Classic Auto Express

This is a pretty cool piece of news for those of you who follow auctions – some automobile transport companies do, I know that. Anyway, Insurance Auto Auctions has opened another Midwestern facility in Portage, Wisconsin, which is the 20^th IAA facility in the Midwestern region. Aside from auctions they also provide salvage remarketing and storage for both buyers and sellers at their auctions.

Officials are claiming that the main reason for the expansion is the fact that buyers need a broad inventory of total-loss vehicles to salvage from and the more places they’re in the better the buyers can access their inventory. Which makes sense – it’s like opening up a new supermarket in an area that needs it so people don’t have to drive thirty miles to buy groceries. IAA also handles recovered theft vehicles, fleet-leases, dealer trade-ins and collision damaged vehicles, which people can pick up much cheaper than at a brand-name dealer. If you want more information you can always visit their website for current dates and times of their auctions.

According to the New York Times the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is under scrutiny for failing to do their job correctly. Toyota has been stalling inquiries from the administration since November 2009, when the first of Toyota’s vehicles started being recalled, and the NHTSA has yet to do anything about it. However, the Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, has made an unscheduled and unprecedented trip to Toyota’s headquarters in Japan. But then he took a month to even meet with Toyota officials and another month before Toyota even disclosed the accelerator problems to the public.

In other words, people are upset with the NHTSA over their handling of the entire situation. But the NHTSA has finally stepped up to the plate and has demanded answers, going so far as subpoenaing the entire company for documents pursuant to the recalls. Automobile transporters are worried that the NHTSA isn’t taking their job seriously, as they traverse America’s highways on a daily basis and a broken vehicle could spell disaster for anyone on the road. The NHTSA has opened six different safety inquires into Toyota and closed them all without action since 2003, but it looks like those days are over. We hope.

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In a not-so-surprising move the United States Department of Transportation has demanded that Toyota give over documents relating to the recalls that have plagued the company. The department is going to see if Toyota acted swiftly enough in the wake of the recalls, and the documents requested will also tell the government when and how Toyota learned of the safety defects in millions of their vehicles.

The automobile transport industry is not surprised by this move – Toyota has been under a lot of pressure for quite some time, and the rest of the automobile industry are hoping that this is resolved quickly. The subpoenas were delivered to Toyota this past Tuesday, and now the company has between 30 and 60 days to respond or face massive fines from the US government. Toyota has already halted production at their San Antonio, Texas plant and has declared a full day off at their Georgetown, Kentucky plant, with three more days scheduled in March. Toyota currently employs over 1,800 workers in Texas and another 6,500 in Kentucky, but has made no plans to lay any workers off or fire any workers at this time. So if you work for Toyota, you need not worry at the moment, which is good.

In more Saab news, the European Investment Bank has approved a $543 million loan for Saab to be bought by Spyker. The loan, in addition to providing the money, also gives a governmental guarantee as well as European Union state-aid clearance for the deal so it won’t fall through. Spyker is a relatively unknown company – the produce the C8 Alleron sports car, which is sold primarily in Europe. The Saab brand will still be sold in the United States after the deal finalizes.

The deal was on the fence and GM was actually thinking of just getting rid of the brand if a buyer could not be found, but now the deal is almost finalized after the loan was passed. This is good news for automobile transporters who specialize in Saab vehicles as they would not have to change their routes from and to different dealerships as they were afraid they would need to do. Spyker has already provided $50 million to GM, who’s asking price for Saab was $74 million, and the rest will be paid by July 15^th of this year. So for all you Saab fans out there – you have no more reason to worry as the company will still be going strong. The name will now by Saab Spyker Automobiles, but the logo is said to stay the same (this may not be permanent, however) and is now listed in both Stockholm and London stock markets.

According to the Wall Street Journal computers in cars today can carry major software flaws and bugs, which could seriously hamper the way that the vehicle works. Computers were first introduced into vehicles in the late 1970’s. when they controlled emission and the fuel-injection system, but they have revolutionized the automobile industry – and the automobile transport industry – and are in every single car and truck on the road today. This makes it difficult for the common man, who has only a basic grasp of how a vehicle works, to fix their own vehicles, and specialists are often required – and cost more – than a do-it-yourself job.

However, they make the cars run better. Or do they? According to new reports computers have been causing a lot of problems, especially with the new Toyota Prius. The new Prius has a regenerative braking system that – you guessed it – is run by a computer. Now Toyota has recalled over 300,000 Prius models, and the NHTSA is investigating electronic systems that control the flow of gasoline in other new vehicles (which were not mentioned). After Toyota’s problems, Ford is now looking into reprogramming their regenerative braking systems as well. But at the end of the computers do more good than harm, and they’re only going to grow (or shrink, in terms of size) as time goes on.

