F-Bomb-Drop On OEMs, 4000 Dealer Letter, RIP-Legend

Unknown: 0:00So

‍Paul J Daly: 0:32

Oh man, that intro is just the way it should be. Thursday, November 30, is last day of November, we're talking about an F bomb dropped on an OEM, lots of OEMs 4000 dealer letter, or 4000. Dealers, people signed a letter. It's too much for Thursday.

Unknown: 0:49

There were a lot of words I quit.

Paul J Daly: 0:55

I mean, 600 episodes 601. Today, six, oh, why? No,

Kyle Mountsier: 1:01

you know what I was thinking. I'm just gonna think out loud here for a minute. I was I was listening to the intro that you don't hear if you're just listening to the auto audio pod. I was listening to the hybrid music that we come into. I was like, You know what we got to get with the team and change the artwork. Like the artwork is not that vibe reflected.

Paul J Daly: 1:25

In the static now, like we went through this phase. And then we're like, we got to change it. And then you're like, you know, it looks so good on the screen of ASOTU CON, that it's hard to move away from it. But it's doing this podcast and everybody who has Spotify know that yesterday was a massive day, because Spotify racked drop and Spotify rap that W ra PP Ed. It's basically they deliver to you this combination of all your listening habits, the band, you'd like the most the podcasts you like the most, how many minutes you've listened. And as a podcast creator, they give you some information on the people who have, you know, partaken of your show. So throw the graphic up in 2023 217 people had us in their top 10 podcasts 132 in their top five, meaning of all the podcasts and things they listened to these couple of 100 people listen to this show the most, which is incredibly, incredibly encouraging. Thank you so much. We're gonna keep working hard every morning to build a quality show that keeps you in the know and maybe makes you laugh a little bit. Roll your eyes a little bit. Be sure to do all of those things every single day. All those for sure. To at the top fans, though, we're gonna give shout outs today. Michael McDonald and Shawn Hopper, we know you both we love you so much actually send us your address, because we just got these new love people more than you love cars, mailers, and we're gonna fill this with a SOTU swag, and we're going to send it to you. So make sure you send your info if you know us, just Texas if you have our numbers, or you can just send it to crew at a soda.com and we're gonna hook you think that's a great way to start a show, isn't it?

Kyle Mountsier: 3:03

It's a great way to it's so good. It's felt so good. Let's just get into it. You know, we Oh, we got to talk about the Auto Collabs episode dropping today because we had an interview. It's another podcast, we have Auto Collabs we have many podcasts, but that's our like long form. It's about 2530 Minutes interview podcast, we had it with Greg Yulin for the VP of Marketing for Reynolds and Reynolds great QA, we titled it 39 feet of paper, which means you have to go listen to it. It's available on all podcast platforms right now. Or you can watch it streamed live on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and x at 1pm. Eastern today. Really fun interview and he's a content creator too. And so man after our hearts, so it's always fun jumping on

Paul J Daly: 3:46

so surprising facts that I found out during this interview. You'll see it my face. I was like what? Yeah, so it's fun, fun moments. We also have a webinar coming up December 13. Just a couple of weeks from today or from yesterday 1pm December 13, transforming car buying with our friends at upstart the power of connected auto retailing. We hope you join us quick shot webinars. They're fun, they're fast, you're back to your day, a little more education go to a so to.com scroll up a little bit register. And we'd love to hang out with you there. And we do take questions by the way while we're on it. All right, this Alright, let's talk about

Unknown: 4:23

we're gonna say this thing he's.

Paul J Daly: 4:27

After a hard fought successful effort in recent negotiations with Detroit's big three Shawn Fein, the president of the UAW, they are putting on a full court press to unionize every other non union automaker with a rather public initiative. I'll say as workers at 13 non union automakers will be announcing the launch of simultaneous campaigns. So look, no one's left out of the fun even all the new Evie entrants like Tesla and rivian they really want to be like they really want to be considered a legit automaker's, so we're gonna let them throw their hats in the mix to be unionized as well. Sean fain said in a video, of course, to all know this, I'm just gonna read this and be like, This sounds like a paragraph crafted by him in his other little political narrative writers, the money is to all the auto workers out there working without benefits can't play some music behind me. Without benefits of a union. Now it's your turn the money. Time is right. You don't have to worry about how you're going to pay for your rent or feed your family. While the company makes billions a better life is out there. Your Elon Musk said when asked about the effort, I disagree with the idea of unions and continued that if Tesla is unionized, it will be because Tesla deserves it. And they failed in some way. Isn't that that is such a statement, audible leadership right there.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:51

