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  • A Car You’ve Never Heard of From a Company that Deserves Admiration

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    Patterson-Greenfield flyer

    America’s only Black-owned automaker was C.R. Patterson & Sons, which built the Patterson-Greenfield Automobile.

    There are many forgotten automakers, companies that existed for a few years before fizzling out. Truthfully, there were thousands, yet only one, owned and run by Blacks: C.R. Patterson & Sons, which launched its first model, the Patterson-Greenfield, in 1914.

    It’s an era when President Woodrow Wilson segregated federal offices, separating toilets in the U.S. Treasury and the Interior Department, which the administration defended as being beneficial to Blacks.

    It’s a time when D.W. Griffith’s movie “Birth of a Nation” was seen as legitimate entertainment, despite glorifying the Klu Klux Klan. In 1908, when boxer Jack Johnson became the first Black man to capture heavyweight champion of the world, fans began looking for “The Great White Hope” – a white fighter who could defeat him. Seven years later, it happened after 26 rounds.

    Given such inherent racism, it’s miraculous even one Black-owned car company existed.

    America’s only car built by a Black-owned automaker

    C.R. Patterson shop and car

    C.R. Patterson and his three sons all worked in the business from 1914 to 1918.

    While carriagebuilders are experts at their craft, the engineering it takes to produce a car and its many parts is immensely challenging. So, it’s not surprising that the car, the Patterson-Greenfield, used off-the-shelf parts. Its purchased steel frame had a 108-inch wheelbase, with Patterson completing the wood-framed bodies. Other purchased parts included cantilever springs, the full-floating rear axle, demountable rims, lighting, ventilated windshield and, most importantly, the engine.

    Some sources claim Pattersons were powered by a 30-horsepower 4-cylinder Continental engine. Yet company ads talk of engines made by Golden, Belknap & Swartz, or G.B. & S., a Detroit engine builder for small automakers from 1910 through 1924. The L-head 4-cylinder produced 22.5 horsepower, slightly more than a Ford Model T, and was matched with a 3-speed manual transmission with reverse.

    Debuting in 1914 as a closed touring car or open roadster, prices ranged from $685 to $850 (or $17,918 to $22,235 adjusted for inflation), and it was sold as “the only Negro Automobile Manufacturing Concern in the United States.”

    Yet by 1917, after as many as 150 cars were built, production shut down. What happened?

    An unlikely beginning leads to surprising success

    Like many early car companies, the story starts in 19th century, with Charles Richard Patterson, or C.R., for short.

    Born on a Virginia plantation in 1833, it isn’t known how Patterson got to Greenfield, Ohio by 1850, a town with strong abolitionist sympathies, home to one of America’s earliest abolition societies and a well-known stop on the Underground Railroad.

    Here, C.R. flourished as a Blacksmith, a common skilled trade for Blacks ­as better jobs were reserved for whites. Working for carriagemaker Dines & Simpson, he rose to shop foreman, working and supervising an integrated workforce. In 1864, he married; six children followed, including Frederick, Samuel and Postell, all of whom would work alongside their father.

    By 1873, C.R. formed his own business with a white man who had helped secure the company’s initial financing. J.P. Lowe and Co. proved successful until the Panic of 1893, which killed many businesses. Lowe, who had bankrolled the company, wanted out. C.R. obliged, renaming the company C.R. Patterson & Sons.

    Seven years later, the company boasted an integrated workforce of 50, building 28 models priced from $120 to $150, as well as a Mail Delivery Buggy and the School Wagon.

    A new era

    Then, in 1910, C.R. died, and Frederick took the reins.

    The Patterson’s also build built bus bodies sold in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky.

    Times were changing. There was now one car for every 800 people, a huge change from the year before, when there was one car for every 65,000. The company was already servicing automobiles as a sideline. To Frederick, who graduated from Ohio State University where he was the first Black to play on the football team and served as class president, now was the time to build their own car.

    Frederick pondered what it should be. Their shop was not a custom coachbuilder, nor a mass producer. It was somewhere in-between. And that’s what he wanted from his new car. Also, it had to be practical for family use; large, but not too large. Finally, it had to be reasonably priced, yet contain the quality the company was known for.

    It proved successful, for a time.

    So what went wrong?

    Patterson produced his car through 1917. But a World War was raging and raw material costs were rising. Being Black-owned, the company was blocked from obtaining the financing needed to expand, so Patterson couldn’t compete with the deep pockets of larger mass producers like Ford, General Motors and Studebaker, which also had a decade’s head start.

