Dealers Window Shopping, Honda’s Strong Showing, Snap Snubs Social

Paul J Daly: 0:00

It's Wednesday baby. It's Wednesday we got a lot of stuff to talk about today mainly dealers window shopping, Honda and Sony strong showing at CES and snap just through social media totally under the bus through drew under read it over and verse all the way in. Just you're gonna do that you might as well go all the way. Do you get crazy when I know a lot of the country had like some crazy when we had

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:35

it two nights ago, not last night the night before. And then like the rest of the East Coast got the crazy when there were tornadoes down in Panama City. The Tampa had like a bunch of tornado warnings I heard and yeah, it was not fun.

Paul J Daly: 0:52

We had some wind up here. But I mean, people kind of freaking out a little bit. But they're really I mean, it wasn't like it was done there at all. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 1:00

I mean, the two nights ago, both of two of my three kids were up for like three hours.

Paul J Daly: 1:06

Okay. Well, that's that's that's how we know. Hey, Leah, first off first comment on low income, new leaders. That welcome everyone that's on the live stream. We're so glad you joined us in the morning for the live show. Because we are recording it right now. It's our pre recorded, and we love the comments. We love you here, whether it's LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, or Now Instagram, we love the fact that you're spending a few minutes with us. So we'll try to give you our best shot every day. Hey, just about a week or two. We're in Washington DC at the Washington auto dealership, new car, auto dealer group, public policy day, we already connected with a bunch of people we're going to be with thank you so much for our sponsors at Mosaic who are helping us make that possible. They do all kinds of compliance consulting, and so it was just appropriate that they're going to hang out with us in public house the day, we're texting back and forth with Mike Stanton yesterday, he's going to be there. So we're gonna get to talk to him, as well as some members of Congress some OEMs gonna be really

Kyle Mountsier: 2:03

excited. These are conversations that you and I actually don't get to have a lot because we don't deal in like the policy and government side of stuff a lot. But I think it's it's something that's really important dealers right now, because there's just so much attention on Capitol Hill, on dealers and retail automotive. And so we'll try and, you know, all of these people have their PR game pretty tight, but but we'll, we'll try and dig in just a little bit.

Paul J Daly: 2:32

Just a little bit. Obviously, NADA coverage. asoto is gonna be in full effect full production crew, we're gonna be rolling heavy. If you're going to be at NADA, let us know. We would love to say hi. Also, we don't have a graphic for this or anything yet. But right if you have your calendar if you're going to be at NADA, or if you're just gonna be watching the NADA, live coverage, we are going to be at the NADA live stage on Thursday. Right Thursday, Thursday. 315 To 330 That's Pacific. That's Pacific Time, though. That's Pacific. Yeah. So 615 to 630.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:04

If you're watching the live stream of the live stage, catch us at 615 Eastern time, but yeah, we can't wait to but if you're in Vegas, everybody it's like it's gonna be like me. So do maths at 15.

Paul J Daly: 3:16

We're gonna do actually a little Meet and Greet after the session we're going to kind of show the NADA world what more than cars is all about? So if you can be it's in the convention center Main Hall, right next to registration, the live stage 315 to 330. On Thursday, February 1, I get those dates, right. You nailed it.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:34

I had to concentrate really hard. I'm impressed. You even got February 1 out of that. That's I

Paul J Daly: 3:40

know. I know. All right. Well, let's talk about a little bit of news. So despite profit profit concerns dealerships being more or less profitable now, over 75% of dealer group leaders expressed an eagerness to expand their holdings according to Presidio group's q3 dealer survey, so Presidio group's Survey said 79% of dealership leaders are aiming to acquire more stores in the next year, and 11% are considering selling. But even though they see a major dip in profitability, they still are influenced by the need to have a bigger group more leverage more brands. So Toyota, Lexus and Porsche topped the list of most desirable brands for ownership. And dealers are looking to enhance their portfolios with brands that build ROI across the board. Here's a quote from Presidio President George carolis. A lot of dealers believe they should have more skill to be better prepared for the future.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:39

Yes, so first of all, obviously Toyota Lexus Porsche, the ones that everybody wants, if Subaru was probably next on that list. I bet you Subarus actually Subarus probably higher, it's just not normally in there. Like it's just, it's just everybody wants a super. Yeah, I have one, you know,

