AD #1542 – Honda Dumps Takata, Musk Appears On The Simpsons, Manheim Creates Mobile Auctions
January 26th, 2015 at 12:06pm
Runtime: 7:06
- Honda Dumps Takata for New Accord
- Automakers Agree to Remove Copper from Brakes
- Detroit Carmakers Shine at 24 Hours of Daytona
- New Study Says Millenials Like Driving
- Elon Musk Appears On ‘The Simpsons’
- Dealers Look To Cut Car Buying Time
- Manheim Creates Mobile Auctions
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On today’s show…Honda dumps Takata airbags for the next Accord, Detroit automakers shine at the 24 Hours of Daytona and Manheim starts running mobile auctions. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
This is Autoline Daily for January 26th, 2015.
HONDA DUMPS TAKATA FOR NEW ACCORD
When airbag manufacturer Takata ran into a buzzsaw of problems and a record number of recalls, Honda was the one car company that said it would stand behind its supplier. Well, maybe not for every one of its cars. Reuters reports that Honda will use airbags made by Toyoda Gosei for the North American version of the next-gen Accord that goes on sale in 2017. That’s a big blow to Takata because Honda is its largest customer and the Accord accounts for a quarter of Honda’s sales in the U.S. Reuters also reports that the new CR-V and Odyssey will use airbags from Toyoda Gosei starting in 2016.
CU LATER
If you’ve bought a set a brake pads recently you may have noticed tiny pieces of copper sprinkled throughout the friction material.That’s because copper efficiently transfers heat, smooths out the breaking process and can help prevent brake squeal. But those copper pieces can get into water runoff, ending up in lakes and rivers and that is not a good thing. So automakers have signed an agreement to reduce the amount of copper and other harmful materials used in brake friction material. The industry will have to come up with an alternative to copper, but at the moment copper’s unique characteristics make it difficult to replicate with other materials.
DETROIT CARMAKERS SHINE AT 24 HOURS OF DAYTONA
Motor racing fans who have been waiting for months to watch almost any kind of race were treated to a terrific event at the 24 Hours of Daytona. And the Detroit based automakers must be mighty pleased with the results. A Ford EcoBoost engine in a Ganassi Daytona Prototype powered its way past everyone else to take the overall win. A Pratt & Miller Chevrolet Corvette won the class in GTLM. A Dodge Viper won the GT Daytona class. And a Chevrolet powered car from PR1 Motorsports took the win in the PC class. This is a very competitive series with 53 entrants fielding Ferraris, Porsches, BMWs, Aston Martins, Audis, Hondas and Mazdas.
Still to come…MTV says millennials actually prefer driving cars to using social media, Elon Musk makes an appearance on the Simpsons, and Manheim pioneers mobile auctions.
I’LL BRB #GOINGDRIVING LOL
There are a lot of us out there that think Millennials would rather have their nose buried in a smartphone than to jump behind the wheel of a car. But according to a new study from MTV that’s just not true. 70% of millennials say they like driving “a lot,” 3 in 4 would rather give up social media for a day than their car for a day and 72% would prefer to drive for a week over texting for a week. As it turns out, Millennials claim to drive more miles per month than any other generation. Now we just need to get them to stop texting and driving at the same time.
ELON MUSK APPEARS ON THE SIMPSONS
Elon Musk unveiled an all new electric autonomous car last night…(pause) on the popular Fox comedy “The Simpsons.” The Tesla founder lent his voice to an animated version of himself as he rocketed into Springfield, teamed with Homer on new products and then caused an economic depression in the town as he tries to save the planet. All that in a half hour where the writers also poked fun at his ideas and businesses letting Lisa Simpson say: “For a man who likes electric cars he sure burns an awful lot of rocket fuel.” Not a bad move for Musk to show that he can take a joke — actually lots of them — to counteract his rather stuffy image. Though if this TV thing continues, we might start to worry about his business if he shows up on ABC’s Shark Tank…as a contestant.
Coming up next, instead of dealers taking their used cars to auction, now the auction will come to them.
