CATA News

 Taxpayers get a reprieve this month in their remittance of the Cook County use tax, normally due on 20th day each month. In July, payment for June transactions is not owed until July 30.

The extension was granted because the county’s new online payment portal was not available until July 6. Starting this month, payment can only be made online.

Taxpayers will want the extra time to file because the ability to upload voluminous data does not yet exist and there is no timetable for when that ability will be available. But Michael Luzzi from the Cook County Revenue Department said that shortcoming is not a deal-breaker. 

"You can do this (data entry) throughout the month," Luzzi said. "You don’t have to do it (file) in one sitting."

Cook County’s use tax amounts to 1% of the transactional amount of goods purchased at retail and titled or registered at an address within the county.

The department relaxed its reporting demands (see reporting FAQs) after listening to feedback from dealerships during June informational webinars about the changeover.

"We contended that listing all sales separately in Schedule A, along with Sales Invoice Date, Sales Invoice Number, Name of Purchaser, VIN, Amount Subject to Tax, and Cook County Use Tax was overly burdensome. This has been modified to require only the completion of two lines on the schedule: one for New Vehicles and the second for Used Vehicles, with the date being always the last day of the month," said Dennis O’Keefe, the CATA’s general counsel.

Similarly, lease transactions, reported on Schedule B, require the same data entry. The county also allowed that Sales to a Dealer for Resale (wholesales) need not be scheduled, meaning Schedule D can be left blank. For Purchases for Dealer Use, reported on Schedule E, the transaction amounts from all transactions also can be summarized on one line. 

 

Direct questions about the new mandate to (312) 603-6961 or to revenuecompliance@cookcountyil.gov.

 

By Emily Cadman, Bloomberg

 

Just a few years ago, obituaries were being written for vehicles. Millennials and Gen-Zers, the argument went, were going to swerve away from car ownership as more of them moved to cities with myriad public transport options and ride-hailing services like Uber. Besides, concern about the adverse impact on the environment would deter young people from making purchases. 

Then the pandemic hit. Now, as the world recovers, used-car prices are going through the roof. Waiting times for driving tests have blown out. And online requests for driving directions are soaring, while public transit route inquiries have plunged.

 

One survey of 3,300 consumers in nine countries found that 32% of non-car owners said they intended to get a car in the next six months. About half of those prospective buyers were millennials. Georgios Basdanis, a 32-year-old doctor in London, is one of those who’s already taken the plunge. He bought a second-hand Mini with 10,000 miles on the clock for about $15,600, financed over two years.

"If it weren’t for the pandemic, I wouldn’t have thought about getting a car," Basdanis said. "I would have thought it a hassle."

He lives in an apartment complex, which, pre-pandemic, had a no-car policy, meaning expensive and often scarce street space was the main option for parking. Additionally, in congested London, many journeys had been much quicker on the Tube, the U.K. capital’s subway system.

But these calculations changed during the pandemic, when taking public transport to his hospital job at the height of the U.K.’s outbreak was an anxiety-inducing experience. Being able to drive himself seemed much safer.

He’d have loved an electric car, but he said that option was too expensive — not only the purchase price but also the insurance costs. Unlike in China, where a new bare-bones electric vehicle can sell for about $4,500, EVs tend to be pricier in Western markets than their gas-guzzling counterparts, impeding the conversion of a green conscience into an actual purchase.

Now fully vaccinated, and seeing traffic-jams picking up, Basdanis said he’s likely to be back on the Tube for his daily commute soon. But that doesn’t mean he’s likely to sell the car.

"It’s certainly a useful thing to have, for out of hours work or just driving to the gym on a weekend," Basdanis said. "Also trips. I can just jump in the car and go to the countryside for a day."

That sense of convenience and freedom is the stuff of a thousand TV commercials — as well as legions of pop songs.

 

Yet it’s also a direct challenge to pre-pandemic public policy. For decades, authorities around the world have been pushing to try and get people out of their cars and onto public transport, both to accommodate growing city populations and reduce air pollution — still a major health issue even in developed countries.

"There will be a strong push of cities trying to limit and reduce the number of cars," said Eric Zayer, a partner in Bain & Co.’s automotive and mobility practice in Munich. "They have made huge investments in public transport, and they need to be amortized. They will not give up on their mass transport systems."

