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Thanks to a perception of versatility, reliability and affordability, the Toyota Hilux is the pickup truck of choice for terrorists and mercenaries all over the world. Now, a Florida car dealer is paying $7.5 million for making that association at the expense of a rival Iranian-born car dealer. More »
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If "Winnebego Man" was the epitome of curse-filled vehicular salesmanship, this may be it's one-take zenith from the late 1960s. Remember, Ralph Williams Bay Shore Chrysler-Plymouth is your home for rape and pillage. Warning: NSFW. More »
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Last week, Groupon and a Michigan car dealer announced the first Groupon for new cars, offering $500 off the price of a new or used vehicle for $200. This bold embrace of modern Internet marketing netted exactly four takers. More »
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A start-up penny auction company decided to earn some publicity by going big-ticket for their first online sale by offering a new Chevy Camaro SS. The winning bidder paid $5.28. Who says Internet economics don't make sense? More »
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Writers often have to take outside jobs while they hone their skills, but a New York used car salesman has managed to combine his work and hobby into the most literary sales pitches since Kurt Vonnegut owned a Saab dealership. More »
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When Chevrolet announced last year it would import the Australian-built Chevy Caprice sedan as police-only fleet car, enthusiasts begged for a civilian version to no avail. Now one Maryland dealer says it will buck GM and sell 13 Caprices to the public. UPDATE: It's legit — but not for long. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5815228&view=rss&microfeed=true An Ohio judge says Ford owes about $2 billion for hiding discounts on medium and heavy-duty trucks sold to 3,000 dealers between 1987 and 1997. We'll see everyone in appeals court. More »
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After the financial crisis exposed the devastation caused by predatory lending, state and federal authorities vowed to protect consumers from practices that lured them into debt they couldn't afford. More »
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Missouri car dealer Max Motors has upped the ante in its longstanding free-gun-with-purchase promotion, offering a .50 caliber sniper rifle to anyone who buys a Dodge Viper. The next step? Air vents laced with powdered Viagra. (Thanks mike4700!) [Max Motors] More »
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Last month, we shared the story of a Canadian Lamborghini Gallardo owner whose car was wrecked by a mechanic during a test drive. The owner's now launching a new press against the dealer, who has yet to take responsibility. More »
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America's auto dealers: Tech-savvy family businessmen powering the U.S. economy through service and innovation. Except when their fat fingers price vehicles on the Internet and give dozens of mundane cars prices surpassing $200,000 — before undercoating. More »
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A New Jersey Hyundai dealer and former New York Giants lineman who vowed celibacy last May until his store topped all other U.S. Hyundai outlets finally made his goal in October. In related news, the Giants scored repeatedly Sunday. More »
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Last week we solved the mystery behind an abandoned Ohio car dealership caught on Flickr. Our story set off a flurry of responses from readers about similarly abandoned sales relics. Here's a ghostly gallery of America's lost car dealerships. More »
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Somewhere in Ohio sits an abandoned Chrysler dealership with old cars parked on the showroom floor, like a prop leftover from a nuclear bomb test. The only evidence of its existence were a set of eerie Flickr photos. Until now. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5632032&view=rss&microfeed=true Opel/Vauxhall dealers OK plan to buy 10-20% stake in automaker for 500 million Euros. [AutoNews] More »
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Was your Chrysler dealer one of the 789 the restructuring-under-bankruptcy automaker killed off today? Find out below! More »
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Though we doubt many care, we've got an embedded journalist in San Francisco reporting out to us on what's going on at the NADA annual whatever out there tonight. Our embed will be covering the event live for us but for reasons of NADA-nal security, can't reveal his or her name — so we've nicknamed them "Rick_Fan_001" to protect them. Without further ado, here's our live instant messenger chat of this evening's keynote by GM CEO Rick Wagoner after the jump. Just keep hitting refresh as we add more: More »
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Now that it's so cheap and easy to create and share videos, local car dealerships are flooding web2.0 video applications with their own brand of boring, homemade advertisements. In our search for topical video content we come across hundreds a day. So it says something that this ad from a Chevy dealership in North Carolina caught our attention. The woman in the ad emotes with the kind of energy reserved for community theatre in Wyoming and the script was likely written by someone taking a break from developing Jeep slogans. "Back up, pull forward, back up, pull forward. AHHHHHH!" More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=350585&view=rss&microfeed=true Car dealers hate taking cash for cars. [NYT] More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=283553&view=rss&microfeed=true Volvo hiring Indian dealers — just in time to get sold to Tata? Probably not — but Tata is the only Indian car manufacturer we find to have a truly humorous name. [NDTVProfit.com] More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=281454&view=rss&microfeed=true Most obvious conclusion ever — luxury car brands give the best service. [Detroit News] More »
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We were all excited earlier this morning when the General dropped the release on the green-is-good Aura Green Line. We thought maybe they'd turned a new leaf and began to learn to love the sedan. Ha! We totally should have known better. That bit of hetero-automaker love lasted all of about 20 minutes, which is about when we read the second release of the day, which amazingly ran right over that pro-green pro-car message with a 16" anti-green gas-guzzling tire. The second release pushes GM's new right-hand-drive Hummer H3 for jolly old England and other similarly-configured markets. Although this H3's a whole "39 mm shorter, 171 mm lower and 73 mm narrower" than the one we can buy over here, it still manages to run with the less-than-hearty (but always fuel inefficient!) 3.7-liter engine powering the 'merican version. The Lutz-heavy press release that's got all sorts of englandorable words like "manoeuvrability" is just after the jump. – Ray Wert More »
