Cyber-Thursday, and Sharing the Customer’s Voice with Mickey Anderson

Paul J Daly: 0:33

All right, it is the first day of December. It's the last month of 2023. Today, of course, we're talking about the cybertruck. We have to but we have a very special guests Mickey Anderson CEO, Baxter, who wrote that very important letter that we were talking about yesterday. Right and letters. It's been a while since we've had a guest on the morning show. That's true. I mean, like, we usually feel jumps in a lot. You know what I mean? But like,

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:56

you remember phone call Fridays? Remember when we used to do that for like the Oh, geez,

Paul J Daly: 1:01

I forgot all about. We would literally phone call Fridays. I mean, there's probably only the first maybe 30 episodes maybe? Like this is 602. I'm going to start counting episodes now after we broke 600. But early on, we would just call someone randomly, like one of our friends. Bob Lanham wasn't Brian Kramer. And we were like, Let's just see who picks up the phone. And they would pick up and we were like, you're on the show. So now literally, for every time we call somebody, their first question was always like, are we live? Are we live? Yes. They're always afraid that we're live. Oh, man. But hey, December is here. It's a Friday. I like like it when the last day of the month or the first day of the month is like

Kyle Mountsier: 1:40

a Friday. Yeah, you're going hot into the weekend, Friday, Saturday,

Paul J Daly: 1:44

Sunday to make a good shot.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:45

Absolutely. Make it make a big shot. Let's go. Let's keep this fun. Hey,

Paul J Daly: 1:50

we haven't talked about this at all, because we were still finalizing plans. But yesterday had a bunch of big powwow meetings, we are having our year end extravaganza program. Again, this will be the third year we do it. It's going to be Wednesday, December 20. I don't think we have a time yet.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:06

Like, you know, mid afternoon. It's always like round one or two. Yeah. So basically, we're gonna we take

Paul J Daly: 2:11

some time, we feel like it's like kind of like the most unique thing in the industry where we remember the year, bring some guests on have a little bit of fun, and it's like a year end program for the automotive industry. So just put a little circle on your calendar. We'll have more information on that soon. I think we need to get in some news.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:26

Let's get into it. Okay,

Paul J Daly: 2:28

so yesterday, big day, Tesla's long awaited cybertruck is finally here, following a highly publicized launch event at the company's austin texas headquarters or a factory starting price is not what they thought it would be. Let's just say that it's 50% higher at least. So ranging between 60 originally was 39. Nine, right or was all excited three years ago. Actually. 60,009 90 is the lowest model version with the highest the cyber beasts coming in just under 100 grand at 99 990. Put those stickers on the windshield. So let's see the entry level model. Of course, we're not going to see that

Kyle Mountsier: 3:05

for accuracy in that for a long time. Yeah.

Paul J Daly: 3:08

So you know, in the in the presentation, Elon Musk said cybertruck is more utility than a truck and faster than a sports car in a couple you know true to form demos. It it out towed. Ford F 350 Diesel, and it beat a Porsche 911 in a race while towing a Porsche 911.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:26

So it was so sneaky to because they didn't show you that it was towing the 911 until like midway through the race, and you're like, oh, yeah, it's so cool.

Paul J Daly: 3:37

It's so the stats are right that the range initially claimed that was gonna be over 500 Miles actually more like 340 miles, you can get an extended pack that still won't get you to 500. And in my opinion, they did like a little redo of the glass break demo. While it was supposed to be a glass, not break demo, but it was a glass break demo. And you know, the engineer guy, he threw like a ball bearer again at last time and a chatter this time, he just threw a baseball. And I was sitting there and my 70 year old son and a few comments. Number one, he goes, all engineers move the same way.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:09

The same thing when I watched it, I was like, Why did they pick the engineer that's got his elbows. The Rexing over here. It's like,

Paul J Daly: 4:17

and then he throws a baseball at my 17 year old son again says he goes, I'm pretty sure that any cars window wouldn't have broken but not a single one. So yeah, so did you

Kyle Mountsier: 4:30

miss a window on the first shot? Yeah, don't this, the second head hits the window and it just kind of like flubs over there, you know. And then Elon goes, Ah, I think I think you could probably have a professional baseball player throw it as well. Yeah.

Paul J Daly: 4:46

He's like, not an engineer throw up. Professional baseball player throw hay like without a doubt. There are a lot of questions around the cybertruck release. Is it going to be adopted by the truck crowd is the biggest one right? Obviously there's the FANBOY crowd. There's the people who like me Wait, like I've always wanted a truck this excuse to get one but well, the people that really, you know, make up the heart and soul of that f150 market, the ram market, are they going to go with the cybertruck There's a really great and thorough review by a super popular YouTube tech review or Marcus Brownlee, we linked it up in the show notes. It's my favorite review. It's 40 minutes, and he goes through every little detail right down to look at all these fingerprints on the door panel, stainless steel. So if you're used to seeing that on your refrigerator, you can get used to seeing it on your vehicle.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:29

