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The next steps automakers could take after sales drop again in April

DETROIT (Reuters) - Major automakers on Tuesday posted declines in U.S. new vehicle sales for April in a sign the long boom cycle that lifted the American auto industry to record sales last year is losing steam, sending carmaker stocks down. The drop in sales versus April 2016 came on the heels of a disappointing March, which automakers had shrugged off as just a bad month. But two straight weak months has heightened Wall Street worries the cyclical industry is on a downward swing after a nearly uninterrupted boom since the Great Recession's end in 2010. Auto sales were a drag on U.S. first-quarter gross domestic product, with the economy growing at an annual rate of just 0.7 percent according to an advance estimate published by the Commerce Department last Friday. Excluding the auto sector the GDP growth rate would have been 1.2 percent. Industry consultant Autodata put the industry's seasonally adjusted annualized rate of sales at 16.88 million units for April, below the average of 17.2 million units predicted by analysts polled by Reuters. General Motors Co shares fell 2.9 percent while Ford Motor Co slid 4.3 percent and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's U.S.-traded shares tumbled 4.2 percent. The U.S. auto industry faces multiple challenges. Sales are slipping and vehicle inventory levels have risen even as carmakers have hiked discounts to lure customers. A flood of used vehicles from the boom cycle are increasingly competing with new cars. The question for automakers: How much and for how long to curtail production this summer, which will result in worker layoffs? To bring down stocks of unsold vehicles, the Detroit automakers need to cut production, and offer more discounts without creating "an incentives war," said Mark Wakefield, head of the North American automotive practice for AlixPartners in Southfield, Michigan. "We see multiple weeks (of production) being taken out on the car side," he said, "and some softness on the truck side." Rival automakers will be watching each other to see if one is cutting prices to gain market share from another, he said, instead of just clearing inventory. INVESTORS DIGEST BAD NEWS Just last week GM reported a record first-quarter profit, but that had almost zero impact on the automaker's stock. The iconic carmaker, whose own interest was once conflated with that of America's, has slipped behind luxury carmaker Tesla Inc in terms of valuation.

2020 Fiat 124 Spider Abarth gets ‘Scorpion Sting' appearance package

There’s currently a cloud of uncertainty surrounding much of the Fiat lineup, and especially the 124 Spider after the brandÂ’s CEO, Olivier Francois, was recently quoted as saying that FiatÂ’s sporty cars “have no legitimacy” and the brand needs to focus elsewhere in the future. It recently pulled the convertible from the U.K., and through the first six months of the year here in the U.S., it had sold a mere 1,528 models, down 19%. (Fun fact: for the first half of 2019, the entire brand sold just 5,103 models, down 38% from the prior year.) But forget all that for now, because Fiat is in denial celebration mode, marking the brandÂ’s 120th anniversary and the 70th anniversary of its Abarth performance sub-brand. To commemorate the occasion, Fiat is offering a “Scorpion Sting” appearance package on the 2020 model-year 124 Spider Abarth. Most prominent is the rosso scorpion hood decal that harkens to the Abarth badge and founder Karl AbarthÂ’s astrological sign. There are also nifty stripes in the same color that run along the length of the roadsterÂ’s lower body. It's available now for $395, and that pretty much wraps it up. Fiat re-introduced the 124 Spider at the L.A. Auto Show in 2015 as a car based on the Mazda MX-5 MiataÂ’s platform, but with its own Italian design and the 1.4-liter turbo-four engine from the 500 Abarth, offering 164 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. Fiat added new options for the roadster for 2019, including a dual-mode “Record Monza Exhaust” for added growl, plus various appearance packages.

Chinese Jeep production confirmed with Fiat, Guangzhou agreement

Fiat has just finalized a deal originally set up in January between it and China's Guangzhou Automotive Group to bring Jeep production to China. It remains unclear which models will be built, although we're wagering that it'll be the 2014 Cherokee. What we do know, now, is where production will take place.
According to Automotive News, Guangzhou originally wanted production to take place in its home assembly plant in its namesake city. Fiat has battled to send production to a joint venture facility established between Guangzhou and Fiat in the town of Changsha. The joint facility won out, and now the factory, originally built in 2010 with a 140,000-unit capacity, will see Jeeps rolling out of it.
Currently, the GAC-Fiat factory produces the Fiat Viaggio, a jointly developed product that is closely related to America's Dodge Dart. And while it remains unclear as to which model will join the Viaggio on the assembly line, that model is understood to ride on Fiat's Compact platform. The only Jeep to share those underpinnings is the new Cherokee, so there's not much connecting of dots needed to see why this scenario would make sense.