Tag: owners

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Cases: Once owners of world’s largest Honda dealership

Cases: Once owners of world’s largest Honda dealership

In 2002, Rick and Rita Case opened the world’s greatest Honda dealership, in Davie, Fla., which before long offered a document 1,222 new Hondas in a one thirty day period.

“We desired to be a greater dealer,” Rita Circumstance advised Automotive News. “We required to pioneer new brands. We wanted to take models as open up factors as opposed to buying dealerships.”

In 1985, the couple offered their 14 motorbike dealerships in Ohio and financed the development of the Florida stores that would be the initially in the country to offer Hyundai and Acura motor vehicles.

“Concerning 1986 and 1988, Hyundai was the speediest-rising new motor vehicle launched in The usa, but it was a hazard mainly because no one experienced ever heard of a Korean car,” Rita Scenario claimed. “With Acura, the possibility was it was the 1st luxury Japanese motor vehicle bought in The us.”

Inside of their initially thirty day period of small business offering Hyundai and Acura, the Conditions became these brands’ largest sellers in the state by profits quantity, according to Rita Scenario. The group established other profits data above the many years and however vies for volume bragging legal rights for the brands it signifies.

The pair utilised Rick’s ground breaking advertising suggestions to draw in consumers and make profits. They borrowed from airlines’ repeated flier applications, supplying clients Rick Situation Benefits playing cards for discount rates on areas and assistance, free of charge auto washes for daily life and price reduction gasoline at their dealerships. People systems proceed these days.

In 2004, the few transformed their supersized Honda store in Davie so the county clerk of courts could create places of work there. They even created a chapel in the dealership for couples obtaining relationship licenses. The clerk’s place of work and chapel are long gone now, but the six-story dealership however is a polling station for elections.

And the Instances lent thoughts to their automaker partners.

When the Hyundai brand was having difficulties in the U.S. in the 1990s, Rick questioned Hyundai to celebrate its 10th anniversary in 1996 with a 10-12 months, 100,000-mile powertrain warranty to get buyers to contemplate the brand once more.

“We assumed, ‘Let’s do anything definitely outrageous,’ given that other models had a lot shorter warranties,” Rita Circumstance mentioned. “Hyundai explained, ‘No, we do not know how significantly this is going to price tag. We won’t be able to do this.’ ”

So Rick and Rita joined with other South Florida Hyundai dealers, acquired an insurance plan plan for the hazard and advertised a 10-year, 100,000-mile powertrain warranty, in accordance to Scenario. Profits for the South Florida dealerships boomed, and in 1998, Hyundai released a 10-12 months, 100,000-mile powertrain warranty nationwide. The automaker improved its quality to again the warranty, and sales shot up.

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Rivian owners can’t help but gush about their trucks, flaws and all

Rivian owners can’t help but gush about their trucks, flaws and all


Washington, DC
CNN
 — 

Denis Wang says he always hated the car-buying process — until he met Rivian.

Buying the automaker’s R1T electric pickup was so wonderful that he says he drove 45 minutes to Rivian’s Irvine, California, office to take the Rivian employee who shepherded him through his purchase out for coffee. (Rivian pairs new buyers with a “guide” who answers any questions during the process.)

Wang said he brought a thank you card, and a $100 gift card to REI, knowing that his guide had a trip to South America coming up.

“I felt like I kind of owed it to him,” Wang told CNN Business. “He was really invested in this whole process and wanted to make sure I had a great experience.”

For example, Wang said his guide remembered a configuration of the R1T he was initially interested in, and found a vehicle that matched it and offered it to Wang so he could receive his truck sooner.

Wang, like many new Rivian owners, praised Rivian’s customer service and the quality of the vehicles.

They say their Rivians are among the very best vehicles they’ve ever owned, if not the best. Some compared their Rivians — which can reach 60 mph in about 3 seconds — to driving a sports car. The vehicles have flaws, including a recall impacting nearly every Rivian earlier this month, but fewer than they say they would expect from a new automaker. At least one Rivian owner has had the company reach out to them after posting on an online forum about an issue with their truck.

“I thought Tesla set the bar, and it still does in certain aspects,” said Wang, who has never owned a truck before. “The Rivian is probably my favorite vehicle.”

