Are We Getting Close To A Deal, Toyota Chooses Tesla, “Cars” Crocs

Paul Daly: 0:31Hey, it's Friday already October 20. It feels like we're really close to the end of the month all of a sudden. But we're also getting close to a deal maybe from the strike to choosing Teslin cars. Crocs. Have you ever owned a pair of crocs?

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:46

I never will never have not going to do it. I can't stand it. I won't, it won't happen. I'm almost hesitant to read the dang story. This

Paul Daly: 0:54

Well, this is one of the moments where we've never discussed this before. But I have a very identical sentiment.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:00

Naturally. Like we've literally never talked about crops, because there's no reason to talk about crocs.

Paul Daly: 1:10

So we get sideways. I was once on a call with Darren Jones and co founder of Hurley, right. And he said he was Why did crocs have holes in them? Like why was your soul can seep out the bottom? Ah, so I don't think it's really like surfer were either. Not Not at all. Not at all. Well, way to get into it. I love it. You never know Adrian. Good morning, thanks for being on the stream and just drop them that Good morning in there just makes us feel so good. With more than cars, episode two is out out in stores, well, not in stores. But you can go on to more than cars.tv. Watch it right there. Or you can click through to the YouTube channel. If you want to have a little bit of fun, you can go back to LinkedIn and watch the live stream we did we had a little bit of fun before and after it. We also showed a preview of episodes three and four at the end of the live stream, which is just that preview is hot.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:04

It's so hot. Yeah, I'm really excited about the next couple because they're going to come in a rapid succession release order. So like if you're excited, like I need more, we're bringing more coming with more. And we're coming to more cities because we have we there's just so many good stories to tell in auto. I can't get over it. And and here's the thing. Also, if you didn't know, like and you're you're missing the little like vibe of more than cars are the music curation of our producer and of our editors has just been on point. So Well, good. Nathan, our show producer decided to put in a little Spotify playlist for you so you can search more than cars on Spotify. Oh, you know, the vibes, you know,

Paul Daly: 2:49

I didn't realize that was live yet.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:50

Oh, it's good.

Paul Daly: 2:51

We can play this. Here it comes. What else are we talking about? Oh, we have a net, our next asoto edge webinar. We've been really having fun with this new webinar format. It's really quick shot 2530 minutes tops. You're in? You're out October 25. At 2pm, October 25 2pm. It's with four eyes. And the topic is this is a great topic. Dave. The struggle is real, how data is destroying the customer experience. And if that ain't getting me interested, I don't know what I

Kyle Mountsier: 3:20

don't know what is and and what are we going to learn David Steinberg and my boy, Jeff Ramsey are going to be hanging out with us those two people are just thinking on a different level.

Paul Daly: 3:30

So what are we going to learn? Why why are people signing up for this?

Kyle Mountsier: 3:33

Yeah, because right now, like there's so much focus on data. And there's so much focus on communicating with customers based on the data. But we're just creating so many lines of communication, that we're not caring for the customer, as we're thinking about the data. And so they're going to talk through how to care for customers through the data. It's going to be so good.

Paul Daly: 3:52

And just 10 minutes from now. 12 minutes from now we're going into David Long's all things used car room are talking about curating the perfect inventory. That's always an amazing conversation, download the clubhouse app, search all things, use cars, and come hang out with us for the next hour. But let's get into some news. Shall we? Just kind of leave you on the show. We're not getting excited yet. But there seems to be a little glimmer of hope. As Mike booth, Vice President of the union's GM GMs union department commented, all the pieces are there. We just have to glue it together. He said that at a rally yesterday. The company and Union are obviously in discussions about pensions and healthcare benefits for retirees. That seems to be what we've moved on to booth mentioned the union's desire for a secure pension but they're willing to discuss terms provided there's a robust plan to safeguard members he said, quote, people might potentially have a comfortable retirement with a set contribution plan as opposed to like an old school pension. I think that's good news.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:53

It is good news. Yeah, that part isn't relevant. The UAW side saying like hey, we're close with GM pieces

Paul Daly: 4:59

on the board man pieces on the board. Meanwhile, some Lance's Ford and GM are all still laying off workers. Another 270 layoffs announced in Michigan, Ohio in Ohio and Indiana. Due to UAW ongoing strikes, the Lantis is going to idle 100 UAW members at its Toledo plant GM 20 layoffs across Ohio and Indiana and Ford is laying off an additional 150 at its Sterling actual plant. And they might not receive unemployment benefits a union saying they're still gonna be eligible for the $500 a week. So we'll see so far Ford is laid off 2700 GM has laid off 2350 And Salanter is 1520. So a lot of people on the sidelines so a

Kyle Mountsier: 5:38

lot of people you know, I it's always a struggle for me because I'm like, I want to root for all the people that are going to get increased rages I want to root for the OEMs to make sure they're sustainable but I also want to root for the people that they're now having to layoff because they can't get production going so it doesn't make sense nothing to make employ these people. Nothing mates like this extremely weird battle. And I'm just I'm I'm hopeful that like the glimmer of hope that my booth is said, is a glimmer of hope that's happening in all three manufacturers because I'm just Well one. I'm ready to stop giving you aw updates. I'm ready to see these people get back to work and enjoy what they've they've worked so hard for. Yeah,

