Marques Brownlee Downs Fisker while Rivian and GM are Reviving

Kyle Mountsier: 0:19

Good Monday morning March 11. I'm pumped to be sitting next to the man the myth the legend Michael Cirillo right over here we're talking Marcus Bradley down and Fisker. rivian. And GM come in handy. The people really want to know who

‍Unknown: 0:35

they stopped to see when they see

Kyle Mountsier: 0:38

that you had that little sideways head bob that was so strong.

Michael Cirillo: 0:42

I'm always like, just so impressed on your timing every morning.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:48

It takes a lot of practice. times sometimes Paul will be like halfway through the intro. I'm like, he's not gonna make it he's not gonna make me

Michael Cirillo: 0:58

every morning I'm like, how do they do that? I couldn't

Kyle Mountsier: 1:02

do it. Yeah, it's it's not pre recorded. It is live we do have the timing way down to a tee more than you could ever imagine. Surely, did you like fancy up your background again? Did you change that?

Michael Cirillo: 1:14

All camera trickery. In fact, what people can't see as I'm surrounded by boxes of new swag that just came in. So like I'm sitting in a one square foot by one square foot like little amazing,

Kyle Mountsier: 1:27

I need some more that I need some of that new Flex swag. I need that that care package that the logo that everybody's gonna copy into yours. If you know you know, you know, you know.

Michael Cirillo: 1:44

Man, it sucks being on the bleeding edge. But

Kyle Mountsier: 1:48

hey bleedin edges out here we got 64 days until a soda con things are heating up like crazy, we are going to be announcing this week, our presenting sponsor can't wait to do that. It's still in the hopper. So hang tight with us on that. If you are a part of the Whoa, can member group, women of color color automotive network, you're gonna want to reach out to the team there and make sure that you get your discounted ticket that having a breakfast, the very first day of it. Also, if you're in the area, if you're in Maryland, the Maryland auto dealers association is actually hosting their annual meet up at our event the second day on Thursday, which is the 16th. And you can go to the Maryland auto Dealers Association homepage, to learn more about that get tickets come on to the whole event. You get tickets to that get you tickets to the whole event. It's a grand thing if you are a Maryland auto dealer. So

Michael Cirillo: 2:46

did we did we announce our keynote yet? Did we announce our keynote? Like we announce our keynote? Like yeah, just

Kyle Mountsier: 2:56

a couple times. You want to tell us about that again? Yeah, we we, you haven't announced our keynote

Michael Cirillo: 3:02

yet, but I go on LinkedIn. And everybody is posting on interest, right, unreasonable hospitality. It's the best book I've ever written. And I'm like, dude, these people might know that the man will get Daraa is our main attraction, our keynote of all keynotes at this year's ASOTU CON. I'm like, Dude, you gotta come the price of the ticket alone. Look for him. Just him alone.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:30

His this get this? The last conference that he spoke at that was paid ticketed. The cheapest ticket was 1600 bucks. No, really not even kidding you. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, for dealers, you can get in under 500 bucks. And like, just that's worth the price of admission, let alone the fixed ops conversations and the operations and the marketing and

Michael Cirillo: 3:53

all the collaborations like this is I mean, the thing I love about ASOTU.com is is the way that it attracts dealers, decision makers who are on the cutting edge who are on the cusp, who are that much further ahead? Yes. Yes, we'll get Daraa that's worth the price of the ticket alone. The fact that what you just said on top of all of that to be in the same room, as people who are out there on the front lines every single day, I mean, like individuals like Liza Borches fourth gen dealer owner who completely transformed the trajectory of her dealer group and has it growing like, like she she accidentally spilled rocket fuel on the organization. Simon's who knows how to sell cars from his personal brand and sometimes outpaces his sales team because of the personal brand that he's built to be able to be in the room and ask people questions firsthand and not just get like blase answer There's but somebody like Scott who's gonna be like, You know what, come and sit down with me over here. And let's talk about him and I'm gonna help you architect your personal brand. And then we'll get Daraa on top of that, like every day I think about this I'm like, we might we might get into cheap tickets. Oh,

