Bentley has named designer
David Hilton as the company's head of exterior design. Hilton ran his
own successful design firm for 12 years before accepting the position
with the ultra-luxury automaker. He will now report to Dirk van
Braeckel, director of design and styling. Hilton is stepping into the
shoes of Raul Pires, who left the company at the end of last year to
join forces with Italdesign, the Volkswagen-owned design studio.
Hilton has over two decades of automotive design experience under his belt, having worked with companies from Ford to Volkswagen. The last-generation Ford Focus RS is among his notable accomplishments.
He'll have his work cut out for him moving forward. Bentley is slated to
unleash a rash of new products in the coming months, including an
all-new SUV and a replacement for the company's aging Continental line.
Click past the jump for the full press release.
Link: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/02/09/bentley-hires-david-hilton-as-new-head-of-exterior-design/
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
GM shutting down Chevy Volt production for five weeks
Even with the new HOV-eligible 2012 Chevrolet Volt models heading to California and sales up in February, General Motors
has reportedly decided to shut down production of the plug-in hybrid
for five weeks because of overall sluggish sales. With a 150-day supply
of Volts sitting on dealer lots around the country, this shutdown will
temporarily lay off 1,300 employees.
What's perhaps even more interesting is that this production hiatus comes after a lengthy "holiday" retooling break that only ended in early February. The upcoming shutdown is scheduled to last from March 19 to April 23. As a GM spokesman told MLive, "We're matching our production levels with demand and building to market."
Link: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/03/02/gm-shutting-down-chevy-volt-production-for-five-weeks/
What's perhaps even more interesting is that this production hiatus comes after a lengthy "holiday" retooling break that only ended in early February. The upcoming shutdown is scheduled to last from March 19 to April 23. As a GM spokesman told MLive, "We're matching our production levels with demand and building to market."
Link: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/03/02/gm-shutting-down-chevy-volt-production-for-five-weeks/
How Gus Machado became an immigrant success story
The last time Gus Machado set foot in his native Cuba, in January 1960, he sold two used Chevrolets he had ferried across from Florida: a 1950 and a 1951. As he was standing in a Havana post office waiting to change into cash the money orders he had received for the cars, a rumor swept through the building that revolutionary leader Fidel Castro was approaching the city and that he would change the country's currency.
Machado got his money, then hastened straight for the ferry to Key West. He has not returned. Machado, now a robust 78, laughs out loud when he thinks about whether those two ancient Chevrolets might still be running around the streets of Havana.
Though he still thinks wistfully of returning to his native country, he's not one to get lost in nostalgia. He's way too busy for that. The wiry Machado still puts in 12- to 15-hour days every day at his two Miami-area Ford dealerships.
"Gus Machado is the North American success story," says Bill Wallace, owner of the Wallace Automotive Group in Stuart, Fla., which includes a Lincoln store. "I love what Gus represents and what he's done. Everybody who knows him reveres him. He is an entrepreneur's entrepreneur."
In 1949, Machado first moved to the United States to attend Edwards Military Institute in North Carolina and Greenville College in Greenville, Ill. He then lived in Joliet, Ill., and worked for Caterpillar Tractor Co. before moving to Miami in 1956.
Even before that fateful final trip across the Florida Straits in 1960, Machado was a man in perpetual motion. Starting with a gas station in 1956, Machado owned a series of used-car dealerships until he acquired his first franchise in 1982 with a store called Gus Machado Buick.
In 1984, he sold the Buick store and bought Johnson Ford in Hialeah. Today, the dealership is Gus Machado Ford of Hialeah. And on April 1, 2009, just as the recession skies were darkening over America, Machado bought a second Ford store in the Miami area, now known as Gus Machado Ford of Kendall.
Perhaps the darkest days for Machado came in 2009, when the entire auto industry seemed to be on the verge of going under.
"In 2009, everybody was worried, worried, worried about how are we going to come out of this one," Machado says in his accented English. "And you didn't hear about anything good. Foreclosures and bankruptcy and unemployment and everything was just negative, negative, negative."
During his peak years before the recession, Gus Machado Ford of Hialeah alone sold as many as 5,000 new and used vehicles per year. Since the downturn, he has struggled to get his numbers up again. Last year, the two stores totaled 3,500 new and used sales.
"This has been a dramatic slowdown on the economy," he says. "We've got to cut down on a lot of stuff and tighten our belts."
He had nearly 140 employees at his Hialeah store before the recession. Now the number is closer to 100. Letting employees go was painful for a people person such as Machado.
