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Tesla poaches Volvo interior engineering boss Anders Bell

Tesla is the belle of both the eco-friendly and luxury balls. The company's Model S and Model X are status symbols, and benchmarks for the ability to blend both green credentials with performance and a luxury driving experience. That said, their cabins aren't necessarily deserving of those credentials. That's why this little news nugget is such a big deal for the California brand. Electrek reports that Tesla has poached Anders Bell from Volvo. Bell confirmed the move via his LinkedIn page. The (now former) head of interior engineering and senior director of engineering was responsible for the Swedish brand's raft of high-quality, beautifully crafted cabins. Doubtless Tesla wants a piece of the critical acclaim Volvo's received for the interior design and quality on its 90-series models – XC90, S90, and V90. The move is, at least based on Electrek's stalking of Bell's LinkedIn profile, a big loss for Volvo. Bell joined the Swedish brand fresh out of Halmstad College's engineering program in 1998 and has spent his entire career working for Gothenburg and its various owners. That included a nearly four-year stint in China after Geely bought Volvo from Ford, assisting with the Chinese launch of the XC60. Bell's listed his final project with his previous employer as "development, design, and release of Volvo interiors to be launched 2017-2018 and concept definitions of interiors 2019 and beyond." That means that while Bell started at Palo Alto this month, his impact at Volvo won't fade for several more years. Related Video: News Source: Electrek via Jalopnik Green Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Tesla Volvo volvo s90

Subprime financing on the rise in new car sales, leasing too

We all remember the financial crisis that began several years back. At its core was a splurge of subprime lending for housing loans. The housing bubble burst, triggering a collapse of the mortgage-backed securities market. Apparently, those types of loans still exist in the automotive industry, and the market share for these types of "nonprime, subprime, and deep subprime," loans has grown 13.6 percent compared to the third quarter a year ago.
According to an Automotive News report, high-risk lending expanded to 24.8 percent of total loans in Q3, up from 21.9 percent for this time last year. As this level increased, average credit scores of borrowers dropped to 755, down from 763 a year ago. In that time, the average financing amount increased $90 per vehicle, to $25,963.
At 818, Volvo maintains the highest per-owner credit score, while Mitsubishi has the lowest, at 694. The highest rate of borrowers was at Toyota, with 14 percent of the market, followed by Ford with 13.1 percent and Chevrolet at 11.1.

Why Mazda did so well and Volvo so poorly in Consumer Reports survey

The poor performances of Tesla and all three domestic automakers got the headlines in Consumer Reports magazine's latest reliability survey, but there were other results that caught our interest. Tiny Mazda notched the biggest gain among the 29 brands included in this year's list, leap-frogging nine spots to No. 3. Buick, which was in the top 10 last year, fell 11 spots to No. 19, the biggest decline of any brand. And then there's Volvo, a brand often vaunted for its quality and reliability, dropping six spots to dead last. What gives? For starters, all three brands benefited or suffered in large part due to their relatively small portfolio of vehicles. So when raves or complaints rolled in for even one particular model, as was often the case, it weighed heavily on the entire brand. That's especially true when it involves a relatively high-volume, hot-selling model such as the Buick Enclave (more on that in a moment). Mazda fared as well as it did despite the CX-3 losing Consumer Reports' influential "recommended" status due to problems with its climate system, including leaks from the condenser and refrigerant unit that triggered a service bulletin from the automaker in late 2016. Deputy auto editor Jon Linkov said that scratch didn't hurt the overall brand, since the CX-9 crossover and MX-5 Miata both jumped up to replace it on CR's list of newly recommended vehicles, thanks to several back fixes Mazda made to both models. For Buick, the redesigned Enclave SUV earned a "Much Worse Than Average" rating after owners reported problems with the new nine-speed automatic transmission it shares with the Chevrolet Traverse as well as some issues with the climate system. There were issues with rough shifting, plus complaints about the torque converter that necessitated fixes to the computer or outright replacement. "Again, similar stuff that we saw with the Traverse: both first-year vehicles, similar powertrains," LInkov said. He said all-new vehicles or redesigns typically fare poorly in CR's reliability survey due to issues that are hard to suss out before vehicles go into everyday use by consumers. The top-selling Encore and Envision fared well, Linkov said, but were outdone by the Enclave's problematic transmission components. The Enclave was Buick's second best-selling model through September at 35,227 units. Then there is Volvo, about which there is one word to sum up its woes: infotainment.