UAW ‘Strikes’ Again, Dealers Lament, Peach Fuzz is Prime Time

Paul J Daly: 0:32

Okay, it's Friday, December 8, may 8 through the first full week of December kind of Saturday. Still kind of a day today though. We're talking about maybe some more UAW strikes, VW. I mean, people really want Oh, man, we got double music playing. That's probably me. It is it is, you know, whenever we're in like the, the hybrid setup. We're always like, this is what the world's gonna get from us today.

‍Kyle Mountsier: 1:02

It's just what it is. And we've

Paul J Daly: 1:04

had 600 in probably four or five episodes now of the world, getting what they're going to get from us today. But isn't that kind of the essence of just entrepreneurship? And crazy? You

Kyle Mountsier: 1:14

want to hear the crazy stat for today? Yeah, 608 episodes.

Paul J Daly: 1:18

It's going faster than I thought. I was watching. I was watching.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:24

The bigger deal. Is this episode is the 900th overall podcast episode amongst all uh, so do podcasts in the last Oh, whoa, wow. What is that? I can't

Paul J Daly: 1:39

even like 100. Other podcasts we do this show every day. And the other ones are half as many still? Yeah, I don't know. We've been doing a couple of podcasts, we're on our way to our 10,000 hours. Good morning, everybody on live stream, it is good to see you. Thank you so much for just being here being a part of this community. And what I love most about the Soto community is I've just been watching people on LinkedIn, social media, giving other people in the community props, lifting them up sharing best practices, and you just it's just a good feeling to watch everyone interacting with one another right? Not just with us.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:13

Yep. Yeah, it's, it's a vibe that like is starting to grip like push it push into the entire industry and like get a grip on the way that we just communicate. Like, it's just a it's a communication standard, is encouraging, joining together and all that, yeah,

Paul J Daly: 2:30

that's a good way to put it, you know. And on that note, if you watch the show, if you listen to the podcast, share it with somebody, right? Because we want the other great people in the community. Or if you're not on the email list, we do put out an email every single day. And we really think you would like it. If you're not on it, go to a CIO two.com. Get the email because there's always something going on. Speaking of things that are going on, on Thursday, December 21, that's Thursday, December 21. We are having our third annual year end extravaganza, we're going to recap the year you make some special video content. We're gonna have a lot of special guests we're going to do in studio, it's going to be you know, it's just gonna be a fun time to look back on the year look forward on the year and there's nothing else in automotive like it. So just come on, hang out with us hang out with some great guests hear their perspective on next year. And we're certainly going to have a couple of surprises.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:19

Oh, it's it's turning out fun. We're reviewing the show with our team yesterday. And we're going to look back on a great year. Look forward to next year. I'm excited about it. So yeah, me too.

Paul J Daly: 3:29

I get to be one more thing going on. What am I forgetting? What are my free webinar

Kyle Mountsier: 3:33

with upstart and they're bringing someone named Karen Byrd. She's the GM of colonial VW Subaru, and is just going to be able to share the experience from the dealer side on how that they have transformed car buying on their showroom. So I'm always excited to hear like from a practitioner, getting it done with people on showrooms, how the retail experience is being transformed by a technology partnership.

Paul J Daly: 3:58

Well, speaking of VW segway crossing a notable benchmark, the UAW has crossed the 30% support threshold and Volkswagen Chattanooga facility, signaling a major shift in union organization efforts now that they've reached 30%. Those who have signed the union cards will now actually kind of become public, in hopes that they can raise more support for people to join or explore joining the union once that gets to 70%. If that gets to 70%, that will actually trigger a vote. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Shawn Fein up up in Chattanooga, Kyle see if he's driving through Nashville on his way he wouldn't really vote through Nashville to get what didn't go through Nashville to get to Chattanooga from the

Kyle Mountsier: 4:45

just kind of got two options Nashville or Knoxville. You can go either way and about like a 30 minute difference.

Paul J Daly: 4:51

So I know well, if he ends up at tootsies on stage at karaoke night, we'll be there recording video teams. Absolutely. So this progress at the plant is actually part of Viet VW is larger push to unionize the 13 current non union us plants targeting 150,000 employees. Now the Chattanooga plant has a history of the workers voting down unionization efforts. And last time that happened was as recent as 2019. They told employees according to The New York Times, they said, we prefer to continue our direct relationship with you working together. As one team UAW has responded or maybe not responded there. Their take on it is the time has changed. And our time is now.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:36

Yeah, I mean, here's the thing, the best possible employee employer relationship is a direct one. The minute that you that you need a union to stand in the way is when the employee doesn't feel cared for by the employer. And so that's going to be the question that happens at every single one of these OEMs is does the employee or the or broadly, the employee network feel cared for by the their ownership? So it's, it's going to be also interesting, because if like one domino falls, the next dominoes fall a lot easier. So I know that every point,