It’s not just in the West where attitudes have changed. In Japan, where in pre-pandemic times more than 10 million people a day jammed onto Tokyo’s subway lines, interest in car ownership is rising. The number of new driver’s licenses issued increased in 2020 for the first time in eight years, according to the country’s National Police Agency, with much of that growth came from people aged in their 20s and 30s. Wait times to take a driving test have more than doubled. 

Authorities betting on a return to normal face a battle to win over those like Gypsy Byrne, a 19-year-old student in Melbourne, who has rethought her transport usage. She’d always had access to public transport, so getting her driver’s license was more of a vague goal than a priority in pre-pandemic times. Then the main bus near her house became an infection hotspot.

 

"You can’t trust public transport now," said Byrne, who lives about 12 miles west of the city center. "I got my driving instructor to start doing five-hour lessons instead of one because I just need my Ps [provisional license plates] to be able to get out and do things."

While she’ll use a car for work when she qualifies as a disabled care assistant, it will also be a big social boon. Relying on others for lifts in the pandemic "just gets really tedious" she said. Byrne has her test on July 31 and, assuming she passes, is one of the lucky ones who won’t need to buy a car — because she’s inherited a Toyota Aurion from her grandparents.

Car companies are responding to the twin anxieties of pandemic exposure and environmental degradation with beefed up marketing efforts. Ford, for instance, has been pitching its Lincoln SUV as a car that can provide a "sanctuary" space with serene lighting, aromatherapy and what one company designer calls "in-vehicle experiences that don’t involve driving."

 

At the same time, traditional auto makers are keen to brandish their green credentials. On Friday, BMW AG started series production of its iX SUV at a plant near Munich. The plant has an entire sustainability portfolio that includes energy-efficient installations and something the firm calls "packaging planning". 

 

Even before the pandemic, younger would-be homebuyers on the hunt for affordable accommodation had been venturing further away from big city centers and locations with dense public transport systems. That trend has accelerated in the wake of Covid as workers newly able to work at least some of the time from home fan out into smaller cities and suburbs, where owning a car is seen as more normal.

 

Yet if the trend of remote work persists and more people buy cars, that may not mean more congestion on roads. So far in the U.S. at least, the booming interest in cars hasn’t meant more miles being driven on aggregate as people take fewer trips overall.

 

"A resurgence of car ownership might be more of the story versus a resurgence of car usage," said Michael Brisson, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in the U.S. "People may want the ability to travel and may be taking more short trips, but I can’t see anywhere that shows they are driving more miles." 

 

Gerald Kia of Naperville was one of 40 U.S. dealerships named as a winner of the 2020 Kia President’s Club.

Electric-truck startup Lordstown Motors Corporation said in a securities filing that although it has struck vehicle-purchase agreements with fleet-management companies, the agreements don’t represent binding purchase orders.

The clarification on June 17 came after the troubled startup’s president two days earlier told reporters the company had "pretty binding" preorders and enough interest from potential buyers to sustain factory output through the end of 2022.

Lordstown shares dropped 4.4% upon the clarification. The company’s stock had gained 11.3% after the president’s initial comments.

The company said the vehicle-purchase agreements generally include a term of three to five years, a designation of Lordstown as the preferred supplier and down payment terms, which usually are 5% down 90 days before the requested delivery date.

Earlier this month, Lordstown warned it didn’t have enough capital to start commercial production and that there were doubts it could continue operations for another year. The company’s top two leaders resigned unexpectedly after a new report from a board committee found inaccuracies in parts of the company’s disclosures on truck preorders.

The Ohio-based company said in its June 15 filing that building relationships with specialized trucking and fleet-management companies to incorporate its debut model, the Endurance, into their programs is an essential sales and marketing strategy.

"They do not commit the counterparties to purchase vehicles, but we believe that they provide us with a significant indicator of demand for the Endurance," Lordstown said of the vehicle-purchase agreements.

Lordstown and several rival electric-vehicle challengers have experienced a reversal of fortune in recent months, going from being among Wall Street’s hottest investments to targets of short sells, financial regulators and critics doubting their future.

In March, the company said it struck agreements with an affiliate of the New Jersey-based dealership group Holman Enterprises to co-market and co-develop business opportunities. The pact also includes a co-marketing agreement involving Lordstown and Holman’s leasing and fleet-management services arm.