Paul J Daly: 4:55

that's really funny.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:59

So Here's the, the other, the other, like, I'm just gonna say this in early 2019, I'll never forget. And you can ask the three people that were sitting in the room, I've sit in the room with three executives at the group that I left. And I said to them, it's over the next five years, every dealer group that has seven or less stores is going to have to make a conscious decision on whether or not they will grow to maintain relevancy. And, and, and experience the benefits of scale and centralization, or sell, in order to max out to capitalize on the profitability and the timing of the market, being ready to buy, like, that's gonna have to happen. And we're starting to see that rapidly accelerate. And I think it's going to continue to accelerate over the next couple of years. Just because the, the opportunity is so great. If you have some version of scale,

Paul J Daly: 5:59

a bit ability to scale and scale culture to I think that's when we've seen the situation, that's it's hard to turn out the best. Yeah, every time you acquire a group, it dilutes the culture that you have, by that much now people will say contributes to the culture, but the reality is the larger group that has the more established culture, or actually could be the store coming in as well. You have like a cultural navigation that if you can get that, right, that really is going to be the differentiator, obviously, some some, some exceptions, right? Some large Toyota stores and large single points that are kind of like, little little behemoths in and of themselves. You know, do they need to acquire more stores? Probably not, but group group leaders. You know, we see it, it's not going to stop, we're going to keep going speaking, you're

Kyle Mountsier: 6:41

gonna see Asbury and Lithia. And group one and Penske, and auto nation continue to grow via acquisition this year. It's

Paul J Daly: 6:52

happening like they got systems, that's for sure. Speaking of systems, you think way, different kind of system. Yet a system. Honda's ces showcase consumer electronics show we've been covering it all week, unveiled the saloon and the space hub is a to card names actually to concept cars, marketing a significant shift toward electrification with the new their new platform the new series Honda is calling, I think it's called Oh, or zero. It's I don't know what this what to call it yet. So Honda's o series we'll call it that including the slim space up there embracing what they're calling a thin light and wise design principle, representing a departure from the traditional Evie constraints, lower platforms, denser batteries. So these cars I know we got them up on the screen I don't know quite what to make them I think the so one if you're just listening looks like I don't know like a big Lamborghini. The other one looks like the back of it looks like the nose of a space shuttle. And the front of it looks like a transport vehicle from

Kyle Mountsier: 8:02

some futuristic movie Star

Paul J Daly: 8:05

Wars. Not Star Wars. Probably the moon Star Wars

Kyle Mountsier: 8:08

you know, it's some movie it's some like futuristic movie that they've got some transport thing happening and yeah, so like to work whether or not you have handcuffs or whether you're happy to be

Paul J Daly: 8:21

oh, they're not handcuffs if you get one of these. It's like some kind of electronic hand restraint. Absolutely. There's no in this world. So basically, the saloon is the sporty design, right? It's meant to be fast drive like the car. Some of the reviews say like it's much more of a driver's vehicle. The space hub is a passenger vehicle, very easy access in and out, you know, really nice lighting, hunting even that has launched a new version of the Honda logo, the H logo just showing their commitment to the space. So you know van drivers features all that but Honda is just using this as a way to say we're leaning all in on EVs. We talked about it yesterday. You know, they've kind of been sitting back a little bit. But Paul, do you

Kyle Mountsier: 9:05

have you seen the like the image where someone puts like all of the SUV see V's next to each other? Yeah, I

Paul J Daly: 9:13

have a problem with that image. But yes, okay.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:15

I have a problem with it, too. I get it. But also, like, you would think we would maybe get inventive with the Eevee thing. But did you remember the little Kia thing yesterday? The commercial?

Paul J Daly: 9:27

Yeah, that's kind of like space up. Brian Ortega. James kurtenbach puts into the live sheets. I think the word you're looking for is ugly. And Brian Ortega chimes in it. He just as Spaceballs, which is yes, it's something that's about a combination between NASA and Spaceballs is where we're gonna. We're gonna leave our official review for that. We

Kyle Mountsier: 9:48

haven't even talked about NASA this week. Nathan's Nathan are producing mars

Paul J Daly: 9:53

nasa day tomorrow. Nathan will talk about this the NASA article we're going to talk about tomorrow, but kind of pivoting through on Sony because it's I want to just talk anymore about these kinds of vehicles, we'll see where they actually land. But Honda is also leaning in because we know that they're doing this collab vehicle with Sony called the Phila. It's a BV, they released a new version yesterday. So it's got some nuance differences, and they released more data about like, what the car will actually be. Now that it's much more, we have it up on the screen right now a little simulation, lots of screens inside, all wheel drive, it's got supposedly new technology to help a charge faster, the battery lasts longer, they're doing a virtual and a real launch. So the virtual launch is actually set to release in Gran Turismo seven. That way, you can actually drive the car and experience the car inside the video game two years before you can even get it. Orders are opening up in 2025 starting price around 45,000, which no one expects to be the starting price.

