Stellantis Is Launching a Cheaper Parts Brand To Maintain Old Cars photo
Stellantis, the automaker conglomerate formerly known as Fiat Chrysler, is introducing a factory-endorsed aftermarket parts brand to North America. In a sense, it’s undercutting its own OEM parts catalog. As a big DIY guy, I find this very interesting. But even from a broader auto industry perspective, it’s not insignificant.
When you’re buying replacement parts to maintain an aging car, you’ve basically got three lanes to pick from: You can get OEM parts straight from the automaker (most expensive, but typically the best-made and best-fitting), you can go for a range of established aftermarket options (stuff that’s consistently recommended on forums, stuff stocked by reputable auto parts stores), or you can fire up Amazon and get the cheapest version of what you’re looking for in two days.
The savviest wrenchers can explore a fourth option: Hunting for the OEM part from the supplier rather than the automaker. For example, a Honda oxygen sensor is probably made by Denso, and you can sometimes get the OE part cheaper if you can find the Denso-labeled item at a wholesaler like RockAuto.
In my experience, you pretty much get what you pay for. I tend to pick my car part price point based on how critical the device is and how hard it is to replace. MAF sensor on the Civic I’m having professionally tuned? Yeah, I’ll spring for the OEM part. Windshield washer pump I might activate a few times a year? Whatever, grab what’s readily available on Prime shipping and save $40.
So circling back to the Stellantis news—automakers are obviously watching their industry with hawk eyes and can see that our nation’s collective fleet of cars is aging and the aftermarket support business is likely to expand. Clearly, Stellantis also knows that not everybody driving old Challengers can stomach the high price of OEM parts. But it doesn’t want to miss out on the money to be made from keeping old cars alive. Hell, if anybody knows about making money from keeping old cars alive, it’s the maker of the Challenger and its ilk.
Story continues
Anyway, enter Bproauto—a private-label replacement parts brand endorsed by Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, and Fiat (and obtainable at dealerships) but slotted below the Mopar genuine OEM parts brand. This Bproauto parts brand has been around, but the North American market launch as Stellantis’ factory-backed aftermarket option is new.
The press release describes the second-line brand as “high-quality aftermarket parts [that] cost less than original-equipment (OE) offerings.” Some compromise must have been made somewhere, so naturally I’m curious to know “how much cheaper and why” but we’ll have to wait until this stuff hits the market to really find out. I’m sure part of the equation is that Stellantis itself simply doesn’t have the capacity to manufacture every part for every car it’s made over the last few decades, which is one reason aftermarket parts brands exist in the first place.
Parts from Bproauto will come with a two-year warranty, and while the initial offerings are just simple consumables like filters and brakes, a pretty comprehensive catalog is coming soon.
I’ve had a hot take percolating in my head for a long time that automakers should quit making new cars and pivot entirely to maintaining the world’s existing ones. This isn’t that at all, but it is sort of a step in that direction, at least in the sense of an automaker clearly identifying and addressing the concept of expanding its tendrils deeper into the old-car maintenance space.
Every automaker offers OEM parts for at least some of its cars to mechanics and consumers, and there are a bunch of aftermarket companies making parts for a wide range of common cars. But it’s not common to see an aftermarket company branded and established as officially endorsed by an automaker or offered for sale at dealership parts counters.
I bet we’ll see a lot more of this in the years to come. Maybe not every automaker will publicly announce a lower-cost OE-equivalent parts sub-brand, but as cars continue to simultaneously get older and more complicated I would expect to see a lot more action from big players in the aftermarket space.
China EV Brand Zeekr To Launch Its First Luxury Sports Car
A man walks past a sign of Geely’s new premium electric vehicle (EV) brand Zeekr at its factory in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China April 15, 2021. REUTERS/Yilei Sun/File Photo
SHANGHAI, Aug 10 (Reuters) – China’s Zeekr, Geely Automobile’s (0175.HK) electric vehicle brand, said on Thursday it will launch its first luxury sports car, which will be priced above 1 million yuan ($140,000).
A person with direct knowledge of the matter added that the company plans to launch the Zeekr 001 FR sports car within weeks and aims to deliver the first batch of cars this year.
While Chinese EV makers have ramped up efforts in developing more cost-efficient products facing a brutal price war started by Tesla at the beginning of the year, some of them are also moving upscale to the top segment of high-performance EVs to seek higher margins.
BYD launched an electric off-road SUV with a starting price of 1.098 million yuan as the first model under its luxury brand Yangwang in January.
