Women in Automotive

When I first went to Detroit to talk about women and autos and how important they were to the auto industry--all those guys in suits acted as if they were completely deaf. You could see it in their eyes. They paid lip service to women starting in the 1990s. And then things began to change. Women have always been a "factor". This is a short video from The New York Auto Show that chronicles their importance to the industry. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPpD9pb2gEM&feature=youtu.be

The LEXUS UX

U=Urban; X=Crossover

by Kate McLeod

“Is it on?” my companion asked as we pulled out of the parking space. “Well if it isn’t, we’re in a runaway 2019 Lexus UX compact crossover,” I replied. This machine runs on monastic quietness and sips gasoline in a miserly fashion, one gallon every 40 miles or so. As much as I dig the roar of an engine, I’m transitioning to a more climate friendly POV and the UX gets pretty high marks in that space.

This 2.0-liter four-cylinder hybrid, with 181 total system horsepower, has enough energy off the mark to make it not only a choice for the climate conscious but a consideration-list choice for enthusiasts. UX—which sounds like the name of a cherished robot—is spunky on the highway and responsive to the demands of the driver thanks to an Electric Power Steering system with a new compact and highly rigid column-assist motor. 

The seats, upholstered in NuLuxe, a synthetic vinyl or plastic surface that aptly simulates the look and feel of leather, compliment the rest of the finely tuned interior. It’s a Japanese take on luxury—subtle, not showy. Seats can be adjusted ten ways but just slipping into the seat and making a quick adjustment to reach the pedals was enough to make me comfortable. As for NuLuxe, I’m for losing leather all together, especially since one can incur skin lesions when your flesh sticks to it on those shorts-wearing summer days.

Operations are sleek from behind the wheel. The instrument panel is lower than most creating a clear line from the dash to the front of the car. That clear line and the high seat position make for great visibility. The dash is made of what seems to be vinyl, but it has been manufactured to imitate a traditional Japanese paper called “washi” and is available in two different grains. There’s a remote touch interface connected to a seven inch screen. Simply slide your finger over the pad in the center console to make choices. The voice command system errs on the side of bearable versus annoying. The vehicle also has six speakers, and works with Apple Car Play and Siri Eyes Free.

While the UX has not received a rating from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, it comes with the Lexus Safety System + 2.0 Pre-collision system with pedestrian detection, all-speed dynamic radar, cruise control, lane departure alert with steering assist, intelligent high beam headlamps and road sign assist. Some of these features are optional and cost extra. Lexus Enform Safety Connect and Service Connect comes with the first 10 years of ownership. The backup camera has so much detail, it took a little bit of getting used to with a perfectly clear picture and good guidance. What an improvement over older systems and cameras.

The base price at $34,000 really surprised me. I was thinking $40K. But there are a lot of subscriptions that come with the car at first and then get renewed so there is an ongoing revenue stream for Lexus. That includes under the Lexus Enform name WiFi, Remote, GPS and Satellite Radio. In addition the fabulous triple beam LED Headlamps with Auto-Leveling and cornering are a $1,600 option and the Nav systems costs an additional $2,200. Along with $565 for parking assist and rear cross traffic alert and other add ons—no surprise—the car does cost $41,975 as outfitted. These days cars cost that much and the advances are expensive.

Overall, I like the crossover and I would recommend taking a look at it if you are in the market for a compact. Downside might be the tight back seat but it would work for little people. And I think my feelings about the front end might be generational. To me a gorgeous front end is a 1960s Buick. So you see where this is going. I don’t engage in video games and I’m not into Manga or flamboyant modern looks.

A little something besides cars.


http://imby.com/stuyvesant/article/sour-milk-what-i-didnt-know-that-you-probably-did/#gf_2

One Weird Trick, A Blissfully Short Opera (About Bacon)

America Produces Lots of Steel

And much of it is used to make your automobile. 

Let’s assume that you have never thought about what materials make up your vehicle. Fair enough: We’re looking for convenience, style, and connectivity when we shop for a car.  Most drivers don’t investigate how they are being protected. Engineering is left to the automaker and safety to the ratings of The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, which assure us that in a crash we will be as safe as the situation allows. 

