🚗 Rare Earths Are Getting Rarer

TOGETHER WITH

Good morning, Troublemaker!

As always, we are us, you are you, and here's the news.

• "Rare earth metals” are getting rarer.

• Yesterday we talked about Ford's great May, today we see Hyundai also caught a big wave in the turbulent sea of tariffs and technology.

• Finally, we're tracking Nissan's trials, tribulations, and possible triumph.

We certainly will keep watching to see what happens next, and we hope you'll be here with us to watch too.

Let's read.👇

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

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THE NEWS

Rare(er) Earth Metal, Hyundai’s 8% Jump, and Nissan’s New Plan

🌍 Rare Earth Shortages Are Getting Real

A bottleneck is building in Europe as China tightens control over rare earth exports—the minerals that power everything from EV motors to cameras. With just a quarter of export licenses being approved, production lines are going quiet across the continent.

CLEPA and VDA are sounding the alarm, and the ripple effect is headed stateside. If your OEM depends on global supply chains, now’s the time to ask hard questions about lead times and inventory flexibility. These metals may not be rare in nature, but access to them? That’s becoming precious.

📈 Hyundai Rides the Wave of Tariff Anxiety

While Ford grabbed headlines yesterday, Hyundai quietly posted an 8% sales boost in May driven by SUV demand and consumers racing to buy before potential tariff-driven price hikes.

Their price-protection program ended June 2, but the urgency it sparked hasn’t faded. Buyers are tuned in, acting fast, and expecting guidance. That makes you the expert they’re looking for. Now’s the moment to promote what’s in stock and clarify what’s coming next.

📉 Nissan’s Back-to-Basics Transformation

New CEO Ivan Espinosa is trimming the sails at Nissan by cutting 11,000 jobs, closing 7 plants, and leaning into cost-cutting instead of growth-at-any-cost. It's a bold, necessary reset.

For dealers, this may mean fewer models, more margin pressure, and tighter factory support in the short term. But clarity beats confusion and Espinosa is betting that simplicity, not sprawl, will put Nissan back on track.

➕ More

We’ve got more on these and other stories every day in our LinkedIn Daily Digest.

🥊 Quick Hits

• Disney is getting close to launching its Cars-themed world. No word yet on a “More Than Cars” themed world. 🏰 

• Uber has a new senior account option, seeking to simplify ride-share opportunities for older adults with mobility needs. 👓️ 

• Frankenstein is coming to Netflix. (We hope he doesn’t bring any homemade guests…) 🧟 

TOGETHER WITH AFFINITIV

You Might Be Wasting More Ad Budget Than You Think

The silent budget killer in dealer group advertising: misalignment. One store does one thing, another does something totally different, and suddenly your group strategy becomes a game of telephone. That’s why Affinitiv created the Dealer Group Marketing Playbook to help you fix that.

Whether you oversee five stores or fifty, this playbook delivers:

• Scalable strategies for Google, Meta, SEO, and programmatic campaigns

• Templates for aligning messaging and offers across rooftops

• Tips to simplify co-op management and maximize reimbursements

• Reporting frameworks connecting spend to actual results

This isn’t just a strategy guide—it’s a sanity saver.

Get your copy today.

AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE

In our latest Man on the Street series, we caught up with Craig (but like, barely 😅).

He flips the script on the “tech-averse” older adult myth and showing us that online convenience isn’t just a Gen Z thing.

What Craig had to say might make you rethink how you market service options altogether.

(Big thanks to Affinitiv for powering this unscripted insight!)

Watch the full interview here.

🔁 Today in History

• 1956: Elvis Presley introduces his new single, "Hound Dog" on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements. 🐕️ 

• 1989: The Tank Man halts the progress of a column of advancing tanks for over half an hour after the Tiananmen Square protests. ✊ 

• 1998: A strike begins at the General Motors parts factory in Flint, Michigan and quickly spreads to five other assembly plants. The strike lasted seven weeks. 🪧 

if you’ve read this far…