A Rivian R1T leaves the assembly line at its manufacturing plant in Normal, Illinois.

Rivian, founded in 2009 by MIT-trained engineer RJ Scaringe, went public in 2021 as one of the largest IPOs ever, raising $11.9 billion, only two months after its first vehicles for customers were manufactured. Companies like Ford and Amazon have invested in it. Many auto experts say it’s the best positioned of a group of electric vehicle startups hoping to compete with Tesla and incumbents like Toyota, Volkswagen and General Motors.

It’s faced growing pains as it’s launched three vehicles at once — the R1T, the R1S SUV, and a delivery van for Amazon. Deliveries have been delayed. Rivian’s stock has fallen 66{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} this year as the value of electric vehicle makers has dropped broadly. Rivian laid off 6{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of its workers this July.

CNN Business interviewed 13 Rivian owners to hear how satisfied they are with their vehicles, which can cost roughly $100,000, depending on what options are included.

Matt Thomson was nervous to pick up his R1T earlier this year. He’d never even test driven the pickup. He’d waited more than three years for it since placing a deposit, and wondered if it could live up to the hype.

Thomson picked up his R1T at a Denver-area service center and drove it home. On the dirt road leading to his ranch, a problem emerged.

Thomson parked his R1T at home and as his family looked on, tried to demonstrate the pickup’s automatic bed cover that opens and closes with the push of a button.

But it jammed as dirt and gravel had gotten stuck in it, he said.

Many Rivian owners describe similar problems with the feature. Some owners say they’re keeping the feature lubricated with WD-40 or graphite to prevent it from breaking. Some describe avoiding use of the cover or handling it delicately to try to prevent issues.

“As you likely know, there are issues with our powered tonneau cover,” Rivian emailed owners in September. “While most are operating as intended, many are not.”

It’s since stopped shipping the feature and has said it’s working on a solution.

“That was a big flop on their part,” Thomson said. “But if that’s the worst thing that’s going to happen on a brand new car company, I’m going to be okay with that.”

He says his Rivian tows his horse and donkey trailer better than his last vehicle, a 2020 GMC Sierra. Thomson was one of several owners who say it’s so smooth that they almost forget they’re towing something. Thomson said he loves the suspension, which automatically adjusts to stay level while loaded up, rather than leaning awkwardly backward like his old trucks.

“I’ve had BMWs, Lexuses, everything else. Nothing is even remotely comparable to the way this one drives,” Thomson said. “Literally everything about it has just been over the top. I couldn’t be more satisfied than I am.”

Thomson said he’s saving roughly $650-$700 on fuel costs a month and taking more day trips with his family because he’s not worried about the cost.

Oregon resident Phil Barnhart owns a Tesla Model S Plaid that he calls “an absolute masterpiece of technological achievement.” The sedan starts at $135,990 and goes 0-60 mph in 1.99 seconds, faster than a Lamborghini.

He says he owns stock in Tesla, and was an early owner of Tesla’s breakout vehicle, the 2012 Model S, which put the automaker on the map and was the Motor Trend Car of the Year.

But these days Barnhart finds himself driving his new R1T pickup more than the Tesla Model S Plaid.

“It’s the perfect ‘dad car,’” he says of his R1T. He often chauffeurs three kids, their friends, sporting equipment and the family dog, in what’s essentially a mid-size pickup on par with a Toyota Tacoma or Ford Ranger.

Rivian owners have generally praised the R1T's features, including the gear tunnel for extra storage.

He was one of several owners who spoke highly of Rivian’s “gear tunnel,” an extra storage compartment that’s located behind the R1T’s second row. They say it’s well suited to stowing things like sports equipment or food. The gear tunnel’s door also doubles as a convenient seat for when putting on or taking off shoes, they say.

Barnhart was one of several Rivian owners who said they were pleased with how accurately Rivian estimates its vehicles range.

“The Tesla range estimate is very aspirational,” Barnhart said. “The Rivian range estimate is actually informative.”

Barnhart believes Rivian’s first vehicle, the R1T, is clearly better than Tesla’s first wide-release vehicle, the 2012 Tesla Model S, that he owned. But Rivian’s software can’t compare with what Tesla offers today, including its driver-assist software Autopilot, Barnhart and other owners said.

