Automotive News Canada - February 2018 - 26

* F E B R U A R Y 2018

To lure new hires, GM centre
competes with tech heavy-hitters
information taken to other
meeting rooms.

'SOFTWARE-INTENSIVE'

"We are glad to report
that over the last month
or so, MTO has approved
payment for over 2,000
outstanding dealer applications."
Frank Notte, director of government relations for the Trillium
Automobile Dealers
Association, said that
dealers report having
received paperwork that,
once completed, allows
them to receive funds
electronically instead of
through a mailed cheque.
"There was a big push
towards the middle to
end of December to provide lump sum payments
to dealers to help clear
the backlog," Notte said.
"I'm told by those affected dealers that while
they have received most
of their money, some is
still outstanding."

HALFWAY PAID
Chris Budd, owner
of Budds' Group of
companies, which
operates nine dealerships in Oakville and

CONTINUED FROM PA GE 3

Quebec's oldest Ford dealership turns 90

Employees are encouraged to use the technical centre's
cafeterias for brainstorming. ( P H O T O : G M C A N A D A )

including IBM, GE Energy,
Toshiba and Lenovo.
"The reality is that these
people could get a job anywhere
here, at any of these companies
nearby, and a 60-minute com-

We're doing softwareintensive work, because
there can be 150 computers
in the car just for
active safety.
BRIAN TOSSAN

Director, GM Technical Centre

Dealer says little communication
from government on reimbursements
CONTINUED FROM PA GE 3

5,000 KILOMETRES OF STORIES

application for a vulnerable customer and provided it
to various finance companies without the customer's
knowledge. The action, OMVIC said, led to the customer unknowingly financing three vehicles instead of one.
"There is no place in the ranks of professional, registered salespeople for an individual who conducts business this way," said OMVIC CEO John Carmichael.
The dealership for whom he worked, Countryside
Motors, was disciplined and fined $5,000.

CONTINUED FROM PA GE 3

"We're doing software-intensive work, because there can
be 150 computers in the car just
for active safety," Tossan said.
"What you see here are some
very smart and talented people
who are determined to lead in
the transformation of personal
mobility."
At the Jan. 19 opening, GM
Canada President Steve Carlisle
said the automaker will commit $1.8 million to encourage
students, especially females, to
study STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), and a series of university
scholarships, beginning with
a $200,000 endowment to the
Faculty of Engineering at the
University of Waterloo.
GM says the Markham centre is Canada's largest automotive software hub, and its engineers are in continuous communication with the company's global technical centres.
Although GM Canada's head
office is 55 kilometres away in
Oshawa, the Technical Centre
had to be in Markham, according to George Saratlic, lead
manager of GM's brand communications.
Markham, adjacent to
Toronto's northern border,
is home to a large number of
major technology companies,

TRANS-CANADA NEWS

Hamilton, Ont.,spoke to
Automotive News Canada
in November and reported then that the Ontario
government owed about
$780,000 to his General
Motors store alone. He
says that he has since
received a lump sum
payment in December
that covered roughly half
that amount.
"The government still
owes us $372,000 at the
GM store and $178,000 at
my BMW store," Budd
said. "There is no communication to tell us
what is happening, other
than telling us it should
be coming but they cannot give an estimate of
when. I believe one person at the Ontario government is taking care
of this, and she is inundated with inquiries and
doesn't have answers.
"I heard ... that a
GM dealer in the GTA
received all but a small
amount of their outstanding, but [we] have
not seen anything here. I
hope it is imminent, but
there is no way to tell."
- ANC

mute [to Oshawa] won't fly with
them," Saratlic said. "They
want to be close to the city and
in the middle of everything, and
so this had to be here as well."
The three-floor,
150,000-square-foot
(14,000-square-metre) building
was originally an American
Express call centre.
"The designs were finalized
in May 2017, and it was taken
down to the studs and rebuilt,"
Tossan said.
"It's an open design with
limitless potential. We have
banks of solar panels, rows of
electric vehicle charging stations, and we have partners
from some of the top Canadian
companies, research institutions and universities." - ANC

