Make Meeting Melody, Closing Out January, Cybertruck Volume Not Until 2024

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

dealers, meetings, nada, hyundai, scout, vw, questions, heard, brand, listened, automotive, jd power, amazon, industry, showrooms, ford, people, vehicles, production, talk

SPEAKERS

Kyle Mountsier, Paul Daly

Paul Daly  00:26

Yo, Kyle, even I am impressed that you and I are in the seats in our offices. We are back. We are live. We're talking about what happened at nada, some OEM stuff. And Tesla, of course, talks about.

Kyle Mountsier  00:42

Like, we haven't talked about him in six days, fine.

Paul Daly  00:45

I think I can only talk about him when I'm in this seat. Because I really, literally, I heard zero, like capital capital, oh,

Kyle Mountsier  00:55

I got this, buddy. He was he was like, who was the DME DME provider that had the Tesla in there like spin car thing? Or whatever? No, it

Paul Daly  01:06

was, was there a test? What was it was it was the one we saw it was?

Kyle Mountsier  01:10

We saw a pollster. Oh, sir, there was someone with the apparently a Tesla like in the middle of their booth. Like someone's not paying attention.

Paul Daly  01:22

It's funny, nice. They said they had a first and last exhibit. Good morning. Good morning, folks on the Livestream, David, Larry, whoever else is listening out there that we can't see right now because of the stream yard set up. What an amazing time we had. Man, we are back in the saddle time. Yeah, I got like I have, I have lots of thoughts.

Kyle Mountsier  01:45

I know, we could probably spend a whole show just recapping everything. But we recognize that there is a whole host of people that weren't even at a DA show. Just know that I like my post yesterday on LinkedIn was just the industry is alive and not just alive but vibrant. Like thriving the energy around our industry, there's, you know, all the things you see on the news about recession looming, and potential changes and all this stuff. Everybody at nada was like, No, it's go time. Like we're gonna see it go and, and even just being in early in the in the show at the JD Power thing and starting to see some like, everything came down in November in December and like, it's like this little curve up trendline edge January, right? It's we've only had a couple of weeks in it, but it's just little curve up. It's like, okay,

Paul Daly  02:37

okay, there's, there's, I picked up zero defensive mentality, nada, abs zero defensive mentality in the industry is on the offense. And it's a great thing, it's a great thing for everyone listening this morning that is on the front line, some people are still probably headed home from nada. And, you know, we cover it because it's a big deal in automotive, it does have broad implications for what's going to happen in the industry, it has broad implications for what's going to happen in your store. Because likewise, there were meetings and initiatives and conversations that will like draw either new software providers into your store, or new processes into your store, or just new mindsets into your store. So that's why we give it so much attention. If you want to see a little more of what goes on there, what went on there, you can still go to our Instagram account for a lot of fun behind the scenes stuff if you want to feel for the vibe. So uh, so two events are just a soda. And we also have a lot of podcast conversations coming out. One thing that we didn't talk about a lot, we talked a lot about the floor. We talked a lot about, you know, different technology platforms. And you know, what some of the leaders in automotive, were saying, but we did not talk about the make meetings, we didn't have a lot of OEM conversations. So we thought it'd be great to just give a little summary of, you know, some things that were reported on that happened in the make meetings and also some anecdotal stories that we heard from, you know, a number of dealers that that were in the meeting, so I thought we'd cover that really quickly. And then we're going to talk about a little test the thing and then we're going to get on to our last two days of the month, right because they're trying to close them up now what gonna rock fort. So what happened in the make meetings and beyond? So we're gonna give you a little broad summary. One thing that was pretty notable and that we also had a nice, a nice chance to talk to a number for dealers and family for dealers about this is that restrictions on the lower tier of the Eevee. I'll call it regulations. But if you sign up to be a Ford, what does it for? Kim think 40 V dealer. We had the tier one and then the the tier two in the lower tier, there was a sales limitation on how many you could sell. They were you know, regulations on how long you're fast charger had to be open. It was actually 24 hours which is really squirrely in some areas. And Ford, the general feeling we had was that Ford is loosening some restrictions. So it sounds like they're listening systems. dealer sentiment.

