By SEMA Editors

Businesses looking to evaluate the return on their efforts in web and social-media marketing can take heart: There are scores of analytical tools available that can precisely show them how well their campaigns are doing.

In social media, those just getting started in analytics would do well to check out Hootsuite (www.hootsuite.com). A powerful social-media dashboard that allows users to manage all of their postings and other activities on all of the major social-media networks, Hootsuite is also packed with a wide variety of analytical tools that show how well you’re doing on social media.

“Hootsuite is a great place to start,” said Brendan Chard, president of web design company The Modern Firm. “It helps businesses save time by letting them manage and post from all of their accounts in one central place. It also provides really nifty analytics reports that show the effectiveness of your social-media efforts, including visits to your website, social shares and even new contacts/leads as a result of social media.”

By SEMA Editors

Businesses looking to evaluate the return on their efforts in web and social-media marketing can take heart: There are scores of analytical tools available that can precisely show them how well their campaigns are doing.

In social media, those just getting started in analytics would do well to check out Hootsuite (www.hootsuite.com). A powerful social-media dashboard that allows users to manage all of their postings and other activities on all of the major social-media networks, Hootsuite is also packed with a wide variety of analytical tools that show how well you’re doing on social media.

“Hootsuite is a great place to start,” said Brendan Chard, president of web design company The Modern Firm. “It helps businesses save time by letting them manage and post from all of their accounts in one central place. It also provides really nifty analytics reports that show the effectiveness of your social-media efforts, including visits to your website, social shares and even new contacts/leads as a result of social media.”

By SEMA Editors

Seven years ago, Scott McIver took a big gamble right in the middle of the recession: He opened Kaizen Tuning, specializing in high-end retail aftermarket sales, fabrication and dyno tuning in Boxborough, Massachusetts.

“It was brutal, but we really saw a need,” he recalled. “I took delivery of one of the first Nissan GTRs on the East Coast. I’ve been to Japan many times and have seen how that car is treated over there. You don’t even need an appointment at a Nissan dealership for service. Here in the United States, [the dealership] didn’t really know how to handle a $100,000 supercar. They were treating it like a Sentra or a Maxima. That wasn’t going to work for me, so I started servicing it out of my home garage. After we were probably a month in, I had about five of them in my driveway. My wife told me it was about time to find someplace to do the business full time.”

McIver has seen his gamble pay off. Today, Kaizen Tuning has grown to a 10,000-sq.-ft. enterprise employing 10 highly skilled people, with sales topping $1 million annually. The retailer is well known throughout the New England area for its expertise in high-performance sports cars, starting with the Nissan GTR and Mitsubishi EVO and including Porsche, Subaru and Audi platforms, among many others.

By SEMA Editors

Seven years ago, Scott McIver took a big gamble right in the middle of the recession: He opened Kaizen Tuning, specializing in high-end retail aftermarket sales, fabrication and dyno tuning in Boxborough, Massachusetts.

“It was brutal, but we really saw a need,” he recalled. “I took delivery of one of the first Nissan GTRs on the East Coast. I’ve been to Japan many times and have seen how that car is treated over there. You don’t even need an appointment at a Nissan dealership for service. Here in the United States, [the dealership] didn’t really know how to handle a $100,000 supercar. They were treating it like a Sentra or a Maxima. That wasn’t going to work for me, so I started servicing it out of my home garage. After we were probably a month in, I had about five of them in my driveway. My wife told me it was about time to find someplace to do the business full time.”

McIver has seen his gamble pay off. Today, Kaizen Tuning has grown to a 10,000-sq.-ft. enterprise employing 10 highly skilled people, with sales topping $1 million annually. The retailer is well known throughout the New England area for its expertise in high-performance sports cars, starting with the Nissan GTR and Mitsubishi EVO and including Porsche, Subaru and Audi platforms, among many others.

The goal of the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) is simple: To develop a centralized industry data repository. The recently announced SEMA Search, which is powered by information gathered through the SDC, is an Internet-based electronic catalog that salespeople at WDs and retailers can access to look up parts online.

The SDC provides education, assistance and tools—such as SEMA Search—needed to help manufacturers bring their product information into the SDC repository. The SDC ensures that the submitted data is complete, meets the industry’s data standards and employs its industry-powered delivery method to get the data to resellers using the info to fuel their business systems.

The SDC not only provides the opportunity for resellers to view more sales options than ever, but also delivers the information to market at a speed rarely experienced before.

For more information, visit www.semadatacoop.org. Manufacturers that are ready to get started or have questions are invited to contact SDC’s Director of Membership Jim Graven at jimg@semadatacoop.org.

The goal of the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) is simple: To develop a centralized industry data repository. The recently announced SEMA Search, which is powered by information gathered through the SDC, is an Internet-based electronic catalog that salespeople at WDs and retailers can access to look up parts online.