Simple philosophy
He hopes for brighter days, which is one reason he bought the store in Kendall, a more affluent area than Hialeah. Both stores are run on a simple philosophy.
"Our priority in life is to remember that the customer, he might not be 100 percent of the time right, but he is 100 percent of the time our customer. No matter what you do, you have to please him. You have to remember without customers, you don't have any business," he says. "Every time you make a sale, you make a friend. That person who is buying from you is trusting that you're giving them the right product."
Machado is optimistic that better times are ahead. "I look forward for the market to turn around and for us to be doing what we did in the past," he says.
At age 78, Machado should be easing into retirement, but that's not his style.
"I'm working more now than I did 20 years ago," says Machado, who has a perpetual twinkle in his eye and whose hair and eyebrows are almost incandescent white. "I wanted to be sure both dealerships are profitable."
Machado is spry and full of vitality. He attributes his vigor to the fact he has been exercising every morning since he was about 30 years old.
"If I don't move my body, I'll get to the point I can't move. I start stretching myself. I do push-ups against the wall. I do lifting of my arms and twisting my legs and knees. I spend 30 to 35 minutes every morning," he says. "I eat very well. But I digest very, very well."
Longer hours
Machado has needed his fitness more than ever recently because he had to work longer hours. His longtime general manager, Victor Benitez, was ill for several months.
Now that Benitez is healthier, Machado is putting together a living trust for a succession plan that includes the children he and his wife, Lilliam, have from previous marriages.
One of his daughters, Lydia Machado, and a granddaughter, Samantha Dewhurst, work at the dealerships.
He has become a major force in the world of South Florida philanthropy. Machado's charitable activities take up a couple of single-spaced pages on the biographical sketch that appears on his dealership Web site, reflecting his having raised more than $2.5 million for local charities in the past 25 years.
A lover of golf, Machado sponsors the annual Gus Machado Golf Classic, which benefits the American Cancer Society. He also organizes Calle Ocho, a Kiwanis event in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood that celebrates local culture. The Gus Machado Family Foundation contributes to multiple charities that benefit schools and neighborhood organizations.
Last month, Ford Motor Co. honored him in its annual Salute to Dealers at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention.
Grandfather wisdom
During down times, Machado draws strength from a story that his grandfather, a farmer, told him long ago when Machado was a little boy on the family farm near Cienfuegos, Cuba.
His grandfather told the young boy to look at the field and the trees around the field and to think about the cycle of life on the storm-tossed island.
"He said that sometimes a hurricane comes around, and you go look at your field and you can only see one or two trees still left standing. He told me: 'Do you know why they are still standing? It's because they had good roots.'
"If you got good roots, you have a good chance to make it.
Link: http://www.autonews.com/article/20120305/RETAIL07/303059964/1179/how-gus-machado-became-an-immigrant-success-story
Machado got his money, then hastened straight for the ferry to Key West. He has not returned. Machado, now a robust 78, laughs out loud when he thinks about whether those two ancient Chevrolets might still be running around the streets of Havana.
Though he still thinks wistfully of returning to his native country, he's not one to get lost in nostalgia. He's way too busy for that. The wiry Machado still puts in 12- to 15-hour days every day at his two Miami-area Ford dealerships.
"Gus Machado is the North American success story," says Bill Wallace, owner of the Wallace Automotive Group in Stuart, Fla., which includes a Lincoln store. "I love what Gus represents and what he's done. Everybody who knows him reveres him. He is an entrepreneur's entrepreneur."
In 1949, Machado first moved to the United States to attend Edwards Military Institute in North Carolina and Greenville College in Greenville, Ill. He then lived in Joliet, Ill., and worked for Caterpillar Tractor Co. before moving to Miami in 1956.
Even before that fateful final trip across the Florida Straits in 1960, Machado was a man in perpetual motion. Starting with a gas station in 1956, Machado owned a series of used-car dealerships until he acquired his first franchise in 1982 with a store called Gus Machado Buick.
In 1984, he sold the Buick store and bought Johnson Ford in Hialeah. Today, the dealership is Gus Machado Ford of Hialeah. And on April 1, 2009, just as the recession skies were darkening over America, Machado bought a second Ford store in the Miami area, now known as Gus Machado Ford of Kendall.
Perhaps the darkest days for Machado came in 2009, when the entire auto industry seemed to be on the verge of going under.
