Moment of Silence, UAW Sentiment Tracker, Ford Loves Apple, Toyota Dealers Love Toyota

September 11, 2023
We’re starting Monday off right as we remember the heroes that made us stronger. We also bring some updates on the UAW negotiations, Toyota’s annual dealer meeting, as well as Ford getting cozier with Apple.
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UAW Strike SENTIMENT TRACKER… Last week “Insulting” was the word UAW President Shawn Fain used to describe the offer that GM slid across the table at 16%.  On Friday we ticked down a notch to “deeply inadequate” as Fain addressed the Stellantis offer of 14.5%.

  • This comes as the September 14th contract deadline is only days away and negotiations seem to be in full swing across all of Detroit's Big 3
  • Stellantis announced they'll provide employees with $10,500 bonuses tied to inflation, with $6,000 distributed in the deal's first year.
  • Regarding the cost of living increases (COLA): Fain quipped, ““That’s not COLA; that’s not even diet COLA,” Fain quipped. “That’s Coke Zero.”

Over 1,200 enthusiastic Dealer attendees are gearing up for the Toyota National Dealer Meeting this week in Las Vegas from Sept. 12-14. This annual event promises excitement, especially with Toyota celebrating its best retail sales month in nearly two years and the recent launch of the Tacoma and Land Cruiser vehicles.

  • Toyota has been slower than other OEMs in its approach to EVs, and David Christ, the group VP and GM said, “I think the general feedback from our dealers on our approach to electrification has been extremely positive. I feel that they like the approach. Most dealers (are multi-franchise) and dealers have communicated to us that they like the ability at Toyota to give their customers choices. They like the direction our powertrains are going as far as (fuel) economy, horsepower, torque and the drivability aspects. And, honestly, they are telling us to keep going with our approach.”
  • The meeting also marks the one-year anniversary of the introduction of the company's SmartPath tool. Toyota designed the platform to bridge the gap between online and in-person shopping, attempting to offer customers a seamless transition from digital browsing to the dealership experience, and highlighting Toyota's commitment to modernizing the car-buying journey.

As GM gets ready to pluck Apple from their EV lineup, Ford is taking a bigger bite as they announce that the F-150 Lightning will integrate Apple Maps EV routing by year's end.

  • Apple Maps EV routing offers detailed navigation based on the car's charge, including charging stops, estimated charge upon arrival, and rerouting to the nearest station if charge gets too low.
  • The advanced navigation feature will optimize routes based on vehicle charge, with a Q4 2023 rollout anticipated.

Paul Daly: 0:31Morning Today before we talk about labor unions EVs best practices, we do want to take a moment to bow our heads and reflect as remember September 11, a day that forever changed our nation. The memories of those who were lost and those who lost loved ones actually should strengthen our commitment to one another and remind us that even in the face of great tragedy, when we serve one another, and as God gives us strength, we rise, rebuild, and keep moving forward. Together, it reminds us that no crisis can win. Just going to take a moment here remember thanks for doing that with you. With us. We appreciate you. Alright, now let's rise. All right, it is Monday. We're starting off right by remembering the heroes. But we're also bringing some updates on the other stuff UAW negotiations Toyota's annual dealer meeting and Ford getting close with Apple. The people really want to know who is in who IV they stopped this day when they see

Kyle Mountsier: 1:44

it. We're gonna we're just gonna say for getting close with insert company here.

Paul Daly: 1:53

Not all of them. Not all of them. Some of them call Did you watch football over the weekend?

Kyle Mountsier: 1:57

I tried not to

Paul Daly: 2:00

cause a Browns fan.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:02

I'm not a Browns fan. Okay. I'm not a Broncos fan.

Paul Daly: 2:05

I'm sorry.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:06

I hate the browns. All that's in me. The fact that those rounds beat the Bengals the way they did this weekend makes me so angry. I like look, here's the thing. Joe burrow basically didn't get spring training. So he looked like a complete basket. I thought.

