On Thursday, Toyota celebrated the opening of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi, the company’s new $800 million plant outside of Tupelo, Miss., that assembles the Corolla. Joining Thursday’s celebration were Toyota Motor Corp. president Akio Toyoda and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. The facility — located in Blue Springs — is Toyota’s 14th North American plant, further […] [Read More]

Bringing its total U.S. investments to more than $4.5 billion since June 2009, Chrysler announced earlier this week that it plans to invest $1.7 billion to support the development and production of its next-generation Jeep, set to come out in 2013. This investment includes pumping $500 million into its Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio, where […] [Read More]

Revealed Thursday, another big award has been announced at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Taking home the title of the 2012 Green Car of the Year is the 2012 Honda Civic Natural Gas. The Green Car Journal presented Honda with the award in part because of the OEMs innovation —  having made the first factory-built […] [Read More]

Along with a new class of Women in Remarketing being honored, today’s agenda is packed full, with the day kicking off with a Keynote Address featuring a diverse panel, including the perspective of dealers, automakers and lenders on the state of the used-car industry. This panel includes Jennifer Costabile, of GM Fleet and Commerical Operations; […] [Read More]

In the Opening Keynote Panel for the National Remarketing Conference Wednesday afternoon, key remarketing executives from General Motors, AmeriCredit/GM Financial, Donlen and Subaru discussed the volume shortage and how each of their companies handles this challenge. Executives sitting on this panel included Dan Kennedy, of GM; Dan Heinrich, of AmeriCredit/GM Financial; Gus Xamplas, of Donlen, […] [Read More]

The inaugural Re3 conference on Wednesday served as a platform for lender executives, repossession and recovery agents, as well as attorneys, to come together to discuss the industry’s challenges. Mike Goins, head of loss recovery at TD Auto Finance, who served on the “The State of the Industry” panel Wednesday morning, called the event very […] [Read More]

Generating pointed reaction from auto industry associations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation Wednesday formally unveiled their joint proposal to set stronger fuel economy and greenhouse gas pollution standards for model year 2017–2025 passenger cars and light trucks. What is concerning to the National Automobile Dealers Association revolves around the […] [Read More]

Every metric measured in the October Manheim Digital Monthly Update rose, including the number of online buyers and sellers, as well as mobile use. Manheim revealed Wednesday that on average, 54,000 users log into OVE.com on a monthly basis. That’s 13 percent more than the reading in October of last year. The update showed the […] [Read More]

Shifting away from a more positive outlook on the economic recovery, auto executives aren’t quite as optimistic as before and have pulled back hiring and capital spending plans for 2012, according to a recent KPMG survey conducted in advance of the Los Angeles Auto Show. The KPMG Automotive Executive Survey, which was conducted in October, […] [Read More]

Ford Motor Credit revealed Wednesday that is has appointed a chief operating officer. Tapped for the newly created position is Bernard Silverstone, who is currently the president of marketing and sales for Ford Credit. Silverstone has also been elected a corporate officer of Ford Motor Co., as well. He will move into his new position […] [Read More]