 

The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on June 16 again rejected attempts to lift regulations to allow for the deployment of thousands of autonomous vehicles as union groups and attorneys campaign against the legislative proposal.

The committee rebuffed the bid by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., to attach measures lifting regulations on autonomous vehicles to a $78 billion surface transportation bill after he sought to attach it in May to a bill on China tech policy.

Thune has proposed granting the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration the power to grant exemptions for tens of thousands of self-driving vehicles per manufacturer from safety standards written with human drivers in mind.

The surface bill, which would boost funding for Amtrak and other transportation needs, was approved by the committee on a 25-3 vote.

Thune and other lawmakers have sought for nearly five years to win approval.

 

The senator argued autonomous vehicles could help eliminate numerous deaths due to human error such as distracted or impaired drivers.

 

Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, cited recent Tesla crashes and other recent incidents involving driver assistance systems in her response.

"It seems like every other week we’re hearing about a new vehicle that crashed when it was on Autopilot" Cantwell said. "I do think this is legislation that we can complete by the end of this year. ... These last issues are very thorny as it relates to legal structure."

"Democrats have yielded to pressure from special interests against the best interests of our economy and the American people," Thune said. "Are we really going to continue to ignore the enormous safety benefits of these vehicles?"

Thune said that the "Teamsters and trial lawyers" are opposed to self-driving legislation and they "seem to own lock, stock and barrel the Democrats on this committee."

The Teamsters did not immediately comment. The American Association for Justice, which represents plaintiff lawyers, said it "will continue to oppose any legislation that exempts the driverless car industry from basic safety standards, and allows auto and tech companies to avoid being held accountable through the use of forced arbitration clauses."

 

The Self-Driving Coalition, which represents Ford, Alphabet Inc’s Waymo, Volvo and others said "the exclusion of AV legislation from current surface transportation reauthorization bills reflects yet another missed opportunity to save lives" but it vowed to work with lawmakers.

Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department for the AFL-CIO, told U.S. lawmakers in May that autonomous vehicles place "millions of jobs at risk" and any self-driving legislation should not apply to commercial trucks.

Reuters reported in May that Waymo and rival Cruise, a unit of General Motors, have applied for permits to start charging for rides and delivery using autonomous vehicles in San Francisco.

 

Although high-tech crime gets most of the headlines, low-tech crime poses a serious threat to dealerships, too, according to Andris Berzins, Special Investigations Unit team supervisor for Federated Insurance.

For example, there’s catalytic converter theft, where thieves steal the emissions-control devices and sell them to scrappers who recover the precious metals inside. Each converter contains just a few grams of materials such as rhodium, palladium and platinum, but those bits add up. Pure rhodium fetched $14,500 an ounce in December 2020, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

A cordless reciprocating saw is all the technology a well-equipped catalytic converter thief needs, Berzins said in a webinar hosted by the American International Automobile Dealers Association.

The NICB said there were an average of 1,203 catalytic converter thefts per month that resulted in an insurance claim in 2020, up from a monthly average of 108 in 2018. The victims in those statistics include individual consumers and commercial businesses.

There probably are many more catalytic converter thefts that don’t result in a claim because the victim doesn’t have insurance or doesn’t file a claim because the value of the claim doesn’t exceed the deductible by enough to make a claim worthwhile, a spokesman for the NICB said.

 

Under lock and key

Theft based on stealing car keys is a whole other category of generally low-tech theft, Berzins said. A thief poses as a customer, gets his hands on the keys to a vehicle, then pulls a switcheroo and hands a dummy key back to the salesperson. The thief comes back later and, using the real key, climbs in the vehicle and simply drives away.

"We find it all the time," Berzins said. "The client says, ‘But we’ve got the keys.’ They might look like the real ones – unless the salesperson actually tests it."

A thief with enough nerve could just hop into a car with keys in it in the service lane, or even with the motor running. "Service departments should not leave keys inside vehicles, even in the service bay," he said, and dealerships should require strict procedures to control access to keys.

There’s also a higher-tech method of intercepting the radio-frequency identification (RFID) signal from remote-control key fobs and creating a new key to "spoof" the car into accepting the new, phony key, Berzins said.