Founded in 2021 as a premium EV brand, Zeekr has three models for sales with starting prices ranging from 189,800 yuan to 499,000 yuan.
($1 = 7.2116 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by Zhang Yan, Brenda Goh; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Miral Fahmy
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
What Is Texas’ Favorite Car Brand? Analysis Reveals Top Brand In Each U.S. State
HOUSTON – They say everything is bigger in Texas, and that apparently includes Texans’ love for one specific car brand.
According to an analysis by BetTexas.Com, Texas’ favorite car brand was Lamborghini. Texas was the only state that had the Italian luxury car company at the top of their list.
SUGGESTED: Houston named one of the best BBQ cities
HATFIELD, UNITED KINDOM – JUNE 22: The Lamborghini Revuelto at HROwen Lamborghini in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. The Revuelto is the replacement car to the Aventador, and Lamborghini’s most powerful car ever. (Photo by Martyn Lucy/Getty Images)
The sports betting information website analyzed search trend data from over the past year to find the top car brand in each state.
They started with CarLogos.Org’s list of the Top 50 most popular car brands in the country and then used Google Trends to see which car brand had the most interest in each state.
FOX 26 Houston is now on the FOX LOCAL app available through Apple TV, Amazon FireTV, Roku and Google Android TV!
The car brand that topped the list in the most states was Honda, which was found to be the most popular in seven states.
The Houston skyline appears above an intersection of freeways approaching from the east on April 11, 2021 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
Here’s a look at the favorite car brands for each state, according to BetTexas.Com’s analysis:
Honda: Alaska, Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina
Dodge: Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico
Ford: Michigan, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming
Audi: Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York
Mercedes-Benz: Florida, Georgia, Virginia
Chevy: Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma
Mazda: Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington
Volkswagen: New Hampshire, Oregon, Utah
Buick: Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin
Hyundai: Alabama, Arizona, Illinois
Tesla: California
Toyota: Hawaii
Volvo: Maine
Lincoln: Nebraska
BMW: Nevada
Land Rover: New Jersey
Kia: Ohio
Alfa Romeo: Rhode Island
Nissan: Tennessee
Lamborghini: Texas
Subaru: Vermont
Jeep: West Virginia
To learn more about the analysis, click here.
Stellantis Is Launching A Cheaper Parts Brand To Maintain Old Cars
Stellantis Is Launching a Cheaper Parts Brand To Maintain Old Cars photo
Stellantis, the automaker conglomerate formerly known as Fiat Chrysler, is introducing a factory-endorsed aftermarket parts brand to North America. In a sense, it’s undercutting its own OEM parts catalog. As a big DIY guy, I find this very interesting. But even from a broader auto industry perspective, it’s not insignificant.
When you’re buying replacement parts to maintain an aging car, you’ve basically got three lanes to pick from: You can get OEM parts straight from the automaker (most expensive, but typically the best-made and best-fitting), you can go for a range of established aftermarket options (stuff that’s consistently recommended on forums, stuff stocked by reputable auto parts stores), or you can fire up Amazon and get the cheapest version of what you’re looking for in two days.
The savviest wrenchers can explore a fourth option: Hunting for the OEM part from the supplier rather than the automaker. For example, a Honda oxygen sensor is probably made by Denso, and you can sometimes get the OE part cheaper if you can find the Denso-labeled item at a wholesaler like RockAuto.
In my experience, you pretty much get what you pay for. I tend to pick my car part price point based on how critical the device is and how hard it is to replace. MAF sensor on the Civic I’m having professionally tuned? Yeah, I’ll spring for the OEM part. Windshield washer pump I might activate a few times a year? Whatever, grab what’s readily available on Prime shipping and save $40.
So circling back to the Stellantis news—automakers are obviously watching their industry with hawk eyes and can see that our nation’s collective fleet of cars is aging and the aftermarket support business is likely to expand. Clearly, Stellantis also knows that not everybody driving old Challengers can stomach the high price of OEM parts. But it doesn’t want to miss out on the money to be made from keeping old cars alive. Hell, if anybody knows about making money from keeping old cars alive, it’s the maker of the Challenger and its ilk.
Story continues
Anyway, enter Bproauto—a private-label replacement parts brand endorsed by Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, and Fiat (and obtainable at dealerships) but slotted below the Mopar genuine OEM parts brand. This Bproauto parts brand has been around, but the North American market launch as Stellantis’ factory-backed aftermarket option is new.