Kyle Mountsier  05:00

Yeah, so they're moving to basically a business hours for chargers, so they don't have to be open on Sundays or open overnight. You know, they are changing the ceiling on the number of sold vehicles in a year from 25, which the apparently they didn't announce the lift in the ceiling. And then even things like, you know, facilities upgrades and changes to that. So we don't know exact, I think auto news might have, might have dropped an article about some of the things that they heard. So but there's definitely a little bit of changes in the wind and the sentiment, like the anecdotal sentiment is that they they said, Oh, it sounds like they listened to the state associations that sound like they listened to the dealers, and then making some changes in line with that, which is healthy, I think. And that's, that's, that's really positive to hear. Because, I mean, all the shade has been thrown at Ford over the last six months. And so for them to come to nada to the make meetings and go, Okay, we got a couple of things wrong. Here's where we're going.

Paul Daly  06:02

So a couple other couple other things. A Hyundai, they were celebrating the fact that they have gained market share last year that up to 5.2%, up from 4.9. At the end of 2022. They also said, you know, they talked a lot about they're cutting their ties to like being a value brand. Hyundai is like, No, we're delivering Premium vehicles with premium Tech, we are no longer competing as a low price dealer. That was the roots. That's how they got into the market. But they're saying, Hey, we're done with that. Also on Hyundai. Now, we heard this earlier, because there was an early super session with Steve Greenfield, Eliza Porsches, and a number of people on there. And I can't remember who the executive wasn't Hyundai. But he alluded to like almost like a side comment, almost like the question wasn't even asked. But he knew he wanted to say this, I think it was a man knew he wanted to say basically mentioned a partnership with Amazon. Because Hyundai has been merchandising on Amazon, you could go on Amazon, and you still can and cars and look at the Hyundai models, but you could purchase. But he mentioned something about partnering with Amazon. So that now there's going to be like a like buy car button. And then they can pick the dealer they want to deliver through meanwhile, there's still like conditions building a lot of new facilities requiring new facilities. And so that was kind of like a record scratch moment. And we don't record scratch, like in in just the fact that it's, it's now here

Kyle Mountsier  07:27

to say that OEMs were not going to merchandise and also monetize through Amazon ever, it would would have been just silly. Right? So I think they're just sure, first of many that are going to move that way. I mean, it's just a massive shopping platform. And, and that, yeah,

Paul Daly  07:46

we're gonna click the fact that now you can hit a buy button, a customer my market, get hit a buy button on Amazon, and then like, it's, that's that's gonna be a big thing. That's gonna be anything.

Kyle Mountsier  07:59

I mean, welcome to BestBuy and Apple retailer, every other retailer on the planet.

Paul Daly  08:06

I think it's a lot different than that.

Kyle Mountsier  08:09

They're still not gonna be able to hit by and complete the whole purchase. Because we No, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. Right.

Paul Daly  08:14

The thought that Amazon's gonna figure that out.

Kyle Mountsier  08:17

I mean, it's big. But still, like, I'm gonna move ahead, because this is I also have some some just notes on this. But like, you know, grumpy dealers at the Mercedes meeting, you were just saying that, that the the evidence that you got was like, there was a little bit of what do they really do? I heard from I

Paul Daly  08:35

heard from a few people that literally at the meeting, whoever was leading it was like, Did somebody die? That I'm unaware of? Literally, again, we were not there, we just, you know, hearing these things. So just take that for what it's worth. Yeah, so there's, we'll put the

Kyle Mountsier  08:52

highlights are, are probably moving quicker to direct to consumer style sales, or at least, at least the ability to go direct to consumer as as a channel. And Mercedes has proven that overseas. You know, had I had listened to the Director of Digital at, at the JD Power event. And he was saying, hey, look, we recognize that there may be people coming through the tier one channel or the tier two or the tier three channel, and we're gonna give them the option to purchase that. Like he was very clear that that's coming. It was there was no like, maybe they might do it. So these high lines are definitely going to prep press the boundaries on that a lot quicker. I

Paul Daly  09:32

feel like so here's one. I love this. This is just two guys talking. I'm gonna say that seven more times. While we're saying this because we were not in the meetings. Right. So we

Kyle Mountsier  09:41

were not at the meetings except for the JD Power meeting. I

Paul Daly  09:42

was there. That's true. That's true. No, I mean, we weren't in the make meetings. Yes, exactly. What I heard that the Honda meeting was like, it was quite sporty. Very firstly, I heard the Oh yeah, I heard they were just peppering. The team on stage with questions. And like, from right out of the gate just going right for like the first question was about Sony Honda vendors venture. Right? And like the feel of vehicle, and they went in and they went in hard I heard and, you know, what's the deal with this? What are your plans to leverage your dealer network? What and, and as far as I heard the answer from these 18 was like, Sony is their own company. We don't have any control over Sony, which is a total. Yeah, oh