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Apparently it's been pissing off the Toyota overlords that some of their dealers have been buying American full-size pickup trucks for use as dealership parts haulers, so now they'll be kicking back $2000 to any Lexus, Scion, or Hino distributor that buys a Tundra for dealership use ($2000 being the approximate price difference between the base Tundra and the base F-150). Another step in the Greater Toyota Co-Prosperity Sphere's plan to chip away at the last remaining stronghold of the once-mighty Detroit Empire. – Murilee Martin More »
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Our good buddies obsessed with all things gadgets and gizmos dropped us a tip that Tesla Motors is looking to open up five "customer service centers" this year across the country. They'll be located in Chicago, Northern California, Southern California, New York and Florida and they'll give prospective customers the opportunity to kick the tires on an electric ride. For the time being, it'll just be the standard $100,000 electric super-car, but starting in 2009, you'll have the opportunity to check out those sedans they've been promising as well. You'll also notice that the "customer service center" isn't a standard "dealer" experience. So instead of independent companies owning the sales and distribution chain, Tesla itself will own it. That means that hopefully you'll get less of a "Buy! Buy! Buy!" experience and more of a "Let's talk about the product" experience. Sounds like a plan to us. – Ray Wert More »
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The 'merican side of the German-American hybrid's already shown a penchant for descent down the slippery sales ladder of incentives without saying they're incentives. Hell, maybe they're just lying to themselves. Whether they're telling the truth or just truthiness, the Detroit News is reporting today the chieftains in the sales and marketing team run by Joe "Direct Mail" Eberhardt have instituted a plan where they're giving dealers anywhere from $2,500 (on the Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300) to $7,000 (on the Dodge Ram and Durango) for 2006 models. Why the need? Well, even though the kids in Auburn Hills have cut inventories from the highs of 647,000 vehicles in July to 499,000 reported yesterday for November, '06 models still account for 32% of current inventory. That's a lot of "old" model year cars and trucks to try to be shipping out the dealer doors n' lots. But, that means... More »
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Last week we reported on a double-super-secret missive from William Powell, GM's Veep for Industry Dealer Affairs to all dealers on fuel allowances outlining the General's new policy on reimbursement to dealers of the cost of gas on that first filled-to-the-brim tank on a new car. The new policy was that instead of a reimbursement to dealers for a full tank upon delivery, the General'd be reimbursing $20 for a car and $30 for a truck — which by our calculations left a sizable gap between what it takes to fill a tank and what the General's willing to pay. After seeing the code-word clearance only document, we hypothesized that the added cost of the first tank was going to slip on down to the consumer. Apparently the General was reading and got concerned about the same thing, because in a startling twist, they've decided to let the dealers have their soup and the full fuel allowance. Kudos to the General for making the right decision, now lets see if they'll give us bread too. The full amended policy memo sent to dealers on Friday is just a click of the jump away. More »
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Like the Soup Nazi, the General's laying down the law on dealerships in the latest missive from the bean-counting bureaucrats at the RenCen (Note — in today's episode, the part of "bean-counting bureaucrat" will be played by GM Veep of Industry Dealer Affairs, William Powell), by making it clear they'll no longer reimburse dealers for a full of tank of gas upon delivery. Instead, the Detroit-based automaker will be handing the dealership $20 for cars and $30 for trucks — which if we've calculated correctly, will mean the dealer will be able to pump just over six gallons into a car and ten gallons into a truck without dipping into their own pockets. Hmm...since the tank of a Chevy Aveo (pronounced with the em-pha-sis on whatever syll-a-ble feels right on to ya) holds 11 gallons and a Chevy Silverado holds 34 gallons — that'll be a differential of five gallons and 24 gallons in a truck. So who's gonna pick up that cost? Well, the dealer will initially...but fear not consumers, we expect you'll start seeing a "fuel delivery charge" soon added as a box on your next car purchase or lease agreement. We've got the full dealer communique just a click of the jump away — as well as the Ministry of Truth-like graphic from the General explaining which products are cars, and which are trucks. In case you're confused, the car-based HHR is a truck, but the truck-based Chevy SSR is a car. More »
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More than likely GM NorAm veep for sales, service and marketing, Mark LaNeve never actually saw this dealer bulletin going out today, but damn it, it's even more funny if he actually did. It's a bulletin sent to all General Motor dealerships in the US, letting them in on something so amazing, so killer-cool, so hawt — all dealers have to know about it...and know about it right now. Here's the opening, with emphasis added for your enjoyment, and the rest after the jump. More »
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The ol' grey lady reports on automakers' Technical Service Bulletins (TSBs), those handy missives sent to dealers (and the NHTSA) to inform service folk of problems auto shops see in its vehicles. What's great about TSBs is consumers can view them via NHTSA's TSB search tool. Though, in highlighting this service, Scott Sturgis of the New York Times either inadvertently (or quite vertently) extends his hand too far in Honda's direction. While Sturgis... More »
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The General's Veep of sales, Mark LaNeve sent a memo out to the General's dealer network this week, where he finally revealed the secretive moves GM began "several months ago" to realign the field and support organization for the not-so-spritely General. It looks like the General's gonna be moving to three Regional Sales and Marketing Managers (RSMM) — one for Chevy, one for Pontiac-Buick-GMC and one for GM's "Premium" brands plus Saturn — in each of GM's five regions. That's a heckuva lot of RSMM's! But, just as big as the still-expansive sales and support team is the news that the realignment's going to focus on increasing the seemingly measly "three out of ten return-rate of new GM vehicle owners" to GM dealerships — a focus on what LaNeve calls "customer retention and revenue opportunities so that more GM vehicle owners will return to you for their vehicle maintenance." Remember dealers, you may not be making as much off of your cars as you once were after we dropped those sticker prices — but hey, try your damndest to make it up in the oil change business, k? More »
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