Tesla’s Drudge, A Brand New Dealer, Lions Before Pickups 

Paul J Daly: 0:12

Good morning, Thursday already January 25. We're a month away from Christmas. How about that today we're talking about, we'll call it Tesla's drudgery a brand new dealer amongst the ranks and lions before pickups. Actually, that's not what I want the lion's share

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:29

today. You did you are a line shirt.

Paul J Daly: 0:31

That's No, maybe it's just I saw this story because I had a lion shirt on. I have a shirt on right now of a roaring lion with an eyepatch like a pirate. And I was like, I only wear this shirt, but I feel this way. And our producer Nathan's, like I've never seen you wear that shirt. And I was like, I haven't felt this way in a long time. Ready to go. I feel this way about just about everything that's going on right now. We have a new Auto Collabs episode coming out today. This one's great. David's V. Zack. There is a whole side of David's feedback that this world has not seen at least this industry. It's

Kyle Mountsier: 1:05

true. You're like, Oh, everybody knows him for his auto stuff. Everybody knows him for his voice. Chip was before COVID. Right? And it's like, no, this guy is not just a wealth of information and knowledge, but a wealth of just wild history. So

Paul J Daly: 1:20

he's hilarious. He was a stand up comedian. Yes, that's a true story. Ask him about him sometime. He will tell you all about it. But now that I know that, like I check out some of his responses, like in our podcasts that I was like, he's really funny. Yes, absolutely. So you can check that out on any podcast platform Auto Collabs. CO L L. A B S, just search set up? Let's do it. Well, so have that you see, even the picture that we have on the screen right now of him? That I feel like that's like the cover of his like, stand up comedy tour.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:51

That's it. That's we're gonna bring it back.

Unknown: 1:55

Oh, my goodness. Why? Otakon Ah, you

Kyle Mountsier: 1:59

you saw it. You saw it coming. Okay, maybe

Paul J Daly: 2:02

we'll convince him to do a quick like form. It'll work out.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:05

He's gonna do it. He's gonna He's absolutely going to do it. It's over. We

Paul J Daly: 2:09

have some amazing asoto casting in Texas. We have some amazing ASOTU CON announcements coming soon. We have locked up our keynote speaker and it is gonna be on fire. Let me just tell you now, we also we also have like this really cool partnership going with a breakfast that we're going to be having one of the mornings, you know that breakfast time is kind of wasted. Usually people dragging in, we're going to have a really awesome, awesome breakfast event, maybe two. But for surely one. So we haven't announced anything yet. There's really nothing up yet on the ASOTU con.com site, except for the ability to buy tickets. But we have lots of speakers ready to launch our keynote announcement, our breakfast thing. So early bird tickets are on sale. Now. If you feel so obliged, it would be a great time to get it. And we always give our early ticket buyers a little extra love and just come on in. What else is going on? Now with this broom, Pascal.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:02

This is what this is what I'm going to say, well, we've got NADA, we've got a more than cars thing on Thursday, you gotta go to our LinkedIn, you got to check that out. Because please be there if your community has to show up. But Paul, I know that like we're in an announcement mode and sometimes podcasts the world when it gets it, but this is the real thing. I've been in retail auto for going on 15 years now. I don't think I've ever had this feeling in January, where like, the entire industry is not taking a breath. So it is full throttle. I've actually had three calls this week with other people in the industry that I've asked the question like, do you feel like this January just feels different

Paul J Daly: 3:45

or feels like

Kyle Mountsier: 3:47

it feels like it's licensure does I ensure it's the lion shirt, man, let's go I agree there.

