Automotive News Canada - January 2018 - 9

* J A N U A R Y 2 018

Listed as toxic in 1999, asbestos didn't just go away
CONTINUED FROM PA GE 1

the document states.
Asbestos was largely presumed to have disappeared from
Canadian products after it was
listed as a toxic substance under
the Canadian Environmental
Protection Act in 1999. But after
labour groups and Canadian producer ABS Friction of Guelph, Ont.,
sounded the alarm about imports of
low-cost brake products containing

asbestos, the government promised
a comprehensive ban in December
2016.
Administering and complying
with the ban could cost government
and industry $34 million, the report
estimates. However, preventing
just five cases of asbestos-related
lung cancer a year would provide a
net social benefit, it said.
Based on import data from 2013
to 2016 for friction materials containing asbestos, the government

estimates that 333,000 brake pads
containing asbestos are imported
annually.
Some in the auto industry suggest the number has dropped substantially from its peak early
this decade. According to the
Automotive Industries Association
of Canada, which with other trade
groups supports the ban, the largest aftermarket supply chains have
already taken steps to ensure their
products are asbestos-free. - ANC

Dealers need to ground buyers
focused on payments, says OMVIC
ing up. We're in the
Ottawa Sun, On the Go
when you extend the conMagazine. We do these
tract with that additionadvertorials where they
al debt and the length of
are directed purely at
time that a lot of these
consumers to hopefully
deals seem to be running
better inform them."
out now, whether it's 84
Carmichael also
or 96 months, that just
believes that dealers can
compounds the problem
do more to educate conwhere somebody tries to
sumers at the point of
get out of that next transsale and that doing so
action early - they're not
helps dealers build stronhappy with the car, their
ger relationships with
needs change, whatevtheir customers.
er the problem," John
"We have a promotionCarmichael, CEO of
al piece that we use to
OMVIC, told Automotive
inform consumers about
News Canada. "Our connegative equity," he said.
cern is that the consum"What we also want to
er understands clearly
see happen is to provide
on the way in that their
as much information to
only avenue
dealers from our
is to truly run
end that will give
this [loan] out
them to toolbox
because they're
to demonstrate
buying on a payto consumers
ment basis."
what they're getWhile OMVIC
ting into.
had already
"The car busiundertaken a
ness in particJohn
consumer eduular is heavily
Carmichael,
CEO of OMVIC,
cation promeasured on cus(FILE PHOTO)
gram warning
tomer satisfacagainst the pertion. If the effort
sonal financial risks that
isn't taken to ensure that
extended-term loans pres- they fully understand the
ent, the provincial sales
transaction, then we've
regulator has undertaken got a problem. The way
additional efforts in the
to protect your brand is
wake of the Marketplace
ensure that you build a
report.
proper customer relation"We've been advertisship where they become
ing in the Toronto Star,"
advocates for you. To do
Carmichael said. "We're
that, it starts with the
in the Toronto Sun combuying process." - ANC
CONTINUED FROM PA GE 3

Dealer discusses finance
risks as an act of trust
By STEPHANIE
WALLCRAFT

TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

OF THE 10 SALES STAFF
featured on Marketplace,
only one was up-front with
the undercover reporter
about the risks of a loan
longer than five years: Ali
Erol, the sales
manager for
pre-owned
vehicles at
Yorkdale
Dufferin
Mazda in
Toronto.
Ali Erol of
Erol
Yorkdale
explains to the Dufferin
Mazda
prospective
buyer on camera that the car she's considering could put her into
negative equity - when the
owner owes more than the
car is worth. He even takes
the added step of suggesting that she consider a
less-expensive vehicle.
Subhojit Das, the dealership's general manager, says that this policy of
being clear with consumers about the risks of longer-term loans is inherent
in his dealership's culture.
"Don't get me wrong,
we want to sell a car as
much as the other dealer-

ships do," Das said. "This
might sound philosophical and bookish, but it's
really about making relationships. You will sell a
lot more cars by gaining
somebody's trust than by
showing them gadgets or
features.
"Has no salesperson in
the history of this dealership ever tried to [upsell
with an extended-term
loan]? Yes, they have, but
immediately action had to
be taken. We're not going
to do this. If you're going
to do this, you can do it
somewhere else."
David Klan, senior
director of sales, marketing and regional operations for Mazda Canada,
said the Marketplace
report perpetuates industry attitudes that he says
Mazda is attempting to
knock down.
"There are a lot of stereotypes in our industry,
unfortunately," he said. "A
lot of the other coverage
[in the program] from the
other brands I think reinforced those stereotypes.
We're really looking to disrupt those, defy convention, and go our own way
and make customer experience our number one priority." - ANC

