this case, where his ego got the better of his brain. The same applies for the pitiful “Dumb” which was outsold by even… Lamborghini (!!!!!) in Jan 2019, a brand whose cars are up to 30 TIMES more expensive than the pitiful “Dumb”.
I don’t know why MINI does not sell any better, but even if it becomes an orphan car, that should help it actually increase its value as a Collectible. And as another poster said here, if you keep it, you will not suffer any depreciation anyway.
BTW, if you don’t mind the Q, you have at least four vehicles, the old minivan, the MINI, the Prius and the Corvette, not to mention the bikes. Do you keep some in IN and some in FL or do you take them back and forth, or a mix of the above?
February 5th, 2019 at 1:06 pm
@7 – in a sample size of 1, my neighbor has a Mini. Cute vehicle, but ingests water too easily (air intake is mounted low)… bent crank. Coping with a service department that assumes the owner is BMW-rich can only leave the owner feeling like a rap just took place. Similar issues exist with the sales experience. And who wants to spend an extra $0.70/gallon for premium fuel on a small car….perhaps the automotive equivalent of an oxymoron!?!?!
February 5th, 2019 at 1:08 pm
In other news (from today’s show):
“Electrify America” using Tesla systems, is a company linked to VW, established to fulfill the obligations of UW under the “dieselgate” agreement. It is a good thing if they use common systems so they can later combine the supercharger networks more efficiently, and not have every EV maker invest in their own very expensive and redundant Supercharger network.
February 5th, 2019 at 1:08 pm
1) Trump going after GM would be silly. You want these companies to make sound financial decisions and if it requires plant closings or layoffs to prepare for the future its a hell of a lot better than letting them go bankrupt and looking for a bailout.
2) I don’t mean any disrespect but Wayne Burgess looks like the singer Pink.
3) Cars on life support; Yeah the Smart car just was never a smart decision, over-priced and not great mpg for the other sacrifices that were made. The Fiat 500 is not much different. The Mini although the best looking of the bunch is a niche market in the US. Alfa Romeo needs to develop a new iconic grill to distinguish itself rather than place the ugly pizza slice grill on everything just to say Alfa Romeo! Its certainly discerning but at the expense of a good looking car. Genesis will probably make it if Kia doesn’t give up too early.
4) The Ford super-duty is different how? Whatever styling changes they made they had to have been minimal. Wish you would have pointed out more specifically what was different John.
February 5th, 2019 at 1:10 pm
Re the many efforts (all failed so far) of the Koreans to sell a luxury car in the US:
“if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then QUIT. No sense making a fool of yourself”
(from “Murphy’s laws of work”)
Do you really know how many times Hyundai-Kia tried (and failed every single time) to sell luxury cars in the US? It must be close to a DOZEN, if you include all the failed models. The Genesis has a steep uphill battle that it is probably going to lose too, for many reasons, not all having to do with its lack of refinement or performance.
February 5th, 2019 at 1:14 pm
KEI car designs as shown in today;s show is what cars should look like if they don’t really spend much time on the highway doing 80 MPH or more, but around town in congested traffic, as they do in Japan. for that use, they are OPTIMAL. Short, narrow and tall, as much cube-like produces the largest cabin and trunk space with the least external footprint, and probably also with he minimum amount of metal to build them.
I do not miss the station wagons of the 70s, as many do, because they were far from optimal in this respect. Family wagons should not race at 100 mph, but be built for max capacity, and therefore they should have been much taller and three feet shorter in length and maybe one in width, ie, a MINIVAN, and this is the reason they became EXTINCT to said Minivan.
February 5th, 2019 at 1:16 pm
7 The Prius and MINI are now in Florida, where I am, and the van and Corvette in Indiana. That may be different a year from now, except that the van always stays up north.
5 Trump may not even still be president by 2020. In any case, it’s way too early to even attempt to predict the outcome of the next election. Even Nate Silver isn’t doing that yet.
4 Some companies, especially Nissan and VW are very big in Mexico, exporting to various parts of the world from there.
February 5th, 2019 at 1:27 pm
8 My 2010 MINI has been reliable, but doesn’t have many miles. It is the non-turbo, 1.6 Peugeot engine, and I use regular gas. The manual basically said “premium recommended, but not required.” Using regular doesn’t seem to make any difference, either in how it runs, or gas mileage.
My sister has a 2017 Countryman S, with the 2.0 liter BMW engine, and she uses regular with no problems. BMW, like other European car companies, seems to like recommending premium for cars where it isn’t really needed. My sister’s engine is very mildly tuned, for a recent 2.0 liter turbo, 189 hp, as I remember.