Paul J Daly: 6:13

yeah, VW, everybody support and Chattanooga that doesn't want to be unionized right now. Stay with it. It happens. It's always tough. I mean, the union just an organization that exists for conflict. Right? exists because of conflict caused conflict. I don't know everyone's got different perspective on it, but that's what's going on in Chattanooga. Speaking of other things that are going on so Cox, automotive q4 dealers Sentiment Index reveals a growing pessimism amongst franchised auto dealers as they face basically a comedown from previously favorable, really favorable market conditions to franchise dealers expressed the worst market sentiment since the second quarter of 2020. With a current market rating of around 49%, reflecting a shift from heightened profitability to more normal conditions and includes responses for 561 franchise dealers, 475, independent dealers, you know, just showing a decline in optimism. Now, key challenges identified by dealers in the survey include high interest rates, economic concerns and market conditions. Now, with a shift away from the inventory issues, right that we've been fighting for the last few years, it's this

Kyle Mountsier: 7:30

interesting thing where everyone's like, bring me back inventory. And then we got inventory like,

Paul J Daly: 7:34

Whoa, this is terrible. Terrible, I hate this. You know, so this is from directly from the automotive news article. Cox doesn't think even read despite the sentiment, they don't think that there is a big looming threat on the horizon, our good friend Jonathan smoke, who always is you can count on for interjecting some real rational thinking into situations like this said he attributes the negative sentiment to moving away from the best years in dealer history, sales won't be an issue. He's saying dealers are just lamenting the squeezing profitability. And it's hitting him hitting him in the head right

Kyle Mountsier: 8:09

now. Yep, I think that that's the point is yes, maybe the next year isn't going to be the same as 2021 2022. In the first half of 2023. We have all been talking about since all of that started really in q3 of 2020. Since the boom started, that this will not last forever, we have to be prepared for it not lasting forever. And those that have done the preparation, from training, to organizational leadership to operational efficiency, are ready for anything changing in the market and and can be prepared to guide their employees and their customers through it. The reality is, is that not everybody's done that hard work. And this could be a tough season for some people. But like you said, there's still plenty of buyers out there. If interest rates, if and when interest rates do normalize or come down, we'll see more of those people that were sidelined over the last six months come back into the market. So I still think there's a ton of favorability in the market. And thanks, Jonathan smoke for giving everyone that heads up on that there

Paul J Daly: 9:14

absolutely isn't, you know, a lot of the dealers that we're friends with, we get to speak with a lot of dealers all day every day. And we actually see a lot of dealers that are leaning into the season and spending more on marketing. They're spending more on training, because they understand this is actually the moment where they gain market share. And they did the same thing. A few years ago when COVID hid, they leaned in, they didn't lean out, they didn't hide the corner, they actually leaned into the market because they had the cash to do it. And we know a lot of dealers have the cash to do it now. So I mean, I think it's just human nature to be like, Oh, it's terrible. It wasn't as good as it was last year. I know it was an anomaly, but I didn't want to believe that either.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:52

Well, speaking of not as good as last year Oh So if you don't know, the company called named Pantone, who creates Pantone colors across a variety of spectrum, which is principal colors, every single year announces their color of the year and just yesterday, they announced their 2024 Color of the Year. Let's get Do we have it on the screen? It's this beautiful color. It's called peach fuzz. Peach Fuzz, Paul peach.

Paul J Daly: 10:26

It's just the wrong name. I think it's just the wrong name. Because a really pleasant color. It is

Kyle Mountsier: 10:32

a pleasant color. So that so they noted that the color is meant to symbolize comfort, kindness and tenderness, in contrast to the turmoil of recent years. It's interesting, historically, a lot of times the color of the year kind of like is wrapped in the current sentiment, as opposed to pursuit of a sentiment and a lot of the notes around what the Pantone executive team and the color Institute said. And it specifically Laurie Pressman said it's the things that we're looking for that color can hope to answer. So it's like this idealism that says, hey, if we that, and aesthetics are so much of the way that we see the world that, that there's like a hope presented in a color. And so I actually love pairing that with the last story is like, hey, look, you know, things might have gone weird or gotten up and down. But like, there's still hope. And we can find that in aesthetics, we can find that at business practices. There are some businesses that are really trying to emphasize that hope, including companies like Motorola, who's got new phones coming out in the color, and irrigable, who already just put out a full on suite. And then you got Carrie Huma, which already has peach fuzz shoes that they got coming out. So if you want some peach fuzz in your life, you can certainly get it. Or you

Paul J Daly: 11:56

could just have a teenage boy. And you can make fun of him that he can't grow a mustache yet. Hey, that's how that can work as well. You know, this color actually does show up in the spectrum of our ASOTU CON 2024 color scheme. Did you know that I don't know if it's exact color, but

Kyle Mountsier: 12:15

it's not that exact color. But as you go through the peach

Paul J Daly: 12:19

dynamic was definitely part of the original consideration and is a part of, of the color gradient in there. Hey, this is just always fun to I mean, it's something that, you know, everybody hates rooms in their house, and they're gonna make a big deal in the Home Depot and Lowe's. And you know, it gives us something to talk about and it's a conversation starter in my mind the Pantone color the or I don't know who picks this stuff. Right? But every year, once they pick it, you're gonna see it. Here's the thing.

Kyle Mountsier: 12:44

There's always an opportunity to meet culture within your business so hey, who knows maybe you do a little weird little widget with that everybody gets the buys a car with a little Pantone color and give them a little bit of the peace and comfort that Pantone Institute is trying to give the rest Yes.

Paul J Daly: 13:01

Isn't the kind of color that you would wrap a car in to be like,

Kyle Mountsier: 13:04

please don't do that. No.

Paul J Daly: 13:06

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