Welcome to today's edition of the Daily 5.
Piston Group Chairman Vinnie Johnson won a huge court victory in Detroit in August in defense of his company's coveted certification as a minority-owned enterprise.
But the Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council isn't going away in its quest to strip Piston of the certification and is appealing the decision in Wayne County court, according to a story today by Kurt Nagl of Crain's Detroit Business, an affiliate of Automotive News.
It's a long, complicated, bitter dispute, but the bombshell that emerged in the ruling was the court concluding that Michelle Robinson, the CEO of the council, colluded with others in an attempt to acquire Piston. Robinson didn't respond to Nagl's query for comment, but in effect denied the court's conclusion in an email to her organization.
Former Ford purchasing executive Burt Jordan — one of the players who allegedly aided Robinson's effort — denied there was any attempt to take over Piston from Johnson.
"To this day, I am still confused as to why this all occurred," Jordan told Crain's, speaking publicly about the case and allegations for the first time. "I can assure you if you look at all the facts, there's no truth to anything they said about me colluding with Michelle ... ."
Suffice to say, there will be more to come.
Meanwhile, we continue to follow Hurricane Helene's blitz through the Southeast. With more than 4 million customers out of electricity as of early afternoon today, it's a good bet a lot of dealerships in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas will have trouble wrapping up their third-quarter sales this weekend. And we just got word that Ken Ganley's Kia dealership in New Port Richey, Fla., faces the loss of about 700 vehicles from the floods.
Another good read in today's report focuses on online car shipping guide Edmunds' latest digital ad blitz to raise brand awareness and help dealerships move more metal.
Looking ahead to Saturday, we'll have a story about Chevrolet's aggressive new effort to train some 7,000 dealership staff about electric vehicles. The program coincides with Chevy's rapid expansion of its EV lineup.
That's it for today. Have a great weekend!
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— Philip Nussel, online editor
