USA Today - 03.10.2019

2019 Volkswagen AtlasVOLKSWAGEN AG

day has not yet come.
The three-row SUV, introduced in
2017, outsold the VW Golf, Beetle and
Passat in the first nine months of the
year.
What’s more, the vehicle’s online
search share for the last 12 months
peaked in the third quarter, according to
the car shopping site CarGurus.

3. Ford Transit

Third-quarter sales: 55,413 (includ-

ing Transit Connect), up 29.4%

Technically, the Ford Transit is a fleet

vehicle, not a consumer model. But the

Transit is experiencing “exceptional

growth,” Ford U.S. sales boss Mark La-

Neve said. That includes the Transit

Connect, which is an electric model.

“Our vans have become a major ben-

eficiary of the growth in e-commerce

and the increased need for package de-

livery vehicles of all kinds,” LaNeve

said.

4. GMC Sierra

Third-quarter sales: 66,198 (includ-

ing light-duty and heavy-duty), up

28.9%

The GMC Sierra was a standout for

General Motors, which needed some

good news after its pickups went on a

cold streak.

While Fiat Chrysler’s pickup rival,

the Ram truck, has surged in recent

months, the Sierra made up ground in

the third quarter. The pickup’s recent

redesign may finally be gaining traction.

5. Porsche Cayenne

Third-quarter sales: 4,300, up

274.6%

The redesigned Cayenne is proving

that Porsche has room to capitalize on

the SUV wave. The makeover, which

Porsche calls “the sports car of SUVs,” is

a hit. From a comparison standpoint,

the vehicle is benefiting from a weak

third quarter of 2018, when inventory

was unusually low. Still, there’s no mis-

taking that the Cayenne is on a roll. The

vehicle is now easily Porsche’s second-

best-seller, besting the 911 sports car.

SUV

Continued from Page 1B

2019 Ford Transit ConnectFORD 2019 GMC Sierra DenaliGENERAL MOTORS 2019 Porsche CayennePORSCHE

2B z THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019 z USA TODAY MONEY

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has collected, there can be random peo-
ple popping up in the shot, but it makes
sure to blur out their faces.
So those are all great. But then there
was that direction to take a “slight
right,” instead of a full right turn on a
major 4 lane road which very much
threw me, and harkened back to the old
Apple Maps. More on that in a minute.
With the recent update to the iOS 13
operating system, Apple says it’s over-
hauled the Maps program that opened
with a thud in 2012, sending wrong di-
rections to many people and causing
CEO Tim Cook to publicly apologize.
Now, Apple says it had teams driving
over 4 million miles to make new images
for the app, resulting in broader road
network coverage, better pedestrian da-
ta, more accurate addresses and more
detailed land cover.
The improved city directions went
live this week in many parts of the coun-
try, including the Northeast, following
launches in the West. They will roll out
to the entire country by the end of the
year, according to Apple.
But Maps still has major kinks to iron
out.
zIt takes too many clicks to get
turn-by-turn directions. Fans of Goo-
gle Maps and Google-owned Waze
know that after a route is established,
you swipe up at the top of the screen to
get a visual of the turn by turn direc-
tions, which is a great way to confirm
the route and not just await the robot
telling you which way to go. But with
Apple, you swipe up from the bottom of
the screen, home to tabs on nearby gas
stations, restaurants and coffee houses
and the ability to share ETA with
friends. There’s also the Details tab,
which is where turn-by-turn informa-
tion is hidden. That’s too many clicks.
zTransit data is thin. The new Ap-
ple Maps can give you transit informa-
tion for 10 cities and they compare fa-
vorably to Google’s, but Google is al-
ready in thousands of cities. Apple can
now let you know about getting a ri-
deshare, complete with pricing. But the
only option is to ride with Uber. Google
Maps offers you two choices: Uber and
Lyft. Plus, beyond rideshare, transit and
walking information, Google also has
bike maps, which Apple does not.

One area Apple Maps doesn’t get

enough credit is for its detailed maps of

airportsall over the world, which are

great for finding which restaurants are

in the terminal and the location of rest-

room and shops.

In my tests driving around Los Ange-

les with Apple Maps, 95% of the time, it

was right on, getting me to the obvious

best streets to head down, with fair

warning about when to turn next.

But then came the other 5%.

