Nutson's Automotive News Nuggets April 2-8, 2018: March US Sales; Ford Recall; CAFE Kaput; Zero Percent Financing Kaput; GM Stumping For Expanded EV Tax Benefits; Tesla Saga Continues

AUTO CENTRAL, CHICAGO - April 8, 2018; Every Sunday Larry Nutson, Senior Editor and Chicago Car Guy along with fellow senior editors Steve Purdy and Thom Cannell from The Auto Channel Michigan Bureau, give you TACH's "take" on this past week's automotive news in easy to "catch up" news nuggets. For More search the past 25 year's millions of (Indexed By Google) pages of automotive news, automotive stories, articles, reviews, archived news residing in The Auto Channel Automotive News Library.

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Nutson's Weekly Automotive News Nuggets April 2-8, 2018

* U.S. light vehicle sales for March exceeded analysts’ expectations and were up 6.4 percent with 1.65 million units sold. The SAAR hit 17.49 millions. Higher discounts, a surge in light-truck demand and an extra weekend of sales helped. FCA, Ford, GM, Honda, Toyota and VW were up. Nissan and Hyundai-Kia was down. Mazda was up 36 percent and there was a 45 percent surge in Jeep deliveries. Transaction prices are rising. And then there is this to consider: “As a result of aggressive leasing strategies in recent years, there are millions of ‘gently-used’ off-lease vehicles available that provide growing competition for the new-vehicle market.” -- Cox Automotive. Most experts still predict a relatively flat sales year in spite of sales being up 2% year-to-date.

* SUVs and crossovers are hot; sedans are not. Various industry sources say that both the Ford Taurus and Fiesta as well as the Chevrolet Sonic are on the chopping block. Even more passenger car models could be on the way out. GM is said to be considering others including the Chevy Impala.

* GM CEO Mary Barra is pressing Washington for an expansion of electric-vehicle tax credits, a plea that would help the company and rivals like Tesla sell battery-powered cars in an era of cheap gasoline and skepticism about alternative vehicles. A handful of auto makers face the expiration of $7,500 income-tax credit that has applied to hundreds of thousands of electric-vehicle purchases since the Obama administration established the offer. GM has used the incentive to bring the tab of its electric Chevrolet Bolt EV to under $30,000. GM is expanding production of the Bolt EV, but it will soon hit a sales cap that triggers the gradual expiration of the incentive for individual car companies that have sold 200,000 electric cars since the credit’s inception in 2009.

* The Trump administration launched an effort to weaken Obama-era fuel economy standards for automobiles — and demanded that California, which has vowed to enforce stricter standards, fall in line — setting up a clash over one of the single biggest steps any government has taken to rein in emissions of earth-warming gases. Set in 2012, the fuel economy standards would have required automakers to nearly double the average fuel economy of new cars and trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. California has vowed to defend the state’s stricter rules. Rules up to 2021 are set. It's after that may be changed. See you in court!

* You won't believe this one! According to Automotive News: "The Trump administration wants to require imported automobiles to meet stricter environmental standards in order to protect U.S. automakers and factory jobs, according to two sources familiar with the administration's thinking. Citing unnamed senior administration and industry officials, The Wall Street Journal first reported that President Donald Trump had asked several agencies, including the EPA and Commerce Department, to pursue plans to use existing laws to subject foreign-made cars and light trucks to stiffer emissions standards." Editorial note: The Buick Envision is made in China.

* Zero-percent new vehicle financing may be going the way of manual transmissions. Edmunds says that rising interest rates are causing carmakers to abandon them. The average interest rate on new car loan was up to 5.7 percent in March. J.D. Power says carmaker will lean more towards cash incentives and discounts, some more than 10 percent. All this will push some folks out of the new car market, making used cars and CPO off-lease cars more popular.

* Edmunds announced the 2018 Edmunds Best Retained Value Awards, recognizing the new 2018 vehicles and brands with the highest projected residual values after five years. Toyota and Porsche took home brand-level honors in the standard and luxury categories, respectively, with Toyota also claiming five model-level awards and Porsche claiming three.

* Big recall this week from Ford - 350,000 trucks, Mustangs and SUVs. It seems a gear shift cable clip could fail resulting in the vehicle being in a different gear than the indicator shows - like ‘R’ instead of ‘P.' Ford said it knows of only one injury from the problem. The company also announced a number of smaller recalls affecting Mustang and other Ford SUVs, also for a transmission control issue. Contact your dealer to see if your vehicle is involved.

* The latest casualty in the FCA-UAW corruption investigation around misused training funds is FCA’s Michael Brown, former director of employee relations. Brown was charged this week by the U.S. Justice Department with lying to a federal grand jury about an alleged bribery scheme involving his boss, Alphonse Iacobelli. According to prosecutors the scheme involved more than $45 million.

* A riot ensued when General Motors of Korea told workers that because of a cash crisis there would be no bonuses. According to reporting by Automotive News Europe, “workers stormed their way into company executive offices, destroying and removing furniture . . .” GM is threatening bankruptcy if they’re not able to get concessions from the workers, citing mounting losses. The company intends to take legal action against the workers.

* It was good news/bad news for Tesla this week as the company is cited by the National Labor Relations Board for mass firing practices related to union activities, while Bloomberg named the Tesla Model 3 America’s Best-Selling Electric Car. In spite of a series of production glitches and quality lapses the Model 3, compact, sort-of-mainstream, electric sedan, still has hundreds of thousands of pre-orders to fill. Doesn’t seem like a good time to be firing workers. Editorial comment: Isn't the Chevy Bolt EV a better seller? You can drive one of those home from your dealer right now.