Automotive News Canada - September 2016 - 26

FINAL ASSEMBLY

09.16

LETTING LOOSE A BIT ON THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF AUTOMOTIVE

Has Porsche
gone crazy
with tech?
THIS NUMBER
ONTARIO STICKER
FEES GO UP, UP, UP
It's the price for road repairs,
province says
For the sixth year in a row,
the Ontario government is
raising the fee for renewing vehicle stickers in the
province. While only a $12
increase - $120 per year in
southern Ontario, up from
$108 - the key number is 61
per cent. In 2011, the renewal
price was $74.
The government says the
cause for the dramatic rise is
maintenance on roads and
bridges. Ontario has been
increasing highway infrastructure spending since
2003. The province spent
$1.03 billion in 2003/'04,
$1.46 billion in 2006/'07, and
$2.7-billion for 2016/'17.
From 1997 until 2012 the
sticker renewal fees were
constant at $74 for southern
Ontario and $37 for northern
Ontario.
The Globe and Mail
reported that Manitoba,
Saskatchewan and British
Columbia have public insurance and the annual fee is
included in an insurance fee.
Nova Scotia rates are the
same as last year at $143.30
for a two-year renewal on
a vehicle that weighs less
than 1,000 kilograms. The
price for a vehicle weighing between 1,000 and
1,500 kilograms is $176.90.
A Honda Civic weighs about
1,200 kilograms. In P.E.I., rates
stayed at $100 for the annual registration fee. In New
Brunswick, the fee went
up $4 to $61 for a vehicle
weighing less than 1,000
kilograms. The price goes
up every 200 kilograms. The
price jumped in Alberta to
$84.85 from $75. - ANC

WHAT WOULD BUCK ROGERS IN the 21st
century drive? We might finally know. The
latest version of Porsche Communication
Management, with Porsche Connect,
appears in the 2017 Panamera sedan and
features, among other things, the ability
to check on the car from an Apple Watch.
Well, as they say, it's about time.
With the Porsche Connect app, drivers
can find their car, query its fuel status and
lock or unlock it. For Panamera E-Hybrid
models, the app can even pre-warm the
vehicle on cold days by telling it, remotely, to turn on auxiliary heating. It will alert
drivers to the charging status and give
them the ability to program the recharging
timer. Porsche's system can look up flight
times, terminal information and flight
delays. It will also pre-program navigation,
based on destinations set with the watch
that are then uploaded to the car.
In truth, what more could you really
need? Ever? - ANC

MEET BUCK ROGERS'
21ST CENTURY PANAMERA

TEST-DRIVE MAYHEM

GONE IN 6 SECONDS!
Woman allegedly stomps gas,
cranks wheel and crash lands
right back on dealership doorstep
TALES OF TEST DRIVES GONE AWRY
are part of the lore at any dealership. But
here's one for the record books: a woman
who visited a Mercedes-Benz dealership
in suburban Washington, D.C. on Aug. 19
and tried out a new GLE350.
WRC-TV reported that the woman and
her two passengers hopped into the $50,000plus crossover, along with an employee of
Mercedes-Benz of Arlington in Virginia.

But instead of easing out of the dealership
lot and onto the road, the woman allegedly stomped on the accelerator, sending the
crossover careening into four nearby vehicles - including her own.
Witnesses said the woman turned the
wheel sharply, causing the GLE350 to flip
onto its passenger side before coming to
rest just feet from the dealership's showroom.
Estimated time from start to finish: six
seconds.
There were no reports of injuries and
no word on whether the woman bought the
GLE. - ANC

Shocking fine for EV driver
Ontario man gets $12,500 rebate
to buy a Chevy Volt and is
promptly fined $300 for using
a no-parking spot to charge it
THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO IS ALL
about handing out cash to encourage citizens to upgrade to electric
cars. But some buyers who don't
have a garage are having to go to
unusual lengths to make their electrified vehicles work. The Toronto
Star recently reported that one individual is really going to unusual
lengths.
Todd Anderson, the owner of
a new Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid
received a $12,500 provincial rebate
for his purchase, but without a garage
or a driveway, Anderson is charging
on the street by running an extension

cord from the charging station on his lawn to a
public parking spot across the street.
If the space is full, Anderson has to park
in a no-parking zone in front of his house. So
far, The Star wrote, he has been fined $300 by
the city for illegal parking. Anderson asked
his Ward councillor, Paula Fletcher, to help
him get approval to park in front of his house
at night and to run the charging cord underneath the city-owned sidewalk, an installation he says he is happy to pay for himself.
But Fletcher says that while she's
"all about electric vehicles" and understands his frustration, there's little
she can do in the short term, as both
requests would require bylaws to be
rewritten. "I don't think the city's
moving fast enough," she said. "We
should be anticipating these new
developments for the environment
and thinking about how to accommodate them." - ANC

SAY
WHAT?

That may be
considered a line
in the sand. So be it.
JERRY DIAS

Unifor leader, reiterating
that Unifor would not come to an
agreement with GM unless it first
secures investment in the Oshawa
plant and at the St. Catharines,
Ont., engine plant.

Toyota tops for service of older vehicles, followed by VW, Acura and Audi
CONTINUED FROM PA GE 3

Fifty-three per cent of customers "definitely will" return to a dealership for
service if it is offered, the study concluded.
"I think a lot of customers are surprised" when there isn't accessible Wi-Fi
[at their dealership], Ney said.
The study found that service advisers who used tablets when recommending work were more successful in getting customers to sign onto that work
than those who didn't. About 61 per cent
of customers had suggested work done
if their adviser used a tablet, compared
with 44 per cent with advisers who did
not use one. About 21 per cent of customers said their adviser used a tablet,

according to the study.
"I think what you're seeing there is
the impact of transparency," Ney said.

THE SATISFACTION NUMBERS
Lexus leads all Canadian dealerships and aftermarket facilities in delivering satisfying service on older vehicles, according to the 2016 Canadian
Customer Service Index Long-Term
Study for the second consecutive year,
scoring 819 points on a 1,000 point scale.
Lexus is also the only brand to score a
five-star "Power Circle" rating, indicating service satisfaction that is "among
the best."
Volkswagen dealerships finished second among dealership brands, with a
score of 758, followed by Acura at 753,

Audi at 748 and Mazda at 746. General
Motors dealerships finished with a score
of 740, just above the industry average
of 739, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
finished last among dealer brands at 681.

SERVICE EXPERIENCE MEASURED
J.D. Power said the annual study,
which surveyed 12,340 Canadians with
vehicles between four and 12 years old
between March and June, measures satisfaction with the overall "service experience" by examining a brand's effectiveness with service initiation, the quality
of service and vehicle pick-up, among
other factors.
Overall satisfaction with dealership
service dipped by two points to 729 this
year, trailing satisfaction with aftermar-

ket shops, which finished with a score
of 749.
The amount of money customers
spend per service visit rose to $241 this
year from $232 in 2015. Vehicle owners
make an average 2.5 visits to service
departments each year, according to the
study.
The study found that customers who
are "delighted" with their service are
much more likely to return to the dealer or shop for future service work. It
found 84 per cent of dealer customers
who are "delighted" would return, compared with 59 per cent of those who were
merely "pleased." About 92 per cent of
"delighted" aftermarket customers say
they will return, compared with 73 per
cent of "pleased" customers. - ANC

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - September 2016