    Patterson experimented with cars as early as 1902. Had he started then, the year that carriagebuilder Studebaker built its first car, one year before Ford Motor Co. was founded, and six years before GM was established, he might have stood a chance.

    The company thrived until the death of Frederick in 1932, after which the company slowly declined.

    The company returns to its roots

    Patterson turned to producing custom bodies for commercial vehicles, which the company had successfully done as carriagebuilders. The company supplied school bus bodies across Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky, as well as the first transit buses in Cincinnati and Cleveland.

    It also fabricated insulated cargo trucks, hearses, moving vans, ice, bakery and milk trucks on Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford, Graham, Reo, and International chassis. Frederick’s son, Frederick Jr., oversaw their design.

    The company thrived until the death of Frederick in 1932, after which the company slowly declined. New school bus safety standards in 1935 strained the business as the company struggled to compete against larger, better-financed competitors. In the end, a misguided move to Gallipolis, Ohio proved fatal.

    By 1939, the company closed.

    Today, 156 years after the Civil War’s end, the U.S. is still struggling to reconcile democracy with slavery. That a Black-owned firm, C.R. Patterson & Sons of Greenfield, Ohio, could find success in such a malicious environment over three generations should be held up for the significant accomplishment that it is, and an example of how anyone can overcome adversity.

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  • Lucid Motors SPAC Company Churchill Sees Big Valuation Drop

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    Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson 2020

    Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson was effusive in his praise of his soon-to-be publicly traded company.

    Weeks after revealing plans it was going to go public using a blank-check company, nascent EV maker Lucid Motors released the details about the multi-billion dollar venture late yesterday rolling the dice with the public today.

    The California-based company’s reverse merger with Churchill Capital Corp. IV started with a valuation of $24 billion. However, shares of Churchill rose as high as $65 once the deal was revealed a few weeks back. But potential issues brought the stock back to earth today where it closed at about $35 a share.

    Seen as a viable competitor to Tesla Inc., Lucid walks away with about $4.4 billion in cash in the tentative deal. The automaker will use that money to get its first product, the Lucid Air, into full production. The remainder will be used to develop the company’s next vehicle.

    Tough few trading days for EV makers

    The Arizona factory, known as AMP-1, initially will have the capacity for 30,000 vehicles annually, but expansions could take that up to 400,000.

    Tesla, long the darling of investors, saw its stock taking a hit the past few days. After floating above $900 a share for a while, it’s dropped into the mid-$670 range and a market capitalization of about $647 billion. The king of EV makers isn’t alone, virtually all publicly traded electric vehicle companies have fallen in recent days.

    Joining Tesla in a slide are Nio, Lordstown Motors, Nikola Corp., Kandi and others. After opening at $15, Lucid finished the day at around $39 a share. It ran higher than that, but slid back after it was revealed that Lucid’s first model won’t going into production until the fourth quarter of this year. It was initially slated to being production this spring.

    Lucid also revealed it would take the company five years to reach its full production rate of 250,000 vehicles annual — Tesla put out almost 500,000 in 2020 — and it won’t be cash-flow positive until 2025.

    The future is now for Lucid

    Prior to the introduction of the stock, Lucid’s CEO Peter Rawlinson, a former top executive at Tesla, was effusive in his support of his company.

    Commercial production of the Lucid Air was set to launch this spring, but officials pushed that back to the fourth quarter of this year.

    “Lucid is proud to be leading a new era of high-technology, high-efficiency zero-emission transportation,” he said in a lengthy statement. “Through a ground-up rethinking of how EVs are designed, our in-house-developed, race-proven technology and meticulous engineering have enabled industry-leading powertrain efficiency and new levels of performance.

    “Lucid is going public to accelerate into the next phase of our growth as we work towards the launch of our new pure-electric luxury sedan, Lucid Air, in 2021 followed by our Gravity performance luxury SUV in 2023.

    “Financing from the transaction will also be used to support expansion of our manufacturing facility in Arizona, which is the first greenfield purpose-built EV manufacturing facility in North America and is already operational for pre-production builds of the Lucid Air. Scheduled to expand over three phases in the coming years, our Arizona facility is designed to be capable of producing approximately 365,000 units per year at scale.

    “Lastly, this transaction further enables the realization of our vision to supply Lucid’s advanced EV technologies to third parties such as other automotive manufacturers as well as offer energy storage solutions in the residential, commercial and utility segments.”

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  • Ford Loses $2.8B in Q4 as Restructuring, Pandemic Hit Bottom Line

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    Ford CEO Jim Farley expects the company’s restructuring will begin to produce positive results.

