Ad Spend Well Spent, Decline In Reliability, Fisker’s Quality Issues

Kyle Mountsier: 0:00

All right, good morning. Oh, Paul's mic isn't working. So I'm talking if he thought he was talking, I thought I was talking. We're talking about Fisker and declines in ADS. Stuff People really want to know. Can

‍Paul J Daly: 0:26

you hear me?

Kyle Mountsier: 0:28

We can hear.

Paul J Daly: 0:29

Oh my gosh. You know, this. This is the first episode I can say most people talk about an EVs. We're shooting an episode from inside an Eevee. I know. Right now,

Kyle Mountsier: 0:41

Kyle, our favorite we call it a Mustang Mikey.

Paul J Daly: 0:46

Okay, so here's the breakdown. I booked a Tesla for 45 bucks. It was the cheapest car to rent. And then they put me in a Ford Mach E, which I was happy about, like, same one. Yeah. Well, it's not the same thing. It drives really great. Not as fast as the Tesla but it's super zippy, super fun to drive. There's a lot of familiar things in it, like the dials and the knobs. Like I just feel like I'm in a car. The Evie driving experience is actually really freaking great. Like the instant acceleration. But I have been watching my battery battery indicator drop quickly, and it feels so wrong when I'm just sitting down, and the car's not running and the air conditioners on. If that makes any sense. Yeah, but I still will never ever, ever, like I'm looking at the Mustang on the steering wheel right now. It's just wrong. I don't know why

Kyle Mountsier: 1:33

they like it. Everything feels wrong about the Mustang on the steering wheel and the way this car feels

Paul J Daly: 1:38

right, but I will say this CarPlay connected so quickly, wirelessly. That it's amazing. I don't know what Chevy is going to do. You got

Kyle Mountsier: 1:49

in the car and it was like being ready to go. Yes, yes. Chevy's gonna do if they don't have CarPlay there's no way I cannot imagine ever owning one of those cars

Paul J Daly: 1:59

without CarPlay but I don't have to charge it. So that's another thing I'm not worried about. Best of 200 miles range and like you're going to be 60 miles of driving to do perfect,

Kyle Mountsier: 2:09

perfect speaking to drive and to do we are going to be flying driving boating training we I got. I was talking to people yesterday, they were like I'm gonna train in I'm gonna, I'm gonna drive. People train into a soda con into ASOTU CON we are not. Our team is 90 days from being there. 91 days till the opening bell rings on the welcome reception at ASOTU CON. The conversations are just like, oh, just flying in all day. We had like our Okay, NADA is getting wrapped up on our team. A soda con is like full swing. Yesterday, we got all these we got meetings happening. We got things being built, things being made. Speaker, speaker say we already have like 38 people on the speaker, we're gonna run

Paul J Daly: 2:56

out of spaces, like how you set up the SOS yesterday? Well, somebody asked us, like two months ago, like hey, you better get some speaker announcements out are not going to have any speakers. Right? And we're like, oh, soda con doesn't work like that. It's invite only and we're already oversubscribed. And like yesterday, we like we better stop asking people because everybody said yes so far. And we're gonna have like, 60 people speaking and like 85 People asked. Yes,

Kyle Mountsier: 3:24

there are and the people that are a part of it. I mean, let alone our keynote speaker. We'll get there. We've got Kylie Mike. Stan's gonna be there again, and incredible, an incredible dealer lineup some people that we've never had on a solo stages. And yeah, like people we've never had in content really, from people that we've known and wanted, wanted to be a part of the thing. So you're gonna want to check it out. We even had one of a dealer in our community just say, hey, look, the conversations that are happening at ASOTU CON are much different than any other conference in cluding. NADA, we got a message yesterday. So like, from people that have actually been saying, hey, these conversations, these panels are dialed in and changing the way that we do business. So

Paul J Daly: 4:15

we're gonna talk about this more, but literally, we might just change like our little value proposition statement to the most innovative ideas in automotive begin at ASOTU CON, because we can track it back. I've been thinking about you're like What do we put on the website? I think that's it.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:33

That's it. All right. Let's get into it. Let's get into it today.

Paul J Daly: 4:36

Okay, the numbers are in after the industry's Superbowl commercial showing VW, Kia, Toyota and BMW. As for their latest EVs drove a very notable surge in online interest with VW and nostalgic journey, capturing the most attention big surprise there. VW is ad celebrating the 75 years in the US. top search traffic increases on car duck cars.com Auto trader Kelley Blue Book, you know, basically tied to development of V W's journey to the American Journey 69% of all search activity in automotive, after the big game went to Volkswagen 65% of all automotive search.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:17

That's a pretty that's pretty wild. Because I mean, it was very nostalgic, but I don't. For me, it wasn't like the mean, either. The most impressive commercial, I think maybe because you just don't see VW in media as much. And so for them to make a big splash, like, it kind of turns heads maybe and said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what is this, that they're dropping in here? This This was the kicker, the ID buzz, search increased 13x on KBB. Allah,

Paul J Daly: 5:52

I mean, honestly, that's the only thing in the ad, right that there was to search like, no one's like, Oh, I was thinking about that Jetta, right. No, it's not saying that. Like, what is that thing? So let's see both Kia and VW made it into the into the top 10 list for all the Superbowl ads, which is pretty sweet. And Brian Moody, executive editor at autotrader. And Kelley Blue Book said Volkswagen specifically woven their vehicles into the tapestry of American experience that didn't just capture sentiment, but introduced Volkswagen than the it bus to new generation of drivers. So I don't know I still Christopher Walken. That was still my favorite AD.

