Automotive News Canada - December 2023 - 10

10
12.23
OPINION
We're witnessing history
at Brampton Assembly
WE CAN COUNT OURSELVES LUCKY TO
have experienced two distinct muscle-car
eras, especially when it was
probably a miracle the second one lasted
as long as it did.
The Charger,
Challenger and
the 300 could
have ended a
decade ago, but
nostalgic buyers
knew that if the
ride ended, it
would be over
for good.
The first era began in the mid-1960s
with the Pontiac GTO. The idea, as your
uncle will tell, was to put a big V-8
engine in a midsized two-door car and
sticker-price it for around $3,000.
History had never seen anything like
it. Every domestic brand had at least
one muscle car for
sale, whether it was
a Chevrolet Chevelle
SS 396 or a Dodge
Challenger with a
426 Hemi under the
hood.
Although the first
muscle-car era came
to a screeching halt
around 1972 (fuel
and insurance hikes),
in some minds it was
the best period in
automotive history -
ever - made even
better because, as
your uncle will tell you, absolutely nothing
good was built for the next 20 years.
The Chevrolet Camaro and Ford
Mustang feud never really died through
the '70s and '80s, but Chrysler and
Dodge had been out of the affordable
performance game since the mid-'70s.
You could say it was quite a shock,
then, when the rear-wheel-drive Chrysler
300 arrived with a new-generation Hemi
V-8 for 2005. The Hemi was already in
the Ram pickup, but I'm not alone in
saying I really didn't see the 300 coming
out of left field like that.
The rear-wheel-drive part is important
to remember because Chrysler, Dodge
and Plymouth just didn't do it; they were
all about front-wheel drive.
" Some people in the company saw
the rear drive as retro, as almost going
backward in technology, " Stellantis Chief
Design Officer Ralph Gilles recalled in
the story on Page 1.
" But we found out very quickly with
the Hemi powertrains, front-drive was not
able to manage over 300 horsepower. "
It didn't hurt that doing burnouts and
drifting " looks better on a rear-drive car. "
" That was actually part of the subconscious,
I think. We were thinking
about making a true muscle car. "
And we're off and running. No one
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
JEFF
MELNYCHUK
knew it at the time, but the second
muscle-car era was born.
The Dodge Charger nameplate was
attached to a sedan, but it was the
stunning retro-inspired two-door
Challenger, which arrived for 2008, that
made people's jaws unhinge.
Gilles influenced the design of the
three vehicles, which are built on the
same platform at Brampton Assembly
near Toronto. Despite a revolving door of
corporate ownership, the muscle cars
only grew stronger and louder, which
made them all the more popular with
fans of the first muscle-car era. Except
these new ones were modern. They
stopped and they turned and they had
none of the vices of the old cars, with
the exception of fuel consumption.
But when an automaker would be
lucky to get eight years out of a platform
before a major revamp, how did the
300, in particular, last nearly 20? Sure,
Gilles said the three vehicles were regularly
updated - the Charger today is
dramatically different than when it first
arrived - and numerous special models
were built to keep up the interest. But I
don't think that's the answer.
Most people knew that once this
muscle-car era was over, it would be
over for good, and buyers didn't want
the ride to end. I know of several people
who repeatedly bought Challengers
when there was a new special edition,
whether it was the 707-horsepower
2015 SRT Hellcat or the 2018 SRT
Demon with 840 horsepower. The car
was a fountain of youth, connecting us
with that first muscle-car era, but it
became a legend all its own.
But the end is really here. By the end
of 2023, Brampton Assembly will begin
retooling to build the next-generation
Jeep Compass. The Ford Mustang
remains, but the Chevrolet Camaro is all
but history.
There will be electric muscle cars,
which will no doubt be incredible, but
the era of loud and affordable muscle
cars is now in the history books.
What a wonderful ride it was.
- ANC
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Hyundai-Amazon deal signals it's
prime time for dealers to be online
THE BIG NEWS OUT OF THE RECENT LOS
Angeles Auto Show was the joint announcement by
Hyundai and Amazon to sell vehicles on the retail
behemoth's platform. While the initiative was framed
as a U.S.-only pilot initially involving 18 dealers in
major markets, it generated a lot of
buzz on both sides of the border.
Some industry observers dismissed
it as a marketing ploy, noting
that it will expose Hyundai to
Amazon Prime's 150 million customers,
but others view it as a significant
development in the evolving
auto retail business model.
Teaming with
Amazon should
have dealers
thinking
about new
opportunities.
" This signals consumers' willingness to conduct a
very large purchase online as we commoditize the
vehicle purchase, which opens up a new competitive
arena for manufacturers, " said
Robert Karwel, senior manager of
the Canadian automotive practice
at J.D. Power.
The tie-up launches in the first
quarter of next year and will
enable car buyers to use Amazon
to search for Hyundai vehicles in
their area, arrange online financing