TRANS-CANADA NEWS
5,000 KILOMETRES OF STORIES

50 years with Ford in Milton

David Gallinger, left, president of
Gallinger Ford-Lincoln in Milton, Ont.,
receives an award for selling Ford vehicles over 50 years from Jennifer Strang,
Ford Motor Co. dealer sales manager.
Also attending are Kevin Wilush, Ford
service representative, centre; Andres
Infante, Lincoln business development
specialist, and Warren Russell of Ford
Credit Canada. ( P H O T O : G A L L I N G E R F O R D )
CONTINUED FROM PA GE 3

es for both gasoline- and electric-powered
vehicles, while the interior design is "simplified to improve sight lines and offer more
visible points of interest and interaction"
between staff and customers. "We built
Canada's largest Mitsubishi Motors dealership because we believe in [the brand,
and] the promise of great things to come,"
Landsperg said.

Recent successful Mazda acquisitions
have given AutoQuebec group the
confidence to take on Levis Mazda.
(PHOTO: AUTOQUEBEC GROUP)

Group joins consolidation trend
LEVIS, QUE. - THE AUTOQUEBEC
Group has acquired its eighth car dealership; owners Jean Gosselin and Patrice
Demers have added Levis Mazda to their
portfolio. A few years ago, the group
acquired Mazda Metro, and more recently Mazda Papineau, in Montreal. "We had
remarkable success with [those] dealerships, which gave us full confidence in
the strength of the brand and our ability to revive this [Levis] concession," said
Gosselin. AutoQuebec has become an influential player among the province's dealership groups, he said.
"The trend is towards consolidation.
Although it has been slow to accelerate in
Quebec, this consolidation is [now] well
under way," said Demers. - ANC

Diversity leads to 25-45% increase in business for rack supplier
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"We have the ability to introduce
our women-owned businesses to those
connections."
WBE Canada hosts events focusing on the automotive supply chain.
"We've been doing something called
Breakfast With Brands," Anderson
said.
"We have corporate members that
support us, including GM, Toyota and
FCA, as well as Tier 1 suppliers to
them."
The meeting brings together managers from these companies, typically in the procurement or diversity
departments, with the WBE-certified
businesses. "It's like speed-dating

around a table," Anderson said. "Each
of the certified businesses present
their capabilities, who they are, what
they do, their value proposition, and
often they try to identify something
they can do specifically for that company."
In addition to the connections, WBE
Canada provides training in professional development, mostly through
webinars.
"We've covered how to write an
RFP [request for proposal], how to
leverage financial services and the
support that's available, how to present capability to corporations,"
Anderson said.
Valerie Ritchie, of Stratford, Ont.,
is president of Racks Unlimited, which

makes automotive shipping racks as a
Tier 1 and Tier 2 supplier. She began
the business in 1996, and joined WBE
Canada in 2015 after she attended a
women's business conference a few
years earlier and learned about certification for suppliers.

'ON THE LIST'
"There are many people who have
agreed to spend X number of dollars in
diversity, and it gets you on the list for
quoting the jobs," she said.
"I would say I've seen anywhere
from a 25 to 45 per cent increase [n
my business] because of diversity. I'm
in the steel industry, which is a very
male-dominated industry. The fact
that I'm WBE-certified puts me on a

more level playing field."
Her certification is primarily
important when quoting to companies
with diversity spending.
"If I'm neck-and-neck with another [supplier] price-wise, and we both
have the same product, that's where it
would come in. If they have a mandate
for diverse suppliers, I would get it."
Even so, the certification only goes
so far, Ritchie says.
"The product speaks for itself. The
dollar is the bottom line for everyone,
and they want the best pricing and service. You don't get [the contract] automatically. You have to work it, you
have to connect, you have to do your
due diligence. WBE offers you every
platform possible to do so." - ANC

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - January 2018