New research into aftermarket brake components has shed light on a not-so-newcomer to the market: private labels. Private labels are manufactured and sold by private companies who run their own stores, such as Napa Auto Parts, but the largest problem against them is the strong reputation that aftermarket brands have among installers, especially at collision repair centers. Private labels are gaining acceptance with installers and new research states that private label brands are going to dominate the market and increase market share in the next few years.

Automobile transporters often use aftermarket parts when fixing their trucks (or, rather, the company that fixes their trucks do), and with private labels now gaining market share this could change. At the end of the day, however, customers like choice, and with both private-label brands and regular aftermarket brands being sold nationwide, customers are going to get exactly that: choice.

According to Wards Auto, Europe’s new EGNOS version of GPS satellites can reduce the accuracy of GPS signals to just 6 feet – the standard now is 56 feet. This could be a huge paradigm shift in terms of vehicle tracking and geofencing and law enforcement agencies could use this technology to more accurately see just how fast people were driving. However, this could be another way for Big Brother to get into your business as governments could charge for miles driven and private businesses could collect for parking as well as track drivers.

The automobile transport industry is excited about this new technology as the industry relies heavily on GPS systems to find where they need to go – many drivers go to places they have never been before, and with more accurate GPS systems getting lost and delaying delivery or pickup could be a thing of the past. Industry watches are raising issues of privacy, stating that the new satellite system could be used for more than stopping traffic violations, though the system has already been implemented and is waiting for vehicles to be able to hook up to it, as it were, for it to work.

The hybrid-electric vehicle market has taken huge hits across the board with Toyota’s recall of the Prius, with over 311,000 of all Toyotas recalled being a Prius. The Prius was the best-selling hybrid in 2009 and the recall has raised questions of safety in not just Toyota’s hybrids but all hybrids across all manufacturers. The Prius has been recalled not for the sticky accelerator that other vehicles have been called back for but rather a problem with the ABS braking system, which doesn’t stop all that well.

However, the recall of the Prius is only a small bump in the road for hybrid-electric vehicles in the long-term, though it does raise many questions on how the vehicles are assembled and their safety. The automobile transport industry has seen the rise of hybrids and their fall, what with Toyota issuing so many recalls, though overall these problems will be solved and hybrid-electric vehicles are going to be around for quite some time, experts say. The Prius’ main problem is when the vehicle’s braking system switched from regenerative braking to standard, friction-based braking, though this does not define a failure despite the fact that the brakes take several seconds to change, leaving drivers without brakes. Toyota still has yet to find a suitable solution to the problem, though they are working hard on it.

According to SubPrimeNews Ford Motor Credit has posted a total net income of $1.3 billion in 2009, which is a huge turnaround – in 2008 the company posted a net loss of $1.5 billion. That’s a turnaround of over $2.8 billion, and before taxes Ford Credit earned $2 billion in 2009, which is way up from their $473 million loss in 2008. There are several reasons for this huge turnaround. Leased vehicles are showing a lower depreciation expense, the lower volume of vehicles has led to a lower provision for credit losses and Ford has significantly lowered their operating costs.

Officials are expecting 2010 to be profitable, though it could be lower than in 2009, and let’s not forget that this is all pre-tax. The automobile transport industry is excited to see Ford do so well – it’s a huge part of the industry’s workload, and with Ford doing so well the automobile transport industry will do better. Toyota’s losses have also been Ford’s gain, especially when customer loyalty to the Ford name has risen in the wake of Toyota’s downfall as the automaker giant. Things just keep looking up for Ford, it seems.

Toyota’s repair costs for the myriad of recalls has reached $1.5 billion after taking into account lost market share and financial losses, says analysts at Frost & Sullivan. The largest hit that the automaker has taken so far is the loss in sales of the Prius, Toyota’s flagship vehicle, especially when people looking at buying a Prius have shifted to other makers and their hybrids. Not only that, but loss of consumer confidence and the ongoing media blitz have wiped almost a fifth of the company’s value off of the Tokyo stock exchange.

The automobile transport industry has seen the loss in Toyota vehicles being shipped but now it is really showing. Toyota has suspended the sale of eight different models in the United States, which will seriously affect their sales numbers in the first quarter of 2010, but to add insult to injury it gives advantages to competitors offering trade-in incentives, especially for Toyota vehicles. Another huge hurdle for Toyota will be getting vehicles in service back onto the road, which has yet to happen, and with over 40 class-action lawsuits against the company having already been filed, it doesn’t look like Toyota will be surfacing from this mess any time soon.