The SDC provides education, assistance and tools—such as SEMA Search—needed to help manufacturers bring their product information into the SDC repository. The SDC ensures that the submitted data is complete, meets the industry’s data standards and employs its industry-powered delivery method to get the data to resellers using the info to fuel their business systems.

The SDC not only provides the opportunity for resellers to view more sales options than ever, but also delivers the information to market at a speed rarely experienced before.

For more information, visit www.semadatacoop.org. Manufacturers that are ready to get started or have questions are invited to contact SDC’s Director of Membership Jim Graven at jimg@semadatacoop.org.

	As they did with the Prius, Toyota designers clearly went out of the way to ensure the Mirai looks like nothing else on the road, as they did with the Prius. Some love the looks, some hate them, but whatever the opinion, there will be no mistaking the car when the first units appear in mid-2015.
	Combined investments by Toyota, the State of California and Air Liquide, a hydrogen producer, will result in well over 100 hydrogen stations in California alone within the next two years. Production in the first year will be limited to roughly 300 vehicles, eventually ramping up to somewhere near 3,000 per year. By the time hydrogen fuel stations are in demand, there will be enough to go around.

True to its promise, Toyota has become the first manufacturer to build a production car powered by a fuel cell ready for sale. In November Toyota announced the name of the car, Mirai, which means “the future” in Japanese. At a recent event tied in with the Los Angeles Auto Show, Toyota allowed automotive journalists and business reporters to drive the car, which in simplest terms might be described as a hybrid Camry with a better battery.

That “better battery” would be a hydrogen fuel cell, which offers numerous advantages over actual battery packs. Hydrogen fuel cells can be refueled in 3–5 minutes, instead of hours for a battery pack, and they weigh less. The hydrogen is held in two heavily reinforced high-pressure storage tanks at about 10,000 psi—enough fuel to enable about a 300-mile range. These components offer packaging advantages that result in a low center of gravity and sporty cornering capacity.

Toyota’s advance presentation included experts who suggested the car represented a turning point in clean transportation, and addressed questions about what it would be like to live with a hydrogen car. To the assembled audience, their assertions that hydrogen will become a big player in the future seemed generally credible.

The Mirai driving experience is very similar to driving a plug-in electric car—very quiet, good throttle response and thanks to the low center of gravity and attention of the suspension, very good ride and handling characteristics.

The powertrain is rated at 153 hp with 247 lb.-ft. of torque. Unlike the Prius, the Mirai is a four-seat sedan with a trunk instead of a hatch, so direct comparisons are inappropriate, but the Mirai is clearly a more relaxing car to drive, with better interior appointments, better handling and lower NVH. It also will be priced differently—somewhere around $57,500, leasable for $499. After federal and state rebates and tax credits, the bottom line will be somewhere under $50,000.

The Mirai goes on sale in Japan by the end of 2014, and in selected regional North American markets in the second half of 2015. How fuel-cell technology will affect enthusiasts and car collectors remains to be seen, but we can foresee the day when hydrogen cars will make a presence on the SEMA Show floor.

By John Stewart

The Los Angeles Auto Show has developed a reputation as a “green” show that strongly focuses on alternative fuels and novel forms of propulsion. This may have been the case in prior years, but the 2014 L.A. Auto Show had more to offer enthusiasts than recent years, as a burst of “track-ready” performance cars and creative variants on existing platforms came to light. That made it more like the SEMA Show—an optimistic environment in which OEM exhibitors launched fun-to-drive new models and showed off interesting concept cars that may very well enter production. Among them were several vehicles that could be of special relevance to SEMA members.

The new Ford Shelby GT350 Mustang is equipped with a 5.2L V8 engine that will crank out more than 500hp and more than 400 lb.-ft. of torque. It rides on 19-in. aluminum-alloy wheels. Performance upgrades include MagneRide dampers, aggressive brakes and finely tuned aerodynamics.		The Infiniti Q80 Inspiration Concept features a new hybrid powerplant that pairs a twin-turbo 3.0L V6 engine to an electric motor making a combined 550hp.
Coming to dealerships in 2015, the Scion iM hatchback concept rests atop 19-in. forged alloy wheels, and features geometric grille inserts, deep air intakes and fog lights.		The rugged Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 concept rides on 18-in. aluminum wheels and is 4 in. wider than the Colorado Z71. The pickup is powered by a 2.8L Duramax diesel producing 181 hp and 369 lb.-ft. of torque.
The Lexus LF-C2 2+2 roadster concept features small vents in the side sills, which direct air to the rear brakes and out the fin-like rear diffusers. The rear end is highlighted by L-shaped taillight bulbs and an exhaust system with chrome-covered quad exhaust tips.