Paul Daly: 2:24

That's it. That's a great and now that's a great breakdown. I like him. I really do like him. I didn't watch any of that game. I watched the Eagles almost lose. After almost winning. I was like back to being in Philly fan. Lots of unnecessary stress in my life. But I love it. Did you notice anything about the car commercials, Kyle? Well,

Kyle Mountsier: 2:40

you know, I've noticed this over the last few weeks actually watching the US Open and watching a couple other sporting things like soccer that I watch. And it seems like there's a little bit of a trend away from EVs, which is a really interesting move like you saw especially major sporting events. It was like all in on all EVs all the time starting to see that trend. It's like, I'm not going to Well, now I have to draw the parallel. It's like remember when everybody was like crypto, and then it was like, we're the crypto commercial?

Paul Daly: 3:17

Well, they didn't have to actually build plants to build. It goes away a little

Kyle Mountsier: 3:24

breaks down somewhere. But yeah, that's,

Paul Daly: 3:27

gosh, just think of what we learned the last five years just of things coming and going I mean, EVS aren't going anywhere right now. But it was interesting to see the change, and just what what OEMs are spending their money on in front of really big audiences. Ford talked a lot about their workforce. Talked a lot about Yeah, we'll get into that in a little bit. We got a few things to celebrate today. First of all, today, the email we have a daily email if you didn't know you should get it because it's so much fun. And you can get it out of so two.com Today marks the 500th daily email. Wow, a lot of emails a lot of mess. So here's on the screen we have a little clip, a little screenshot from the very first email you see the OG logo there automotive stay the you looking official, it says Welcome to the very first issue of a soda weekly push back to tell it like it is digest to keep dealers informed aligned and maybe a little entertained. There's a little something for everyone. And then it says auto industry news and it has a meme. And it's a that that I don't know, it's a picture of just people packed into the square that is the picture. I don't know where that is in the world. But it's wall to wall and it says time to social distance. And at the bottom it says all these auto shows. So we came out swinging from the very beginning. If you remember back then like pandemic, everyone's like social distancing, and the auto shows are packed to the gills.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:54

They were unbelievable. I'll never forget that I go to Tampa For the first digital dealer back and I was like, Oh, welcome back. Well,

Paul Daly: 5:06

I guess I remember a tamper. There was some type like some people were like, Man, I haven't been out of my house in 18 months. Oh, I know. Yeah. And they're like, everybody's at American social like, again, then stop standing on a chair. Playing. This is how we do it from George, into the microphone. So yeah, we'd appreciate if you join the email list and check out with all the funds about our definitely bringing kind of like a daily dose of industry news and insights, but a lot of heart. And we've got 500 episodes and a lot of people on the email list. So I think we found our people. This Saturday, we are going to be in coming Georgia at Beaver Toyota, north of Atlanta to premiere the second episode longtime coming have more than cars.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:49

Yeah. And then we'll premiere it next week online. So if you're not in the Atlanta area, and you don't know where beaver Toyota is, and you don't crash that party, make sure you catch it online. We'll be announcing that time and date. Most likely sometime later today, but I think it's going to be Wednesday. So yes,

Paul Daly: 6:08

well so hey, if you're in the Atlanta area, though, and you do want to crash the sudden caller ID and we can probably have Sam happen with some time and some details I heard there's gonna be an insane LED wall where we're going to watch the video because Patrick a bad doesn't do it halfway effort doesn't do it halfway. What else? Finally a soda con. Two weeks from today is the welcome reception kickoff go to a soda con.com P people are starting to realize they didn't have their tickets yet. And they're starting to buy them more. So be one of those people head to a soda calm.com Join us starts two weeks from today. And then Tuesday and Wednesday, check out the agenda, go to detailed agenda by stage and just look at the depth in the roster. Don't miss the fact that all these folks are going to be there to share their insights with you dealers, practitioners, all the all the people and we'd want to give a special thanks to cars and stream companies for being co presenting sponsors that event making it happen also to our friends at effective for making sure the podcast stage happens. Because we're gonna have a lot of podcasts coming from this as well and a lot more content but we want you there with us. So you can have the music and the swag and the Taco Tuesday, shake hands with all the people around the industry you see on the interwebs and I've always wanted to meet, you can add a soda con two weeks ago. Alright, let's talk about some stuff. I'm not going to segue it because we have some other segues coming up. Okay, so we decided with the UAW talks, to give us a bit of a sentiment tracker today, Shawn Fain, as we all know is a little bit of an animated character. He likes to say very, some things that we're noticing a little shift in the sentiment. So last week, insulting was the word UAW president Shawn fain used to describe the offer that GM slid across the table at 16% pay raise. So that actually was 16% for it offered 15%. Then on Friday, we saw the Lantis just do what they probably can do really well. And that's just one under the I mean, we're like, well, for day 15 and GM gave 16 We should definitely give the least less the most underwhelming offer so far at 14 Five and just gird our loins and wait for Shonda fain to come back at us But surprisingly, we've moved from insulting at 15% to I think a more temperate deeply inadequate is what he said that that is deeply inadequate deeply. Last was it like that is insulting. Yeah, yeah. So we've got