"In 2009, everybody was worried, worried, worried about how are we going to come out of this one," Machado says in his accented English. "And you didn't hear about anything good. Foreclosures and bankruptcy and unemployment and everything was just negative, negative, negative."
During his peak years before the recession, Gus Machado Ford of Hialeah alone sold as many as 5,000 new and used vehicles per year. Since the downturn, he has struggled to get his numbers up again. Last year, the two stores totaled 3,500 new and used sales.
"This has been a dramatic slowdown on the economy," he says. "We've got to cut down on a lot of stuff and tighten our belts."
He had nearly 140 employees at his Hialeah store before the recession. Now the number is closer to 100. Letting employees go was painful for a people person such as Machado.
Simple philosophy
He hopes for brighter days, which is one reason he bought the store in Kendall, a more affluent area than Hialeah. Both stores are run on a simple philosophy.
"Our priority in life is to remember that the customer, he might not be 100 percent of the time right, but he is 100 percent of the time our customer. No matter what you do, you have to please him. You have to remember without customers, you don't have any business," he says. "Every time you make a sale, you make a friend. That person who is buying from you is trusting that you're giving them the right product."
Machado is optimistic that better times are ahead. "I look forward for the market to turn around and for us to be doing what we did in the past," he says.
At age 78, Machado should be easing into retirement, but that's not his style.
"I'm working more now than I did 20 years ago," says Machado, who has a perpetual twinkle in his eye and whose hair and eyebrows are almost incandescent white. "I wanted to be sure both dealerships are profitable."
Machado is spry and full of vitality. He attributes his vigor to the fact he has been exercising every morning since he was about 30 years old.
"If I don't move my body, I'll get to the point I can't move. I start stretching myself. I do push-ups against the wall. I do lifting of my arms and twisting my legs and knees. I spend 30 to 35 minutes every morning," he says. "I eat very well. But I digest very, very well."
Longer hours
Machado has needed his fitness more than ever recently because he had to work longer hours. His longtime general manager, Victor Benitez, was ill for several months.
Now that Benitez is healthier, Machado is putting together a living trust for a succession plan that includes the children he and his wife, Lilliam, have from previous marriages.
One of his daughters, Lydia Machado, and a granddaughter, Samantha Dewhurst, work at the dealerships.
He has become a major force in the world of South Florida philanthropy. Machado's charitable activities take up a couple of single-spaced pages on the biographical sketch that appears on his dealership Web site, reflecting his having raised more than $2.5 million for local charities in the past 25 years.
A lover of golf, Machado sponsors the annual Gus Machado Golf Classic, which benefits the American Cancer Society. He also organizes Calle Ocho, a Kiwanis event in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood that celebrates local culture. The Gus Machado Family Foundation contributes to multiple charities that benefit schools and neighborhood organizations.
Last month, Ford Motor Co. honored him in its annual Salute to Dealers at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention.
Grandfather wisdom
During down times, Machado draws strength from a story that his grandfather, a farmer, told him long ago when Machado was a little boy on the family farm near Cienfuegos, Cuba.
His grandfather told the young boy to look at the field and the trees around the field and to think about the cycle of life on the storm-tossed island.
"He said that sometimes a hurricane comes around, and you go look at your field and you can only see one or two trees still left standing. He told me: 'Do you know why they are still standing? It's because they had good roots.'
"If you got good roots, you have a good chance to make it.
Link: http://www.autonews.com/article/20120305/RETAIL07/303059964/1179/how-gus-machado-became-an-immigrant-success-story
Look up! It's a car about to land in Gotham!
Although the automotive world's eyes are on next week's Geneva auto
show, the news is starting to trickle in for April's New York event.
Debuts are planned for the redesigned Buick Enclave, Hyundai Santa Fe, Nissan Altima and SRT Viper, which previously was known as a Dodge.
But all these vehicles seem so 20th Century.
Frankly, I think the Big Apple's attention grabber may just be a car that's also an airplane, and the company says it's been approved by the FAA and NHTSA. Essentially, it's a street-legal airplane.
The two-seat, single-engine car/plane, called the Transition Roadable Aircraft, was developed by Terrafugia (terra-FOO-gee-ah), a Woburn, Maryland, aerospace company. It will be the Transiton's first time on display at a car show. Videos of the Transition on the road and in flight are featured here. The company portrays the Transition as an easy-to-use mode of transportation on the highway and in the air.