    Ford Motor Co. ended 2020 posting a loss for the final quarter of the year as well as for the full year as the pandemic wreaked havoc on the company’s already difficult financial position.

    The automaker reported a net loss of $2.8 billion, or 70 cents per share, on revenue of $36 billion during the fourth quarter, pulling the full year’s results down to a net loss $1.3 billion, or 32 cents per share, on revenue of $127.1 billion.

    In the midst of a corporate-wide restructuring process to improve its profitability, the company was also hit hard — like most automakers — by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the numbers weren’t great, it’s a means to an end.

    “We are profoundly changing the trajectory of our earnings power,” said John Lawler Ford’s chief financial officer, “unlocking the tremendous value Ford can create for customers, shareholders and other stakeholders.”

    Sticking to the plan

    Ford CFO John Lawler said the automaker could lose 10% to 20% of its Q1 production due chip shortages.

    That earnings power is focused on securing an 8% adjusted EBIT margin, specifically 10% in the U.S. and 6% in Europe with the rest of the company’s regional operations turning a profit too. Lawler said the company’s third and fourth quarter results “provided evidence of progress” in the company’s effort to improve profitability.

    Despite the losses, Ford did improve its overall liquidity, finishing 2020 with $31 billion in cash and a total liquidity of almost $47 billion.

    On an adjusted basis, the company’s EBIT of $1.7 billion, up from $485 million during the year-ago period. The automotive EBIT margin was 3.8%. The company noted that the gains were “broad-based and largely resulted from improved pricing and lower structural costs, as well as the overlap with UAW contract-ratification costs in 2019.”

    Company officials acknowledged the year wasn’t what they hoped and were optimistic about 2021. Ford’s Lawler said the company was on course to earn $8 billion to $9 billion in adjusted EBIT – including a $900 million non-cash gain on its investment in Rivian – and generate $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion in adjusted free cash flow in 2021.

    Semiconductor shortage may hit bottom line

    This optimism comes despite an ongoing issue with semiconductor availability. Lawler said the company was diligently monitoring the situation, but it is “so liquid” that it’s tough to determine what the impact on the bottom line will be.

    He did estimate the company could lose as much as 20% of its first quarter production as plants are forced to shut down temporarily, and that those losses could continue throughout the first half of the year. It’s possible to make up some of that in the second half, he noted, but it was too early to tell.

    The shortages could lower Ford’s 2021 adjusted EBIT by $1 billion to $2.5 billion, he said. He added the company expects full-year cash and EBIT effects to be about equal – with quarterly cash implications more volatile, given the mechanics of company working capital.


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  • Chrysler is No More as Stellantis Comes to Life

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    Is this the last logo that will use the Chrysler name?

    Chrysler is dead.

    Perhaps a bit dramatic, but nevertheless, the merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. and Peugeot S.A. became effective today, resulting in Stellantis N.V. Shares of the newly formed Stellantis begin trading on exchanges in France, Italy and the U.S. starting Monday. All will use the ticker symbol STLA.

    The deal has been going through extensive regulatory approvals, twin shareholder votes and the necessary dottings of i’s and crossings of t’s for more than a year.

    As of today, that means that for the first time since June 6, 1925, when it was founded by Walter P. Chrysler, the Chrysler name will no longer exist as a corporate entity.

    (FCA CEO Manley gets new assignment following Stellantis merger.)

    Stellantis is alive! The company’s stock begins trading on three exchanges Monday.

    In many ways, the Chrysler name was a survivor. The company’s been through a variety of mergers, potential mergers and bankruptcies. It escaped the “merger of equals,” DaimlerChrysler from the late 1990s.

    It was essentially spared its life when the late Sergio Marchionne swooped in and offered to keep it going if the U.S. government would help it through bankruptcy in 2009. The final deal got done with Chrysler Group LLC becoming part of FCA US LLC to follow

    the naming convention of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. on Dec. 16, 2014.

    Chrysler Corp. fought its way through several near misses when it came to mergers as potential deals with Japanese automaker Mitsubishi, China’s GAC and most recently an effort to merge with Peugeot’s French rival, Renault S.A., a deal that was reportedly scuttled after demands by the French government, which holds an ownership stake in Renault, were too much for then FCA CEO Mike Manley to accept.

    (Fiat, PSA set to get EU go-ahead to complete Stellantis merger.)

