DC Could Be Looking for Smart Partners
2004 Smart city coupe | 
DC Earnings Beat Q2 Hopes by Joseph Szczesny (8/1/2005)
Mercedes turns around as company receives Schrempp's resignation.
Glassman in Line as Next NHTSA Chief
A replacement for outgoing National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) chief Dr. Jeffrey Runge will be named soon, and it's expected that the current deputy administrator of the agency, Jacqueline Glassman, will be the next NHTSA head. Yesterday Glassman was named the deputy administrator of the agency from her post of chief counsel. A former Chrysler Group lawyer, Glassman will likely become acting administrator of the agency when Runge leaves, which may be as soon as August, the Associated Press reports. Runge will be taking over the post of chief medical officer in the Department of Homeland Security.
Industry Report: July 18, 2005 by TCC Team (7/18/2005)
Runge leaving the NHTSA, Hertz sticking with Fords.
TCConfidential: Party Down with the Zetsches!
Iacocca and Snoop | Get more on Zetsche, road food and the new Snoop-Iacocca commercial in TCConfidential
SPECIAL REPORT: Management Briefing Seminars
By Paul A. Eisenstein
Honda Does America
2006 Honda Civic Si | Spy Shots: 2006 Honda Civic Sedan by Brenda Priddy (4/11/2005)
With apologies to new technology, Honda shies away with its new entry-level four-door.
GM Expanding Crossovers, Realigning Prices
In an effort to expand its appeal by getting sticker prices "more aligned with our transaction prices," General Motors will lower list prices on 30 of its 76 models, announced John Smith, global product development director at General Motors. Meanwhile, said Smith, "we'll be adding equipment, such as OnStar and Stability Control," to many of the other models. And warranties on the HUMMER and Buick brands will be extended from three years/36,000 miles to four years/50,000 miles.
GM officials have been hinting about this realignment for some months, deciding to put it into place as they wind down their successful employee-pricing program. The campaign not only boosted sales and share, but helped attract a large number of normally import-loyal buyers. The latest move, said Smith, should get GM products on the "consideration list" of even more of these shoppers.
During his appearance at the MBS, Smith acknowledged it will take lots of competitive new product to help GM regain share it has lost over the years - and not only in the U.S. market. He noted that the automaker will spend a total of $8 billion globally on new product this year, a billion more than in 2004.
That increase will help the automaker rush new crossover vehicles into the market, said GM's product boss. The plan is to have 14 crossovers in the market four years from now, said Smith, up from six now. The current lineup, including the Saturn Vue and Chevrolet Equinox, account for 430,000 sales annually, or 15 percent of the U.S. crossover market. By 2009, GM aims to be selling 800,000 crossovers, or 25 percent of the anticipated market.
By late in the decade, the number-one automaker also hopes to have a selection of hybrid-electric vehicles in production. They will rely on a new, "two-mode" technology GM and development partner DaimlerChrysler AG believe will do a better job improving mileage at highway speeds than existing hybrid hardware. Smith declined to discuss specific plans for what he called "a better mousetrap," other than saying GM's first application of two-mode hybrid systems will be its larger vehicles, "where it can have the biggest impact on emissions and oil consumption."
Ford Focusing on High-Mileage Hybrids
There's a growing divergence in the nascent hybrid market. The first gasoline-electric vehicles, such as Honda's teardrop-shaped Insight, focused solely on delivering great fuel economy. The Lexus GS450h, planned for launch next spring, will be tweaked to emphasize performance, trading off some of its fuel efficiency. Ford Motor Co. chose the high-mileage route with its first two hybrid-electric vehicles, the Escape Hybrid and Mercury Mariner Hybrid. And North American product development chief Phil Martens told TheCarConnection.com, Ford has no plans to switch direction. "We don't have any plans to do a performance hybrid," Martens declared, adding that to his mind, "not many people need a C/D (mid-size) sedan that can go 0-60 in under seven seconds." But after a brief pause, Martens hedged his bets, cautioning that "the future is still a little fuzzy."
Martens stressed he is convinced that the market will increasingly embrace hybrid technology. How fast sales grow is unclear, he cautioned. On Wednesday, Jim Press, CEO of Toyota's U.S. arm, said hybrids could account for as much as a quarter of the company's American volume by decade's end. Martens questioned that number. Part of the problem, he said, is a lack of a hybrid hardware supply base. "We have to develop the supply base in the U.S.," he said, adding that Ford will form strategic partnerships with a limited number of suppliers, rather than follow its normal sourcing practices.
Fairlane Fans Could Find Fulfillment
2005 Ford Fairlane concept |
Detroit Driving Down Healthcare Costs
Soaring medical bills have proved a hot topic at this year's Management Briefing Seminars. General Motors is the industry poster child for healthcare reform, spending about $1500 per vehicle for employee medical coverage. But analyst David Andrea, one of the MBS moderators, noted that suppliers are also being weighed down. A study by the Original Equipment Suppliers Assoc., or OESA, found that $0.21.5 of every dollar partsmakers spend for labor goes to support healthcare coverage. The median medical bill rose nine percent last year, though the increase hit 14 percent for some suppliers. Andrea warned that fixing the problem "is not just about shifting costs" to employees or the government, "it's about eliminating cost." That is possible with careful management, suggested Dura's Theresa Skotak. The Detroit supplier was running up annual double-digit increases, "with no end in sight," until it tackled medical costs head-on. It has since slashed the number of individual medical plans and HMOs offered its workers, put more emphasis on wellness, rather than simply curing illnesses, taken aim at prescription costs, and shifted some bills to employees. The effort helped Dura hold its 2004 healthcare coverage increase to a relatively modest 6.4 percent, said Skotak.