Tab Brewer, who says he’s been “blown away” by how good his Rivian is, says he wishes it came with Android Auto, in-vehicle infotainment software that he says is superior to what Rivian is offering now. Several owners say they’ve seen Rivian’s software improve from over-the-air updates in recent months, and are hopeful for continued upgrades, including the vehicle’s navigation, which many say they don’t use.

Tesla also has a more robust charging network that’s suited to long road trips, owners said. For those who are charging exclusively at home, they say it’s not an issue.

Mike Feehley, who lives outside Charlotte, North Carolina, says when he drove his new R1T to an antique car show with his son, more people gathered around his truck than the classic cars.

“Guys were coming up saying these are the cleanest lines they’ve ever seen on a truck,” Feehley said.

Feehley and other Rivian owners say it’s common to get questions from curious onlookers in parking lots, or to have people in cars driving alongside them taking pictures.

Rivian too is keeping a close eye on its vehicles. Feehley said the indicator and warning lights started flashing on his truck, and the power flickered. He posted about it on a third-party online forum for Rivian owners and was surprised to get a call from the automaker telling him they’d find a time to pick up the truck and get it fixed. He said Rivian reached out to him again when he posted a video of water in his door.

Some Rivian owners who spoke with CNN Business wondered if the automaker will be able to maintain the quality of service and wait times as it scales production. Rivian plans to produce 25,000 vehicles this year after delivering fewer than 5,000 vehicles in the second quarter of the year.

Rivian owners describe being unwilling to ever sell their trucks.

Rivian owners describe being so satisfied with their vehicles that they’ve passed on opportunities to sell their vehicles immediately after purchase and earn a profit of tens of thousands of dollars.

Ross Gale describes himself as a business guy with “very little attachment to any material object.”

He says he’s owned dozens of cars and flipped many for profit during the Covid pandemic as vehicle prices soared. But he won’t be selling his R1T.

As Gale puts it, “Every time I see one for sale I say to myself, ‘How could somebody do this?’”

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MLB lockout: Five takeaways as Rob Manfred cancels regular season games after owners, MLBPA fail to reach deal

MLB lockout: Five takeaways as Rob Manfred cancels regular season games after owners, MLBPA fail to reach deal

After an extension of Monday’s informal deadline, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association were unable to strike a new collective bargaining agreement that would end the owner-imposed lockout on Tuesday. MLB, which set a 5 p.m. ET deadline for a deal, made what it called its “best and final offer” Tuesday afternoon, which was unanimously rejected by the union. Soon thereafter, commissioner Rob Manfred announced in a press conference that regular season games will be canceled. 

“I had hoped against hope I wouldn’t have to have this press conference where I am going to cancel some regular season games,” Manfred said. “We worked hard to avoid an outcome that’s bad for our fans, bad for our players, and bad for our clubs. Our failure to reach an agreement was not due to a lack of effort by either party.”  

Manfred added the first two series of the 2022 season will not be played as scheduled. Opening Day was originally scheduled for Thursday, March 31, and has been pushed back at least one week. Manfred laughed and joked his way through part of Tuesday’s press conference and it was not lost on the players.

“Today is a sad day. We came to Florida to navigate and negotiate for a fair collective bargaining agreement. Despite meeting daily, there is still significant work to be done,” MLBPA executive Tony Clark said Tuesday. “The reason we are not playing is simple: a lockout is the ultimate economic weapon. In a $10 billion dollar industry, the owners have decided to use this weapon against the greatest asset they have: the players.”

The MLBPA issued the following statement Tuesday evening:

Rob Manfred and MLB’s owners have cancelled the start of the season. Players and fans around the world who love baseball are disgusted, but sadly not surprised.

From the beginning of these negotiations, Players’ objectives have been consistent — to promote competition, provide fair compensation for young Players, and to uphold the integrity of our market system. Against the backdrop of growing revenues and record profits, we are seeking nothing more than a fair agreement.

What Rob Manfred characterized as a “defensive lockout” is, in fact, the culmination of a decades-long attempt by owners to break our Player fraternity. As in the past, this effort will fail. We are united and committed to negotiating a fair deal that will improve the sport for Players, fans and everyone who loves our game.  