February 5th, 2019 at 1:27 pm
John, you may be right about Mini but my wife just bought a ’19 Cooper 2 door Coupe and wow this is one well put together vehicle. She got just about the least optioned you could get and it has plenty of equipment; radio (pretty nice sound), cruise, rear camera, etc. It has the three cylinder turbo and it really doesn’t lack for power (with two people in it). It is tight, hardly a rattle and quick as a rabbit when imputing a steering request. She was out the door at right around 25 k; money well spent in my opinion.
February 5th, 2019 at 1:30 pm
@11 Yeah, the Koreans may have tried many times in the past to get into the luxury market in the US but with each passing day Americans care less and less about the “buy American” philosophy. Especially when it comes to cars. Plus I don’t believe Genesis has done much as far as marketing. Many people said the same thing about Lexus and thought it was just a high priced Toyota but they have done pretty well.
February 5th, 2019 at 1:38 pm
11 Most of H/K’s earlier attempts at “premium” cars have been front drive, mildly stretched versions of other cars, like the K900, Azera, etc. Then, they sold the Genesis model, not brand, at Hyundai dealers. By taking the Lexus approach, they may have a better chance this time, but yeah, it’s not doing well, so far.
I guess the Hyundai conglomerate has deep pockets, and they are willing to keep trying.
February 5th, 2019 at 1:40 pm
15 Chuck, is your wife’s MINI manual or automatic?
February 5th, 2019 at 2:27 pm
It’s a six speed auto (by her choice); she can drive stick but not since her ’73 Beetle. Our local traffic stinks so she made that decision.
February 5th, 2019 at 2:28 pm
Electric cars can be an excellent choice as a second or third car for a family. But all this talk about fast charging and traveling long distances is really dumb.
Fast charging generates a lot of heat in the batteries and shortens their life. With the battery being at least half the cost of an electric car why would you would you do anything that would reduce the life or increase degradation rate of the batteries? If you are leasing the car, maybe you don’t about the person who buys it after you.
Fast charging can only be use up to 70 or 80 percent of the batteries capacity. So if you’re traveling long distances and need several charges, the additional charges will not give you full capacity and you have to plan your trip with shorter segments. When you stop for recharging all the chargers may be taken and you have to wait for one to become available. Then when you are connected, if the chargers next to you are also being used, you may not be able to get a fast charge as not everyone can fast charge at the same time. This is why they limit fast charging to 30 minutes. So if you have 60kWh or larger battery and it was near empty, 30 minutes of fast charging will NOT get you to 70 or 80 percent of capacity. So you have to stay a wait until the car reaches a 70 to 80 percent charge or replan your traveling segments for even shorter segments in the middle of your trip. The bottom line is that your trip will take twice as long to make than if you used an IC or hybrid car.
February 5th, 2019 at 2:28 pm
16 This has nothing to do with any “buy american” deal. The Germans dominated the luxury Market before LExus, and they still dominate it today. Their challenge, as proven by the sales data, is not from Lexus and sure not from the Koreans, Caddy or especially Lincoln. Only Tesla can and has stolen their lunch.
Lexus has been the ONLY Japanese luxury brand to do OK but still the Germans fought back and still dominate the luxury segment, and very deservedly so.
Lexus’s sales are largely from two clones of Toyotas, the RX-Highlander, and the ES-Avalon.
Acura and Infiniti have failed miserably, despite Acura’s good start in the 80s. They sell barely more than Lincoln’s anemic sales today.
February 5th, 2019 at 2:34 pm
Speaking of brands in trouble, there is a surprising one, which was not included in today’s show because it is not a separate maker but just one (but very imoportant) model of a maker with the deepest pockets in the industry, Toyota.
I am talking of course about PRIUS, a brand that sold 20,000 units a month a few years ago, and this january it sold less than 3,000 (!!!) vs almost 7,000 in Jan 18.
The magnitude of Toyota’s miscalculation here is that, a few years ago, I was amazed to read that Toyota bigwigs believed that the Prius would become the best selling US car, dethroning the then champ, the Camry!
This is one of the most monumental blunders of the fortune-tellers (supposedly scientific forecasters) at Toyota, and those at the top who believed them. And I am afraid TOyota has committed ANOTHER blunder, with their billions invested in, as Musk calls them, “FOOLS CELLS” vehicles.
i find all this just amazing, coming from possibly the most successful and profitable automaker in the world. So nobody is perfect!
February 5th, 2019 at 2:41 pm
19 Like other recent cars, the automatic probably performs at least as well as the manual. I suspect MINI still has near the highest manual trans take rate in the US., but small, and declining.
