Welcome to the Dec. 6 edition of the Daily 5.
Automakers spend countless billions of dollars in the mature U.S. market building their brands, conquesting customers and developing long-term loyal drivers.
That's standard operating procedure, but these efforts get seriously diminished if the automaker can't back up marketing with product quality. Not a problem for Subaru, as this story by Michael Martinez showed this week.
The automaker dominated the holy grail of quality ratings: the Consumer Reports annual brand report card. This ranking measures factors such as vehicle performance, safety and reliability. Brands that do well plaster the walls of their dealerships with the results. And for generations, savvy car buyers have used Consumer Reports as a key tool in making purchasing decisions.
Subaru also routinely occupies top positions in customer loyalty reports produced by J.D. Power and others.
Let's face it, in mature markets such as the U.S. and Europe, automakers can't expect any kind of rapid growth in overall sales. So if they are going to build volume and market share, they've got to win customers from competitors — and keep existing customers happy and loyal.
Subaru seems to be doing just that in the U.S. It is headed for a banner year in 2024: Sales rose 5.5 percent to 605,854 vehicles through November.
In other coverage, new numbers came out on Elon Musk's 2024 political contributions. He doled out at least $274 million for U.S. elections this year, most of which went toward supporting President-elect Donald Trump. We can't totally conclude this yet, but it's a good bet the Tesla CEO became the largest single presidential election donor in U.S. history.
Detroit Diesel is an iconic company name long associated with big diesel trucks made in the city. Except it's in a suburb and is owned by Germany's Daimler Truck North America. Crain's Detroit Business reports today that Detroit Diesel plans a $285 million expansion to its Redford Township, Mich., plant for electric vehicle battery prototyping and pack assembly.
The company is asking the state of Michigan for a $27.7 million grant as well as a 15-year tax exemption worth $3.2 million. A state board is taking up the request next week.
From the dealership beat today, we have the latest on some store divestitures in the third and fourth quarters by Lithia, Group 1, AutoNation and Asbury. The buy-sell market never seems to slow down.
Looking ahead to Monday, we'll have a compelling story by our Georgia Hall about how a key auto supply operation in North Carolina survived the massive flooding in the wake of Hurricane Helene that devastated the Appalachian region around Asheville, N.C. This will be a must-read.
That's it for today. Have a great weekend!
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— Philip Nussel, online editor
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