Covisint Shifting from Cars to Medical
It was conceived as a multi-billion-dollar business-to-business portal for the automotive industry, but Covisint's initial optimism was quickly tempered by the realities of the market. A joint venture of the Big Three and other automotive partners, Covisint never generated the sort of revenues initially forecast and nearly collapsed last year, ultimately being sold off to the Detroit-based software giant, Compuware. The start-up's managers "got distracted" by the original hype, conceded Bob Paul, president and CEO of what is now Compuware Covisint.
In its early incarnation, Paul told TheCarConnection.com, Covisint did a lot of things "we were never going to be best at." Since the Compuware acquisition, it has trimmed down expectations - and narrowed its focus. Covisint has primarily limited itself to providing electronic data interchange, or EDI, services to the auto industry, lining up a procession of major OE and supplier customers. Though he declined to discuss hard dollar figures, Paul noted that revenues soared 68 percent in 2004, and the company is "on track" to achieve similar results in 2005. One reason could be that Covisint is again expanding its reach.
On Thursday, Covisint announced it is setting up a new portal designed to provide Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan, and its key automotive partners, with a way of electronically tracking and sharing medical data. The goal is, among other things, to reduce fraud, eliminate redundant testing, prevent prescription errors, and speed up the handling of coverage authorization and records - today a slow and tedious manual task. "The big picture is "we're deploying an electronic statewide information network," Paul explained during an interview. That is one of the steps experts have said could help curb soaring medical costs. A federal study, Paul pointed out, shows that redundant medical testing costs American consumers and care providers about $300 billion annually.
Covisint officials will soon meet with nine other "Blues" organizations around the country to discuss setting up similar data-sharing systems, Paul told TCC. And that could turn into a major new source of revenue for the company. Currently, the auto industry accounts for 96 percent of Covisint's revenues, "but if we fast-forward two years, auto will represent about 40 percent," he projected.
FROM THE SOURCE headlines from the latest press releases
PRNewswire
Kia Motors America (KMA) today announced pricing for its all-new 2006 Rio four-door sedan and Rio5 five-door. Arriving at dealerships nationwide in mid-August, the Rio sedan will have a starting manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $10,570 while the Rio5 five-door will start at $13,500. The new Rio sedan and Rio5 five-door feature best-in-class interior room and a class-leading six standard airbags - dual advanced front airbags, front seat-mounted side airbags and front/rear side curtain airbags - making it the lowest priced vehicle on the market to offer six standard airbags. Both Rios feature a more powerful 110-horsepower DOHC 1.6-liter engine with Continuously Variable Valve Timing (CVVT) while delivering up to a 20-percent improvement in fuel economy over its predecessor.
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| Name | Symbol | Last | Change |
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| Autobytel, Inc. | ABTL | 5.56 | -0.24 (-4.14%) |
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| Autoliv Inc. | ALV | 45.10 | -0.40 (-0.88%) |
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| AutoNation Inc. | AN | 21.43 | -0.05 (-0.23%) |
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| ArvinMeritor Inc. | ARM | 19.72 | |
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| American Axle & Mfr. Holdings Inc. | AXL | 28.02 | |
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| Ballard Power Systems Inc. | BLDP | 4.85 | -0.02 (-0.41%) |
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| BorgWarner Inc. | BWA | 57.18 | -0.71 (-1.23%) |
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| Cummins Inc. | CMI | 85.35 | -0.04 (-0.05%) |
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| Dana Corporation | DCN | 15.33 | -0.47 (-2.97%) |
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| DaimlerChrysler AG (ADR) | DCX | 49.51 | -1.35 (-2.65%) |
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| Delphi Corporation | DPH | 5.78 | +0.54 (+10.31%) |
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| Dura Automotive Systems | DRRA | 4.50 | -0.16 (-3.43%) |
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| Eaton Corporation | ETN | 66.42 | -0.33 (-0.49%) |
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| Ford Motor Company | F | 10.64 | -0.11 (-1.02%) |
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| General Motors Corporation | GM | 36.05 | -0.44 (-1.21%) |
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| Gentex Corporation | GNTX | 17.98 | -0.12 (-0.66%) |
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| Goodyear Tire & Rubber | GT | 17.45 | +0.10 (+0.58%) |
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| Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (ADR) | HMC | 26.07 | -0.37 (-1.40%) |
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| Johnson Controls Inc. | JCI | 57.53 | +0.15 (+0.26%) |
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| Lear Corporation | LEA | 40.77 | -0.38 (-0.92%) |
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| Magna International Inc. | MGA | 78.49 | +0.49 (+0.63%) |
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| Motorola Inc. | MOT | 22.00 | -0.04 (-0.18%) |
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| Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. (ADR) | NSANY | 20.88 | -0.13 (-0.62%) |
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| Sonic Automotive Inc. | SAH | 23.60 | -0.35 (-1.46%) |
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| Siemens AG | SI | 77.62 | -1.23 (-1.56%) |
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| Sirius Satellite Radio | SIRI | 6.81 | -0.14 (-2.01%) |
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| Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR) | TM | 76.13 | -0.23 (-0.30%) |
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| TRW Automotive Holdings | TRW | 28.91 | -0.16 (-0.55%) |
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| Tower Automotive Inc. | TWRAQ.PK | 0.18 | -0.03 (-14.29%) |
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| United Auto Group Inc. | UAG | 34.82 | -0.83 (-2.33%) |
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| Visteon Corporation | VC | 8.63 | -0.17 (-1.93%) |
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| XM Satellite Radio Hold. | XMSR | 34.51 | -0.39 (-1.12%) |
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