Dodge Doing Wheelies, Banning the Bans, New Yorkers Unite Over Shade - Special Guest: Scott Simons, CMA

‍SPEAKERS

Kyle Mountsier, Paul Daly, Scott Simons

Paul Daly  00:26

Happy Tuesday, everybody. We have a lot of fun. We have a special guest Scott Simon's coming on the show in a minute. But we're talking about Dodgers doing wheelies, banning the bans in New Yorkers uniting over throwing shade on something of course, ah, New Yorkers that work together. Just a little.

Kyle Mountsier  00:46

Just but yeah, look, let me tell you yesterday, my audio was all messed up in the intro. And I felt like, like, like, you know how you're like running towards something and all of a sudden you're like, where to go?

Paul Daly  00:59

Where's everybody? All

Kyle Mountsier  00:59

the energy stops today the energy was back because I have some audio, right? Oh, ready

Paul Daly  01:05

to go. Okay, like like the bad bad audio. A couple things to talk about today. We have another asoto edge webinar coming up with our friends at car review and dealer Andrew Spitzer. Driving customer loyalty through service. We're going to talk about creating personalized experiences and all that. Where can people go to get that just go to

Kyle Mountsier  01:21

a soda.com Scroll down just a wee bit and you can find that webinar right

Paul Daly  01:25

there. We happen to believe webinars need to be a little bit more fun these days. So we're going to work on that got to work on that. Also. We're taking the tour on the road, we're going to be in Arlington, Texas, just like two weeks from tomorrow on April 5, so go to a so two x.com asoto x.com, you'll see what we're up to. We're about Oh, it's right on the link. Look at it, it's on the screen, it wasn't even looking seemed pretty got to check it out. We're bringing the show we're bringing the band, the whole Tonight Show vibe is coming to Arlington. We're going to talk to dealers, we're visiting dealers the day before, it's going to be a whole thing. And our goal is to get as many people in the store out as possible. So the people that can't usually go and fly to Vegas or Florida and go to conferences, we're trying to take away that excuse so you can send service advisors and salespeople and all the people that can't leave send your accounting folks they never get to go in anything. Come on Yeah, they're gonna have a lot of fun to we're gonna get them excited about being in the automotive industry learning a lot making great relationships. So please, we hope you join us and if you can't join us because you can't fly in or you're not in the area are gonna live stream it for you to naturally and I have a lot of fun. Hey, yesterday's winner of motor madness as it continues. The 2010 Chevy Astro van is gonna be the dark horse that wins the race.

Kyle Mountsier  02:36

I'm telling you it's the one like I don't know if it's like a meme stock or whatever it is, but that's exactly what it is basically. Yeah. The Astro van is the meme stock of of motor madness.

Paul Daly  02:50

So good. So good today, today's competition is a 1938 Ford woody which is like the original SUV versus an 87 Chevy Camaro I already have a feeling you know which one's gonna win this but we'll see. See, you're the underdog. You're the underdog. And we got a bunch of other stuff coming on. But lots of things. Reuters we're gonna be traveling all over but everybody showed up today for a little bit of energy. And a little bit of news and a little bit of power. Speaking of power, segue okay. We're so excited because we have a guest for bringing out in just a second in an effort to go out with their boots on dodge is celebrating the retirement of its current V eight engine Challenger and charger line. By bringing back the Challenger SRT demon. With an addition, CEO Tim Kinney skis calls the pinnacle of factory crazy, no one better to talk about the pinnacle factory crazy, then the one only Scott Simon's from CMA. Scott, welcome to the show.

