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Will Nissan contiune to gain share?

May 17, 2011 / Staff

Nissan’s Chairman of the Americas Carlos Tavares is bullish on Nissan’s ability to keep growing.

From AutoNews.com:

Since being named chairman of the Americas for Nissan Motor Co. two years ago, Carlos Tavares has overseen market share growth for the Nissan and Infiniti brands in the United States, Mexico and several Latin American markets.

At the start of this year, Tavares, 52, unveiled a campaign to shift more parts and vehicle sourcing away from Japan because of the yen-dollar exchange rate. Staff Reporter Lindsay Chappell spoke with Tavares recently at Nissan’s U.S. headquarters near Nashville.

Q: In the United States, demand is coming back strong, gasoline prices are rising fast, and Japan is held back by problems from the March earthquake. Which of those three issues concerns you the most?

A: All three, because they converge on the same business.

Yes, the market is coming back, but it’s not something that surprises us. It’s aligned with what we have been saying. We are looking for 13.2 million industry sales on a fiscal-year basis, and there may be some upside in the second half of the year.

Read the full article.

Nissan

carlos tavares nissan sales

Join Chrysler on the “Road to Literacy!”

May 12, 2011 / Staff

The “Road to Literacy” campaign is a Facebook-based campaign committed to improving literacy in schools across the country. Chrysler is enlisting the help of consumers to participate in the program via Facebook and test drives of the 2011 Chrysler Town & Country minivan at their local dealer. When you participate in a test drive, five books will be sent to the school of your choice and five books will be sent to a school in need. It’s that easy!

How Can You Get Involved: To participate, visit the “Road to Literacy” Facebook page and click on the “Donate Books” tab. Each participant will be asked to enter the school they would like to receive the book donation. Once the school has been selected, consumers can choose a local dealer to complete a test drive of the 2011 Chrysler Town & Country. Once the test drive at the local dealer is complete, the participant will be given a “unique donation dealer code” to be entered on the Facebook site. Once the code is entered by the participant, five books will be sent to their school of choice and five books will be sent to a school in need. The Chrysler Town & Country Facebook page offers a tracking tool to monitor the book donation progress and see which school is logging the most donations.

The Chrysler Brand will donate up to 150,000 books, and we would love to see your favorite schools be a part of this wonderful program! The program runs through June 1 and any school (pre-school – high school) in the U.S. is eligible and encouraged to join. To see promotion rules or to learn more about the program, please visit our Facebook page.

Chrysler

Toyota production will be back up sooner than originally planned!

May 12, 2011 / Staff

From the Detroit Free Press:

Toyota will begin cranking up its North American factories faster than expected, returning to 70% of normal production in June as it rebounds from parts shortages caused by the earthquake in Japan.

The company cut production to about 30% of normal in May by idling factories for several days or reducing their hours. It warned dealers to expect shortages of some models well into the summer.

But Toyota said Wednesday that the parts situation is improving as supply companies take measures to counter the effects of the quake.

A March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged auto parts plants in northeastern Japan, causing shortages that have affected nearly all automakers but have hit Toyota and Honda especially hard.

Toyota said in a statement that it would evaluate production for each model every month, and it may not return to fully normal production until late this year.

Next month, though, Toyota will move to 100% production of eight models in North America. They include the Avalon large car, Camry midsize car, Corolla compact, Highlander SUV, Matrix small car, Sequoia large SUV, Sienna minivan and Venza crossover vehicle, Toyota said in a statement.

Read the full article.

New Cars, Toyota

Toyota sales

Negotiating every detail when buying a used car

May 11, 2011 / Staff

This article has some great advice on negotiating the purchase price when buying a used car. The key is to look at every aspect of your cost, starting with price but then moving on to all the fees they have listed, and then asking for perks and possibly using your own bank to finance the car (tell them this last!).

Here’s some detail:

When I sat down in the financing office to discuss the financing of the vehicle, I took the itemized listing of fees and made the loan processor define every single item that was listed. There were so many fees that were “administrative” in nature it would make your head spin. I argued every single cost that was listed that wasn’t tax, tag or title related. The dealer was assessing me a whopping $600 in unnecessary administrative costs. I know that this seems very small when financing a $30,000 car, but would you carry $600 in unnecessary interest on your credit card for five years?

The key is that every dollar matters. People don’t think about this when they can finance the purchase, but they’re leaving money on the table.

Used Cars

buying a used car financing for used cars hidden fees for used cars negotiating for a used car negotiating with car dealers