There are reasons to know more: We travel at speeds of 65 mph or more much of the time. Traffic fatalities rose 7.2% from 2014-2015, the largest increase in decades.  In the first six months of 2016, there was a 9% increase over 2015.  Although there is hope that highway deaths will decrease with technology advancements such as active safety features, it doesn’t hurt for us to get familiar with what’s under our ride’s skin. Therein lies the true beauty—the tough and intelligent underpinnings.

Here’s the case for steel. In large measure, steel is what protects us.  Steel has strength, the ability to conduct an impact up into the roof rails and away from passengers and different weights for different purposes. 

While we have lost many steel manufacturing jobs here in the U.S.—about 400,000 since the 1960s—most of the steel used in vehicles sold here comes from the U.S.  The job losses in steel production are thought to be because of trade, but those jobs went away because of technological advancements—fewer people were needed. 

Our demand for steel runs at about 100 million tons a year and about 80 million of those tons are made here. In the manufacturing of steel alone, the industry provides 137,000 jobs in places like Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

The auto industry uses anywhere from 20-25 million tons of U.S. steel as well as steel from other places including Germany, Japan, and Korea. Steel is perceived as less advanced than materials such as carbon fiber, magnesium, and aluminum. “Educating people about steel is the industry’s great challenge,” says Dave Anderson, senior director, automotive market and long products like wire and bar at The Steel Development and Marketing Institute. “The steel industry continues to reinvent itself. In the 1970s and 80s, for example, there were only seven different grades of steel; now there are over 200.”

Applications like the chassis require high-strength steel. If a crash occurs, that steel gets stronger with impact. A different type of steel is used on the sides of a vehicle because it takes the impact of a crash and conducts it up the side frame to the roof, protecting the passengers. Lightweight steel can be formed and designed into the body skin.  Changes to the microstructure of the material and other innovations are what allows steel to be constructed for these different applications. These innovations improve vehicle performance in fuel efficiency, affordability, durability, and quality. 

Advanced High Strength Steel is, according to SDMI,  the fastest- growing material in automotive design. The advances enable automakers to produce lighter vehicles that meet safety standards and it also gives them fuel efficiency. Steel is also a material that has been used in auto factories since the beginning. They don’t need new equipment or techniques to form it, weld it or join it. But, steel prices are also going up and that will show up in the cost of the car.

Structure may not be top of mind when you purchase your next vehicle. But it helps to understand how you are protected, which translates to your comfort level with the safety of your vehicle. And it’s good to know that steel is made right here in the USA.

The Electric Car: How’re We Doing?

Not to put a damper on the growth of EV sales, but there has been an inordinate amount of attention paid to them in the past couple of years.  Yes, they have been steady. In 2010-2011, just over 17,000 EVs were sold.  It was the Chevy Volt, the Nissan Leaf and the Mitsubishi iMIEV.

In 2015, 115,000 were sold but now there are 26 models to choose from.  So yes, the sales of EVs are growing and more companies are offering them. 

Part of the impetus for companies to offer them is the U.S. government mandate to reach a corporate average fuel economy of 54.4 mpg by 2025.  That may seem far off, but in terms of automotive development, it’s about two model changes away.

But the sales from 2014 to 2015 declined 6.5 percent because of cheap oil and they are still a minuscule proportion of what we buy. In 2015 we sold over 17.5 million new cars and trucks in the U.S.  Electric plug-ins were 0.75 percent of those vehicles.  

Remember that electric cars aren’t new.  They were first developed in practical terms in the second half of the 19th Century.  In the U.S., a Des Moines chemist named William Morrison debuted the first successful electric car around 1890. It held six passengers and had a top speed of 14 miles per hour. Over the next few years, more electric vehicles from different automakers were on the road across the U.S. New York City even had a fleet of more than 60 electric taxis. By 1900, electric cars were at their heyday, accounting for around a third of all vehicles on the road. During the next 10 years, they continued to show strong sales. 

Electric cars along with hybrids and gasoline powered cars grew in popularity with the increasing interest in personal vehicles.  But it was Henry Ford who basically made the electric car a thing of the past (And he had even worked on an electric car with his friend, Thomas Edison.)  His gasoline powered car, the Ford Model T, was mass produced and affordable.  That helped to end the competition along with improved roads and cheap oil. 

Some might recall the EV1 produced by General Motors almost two decades ago.  I remember listening to then chairman of GM, Bob Stemple, talking about the future being here.  It wasn’t the future and even non-car enthusiasts can tell you that GM crushed every EV1 and sent them to the junkyard.