or payment options and then
schedule delivery from a local
dealership. The automaker plans
to roll out the program to the entire U.S. dealer body
by mid-2024, Hyundai Motor North America CEO Joe
Munoz told sibling publication Automotive News.
" The bigger-picture issue here is over the control
of the customer journey and vehicle data, " said
Karwel. " Manufacturers are investing historic
amounts of money into new powertrain technologies,
and more thought is being given to being able
to extract every potential avenue for revenue sources. "
MACALUSO
MANAGING
EDITOR
GRACE
Managing the customer journey " could reap benefits
in keeping customers in the fold and controlling
the data that will be generated by
vehicle purchase, ownership and
usage, " he said.
Should dealers be worried? Yes
and no, said Karwel. " But they have
a couple of strong cards to play
themselves - which is the fact that
every car has to come in for service
at some point, EV or not, for simple
things like tires, brakes or even just thorough cleaning
and detailing. "
Dealers will have to establish
themselves " as a brand, " he said.
" What does your dealership experience
offer the customer, and does
that entice the customer to come
back and/or to do more with your
store or group of stores? "
Will the Hyundai-Amazon
scheme cross the border? Hyundai
Canada spokesperson Jennifer
SCAN TO READ
WHY THE DEAL
WON'T EXTEND
TO CANADA
McCarthy said the partnership " only pertains to the
U.S. market. We will closely monitor the progress of
this pilot project, but cannot confirm whether it will
one day be offered in Canada. "
Dealers shouldn't be surprised by head-turning
announcements such as the Hyundai-Amazon partnership,
said Karwel. But they should be looking to
mine the opportunities from the end-to-end, online
car-buying business model, which is rapidly gaining
steam. - ANC
A battery-plant story generated
too much heat and no light
SINCE IT IS DECEMBER, I'LL
officially declare what I believe to
be the most overblown automotive
story of the year.
Name 900
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KEITH E. CRAIN, EDITOR EMERITUS
qualified
Canadians
who have -
and can -
launch an EV
battery plant.
I'll wait.
Drumroll, please. And the winner
is ... the issue of NextStar
Energy, a battery joint venture
between Stellantis and LG Energy
Solution, using temporary foreign
workers (TFWs) to launch - I
repeat, launch, not build - its
factory in Windsor, Ont.
To borrow some verbiage from
my teenage daughter: " I can't
even with " this story anymore.
Enough already.
The genesis
of the issue was
a social media
post from the
Windsor Police
Service that
claimed 1,600
TFWs were coming
to Windsor
to build the battery
plant.
Where did said
officer(s) get
such information? The South
Korean ambassador.
The information couldn't be further
removed from the auto industry
if it were delivered via horseand-buggy
or the Pony Express.
I likened those " facts " to that
famous scene in the 1986 film
" Ferris Bueller's Day Off, " when
Simone says:
" My best friend's sister's boyfriend's
brother's girlfriend heard
DIGITAL AND
MOBILE EDITOR
GREG
LAYSON
from this guy who knows this kid
who's going with a girl who saw
Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last
night. I guess it's pretty serious. "
But here's the thing: It is more
than pretty serious. Just ask
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, who
is as fed up as I am.
He told me on Dec. 11 that
the recent spat over government
funding of the plant - which lasted
months - " was a national
embarrassment. " Dilkens then
warned that LG feels like everything
detractors say and do,
including questioning TFWs, is " an
attack on their business. "
Yes, LG Energy Solution will
use as many as 900 TFWs to get
the plant up and running, but the
company isn't using Korean
nationals to build the factory, as
some politicians and naysayers
would suggest. That work is being
done by thousands of unionized
construction workers from across
Ontario.
Everyone I've spoken with,
from union and auto supply executives
to academics and analysts,
all say this is a political mountain
being built from a corporate molehill.
It has long been expected
that LG would use its own
employees and engineers to
install and flip the switch on its
own proprietary EV battery assembly
line.
Name 900 qualified Canadians
who have - and can - launch
an EV battery plant. I'll wait.
But in the meantime, politicians
and town criers have boiled
a complex issue down to a single
tweet, threat, attack or talking
point to score points.
In this case, it was pared down
to: " WHAT?!
We're paying
$15 billion in
tax money to
1,600
Koreans!? "
No. We're
Dilkens: The
NextStar
Energy plant
is " great " for
Canada, so
stop picking
on it.
FILE PHOTO
not. But,
maybe 900
Koreans will
help start a
once-in-a-generation
manufacturing
plant
that will directly
employ 2,500
Canadians for
three decades.
" It's just not good, " an exasperated
Dilkens told me of the
latest controversy. " And we need
to get over this as soon as possible
and move on and stop picking
on this $5-billion investment,
because it's great for our country,
our province and our region. "
- ANC

Automotive News Canada - December 2023

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