However, it’s inconvenient and risky for thieves because it requires at least two people to pull it off: They have to be close to the vehicle when someone unlocks it; and it requires the thieves to steal the car right away, while the fake key works.

 

Not-so-welcome mat

A common problem is that dealerships might not be vigilant enough. To put that more positively, Berzins said dealerships understandably may be "too" welcoming because, after all, they’re trying to sell cars.

 

"If you’re there to purchase a vehicle, or just to wander around, I can’t think of any place more inviting" than a dealership, he said.

Meanwhile, he said successful thieves really do study dealership routines. They may know where unsecured keys are kept, for instance. Thieves also tend to choose busy times, when they can disappear in the hustle and bustle.

Naturally, thieves also are known to strike at night when no one’s around. Berzins said relatively low-tech countermeasures include motion-detection lighting and security cameras, plus ways to physically make it difficult to drive off with stolen cars, such as vehicles parked at night at entrances and exits, plus gates, fences or even ditches.

 

Too good to be true

None of this is to minimize the high-tech threat, which is serious and getting worse, especially as thieves try to purchase vehicles online using stolen or phony identities, Berzins said.

"There’ve been a lot of technology advances, a lot of technical advances for the vehicles," he said. "The problem is, technical advances are also moving forward for the criminals."

Still, he said there are ways internet thieves often tip their hands. Warning signs include whether someone uses a credit card or a cashier’s check for the down payment; whether they’re unusually eager to take delivery, with some compelling story, like they’re moving; and whether they request delivery somewhere unusual, other than home or office.

"If it seems to be too good to be true, it probably is," Berzins said. "If someone’s traveling five states just to get a vehicle from you, that’s a great big red flag."

 

The Chicago Auto Show will be alive with motion next month, with the show securing two indoor tracks, two more outdoor tracks, and outdoor ride-and-drives by nine and maybe 10 brands. The show is July 15-19.

Outdoor activities will be at an all-time high for the 120-year-old show. Of course, the 2021 edition will be the only one not to have been held in late January or February. A high-octane street fest will close the show’s first four days.

Admission tickets cost $13 each and are sold exclusively online at www.chicagoautoshow.com. Full information for visitors to plan their trip also is on the website.

As it is among the first U.S. auto shows since the curtain came down on the 2020 Chicago Auto Show, expect plenty of global and North American debuts next month. For one, Ford will introduce its Maverick compact pickup truck, which will be introduced along with the all-new F-150, all-electric F-150 Lightning, Bronco, Bronco Sport and Mustang Mach-E.

"Ford jumped at the opportunity to take advantage of our expanded outdoor space to showcase its latest models to the public," said Chicago Auto Show General Manager Dave Sloan. "It’s also exciting that show attendees will be the first in the world to experience both the ‘Built Wild’ and ‘Built to Electrify’ activations, as both make their global debuts at our show."

Ford is planning a Bronco heritage outdoor display to show off the model’s robust history and evolution over the years. Indoors, a highly interactive display called "Ford Built Tough" will highlight the brand’s latest truck lineup, performance vehicles, passenger cars and commercial products.

  

Other fan-favorite attractions such as the Camp Jeep and Ram Trucks Territory test tracks return indoors.

    

"Those experiences are among the top reasons people love to attend the Chicago Auto Show," Sloan said. "Because of their popularity, people were used to waiting in long lines. This summer, the consumer experience will be elevated because now people will be able to electronically book a time slot for these experiences in advance as they plan their visit, which is a benefit of the effort we’re taking to diminish lines and reduce congestion within the exhibits."

The outdoor street fest will treat attendees to an array of shiny new cars, trucks, and SUVs parked along Indiana Avenue; local food from pop-up food trucks and tents — including Smoke Daddy, Tuco and Blondie, Connie’s Pizza, Monk’s Burger Bar, Sausage Fest and Nice Buns — tasty sweets from vendors such as Andy’s Frozen Custard, Cookies w/Flavor and A Sweets Girl Cupcakes; local brews from Chicago-based Goose Island; and music by varying local musicians spanning an array of genres.

"We’re very appreciative of the cooperation from Chicago Alderman Pat Dowell and McCormick Place officials who have been so accommodating as we bring the vision of our special edition auto show to life," said CATA Chairman Kevin Keefe. "The Chicago Auto Show street fest is a prime example of the cooperation extended to us."