I'm actually when I read that I was put back into

Paul J Daly: 5:56

things that was going to be the second half of the state and never would

Kyle Mountsier: 5:59

have thought like, if if they're if our workers feel like they need a union to protect themselves against us, or fight against us, then we're doing it the wrong way. Day, like leadership lesson learned, go about your day, man.

Paul J Daly: 6:17

So multiple other OEMs released statements, of course, pointing to their history of treating employees well, and saying unions would make it more difficult to treat their employees so well. And here's the here's the strategy for this synchronized campaign. If 30% of workers at a plant, seek union representation, it's going to be made public they're going to make an announcement if they get to 50%. Shawn fain is going to show up in his not private jet. And they're going to have a big ol rally, right? And once they get to 70%, the UAW will push for recognition or a union vote. So I mean, the strategy is out there. And it's it's it's a play man for real.

Kyle Mountsier: 6:56

Ah, this is it's gonna be a saga. I'm just telling you.

Paul J Daly: 7:00

I'll tell you what the Detroit big fear just like

Kyle Mountsier: 7:04

they got they got off clean in this one, right. Yeah, Mary

Paul J Daly: 7:08

Barra is like super profitable, super helpful. And all the other OEMs No sweat. Here we go. Right. We got four years to worry about this one. And then like, obviously, you saw all the other moves by a lot of the other automakers raising their pay, right, getting everything equalized. They probably saw this coming and there was a really smart move. But hey, look, in the end, workers will get to decide and I think we'll say it this way. Elon Musk, I think kind of said it best. He said it best

Unknown: 7:36

when he usually doesn't decide oh, segway.

Paul J Daly: 7:44

Yes, so this is a big one nearly 4000. US dealerships have collectively urged President Biden to reconsider aggressive Evie targets if you're not watching. On the screen. Right now we have a map representing pretty much all the states with the dealership count that are represented and it's a lot right 4000. So basically, they sent a letter to Biden. To focus on the challenges of evey adoption. The initiative was led by Mickey Anderson, CEO of Baxter Auto Group, and a broad group of dealers, various states, various brands, on concerns over the EPA proposal that is recent, trying to push evey sales to 60% by 2030. And 67% by 2032. The letter sent on Tuesday begins appropriately as the voice of the customer, which is an interesting way for for the dealers to actually put it back on the government like actually, yeah, you're not listening to the voice of the customer. And it continues what I and other dealers identified early on is that the voice of the customer was really absent from this entire conversation. There's no way we'll have a scalable solution if we don't have consumer adoption. These vehicles are ideal for EVs, ideal for many people, and we believe their appeal will grow over time. The reality however, is that electric vehicle demand is not keeping up with the large influx of EVs arriving at our dealerships. Mary rice dealer principal at Toyota of Greensboro, North Carolina, who signed the letter, one of the early signers, she put a little data behind it and she said of the five state footprint the group has the oldest Prius which is a hybrid is five only five days old. However, the oldest Bz 4x, fully V was 266 days old. This is amazing. I think this is an amazing approach.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:31

This is just well, just to say that, Hey, look. The reason why this goes back to what we say all the time, like the reason why the franchise retail operation is so good for the country is because it looks at the customer first, every single time and says What did they want? What did they need? How can we serve them and so this initiative just puts that plainly and clearly in the arms of of a political push, and so it's to say like, Hey, we're listening to the customer. This is what the customer is telling us. They're telling us what their dollars. They're telling us what their words, we are attempting to listen. And I love this, that there was actually a, there was actually a nod to say, hey, look, there's a lot of customers that this is going to be good for. We're not, we're not like just throwing out all the EVS from from adoption or leaning or being available for purchase. It's just that the rate and the progress at which we get there is not being determined by consumer demand. And I like for 4000. That's 1/4 of the overall dealerships. I'm guessing probably, that the only reason why the other 75% they