That's exactly it. Yeah, I thought it was very interesting. You know, I've seen a few of the releases, but it was this punk rock. Apple esque is the way that I put it, kind of keynote and minus good lighting, the terrible lighting, audio lighting, and the really, the really goofy thing was the last seven to 10 minutes was just actual deliveries happening, which sounds unique and cool. But it was just like guys that would never own a truck normally coming up shaking Elon tan, getting in a car driving away in really violence very awkward. You

Paul J Daly: 6:09

know, every well the delivery events have become a part of Tesla's product releases like back when they released the Model S from the very beginning right? That was it was more fanfare it was this it definitely it definitely got awkward, especially if you watch till the end, Elon was like thank you for coming, blah, blah, blah. He's like, Oh, wait, there's there's one more. Dad and his son are looking at the camera. And Elon Musk is like looking the other direction. Like

Kyle Mountsier: 6:33

so brutal, so brutal. But you know, I think that the the marketers, the people behind you know, all the videos, all the things that came to light during the actual presentation. It's it's clear that this thing can be a truck, it's clear that this thing can be more powerful than any other truck and more powerful than most sports cars. And so I still think there's going to be a lot of attraction to it. It's whether or not that type of body style can sustain a mass market push. That's exactly it so well,

Paul J Daly: 7:05

but a masterclass in brand when you can turn on like CNBC and they are live streaming a private or mean live streaming or company's product release. I think you've won. I think people think you've won. Speaking of winning segue. We felt we felt like the auto industry want a big one yesterday, when we covered the letter titled The Eevee voice of the consumer, which was urging President Biden to reconsider the aggressive Evie targets. And it was signed by 4000. dealers. Today we're joined by Mickey Anderson, President CEO of Baxter Auto Group, who led the charge behind the letter. Mickey, thank you so much for joining us today.

Mickey Anderson: 7:47

You're welcome. Yeah. Good morning, and Thanks for Thanks for including me.

Paul J Daly: 7:51

All right. So yesterday, we covered this letter. And then, you know, like, we're halfway through the story. And Kyle is probably texting Jordan on our team be like, Hey, see if you could get in touch with Mickey? Because we're like, we need to, we need to hear what he has to say. So wanted to have you on the show. And just what what was the first like, inciting moment where you're like, I think we need to do this. And I think I need to be the one that starts it?

Mickey Anderson: 8:17

Well, you know, as the as EPA mandate kind of became better understood throughout the industry over the last call throughout this summer. And going into this fall. When I would we would be with peers, we all recognize what we're hearing from our customers on the showroom just doesn't match up with 50% or even two thirds of you know, all new cars, being fully battery electric. And you know, it's interesting, it's the tourism industry must have a, a an effective lobbyist. Because they didn't i My suspicion would be every cruise ship would have to be a sailboat by 2030. The, you know, the American consumer doesn't have lobbyists. Nobody's speaking up for you know where they are on this issue. It's a really complicated issue. There's like a ton of facets and you're hearing about it from everything from infrastructure, reliability and durability of the current infrastructure, certainly where we sourced these rare earth minerals, but but the the voice that was kind of absent from this entire conversation with the customers. We're hearing it every single day on our showroom. So So me and a few others felt that this would be the right time for us to at least speak up for the customer. That

Kyle Mountsier: 9:35

is awesome. So what was it like gathering because it looks like over 4000 dealers at this point? And I don't know I haven't tracked down whether that's rooftops or actual people, but what was it like gathering the support for this and what kind of methods were you doing to bring these people to bring others along?

Mickey Anderson: 9:55

Well, it's, number one, validating would be the best, the best. Last word I could give you it didn't I didn't have to bring anybody along. This is, this has been something that I'm going to tell you across every dealership across the country has become a topic of real concern. The products are fantastic. And we're seeing more now than ever before. We're seeing some great all electric options. But, you know, we'll go back to the cybertruck. And congrats. Welcome to the car business, Elon Musk 99 990 Did he give everyone

Kyle Mountsier: 10:35

he's a car guy.

Mickey Anderson: 10:38

A car guy. So you know, guess what, my customers don't have $99,000 for a pickup truck. And so. So that's it, these are neat technologies. But right now, they're nowhere near being priced in a space that can be, you know, widely adopted across, you know, the most Americans and they're not practical. So what we're asking our customers to do with the Biden administration is effectively mandate is that we're going to tell the American taxpayer, you're going to pay more money for less useful vehicle. And that's just how it's gonna be. So

Paul J Daly: 11:15

you know, there's, there's a great, a great posture that you have in this number one, I think it's a brilliant play, to say this is the voice of the customer, it's been absent, because like consumer protections and all that are going to always put forth like we're advocating for the customer. And that always typically ends up with dealers on the defensive. And now let's have dealer saying, like, hold on a minute, what the customer is saying is this and you seem to be fully ignoring it through your legislation and your mandates. I think that is a very brilliant way to put it and an accurate way to put it. The second thing that I want to point out about your posture would love to hear more about it is that you're saying, listen, dealers aren't saying we don't want EVs because I think that can be the misinterpretation. We've seen some articles and in a lot of publications, like Wall Street Journal saying dealers are in the way of the Evie revolution. And this year saying, No, dealers want the Evie revolution, we want this green technology, we think the tech the cars are great, the product is great. But we also want a balance in adoption, that that makes it realistic for our consumers and for the industry at large. So explain that approach a little bit? Because I think it's a fresh perspective of balance that we haven't been hearing a lot of.

