“Automotive Equipment - Chicago Tribune” plus 4 more |
- Automotive Equipment - Chicago Tribune
- Cherokee Automotive Group Forms Analytics Division - Carolina Newswire
- Clunkers program grinds to a halt - Tampa Bay Online
- 'Cash for clunkers' is administrative nightmare - Detroit News
- Massachusetts Battery Firms A123Systems and Boston-Power Taking ... - Xconomy
| Automotive Equipment - Chicago Tribune Posted: 24 Aug 2009 02:51 PM PDT Recipient E-mail Addresses (up to 3, separated by commas) Send me a copy.From:
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| Cherokee Automotive Group Forms Analytics Division - Carolina Newswire Posted: 24 Aug 2009 09:07 AM PDT |
| Clunkers program grinds to a halt - Tampa Bay Online Posted: 24 Aug 2009 09:03 PM PDT Published: August 25, 2009 TAMPA - Some dealers sold cars until the last minute of the Cash for Clunkers program Monday, but most worried about getting reimbursed and abandoned the plan early. The federal Car Allowance Rebate System was set to end at 8 p.m. Monday. That, the government had said, was when it would stop accepting applications for rebates. Dealers got a short extension to noon today, however, because the government's online processing system was overwhelmed with last-minute applications. The tax credit of $3,500 to $4,500 was an incentive for consumers to buy a new vehicle with better gas mileage than their existing "clunker." One dealer, University Chevrolet in Tampa, was still selling cars under the program late Monday afternoon - well after many others had stopped. "We extended it twice," University executive manager Dennis Slater said. "The online system is pretty bogged down, but we've been getting some tips and tricks about how to get them in and recorded right until the last moment." Jim Myers, chief operating officer for Crown Automotive Group, said Crown stopped accepting clunker trades at the close of business Sunday. Crown Automotive shut down the program a day early to make sure all rebate applications got through to the government in time, Myers said. Crown Automotive has sold about 400 vehicles through the program at its dealerships in Florida and Ohio. Another big dealer, AutoNation of Fort Lauderdale, which operates AutoWay in the Bay area, stopped taking clunker trades at the close of business Friday. On that day, the chain sold 1,600 vehicles through the program, AutoNation spokesman Marc Cannon said. The company does not disclose market-specific sales data, he said. Other dealers that quit taking the trades early were Courtesy Hyundai in Tampa, which stopped on Saturday, and Dimmitt Chevrolet of Clearwater, which stopped at noon Monday. Reporter Rich Mullins contributed to this report. Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 'Cash for clunkers' is administrative nightmare - Detroit News Posted: 24 Aug 2009 10:36 PM PDT Daniel HowesAt Central Avenue Nissan in Yonkers, N.Y., they love "cash for clunkers." At Downtown Ford Lincoln Mercury in Canton, Ohio, they love it, too. Lots of cash deals; few cases of bad credit; gross profit per vehicle up "a couple of hundred dollars." At the Grand Blanc-based Serra Automotive Group, with 38 franchises at 21 locations in six states, the boss appreciates that the controversial federal incentive program has consumers thinking cars after a year of mostly doing anything but. Sales are booming. Inventory is thin. Customers are swarming showrooms, hungry for sweet, stackable deals (cash back from the automakers plus a cash-for-clunkers rebate of as much as $4,500) that can cut the price of some eligible vehicles in half. Advertisement All good, except for one thing: Many dealers still aren't getting paid. The bureaucratic maze is ridiculous: 156 pages of regulations governing 13 pages of forms are mated to a computer system that mostly is failing to accommodate demand from dealers across the country. Brad Black, general manager of Downtown Ford, told me Monday his dealership has delivered 73 vehicles under the federal program but has received reimbursement for just one car. "We've got a lot of money hanging out there," he says, "a lot" being roughly $330,000. "Every time you sell a car you reach into your pocket for $3,500 or $4,500. That's a lot of money and it comes right out of working capital." Not that they'd understand such a simple business principle -- cash flow is the lifeblood of small businesses like car dealers -- in Congress or the Department of Transportation. Which is the problem, whatever your philosophical take on the simple fact that public money is being used to spur sales for a (mostly) private industry and its dealers. "We've gotten paid nothing at this point, absolutely nothing," says Jonathan Grant, principal of