Paul J Daly: 3:52

Everybody is really full throttle. The way to go. And the crazy part is, it is stark contrast to what's going on in like the rest of the news, right? You and I scour the news every day. We're in Reuters Wall Street Journal, The Verge, right? We were in all of them. And my wife, she was telling me about something happened in the news. I was like, I don't I didn't really hear about it. She's like, you read the news every morning? Like no, I skip most of the news every morning and I go to auto industry news and the rest of the world like they're having a hard time. Automotive is like whatever happens out there. We're gonna make it go. It's so exciting. And one of those things is this LinkedIn posts we made called Dear room employees, where we actually posted a sheet that has six to 700 names and LinkedIn profiles of displaced roommates as they call themselves and really that's what the intention of helping them find a home inside the auto industry. Obviously they work for room but we want to bring them into the off franchise dealer network and show them how amazing it is and that post is just gone off the hook. So if you haven't There

Kyle Mountsier: 5:00

is a sales team that's in Texas 13 people, their manager is working to get them jobs right now I know of three dealer groups that are all after these 13 people. Like, there you go.

Paul J Daly: 5:14

That's fire. That is what this more than cars community is all about. And it's pretty awesome to watch people coming in. Shawnee were in the livestream comments. Shani Richardson is in here. It says we're so grateful. That's right. She's dropped in the comments as a room. Welcome. Shani, welcome. You're part of the family. We're just saying that part of the auto All right, NADA is coming up seven days. We're going to be coming in hot. We're going to be there every day. Cauvery mentioned it we are having a so do more than cars meet up on Thursday. Right next to registration at the NADA live stage 315 to 330 We'll be on stage with dealer Andy Belcher. Talking about the more than cars Docu series we've been making, showing some previews. And then we're gonna have a big old meetup. If you're there, and you're part of this community, we have swag for you. We have these more than cars pins, we have more than car stickers. So you can put it on your badge. So you can wrap it to everybody and bring them in. So make sure you come see us. If you can't catch us at the live stage. But you see us walking around, let us know we'll give you a pen and we want these things walking around all around the floor. Let's get into some news. Let's drop into it. All right, yesterday came with some mixed news during Tesla's earnings call as the stock price fell 7%. On the news tech, the company missed earnings again for the second quarter in the row losing about 50 billion in market value. Hi, no Ceylon CEO Elon Musk confirm plans for launching a low cost electric vehicle in late 2025. We talked about this a little yesterday, he confirmed it. They're going to be producing the vehicle in Texas to begin with so they can be close to the lines. So he said, You know, there's gonna be a lot of changes with this low cost vehicle in design and how we manufacture it. The vehicle is going to be potentially priced around that $25,000 price point. And so he based he said this in quote, will basically be sleeping on the line. And like, I brought up that I'm reading

Kyle Mountsier: 7:04

this book where Elon I don't know if you know that he means it. He means it. Oh, absolutely. So

Paul J Daly: 7:10

here's there's obviously a lot of changes going on. But Michael Hewson, Chief market analyst at CMC markets said the problem for Tesla is any significant attempt to boost sales from here on will need to be achieved at the cost of further falls and operating margin right price cuts due to having to compete with BYD in China as well as increased competition elsewhere. So following Tesla's announcement, actually 10 brokerages upgraded the stock and said, okay, they're living in reality basically. And they set the target 9% higher than it than it was at close. But all the Eevee market market participants like Rivia and lucid Fisker, they're all down between like one and two and a half percent. So a little Evie reality, just you know, when Tesla says it, and they're not optimistic, you know?

Kyle Mountsier: 7:59

I think this is the this is the year this is the pivot year. This is like the gap year for for EVs, can it sustain and get to the next layer. And that's going to rely on legacy automakers and brand new OEMs that are in the market, including Tesla to figure out whether or not they can bridge the gap of consumer interest to that next layer of adoption. Right? And that's what I think you're seeing in the stock prices is like, are they going to figure out how to utilize tax breaks pricing, the right type of vehicle sets? The right, you know, the right type of vehicle? Are they going to be able to navigate all the OEMs combined this like gap because we've kind of run out of the early adopters. And can we get to that next layer adoption if they get there? It's like, up into the right. If it doesn't like this is the this is the break point. You're in my opinion. Yep. Well, speaking