The top sellers in 2015 were the Tesla S (25,000), the Nissan Leaf (17,000) and the Chevrolet Volt (15,000) and the BMW i3 (11,000).  General Motors is expecting the Chevrolet Bolt to change the landscape of who can buy and afford an electric vehicle and I expect that they are on to something.  The Bolt is a compact car that has a200 mile range on a full electric charge, will be priced at around $30,000 and will be 80 percent charged in 30 minutes.

“The Bolt is more than just a car,” said Mary Barra, G.M.'s chief executive. “It’s an upgradeable platform for new technologies.

Today we’re talking about a number of technologies to power our vehicles. It is becoming more mainstream to believe that fossil fuels are not the future.  Hydrogen, natural gas, batteries and plug-in electric vehicles are coming to market—slowly, but they are coming. And Barra’s comment about the car becoming a platform for new technologies is where the discussion is sure to lead.

January 7th 2017 Snowed In

Well, we're not exactly snowed in but it's a fact that we did not veer far from our base in Riverhead. It's coming down. I'll give the newscasters that. But, I grew up in New England before the 24-hour news cycle. "Snow", they'd say on the nightly news. That was it. We knew there would be school the next day.  I didn't have a snow day until I went to graduate school in Washington, D.C. School was canceled? Why? A flake came down in Brookland. Panic ensued.

Tonight, January 7th, 2017,  I am with Mark in Riverhead. We walk to Jerry and the Mermaid's for dinner. It's a few feet. We kick a drift here and there and we are home.

Jerry and the Mermaid's big dining room is closed. So it's more like those bars at the Cape where the locals gather. Eight young men walk in.  They look so different. I can't figure out what they have in common so I ask one chubby young man with blonde hair, "are you a group? what do you have in common?" And I apologize for being perpetually curious. It turns out they are the band, Zac Brown.
They have driven from Rochester, NY, through a snowstorm to perform at the local theater only to find out that the show has been canceled and rescheduled. They're having dinner at Jerry and the Mermaids.

Over a delicious dinner of shrimp scampi and linguine, I think of an idea. What if we traveled all over America and I created a new blog called Local.com and we encountered places like this?

Over my second glass of wine, this idea starts to take hold.

I get up my courage to interview the waitress. The last thing she needs is for me to take her time. She's very busy. But, she agrees to talk to me. Corrine is 36. She has two kids, 12 and 6. She is busting her ass to make everyone happy. And, surprisingly, in this major snowstorm, Jerry and the Mermaids is busier than hell. I know the waitressing thing. I've done it. And I have periodically prayed that I never had to do it again. And at some point, I realized I could not actually do it. Period.
But Corrine says that she loves interacting with people. She loves talking to people. And when I ask her how things are going she tells me that things are really good. Her daughter is celebrating her 12th birthday tomorrow and they are going to have a party for her and she will be able to be there for her kid.

I'm debating whether or not to interview Zac Brown's band, and this hooded androgynous young creature steps up to our table. "I'm Corrine's daughter," she says "you know, the waitress?" "Yes, I say, Tomorrow's your birthday. What do you want? What do you want to do? What is your future?" I ask her, laying it on.

"I want to make people happy. I'm going to make videos and make people happy."

"You know," I say, "that happiness isn't enough? People have to be fulfilled."

She smiles. Her braces show. Her father is standing off to the side making sure that this journalist is not doing anything to hurt his daughter. And, she says, "yes."

I tell her about 10,000 hours. And assure her that she will most definitely succeed. I really don't want to do video.  But those preferences shadow the difference in our ages.

THE HOL

Here's Holly. She is part of the small cadre of female automotive journalists who have well worn sensible shoes that get you to your departure gate at any number of airports. But Holly always packed a pair of sexy sandals for dinners with our hosts. I often didn't bother. That would result in a Holly fashion consultation in the elevator heading to dinner.  I'm sure some of that sunk in, but I will never have her fashion sense.

It did not matter what power plant we were mulling over in our travels through the auto world; Holly always referred to Mike and Dylan and Jenna. It was a welcome diversion away from the tiresome chronicling of how many hours-long delays we had all experienced or how many air miles we had accrued. She talked about what we all recognize as what is important--health and family.  Holly's family was her absolute baseline for everything in her life.