Central Avenue Nissan, Central Avenue Chrysler Jeep and two other dealerships in Westchester County north of New York City. Altogether, Grant has about $800,000 on the line. "It's blind faith at this point that we're going to get the money. We're trying to input stuff today and they can't get in. The computers are overwhelmed. It's a great program for the manufacturers, a great program for the consumers. For dealers, it's been an administrative nightmare." And the Obama administration and its allies in Congress propose to overhaul (and potentially run) health care for more than 300 million Americans? Let's just say cash-for-clunkers doesn't inspire much confidence in Washington's bureaucratic acumen. Or its speed. Or its feel for a functioning market, the demands and expectations. Serra Automotive has booked 650 cash-for-clunker deals, but as of Monday morning only 8 percent -- about 50 vehicles -- have been approved for payment by the government, says Joe Serra, president of Serra Automotive. Meaning he's taking a $2.6 million cash hit while his customers already are driving their new vehicles. "If that doesn't happen, we've got issues," he says. "That will crumble me. We just don't have that kind of cash lying around these businesses, especially after the year we just went through." Will the dealers get paid? Probably, because failure to do so would be a PR disaster of epic proportions. Will the program prove to be the jumpstart languishing auto sales need? Debatable, though depleted inventories already are forcing increased production schedules across the industry. The more important question, it seems to me, is what the obvious administrative failures of cash for clunkers say about the federal government's capability to manage programs more typically run by the private sector. And, secondly, why is there a clamor for more of the same? Auto dealers are in business to make money selling cars and trucks, not to serve as conduits of federal transfer payments. If nothing else, cash for clunkers proved Americans still love good deals -- and that their government cannot process them. dchowes@detnews.com (313) 222-2106 Daniel Howes' column runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Massachusetts Battery Firms A123Systems and Boston-Power Taking ... - Xconomy Posted: 24 Aug 2009 08:56 PM PDT energy, Hybrid Cars, lithium-ionRyan McBride 8/25/09The automotive segment of the battery market is expected to skyrocket in the coming years, as eco-friendly vehicles that rely heavily on battery power hit the road in greater numbers than ever before. And Massachusetts advanced battery developers A123Systems and Boston-Power are among many firms eying this lucrative market. But the two companies are at very different stages in their efforts to enter it, analysts tell Xconomy. Watertown, MA-based A123 is already making millions of dollars from its lithium iron phosphate (or what the company calls nanophosphate) battery systems in automotive applications, and it has secured agreements with Auburn Hills, MI-based Chrysler and others to supply batteries for more than a dozen vehicle models at various stages of commercial readiness, according to the company and industry sources. Though arriving to the auto segment later than A123, Westborough, MA-based Boston-Power expects to provide its lithium cobalt-manganese batteries for an unspecified number of vehicles in China and Taiwan in the near future, CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud tells Xconomy. Yet the company has not yet announced a deal with a major automaker like A123 has. Lithium ion batteries—the kind that both A123 and Boston-Power produce—are attractive for use in hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles in part because they have greater power density than traditional lead-acid auto batteries, meaning they can produce more kilowatt-hours of electricity per kilogram. They do cost more than lead-acid batteries, but A123 says its batteries are worth it since they deliver higher voltage than standard lithium-ions. Boston-Power's lithium vehicle battery, called the Swing, is priced competitively with other lithium-ion batteries, Lampe-Onnerud says. Its Swing battery is also manufactured using the same environmentally friendly techniques that have earned the company Nordic Ecolabel accreditation for its laptop batteries. But one of the Bay State companies appears to be taking the lead over the other. A123 earlier this month scored …Next Page » Ryan McBride is Xconomy's correspondent. You can reach him at rmcbride@xconomy.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Ryan_McBride.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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