“They set a deadline here. We’re willing to stay here and have a conversation tomorrow,” Clark said. “We’re willing to fly back to New York. We’re willing to go wherever we need to go to get back in the room and continue the dialogue that has begun.”

Tuesday marked the three-month anniversary of the lockout, and the next step is uncertain. Manfred said the two sides will regroup at some point and continue negotiations, though “no agreement is possible until Thursday.” In all likelihood, MLB and the MLBPA will wait at least a few days before scheduling their next bargaining session.

“If it was solely within my ability or the ability of the clubs to get an agreement, we’d have an agreement,” Manfred, who often touts his deal-making ability, said Tuesday. “The tough thing about this process is we have to get an agreement from both parties.”

Representatives from both sides arrived on site in Jupiter, Florida, around 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday. They met face-to-face for the first time around 1:30 p.m., after the players had a conference call to discuss their proposal, per The Athletic’s Evan Drellich. Although optimism prevailed following Monday’s marathon 16-hour bargaining session, Tuesday occasioned a step back.

MLB originally created a Monday (Feb. 28) deadline to reach an agreement before canceling regular-season games. CBS Sports has provided a timeline of the lockout here, but the short version is owners placed the padlocks on when the previous CBA expired on Dec. 1. They were under no obligation to do so, yet it was labeled as a “defensive” maneuver. The league then waited more than six weeks to make its first proposal. 

Here are five takeaways now that Tuesday’s owner-imposed deadline has come and gone.

1. Regular season games will be missed

To reiterate, Opening Day will be delayed and regular season games will be missed now that MLB’s informal deadline has passed. It will be the first time baseball has lost regular season games to a work stoppage since the 1994-95 players’ strike. A total of 90 games have been canceled thus far.

“So what’s next? The calendar dictates that we’re not going to be able to play the first two series of the regular season, and those games are officially canceled,” Manfred said Tuesday. “… Our position is games that will not be played, players will not be paid for.”

It should be noted the length of the season, how players are paid, and the schedule itself are workplace conditions subject to bargaining between MLB and the MLBPA. Manfred does not get to unilaterally declare players will not be paid for games missed. In 2020, the union gave Manfred that power under their March Agreement amid the pandemic, but that was a one-time move.

“It would be our position in the event of games being canceled — that as a feature of any deal for us to come back — that we would be asking for compensation and/or that those games rescheduled,” MLBPA chief negotiator Bruce Meyer said Tuesday.  

2. Expanded postseason may be off the table

MLB and the MLBPA reportedly agreed to the framework of an expanded 12-team postseason field on Monday, though the union had previously warned they would not agree to an expanded postseason if players are not paid their full salaries in 2022. Now that regular season games (and potentially salary) will be missed, MLB may have to wait for an expanded postseason.

It’s important to note MLB could agree to pay the players their full salary for a shortened season, in which case the union would likely agree to an expanded postseason field. After all, the players stand to benefit from an expanded postseason too. More postseason games equals more ticket and gate revenue, and that equals a larger postseason pool for players.

For now, expect to make the MLBPA make good on its threat to pull an expanded postseason off the table now that regular season games will be missed. That isn’t to say the two sides can’t reach an agreement that expands the postseason, just that the union is likely to dig in and play hardball with this lucrative item.

3. MLB is trying to deflect blame

If you’ve paid attention throughout the lockout, you may have noticed MLB invariably describes their proposals as “productive” while portraying the MLBPA’s offers as going backwards or overreaching. The league carefully plays the PR game and that was true again late Monday night, then they claimed the two sides were close to a deal while the union cautioned they were still far apart.

“We’ve also been clear and consistent that there are major issues on which we’re very far apart,” Meyer said. “That hasn’t changed. There have been and still are major issues.”  

Then, after receiving the MLBPA’s proposal on Tuesday, the league claimed the players had a “decidedly different tone today and made proposals inconsistent with the prior discussions.” It was a transparent attempt to shift the blame for the lockout — the lockout started and continued by ownership — to the players in the court of public opinion. The players were understandably not happy.

Player agent Allen Walsh explained NHL commissioner Gary Bettman used the same tactics in 2005, claiming the two sides where close to an agreement in an effort to pressure the players to accept a deal, even after the 2004-05 NHL season was canceled. 

