Automotive News Canada - July 2019 - 6

* JULY 2019

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AUTOMOTIVE NEWS CANADA

JULY BEST PRACTICES
SPOTLIGHT

By STEPHANIE WALLCRAFT
TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

YELLOWKNIFE, N.W.T. -
Phrases such as cold and desolate could pertain to rural
Saskatchewan, or Northern
Ontario, or Quebec. But the words
take on new meaning when customers also live up to 1,000 kilometres away from their dealership. Vehicle reliability? That
also takes on new meaning.
And when those customers
need to use river barges or ice
roads to reach the service department, or they need
specialized hardware
to manage long and
extreme winters, it
makes sense to offer
them creative solutions.
Dealer principal Greg Boucher of
Yellowknife Motors,
which sells Chevrolet,
Buick and GMC brands, says his
service department works with
established independent garages
in remote communities to diagnose and repair any issues that
might arise with customer vehicles. In doing so, Yellowknife
Motors saves customers long trips
back to the dealership, trips that
might not even be possible if their
vehicles need repair.

TRADE
& TARIFFS
Politicians in Mexico have now ratified the new U.S.-Mexico-

Canada Agreement, a.k.a. NAFTA 2.0. That leaves Canada and the
United States to follow suit, although U.S. House Democrats are
threatening to uphold approval of the deal over labour and
environmental provisions.
IMAGE: GOOGLE MAPS

The process often involves
communicating by phone or
exchanging photographs between
technicians via email to help pinpoint problems.
If the vehicle needs to be
serviced at the dealership,
Yellowknife Motors works out the
transportation, using a combination of towing or cargo-shipping
companies.
"We sometimes take on that
cost ourselves or will share it
with the customer depending
on the nature of the problem,"
Boucher told Automotive News
Canada.
"That helps ensure
that the vehicle keeps
coming back to us for
service."

ARCTIC ACCESSORIES

The dealership
in this city of about
20,000 people - located about 1,400 kilometres north of Edmonton -
also offers a parts-and-accessories product that Boucher calls a
necessity in Canada's far north.
Every vehicle sold at Yellowknife
Motors comes priced with an
Arctic package, which the service
department adds to the vehicle
during pre-delivery inspection.
Prices range from $699 to $999
and include a block heater with

PHOTO: YELLOWKNIFE MOTORS

FCA'S
THIRD SHIFT IN WINDSOR
While FCA has said it will end the third shift at its minivan plant in

Windsor, Ont., in October, the union insists it can be saved and that
the automaker has promised a future product. FCA hasn't said that
publicly, however. Unifor has also warned of cuts at feeder plants.

J.D. POWER: TOP MARKS FOR COROLLA PLANT

For dealer principal Greg
Boucher of Yellowknife Motors,
providing service to remote
customers requires complex
logistics to bring vehicles into
his dealership, or working with
independent garages closer to
the customer to diagnose and
repair problems.
PHOTO: YELLOWKNIFE MOTORS

cold-weather cord, oil-pan heaters
and any battery blankets or pads
that are suited to the vehicle.
"We add the package automatically," Boucher said. "Our
take rate on it is 100 per cent.
We've never had a customer ask
to delete it. We often get temperatures well below [minus] 40
degrees Celsius in Yukon and the
Northwest Territories, so we need
to make sure that our customers'
cars will start reliably.
"Northern customers appreciate this added value, and it builds
trust that our dealership understands the environmental challenges these consumers face."

COLD REALITIES

Yellowknife Motors technician Shawn Huszar installs an oil-pan
heater on a Chevrolet Tahoe, part of the Arctic package that
Yellowknife Motors adds to every vehicle at a cost of $699 to $999.

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ONGOING WEB COVERAGE

Yellowknife

With the emphasis
on 'remote,' how a
Northwest Territories
dealership services
its far-flung customers

TRENDING
STORIES

Boucher said his staff also has
regular and frank conversations
with customers about the realities
of the region's extreme climate
and its impact on the longevity
of vehicle components. The dealership's F&I department actively recommends General Motors
protection plans and service contracts to all customers, with the
take rate of the latter being more
than 70 per cent.
Discussing these challenges
not only drives warranty sales
but ensures that customers are in
contact with the dealership with
greater regularity. That creates
more frequent interaction and
helps foster an ongoing relationship, Boucher said.
"This helps build a high customer service retention of above
70 per cent," he said. "We have
touch points with our customers on a regular basis to give us
an opportunity to continue doing
business together."- ANC

TOYOTA MOTOR MANUFACTURING CANADA INC.'S NORTH
Plant in Cambridge, Ont.,
has received the J.D.
Power 2019 U.S. Initial
Quality Study platinum
award - the highest possible recognition for a
plant - for production of
the Toyota Corolla. The
Cambridge South Plant
was awarded bronze for
building the Lexus RX.
P H O T O : T O Y O TA
Plant awards are based
on the lowest number of customer-reported defect/malfunction
problems per vehicle.

AUTOMAKERS THINK AVS WILL BE BORING

AUDI, NISSAN AND OTHERS ARE BANKING ON TALKING
cartoon characters and other virtual-reality experiences to keep
drivers and other occupants of autonomous vehicles entertained.
Automakers have long focused on getting drivers to sit
tight and pay attention to the road. As the industry gears up for
self-driving cars - with drivers becoming passengers - tackling
boredom has been identified as an issue.
"Once customers do not need to drive anymore ... then the
question is what kind of things can we offer to customers inside
this car," Boris Meiners, senior director of Audi China's Digital
Business and Customer Experience, said on the sidelines of the
CES Asia technology trade show in Shanghai in June.

MERCEDES EXPANDS SMALL-UTILITY LINEUP

THE AUTOMAKER'S NEW
SEVEN-SEAT GLB COMPACT crossover is scheduled
to arrive in late 2019. Although
it has three rows of seats, the
GLB slots between the GLA
and the GLC in the Mercedes
lineup, and is intended to com- P H O T O : M E R C E D E S - B E N Z
pete with the BMW X1, Range
Rover Discovery Sport and Volkswagen Tiguan.

SUPPLIERS EXPECT ONGOING TRADE GLOOM

CANADIAN EXPORTERS, INCLUDING SOME IN THE AUTO
industry, are concerned about a global recession, according to a
key survey.
Export Development Canada's trade confidence index, a
composite gauge based on a semi-annual survey of 1,000 businesses, dropped to 69.8, compared with 73.7 at the end of last
year. It's the lowest reading since 2011 and the second-lowest
since the last recession a decade ago.
The respondents included exporters in automotive manufacturing, automotive equipment manufacturing and automotive mold making. Escalating concern over protectionism is hurting confidence, with only eight per cent of respondents expecting U.S. trade tensions to ease over the next year. About a third
of respondents predict a global recession by next year and just
over 50 per cent see one by 2021.

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Automotive News Canada - July 2019

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