🚗 Amazon's Online Dealership

🚙 The Newest News, Fully Connected, and Safety First

December 11, 2024

TOGETHER WITH

Howdy, Friend,

Did you catch the new AutoIndustry.AI email yesterday?

We’ve got dives into some emerging tech, news around the AI world, and generative prompts you could put to work today to make AI work for you.

Check it out and then sign up to get the weekly email.

Keep Pushing Back
-Paul, Kyle, Chris & Kristi

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here!
Reading time: 3 min and 06 sec

Today's Email

🕸️ Amazon Car Buying, Battery Swaps & Stellantis Drama

If you’re too busy juggling deals and listening to late-night OEM calls to read the full scoop, here’s your cheat sheet: India’s building a bajillion EV chargers—let’s hope that rubs off on U.S. highways so your customers quit whining about range. Meanwhile, Amazon’s hawking Hyundais online, turning your lot into the last step instead of the first. Think of it as skipping foreplay and getting straight to the close.

Nio’s lightning-quick battery swaps are making charging about as stressful as refilling a coffee mug—maybe we’ll see that stateside before we all retire. Stellantis fired its CEO and brought back Kuniskis to pump life into Ram trucks and treat dealers more like partners, less like expendable minions.

GM’s reshuffling battery ventures, hoping for cheaper cells and fewer awkward “no EVs yet” calls to customers. Europe’s battery dreams are fizzling, meaning the supply chain funhouse never ends. Welcome to the new automotive normal. 🤷 

Read the full digest here.

Never lose a deal.

In this high-rate environment, success for dealers means moving more metal, holding higher gross and closing more deals profitably. Upstart’s fully connected online, in-store, and financing solutions are built to do just that. With tools designed to simplify financing and enhance the customer experience, dealers are seeing results like $500+ higher back-end gross profits from using Upstart vs. other lenders. What’s new at NADA?

  • New In-Store experience: Desk deals in half the time to get to a yes even faster.

  • Smarter credit decisions: Get soft pull credit scores and fraud checks upfront.

  • Simplified financing: Auto-recommended competitive offers help secure the right deal faster.

Plus, visit Upstart at Booth #2119 and #2127 in New Orleans to claim your free engraved AirTag - more details here.

🐣 Protecting Precious Cargo

WJZ / CBS

Over 250 new and expecting parents left Heritage Toyota in Owings Mills with peace of mind and brand-new car seats on Sunday thanks to the MileOneCares Car Seat Community Program.

“We know that thousands of babies are born in Baltimore each year, and many don’t have car seats,” said Amanda Kodeck, MileOne’s Chief Giving Officer. “Our goal is to ensure every baby is safe.”

Since launching in September 2022, the program has expanded to meet growing demand by distributing thousands of car seats and hosting quarterly distribution and education events across Maryland each year.

It also funds organizations like ShareBaby and Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital, helping even more families access car seats, including specialized ones for children with special needs.

For MileOne, it’s all about safety, community, and making life a little easier for families in need.

AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE

🗓️ Coming Soon

🍾 Thursday, December 19th — ASOTU’s Year End Extravaganza: Details are here!

⚜️ January 23-26th, 2025 — NADA Show in New Orleans

  • Psst…

    • Are you planning a party for NADA and want more people to know?

    • Are you looking for a party at NADA?

    • OR, would you like to party with ASOTU at NADA?

🦀 May 13-16th, 2025 — ASOTU CON in Baltimore, Maryland

🥊 Quick Hits: Billions, Apple, and Metallica

  • Insurers pocketed $50B from Medicare for diseases no doctor treated. 🧑‍⚕️ 

  • Merriam-Webster names “polarization” as 2024’s word of the year. 📖

  • Apple hit with $1.2B lawsuit after killing controversial CSAM-detecting tool. 🍏 

  • Metallica’s new 17-track Beat Saber pack brings dynamic cube speeds and unparalleled difficulty, echoing community mods and promising the game’s toughest challenge yet. 🎸 

🔁 Today in History: Cars, The Moon, and Birds

  • 1894: The first auto show. 🥇 

  • 1972: Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and final Apollo mission to land on the Moon. 🌕️ 

  • 2009: Finnish game developer Rovio Entertainment releases the hit mobile game Angry Birds internationally on iOS. 💢 

Thanks for reading, friend! Only two weeks until Christmas. Got all your shopping done yet?

Reply

or to participate.