    Then there was the effort by the aforementioned Marchionne to find a partner for FCA, seemingly almost any partner would do. He approached General Motors and was promptly rebuffed. He reportedly got the same treatment from Volkswagen. There was even a rumored dalliance with EV behemoth Tesla, which would have bolstered FCA’s basically non-existent electric vehicle program.

    The arrival of Stellantis means for the first time in 95 years the Chrysler name won’t be on a corporate marquee.

    It also survived a previous bankruptcy in the late 1970s, paying off the loans early with its charismatic CEO Lee Iacocca, who came over from Ford, helping to lead the company’s charge back to prosperity. Chrysler did enjoy one major merger success when it acquired American Motors in 1987, including – and especially – the Jeep brand.

    In fact, no one seems certain what the future holds for the Chrysler name period. Early in the process, officials said that all brands would be retained, but time and economics often change the equation and currently, the Chrysler brand offers just two products: the Chrysler Pacifica minivan and 300 sedan. Neither are in segments that are seeing sales gains.

    To be fair, there’s been some speculation about the survival of the Fiat name in the same vein. Fiat’s been around even longer, founded in Turin, Italy in 1899. In the U.S., it’s only offering the 500X in 2021.

    (Fiat Chrysler and PSA not exactly a “merger of equals.”)

    The Chrysler name isn’t the only vestige of FCA seemingly taking a step back as its CEO Mike Manley is no longer in charge, that duty going to PSA’s Carlos Tavares nor will he be on the board of directors as John Elkann, FCA’s chairman, will take that spot as the chairman of the new Stellantis. Manley, 56, is now Head of the Americas.


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  • Automakers Join Broader U.S. Business Community in Curbing or Suspending Political Donations

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    In light of the attack of the U.S. Capitol Building by rioters last week, GM officials are weighing the company’s options when it comes to PAC donations.

    A number of automakers have joined the growing push by U.S. businesses to suspend or entirely eliminate political spending in the wake of last week’s attempted insurrection by supporters of President Donald Trump.

    Scores of major corporations, from Hallmark to Dow, have reacted to the political violence that saw rioters break into the U.S. Capitol. In some instances, businesses have said they will suspend all political contributions. In other cases, companies are specifically targeting politicians and political groups that backed false claims that the election was rigged.

    Hallmark, for example, said it not only was ending financial support for Kansas Sen. Josh Hawley but was demanding he return previous campaign donations. The archconservative Republican has been seen as a leader in the “Stop-the-Steal” effort, caught on camera encouraging rioters as they approached the Capitol last Wednesday and then voting to reject the results of the election won by now President-elect Joe Biden.

    (Automakers, manufacturing trade group react in horror to Washington insurrection.)

    Ford executives said the automaker has suspended its PAC contributions “for now.”

    By and large, automakers have announced less aggressive responses to the what happened in Washington last week, though many did speak out against the violence, including Ford Chairman Bill Ford and CEO Jim Farley, as well as General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra.

    Barra last week tweeted that, “The peaceful transition of power is a cornerstone of American democracy, and regardless of politics the violence at the U.S. Capitol does not reflect who we are as a nation. It’s imperative that we come together as a country and reinforce the values and ideals that unite us.”

    Asked Monday whether GM would also halt some or all political donations, a source said on background that the company is “weighing its options.”

    (Trump attacks GM, demands it move Chinese manufacturing operations “back to America.”)

    The company’s official response noted that, “While we have not determined our 2021 PAC spending at this time, GM PAC is committed to supporting and building relationships in a bipartisan manner, funds are contributed by GM employees and are distributed to support the election of U.S. federal and state candidates who foster sound business policies and understand the importance of a robust auto industry.”

    Fiat Chrysler was not donating to politicians prior to the events of recent weeks.

    For its part, Ford is taking more immediate action. “As we have said, events over the past year have underscored the need for a broader, ongoing discussion about other relevant considerations when it comes to our employee PAC. In order to give these important discussions the time and reflection they deserve, the Ford PAC will be suspending new contributions for now,” the company said in a statement.

    Toyota, meanwhile, sent a statement to TheDetroitBureau.com saying that, “Given recent events and the horrific attack on the U.S. Capitol, we are assessing our future PAC criteria.”

    (Trump attacks Ford after it agrees to a clean car deal with California.)

    A number of other automakers told TheDetroitBureau.com that they were not giving political donations even before the events of recent weeks. That includes Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Nissan and Hyundai. Several other companies have yet to respond to requests for comment.


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  • FCA CEO Manley Gets New Assignment Following Stellantis Merger

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    FCA CEO Mike Manley apparently will settle into a new role after the merger with PSA is complete: Head of the Americas.