Kyle Mountsier: 8:38

a political I feel like you know, he's pulling out the landing gear on.

Paul Daly: 8:43

It's a great way to deeply inadequate definitely feels like the landed here. This comes as the September 14 contract deadline is only days away and negotiations seem to be in full swing with Detroit's big three. So Salanter said we're gonna give employees a $10,500 bonus tied with two inflation and $6,000 in the first year deal, like it's all all of their offers. We're still below 40 GMs offer and then this is kind of like Shawn fain coming out and being a little quippy. He's because they're talking about cost of living increases or CO la Cola, and he says, That's not cola study with diet cola. That's Coke Zero. So

Kyle Mountsier: 9:24

see, champagne has never had coke zero then that's the that's a fact. Because coke zeros the goodness. What a quote like you, I feel like he's like, Okay, pull, say the next thing. Say the next thing comes through. He's like, I got this one from eighth grade.

Paul Daly: 9:44

I don't know deeply inadequate is definitely the PR version of shots. Definitely the PR version planned two years down. So the sentiment tracker is I would say it's trending like landing gear. That's

Kyle Mountsier: 9:54

interesting. You know, I was having a conversation with a buddy at church this weekend who's like solopreneur has has a few businesses very aware of just what's going on in the world. And we were talking about the UAW and the potential strike. And he said, You think it has anything to do with FedEx? I was like, then think about that he goes, FedEx kind of like FedEx and UPS. It's kind of set the standard for like, what striking and negotiations might hold for other unions. Three heading forward, right, because of like, the dramatic increase in pay that they have had that they've left last through stripe. I wonder if there's this relationship of like, those unions have kind of given other unions this like BUMP BUMP set to say like, Hey, you can do it to keep pushing hard, you know, kind of kind of an interesting perspective from outside of the industry. Oh, well,

Paul Daly: 10:52

speaking of industry perspective, segue. So over 1200, enthusiastic dealer, attendees are gearing up for the Toyota national dealer meeting this week in Las Vegas, from the 12th to the 14th. They won't be worried about a strike. It's Toyota. The annual event promises excitement, especially with Toyota, celebrating its best retail sales month in two years, you think you've had good ones? No, our best one coming up right in time. For the meeting. They're also set to launch the new Tacoma and Land Cruiser. So here's a quote from the GM. What is his name? David, Chris, the group V. P And Jen met general manager of Toyota. He says, This is regarding Toyota is approach to EVs. Right? A lot of there's been a lot of conversation, are they too slow to the gate? Are they just, you know, old school too much? And he says, I think the general feedback from our dealers on our approach to electrification has been extremely positive. I feel that they liked the approach. Most dealers are multi franchise, and they've communicated to us that they like the ability of Toyota to give their customers choices. They like our direction on power trains, fuel economy, horsepower, torque and the drivability aspects. And honestly, they're telling us to keep going with our approach. It's pretty strong. Yeah.

Kyle Mountsier: 12:12

And, and of the Toyota dealers, I know, which is probably in that like, I don't know, eight to 10 range of that I talked to, that's the sentiment, it's,

Paul Daly: 12:22

that's overwhelmingly the I have never heard from a single Toyota dealer. They're like, Man, I wish we were doing I wish we were making more EVs right? Not even heard a peep