DEALERS LOOK TO CUT CAR BUYING TIME
We spent part of the weekend at the annual convention for the National Auto Dealers Association. You might want to check out the interviews that we did there and have posted to our website and our YouTube channel. Some observations: Dealers in the US market are in a very good mood, and there was a lot of action on the floor. One recurring topic: dealers are trying to slash the amount of time it takes to buy a car. Today that can take up to four hours to go through all the paperwork. They’re trying to get it down to 90 minutes. But a lot of that has to do with shifting the burden to the buyer and having him or her fill out a lot of the forms online before they even get to the dealership. Before you blame dealers for the time it takes, remember, they face a mountain of regulations that require all that paperwork.
MANHEIM CREATES MOBILE AUCTIONS
There’s an old English saying that says “if the mountain can’t come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain.” Well, now that thinking is being applied to used car auctions. Instead of having car dealers bring their used cars to auctions, Manheim has started bringing auctions to dealerships. It provides everything needed including auctioneers. Manheim held an event earlier this month at Hendrick automotive that was attended by 600 dealers who bought 86% of the 508 vehicles that were on sale. Manheim calls these mobile auctions and no doubt we’re going to see a lot more of this as it can save dealers a ton of cost and time.
That wraps up today’s show, thanks for watching.
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Comments (31)
January 26th, 2015 at 12:16 pm
Honda’s Takata move just may be good business. No sense having all your airbags come from the same basket.
I know financial people would prefer to have one supplier, but the reality is having more than one supplier of a similar part is better.
January 26th, 2015 at 12:31 pm
I’m guessing my stick shift subcompact would be part of that 14% that even Mannheim can’t unload.
It’s mine, all mine.
Is Mannheim responding to CarMax doing weekly dealer auctions from their own stores?
—-
btw, that fancy pants blizzard hasn’t shown up yet.
Famous last words
January 26th, 2015 at 12:32 pm
Maybe the time to buy a car is so long due to the fact the salesperson wants to sell you stuff you don’t want or need and that takes time
January 26th, 2015 at 12:43 pm
One suggestion for speeding up the paperwork on a car deal would be to ditch the credit life, window etching, and every other grab bag option the finance dept. loves to up-sell (yeah, I’m laughing too even as I write this). For my part, I discuss that during negotiations just prior to agreeing to a deal. But you are right, John, in terms of the regulations that necessitate so much paperwork. The more regulation there is, the more the paperwork you have to sign. Remember when you closed on your house–even if it went smoothly!?!
January 26th, 2015 at 12:45 pm
3 Dave, that is part of it. The last two new cars I bought, it took an hour or less to do everything, as far as the paperwork. I told them up front that I didn’t want to buy a service contract, expensive Scotchguard, etc., and they understood that I meant it.
January 26th, 2015 at 12:46 pm
2 HtG, your Honda might sell well at an auction, as a collectable car.
January 26th, 2015 at 1:21 pm
That was an interesting survey by Mtv. While Mtv (Viacom)certainly has a vested interest in getting more advertising from carcos, it’s hard to believe their figures are unreliable.
I like this sentence from the press release, “Millennials want flexibility to create customized interiors that best represent them.” -Now, that I would never have thought about. So, superhero theme seat covers to match their underwear?
January 26th, 2015 at 1:33 pm
The other day I saw on Autotrader an old Camry with over 600k miles and they were asking a lot of money because it was a “rare” 600k mile sample in good condition, that is why the seller expected more money than the $200 it’s probably worth due to its rarity! some people got a lot of nerve, for sure.
January 26th, 2015 at 1:34 pm
6 I wonder if millennials would like interiors in colors other than grey and beige. I liked colorful car interiors when I was that age, and I still do. Unfortunately, the only cars that offer interior color choices are pricey, and they don’t offer much choice, maybe red if you are lucky.
As recently as the ’90′s, you could get a blue interior in a Chrysler minivan, but no more.
January 26th, 2015 at 1:35 pm
7 It’s well broken in.
January 26th, 2015 at 1:40 pm
7 no longer appears there, either sold it to some sucker or pulled out due to not being able to sell it. Maybe in another 5 yrs and 200k miles I can get some dummy to pony up big bucks for my 500k mi. Vibrolla
January 26th, 2015 at 1:47 pm
9 it went from broken in to just plain broken.
January 26th, 2015 at 1:56 pm
There is this thing . . . it’s called the aftermarket. Low and behold, you can purchase just about anything that you want from: custom seatcovers (like Katskin, Coverking and many others) which are really good idea even when brand new, as they preserve the OEM upholstery for when you want to sell/trade-in, dash trim kits, bezel replacements, all sorts of electronics, wheels . . . in fact, you name it and someone probably makes it.