    Mike Manley, the CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and one of the architects of FCA’s merger with PSA Group, will take a new role as Head of the Americas once the deal is completed.

    There have been numerous questions about what, if any, role the 56-year-old Manley would play after the creation of Stellantis as John Elkann, currently the chairman of FCA, will retain that post at Stellantis while PSA chief executive officer Carlos Tavares will become the new organization’s CEO. Senior officials at both of the carmakers had indicated Manley would get a new role, undefined until today.

    Crediting Manley for “having led the profound transformational and exceptional development” of both the Jeep and Ram brands, while guiding FCA through “the rough terrain of the past couple of years,” Elkann announced Friday in a letter to employees that “Mike will be asked to take up the role of Head of Americas” once the merger is completed.

    (FCA CEO Manley won’t be on the board after merger with PSA is completed.)

    Carlos Tavares, PSA (left) and Manley shake hands following the signing of the merger agreement. Manley now has a position in the new company.

    The deal, which now has cleared a number of critical hurdles, including a regulatory probe by the European Union, is expected to close sometime during the first quarter of 2021.The merger will create the world’s fourth-largest automaker by sales volume.

    The British-born Manley started his career as a trainee at UK car financing firm Swan National. He subsequently spent time working on the retail side of the business at Renault and Peugeot dealerships before joining what was then DaimlerChrysler in 2000. Three years later, he was transferred to the United States.

    Following the breakup of DaimlerChrysler and Chrysler’s subsequent push through bankruptcy, Manley found himself one of the key players in the tight-knit group of executives surrounding Sergio Marchionne, the architect of the automaker’s merger with Fiat.

    It was as the new head of the Jeep division that Manley came into the spotlight, however. The brand’s name often was used as a synonym for SUV but, despite the surging demand for utility vehicles overall, Jeep sales remained relatively stagnant. Under Manley, the brand saw demand nearly quadruple, from around 323,000 in 2009 to 1.2 million in 2015 – the numbers reaching 1.5 million last year. Manley also was given the leadership role for truck brand Ram which has seen a surge in sales of its own.

    Manley was clearly positioned as Marchionne’s top lieutenant when the two led a presentation of a new five-year plan in June 2018. But, barely a month later, Manley was elevated to the CEO spot following Marchionne’s unexpected death during surgery.

    (Fiat, PSA set to get EU go-ahead to complete Stellantis merger.)

    Manley headed up Jeep after holding several posts within the company.

    If anything, the British native continued to follow the playbook laid out by his predecessor – which included a goal of finding a new merger partner. Marchionne had, during his tenure, approached an assortment of competitors, including both Volkswagen and General Motors, repeatedly being turned down.

    FCA and PSA had already established ties by the time Manley was named CEO, jointly working on several projects. And there were rumors early in 2019 that something more substantial might be in the works. Instead, that spring Fiat Chrysler announced plans to merge with PSA’s French archrival Renault. The deal was scuttled at the last minute by the French government which worried it might cause the collapse of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance.

    Months later, Manley confirmed that FCA was talking with its old ally PSA, whose list of brands include Peugeot and Citroen. The deal was completed in November 2019 but subsequent announcements raised questions about what, if any, role Manley would play in the soon-to-emerge company called Stellantis.

    Elkann, heir to Fiat’s founding Agnelli family, was to retain his position as chairman while the CEO post would go to Tavares, a former top executive at Nissan who came in to turn struggling PSA around in 2014.

    FCA Chairman John Elkann selected Manley to succeed former CEO Sergio Marchionne.

    In his role heading the Stellantis unit in North, South and Central America, Manley will have a major responsibility. That will include not only steering the enterprise’s efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic but also overseeing plans to bring the Peugeot brand back to the United States. It has been out of the market for nearly three decades but laid out a multi-tiered revival plan several years ago starting with its operation of a ride-sharing service based in Los Angeles.

    Manley, who was set to directly address FCA employees on Friday, will not retain his current seat on the board once the Stellantis merger is completed. Elkann and Tavares will be the only executive members.

    (Fiat Chrysler and PSA not exactly a “merger of equals.”)

    Based on combined 2019 sales, Stellantis will immediately become the world’s fourth-largest automaker by sales volume, behind only Volkswagen, Toyota and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance – but ahead of General Motors which dropped down the list after closing numerous overseas operations and selling its European Opel/Vauxhall subsidiary to PSA.


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  • Chicago Auto Show Postpones 2021 Gathering Due to Pandemic

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    Chicago Auto Show organizers have postponed the 2021 event indefinitely.

