Insane Survey Claims Most People Would Pay $19,000 Over MSRP

With vehicle prices surging over the last two years, the age of negotiating a price below sticker seems to have ended. Manufacturers are raising their rates to cope with inflation. But they’ve also noticed how much abuse they’ve been willing to endure via dealer markups. You rarely hear someone talking about how much they saved on their new car anymore. Now, the topic of interest is how much financial abuse you managed to avoid before driving it off the lot. 

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Tommy Tu-Tone: 2023 F-150 Heritage Edition is Ford's New Take on Retro

There have been numerous examples of local dealers appending various and sundry new pickup trucks with paint or a wrap trying to capture the two-tone color schemes of the ’80s and early/mid-’90s. Thanks to the body lines of modern trucks, the results can be varied.

Ford wants in on the action, choosing to celebrate 75 years of trucks with a Heritage Edition of its popular F-150 which attempts to recreate the look

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What's the Score? Cali GM Dealer Wins Against, Erm, GM

The never-ending, weirdly symbiotic, and often counterproductive relationship between OEMs and their dealers wrote another chapter yesterday, as a court in California may force GM to rethink the way it measures and administers sales effectiveness at the dealer level.

Sacramento-area dealer Folsom Chevrolet was deemed by The General as having failed to meet sales expectations and pursued the revocation of its franchise a couple of years ago. Folsom was having none of it, dragging the state’s New Motor Vehicle Board into the fight — an entity which handed down its decision in Folsom’s favor on August 13th. GM remains unhappy.

Remind me again how the dealer model is such a good idea?

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Binning the Bland: Nissan Planning a Great Dealership Makeover

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with a typical Nissan dealership, no one’s going to mistake one for the Taj Mahal. They’re functional structures, designed to hold salespeople that can walk you through the terms of a loan. Do they really need to be anything more?

Nissan says no, but it would still like its stores to undergo an ambitious renovation program that would alter the majority for the better. Executives in Japan said the brand intends to update 9,000 of its dealerships around the globe over the next five years. Changes include more prominent signage, updated customer-handling procedures, and more open concept showrooms and service departments.

However, just how much pressure HQ is exerting on North American shops to adhere to the changes is unclear. In the United States, dealerships are already subject to the Nissan Retail Environment Design Initiative (NREDI 2.0), which encourages tons of daylight via glass-fronted showrooms and wide open spaces. The overall look is extremely modern and inviting without feeling showy. Think really nice community college, rather than the hotel lounge experience some premium auto brands attempt to provide.

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Massive Wheel Heist Leaves Another East Texas Dealership up on Blocks

It’s the latest in a string of similar nighttime thefts, but it’s not surprising — after all, when four hours’ work can net you hundreds of thousands of bucks, who expects thieves to stop?

This past weekend, the inventory of a General Motors dealer lot in Tyler, Texas was left up on blocks after thieves stripped 48 vehicles of their wheels, Automotive News reports.

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Cracked, Welded Land Rover Transmission Case Comes to a Close

The saga of a welded transmission seems to have come to a somewhat happy ending.

The Reddit whistleblower at the center of this story, who is an employee of the dealership in question, provided TTAC the details on how the repair came to be. A representative from Jaguar Land Rover was also able to confirm that the incident was resolved, resulting in a satisfied Land Rover owner.

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Dealer Technician Drops, Cracks, Welds and Attempts to Stuff Transmission Back in Land Rover Without Telling Customer

The “Just Rolled Into The Shop” subreddit usually shows an array of some of the worst maintained vehicles that customers bring into shops — but a post today showed negligence isn’t solely limited to those bringing in vehicles for service or repair.

User Valkyrier posted a picture of a welded transmission and explained the circumstances: that a dealership technician dropped and damaged it during an engine replacement and was planning to reinstall it … after welding it back together … without telling the vehicle’s owner.

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Cars and Cocaine Are a Helluva Mix at This Audi Dealership

A pissed-off motorist wants the world to know that a service technician working at a dealership that might take rolled-up bills as a downpayment took his car on an alleged powder-fueled joyride. And he has dashcam video of the whole thing.

A revealing video posted to Youtube yesterday by user “Carrera Chris” documents the April 12 point-of-view journey of his vehicle as it leaves a Palo Alto Audi dealership with the technician behind the wheel.

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Ontario Says No to 'Fire' Sales, Refuses to Give Convicted Arsonist Dealer License

If we were all judged solely by our mistakes, we couldn’t elect anyone president. Having said that, maybe it’s good to give a little time between jail terms and licensed professions — especially when you were convicted in a firebombing directly related to that same profession.

An Ontario Superior Court overturned a lower court’s ruling to grant a vehicle sales license to a man just four days after his release from a federal prison, according to the Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council. The man was sentenced to jail for hiring another man to set fire to a New York State Department of Motor Vehicle office and a DMV inspector’s car while the applicant was a car dealer in Buffalo, New York.

According to the court, the man lied about his jail term and the circumstances regarding his case. Prior to the Superior Court ruling, the man was rejected by local authorities for a license, but successfully appealed the ruling in a lower court.