Scott Simons  03:48

Hey, good morning, gentlemen. Thank you for having me. What an exciting announcement yesterday, right. I

Paul Daly  03:52

mean, what happened to your phone when this announcement happened? I just wanted I mean,

Scott Simons  03:56

I have got an A request, request after request. I'm gonna get blown up. Luckily, we've got some really good clients that have purchased from us. So ours is actually already pre sold, because we're, of course, a dealership that doesn't charge over MSRP. So and we take care of our clients that purchase from us. So exciting news, I mean, listen to this 1025 horsepower, 8.9 seconds in a quarter of a mile in 151 miles an hour. I mean, that doesn't get your blood flow, and I don't know what that is going out. They're going out with the bank. They're going out with the bank. It's, you know, bittersweet, obviously, because there'll be the end of the Hellcat engines in cars will still be able to sell TRX pickup trucks and sales and sport utilities that still have the 700 horse power base model based model but this is exciting news for all of us dodge D.

Paul Daly  04:50

So check this out. Let me just frame this up so the car can go zero to 60 from a rolling start in 1.66 seconds. The Tesla Model bottle s plaid, which is like the fast fast one can only do it 1.9. So yeah, but don't try to turn. It's going

Scott Simons  05:13

to be exciting. You know, just obviously buy that car with caution. You know, luckily the person that's purchased it from us has a bunch of already Mopar products he's bought he bought a demon from his previous. He's got a TRX pickup truck. He's got a Hellcat Durango. So he's all about horsepower. So we're excited.

Kyle Mountsier  05:31

Now, are they just allocating one per store? Because it looks like they're only doing about 3000 units? The vehicles like yeah,

Scott Simons  05:39

do. Correct. So dealerships got an email, if they received one yesterday. It looks like to me each dealership should get one but that's not guaranteed. Obviously, we're on the phone with our reps. And if there's any way we can get any other allocations, we will obviously take it. We were allocated about 33 Hellcats for this year, and almost all of those obviously are pre sold. Of course we vet all of our customers we do not sell to any flippers, any exporters, we are very stringent on who we allow to purchase these vehicles from us. Because we just don't you know, we have to really protect the brand and protect our our brand which is CMA,

Paul Daly  06:22

you know, so the car, the CEO said that engineers were blowing up engines as they were trying to like push it to the limit, they kept blowing up engine so they had to develop a special supercharger for this one, which just feels like feels like the right attitude going into this right. Like if they made this and didn't blow up a single engine, you would always wonder like, Could we have pushed it a little bit? Have you ever got

Scott Simons  06:48

you know, let me think about you want to talk about how like horsepower, I like horsepower on the record. No, I

Paul Daly  06:57

I can tell. I can tell the internal PR filter was just scrolling through your head. Everybody knows about why we have you here. Just just give us a little sentiment like what's the what's the feeling on the ground? Um, you obviously have several brands, if you could just tell everyone quickly what brands you have and just with it with the mentality and the feeling and the traffic you're seeing, you know, from from the ground up looks like right now.

Scott Simons  07:20

Yes, so we are obviously here in Stanton, Virginia. In the Blue Ridge Mountains we have Honda Nissan Subaru, Volkswagen, Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, within the CMA portfolio, we had 23 locations very opened up 24 locations in Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. The sentiment is and I've said it from the beginning of the year, I do believe the dealers were you know, we're going back and have to retrain, we're having to retrain on the sales process, we're having to retrain on follow up, we do have inventory. So you know, we have not had inventory and across the board, we do have inventory and they and all the manufacturers are producing more vehicles. So before it was, you know, do you have it? Quick can I get it? What's the price? When you have inventory? It goes the price. Right, you know, what's the price so we have to totally changed and we have to go back and retrain our teams I do believe it could have made some people the previous market, you know, maybe a little lazy, maybe a little lackadaisical because it customer aided by your Customer B customer see why you purchase it. So we've really had to go back and retrain on how to answer the phones how to answer leads, how to you know, even negotiate. You know, we haven't had to negotiate for a for a while. That's right. So you know, the car dealerships where we, you know, we pivot, you know, we were used to this, you know, going through COVID, but we're trying to stay ahead of it by retraining our team.

