The perils of the demo drive: Mitsu dealership, salesman sued over test-drive shooting

A salesman shrugs, a customer gets shot, and the dealer gets sued. A Southern California Mitsubishi dealership and one of its salesmen are facing a lawsuit alleging they were responsible for a road-rage shooting during a test drive that left one of their customers in a coma, according to the Associated Press. The lawsuit accuses the salesman of provoking the shooting by gesturing at a car that cut off the SUV he was test-driving with a customer. Authorities say that as the salesman and the customer neared a freeway exit, a car cut them off. The test driver honked and the salesman made a “shrugging” gesture at the vehicle. Someone in the other car then fired three times. One of the rounds hit the test driver in the head, causing him to lose control and sending the SUV rolling down an embankment. He was in a coma for six weeks and now faces extensive rehabilitation.

Volvo's Personal Car Communicator wins Innovation Award

Goteborg, Sweden - The Volvo Personal Car Communicator (PCC) has won the Innovation Award at the 2007 British Insurance Car Security Awards. The PCC is a pocket-sized control centre which holds security information for the owner about the car's current lock and alarm status. The device uses smart key technology and a highly sensitive heartbeat sensor, a world first, to detect if an intruder is present in the car. When in range, the PCC shows if the car is locked, if the alarm is activated, or if the alarm has been triggered and whether someone is in the car. When out of range, the most recent information is stored so that a check can be made at any time to see if the car was locked when it was parked. The PCC also includes keyless entry and keyless drive.

Honda and Ford top best sales month in Canadian history, analyst says

Richmond Hill, Ontario - The Honda Civic and the Ford F-Series topped car and light truck sales in May, the best single month of sales in the history of the automotive sector in Canada, according to industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers. DesRosiers noted that only one vehicle in the top ten, the Toyota Yaris, qualified for the federal rebate, due to its fuel economy. He also noted that the Yaris was up 8.8 per cent, while the Honda Civic and Mazda3, neither of which qualifies, were up 39.8 and 23.8 per cent respectively. "Maybe all the 'feebates' are doing is moving a few consumers from compact vehicles to subcompact vehicles," DesRosiers says. "Maybe 0.5 L/100 km better fuel efficiency, and that may be stretching it a bit." The top ten best-selling passenger cars in May were, in order, the Honda Civic, Mazda3, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Yaris, Chevrolet Cobalt, Pontiac Pursuit/G5, Toyota Camry, Toyota Matrix, Nissan Versa and Ford Focus. The top ten year-to-date passenger car sales to the end of May, in order, were the Honda Civic, Mazda3, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Yaris, Chevrolet Cobalt, Toyota Camry, Pontiac Pursuit/G5, Ford Focus, Nissan Versa and Toyota Matrix. The top ten best-selling light trucks in May were, in order, the Ford F-Series, Dodge Caravan, GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Silverado, Dodge Ram, Ford Escape/Escape Hybrid, Pontiac Montana SV6, Chevrolet Uplander, Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4. The top ten year-to-date light trucks, to the end of May, were the Ford F-Series, Dodge Caravan, GMC Sierra, Dodge Ram, Chevrolet Silverado, Ford Escape/Escape Hybrid, Ford Ranger, Chevrolet Uplander, Pontiac Montana SV6 and Honda CR-V.

Good news, bad news story for franchised car dealers

Dealers, technicians scrambling to replace lost warranty work The good news is that the quality of new cars and trucks is better than ever. The bad news is that quality improvements are causing dealership income from warranty repairs to sink, according to an article in AutoWeek. Dealerships' revenue from warranty work, both labor and parts, dropped more than 10 percent in 2006, according to figures compiled by the National Automobile Dealers Association. That's the largest annual decline in ten years. In previous years, extended factory warranties and price increases for parts and labor masked the impact of better-built vehicles. But dealers say vehicle quality is eroding their warranty business. AutoWeek cites Bill Keith, who owns Ford, Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep and Acura stores in New Jersey, as saying that he and his colleagues "have to change the whole culture. We can't rely on people having to come back to us for service." To make up for lost warranty revenue, Mr. Keith said he is selling tires and promoting customer-paid work by posting price comparisons with local independent repair shops, and his dealerships are sending more service reminders to customers. As Toyota sales continue to increase, Toyota dealerships' overall warranty repair revenues are reportedly fairly stable. By contrast, the drop in warranty revenue is steepest at dealerships that sell domestic brands. General Motors' volume of warranty repairs is down 40 percent since 1998, said Tom Henderson, a spokesman for GM's Service and Parts Operations. Mr. Keith said the number of warranty repairs at his three domestic-brand dealerships plunged 20 percent to 30 percent annually for the past three years. Warranty labor and parts sales once accounted for 65 percent of service business at his two Ford dealerships, he estimates. Now it's about 30 percent.

Toyota planning to launch new hybrid automobile in 2009

To meet an announced goal of 1 million hybrids per year, Toyota is set to introduce a second dedicated hybrid model. Toyota plans to begin selling a second dedicated brand of hybrid automobiles in 2009, following up on its market-dominating Prius hybrid, according to the Nikkei daily news service. The automaker plans to sell around 100,000 of the as-yet-unnamed hybrid annually around the world at the outset. The vehicle would be Toyota's second hybrid-only brand following the Prius, the paper said. The new vehicle is expected to play a driving role in Toyota's plans to increase hybrid sales to one million vehicles a year after 2010 in response to efforts to tighten emissions regulations in Japan, the U.S. and Europe.