Kyle Mountsier: 10:49

I think it's so interesting that they're releasing it in GT seven, because GT is typically like meant to experience the real world driving dynamics of the actual vehicle. So I'm wondering how they actually like, bake that in when the vehicle Yeah,

Paul J Daly: 11:05

it's gonna crush everybody else off the line? Probably

Kyle Mountsier: 11:07

the apps it has. Yeah, it's like zero to 60 is nothing. But you know, we're seeing I mean, we've seen this multiple times now with BMW and couple other manufacturers Tesla is starting to introduce these vehicles in you know, augmented or mixed reality. So now we'll see. Yeah, and I'm excited about

Paul J Daly: 11:30

well, there apparently is LCD screen on the on the outside of the front bumper that can be displayed messages warnings, or get this video game ads.

Kyle Mountsier: 11:44

It's, I mean, like, they're just gonna make all of us like walking advertisements, I mean, advertised and

Paul J Daly: 11:50

apparently, when the car came out the I can't remember if it was the Sony, the Sony guy or the Honda guy, but he drove it out onto the stage using a PS five controller. So that's, that's pretty. That's pretty good as this. Oh, speaking of what is this world?

Kyle Mountsier: 12:05

Segue. Evan Spiegel, the snap CEO know him, you know him, the guy that is in charge of Snapchat declared social media is dead in an internal memo focusing on Snapchats future beyond smartphones and criticizing rivals for their shortcomings. He just came out swinging. The

Paul J Daly: 12:30

radically we're reporting about it on social media ad naturally, because that'd be we're in heaven.

Kyle Mountsier: 12:36

We're, we're in social media heaven. Following the stagnant revenue and layoffs, he emphasized the shift towards augmented reality and improve performance for users and advertise advertisers. He criticized platforms like Metis, Facebook and Instagram, and the X platform, specifically accusing them of negative social impacts. You want to position Snapchat as a as a platform promoting team happiness, teen happiness, and better health, in contrast to met his recent initiatives? So that's a pretty bold statement to say like none No, no, this social media platform, we don't do anything that impacts you

Paul J Daly: 13:14

know, we just put on face filters to make everybody look like they don't. Right, exactly. So you're happy there?

Kyle Mountsier: 13:19

See, they love it.

Paul J Daly: 13:22

I mean, I think so. Like some snap employees have expressed like the fact like, ah, we don't quite like that direction or tone. But I think there is the nugget in there of truth is that I do believe that people are interacting in a different way than the social media way. Right? We've seen a mass migration onto private DM platforms, to more experiential platforms, the emergence of you know, the glasses, and AR is definitely going to get us out of this when I think social media, you think fee based, fee based interaction. Yeah, you know, and so I think there's like truth in it. But, you know, some of it is a little visionary. You know, it's

Kyle Mountsier: 14:00

interesting, because like, if you just look at the way the trends of all social media app platforms, they all just kind of like assume each other's technology over time, and they grow to become almost the same thing. Similar little bit different iterations, just

Paul J Daly: 14:14

like the poster you were talking about, of all the little SUVs. It's kind of the same as the little SUVs? I think so I think so. But look, yeah, I don't know. I don't think there's anything else to be said about that. But

Kyle Mountsier: 14:29

I'm definitely not on Snapchat. You kidding me?

Paul J Daly: 14:32

I wonder how many of our colleagues are on Snapchat but hey, this kind of brings me back to one of the very first like study segments in the asoto email, which was what the kids are into. Right the very first so read off for like the first year we always had of what the kids are in twos and I was always tapping my teenager like Hey, what are you guys talking about right now?

Kyle Mountsier: 14:52

YouTube shorts.

Paul J Daly: 14:53

Yep, my kids don't have any Well, they do these YouTube shorts, Snapchat Tiktok. We're not we're not doing that. Right. I'm doing that's not doing that just yet. Hey, look, whatever you're doing today. We help you get out there and keep your eyes off social media. We can be on social media but keep your eyes up. Who can you serve? Who can you encourage and let's go sell some cars and let's go serve some dealers to why not we'll just do it all

Unknown: 15:24

right