    In what has become an all-too-familiar scenario, the coronavirus pandemic claimed another automotive event: the 2021 Chicago Auto Show.

    The pandemic has forced nearly every major show since the 2020 Chicago Auto Show in February to either reschedule, cancel all together or shift to an online format. No new dates have been set and the website for the show simply shows the dates as “Spring 2021.” It was initially set to run Feb. 13-21.

    “We are working with our partners at McCormick Place as well as state and city officials to develop a plan that allows us to open the 2021 Chicago Auto Show in a safe and responsible manner,” Mark Bilek, senior director of communications and technology for the Chicago Auto Show, told TheDetroitBureau.com in an email.

    (Detroit Auto Show organizers moving NAIAS again.)

    The 2020 Chicago Auto Show was basically the last full-on, in-person auto show.

    “State officials are currently reviewing our plan. While our traditional February dates are unlikely, we are hopeful to be able to stage the show sometime in the spring.” Bilek told Automotive News show organizers were hoping some time in March, April or May.

    Chicago is one of the larger shows on the North American circuit of global auto shows, and very focused on consumers. Bilek noted the show organizers are working with healthcare officials with the city and state to determine when the show can be held.

    Not only does the show have to deal with the always changing impact of the pandemic, it’s also got to find a space between other auto shows that have already been forced to reschedule dates. The most immediate show between now and the now postponed Chicago event is the annual Consumer Electronics Show.

    Organizers now say they plan to go to an “all-digital” format for CES in January. Better known as the Consumer Electronics Show, the annual show has become a major event for automakers at a time when their vehicles are becoming increasingly high tech. Dozens of automakers and auto suppliers filled an entire wing of the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center in January 2020.

    (CES goes digital — but will automakers (virtually) stick around in 2021?)

    “Amid the pandemic and growing global health concerns about the spread of COVID-19, it’s just not possible to safely convene tens of thousands of people in Las Vegas in early January 2021 to meet and do business in person,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CTA, the group that runs the annual show.

    Nissan showed off the Ariya Concept at CES last January. Will automakers go with the show in 2021 when it becomes an internet-only event.

    The New York International Auto Show, normally held in April, moved to Aug. 20-29 at the Javits Convention Center. Show organizers tried to push back its 2020 show to this fall before ultimately cancelling it. They got proactive and delayed the 2021 event.

    The North American International Auto Show in Detroit for 2021 moved its projected June date to now late September in what organizers are calling a “reimagined indoor and outdoor show.”

    Public days for the show will now be Sept. 28 – Oct. 9, 2021 with the media preview and other events actually kicking off Sept. 24. Organizers say the NAIAS will be a “fall show going forward.” When it finally opens, it will be 2.5 years between Detroit auto shows.

    (New York Auto Show postponed until August due to coronavirus.)

    Other shows are still formulating plans, and those plans don’t even account for large classic car shows like the Pebble Beach Concours and others.


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  • Trade-In Values on Used Car Prices Falling Back to Normal

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    Trade-in values are returning to normal after a rise in used-car prices pushed them up earlier this year.

    New vehicle sales continue to rebound from dreadful lows in late spring and early summer due to the coronavirus pandemic, and part of that comeback means that the value of that car, truck or utility vehicle being traded in is returning to normal too.

    So potential buyers who want more than top dollar for their trade better pull the trigger pretty soon, according to a new analysis of data from Edmunds.com.

    According to the car shopping experts, the average trade-in value last month dropped 3.3% to $15,874 from $16,411. In short, dealers are feeling less desperate to get new vehicles off their lots and aren’t overpaying for your trade. This also means they’re no longer hunting for good quality used vehicles to stock their previously owned lots either.

    (Black Friday offering up some good deals for new car shoppers.)

    “After experiencing a remarkable surge over the past few months, used car values are finally cooling down now that some of the major supply issues faced by the industry are being addressed,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ executive director of insights.

    Potential buyers may want to accelerate their decision if they want to get better-than top dollar for their trade.

    “While inventory is still tight in some areas, we’re expecting to see more lease returns make their way to the used market. This steady supply of near-new inventory will help address the increased demand we’ve been seeing in the market during COVID-19.”

    The average value for 3-year-old vehicles also fell in October to $20,401, a 1.7% decline compared to $20,747 in September.

    The website examined trade-in values for some of the top-selling vehicles in the U.S. ­– Toyota Camry, Honda CR-V and Ford F-150 – in September and October. All of them saw the value drop with CR-V faring the best with just a 3% slide. The F-150 and Camry saw drops of 5% and 7.6% respectively.