Paul Daly  08:53

Super cool. Hey, thanks for joining us again, at the year end extravaganza in December in Nashville, you told us your Word of the Year, remind us what your Word of the Year is.

Scott Simons  09:04

Yeah, I were well, first of all, all the CMA dealerships pick a word and it's all across all of the all the brain all the managers do in mind is grit. You know, this year, it's grit. I think we're gonna have to show grit and determination. You know, when I was young, I was referred to as a grit and it wasn't, that wasn't a complimentary thing when you're calling now I think we're going to have to show you know, and I've said it from the very beginning, you know, we're gonna have to hustle this year but that's okay. You know, it's right we like challenges and we don't want we don't want to get comfortable and, and, and we are resilient, but so will this. It's an exciting year to be an auto industry.

Paul Daly  09:51

We like challenges we like challengers. Scott Simon, thank you so much for joining us on the show today. Best of luck.

Scott Simons  09:58

I thank you all so much. tr tr X King is out because you see right behind me.

Paul Daly  10:03

I see it always selling ABC always be closing. Love you, brother. Talk to you soon. Oh so much fun. So much fun. Hey, speaking of gasoline engines, no good way to band the bands thus far at least a dozen US states have pledged to ban ice vehicles internal combustion engines by the year 2035 amidst a rousing debate over who should get to decide what kind of engine you can drive, is it the government? Is it the consumer? Well, a new bill sponsored by aftermarket behemoth SEMA has entered US House in an effort to ban the bans hr 1435, was introduced by Representative John Joyce and Pennsylvania as being branded as the preserving choice in vehicle purchases act. Basically, it's designed to ban the band's

Kyle Mountsier  10:56

Kyle. Yeah, it's to ban the bands. But also and, you know, my my look at it would be to give the consumer the choice, right? And look, here's here's what I say is like if the consumer moves by that time to choose EVs, the OEMs will Zoghbi so be it like button, but far be it from government and from from political maneuvering to force purchasing habits on a buying demographic. And that's, that's, I think, where this like if if people are paying attention, and if and if consumers are paying attention, this is a consumer first and friendly bill. And so I don't know all the specifics of it. I don't mean it's not a political thing for me. But it is interesting that we're starting to get little little like little drops, where we're going, Hey, look, this this is this is still a purchasing behavior that we have to that we have to overcome. It's not just a production behavior, and and marrying purchasing behavior and production behavior is extremely important in a capitalist and supply and demand market. And so yeah, we'll see how that goes. I mean, we talked about how so many Eevee manufacturers that you know, the smaller manufacturers that have popped up, are starting to struggle, they've spent millions and not been able to come to market. And so, you know, is demand there and not to drive production. And this is a bill that's just asking that question, I think,

Paul Daly  12:25

you know, SEMA obviously has a dog in the fight. You know, they customize internal combustion engines and their whole community, which is it's one of the largest shows that comes to Vegas every year. We have to go this year. We just have to get out there. We do. But I mean, I was thinking about this, Mike, how do you customize an Eevee? By getting electrocuted? What do you do like you? I guess you can only really

Kyle Mountsier  12:49

like rear spoiler.

Paul Daly  12:53

Some, some some tape on you know, on air vents, tape on vents on the side events. You don't wait for someone to do the hot scoop thing on like a model three. Carbon fiber would scoop. Yes. But but assume it did release a statement. They believe owners should not be directed toward a specific technology but allowed to choose the type of vehicle that best serves them. I don't know if if one side is going to win or lose or it's going to be a draw. But our writer Chris Reeves suggested in today's daily email that maybe we should just agree on hybrids.

Kyle Mountsier  13:29

Right down the middle.

Paul Daly  13:31

Can't we all just agree on a hybrid?