Unknown: 10:50

didn't know about they didn't know about it. That's the only reason

Paul J Daly: 10:53

Yes. But I mean, it's cool. It's like an independent, independent thing, right? Like NADA, obviously, voiced support for it. Jared Allen said in the statement, you know, how onpoint this was, but hey, like that, leave it to the dealer entrepreneurs to put this together, get a rational approach, a consumer driven approach, because frankly, entrepreneurs don't have any other option. It's like, if you're not listening to the consumer, then you die. That's how it goes. And so yeah, it's good to just see this moving on. Speaking of moving on

Kyle Mountsier: 11:24

segue. So we are going to take a moment to pay our respects to quite the legend. If you know the name, Charlie Munger. He was Warren Buffett's right hand man and a pivotal figure in big building, Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated, he passed away at age 99. He was always renowned for a simple yet profound advice on business and life. There are a few key rules for success that we just wanted to highlight this morning, there's a little bit of attention to talk through maybe just a little bit and just give back to the to what he said, because they're their key rules for like living in the world of business. And and so I love it. So here we go. We're gonna read it give a little commentary on each boom, boom, here we go. mongers forceful emphasize integrity and sales. So he said, The safest way to try to get what you want, is to try to deserve what you want. It's such a simple idea. It's the golden rule, you want to deliver the world that you would buy, if you were on the other end.

Paul J Daly: 12:28

Look, it's easy to ask for things. But it's really hard to be realistic with yourself and saying, like, do I actually deserve what I'm asking for? And this isn't just like in a sales situation, this isn't every situation, this, this just goes across the relationship board, right? Like you can even ask for something from a spouse or a friend. And like, the real question is like, do I deserve what I'm asking for? Have I built the relational element? And it's so good. It's so broad. Yes. So broad.

Kyle Mountsier: 12:59

All right. Second advice, focus on professional relationships, distinctly, you particularly want to be want to avoid working directly under somebody you don't admire, or don't want to be like, it's dangerous,

Paul J Daly: 13:13

who I mean, there's somebody who has had a long career of finding people that could bring him forward. Obviously, he worked directly under Warren Buffett for many, many, many years. And that's obviously the result of him paying attention to and that's true, like a lot of people get stuck working for somebody that they don't have respect for, or they have more disrespect for then respect. And we look around the industry. And just in automotive specifically, you see so many of these amazing leaders, and people that line up to work for them. And you just see how the organization thrives because everyone is being fulfilled. And, look, we also see that in the opposite direction. You see the bad eggs, and the bad dealers and the crooked ones, and what happens to all the people underneath them, you start to actually function and become just like them. Very dangerous.

Unknown: 14:01

All right. Last rule,

Kyle Mountsier: 14:02

as we wrap up this morning, said, I've found that intense interest in any subject is indispensable. If you're going to excel, I can force myself to be fairly good and a lot of things but I couldn't excel in anything in which I don't have an intense interest or enjoy. If at all feasible. You want to maneuver yourself into doing something in which you have an intense interest alongside people whose company you enjoy. Ah,

Paul J Daly: 14:27

yeah, this one resume, like when I think of the asoto community, yes, right. And what we're doing, what we're working towards how we're working towards it, whether that's you're changing the perception of the industry, or just becoming very, very, very high level operators, profitable operators. It's pretty obvious that there's some focused intensity on that. There's some great community and people that enjoy working with and for one another. And I think every day, we understand that like, we want to be the people that deserve what we're asking for, for us as podcasters as media creators to your Attention honestly

Kyle Mountsier: 15:01

can't ask for anything they put you on your whatever it is here. Here's the kicker. Speaking of great operators as a note, Berkshire Hathaway got into retail auto in 2015 with the acquisition of the van tile group and now operates 103 franchises a few cross 27 brands in 10 states.

Paul J Daly: 15:22

It's great to have that DNA and Charlie Munger his legacy as a part of the automotive industry. We hope that we shared a little bit of value with you today. Hope you can share the show in the email with other people as we all go forward together. See you next time.

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