    (Asian carmakers report increase in October sales.)

    The news gets better — if you’re a dealer.

    Edmunds noted that despite dealers offering less money on that F-150 that a potential buyer wants to use as part of their down payment, automakers are still seeing small increases on their average transaction prices, or ATPs.

    New vehicle sales in the U.S. are rebounding from spring and summer lows due to the pandemic.

    The ATP for all used vehicle purchases in October climbed to $22,418, a 0.5% increase compared to $22,299 in September. The ATP for 3-year-old used vehicle purchases in October dipped to $24,007, a 0.3% decrease compared to $24,067 in September. In short, dealers are getting more money out of the deal.

    The prices have remained flat, according to the website, because there has been an influx of off-lease and off-rental vehicles in the market place. Many rental companies, but Hertz in particular as it goes through bankruptcy, are selling off vehicles that they aren’t using because of the drop in travel during the pandemic.

    “We’re finally hitting the tipping point in the used car market,” said Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ senior manager of insights.

    (U.S. new car sales show signs of life in September.)

    “If your household has a second vehicle that you are thinking about selling because it’s going unused during the pandemic, there’s no point in holding onto it in the hopes of its value increasing again. You won’t get a dramatically higher value for your trade-in than you would have just last month, but you should still get a bit more money than usual since values are still inflated.”


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  • Tesla’s Pubic Relations Team Gets the Ziggy

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    Tesla CEO Elon Musk was reportedly unhappy with the media coverage of Battery Day last month.

    If Elon Musk cuts Tesla’s public relations department who don’t respond to automotive reporters will anyone notice anything different?

    Musk’s disdain for big corporate media has been well chronicled for several years now – mostly courtesy of the man himself and in 140 characters or less. Fortunately for those of us in small, non-corporate media, we’ve been treated just like the big boys. To be clear, wanting equal access generally means MORE access, not less — or none at all in this case.

    Why are we – or specifically me – talking about Musk and Tesla’s apparently now-defunct PR department? Well, it seems he’s decided that along with no marketing efforts, he also doesn’t need any public relations tasks completed either. Several media reports, led by Electrek, are reporting demise of public relations at the EV maker.

    (Tesla accidentally produces open-air Model Y.)

    This is all came up yesterday when Jalopnik’s Jason Torchinsky humorously laid out his one-way relationship with Tesla’s PR team. In the piece, he talks about how he got in trouble with an editor for not trying to get a comment from the then-nascent EV maker for a story he’d written. Since then, he’s always made repeated attempts to reach out to them.

    Tesla CEO Musk emphasized his distaste for the SEC during an interview on “60 Minutes.” Apparently, there are some good reporters out there.

    Straight forward emails. Begging emails. Sarcastic emails. Funny emails. WTF emails … and all of them in vain.

    Questions … unanswered. Confirmation requests … unconfirmed. Sigh ….

    The automotive media chorus, comprised of mostly middle-aged men driving mostly brown station wagons manual transmission, was quick to join in support of Torchinsky. Many relived their own frustrating efforts to get some sort of cooperation from Tesla’s public relations people, who I now envision as the same cardboard cutouts of people you see in the stands at pro sporting events these days, but sitting in cubes instead.

    Being the good reporter that I am I sought to confirm the rumor about the end of public relations at Tesla. Particularly tricky if true, I might add. Undaunted I reached out today to the one Tesla person who has responded to me in the past few years. In fact, compared to Torchinsky and many others I’ve seen in top-secret auto reporter forums where we lament the slow death of the manual transmission and brown station wagons, this person and I are virtual besties because I’d heard from someone – gasp!– this year!

    My last response came from Tesla’s Kamran Mumtaz on Jan. 28, where his email could essentially be summed up as “no.” To be clear, it was nicer than that, but I have parents and I’ve been told “no” before and, well, it was basically the same experience. We’ve all been there.

    Joe Rogan, left, spoke with Tesla CEO Elon Musk for more than two hours on his podcast.

    (Tesla hits quarterly deliveries record but Wall Street is not impressed.)

    I’ve also reached out to Gina Antonini, who works in Communications and External Relations at Tesla, according to her LinkedIn page. We’ve never spoken, traded emails or texts before … and we still haven’t.

    The aforementioned Mumtaz may actually have been the last person to head up Tesla’s public relations team. A scan of his LinkedIn page shows he’s had some high-level public relations jobs, although Tesla was his first auto pr job. It also shows he’s still employed there, but he doesn’t have a title. Just says he works at Tesla. Could be working on the line now. Could be working security with the deletion of the pr team.