For the time I have known Holly, which is about 22 years, she has breezed around the planet collecting and writing travel and automotive stories. And for about the same amount of time, this woman has battled cancer with a fierceness that is rare. We were in a swimming pool at some hotel earlier this year, chatting about this and that (OK, exercise.) and I looked her in the eyes and said, "If your ears were burning last week, it is because Sue and I were talking about you. And what we said was that we did not know another single person who would have handled their illness with such an optimistic, courageous attitude and for nearly a quarter of a century. Her ability to keep herself and her loved ones above it all will remain an inspiration to me for the rest of my life. Sometimes we think things and we don't say them. I am glad I told Holly what I had observed about her.

We saw a couple of make-me-laugh movies together this summer. Ab Fab--terrible. Florence Foster Jenkins--great. We ate popcorn, drank water and walked to 72nd together. I am glad to have had Holly in my life. She succumbed October 6th.

Here's a poem I wrote a while back after my loss:

When Continue Just Won’t

by Kate McLeod

Start broken. 
Breathe Away. 
Consider the lost. 
Miss love. 
Remember.

Introducing Micro Cars

Tiny little cars you may never have heard of

We spent an afternoon at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville recently. What a delightful, esoteric collection. Below find links to the micro car collection. They capture the spirit and passion of the automakers in unique--I might add--hilarious configurations. But, hey, if we didn't have dreamers, where would we be? Sitting in the dark, eating with our fingers and walking barefoot down a dirt road, I suspect. Have fun. In this dreary, threatening world we live in, a little levity can't but help.

1.       1949 Peugeot Triporteur: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/peugeot-triporteur-1949?highlight=WyJwZXVnZW90IiwicGV1Z2VvdCdzIl0=

2.       1951 Iota 350 Sports: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/iota-350-sports-1951?highlight=WyJpb3RhIl0= 

3.       1956 Mochet CM 125Y: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/mochet-cm-125y-1956?highlight=WyJtb2NoZXQiLCJtb2NoZXQncyIsIm1vY2hldHMiXQ== 

4.       1956 Autonacional Biscuter 100 (pronounced Bye-scooter): http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/autonacional-biscuter-100-1956?highlight=WyJiaXNjdXRlciJd

5.       1956 Zündapp Janus 250: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/zuendapp-janus-250-1956?highlight=WyJ6XHUwMGZjbmRhcHAiXQ== 

6.       1957 Messerschmitt KR200: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/messerschmitt-kr200-1957?highlight=WyJtZXNzZXJzY2htaXR0IiwibWVzc2Vyc2NobWl0dCdzIl0= 

7.       1958 BMW Isetta: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/bmw-isetta-300-1958?highlight=WyJpc2V0dGEiLCJpc2V0dGFzIl0= 

8.       1959 Maico: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/maico-500-1958?highlight=WyJtYWljbyIsIm1haWNvcyJd

9.       1963 King Midget Roadster: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/king-midget-roadster-1963?highlight=WyJraW5nIiwibWlkZ2V0IiwibWlkZ2V0cyIsImtpbmcgbWlkZ2V0Il0= 

10.   1964 Peel P50: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/peel-p50-1964?highlight=WyJwNTAiXQ== 

11.   1965 Peel Trident: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/peel-trident-1965?highlight=WyJ0cmlkZW50Il0= 

12.   1966 Velorex 430: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/velorex-430-1966?highlight=WyJ2ZWxvcmV4Il0= 

13.   1970 Subaru 360: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/subaru-360-sedan-1970?highlight=WyJzdWJhcnUiXQ== 

14.   1975 Casalini Sulky A18: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/casalini-sulky-a18-3-wheeler-1975?highlight=WyJzdWxreSJd

15.   1975 Mini Comtesse: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/mini-comtesse-1972?highlight=WyJjb210ZXNzZSJd

16.   1981 Schmitty A2: http://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/schmitty-a2-1981?highlight=WyJzY2htaXR0eSJd

Built on the Isle of Mann in 1955. The world's smallest passenger car.

Mid-engine, rear-wheel drive, Iota. Built in Britain.