You can do all sorts of customization. I don’t blame the OEMs for narrowing their offerings. Far too many peeps only want to buy silver/gray appliances nowadays. And then are too lazy to do what they claim to want to have.
When you’ve got (3) of our so-called trading partners (Japan, S.Korea, & Germany) that all want to highly protect their own markets but have complete access to ours . . . OEMs have got to make smart decisions as to profitability. The number of choices declined when the foreign OEMs were allowed (unreciprocated) access to our market.
January 26th, 2015 at 3:17 pm
Another successful campaign starts. Go Corvette Racing!!!
January 26th, 2015 at 3:36 pm
Relative to Takata, Diamond Electric, Yazaki, Firestone and others: If we keep killing off our suppliers like this, there won’t be anyone left to make “parts”. At greatest issue are the margins the suppliers are “allowed” to make. You start off with 5% and then have to deduct from that the costs of recalls and rejections. The only way to survive is to cut the edges by “iffy cost reductions” or possibly even collusion. This lose-lose proposition is in no one’s best interest.
January 26th, 2015 at 4:12 pm
I don’t understand how it can be profitable to have auctions at a dealership. From my experience, 3-10 cars are sent to auction each week or so. And what are the smaller dealerships supposed to do when they may have only one or two? Combining several at one location is the only way that would make sense.
January 26th, 2015 at 4:25 pm
15 I’d think it would work only for very large dealer operations, like Hendrick.
January 26th, 2015 at 4:41 pm
BP gas in North Jersey, $1.86.
#watchingTV #priorities
January 26th, 2015 at 5:54 pm
18 Are they having a blizzard sale on gas?
January 26th, 2015 at 6:07 pm
actually, I saw people lined up at gas stations last night, mobbing grocery stores. NJ has cheap gas because of low state taxes.
Streets are being shut, mass transit discontinued. The big stuff’s supposed to arrive later tonight. Smells like a fluff out to me.
People are making a meal of it, though
January 26th, 2015 at 6:19 pm
HtG Fl is very nice this time of the year, you need to do like Kit does, become a snowbird!
January 26th, 2015 at 6:21 pm
Good show John!!
January 26th, 2015 at 6:47 pm
Only thing I used to like about it was getting the day off, both at school and later in life, at work, otherwise, it sucks big time!
January 26th, 2015 at 7:09 pm
21 It was windy today, though.
January 26th, 2015 at 7:23 pm
24 That’s hardly the best way to enjoy one’s Chef Boyardee and PBJ sandwiches, now is it?
#therewillbevodka
seriously though, I’m not moving
January 26th, 2015 at 7:55 pm
Here’s a link to Autoline at NADA talking to the Manheim boss about those mobile auctions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YFMerj6wTk
January 26th, 2015 at 8:27 pm
NADA
It’s interesting what John was talking about with Ford’s SMARTT program for sales, because a few weeks ago I got an email from Honda about their Online Service Scheduling. You can book a service slot online, but also have access to your car’s service records at your local dealer. Plus you can choose to receive reminders for upcoming maintenance.
Personally, I like calling up my service writer who has taken care of the car for years, and doesn’t have any patience for my whining.
January 26th, 2015 at 9:20 pm
27 I keep getting reminders about service from Toyota dealers, when I’m not due for service. GM was good on that when I had my last new GM car. Whatever communication Onstar uses kept them informed of miles on the car, remaining oil life, and probably how much speeding I had done. I got email reminders of service due, based on official recommendations.
January 26th, 2015 at 9:57 pm
nice report as usual. meanwhile an air hybrid system you reported on seems to have bit the dust (pity – sounded promising):
http://blog.caranddriver.com/deflated-peugeot-citroen-shelves-its-air-hybrid-technology/
January 26th, 2015 at 10:05 pm
The air hybrid technology would seem to be most applicable for garbage trucks, or rural mail delivery vehicles, where stops are very frequent and you only need to store energy to go a few hundred feet.
January 27th, 2015 at 11:31 am
So Fl weather report: Sunny, windy, in the 50′s; a lot of women are wearing jackets, scarves and boots.