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TTAC News Round-up: Volkswagen Turns To Former FBI Chief, Renault Just 'Improving' Emissions, GM Buys Ridesharing Service

Volkswagen just tabbed a former FBI director to be the highest paid traffic cop in the universe.

That, Renault is only “improving” its emissions, GM’s big bet on ride sharing and the world’s biggest auto supplier says diesel isn’t dead … after the break!

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TTAC News Round-up: Kia's Big Show, Porsche's Diesel Fix and Mller Says VW Just Misunderstood The Law, You Guys

Porsche’s CEO is confident that the fix for their 3-liter diesel Cayennes will be approved by regulators, which is more than Volkswagen can say at the moment.

That, Kia’s big Detroit show, GM’s plan to sell cars online and Volkswagen CEO has a momentarily lapse of logic … after the break!

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TTAC News Round-up: Chevy Hot to Sell You a Sedan, Volvo's V90 Peek and Cheap Gas

“What do I gotta do to get you to drive out of here in a brand-new 2016 Chevrolet Malibu today?”

That, Ford and Google are moving to the country, Hyundai halts in China and Volvo’s wagon spied in some guy’s garage … after the break!

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TrueCar Hires Former AutoTrader CEO, Probably Has Different Feelings Toward AutoNation

TrueCar announced Monday that it hired former AutoTrader CEO Chip Perry to help the third-party vendor turn around a turbulent year of departing executives and crumbling business relations.

According to a statement released by TrueCar, Perry will take over for current CEO and founder Scott Painter on Dec. 15. Perry will also be president of the company, a position which was also vacated earlier this year.

“My initial focus will be on TrueCar’s dealer partners – listening to them and finding ways to serve them better,” Perry said in a statement. Painter had a public, messy breakup with AutoNation this summer and a $14.7 million loss in the second quarter.

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Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is, Vol. 1

My enthusiasm for Nissan’s dirt-cheap Leaf in Colorado is well documented. Here in the Centennial State, we have 100 ways to make a 2015 Nissan Leaf affordable for poor journalists like me — thank you, Beer Baron Governor.

For me, the specter of a brand-new car for less than $10,000 is too good to pass up — and even good enough to delay my quest for the best Alfa Romeo Milano in the U.S. That even felt weird to type.

So on Thursday afternoon, I packed up the girlfriend, my expectations for a rock-bottom priced Nissan Leaf and hit the local dealership for a rendezvous with the least-expensive new car in America.

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At This Point, Nissan Is Just Daring Me Not To Buy A Leaf

Nissan announced Thursday that the 2016 Leaf would run more than 100 miles on a single charge in SV and SL trim, increasing its range by 25 percent over last year. The base S model will keep the 24 kWh battery that manages more than 80 miles on a charge.

For the dozens and dozens of 2015 Leafs wilting on lots around the Denver metro area — where a combination of tax credits and cash back from the manufacturer makes the Leaf the least-expensive new car in America — I can hear them calling. And after Nissan sweetened its own deal this month with no interest for 72 months, it’s getting louder.

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  • Theflyersfan Well, Milton just went from a tropical storm to 175mph in less than a day so this guy means business. Even if it weakens a little bit, it'll expand and pretty much all of Florida south of Jacksonville is going to feel something. Everyone who saw that disaster in the NC/VA/TN mountains before Helene's landfall is either from the future or a liar (and that includes the insurance companies) because heavy rain started well before the storm arrived and then the crazy thing just sat in that general area. My part of Kentucky - it didn't stop raining for almost five days. And now this nuclear bomb of a hurricane. I understand Florida has a high percentage of homeowners without insurance because they can no longer afford it. My parents have a home near Naples and they carry extra flood and wind coverage and that costs well over five digits per year. Home renovations about 8-9 years ago gave them the chance to make hurricane-proof changes like lashing the roof and hurricane windows. It survived the direct hit from Irma and the heavy punch from Ian so they worked. After this storm, I don't know how Florida will totally recover. Much like California and the earthquakes and firestorms, there might have to be a "Come to Jesus" talk with the perils of living in Florida. I'm already making plans to head down there post-storm if the roads or airport is open in the days following landfall to help cleanup and rebuild any part of the home that might need it. In the short term, if it hasn't happened already, gas prices are probably going to rocket upwards as the oil rigs in the Gulf shut down and prepare. And if this storm directly hits Tampa/St Pete, it's going to be game over in those cities for a while. And imagine if the storm at this power was aiming towards New Orleans or Miami.
  • Jalop1991 "...leaving Doherty and his passenger to be pulled from the wreck by passersby." Or not. I would get a HUGE laugh out of seeing a video of passersby with their phones whipped out, recording it and doing nothing else.
  • Jalop1991 Hey, as soon as the water drains Stellantis will have lots of empty dealer lots to stash their cars on.
  • Mike Beranek Usually, those of us from Salt country will travel down south to find a used car that hasn't been exposed and "won't" rust. At least not right away, like a used car from up here.Now maybe the tables have turned. Will we be seeing lots of rusty cars from states that begin with a vowel running around down south?
  • SPPPP Time to start a Clunkers for Cash program?