 

Admission tickets that are secured for the evening time block grant attendees access to the show and to the street fest.

Outdoor ride-and-drives will be hosted by Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Ford, Jeep, Kia, Lincoln, Ram, and Subaru, and possibly Volkswagen.

The Chicago Auto Show is committed to providing a safe environment for all involved and will carefully adhere to the health and safety protocols and guidelines set forth by city and state officials. 

Beyond the electronic ticketing process, show management will regulate the number of attendees throughout each day to control the number of people on the show floor at any given time. 

Masks are recommended for individuals who are not fully vaccinated. It is suggested that all attendees bring a mask in the event it is required for participation in one of the test tracks.

The day before the show opens to the public, during an abbreviated Media Preview, brief news conferences will be held in the displays of Ford, Jeep, Kia, Lexus, Nissan, Ram, Toyota and Volkswagen.

 

First Look for Charity will not be held in 2021.

 

The economy continues to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, but with the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage, many consumers are traveling far and wide just to get the car they desire. It doesn’t matter whether a vehicle is new or used, dealerships are running on empty. 

Nearly 10% of vehicle shoppers traveled out of state to purchase the ride they wanted, according to a new survey by Cars.com. Of the 12,000 respondents, 56% bought a new vehicle, while 43% bought a used vehicle.

A shortage of computer chips has caused a number of automobile factories to shut down temporarily in recent months, as they can’t finish building new vehicles without adequate parts.  

Those issues have contributed to a spike in used-car prices. With newer vehicles harder to come by, used cars are suddenly a hot commodity. And that means many people are willing to cross state lines to get what they want.

"We’ve seen inventory dive both from a new and used standpoint as the chip shortage really kind of continues to impact the industry," said Kelsey Mays, assistant managing editor at Cars.com.

Domestic auto inventory has steadily decreased over the course of the year, reaching an all-time low, said Bryce Gill, an economist at First Trust Portfolios, an investment management firm. 

Inventory of new vehicles assembled in North America at the beginning of 2021 totaled 396,500. That has dropped to 254,800 units now, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

"People have a specific car that they want, and their local dealership just doesn’t have it in stock," Gill said. "That’s why they search and find a place, you know, 200 miles away that has what they’re looking for."

The distance traveled to get a new vehicle varies, with 51% traveling 25 miles, 20% traveling 50 miles and 13% trekking over 250 miles.

Supply chain issues and labor shortages will continue for the rest of the year and the struggle to keep up with vehicle demand won’t go away overnight. It is like "a bunch of gears turning together," Mays said. 

Even a drive to another state may not be enough for shoppers to get precisely what they want. Car buyers should "be ready to compromise on things like color and specific features," Gill said.

 

By Jonathan Collegio, National Automobile Dealers Association

 

 

While automakers, utility companies and third-party charging station providers all have roles to play in educating consumers about electric vehicles, dealerships arguably have the biggest role — and biggest incentive — with creating demand by engaging with non-EV owners. They are in the best position, physically, to engage with the shopper in a local context. As a result, dealerships can provide important insights into the resources, policies and incentives that are unique to their community.

New daily driving habits must be developed. Charging awareness is the key to addressing range anxiety and is an issue that will subside as a robust infrastructure evolves to support the growing fleet of EVs on the streets. Since most owners likely will have a charging kit at home, they can simply charge the battery overnight, similar to what they do with their mobile devices. This means that in most cases a sufficient charge is available in the morning when owners go to work or run errands. It simply is a different experience than with a gas-powered vehicle. And to EVs’ credit, owners of internal combustion vehicles can’t top-off gas tanks at home.

Beyond education on the local landscape, prospective buyers must understand what it means to live with an EV. It requires a unique approach to planning for different driving experiences so that potential pitfalls can be avoided.

 

Take for instance, the all-American road trip tradition. Conventional vehicle owners simply need to know how to gas up and go. EV owners need to be aware of their vehicle’s range and the charging infrastructure that is available over the course of their route.

As consumers figure out how to integrate EVs into their daily lives, driving range ceases to be the deterrent that many think it is. The key issue revolves around when and how consumers are put behind the wheel, literally and figuratively.

 

It will be up to the industry to determine the investments that should be made to engage and educate EV shoppers sooner rather than later.