Kyle Mountsier: 6:31

The that was really I love that ad. I just love Christopher Walken. Christopher Watkins great. I was I was so disappointed. We haven't even talked about this. You and I were gonna say they played it at the wrong time. Like how do you miss that golden opportunity to say no, yeah, we'll pay the extra 100 grand or whatever it is to make sure right before for Usher goes on.

Paul J Daly: 6:58

Its mark he had a different outfit on though.

Kyle Mountsier: 7:01

Yeah, but again, marketing Miss should have known what the outfit was gonna be should have been put that in, like,

Paul J Daly: 7:09

just so in order. Kia actually had a great commercial 15% of the elevated search traffic went to Kia 10% went to oh, how does this break down?

Kyle Mountsier: 7:20

I'm missing a percent for Toyota. That's only because people are already shopping them at crazy amounts. Right? It was right. And 6% for BMW. Yeah, right. And they

Paul J Daly: 7:29

released both Toyota and BMW released their commercials the week before the Superbowl, so there was no surprise. Speaking of surprises. All the latest JD Power study reveals a declining trend in vehicle dependability were going the wrong way as vehicles experienced more problems in their first three years. The 2024 study shows an increase in problems to 190 per what is that per 1000 Problems per 100,000. With nearly two thirds of brand showing more issues than previously, infotainment systems are the most problematic child with connectivity and voice recognition. Leading to complaints I can relate to all those EVs included, including battery EVs and plug in hybrids are showing more problems than gas powered vehicles also more technologically advanced. That makes sense. Lexus, Toyota and Porsche lead in dependability rankings, with Toyota winning the most model level awards. And here's a quote from Frank Hanley, JD Power Senior Director of auto benchmarking says, a deterioration like this vehicle dependability overall is very unusual.

Kyle Mountsier: 8:41

Okay, couple of things here. One, we've been talking about the fact that electric vehicles are having a lower level of dependability. It's a net new technology. Y'all remember when plasma screens TV screen TVs came out? They were way too expensive, and they broke all the time, right? And now Now they're like, you know, now we're like, Oh, those are old hat. Like let's get the new OLED. Well, they break all the time, too. You know, it's this is this is always going to be a problem when innovation happens in any industry. But like this, this for me, reveals the need for more collaboration cross vertical, where like I love the collaborations with like Sony and Samsung and technology partners that are used to building mass scale technology into products that are already being delivered on the market. Because that's where we're seeing the most issues right connectivity, voice recognition, infotainment systems, things that like other companies already have dialed in, and yet auto manufacturers are trying to kind of like squeeze their own work into it. Granted, there's a lot of work on like the actual battery usage and and an issues with charging Seeing or or vehicles, you know, starting and stopping, but the bigger issue is on all the tech that manufacturers are trying to figure out for themselves. Still don't get it? Well,

Paul J Daly: 10:12

you know what I don't get is, this seems like a really great time to not integrate a technology that everyone's familiar with in your infotainment system.

Kyle Mountsier: 10:22

You gotta you got feelings about all GM today, don't you? Oh,

Paul J Daly: 10:26

it's not. It's just that one decision. Yes, that one doesn't know who knows. Maybe they will blow our minds and it will just work the second Well, we'll see. We'll see. I don't know, I guess. Speaking of problems with EVs, that

Kyle Mountsier: 10:46

this one's actually gonna be serious problems because Fisker is all electric SUV the ocean now with some dealers on board has been plagued by reports of sudden power loss, braking issues and other technical problems since its launch, challenging the company's quality assurance and customer service capabilities. The Fisker ocean owners have reported over 100 incidents of just sudden power loss like do nothing. attainment, that's not infotainment issues, extending to braking problems. That's not a big deal, glitchy key fobs and even hoods flying open. Yeah,

Paul J Daly: 11:24

that's cool. That's like the Chevy Chase nonsense.

Kyle Mountsier: 11:27

The NH s t. t s a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the breaking issues which Fisker claims to have fixed through none other than software updates. The real kicker here is back when Heinrich Fisker had his like emotional speech about how over two and a half years they had planned all this stuff, the very first one gets delivered to a C suites. Wife, she gets like two miles down the road, and the thing has power loss right? Now they say that they fix that, but there's been multiple other incidents of this, you know, this is one, like, if you're a new OEM, you are seeing all time high scrutiny, but also like this, this will challenge their ability to be good with the dealer network that they have, because the dealer is always going to look out for the consumer.

Paul J Daly: 12:21

Well, I think this is one of the best reasons they should be tied in with the dealer network, obviously the dealer is going to be the one holding the bag with the consumer right because now it's the dealer that takes on the you sold me this car, right and it's breaking. When it's distanced, right. It's like Fisker sold me this car. But I mean, there's no better way to fix problems like this than being partnered with the dealer network that can like troubleshoot that can fix things like talk about if you're going to have quality issues, which is understandable. You're building new technology and a brand new thing. So like not throwing stones at the fact that they're quality issues. But man, I just historic history is going to be like the smartest decision they ever made, was to get involved with the dealer network because dealer rate dealers solve some problems,

Kyle Mountsier: 13:04

man super close to customers, they are ready to care. They're ready to take problems. just solving some problems solving some problems. Well, we hope back solving some problems, you know, doing some of those things, caring for customers, doing things that are right, for the customer for the employee, because this whole thing is so much more than cars.

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