The press release describes the second-line brand as “high-quality aftermarket parts [that] cost less than original-equipment (OE) offerings.” Some compromise must have been made somewhere, so naturally I’m curious to know “how much cheaper and why” but we’ll have to wait until this stuff hits the market to really find out. I’m sure part of the equation is that Stellantis itself simply doesn’t have the capacity to manufacture every part for every car it’s made over the last few decades, which is one reason aftermarket parts brands exist in the first place.
Parts from Bproauto will come with a two-year warranty, and while the initial offerings are just simple consumables like filters and brakes, a pretty comprehensive catalog is coming soon.
I’ve had a hot take percolating in my head for a long time that automakers should quit making new cars and pivot entirely to maintaining the world’s existing ones. This isn’t that at all, but it is sort of a step in that direction, at least in the sense of an automaker clearly identifying and addressing the concept of expanding its tendrils deeper into the old-car maintenance space.
Every automaker offers OEM parts for at least some of its cars to mechanics and consumers, and there are a bunch of aftermarket companies making parts for a wide range of common cars. But it’s not common to see an aftermarket company branded and established as officially endorsed by an automaker or offered for sale at dealership parts counters.
I bet we’ll see a lot more of this in the years to come. Maybe not every automaker will publicly announce a lower-cost OE-equivalent parts sub-brand, but as cars continue to simultaneously get older and more complicated I would expect to see a lot more action from big players in the aftermarket space.
China EV Brand Zeekr To Launch Its First Luxury Sports Car
A man walks past a sign of Geely’s new premium electric vehicle (EV) brand Zeekr at its factory in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China April 15, 2021. REUTERS/Yilei Sun/File Photo
SHANGHAI, Aug 10 (Reuters) – China’s Zeekr, Geely Automobile’s (0175.HK) electric vehicle brand, said on Thursday it will launch its first luxury sports car, which will be priced above 1 million yuan ($140,000).
A person with direct knowledge of the matter added that the company plans to launch the Zeekr 001 FR sports car within weeks and aims to deliver the first batch of cars this year.
While Chinese EV makers have ramped up efforts in developing more cost-efficient products facing a brutal price war started by Tesla at the beginning of the year, some of them are also moving upscale to the top segment of high-performance EVs to seek higher margins.
BYD launched an electric off-road SUV with a starting price of 1.098 million yuan as the first model under its luxury brand Yangwang in January.
Founded in 2021 as a premium EV brand, Zeekr has three models for sales with starting prices ranging from 189,800 yuan to 499,000 yuan.
($1 = 7.2116 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by Zhang Yan, Brenda Goh; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Miral Fahmy
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
What Is Texas’ Favorite Car Brand? Analysis Reveals Top Brand In Each U.S. State
HOUSTON – They say everything is bigger in Texas, and that apparently includes Texans’ love for one specific car brand.
According to an analysis by BetTexas.Com, Texas’ favorite car brand was Lamborghini. Texas was the only state that had the Italian luxury car company at the top of their list.
SUGGESTED: Houston named one of the best BBQ cities
HATFIELD, UNITED KINDOM – JUNE 22: The Lamborghini Revuelto at HROwen Lamborghini in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. The Revuelto is the replacement car to the Aventador, and Lamborghini’s most powerful car ever. (Photo by Martyn Lucy/Getty Images)
The sports betting information website analyzed search trend data from over the past year to find the top car brand in each state.
They started with CarLogos.Org’s list of the Top 50 most popular car brands in the country and then used Google Trends to see which car brand had the most interest in each state.
FOX 26 Houston is now on the FOX LOCAL app available through Apple TV, Amazon FireTV, Roku and Google Android TV!
The car brand that topped the list in the most states was Honda, which was found to be the most popular in seven states.
The Houston skyline appears above an intersection of freeways approaching from the east on April 11, 2021 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
Here’s a look at the favorite car brands for each state, according to BetTexas.Com’s analysis:
Honda: Alaska, Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina
Dodge: Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico
Ford: Michigan, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming
Audi: Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York
Mercedes-Benz: Florida, Georgia, Virginia
Chevy: Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma
Mazda: Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington
Volkswagen: New Hampshire, Oregon, Utah
Buick: Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin
Hyundai: Alabama, Arizona, Illinois
Tesla: California
Toyota: Hawaii
Volvo: Maine
Lincoln: Nebraska
BMW: Nevada
Land Rover: New Jersey
Kia: Ohio
Alfa Romeo: Rhode Island
Nissan: Tennessee
Lamborghini: Texas
Subaru: Vermont
Jeep: West Virginia
To learn more about the analysis, click here.