Kyle Mountsier: 5:16

well hey, we gotta get into it. So speaking of getting into cheap stuff, segue likewise, I love not getting into cheap GM was selling this Chevy Blazer, Evie but they took a little pause. Back in the end of last year, they are coming back the the sales of the blazer Evie are resuming at reduced prices. And with a little software update, that is providing significant changes and improvements to what the vehicle was last last year. So they halted sales in December due to infotainment and fast charging info, fast charging issues, but they are confident that those things have been resolved. There's a couple of new features like a customizable ambient lighting for you know all the mood you need in your car, a battery percentage display so you can see exactly what's going on with the battery. And then all you have to do is you know, visit the dealership for software upgrades, which is weird. We'll get into that in a second. Despite not pinpointing a singular fault, GM emphasizes improved quality testing and software processes to avoid future issues. They've also reduced prices across the trims and the $7,500 credit now being available on the hood, GM said in a statement we're confident These improvements will address concerns heard from some early owners and as promised, we're carrying learnings over to other products in the GMs lineup. So the scoot and back the chain again, the jumping back and putting Cirilo

Michael Cirillo: 6:54

they're like, You know what experience we love Co Op submissions and that's the way we want software upgrades to feel.

Kyle Mountsier: 7:05

I just I don't get I don't get the whole like you got to come into the dealership thing. I mean, for me, it's like hey, if you're a dealer and you got these people coming back in you got an opportunity here you know to do calls, but as an ownership experience when you're in the Reddit threads on the news hearing about how Tesla's like we got a recall, boom fixed, right? For GM to to need a different way of going at it just seems like behind, you know,

Michael Cirillo: 7:39

it doesn't feel very 2024 I'm gonna say that. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 7:42

doesn't feel very, very, very 2024 Well, speaking of not feeling 2024 segway. The Eevee startup Fisker is definitely not feeling 2024 as Marques Brownlee has kicked off their year with a little bit of drudgery. He posted a major critique of the Fisker ocean about three weeks ago and the backlash has been significant. The if you don't know Marcus Brownlee is one of the most prolific reviewers on YouTube has over 18 million followers and his view videos get anywhere from one to 5 million views per video. The scathing review was titled quote, This is the worst car I've ever reviewed. And the the review has now gone viral, amassing over 4.4 million views. So the story goes like this and then we'll get kind of the review. Basically Brownlee asked Fisker for a vehicle initially but they kept delaying and so you know what he did the same thing every resource for YouTuber does and he found one at Jns Mitch Mitsubishi. He the Eevee maker had said hey, please please please wait we've got a software update coming that could that that could be out before you make the review that way some of the things that you might experience will be fixed and he said in his review quote, it's not really my policy to wait on promise future software updates. I'm going to review the car that's out now that real buyers are actually living with Have you seen the review? Surreal Have you seen this thing?

Michael Cirillo: 9:28

I haven't but now it's making all sorts of sense why they were like scrambling to get dealers at NADA view.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:35

Yeah, no doubt. So So here's the review basically goes through and it's and it actually gives a really really nice picture of like the outside of the vehicle and he said, you know, the, the the actual, the look, the feel the energy of the vehicle feels very futuristic feels like something you'd want to get into something you want to drive. But once you get into the technology side of it Some of the buttons, the user experience, even the drive ability, he was crushing it. Here's the end of the story. This is the this is the part of the story that I love. So the so the dealer that that that lent him this vehicle. When were they it was reached out to him. His name is George. Some of the saliva I think is his name. When he was reached out to by Fisker knew that they were calling and has someone record the call. That recording went up on his tech talk has over 4.2 million views and essentially is the senior Fisker engineer pleading for him to be able to reconcile the issues with this vehicle and kind of awkwardly asking for Bradley's information. But also saying that he doesn't it because he wants the dealer to be the consumer. I'm already working on trying to get George so if you know, George, you gotta get us his information. We don't need Marx's information. We know we aren't getting that but we would love to have George hanging out with us talking a little bit about this. But just kind of interesting, like the way that the PR game and the way that Fisker has kind of started to handle this. They haven't been available for comment. However, they've made some broad comments about how you know the software update is fixing a lot of the issue issues that Mark has man, I can't imagine being an automaker specifically a new automaker with the way that like YouTube and Tiktok plays the game in consumer products.

