AD #2420 – Hyundai Updates the Elantra, Geely Makes a Great Leap Forward, Fewer Subprime Car Buyers

On today’s show…Hyundai gives the Elantra a new face…Geely is now the third largest automaker in China…and self-driving start-up company Aurora says thanks, but no thanks to Volkswagen. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily the voice of the automotive industry.

GEELY MAKES A GREAT LEAP FORWARD
We keep saying that Li Shufu is the Henry Ford of China. He’s the guy who started the Chinese company Geely that went on to buy Volvo from Ford. He also has stakes in Volvo truck, and the company that makes London cabs, and in Lotus, and in Proton the Malaysian automaker and in Terrafugia an American company developing flying cars, and he owns almost ten percent of Daimler. Now Geely just became the third largest automaker in China, trailing only Volkswagen and General Motors. And that is really saying something about how fast Geely is growing.

FCA GETS OFFER FOR MAGNETI
FCA has been trying to sell Magneti Marelli, its in-house supplier company. But no one came up with a good offer. So it decided to spin it off. But now KKR, the private investment company, is looking into buying it. FCA could probably get a couple of billion dollars by selling. But it would also get hit with a big tax bill, so spinning Magneti off may still be the best option.

VW WANTS AURORA, AURORA SAYS NO
In an attempt to bolster its autonomous car effort, Volkswagen recently tried to acquire autonomous start-up Aurora, which was founded by former Tesla and Google employees. But Aurora said no thanks because it wants to remain independent, so it can sell its technology to multiple automakers. The two companies are already partners, VW announced at CES this year that it will use Aurora’s technology in its cars. But at the same event, Hyundai also announced that it will integrate Aurora’s system into its Nexo fuel cell vehicle.

And we’ll take a look at the updates Hyundai made to the Elantra, right after this.

HYUNDAI UPDATES THE ELANTRA
Hyundai just gave the Elantra a facelift. The front and rear styling was changed to give the car what Hyundai calls a catchy and confident image. We think the front end graphic kind of reminds us of the new Volkswagen Jetta. Inside it gets an 8-inch screen, one inch bigger than before. And it gets an optional suite of safety technologies, including automated emergency braking, or AEB. Hyundai offers a number of different models of the Elantra, but the car typically sells for about $20,000.

FEWER SUBPRIME CAR BUYERS
A year ago, some in the financial media were sounding alarms about subprime car buyers defaulting on their car loans. All kinds of hysterical stories bemoaned the fact that automakers relied too heavily on consumers with poor credit ratings. Fast forward to today. There’s no problem. Automakers and lenders tightened up their credit standards, and subprime buyers now account for 25% fewer of all borrowers. Another reason for the decline: consumers have built up their credit scores after taking a bath during the Great Recession.

Hyundai launched a refund program if you didn’t like your car and it worked great until car dealers said that’s enough. We’ll tell you more right after this.

DEALERS DON’T LIKE HYUNDAI REFUNDS
Last year, Hyundai introduced its Shopper Assurance program, that gave customers the option to return their vehicle within 3 days of purchasing it for a full refund. But WardsAuto reports that a number of dealers said they didn’t like it. They hated having to refund the money. So Hyundai revised the program. Dealers can now offer buyers to exchange the vehicle they bought for another one, as long as they do it within 3 days of the purchase. Shopper Assurance is a tool created by the company to streamline buying a car, by starting the process online before heading to the dealer.

Be sure to join us for Autoline After Hours this afternoon when we’ll have Stephen Frey, the Chief Engineer for the Acura RDX in the studio, along with an RDX. We’ll take a deep dive into how it developed that vehicle and the new technology it introduced. Lindsay Brooke from SAE Engineering will also be on the show. We’ll be taking your questions too, so start thinking about what you would like to ask.  

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.