    I don’t know … because I still haven’t heard back.

    To be clear, automotive media types are a pretty lucky group. We drive nice vehicles occasionally (or often), we get fed well on a regular basis and the pr folks at every other automaker generally treat us pretty good. Many of them are former reporters and they understand that fair criticism is part of the deal. If they feel you’ve been unfair, they’ll call and you can hash it out, but petulant behavior by angry executives is rare because their pr folks generally let them know what’s coming in advance and remind them that, well, fair criticism is part of journalism — the good, helpful part of journalism. Suck it up buttercup.

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk, shown here with an early prototype of the Model S, used to talk with the media at auto shows.

    Musk has decided he doesn’t need to a pr team to help out reporters who are just gonna be unfair to him and his company anyway. If I had a few minutes with him, aside from asking him for the $1 million money clip I’m almost certain he carries in his pocket, I’d remind him that it’s hard to report the entire story without all the information and, believe it or not, we value automaker input — and that, well, fair criticism is part of journalism — the good, helpful part of journalism.

    (Tesla speaking truth about its power at Battery Day.)

    But, I have children and understand how they behave (kind like that last clause!) so I know what the response will be. So for now, I guess we’ll all have to suck it up, buttercup.


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  • Ford Outperforms GM, FCA in Third Quarter Sales

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    Ford said the F-Series finished the third quarter strong with a 17.2% increase in September.

    Ford Motor Co. outscored its Detroit rivals, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler during the third quarter by reporting a smaller sales decline and picking up share in the pickup market.

    Ford, reporting a day after GM and FCA, was down 4.9% compared to a year ago. GM and FCA reported 10% declines during the third quarter as the industry showed signs of recovering from the impact of Covid-19 pandemic, which stalled sales last spring.

    “Despite the challenging pandemic environment, our retail unit sales were down only 2 percent and we had our best third quarter of pickup truck sales since 2005,” said Mark LaNeve, Ford vice president of sales marketing and service. “F-Series finished the quarter on a high note with September sales up 17.2% with over 76,000 F-Series pickups sold. This is a testament to our winning product portfolio and the performance of our great dealers.”

    (U.S. new car sales show signs of life in September.)

    Volvo Cars enjoyed its best September sales results since 2004.

    FCA’s Ram pickup deliveries slipped 3.4% year over year to 156,157 pickups during the third quarter as the Chevrolet Silverado pickup from GM fell 5.4% to 145,525 units. Subaru and Toyota reported sales gains in September as actual sales gains versus the previous year.

    Volvo Cars USA maintained its upward momentum trend announcing its fourth consecutive month of year-over-year growth. Retailing 10,274 cars in September 2020, the strong result represents 10.2% growth over the same period last year and marks the best September result for the brand since 2004.

    Honda brand sales climbed 11% as trucks set a September record with a 20.4% jump, while Acura September sales increased 16.6% on strong performances from MDX, RDX and ILX. “September marks a high-water mark for Honda sales this year with double-digit gains and our first month in positive territory since the pandemic began,” said Dave Gardner, executive vice president of National Operations at American Honda.

    (Automakers expected to report strong September sales.)

    Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported total September sales of 24,237 vehicles, an increase of 28.7 percent compared to September 2019. Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc. (MMNA) today reported third-quarter 2020 sales of 24,857 vehicles, an increase of 1.5% over the same period in 2019, and up a significant 49% over the previous quarter of 2020.

    Mitsubishi Motors saw sales rise 1.5% versus last September and a 49% compared with the second quarter of 2020.

    Volkswagen of America reported its sales 7.6% and Porsche Cars North America Inc. said third quarter U.S. retail deliveries rose 5% from the same period a year ago, continuing a recovery trend from coronavirus lockdowns in the first half of 2020.

    September 2020 sales benefitted from two extra sales days, and the Labor Day holiday weekend, which fell in August for 2019 results. Incoming figures from reporting automakers are reflecting year-over-year improvements for the month, and on an unadjusted volume level the sales tally for the month is expected to be up 2-3% year over year the first time since February 2020 the market will realize a monthly y/y improvement,” noted IHS analysts Stephanie Brinley.

    (Tesla hits quarterly delivery record but Wall Street is not impressed.)

    “The SAAR reading for the month is expected to improve from the 15.2 million unit reading in August, possibly bumping against a 16-million-unit pace. But this would still be well below the 17.2 million unit reading of September 2019,” she said.


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