American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 179 June 2014 | Page 64

NEWS Harley hire Jim Federico from GM

BRIEFS
Just as the Orlando, Florida based
AIMExpo announced that it has
now clocked up its 300th
exhibitor booking for its second
annual show in October, Dealer
Expo organizer Advanstar said
that it has "more than 125
companies already contracted to
exhibit at the 2014 Dealer Expo",
and that "nearly 2,200 retailers
have registered for the (Chicago,
December) event as well."
Harley is recalling about
9,100 2013/14 FXSB and
FXSBSE models
manufactured from March
20, 2012 to March 10, 2014,
to identify and fix a problem
with the fuel level sensor
signal. According to NHTSA
"suspension variances may
affect the gas tank
mounting angle, causing the
fuel level sensor to read
inaccurately".
Black Book editorial director Ricky
Beggs has said that used
motorcycle prices in the United
States increased slightly from
March to April, but increased
significantly from April to May as
auctions saw rising prices and
more sales. "Prices are up across
the board, and for the first time
this year, by fairly large amounts
for most segments." Cruisers are
up 3 percent month-over-month,
split almost evenly between
domestic
V-twins and metric units. The
scooter segment is up 3.2 percent,
off-road bikes are up 2.9 percent
and street bikes and utility vehicles
are each up 2.5 percent.

64

HARLEY-Davidson has hired former
General Motors engineer Jim Federico
as its new Vice President of
Engineering. Federico had spent nearly
36 years at GM and retired as the
company's Executive Director of
Global Vehicle Integration in May this
year.
Federico has worn many hats during
his time at GM, but he has been in the
news recently as GM's "champion" of
an airbag failure investigation that
resulted in a team of GM engineers he
was appointed to discovering an
ignition switch defect - a fault that has
been linked to 13 deaths since 2004,
and prompted the recall of more than
2.6 million Chevrolet, Saturn and
Pontiac vehicles.
Harley-Davidson spokeswoman

Maripat Blankenheim is reported to
have told a Milwaukee newspaper that
Harley had been talking to Federico
“for some time” before the
announcement was made.
GM has said that Federico made his
own decision to retire from the auto
maker, and that the decision was not
directly related to the switch issue. GM
has recently split its engineering
department into two divisions, and
John Calabrese, GM Vice President of
Global Vehicle Engineering, also retired
during the change.
As part of his most recent role as
GM’s global director of global vehicle
integration, Federico was the lead
engineer behind many current
products including the Buick
Regal/Opel Insignia, Buick Encore/Opel

Mokka, Buick
LaCrosse and the Chevrolet Cruze,
Sonic and Spark.

MAG Connection to import Figure Machine program
FRANCE based European parts
and accessory importer MAG
Connection has announced
that it has become the
exclusive European distributor
for the award-winning Figure
Machine USA accessory
program.
Manufactured in the USA, the
Manassas Park, Virginia based
specialist is best known for its
'Vision' line of air cleaners
featuring see-through
polycarbonate covers (see
page 46 of this month's
edition of AMD Magazine).
In addition to "Clearly Cool"
air cleaners, the Figure
Machine range includes
covers,