Author: Eliza

‘Behave like my best friend’

CC Wei, CEO of the world’s biggest chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, said he had never had an auto industry executive call him — until the shortage was desperate.

“In the past two years they call me and behave like my best friend,” he told a laughing crowd of TSMC partners and customers in Silicon Valley recently. One automaker called to urgently request 25 wafers, said Wei, who is used to fielding orders for 25,000 wafers. “No wonder you cannot get the support.”

Said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AFS: “It’s an arrogant industry. Sometimes it just bites them in the rear.”

Thomas Caulfield, GlobalFoundries chief executive, said the auto industry understands it can no longer leave the risk of building multibillion-dollar chip factories to chipmakers.

“You can’t have one element of the industry carry the water for the rest of the

(Our Auto Expert) — Consumers just want to get out and have a little bit more fun, and they’re doing it behind the wheel of cool new roadsters like the all-new 2023 Nissan Z. However with gas prices through the roof, how are they enjoying their ride? Well, they’re staying closer to home. Let’s take a closer look at why this vehicle, the original Z car created in 1969, is still one of the hottest roadsters today.

Nowadays you don’t have to drive an economy car to get better gas mileage, the automatic version of the all-new Nissan Z gets 28 miles per gallon on the highway. And with 400 horsepower under the hood, this has the look to back the performance. One thing really interesting about the Nissan Z is the exterior design. Nissan took design cues from each generation

Company leaders don’t know exactly what to expect for industry volume in the near term in light of the economic factors affecting the used-vehicle market, Garcia said. He cited a combination of inflationary pressures, rising interest rates and fluctuating consumer confidence as hindering Carvana’s volume growth in the first half of 2022. Demand dropped industrywide in July, too, he said.

Price depreciation made its way back into the used-vehicle market this year, Garcia said.

“Given that car prices have inflated more than other goods and services, it is probably likely that, on average, they will depreciate faster in the future to kind of get back into alignment with their relationship with other goods and services,” he said.

Carvana’s operating expenses rang up to $721 million in the second quarter, down slightly from $727 million in the first quarter.

The company experienced a quarter-over-quarter increase in logistics spending, a large portion

“A lot of Tier 2, Tier 3, smaller suppliers have thrown contracts out the window and said, ‘This is what you’ve got to pay or you won’t get the parts,’ ” said Pat D’Eramo, CEO of Martinrea, a supplier of metal parts, assemblies and modules, and fluid management systems in 10 countries. “In other areas, like Europe, they don’t necessarily throw contracts out the window, but they go bankrupt. I think every week we have a bankrupt sub-supplier in Europe. It’s a very difficult situation with Tier 2 and Tier 3. “

Inflation, which stood at 9.1 percent in June, also is resulting in higher sticker prices. Kelley Blue Book reported a record average transaction price of $48,043 in June, compared with less than $36,000 five years ago. That, coupled with worries about a potential recession, is making some consumers withdraw from their new-vehicle search, according to Michelle Krebs, executive

Toyota has offered a series of make-goods to hundreds of owners of the new 2023 bZ4X — including an offer to buy back the electric compact crossover — as recompense for asking them to stop driving the recalled vehicle because of concerns that the wheels could fall off.

The Japan-built bZ4X went on sale in the US in late spring as Toyota’s first EV since the RAV4 EV it built in cooperation with Tesla in 2014. However, just weeks after the launch, Toyota issued a stop-sale and recall notice. Japan’s safety regulator said sharp turns and sudden braking could cause a hub bolt to loosen, raising the risk of a wheel coming off the vehicle.

An estimated 260 of the vehicles were in the United States, and a remedy has not yet been determined to allow the vehicles to again be safely driven, Toyota said. Consumers were asked to