Paul Daly: 6:21

well there you go. Speaking of working hard towards something,

Kyle Mountsier: 6:23

I'm telling you what good segue

Paul Daly: 6:26

sign for the Halloween segue. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 6:28

guys. To close return. What if

Paul Daly: 6:32

we're going for we're going for it. The last domino may have fallen as Toyota announced yesterday, its decision to adopt Tesla's Evie charging standard from 2025. Forward joining the ranks of Ford, GM and Nissan Toyota. Their move signals a major industry shift as a lot of vehicles now, the platform says it the NAC s standard, potentially sidelining the rival combined charging system or CCS method. So starting in 2025, and ACS ports will be featured in select Toyota and Lexus EVs, including an upcoming Toyota crossover manufactured in the Kentucky plant. So current Toyota and Lexus owners using the legacy CCS system will receive adapters in 2025. So an ACS now we know is dominating the US market accounting for roughly 60% of fast chargers while the CCS system, which is by the way, I forgot about this is backed by Volkswagen is in for either an uphill battle, you know, or just get the white flag out and be like, we gave it a good shot. This

Kyle Mountsier: 7:36

has this has to be a standard. I mean, it's quite clear, you have to have this is where like, Apple just went to USBC. Why? Because Europe was like, we're tired of all this waste. gas pumps. Why? Why did they all fit in vehicles? Because everybody was like, Guess we need the same place.

Paul Daly: 7:55

Yeah, I wasn't covering

Kyle Mountsier: 7:57

electricity. This is why it's key on Toyota one, because they are a major market player that demands a large percent of the market market share. And two, and I think even bigger is that they have not done a lot in the Evie space. And so they're actually going to come to market, they're not going to have to do a lot of backtracking or sending out adapters. They're actually coming to market with this broad scale with with Lexus and Toyota. And so that that I think is a big plays like hey, look, we actually decided as we're going to like push into the market and gain market share there we're going to be on this bodes well for Tesla bodes well for the entire industry.

Paul Daly: 8:34

And Toyota is one of those companies too, that just really does give Tesla a lot of compliments and say we learned from them so right. I mean, kind of surprised it took this long. Yeah, but there it is. There it is. Oh,

Kyle Mountsier: 8:46

speaking of rare operations, they start it's a good segue. So what's better than a Pixar film named cars? How about footwear inspired by its beloved characters, and even though it's crocs, crocs is diving into the spotlight once again unveiling a mater if you don't know the cars character in spider clog. They previously did a Lightning McQueen design and this major clog released on Tuesday has design elements such as major smiley face and little engine detail, a towing hook on the back straps. The crux get this, initially selling for $59 are now asking for twice as much lean resale sites like stock X. Some of these crocs collaborations have been more popular in the last couple years as they've been trying to leverage the the brand pop culture to to invite people into their brand. They've previously had collaborations with companies like Hershey's and Shrek and I was you know this this story was also in our daily email and if you get our daily email, go back, scroll to the bottom you can see some The photos of Goodwin rain claps like it's actually really cool. It's a bias crop, not wearing them. But it's a great collab, you know, but

Paul Daly: 10:08

it's fun as I had them Ross on the livestream says I'm the world's best backwards Walker, like Tomater are the major if you know the world's best backward driver, that's backwards walking, not quite the same impact. It's almost like people are gonna ask you to sit down. Hey, why don't you have a seat here for a minute? Hey, I think this highlights just pop culture awareness and the incentive of like, Hey, how can we just take the current that is pop culture and use it to hold our brand up? Keep our brand relevant? This? Absolutely. Front to bottom goes front to back goes for dealerships. And the more you can think about what's going on in the community, what's going on in broader culture, thinking through different age demographics, and psychographics? Like how can we just do little things that make a small group of people take step closer to us and see our relevance crocs? Obviously, not for everyone. But there's a big group of people that love them. And for those people, guess what? They moved them a little bit closer. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 11:05

I'll give you an easy one. If you're in Philadelphia, or Houston, or anywhere where all that's already done, that World Series is going on right now. Or the Yeah, like the entire MLB championship is happening right now the playoffs and you're not leaning into that pop cultural moment. Like what are we doing?

Paul Daly: 11:26

But even do it I think it'd be really hard pressed to be anywhere near Philadelphia and not see Philly stuff all over the store. That's fair. That is but hey, I mean, even the crux thing, right? The major crocs obviously a lot of fans of that show a lot of kids, maybe you want to buy a couple dozen pair and have them in the showroom when the kids walk just surprise them. Just Surprise, surprise. They don't buy anything. You imagine the surprise and delight that's gonna happen. It's gonna make some kids really happy, which makes some parents really happy and happy parents buy stuff. There you go. I like that. They do happy parents buy stuff. Put that on a t shirt. We hope you have an amazing Friday hidden into the weekend. Whether you're off or you're selling hard. Go love some people more than you love cars, buy some meters Crocs and give him the Kyle because he really really wants them