Hyundai Elantra GT Compact Hatchback

Who loves a hatchback?

http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/latest-reviews/2016-hyundai-elantra-gt-test-drive-review-article-1.2255045

Click On This, The Musical Highway: You'll Have fun.

http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/street-smarts/musical-highway-road-car-sing-article-1.2187845

The Musical Highway: an engineering feat.  When your tires roll over this piece of historic Route 66, it plays America the Beautiful.  OK, don't believe me.  See it for yourself!

More Conversation with Mark Reuss

Here's more  conversation with Mark Reuss, Executive Vice President, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, who spoke to a group of journalists at the New York Auto Show.  He talks about Buick, Cadillac and how he figures out value for GM customers.

So, was this year’s New York Auto Show a big show for you?

Yes. On the Malibu.  “We’ve got competitors that are entrenched in the segment. So [we focused on] things we know are really important in the segment like operating costs, value, comfort and dynamic style. It is really hard to do on a sedan. It’s hard to create something that hasn’t been done before, something original, and I think we’ve done that with the Malibu.”

With Cadillac getting the focus on luxury could you discuss what the strategy is for Buick in the  near term?

Buick’s been very, very successful.  The articulation for me at Buick is really elegance and maybe a different approach to refinement than Cadillac.  And I think that’s what Buick’s always been.  And once in a while we’ll throw a wild card in there that gets everybody’s blood pumping like the GS AWD, which is really a great car and it’s right within Buick because it’s a beautiful car, very refined and elegant and still fun.  So I think that’s it and I think the Avenir exudes every single piece of that that you could ever imagine.  That’s why we did the car.  That car is not a Cadillac.  It’s not ever going to be mistaken for a Cadillac and its not hard to articulate why.  And people get it.  That’s why those brands are doing great—GMC and Buick.

The center for design for Buick is where?  China?

There is no center for design.  We’re a global design center. We really are.  Our brand studio is in Warren, Michigan.  The execution of the car though could happen at a studio in China and it has. Or it could happen here. But I don’t think it’s going to happen in Brazil.  So those are the two spiritual places where the markets are. We can share workloads and we can do all kinds of stuff.

When you talk about Buick as an elegant and refined Brand I think of it in those terms as an older buyer.

You do and I do. The people a generation behind us don’t have any baggage behind Buick typically.  So we’ve got a really cool buyer base that is diverse from a nationality standpoint and also from an age standpoint.  We see a lot of people taking the Asian perception of the brand into the United States. It’s really not traditional, especially on the West Coast. 

Can you articulate why you are successful in the premium segment and nobody else really is—why nobody can find the sweet spot?

I think we have a really clear vision of that and a focus on it and what it is and what it isn’t and that clarity I think is something that people really struggle with especially in a big company.  But I started there and I grew up there.  I worked in Flint for a good chunk of my career.  There are some people that are Buick zealots and know what it should be and think that helps. bringing people in from the outside to tell you what Buick should be is probably not a good idea.  Because we’ve been pretty successful with it since the beginning of General Motors.  I think people get it that work there that work on it.

Is there a development dichotomy between fuel economy and performance?

There are a couple of things I know.  Fuel prices with either stay the same or go up or go down. I am certain of that. I do know there’s been permanent changes in the way people buy.  Some of those are generational and some of those are income based.  We save cost using lower displacement engines that can do the same thing as a larger engine and on a lighter car. We can get our operating costs back—that value equation for the customer is much more valuable than electrification by itself on an older architecture. Independent of gas prices or the economy, that value equation never really changes. There will be electrification pieces that will make a lot of sense because there will be people that want 48 miles to the gallon but they want that at a value equation that pays back. And they like driving a hybrid and they like driving something that’s progressive and has less emissions.  There are people out there and, generationally,  are growing.

How much of a problem is it to get GM’s vehicles selling at higher prices? 

Incentives and discount prices are a road to nowhere.  Offer people what they are willing to pay for, what they value.  It’s what they value.  What are they really buying and what are they willing to pay for? Unlocking that for each car is what’s important. 

Mark Reuss at the New York Auto Show

Mark Reuss, Executive Vice President, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, spoke to a group of journalists at the New York Auto Show.  The following is from the interview attended by GirlDriver, USA.  Over the next few days we will post more of the interview.

GD: Do you think with younger generations, we will see performance end up in a museum?

I do not.  I really do not. It’s just like the discussion that says millennials don’t want cars because they’re getting their licenses later.  That was the party line.  Well they don’t have any jobs, they have no money and they can’t afford a car.  So they hate cars?  They don’t hate cars.  They love cars. 