The entire MLB season hasn’t been canceled yet, though it’s clear MLB is trying to deflect blame toward the players. Ultimately, the owners chose to lock out the players, chose to wait 43 days to make their first offer, and chose to set artificial deadlines on Monday and Tuesday. This was (and still is) avoidable, but instead, games will be missed because the owners and Manfred say so.

4. MLB is barely budging on luxury tax thresholds

Perhaps the single biggest issue on the table is the competitive balance tax (i.e. luxury tax), or baseball’s soft salary cap. MLB backed off its proposal for increased penalties within the last 48 hours, though the sides remained very far apart on the thresholds. Here is each side’s final luxury tax threshold proposal:

2022

$220 million

$238 million

2023

$220 million

$244 million

2024

$220 million

$250 million

2025

$224 million

$245 million

2026

$230 million

$263 million

The luxury tax threshold was $210 million in 2021. MLB proposing zero increase in 2023 and 2024 is an unserious offer given how much additional revenue the league is set to rake in through an expanded postseason and the new national television contracts that kick in this year (assuming baseball is played). “A slap in the face,” one player told The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.

MLB and the MLBPA are still a ways apart on other matters — there’s a $55 million gap in the new pre-arbitration bonus pool and a $25,000 gap in minimum salary — though those gaps have been considered more bridgeable than the luxury tax threshold. MLB revenues have increased on average eight percent a year since 2002, and their proposed luxury tax threshold increase from 2022-26 is 4.5 percent total.

“It’s important to look at the patterns of CBT increases over the last several agreements,” Manfred said Tuesday, though those patterns are what the union takes issue with because the threshold has not increased at the same rate as revenue.

5. MLB did not issue a ‘last, best offer’

MLB described Tuesday’s offer as their “best and final offer,” not their “last, best offer,” and there’s an important distinction. “Last, best offer” is a phrase management uses before declaring a legal impasse, and an impasse would allow MLB to unilaterally implement Tuesday’s offer.

“We never used the phrase ‘last, best final offer’ with the union,” Manfred said Tuesday. “We said it was our best offer prior to the deadline to cancel games. Our negotiations are deadlocked right now, but that’s different than using the legal term ‘impasse,’ and I’m not going to do that right now.”

In the event Manfred declares an impasse, the MLBPA would undoubtedly respond by filing an unfair labor practices charge, and the National Labor Relations Board could issue a complaint for failure to bargain in good faith. An impasse would lead to the two sides winding up in front of a judge, essentially.

For now, Manfred has not taken the necessary steps to declare a legal impasse, instead saying the owners “like the keep the idea that we are willing to go back to the table and make an agreement.”

CBS Sports provided live updates of Tuesday’s talks below.  

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After massive outage, small-business owners lament — and reconsider — dependence on Facebook

After massive outage, small-business owners lament — and reconsider — dependence on Facebook

Through the six hrs Fb was offline Monday, smaller-business proprietor J.D. Holland frantically printed 250 flyers to article all over Burnsville, Mississippi, and regarded as purchasing an advertisement in the town’s two-web site newspaper to preserve business enterprise flowing at his farm retail store and nutrition club.

“They have my everyday living,” Holland reported of the social platform and advertising and marketing huge. Given that the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, his business has depended on Fb Live videos and posts on his company website page to push product sales for his diet club, he reported. With no accessibility to the web site, his small business was entirely shut down.

Monday’s outage led to losses of $300 to $400 in Facebook-driven profits, Holland reported. “I know the pandemic was huge, but I responded to this much more so, like ‘This is a big threat.’ What if it really went down?”

“What if it seriously went down?”

Holland’s company is a single of about 3 million around the world that actively market on Facebook and had been impacted by Monday’s shutdown. Facebook apologized late Monday, stating the dilemma was caused by “faulty” configuration improvements. The outage has led a lot of tiny-organization homeowners to consider what possibility they have in depending so seriously on 1 platform for their livelihoods.

“It genuinely made me get in my thinkers about what I will need to do from an advertising point of view in scenario nearly anything goes down,” Holland said. “Facebook won’t care” that he misplaced revenue, “but we have so significantly have confidence in.”