After driving to a specific neighbor-

hood school in Culver City that’s known

for one-way streets and roadblocks to

keep cars from cruising down them at

top speeds, I navigated my way back to

the USA TODAY bureau and all was well,

until Apple Maps told me to take a

“slight right,” to Centinela Street, when

in fact I had to make a full right-hand

turn.

This bites, because Apple says on its

website that “lane guidance helps you

eliminate wrong turns and directional

misses by lining you up in the correct

lane before you need to turn or enter an

elevated road.”

But this wasn’t the case. I was already

in the middle lane and got the direction

too late, so I had no choice but to con-

tinue down La Tijera. Apple ended up

sending me through some backstreets

that didn’t make sense. I can’t prove that

the directions were out of the way, but

they sure felt that way.

Apple Maps

Continued from Page 1B

Apple Maps new lookAPPLE

The index clocked in at the lowest
level since June 2009, just after the
Great Recession ended.
Manufacturing makes up only about
12% of the economy. But troubles in the
sector can have an outsize effect on the
economy by damping business confi-
dence and curtailing factory payrolls,
which in turn hurts consumer spending,
says economist Gregory Daco of Oxford
Economics.
“This does increase the likelihood of
entering a more pronounced slow-
down,” Daco says. Oxford reckons the
odds of a recession are 40% next year
but many economists are predicting a
downturn. Solid consumer spending,
which makes up 70% of economic activ-
ity, had somewhat eased fears of a
slump but the deepening skid in manu-
facturing is stoking those concerns
anew.
Measures of production and employ-
ment shrank more sharply than in Au-
gust while new export orders fell at a

faster pace for a third straight month.

An index of overall orders – which typi-

cally foreshadows future production --

rose slightly but remained in contrac-

tion territory.

“Global trade remains the most sig-

nificant issue, as demonstrated by the

contraction in new export orders that

began in July,” says Timothy Fiore, chair

of ISM’s manufacturing business sur-

vey committee.

The World Trade Organization on

Tuesday sharply lowered its forecast for

global trade growth this year to 1.2%.

That’s down from its 2.6% estimate in

April and a gain of 3% last year. Besides

the U.S.-China trade war, there are con-

cerns that Britain will leave the Euro-

pean Union without a trade deal – a so-

called no-deal Brexit – and the U.S.

could impose fresh tariffs on European

imports.

The dim manufacturing picture can

be pinned mostly on sluggish growth

overseas and the Trump administra-

tion’s trade war with China, says Wells

Fargo Senior Economist Sarah House.

Trump has slapped tariffs on most im-

ports from China, increasing costs for

U.S. businesses and consumers. China

has responded in kind, crimping U.S.

exports to that country.

President Donald Trump, however,

blamed the weakening manufacturing

outlook on one of his favorite targets –

the Federal Reserve.

“As I predicted, Jay Powell and the

Federal Reserve have allowed the Dollar

to get so strong, especially relative to

ALL other currencies, that our manufac-

turers are being negatively affected,”

Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. “Fed

Rate too high. They are their own worst

enemies, they don’t have a clue. Pathet-

ic!”

A strong dollar makes American ex-

ports more expensive for overseas buy-

ers, hampering American companies. It

also means lower profits when foreign

sales are converted back to greenbacks.

House agrees the muscular dollar can

partly be traced to the Fed, which has

raised its key interest rate nine times

since late 2015 to head off a spike in in-

flation as the tax cuts and spending in-

creases spearheaded by Trump juiced

the economy. The Fed has cut rates

twice since late July but foreign central

banks are slashing rates more aggres-

sively. Higher U.S. interest rates draw

foreign investments, bolstering the dol-

lar.

But the main reason the greenback

has strengthened is that the U.S. econo-

my has performed better than other

countries, House says. And while the ro-

bust dollar is contributing to the manu-

facturing slowdown, the main factors

are the listless global economy and

trade war, she says.

U.S. and Chinese officials are set to

resume negotiations later this month,

with many analysts expecting a modest

agreement that increases American ag-

ricultural exports to China while remov-

ing some tariffs. House, however,

doesn’t expect an upturn in manufac-

turing until the two countries reach a

broader deal that addresses thorny is-

sues, such as China’s theft of U.S. intel-

lectual property.

Some economists are more upbeat.

Paul Ashworth of Capital Economics

partly blames manufacturing’s dol-

drums on the General Motors strike that

began in mid-September.

“When the strike ends, we would ex-

pect the manufacturing sector surveys

to rebound too,” he wrote in a note to cli-

ents.

Markets

Continued from Page 1B