Kyle Mountsier: 12:31

of that. Exactly. Yep. So I like kudos to they feels like they have their finger on the pulse. You know, I like this, I really, really hope that they continue this approach that has been had over the last couple of years and not press too quickly. But understand where consumer demand is meeting it. And it's clear, like, hey, they have probably one of the lowest ground stock in the US of of EVs from some of the larger manufacturers, and they're seeing their largest months ever. And so like I again, like we said in the first thing, it's not like they're not coming. It's just that coming when they need to is is the most important part. Yeah, I can't wait to see what comes out of the out of the meeting, though. Because they're, they've always got a little, it's like, like Toyota, I feel like they should take a little a little token out of the out of the apple playbook, because I think they could actually yes, you know, that's a great, that's a great suggestion. And the Apple Keynote is tomorrow, they should just like run, they should just like Jinhwan together real quick for Wednesday, and just pop in and pop everything. Yeah,

Paul Daly: 13:37

I have I have I have a inkling that Toyota doesn't throw anything together really quick. No, that's true. Okay, there's no, there's really a brand if they did something like that. If you remember last year, if I'm remembering correctly, I was talking to our friend, Perry Watson, third out Toyota of Marysville. And Toyota kind of had a mic drop moment because they've released this big data study that they did, talking about Viet dealers who sold over sticker or sell new cars over sticker and they were basically like, we did all this research all this internal data, you'd never seen it before. Here it is. They said dealers that sold over MSRP doubled their profits last year. And everybody's like a murmur in the room you're like and dealers that didn't sell over MSRP like triple their love that. That actually I heard was met with actually a pretty rousing level of applause.

Kyle Mountsier: 14:31

It's so good. Like, I wish that that was like a real published study. Like if they had that out there because it would just be I would just like I would pull it up and I would just hold it it would be in my back but I

Paul Daly: 14:43

want to make a video about that moment so bad like you know, it's like have doubled their profits and have like, you know, the cut ends of the crowd where people are like, awkwardly looking and like have triples and just have the fastball. Sure everyone stands up and just

Kyle Mountsier: 14:56

yeah, there's that there's a gift there. was a gift coming from your soda world?

Paul Daly: 15:03

A year ago? Just memories of Toyota's how are we going to transition to this one? Kyle

Kyle Mountsier: 15:09

got one Oh, memories something.

Paul Daly: 15:10

Yeah, remember when it's gone. All right,

Kyle Mountsier: 15:16

your turn. Yeah, so GM is getting ready to pluck apple from their Eevee lineup of as we've heard a few times and we've commented on this show just a few we have an opinion on this. We have a little bit of opinion on the whole GM plucking apple from their Evie Lana, but Ford is taking an actual bigger bite as they announced that the F 150. Lightning will integrate Apple Maps, Evie routing by year's end. If you don't know what Apple Maps, Evie routing is, and this is cool, because Apple Maps has grown a lot over the last few years just in their general, like the maps capacity, you know, Google bought Waze. And that was a massive deal. And so Apple Maps getting better. But they have Eevee routing, which basically creates a route optimized for charging stations based on your vehicles drive time capacity. So it'll, it'll give you like the estimated charge upon arrival, and it'll reroute you to the nearest nearest station if your charge gets too low. This navigation feature previously was adopted on the Mustang Mach II, it's been on the Porsche Ty can. And looks like they will be coming out with it. And the F 150. Lightning in q4 of 2023, which is coming up soon. And this fan will Lena, you know, yeah, it's

Paul Daly: 16:31

more than just the maps integration. I think this is probably one of the first implementations where Apple is actually getting data from the vehicle that has the charge level. And so I think this is just I think that's the real big story here is like a, we're actually moving data in both ways about the vehicles condition. You know, I mean, I guess, like built in navs. Oh, it doesn't do that. Like if if you have a built in map and your fuel is low, but like, do you want me to route you to a station but that's never communicated. I've never Apple Maps or any kind of CarPlay or anything like that. So I just another integration. I think Ford is doing something really smart by leaning in to Apple.

Kyle Mountsier: 17:07

I mean, F 150. Lightning, I'm telling you, every time I hear of a new feature, every time I hear of like a current feature that's on I'm just like, Callie, they threw that in there. That's well, I mean,

Paul Daly: 17:17

definitely, you definitely know Jim Farley is got his eye on Elon Musk and kind of taking some cues from Tesla's experience and saying, like, how can we put some of that magic in our product, and I think they're very well served by doing it. We hope you're very well served by caring for one another. Thanks for spending some time with us today. Go to a soda con.com Check out the agenda. We really, really, really want to be there with you. And just two weeks from today.

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