Michael Cirillo: 11:34

I just get a lesson in PR though, like, you know, because like we've seen automotive we talked about this all the time automotive has seen set up stories, like you remember Hyundai back in the early 90s It was like driving a tin can and that's what everybody talks about. They're like, Man, this is the cheap vehicle we know it's the cheap vehicle. Now look at them. I mean, they they were like okay, well we'll take that setback and use it as a setup for a comeback.

Unknown: 12:03

The fact that these guys are like, please don't show anyone like well just don't

Michael Cirillo: 12:09

do that. Just like lean into it reach out to Marquez or this dealer and be like yo, the software updates back reach out to Mark Mark Well, however you say his name Mark, Mark Mark as Yeah, and and be like yo come back we think you're going to enjoy this improvement do another review because you know he would he's done that for Apple vision pro he does it for all the different phones he does it for everything

Kyle Mountsier: 12:33

like ship him one should you know what I mean? Like, I don't think should show up in his driveway with an entourage at this point. software updated and and everything. Yeah,

Michael Cirillo: 12:43

that's what I'm thinking. Yep. Speaking of Apple segue, so much better. I was like, where's it gonna go? I was gonna say, speaking of thinking.

Kyle Mountsier: 12:55

It's not particularly about Apple. But rivian had a little bit of Steve Jobs. The moment at the end of their reveal last week, everybody knew that the RT was coming. There was speculation about price points and the look the feel all that type of stuff. But right near the end of the event, there was a little one more thing moment and they revealed the R three and r 3x. a sportier and slightly shorter electric SUV than the R two, catching the audience completely by surprise. The approach to the R three showcases the strategic expansion of its electric vehicle lineup, emphasizing design performance, and most importantly, affordability. They haven't released any price or pre ordered dates exactly, but they say that there'll be within this year and the AR three aims to offer a more compact version and be less than a for the than the $45,000 price point of the AR to the rear of it kind of like slopes back the both the R three and the R 3x promise over 300 miles of range which is getting a lot closer to what you see with like hybrids. And you know they they are positioning it more in a competition with like the ionic five and the Kia Evie six, which is which have obviously taken the Eevee landscape by storm. Not just that, but it's going to have a Tesla mhcs port standard and a little bit more enhanced, autonomous capability. So Vivian, what could you try and beyond Apple esque.

Michael Cirillo: 14:32

I think the word for me that you brought up is affordability. Right? Because especially since I've been wandering the planet these days, it seems I think about this affordability thing and especially how that contributes to the concept of disruptive innovation. You know, because like when we talk about disruption in our space oftentimes I feel like we get it wrong. We're like we we misplace the concept of disruption with interruption or like To be disruptive means you have to disrupt the current business model when really the whole concept of disruptive innovation is how can I position my product in a place where all of the incumbent companies can't compete and affordability like you see that that $4 smartphone in the air that's now like a multi gazillion dollar company? Because they they started giving a phone experience to a market demo that Samsung and Apple could never afford to build a phone. Wow. Yep.

Kyle Mountsier: 15:31

Affordability man coming in hot. We were coming in hot this Monday morning. Guests really? We got a whole bunch of guests this week. Paul's on vacation so you're hanging out with me. We got guests that coming in hot. We're excited because it's the middle of March and March is just getting right

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