GD: They are much more conscious of impact on the environment.  Are they going to turn on performance?

You can put a Volt in sport mode and have a blast.  That’s performance. We could make a small block hybrid that was really cool and really fast that doesn’t burn hardly any gasoline doing it for a very low cost.  I don’t think that would be a bad thing.  

GD: Are you going to do that?  

I would say the elements are there to create it and have fun.  At the end of the day [ vehicles] are an emotional purchase—always.  People don’t want to drive around in 20 second, 0-60 power.  That stinks. People like performance and I just don’t see that changing. Fun is fun.  We’re delivering that today that’s for sure.

GD: How fast are you going to be able to put the product into Cadillac and regenerate the brand?

I think a better question would be when do you think you are going to have the product right to be able to introduce it with high quality and technology that reflects what the brand should be? That’s the way we approach that.  I’m not on a timetable to say we’re going to have eight new products in two years and just hang on.  We’re trying right now the products we want to do because we can get ahead with our products of where the brand really is. That’s where we sit today and so we have to really have a discussion around what the brand health is when we talk about when we’re going to introduce products because we got to have a brand that can handle the product that’s being introduced.

GD: You’re talking about product and brand image.  And part of that was that the reason that Cadillac made the move to New York?

For sure. Johan’s job is not to go and develop an Omega platform for the CT6 Cadillac.  That’s my job.  Johan’s job is to take and use those products and change the brand perception of Cadillac into a brand that’s high on consideration lists so they give us a real shot at buying our cars.   

If we always did what we always did we’re always going to get what we always got. That was doing it out of Detroit. We’ve got to be able to change these things and that’s what we’re doing.  We’re giving it a shot.  There’s no downside to it, by the way.  There’s no downside other than you guys may say well that didn’t work.  OK?  So we’re going to keep trying.

GD: Is there a product push for them going to be on the crossover side?  

I’m not sure that I would say that but it could be.  because there are some things that are going to happen at the same time so I’m not sure there is a sequential cadence—we look at our product launch capability across all of General Motors not just Cadillac so I mean what we don’t want to do is have things happening in five places at one time and trying to get our supply base to do it and bring them up at the same time it would be a disaster so I’m pretty careful about that but that said Cadillac’s got a lot of priority.  From my people’s standpoint, it is to make it happen with the right timing, the right product with the right quality and performance. That’s where we’re focused.  

If you look at our portfolio at Cadillac today it’s got about half the entries that some of our competitors do and that’s a lot and so you look at what they are really doing and where they are successful and some of those are crossovers and some of them are cars that we don’t play in.  So here’s a car (CT6) that we need to do well with and I think we will.  But then there’s some crossovers beyond SRX that you know are probably pretty attractive for us as well.

Alan Batey Talks to GirlDriver, USA at NYIAS

GirlDriver, USA at the New York Auto Show

Alan Batey, General Motors Executive Vice President and President North America

We talked to Alan Batey about brands and bankruptcy and GM today.

Looking back, was it a good move to close brands?  You don’t see more cars by closing brands, right?

Look, we now have four brands in different swim lanes. We don’t have brands sitting on top of each other now in terms of positioning and pricing competing for the same customers.  We’re more focused. The strategy makes more sense.  To your point around Saturn, there were some critical learnings at Saturn around customer care and we’re really tried to make that part of what we do at Chevrolet.  We worked with the Disney Institute about four years ago and that with the learnings from Saturn we brought together as part of the Chevrolet experience.  In the latest J.D. Power survey, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC were among the top five brands.  We learned a lot from Saturn and we’re really trying to transfer those learnings and drive our attention to other brands. 

How does a global company keep on top of so many different types of problems around the world?

You need to leverage a global scale and make sure that your brands are resonating on a global level.  But at the same you need to make sure that you have strong organizations who really understand the market and the differences at a local level.  So we have five regions of the world.  We used to have four but China has become so big we got that as a stand alone region now.  Those regions are responsible for the go to market and for the execution of the sales strategy and the building of the brand.  What we do at a global level is we lay out the portfolio and the positioning and make sure we’re leveraging our scale but the real work of selling and servicing customers is done at a local level and that provides the right level of balance that we need between local and global we call it GLOCAL abut that’s basically our approach.

