🚗 A Day of Firsts

TOGETHER WITH

Welcome to Monday, Friend!

It’s a special kind of day.

First day of the week. First day of the month. A quiet shift toward Fall.

Wherever you are today, we’re excited to see what you make of the day, the week, the month, and the season ahead.

Keep Pushing Back,
-Paul, Kyle, Chris & Kristi

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THE UNION

From the Automotive State of the Union

To all the technicians under lifts. All the painters in booths. The parts runners, welders, detailers, porters, recon teams, tinkerers, toilers, and every skilled hand behind the scenes.

Thank you.

You are the gears that keep this industry turning. It’s your labor, your care, and your craft that move people forward—quietly, consistently, and with pride, every day.

We see you. We are grateful for you. And today, we celebrate you.

From The News w/ ASOTU

Auto Financing Update

Refinancing jumped 11% in Q2 as buyers chased lower payments, saving an average of $71 a month. Credit unions are handling most of the action, but affordability pressure is still high. The key to winning trust is going to be meeting customers where they’re at.

Self-Driving or Self-Destructing?

A new survey shows Tesla’s Full Self-Driving is turning more buyers away than it’s attracting. Only 14% say FSD makes them more likely to buy, while 35% say it makes them less likely. Pair that with sliding sales and reputation hits, and autonomy is looking more like a trust issue than a tech milestone.

Also in today’s Digest:

• Mercedes-Benz USA trades a cookout for community service in Atlanta.

• China hits a major milestone with EVs now over half of all sales.

• Refinancing may be up, but delinquencies are rising right along with it.

TOGETHER WITH REYNOLDS & REYNOLDS

Let Techs Be Techs, Not Track Stars

Is your service department starting to look more like a relay race than a repair shop? If your techs are racking up steps just getting parts, you’re not alone.

Fixed Ops Director at Greenwood Ford, put it this way:

“We lost probably 15 to 20 percent of production due to technicians being out of their bays.”

That’s where Relo rolls in. The parts delivery robot that keeps your techs focused on fixing cars, not fetching parts. Relo handles the back-and-forth, so your team can keep repairs moving and put customers back on the road faster.

Want to see how Relo keeps your service drive moving?

See Relo in Action

SOMETHING ELSE

Labor Day: An Origin Story

Before it was a three-day weekend, Labor Day was a battle cry.

In the late 1800s, American workers were pulling 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. Kids as young as five worked in factories. Breaks didn’t exist. Bathrooms weren’t guaranteed. Safety first” was more like “safety third” (or fourth). So if you got hurt on the job, good luck. Especially if you were poor or an immigrant.

By 1882, workers had hit their limits. Unions formed, strikes erupted, and 10,000 workers marched through NYC demanding better.

That became the first Labor Day parade.

Twelve years later (and just days after the violent Pullman Strike), President Grover Cleveland established Labor Day as a federal holiday in a peace offering to American workers.

Fast forward 130 years, and Labor Day is still a day for reflection.

Fair work, decent pay, and basic dignity aren’t perks; they’re what generations before us fought for. We honor them best by refusing to take any of it for granted.

AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE

Shout out again to our incredible NAMAD partners, Mia and Connected Dealer Services.

Our conversations and content would not have been the successes they were without their support, and we appreciate it immensely.

More interviews from the event coming soon—stay tuned!

🥊 Quick Hits

• A six-year class action lawsuit over Toyota’s Bluetooth echo has ended in a settlement. 🫨

• Google’s image-editing tool Nano Banana has gone viral recently for its ability to edit real pictures simply with a prompt. 🍌

• If your interior design style is “burritos,” Urban Outfitters has you covered. 🌯

🔁 Today in History

• 1752: The Liberty Bell arrives in Philadelphia from Whitechapel Foundry in London. 🔔

• 1773: "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral" by Phillis Wheatley is published in the UK, the first known book of poetry published by a Black woman. 📕

• 1897: Boston subway opens, the first underground rapid transit system in North America. 🚇

Gracias, merci, and dánke for reading along, Friend.