🚗 Hyundai: Bigger in America

TOGETHER WITH

Welcome to Thursday, Friend!

You know, if the factories shut down tomorrow, we’d have new cars for a little while, but we’d have used cars forever. So it makes sense to treat them pretty seriously.

Our friends at Kelley Automotive Group shared the secret recipe of their used car business at ASOTU CON 2025, and we, of course, took notes.

Check out the little write-up here on LinkedIn, and share your own secret ingredients in a comment.

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

_{Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here!
Reading time: 3 min and 10 sec}

THE UNION

From the Automotive State of the Union

Kyle and Michael covered the essentials: EVs, EVs, and AI. If you know, you know.

• EV tax credit clarity: IRS says buyers can still claim $7,500 (new) or $4,000 (used) if they sign a binding agreement and pay by Sept 30, 2025—even if delivery happens later. Dealers must file a time-of-sale report within 3 days of delivery.

• Cadillac’s EV surge: 12 straight quarters of U.S. growth; EVs ~one-third of recent sales. Conquesting Audi/BMW/Mercedes owners—and even 1 in 10 Tesla trade-ins.

• AI “vibe coding”: Great for speed, risky for bloat and security. Easiest time to code; harder to mature as an engineer.

From The News w/ ASOTU

Hyundai: Bigger in America, Bumpy at Home
Hyundai is adding $5B in U.S. investment through 2028, including a steel mill, robotics facility, and added production capacity. It’s a strong play for supply stability and jobs. Meanwhile, Korean union workers staged a partial strike over wages and hours—limited impact now, but worth monitoring for allocation shifts.

Volkswagen: When Discounts Don’t Move Metal
VW will pause ID.4 production in Chattanooga and furlough 160 employees after sales dropped 65% in Q2, despite $129/month leases. Loss of the federal EV credit stings. Looking ahead, VW will bring familiar nameplates like Golf and Tiguan into the EV lineup, but near-term dealers face tighter ID.4 supply.

More

• Polestar: $1B+ Q2 loss, U.S. sales down 56%. Luxury EV demand looks fragile.

• GM: Record August EV sales, but warns of a post-credit slowdown and fewer discounts.

• Future curveballs: Tesla bets big on robots; Slate Auto aims for a no-frills $30k EV pickup by 2026.

TOGETHER WITH NADA

Clock’s Ticking: Register for NADA Show 2026!

What are you waiting for?!

Early bird rates end September 5th (that’s tomorrow!) and hotels are going fast for NADA Show 2026.

The Auto Industry Event of the Year offers unmatched networking, an expansive Expo, top-tier education, and plenty more.

Lock in the lowest price for you and your crew—register and save up to $300 today!

🥊 Quick Hits

• The U.S. Labor Market shows signs of weakening. 🧑‍🏭 

• Google will keep Chrome because AI…? Honestly, who knows what’s going on anymore. 🤖 

• Nigerian Princes are last year’s scam. Now, astronauts are sliding into DMs. 🧑‍🚀 

SOMETHING ELSE

SEO is shifting to GEO

Shoppers are skipping Google and asking AI tools for direct answers. This Salesforce article says that means shifting from ranking to reasoning.

For dealers, that looks like:

• Add natural-language FAQs (service, finance, warranties).

• Keep content fresh with “last updated” dates.

• Use clear, conversational explanations—skip the jargon.

• Structure pages logically with headings/subheadings.

• Focus on being the trusted local authority, not just stuffing keywords.

If you want tomorrow’s customers to find you, build content today that AI models can cite as reliable and helpful.

AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE

We caught up with NADA CEO Mike Stanton and AAI’s John Bozzella at the J.D. Power Auto Forum just a few months ago to talk about the two things everyone in the industry is still trying to figure out: electric vehicles and tariffs.

Watch the replay here.

🔁 Today in History

• 1922: The beginning of Jaguar. 😺 

• 1972: The Price Is Right premieres on CBS. It is currently the longest-running game show on American television. 🤑 

• 1998: Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two PhD students at Stanford University. 🔍️ 

Enjoy the day, Friend!