The bankruptcy made GM a better company in some ways.  Post bankruptcy, what are the big challenges?

What we’ve seen is that the company has grown. Our U.S. business has rebounded. We’re seeing really solid growth.  We’re seeing transaction prices increase.  We’re seeing our brands slowly start to gain more momentum but its a long term journey.  You don’t turn around a brand overnight. 

We don’t have so much of a challenge in the U.S. as opportunity. The Malibu is a great example of that.  Here’s a segment which is the biggest car segment in the U.S.  We’ve clearly been underperforming but we’ve executed an incredibly great car and you know our rallying call around it is larger lighter best in class fuel economy and stunning design.  So I think this is a great demonstration of our capability and we’ve got five new vehicle launches this year—at Chevy and you know know its coming on the back of very successful Colorado launch—Colorado midsize segment.  We’re growing that segment now. And it is the fastest turning pick up in the U.S.  The Trax is a segment that we created with the Buick Encore. We’ve gone fast to market with the Trax.  It’s doing really really well so we feel good about our ability to really redefine our future with a really laser like focus on new segments and great products.

People forget is that the U.S. was the only part of GM that went through the bankruptcy The rest of General Motors did not go through bankruptcy and so here we are five years after the U.S. Chapter 11 we’re still restructuring a lot around the world, not through the bankruptcy courts but through our commercial activities.  

We’ve seen a lot of growth in China, which has become our second biggest market. What you are also seeing is these markets all need to meet emission requirements which are being governed by different countries. You are no longer able to sell perhaps legacy products that is amortized at lower prices. There’s a big movement underway because we’re going to need affordable, modern technology across the world.  

We’re still doing some restructuring in other countries and you know we have challenges like Russia where we’ve had to make a decision that we’re going to somewhat muffle our business there because its losing a lot of money and right now it doesn’t make any sense so we need to slow it down and to conserve cash and see what happens as the economic situation becomes a little bit clearer.

Does anyone at GM believe that social media is going to sell cars? 

I believe that social media is the new word of mouth.  It’s a powerful medium when it comes to reputation management. You know customers going on line, getting their service rating the dealership that gets five stars or whatever.  They go online and they can see instantly what people are saying about them on social media.  That’s very important to building that brand, building that reputation and driving retention.

So it’s really it’s really a word of mouth.  We had an incident that happened around the World Series whereby in the final game of the world series we were giving away a Colorado to the MVP. The gentleman that was doing that on our behalf who was our zone manager this was late at night as you can imagine across the nation um he’s a big gentleman and they changed the location so he’s down on the pitch side and they wanted to do it in the studio.  So he literally has to run.  He gets there.  The interview—I don’t know if you ever saw it—the interview didn’t go well and he you wouldn’t know whether he was hyperventilating because he was nervous and that’s what most people picked up.  Anyway it went really badly. There was this, “Oh my God, did you see that? I can’t believe that just happened.”  Then this sympathy thing came in—“Hey you leave the Chevy guy alone. If you ever had to do this can you imagine how nervous he was?”, etc. We have people that monitor this 24-7 so we were able to see it going off.  We were able to hashtag Chevy Colorado and tech because he said something like you know the car’s full of technology and stuff so we hash tagged “technology and stuff”.  Anyway over a 24-hour period we were the #1 in social media. 

It was crazy.  But we were able to join the conversation and then we went out with some more traditional ads like print ads that said “Introducing the all new Colorado with all that technology and stuff.”  So we joined the discussion and we did it in a way that made us very human and we had our VP of sales go out and say hey just so you know he’s our guy, he’s a fantastic employee.  We stand behind him and then we got this whole barrage of “good on Chevy that’s what you need to do is support your employees.” So here’s an example of a social media event.  If we’d have just sat it out we would have looked stupid but because we engaged and became part of the discussion we created amazing awareness for Colorado which is our new vehicle.  We created a very human touch to our brand and our employees and it was just huge for us.  We estimated that in 24-hours it was over $5 million of free media.  It allows a two way conversation, social media, rather than us putting out an ad that’s sterile this allows us to talk to our customers.

You can see people that say I had a bad experience and we can now engage those people and turn that into a wow experience.  All of a sudden we go in and we say we saw that you posted this.  We’d like to help you. Then you can turn it around.