Kyle Mountsier  10:30

my god, it's

Paul Daly  10:31

like, I don't know. It's the guy that isn't here. We're gonna blame the guy that isn't here. That's always so obviously, there's a lot to figure out a couple other things. Nissan, you know, gave dealers a note that the the popular REO model is just going to be tight on supply. You know, it's very popular and you know, people still trying to catch up. So, look, yeah,

Kyle Mountsier  10:52

according to real family right to Nissan dealers that I know, it's not as popular as you think just That's only two though in the whole country, but tight supply. We I think we lots

Paul Daly  11:06

we say that Automotive is a family business. And this doesn't sound like a family business.

Kyle Mountsier  11:14

Thanksgiving table, right?

Paul Daly  11:15

I don't know, what does. Charlie a little finally on the kind of make meetings and we'll move on. But Charlie Hall is the VW national dealer advisory council chair. And this doesn't come from a make meeting, but it's about VW. And he's advocating heavily to sell the scout vehicle brand in their stores. Now. We've talked about the scout quite a bit big fans of the design and like reviving a brand and doing all that. But Charlie said this, we'll read a quote he said we were completely caught off guard with the announcement about scout. And then the lack of information that came after the announcement said we want Scout vehicles to be in our VW showrooms. He said V web a dealers have been requesting for decades, the types of vehicles that Scout plans to launch they have small pickups right little more rugged, a little larger, the brand's existing dealer network execute the scout vision, we have an idea of what that is. Because we share the same vision. We've been looking for that kind of product to be in our show for a long time. And it dovetails perfectly with the rest of our lineup. I believe that VW dealers understand brand.

Kyle Mountsier  12:19

Yes, absolutely. And I think I mean, the VW purchaser is going to want to go to a dealer that asked all about this, and I'm sure they're already getting questions on the showrooms today. And let me let me Let's just end with this. The reality that in the Toyota meeting, no questions. No question that everybody's got questions. Everybody's a little grumpy. But every Toyota dealer that we said said, Toyota got off the stage. And there were zero questions from the

Paul Daly  12:50

switch every executive that was on the stage, and it made me it was like, you know, they hybrid over there. flooded. Hey, man, that's not cold blooded. Who doesn't want to work for a place where there's great communication, that the sales channel is aligned? Like, you get you get it? Right, like they get it and it like, it just is what it is, right. I think everybody's gonna find their way in a different way. But hey, no questions that a make meeting is definitely the envy of the industry right now. I have to say that I was

Kyle Mountsier  13:24

speaking of a place where there were there are a lot of questions.

Paul Daly  13:29

But I can't remember Titans anymore. Nada road caster in a week.

Kyle Mountsier  13:38

Oh, man. So Elon Musk says not to expect meaningful production of the long awaited cybertruck Until now. 2024. I think it's like his 33rd time that they've pushed this back. He said the startup production that is always very slow, Mr. Marx said on an earnings call adding, so I wouldn't put too much stock in start production. It's kind of when does volume production actually happen? And that's next year. So as production kind of begins this year, it ramps up next year. But they're already working on a new platform to be released in March. I'm telling you what the earnings call must have gone good, though, because Tesla stock for three straight days at the end of last week was bumping. So I don't think people are really hanging on the cybertruck is the end all

Paul Daly  14:21

profits are up 59% That's yeah, it's nuts. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. Everybody's got to think look, we're gonna get our voices back a little bit today. I lost my last night because I watched the Eagles game in Dallas. And so I was just like, You know what, I'm just I'm gonna yell a little bit. I'm gonna preserve my voice all week. Unfortunately our Bengals Eagles Super Bowl dreams have were crushed. I was on the

Kyle Mountsier  14:48

pod with that didn't Yeah, let's lift me

Paul Daly  14:51

up. So here's the good news. Here's the good news. The auto industry will be around when the Bengals win a Super Bowl. I was gonna start with that but then

Kyle Mountsier  15:04

here's so does that mean your Eagles fan now, right? No,

Paul Daly  15:08

of course the Chiefs baby. Let's go

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