After landing, the pilot pushes a button, the wings fold up, and the plane turns into a car that can be driven home and parked in the family garage. That's assuming the owner has 80 inches of clearance. Nothing has to be detached from the car/aircraft structure to roll into the garage or added before take off. It's a complete package, the company says.
The company says NHTSA granted the Transition an exemption last summer so it could be driven on the highway.
As a plane it falls under the FAA's light sport aircraft category, which allows would-be-pilots to become certified pilots in about 20 hours, the company said in a news release.
The Transition is powered by a 100-hp piston engine that runs on unleaded regular. It is expected to have a highway range of about 800 miles or a cruising range in the air of nearly 500 miles. It can cruise at 105 mph in the air.
A carbon fiber safety cage protects the pilot/driver and passenger. If the pilot faces uncertain weather, he or she can land at a small airport and drive to the destination.
The piston engine is connected to a continuously variable transmission that engages either the rear-wheel drive system or the propeller. The car/plane weighs 970 pounds and can carry 460 pounds of pilot, passenger and cargo combined, giving it a gross take off weight of 1,430 pounds, the company says.
Better start that diet if you want one.
How expensive is the Transition? It's about the cost of four Cadillac Escalades. The estimated selling price is $279,000 and orders are being accepted.
Dual-transportation cars have been around since amphibious vehicles emerged during World War II. There was the novelty Amphicar in the 1960s and, more recently, Gibbs Technologies has been developing an amphibious sports car/speedboat vehicle called the Aquada.
In any case, the Transition will yield yet another definition for "off-road vehicle."
Debuts are planned for the redesigned Buick Enclave, Hyundai Santa Fe, Nissan Altima and SRT Viper, which previously was known as a Dodge.
But all these vehicles seem so 20th Century.
Frankly, I think the Big Apple's attention grabber may just be a car that's also an airplane, and the company says it's been approved by the FAA and NHTSA. Essentially, it's a street-legal airplane.
The two-seat, single-engine car/plane, called the Transition Roadable Aircraft, was developed by Terrafugia (terra-FOO-gee-ah), a Woburn, Maryland, aerospace company. It will be the Transiton's first time on display at a car show. Videos of the Transition on the road and in flight are featured here. The company portrays the Transition as an easy-to-use mode of transportation on the highway and in the air.
After landing, the pilot pushes a button, the wings fold up, and the plane turns into a car that can be driven home and parked in the family garage. That's assuming the owner has 80 inches of clearance. Nothing has to be detached from the car/aircraft structure to roll into the garage or added before take off. It's a complete package, the company says.
The company says NHTSA granted the Transition an exemption last summer so it could be driven on the highway.
As a plane it falls under the FAA's light sport aircraft category, which allows would-be-pilots to become certified pilots in about 20 hours, the company said in a news release.
The Transition is powered by a 100-hp piston engine that runs on unleaded regular. It is expected to have a highway range of about 800 miles or a cruising range in the air of nearly 500 miles. It can cruise at 105 mph in the air.
A carbon fiber safety cage protects the pilot/driver and passenger. If the pilot faces uncertain weather, he or she can land at a small airport and drive to the destination.
The piston engine is connected to a continuously variable transmission that engages either the rear-wheel drive system or the propeller. The car/plane weighs 970 pounds and can carry 460 pounds of pilot, passenger and cargo combined, giving it a gross take off weight of 1,430 pounds, the company says.
Better start that diet if you want one.
How expensive is the Transition? It's about the cost of four Cadillac Escalades. The estimated selling price is $279,000 and orders are being accepted.
Dual-transportation cars have been around since amphibious vehicles emerged during World War II. There was the novelty Amphicar in the 1960s and, more recently, Gibbs Technologies has been developing an amphibious sports car/speedboat vehicle called the Aquada.
In any case, the Transition will yield yet another definition for "off-road vehicle."
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Automotive Careers
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has served Dealers, Manufacturers, Aftermarket Companies and
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Call us now at (800) 659 9501 or email us at info@autopeople.com
We will fill your needs quickly and discreetly!
In automotive retailing alone, our team has concluded more than 1,800 executive search assignments on behalf of independents and consolidators.
We have successfully placed Presidents, EVP / Chief Operating Officers, Marketing Directors, Regional Vice Presidents - Operations, CFO’s, Controllers, General Managers, General Sales Managers, Sales Managers, Service Managers, Fixed Operations Directors, and Parts Managers in many car dealerships across the nation.
Call us now at (800) 659 9501 or email us at info@autopeople.com
We will fill your needs quickly and discreetly!
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