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Runtime: 7:18
0:08 August Sales Could be Soft
0:44 FBI Raids Home of UAW President
0:58 Tesla Rolls Out Its Own Insurance
1:35 New Peugeot PHEV Sips Fuel
2:56 New Limited Edition Mopar ’19 Revealed
3:50 Hyundai Upcycles Leftover Material
4:20 What Vehicle Did This Old Wheel Go On?
5:11 Contract Negotiations Could Get Messy
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AUGUST SALES COULD BE SOFT
We’ll get new car sales for August in the U.S. market next week, but Cox Automotive is already predicting they’ll be soft. It expects the seasonally adjusted annual rate, or SAAR, to drop to 16.5 million, below July’s 16.8 million level and down from 16.9 million in August last year. But the Labor Day weekend falls in the August reporting period, which could boost the numbers. So a better measure could be to combine August and September sales this year, which will even out the numbers
FBI RAIDS HOME OF UAW PRESIDENT
The FBI raided the home of UAW president Gary Jones yesterday. It also raided one of the homes of his predecessor, Dennis Williams, and John will have something to say about that later in the show.
TESLA ROLLS OUT ITS OWN INSURANCE
Elon Musk thinks Tesla owners are getting ripped off by insurance companies. He says rates should come down for vehicles equipped with advanced safety technology. But the Model S and X are some of the most expensive vehicles to insure because of their high repair costs, due to the expense of replacing those safety components and sensors. So Tesla is rolling out its own insurance service in California and says it’s as much as 20% lower than competitors. It also plans to expand the service to more states in the future.
NEW PEUGEOT PHEV SIPS FUEL
Sales of plug-in hybrids in Europe were hit hard when the new Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure or WLTP came out. That harder test pushed many PHEVs above 50 grams of CO2 per kilometer. That’s where a tax break for ultra-low emission vehicles caps off. That caused a number of automakers to stop sales of their plug-ins as they tried to improve them. And it looks like it’s working. Peugeot’s new plug-in crossover, the 3008 is rated at only 29 grams of CO2 per kilometer. That’s the equivalent of 1.3 liters per 100 kilometers or roughly 181 miles-to-the-gallon. It also has a pure EV range of 59 kilometers or about 37-miles. All this is from an all-wheel drive vehicle with 300 combined horsepower. The 3008 plug-in will be available in all of Europe in October.
DETAILS EMERGE ON NEW MOPAR ‘19
Be sure to join us for Autoline After Hours later this afternoon. The head of Mopar’s North American operations, Mark Bosanac will be joining us in the studio to talk about the latest limited edition Mopar muscle car. That car, called the Mopar ‘19 is based on a 2019 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack, but comes with a number of unique touches. The asymmetrical blue stripes catch your eye right away and you’ll also notice large Brembo brakes, a silver-coated strut tower brace, Mopar logo embroidered into the seat backs and custom badging on the instrument panel. Only 100 of them will be made at a cost of about $46,000 and you’re going to have to join Gary Vasilash and John today at 3PM eastern time to find out all the details.
HYUNDAI UPCYCLES LEFTOVER SEAT MATERIAL
Here’s a clever way to re-use leftover production material, make it into clothes. Hyundai is partnering with the fashion brand Zero + Maria Cornejo to create 15 pieces of clothing from leftover car seat material. This is part of a new trend called upcycling that encourages creating new products from leftover materials. The clothing will be showcased at the Re:Style fashion show next week in New York City.
OLD WHEEL KEEPS ON TURNING
OK, we’ve got a brain teaser for you. One of our viewers, Cozy Coles, sent in this picture of what looks like a stamped steel wheel. It’s a stock, original, 15-inch wheel and it clearly says Ford Motor Company in the center. Cozy wants to know, what vehicle did it come on? We’d like to know too, because we’ve been scratching our heads on this one. But we also know, somewhere out there in Autoline viewer land, at least one of you has the answer.
Coming up next, John has something to say about the FBI raids involving some of the top officers of the UAW.
CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS COULD GET MESSY
Yesterday, the FBI raided the homes of the present and former president of the United Auto Workers union. Neighbors say they saw the FBI agents leaving with boxes and bags full of material. One neighbor claims he saw them counting wads of cash. Not surprisingly, rank and file union members are very upset. But a number of them said they were not surprised.
This does not bode well for the union. This federal investigation has been going on for four years and now reaches the highest levels in the union. While the Twitter world is alive with conspiracy mongers accusing president Trump of being behind this, the investigation clearly started under the Obama Administration.
Others say the car companies are complicit because they bribed these union officials, but so far the investigation shows that the union officials who pleaded guilty so far, took money that was earmarked for training centers. In some cases they would form tax-free charities and then have the training centers make donations to the charities. In other cases they would spend training center money on lavish trips in swanky resorts, ostensibly for training and education purposes.
And all this is happening right in the middle of contract negotiations between the UAW and GM, Ford and FCA. This investigation is making a strike a lot more likely next month. The rank and file clearly don’t trust that their leadership is bargaining in good faith, and will likely reject any contract unless it produces significant wage gains. Meanwhile, the automakers want to lower their labor costs, not raise them. And all that means that this could really get messy.
That’s our view of what’s going on and on that note we wrap up today’s show.
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John McElroy is an influential thought leader in the automotive industry. He is a journalist, lecturer, commentator and entrepreneur. He created “Autoline Daily,” the first industry webcast of industry news and analysis.