Fb apologized to the business enterprise group in a assertion Monday and explained advertisers were not billed for advertisements during the outage, Healthy Lifestyle.

“We comprehend the impression outages like these have on the hundreds of thousands of firms that use our services to discover and arrive at shoppers,” the assertion read through. “We apologize to all those people afflicted, and we are doing work to recognize a lot more about what happened currently so we can continue to make our infrastructure additional resilient.”

Zahid Buttar, who said he spends about $1,000 a thirty day period on Facebook ads for his on-line vitamin shop in Mooresville, North Carolina, claimed he misplaced $5,000 to $6,000 in gross sales. Right after Fb went offline for numerous hrs, he is considering pulling his ads totally and making use of email and textual content messaging, as an alternative.

“What do we do?” he asked, introducing: “It really is like a bait and switch. It truly is like you set the hook in our cheek and we have some semblance of a organization and then, boom, it went down.”

Facebook is the country’s 2nd-most significant on-line advertiser, according to eMarketer, an on the web advertising and marketing investigation firm. Google potential customers, with about 29 percent of the U.S. electronic advertisement current market, with Facebook following, at 25 percent, and Amazon, at about 11 per cent. In July, Facebook claimed that its next-quarter revenue had soared by 101 p.c, to about $10 billion, led by a 56 per cent improve in promoting revenue as opposed to the year just before. Substantially of the progress is pushed by larger prices for ads, together with robust advert buys by little and medium-measurement enterprises, Main Money Officer David Wehner stated in April.

Main Working Officer Sheryl Sandberg claimed in an earnings connect with with buyers in April, “Our objectives heading forward are we want to carry on to be the quite ideal location to market.”

Public scrutiny of Facebook’s sizing and its influence in the country’s each day political, social and financial lives carries on to escalate. Frances Haugen, a former Fb personnel and whistleblower, testified Tuesday morning right before the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer safety that “Facebook’s products and solutions harm kids, stoke division, weaken our democracy and a great deal far more.”

In the meantime, the enterprise is challenging a next antitrust suit filed by the Federal Trade Commission alleging that it utilized anticompetitive acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp to expand its sector dominance and unfairly blocked rivals’ entry to its application programming interface.

“Yesterday really confirmed modest businesses and all of us how considerably manage Fb has for an on-line communications system,” reported Nidhi Hegde, the system director for the American Financial Liberties Task, an anti-monopoly policy analysis group. “The takeaway from that is that a monopoly should really not be controlling these kinds of very important facts infrastructure.”

“A monopoly really should not be controlling these kinds of critical info infrastructure.”

Organizations can use mailing application, texting and previous-fashioned flyers, and some did in the course of the outage. But the most important medium for advertising is on the net, wherever most men and women shop and socialize, Hegde reported.

“It can be right you want to diversify the channels by which you arrive at purchaser foundation,” she reported. “But if the only way you can market on the web is one particular of two firms, that is not a authentic decision that you have.”

Michael Roth, managing spouse of the tiny business advisory firm Following Street, stated the flip facet of such a vast-scale small-business enterprise meltdown is the option for lawmakers and Facebook to believe about how to access enterprise entrepreneurs. The corporation has rolled out numerous initiatives through the pandemic aimed at tiny enterprises, like a cost-free Fb Enterprise Suite platform and the commitment of $40 million from its $100 million little-organization grant software to Black-owned businesses, together with quite a few on the net tutorials about advertising, on the web branding and customer acquisition.

“Facebook is evidently a big piece of the infrastructure that supports little corporations,” Roth explained. “What this outage displays is Fb and other platforms like Fb have as considerably access or have more achieve to smaller corporations than any other system, than likely the U.S. federal government as a entire, and unquestionably banking institutions and economical institutions.”

For unbiased business enterprise house owners like Sam Gibbs and his wife, Ashley, of Indianapolis, a day of shed profits stung. The couple guidance their smaller spouse and children only from what they get paid selling components on the internet as a result of their Fb retail outlet.

“I realize people may well joke all over that Fb is gone, but that’s not how we seem at it,” Sam Gibbs claimed. “We rely on that for our livelihood.”

They not too long ago employed a organization to create an app so their business is not fully dependent on Fb to generate targeted traffic.

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