We’ve launched something called Shop Click Drive that blends together the digital world and the bricks and mortar world.  We know there are a lot of millennials who don’t feel comfortable transacting in the dealership environment.  They feel much more comfortable buying and searching online so what we’ve done with this product is create an environment where in fact you can go through the whole process online and then we introduce you to the bricks and mortar so that you know where you get your vehicle serviced and that part of it.  

Our business isn’t transactional. What I mean by that is when we sell a car it’s the start of the relationship.  When you buy a tin of beans once you’ve bought it its the end of the relationship until you buy another tin of beans.  So we need to make sure that you know it’s the second biggest purchase in people’s lives many people have a trade in.  We have to be able to have the ability to accept trade ins and put people into new vehicles.  Most people need financing.  We have to meet their financing requirements.

What do you think the smartest move GM has made recently and how did sales prove it out? 

I would say redefining the mid-size pick up segment that used to be worth a million vehicles a year, dropped down to about a quarter of a million.  We looked at all the customer verbatims, the reason customers weren’t in the segment and they said there was no choice.  There were only two old vehicles that were available.  There’s was old technology, not good fuel economy, no technology in the vehicle so we went in.  We introduced the Colorado and Canyon with 4G LTE.  We’re going to introduce a diesel engine later this year which will be best in class fuel economy, stunning design and its been a huge home run for us.  Colorado is number two in the segment.  

Nissan's Chief, Carlos Ghosn, Introduces the 2016 Maxima at The New York Auto Show

The 2016 Maxima

By Mark West

In his no-nonsense, get-to-the point style Nissan president and CEO Carlos Ghosn introduced Nissan's totally redesigned flagship Maxima, 4-door sports car during a press conference on April 2nd at the 2016 New York International Auto Show. Mr. Ghosn highlighted the many new features of the Maxima, which has fueled more than 30-years of growth in the U.S. market. 

The 2016 Maxima is designed and engineered here in America primarily for the U.S. consumer. Mr. Ghosn stressed that the 2016 Maxima is 2.2 inches longer, 1.3 inches lower, and 82 lbs. lighter than the previous model producing an estimated 30 mpg highway driving. Adding its all-new sheet metal structure produces 25 percent more rigidity in the body and "moves the Maxima's performance closer to its bigger brother the Nissan GTR". Mr. Ghosn described the new exterior as sleek and distinctive with front and rear LED lighting, a V-motion front end, deeply sculptured fenders and unique floating roof treatment. Next he explained its exterior cockpit design achieves a fighter jet inspired look that improves its aerodynamics to a low efficiency of drag of 0.295.

The new Maxima's 3.5-liter VQ-series V6 has been redesigned with more than 60 percent new parts (compared to the previous generation 3.5-liter V6). With 300 horsepower, Maxima has a high specific output of 85.7 horsepower/liter. The revised engine helps Maxima achieve an anticipated 15 percent increase in highway fuel economy to an EPA estimated 30 miles per gallon. Complementing the revised power plant is a new, performance-oriented Xtronic transmission featuring a wider ratio range, which allows for stronger acceleration from a standing start and an all-new D-Step shifting logic that provides rapid shifts at high throttle openings.

His description of the Maxima premium leather interior stressed its signature zero gravity front seats, a center stack angle arranged around the driver featuring a racing car V shaped steering wheel. Its new interior offers luxury quietness achieved by its laminated windshield plus BOES Active Noise Cancellation or the driver can with the push of a button let in a little racing noise sound  of the engine. Mr. Ghosn  is confident the 2016 Maxima has the finest interior in its class.  

Mr. Ghosn said the new 2016 Maxima will challenge cars costing thousands of  more, is the sportiest most powerful Maxima ever. The SR model offers high performance tires and panel shifters. Its 3.5 V-6 liter engine produces 300 hp with 61% new parts it is essentially a new engine. Like the GTR the Maxima uses sodium filled valves reducing weight and quickens response to produce greater performance and increase fuel efficiency.

Maxima's new 2016 model is infused with greater safety and security features adding its new Driver Attention Alert System to its already existing Forward Breaking system and its Blind Spot Warning system. With Mr. Ghosn's concise and direct presentation of the 2016 Maxima he said it is set to arrive in U.S. showrooms this June with a starting M.S.R.P. of $32,410.