Each year, I look back on the previous 12 months and recall the biggest stories in the world of automobiles. As a whole, 2024 was fairly calm compared to the prior few where we dealt with the changes from Covid-19, followed up by a severe microchip shortage that resulted in empty dealer lots and premium prices for new car shoppers. Still, there were significant events in 2024, yet somehow the car business felt more normal than it has in years. So, today I look back at some of the big stories of 2024, in no particular order: Honda & Nissan get engaged. Not sure anybody saw this coming; I know I didn’t. It is hard to imagine two huge car companies that are fierce competitors teaming up, but it could happen. I wrote on this recently with my thoughts: click here for my commentary. I am more and more convinced the Japanese government is pushing this venture to save Nissan, but I am still not convinced this deal will ultimately come together. The CDK disaster: I knew a lot of dealerships used CDK to operate all the departments in the dealership. In mid-June the company was hacked and many CarPro dealers were effectively shut down for weeks. The estimated losses, mostly from parts and service sales, is estimated at over a billion dollars. There have been a number of lawsuits filed, and you can bet there will be many more. The Presidential election: Oh sure, we have them every four years. The 2020 election had a profound impact on the auto industry. The wave of electric cars came flooding in, EV mandates, EV rebates, etc. Last November’s election is likely to reverse many if not all of those actions. I certainly suspect the $7,500 federal incentive will be gone ASAP, and whatever actions can be reversed, likely will. The big question is whether or not we’ll see big tariffs that affect prices, or not. Big changes at Stellantis: We followed closely the drama of the Stellantis Dealer Council writing a desperate open letter to Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares. I have to think that this was a factor in Tavares's rather sudden “retirement”. As I suggested, the Stellantis board brought back some of the great talent they had, including one of my favorites, Tim Kuniskis who was a guest on the Car Pro Show. He is now back as the head of Ram, which lost a lot of sales due to the lack of incentives. The UAW: Interesting year for the UAW in 2024. The fiery leader, Shawn Fain, was making headlines almost daily. He was successful in making inroads in the south when VW in Tennessee voted to join the union. He failed, however, in a campaign to get Mercedes-Benz workers to unionize in Alabama. Fain also went all-in on backing Kamala Harris for President and has been strangely quiet since the election. Jaguar gets a lot of attention: I’m not sure the storied automaker wanted all the publicity it got, but any publicity is good publicity, right? I’m not so sure. In November, Jaguar unveiled its new marketing campaign and it certainly caused a stir. Then shortly afterwards, we saw the first all-electric, one of many, the Type 00, which caused an equal stir. Some of us are wondering if this company actually knows which direction it is headed. GM moving out of downtown Detroit: I wrote in April about GM closing its headquarters at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit and lamented the move from the landmark. Ironically, the big glass complex was the brainchild of none other than Henry Ford. Some say it is progress, but I’m not so sure. The Elon Musk mystery: Anybody see the friendship between Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump coming? Seemed a bit unlikely to me given 45 and 47 has not been onboard the green train. The two billionaires seem to genuinely respect each other. One has to wonder what it is like for Mr. Trump to be in a room with someone who is richer than he is? You would not think Elon would be supportive of doing away with EV incentives, but as I speculated, maybe he wants to eliminate some of the competition. Just for fun, take a look back at the top automotive studies from 2018. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com. Each year, I look back on the previous 12 months and recall the biggest stories in the world of automobiles. As a whole, 2024 was fairly calm compared to the prior few where we dealt with the changes from Covid-19, followed up by a severe microchip shortage that resulted in empty dealer […]

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com.

Each year, I look back on the previous 12 months and recall the biggest stories in the world of automobiles. As a whole, 2024 was fairly calm compared to the prior few where we dealt with the changes from Covid-19, followed up by a severe microchip shortage that resulted in empty dealer lots and premium prices for new car shoppers.
The Elon Musk mystery: Anybody see the friendship between Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump coming? Seemed a bit unlikely to me given 45 and 47 has not been onboard the green train. The two billionaires seem to genuinely respect each other. One has to wonder what it is like for Mr. Trump to be in a room with someone who is richer than he is? You would not think Elon would be supportive of doing away with EV incentives, but as I speculated, maybe he wants to eliminate some of the competition.
GM moving out of downtown Detroit: I wrote in April about GM closing its headquarters at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit and lamented the move from the landmark. Ironically, the big glass complex was the brainchild of none other than Henry Ford. Some say it is progress, but I’m not so sure.
Just for fun, take a look back at the top automotive studies from 2018.
Big changes at Stellantis: We followed closely the drama of the Stellantis Dealer Council writing a desperate open letter to Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares. I have to think that this was a factor in Tavares’s rather sudden “retirement”. As I suggested, the Stellantis board brought back some of the great talent they had, including one of my favorites, Tim Kuniskis who was a guest on the Car Pro Show. He is now back as the head of Ram, which lost a lot of sales due to the lack of incentives.
The UAW: Interesting year for the UAW in 2024. The fiery leader, Shawn Fain, was making headlines almost daily. He was successful in making inroads in the south when VW in Tennessee voted to join the union. He failed, however, in a campaign to get Mercedes-Benz workers to unionize in Alabama. Fain also went all-in on backing Kamala Harris for President and has been strangely quiet since the election.
Honda & Nissan get engaged. Not sure anybody saw this coming; I know I didn’t. It is hard to imagine two huge car companies that are fierce competitors teaming up, but it could happen. I wrote on this recently with my thoughts: click here for my commentary. I am more and more convinced the Japanese government is pushing this venture to save Nissan, but I am still not convinced this deal will ultimately come together.
The Presidential election: Oh sure, we have them every four years. The 2020 election had a profound impact on the auto industry. The wave of electric cars came flooding in, EV mandates, EV rebates, etc. Last November’s election is likely to reverse many if not all of those actions. I certainly suspect the ,500 federal incentive will be gone ASAP, and whatever actions can be reversed, likely will. The big question is whether or not we’ll see big tariffs that affect prices, or not.
Still, there were significant events in 2024, yet somehow the car business felt more normal than it has in years. So, today I look back at some of the big stories of 2024, in no particular order:
Jaguar gets a lot of attention: I’m not sure the storied automaker wanted all the publicity it got, but any publicity is good publicity, right? I’m not so sure. In November, Jaguar unveiled its new marketing campaign and it certainly caused a stir. Then shortly afterwards, we saw the first all-electric, one of many, the Type 00, which caused an equal stir. Some of us are wondering if this company actually knows which direction it is headed.

The CDK disaster: I knew a lot of dealerships used CDK to operate all the departments in the dealership. In mid-June the company was hacked and many CarPro dealers were effectively shut down for weeks. The estimated losses, mostly from parts and service sales, is estimated at over a billion dollars. There have been a number of lawsuits filed, and you can bet there will be many more.