February 5th, 2019 at 3:01 pm
#16. Chuck, I love Minis, they’re a blast to drive. I just wonder how much longer the dealers can survive with such low sales.
February 5th, 2019 at 3:01 pm
22 Toyota probably wasn’t counting on cheap gas to become a regular thing, like it has been for more than 3 years now. Also, many, or most people don’t like the looks of the new Prius.
While Prius sales are falling in the US, they are increasing in Europe, and Prius and Aqua (Prius C in the US) are still selling well in Japan. If the price of gas goes to $5/gallon in the US, Prius sales would pick up. Also, they really need to make the Prius look more “normal” when they do the next generation.
February 5th, 2019 at 3:04 pm
On Super-duty pickups, how does automatic emergency braking work and not jack-knife the trailer behind the truck? Does the ABS/hydraulic system also send electric braking signals to the trailer brakes too? Seems like it would be complex to keep things sync’ed and balanced, especially when the truck might not know how loaded the trailer is or isn’t.
February 5th, 2019 at 3:11 pm
#24, John, might BMW start allowing their dealers to sell MINI in the same store? The place I bought my MINI in Orlando is very near a BMW dealer with the same owner. They could sell both brands from the same store, and use the current MINI building to sell used cars, and put the best ones in the showroom, or something like that.
BTW, the same company recently closed a MINI outlet in the Daytona area.
February 5th, 2019 at 3:32 pm
Thanks John, yeah I knew where you were going with your inclusion of vehicle-makes that might be on the brink. It’s an enthusiasts brand that lacks enough marketing on just what it can do. It’s a blast to drive pretty much sums it up.
February 5th, 2019 at 4:02 pm
#27 I think another reason that will contribute to the demise of the Mini is it has unfortunately been labeled a chick car. Not sure how that happens or by who, but like many cars the VW bug, any minivan, Mazda Miata, Fiat 500, Geo Tracker, Jeep Liberty, Toyota Prius. It certainly hurts sales when half the population wont get behind the wheel.
I drove my cousins newer VW bug and also found it to be a blast to drive great handling not so much power but the car made me want dark tinted windows. Maybe it was the flower vase in the dash.
February 5th, 2019 at 4:22 pm
#27 Are MINIs “chick cars”? I seem to see a lot of women driving F-150s.
Here’s an actual list of cars based on sex of the person who registered them. Not surprisingly, VW Beetle was on the female side. The female list has a lot small Asian CUVs, and the male list, sporty cars with, of course, exceptions in both cases.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/women-are-more-likely-to-drive-these-cars-2016-03-02
February 5th, 2019 at 4:26 pm
28 Every new generation of MINI is more civilized, quieter and better riding than the one before, but they are all fun to drive, and handle well for front drive cars. At least the non-Countrymen are all fun to drive. I haven’t driven a Countryman.
The interior of the 3rd generation is nicer, and more upscale in appearance than my 2nd generation car, but the fit and finish of mine is generally pretty good.
February 5th, 2019 at 5:20 pm
I want to know the full specs of the new Ford 7.3 push-rod V8. Sounds like it may cost less to produce than the OHC 6.2.
February 5th, 2019 at 5:37 pm
Does anyone know anything about this Ford 7.3 truck engine? Is it actually new, or did they resurrect and slightly de-bore or de-stroke the old 460?
February 5th, 2019 at 7:25 pm
#30 Chicks driving F-150s doesn’t negate a Mini being a chick car.
Besides I don’t write these articles;
http://www.mensmagazine.com/top-10-chick-cars-that-guys-should-never-drive/
February 5th, 2019 at 7:52 pm
#34 I ran across that, and a couple other lists of “chick cars,” based on someone’s image, rather than reality. The link I posted was for actual sales.
I have some small samples of these “chick cars.”
5 Prius drivers, one female, 4 male
3 Miata drivers, one female, two male
1 {former} Jeep Liberty driver, female, my sister
4 MINI drivers, two female, two male
2 New Beetle drivers, one female, one male
6 or 7 minivan drivers, the main driver male in all cases except one
2 Geo Tracker drivers, one female, one male
Yeah, certain cars have the image of being “chick cars,” which in many or most cases it not closely related to who actually buys and drives them.
February 5th, 2019 at 10:31 pm
Ok have a sample that I know not one man that drives any of the vehicles listed except minivan which is mostly retired couples. Means nothing
February 6th, 2019 at 9:26 am
36 I agree that it means nothing. I’m surprised, though, you don’t know any men who drive any of those vehicles. I guess it depends on where you live, and/or where your out-of-town friends live.