Mickey Anderson: 12:31

Yeah, I mean, let me let me speak to the first part just a little bit, you know, as dealers, you know, for the most part, if the manufacturers send us all red cars will sell red cars. And, and, you know, as the industry moves around, you know, our business model has always been about selling the products that our manufacturers make. But when we see, and we, we haven't seen this before, but we see a federal mandate that will require the manufacturers to start to build vehicles, without regard to real demand. That's a big problem. And it's a problem for the consumers, it will certainly will be a problem for us customer for us dealers. But but really, you know, at this point, it's this is all about the customer. And, you know, kind of as it relates to where we stand, I will tell you that that the dealers I've spoken to, we are all concerned about about carbon emissions, and we all want to see those those emissions reduced. I talked to a dealer yesterday and we talked a little bit about you know, what a breakthrough technology if you go back a few years EcoBoost was for Ford, right. But that even took a little bit of a transition from the traditional VA to that six cylinder turbo engine. Yeah, yeah. And now that's become a you know, a bit of an industry standard and a technology that's really reduced tonne of carbon to this day. So you know, all this to say every dealer I've spoken to is completely for moving our fleet to carbon neutral as quickly as we can, but we can't leave the consumer behind it just doesn't work.

Paul J Daly: 14:16

Yeah, and so do you when you when you say that right, like dealers are committed to carbon neutral, right and committed to going that way. What I'm trying to like I'm imagining right now, a consumer cynical consumer is watching this listening to this. And like we say it and you pointed to you know, the EcoBoost technology how would you consider like hybrid technology? Also being a middle ground because that's also been a big topic of conversation in like between the Eevee and ice combo?

Mickey Anderson: 14:50

Yeah, but probably one of the most concerning things about the the EPA mandate is that it is that it endorses a singular technology and and an allergy that it used. Look, I've got six kids, I'm an environmentalist, I definitely want the urge to make. I want Europe to be to be healthy. I want my kids to have a great life. And I am concerned about what we've done, you know, what our human activity has done to the, to our, to our planet. And so if we, if we took carbon as seriously as we take cancer, we would never let the federal government mandate that there will be only one drug one cure one approach to curing cancer from here forward. Dang. And, and, and oh, by the way, you gotta buy it from the Chinese. It's so so let's go back to your point about hybrids, the hybrids, plug in hybrids, some of these great new small displacement engines. It's all part of the solution. How about fuel cells, fuel cells are a huge opportunity to eliminate carbon. It feels like the federal government has gone from making the removal of carbon is their priority to just building the EVS. Interesting.

Kyle Mountsier: 16:06

Yeah, yeah, no, I that. That is that's such a great analogy to say, hey there, and we see manufacturers, especially Toyota, being very diligent about, Hey, be V's may be a part of the solution. But it may not be the end all be all solution. And there may be technology that we haven't even discovered yet. That could create a better net neutrality, especially when you when you talk about the raw, the raw materials necessary for this. We're wrapping up today. But how can if maybe a dealer hasn't heard about this project or this letter? How can they become supporters and and let their voice be heard and their voice of their customer be heard in this in this movement?

Mickey Anderson: 16:45

Well, the the most important thing is talk to your elected officials. They there's a lot going on in DC. And I will tell you, as we met with elected our elected officials that we as we've gotten to DC, this is the message that they want to hear, but they just haven't heard yet. And, and so we need to make them aware of it and and ask them to get involved, ask them to intervene and look for a smarter approach and one that's been more respectful of the American consumer moving forward. Certainly, we reopened the website voice of the customer. You can you can look it up find it. I think all the state associations across the country have that link.

Paul J Daly: 17:28

What is the actual website?

Mickey Anderson: 17:32

Is EB voice of the customer.com?

Paul J Daly: 17:36

All right, we'll make sure we link it up in the show notes as well. Yeah, no, thank

Mickey Anderson: 17:39

you. And so they can dance your question from earlier. Those are 4000 different dealerships. So think about 4000 different communities, all across the country, all 50 states. So this is this is really representative of of all of our customers.

Paul J Daly: 17:56

Mickey, thank you so much for joining us. I think this is this the first time we've met. I think this is the beginning of a great relationship. And you're in Omaha, is that correct? Yes, sir. Yeah, so a big, big loss this week with Charlie Munger, we did a little tribute to him earlier in the week. But thank you again for sharing your time with us sharing your passion with the industry and then being the spearhead for just such a super important conversation.

Mickey Anderson: 18:18

Yeah, no, thanks. We appreciate the coverage matters less so. So thanks for watching. We'll stay in touch.

Paul J Daly: 18:25

Absolutely. We'll talk to you soon. Okay. All right. I mean, if that isn't a way to start off a month, our goal is easy voice to the customer got calm. Go check it out. Be a part of the supporting and we'll see you here tomorrow morning. Probably