Vancouver dealership included
in sudden-acceleration suit
By ERIC FREEDMAN

LEGAL CORRESPONDENT

A JUDGE HAS ALLOWED A SERIOUSLY
injured crash victim to sue a high-end
Vancouver dealership although she doesn't
believe its alleged negligence in servicing
her 2007 Aston Martin DB9 caused the car
to suddenly accelerate to about 220 km/h.
The ruling allows Jessica Zhu to seek
damages from MCL Motor Cars on the
legal theory that the dealership failed to
adequately inspect her DB9 to determine
whether an aftermarket floor mat was
properly fastened. It also alleges the store
didn't warn her that the mat could interfere with the accelerator pedal and failed
to recommend removing it.
The 2013 crash killed one person and
injured three, including Zhu.
Zhu's primary claim blames manufacturing and design defects by Aston Martin
Lagonda Ltd., Ford Motor Co. and two
companies involved in the design and
manufacture of the car's engine-management system.
Justice Nitya Iyer of the British
Columbia Supreme Court ruled that Zhu
can add MCL Motor Cars because Aston
Martin and Ford previously filed their own
claims against the dealership, accusing it
of negligence regarding the floor mat.
Zhu's case and suits by other crash victims are scheduled for trial in November.
A dealership lawyer declined to discuss
the case. - ANC

VALLEE-JONCTION, QUE. - CLICHE AUTO FORD
of ValléeJonction, Que., in
the Beauce region
south of Quebec
City, entered its
91st year in business in late 2017,
making it the oldest Ford dealership in the province, and the
The staff at Cliche Auto Ford in
third-oldest Ford Mascouche, Que., marked the
outlet in Canada. dealership's 90th anniversary
Owners Sylvain
in business in December 2017.
Cliché and
(PHOTO: JOSIANE NADEAU)
Michèle Michaud
marked the occasion with employees and their families
and Ford of Canada executives.

Nissan dealers help deliver Christmas
QUEBEC CITY - NISSAN DEALERSHIPS IN TWO
Quebec City communities combined to help local charity Patro Roc-Amadour deliver 350 Christmas baskets to
elderly shut-ins in the days leading to Christmas 2017.
Beauport and
Ste-Foy Nissan
provided two
Nissan minivans
to the organization, a Quest
and an NV200.
Volunteers used
them to deliver the baskets as Beauport Nissan Christmas basket
part of the chari- drive. ( P H O T O : B E A U P O R T N I S S A N )
ty's "Together for
a Christmas Without Hunger" program. The vehicle
donations marked the sixth year the dealerships have
participated in the program.
Denis Parent, general manager of sales for Beauport
Nissan, said the deliveries went mainly to elderly citizens who did not have the means to pick up their own
baskets from Patro Roc-Amadour.

ALBI sees growth, record sales in 2017
MASCOUCHE, QUE. - THE YEAR 2017 WAS A
record sales period for ALBI le Géant auto group,
which sold 44,000 vehicles (new and used) worth more
than $1 billion. The record sales marked a 19-per-cent
increase over
the previous
year, said Denis
Leclerc, president of ALBI le
Géant Group.
"We are seeing
our sales figures
far exceed our
expectations. In
fact, we achieved
our sales target for 2019 [in
2017]."
Among the
ALBI le Géant Group president
group's 24 dealDenis Leclerc.
erships, Leclerc ( P H O T O : A L B I L E G E A N T G R O U P )
said, ALBI Kia,
ALBI Mazda and ALBI Hyundai in Mascouche remain
in the lead position in Canada for their respective
brands, while ALBI Infiniti Mascouche wins "pole
position" in Quebec for a second consecutive year.
Meanwhile, ALBI Nissan in Blainville, Que., leads the
province in terms of total sales, he said, including fleet
cars.
In 2016, ALBI sold 38,087 vehicles and generated revenue of $874 million, Leclerc said. - ANC

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