Toyota’s request for a Santa Ana, Calif., federal judge to halt the class-action lawsuit involving claims of vehicle-value erosion from unintended acceleration appears likely to be rejected, according to various news reports. In U.S. District Court last week, Judge James Selna issued a temporary ruling indicating that he plans on allowing the plaintiffs’ suits to proceed, […] [Read More]

Ford believes a winning branding idea will come from its Ford Mustang Facebook community that now consists of more than 940,000 members. The automaker is asking these Facebook fans to submit their thoughts for the best name of new Ford Mustang V6 Performance Package, which is set to roll out for 2012. The campaign runs […] [Read More]

The general manager of Bill Kay Chevrolet in Chicago said the Internet has changed the way buyers approach sales. And the key to turning these Internet shoppers into sales is by establishing a relationship. Basically, despite all the technology available today, Ralph Conti still sees relationships as a very important aspect of the sales process. [Read More]

Similar to what its U.S. parent did this week, as well, Chrysler Canada revealed the first group of Fiat franchises for Canada. The company picked 58 stores divided across the Eastern region, Western region and Quebec. Officials said that Chrysler Canada, in selecting its dealer body, considered the potential dealerships’ “location, the establishment of a dedicated […] [Read More]

Thanks to a new partnership announced Wednesday, Hertz Rent2Buy customers now have the option of financing their vehicle purchases through Bank of America. “We are pleased to include Bank of America as one of our select lenders in the Rent2Buy program,” said Mark Frissora, chairman and chief executive officer of Hertz. [Read More]

Price-Simms is in the middle of another construction project for a franchise operation located on its 31-acre property in the San Francisco Bay Area. Soon after opening a new Ford showroom, Price-Simms began work on building a Mercedes-Benz dealership consisting of 40,000 square feet. Executives pointed out the new lot will augment Fairfield’s 31-acre auto […] [Read More]

The first batch of Fiat dealers in the U.S. has officially been set. Chrysler revealed this morning the 130 stores that will begin selling the 2012 Fiat 500 (Cinquentro). Officials said plans have been arranged by these dealers and the stores are prepared to receive customer orders. [Read More]

Earlier this week, Chrysler revealed its latest showcase dealership, which is scheduled to open in the first quarter of next year. In addition to selling models from each of the automaker’s brands (including Fiat) and providing vehicle service, Motor Village of Los Angeles will be an avenue for the brands to put new ideas to […] [Read More]

Chrysler — which recently celebrated a year-over-year sales improvement for the seventh straight month — announced it is rolling out a new advertising message and campaign for dealers across all four of its brands that it says can “keep our momentum rolling” and finish 2010 in a strong way. [Read More]

A service program that Lincoln rolled out this summer — giving its dealers another strong avenue to attract customers — has been made permanent by the luxury automaker. The Lincoln Complimentary Maintenance Program acts as supplement to the automaker’s 50,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. Also included under the program are oil and filter changes, tire rotations and […] [Read More]