Paul J Daly: 8:56

of bridging the gap, segue. So new and fresh. We haven't done this yet on the show, but today we're celebrating a member of the next generation of dealers as Kate Fabo Guillot Grealish, who grew up in the auto industry, she took a significant step and we want to celebrate with her by acquiring her own dealership, Kate FAPA Ford in Henderson, Kentucky. So she's the daughter of Ron Fabo been working in the dealership since she's been 15. It's a Chevy GMC dealership. She has been serving as the GM of that store since 2021. And has always wanted her own store. Now she has it. So obviously a very common story in automotive, but not so much common anymore. With all the acquisitions and consolidations going on. We love to celebrate this next generation. She said, talking to Evansville Living Magazine, it's pretty cool. It's a lot of pressure. I'm not gonna lie, but it's really neat and she's excited. Mark Shackleford senior, the senior partner of Texas and Midwest offices for performance brokerage service, who brokered the deal. They said we had the pleasure of working with If Kate and her father Ron, in the acquisition of Henderson Ford were honored to play a part in Kate's next chapter of having her own store and expanding the family business that's part been part of the Henderson community for over 20 years, we wish her the best of luck in her new venture. Yay. Commentary.

Kyle Mountsier: 10:21

All the people said yes. Yeah, this this is this is amazing. I love I love seeing stories like this and seeing people take advantage of their their own growth and purchase their own things. And I've here I'm hearing this like, renewed energy around the next generation not to just rest on their laurels. But to say like, no, no, I'm going after it, too. Yeah. And this is that story.

Paul J Daly: 10:46

You know, who does a great job with this name. Matt, if you don't know about named Matt, and you probably haven't been in our content, that national association of minority auto dealers, they have a program called Next Gen. And every time and every year at the name and conference, we get to meet these young, motivated, talented people who are just ready to take on the challenges of becoming an auto dealer, a lot of them for the first time. And so I know there's other programs like that, but maybe we've just been in closer proximity to that. And I think that's kind of the lifeblood, and then another dealer, right. One of our Soto investors, Dan banister, his kids went to college have decided now they're coming into the family dealership groups. Dan Bannister was a first generation car dealer. And now we're watching that passed to the second generation. So like all that energy, I mean, the automotive industry might be one of the last family business industries in the country.

Kyle Mountsier: 11:35

Yeah. And the cool thing about it is the new generation is excited about the tech opportunity to have so it's not just this, like I can't make money doing this. They're like, Oh, this actually, this actually paints to the things that I'm interested in and so they're not afraid of it actually excited about it. I think we're gonna see some real innovation out of the second and third gen dealers.

Paul J Daly: 11:54

Speaking of some real innovation.

Kyle Mountsier: 12:00

So as we are because we've adopted the Lions have Team ASOTU. General Motors is also embracing the Detroit Lions historic NFL playoff run by adjusting its work schedules at their Flint assembly plant, laying the third shift at Flint assembly, where Chevy Silverados and GMC Sierras are built so that workers can watch the NFC Championship games. Normally

this the shift is set for 9: 12:25

45pm It will now commence at 10:45pm. So that will align with the game ending GM spokesperson Kevin Kelly highlights the decision as a nod to a quote rare moment in destroyed Detroit sports history. Just trying to make sure that the team feels like they know that everybody's committed to them. If you've seen also there was a GE Digital lodo logo modification team which is so smart like why not lean in you are Detroit if you're already

Paul J Daly: 13:02

the right blue already the right blue I love this story when I read it so Barry Sanders as a split despite being from Philly Barry Sanders was actually my favorite football player growing up really legendary running back for the Detroit Lions. The man could run yards when he had zero to work

Kyle Mountsier: 13:18

with let's hear about protection zero to work with

Paul J Daly: 13:21

the bond we're like seed you to get to the other side. Barry we're counting on Yeah, we're counting but this move is such a Philly move to like everything's closing down. There's nothing more important right now than this football game in this football team. It's a shot in the arm for the city. I think it's you know unless you're 40 Niners fan which we know David Zbyszek 40 Niners fan, I think Michael woods, a 40 Niners fan like a bunch of people, right? You can refer your team, but there's some chiefs fans, but the reality is everyone else right now is a Lions fan, including us, including as well. Look, we're also massive, massive fans of you. Thanks for being here on the livestream listening to the podcast. If you don't get the email, go to a soda.com Get the daily email. It's another little dose of this. We will see you here tomorrow.

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