Kyle Mountsier  13:33

Speaking of all just agree. Segway look, I gotta run this story. Because I gotta, I gotta ask. I gotta ask a question about his home state here this week. New Yorkers, New York City residents specifically were greeted with a rebrand of the classic I love New York design by Milton Glasser in 1977. The collaborative work from several new york city agencies, I believe five and the city made not so subtle changes to the logo, which now reads, We love NYC New Yorkers are not so subtly hating on it, Paul. Yep, people up there.

Paul Daly  14:13

Look, if you one. If you want to get new yorkers unified, they've done a great job of that. That's the way they intended to do it. But if you give them something to throw shade on together, boy, is it going to bring people together. This is in my opinion.

Kyle Mountsier  14:31

Here's my question how to other people in Buffalo and Syracuse and upstate,

Paul Daly  14:36

well about just being cut. I mean, they're, they're kind of used to just being blocked in with the city. And you know, there have been many efforts over the years to divide the state into a north and a south and then just I don't see it happening but I'd be all in favor of it. But so the I Love New York, obviously super, super iconic, right? The designer Milton Glasser 1977. It's on T shirt. Everyone gets it and it was definitely directed on you know, promoting the state but definitely specifically the city, the we heart NYC It doesn't roll off the tongue. You know, I saw the Instagram account and it looks like they're trying to capitalize through the the rest of the campaign on kind of language and things that only New Yorkers will get like New York City city residents. And so I love the idea. I mean, a lot of people are moving out of the city, the city struggling to come back. I mean, when you get there, it still feels like it's bustling. So I liked the effort of trying to like solidify and reminding people like why they love living there. This actually in a roundabout way probably reminds people of why they love living. So I do think if they come out like a week, they were like, we knew that just kidding, we knew it was gonna be like that. I'm not a couple of

Kyle Mountsier  15:48

fun quotes here. Here's a couple of fun quotes from across the social webs. It says, here's one that says the goal of the new campaign is to combat quote, negativity. Well, that didn't work. This is great. This is a great part of me hopes that they've done this as a PR stunt. And in a few weeks, they'll be like, just kidding. Like, would you be so die if they if they really were thinking about it know what Lina.

Paul Daly  16:12

And if they do that, allow, if they do that, they're going to get another blast of New York cynicism, and they're just going to tell you know, you know, they're going to spend enough money, I think, 100 million on this campaign, they're going to spend enough money that it becomes part of the texture of the ad space. Anyways, you walked around, so I think that it it'll subdue and died down. But, you know, this is sometimes you can't reinvent a classic. And if you know, here's there's got to be real

Kyle Mountsier  16:38

care, you know, that logo is about to be on. Not not the new one, the old one, like everybody's gonna be like, favorite role. Oh, go get the real thing,

Paul Daly  16:48

which again, is going to unify the city, I remember what happened when gap changed their logo. Do people went nuts gap changed their logo, and like within days changed it back? Yep. I don't think they're going to change it back. But this is just you know, I think this is just a reminder, that brand isn't a logo. brand isn't a bunch of words, brand is actually how people feel about something. And people are letting you know how they feel about the city. And they don't feel like this logo is a representation of that. But the sentiment around it is really a pretty, I think, amazing and true to form representation of what it's like. And if you want a little bigger flavor, just search it up on Twitter. And you know, if you need five minutes to just laugh your head off on comments, just read five minutes worth of Twitter comments.

Kyle Mountsier  17:34

So here's the question that every business can ask themself right now.

Paul Daly  17:39

How can I get people to care about my logo, this thing go?

Kyle Mountsier  17:43

Or you're gonna say bingo, how can I get people to care this much that they'll put up a fight if I change the way that I do business, change my logo, change my phrase, change my anything? If everybody in your city put up a fight about that? Hey, that might mean something. Yeah,

Paul Daly  17:57

I think that'll mean quite a bit. Well, we hope that you're ready to go out there and do something that means something we happen to think that all comes down to loving people more than you love cars, and you're gonna see a couple people out there today so you have another at bat. We'll see you tomorrow.

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