🚗 Reliability on the Rocks

TOGETHER WITH

It’s hard—but important—not to let everything become a product.

Some things are products, exchanged between a provider and a receiver.

Other things produce—relationships, conversations, and interesting ideas.

This email is meant to produce something between you, us, and the industry at large.

Community isn’t a product, but it is produced.

Words are weird.

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

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🔹 The Goal: GM wants Super Cruise to generate $2B per year in subscription revenue within five years.

🔹 The Current Model: Right now, dealers are the ones getting customers into Super Cruise-equipped vehicles. But…

🔹 The Bigger Question: If automakers can build direct relationships through subscriptions, will they still need dealers to sell them?

🔹 The Takeaway: With direct sales talks never far off, dealers should be watching how GM balances subscription revenue with its franchise partners.

Will dealers be selling more subscriptions—or just getting a front-row seat as automakers sell around them?

📌 Remember when we thought 2020 was the tough year?

Well, it’s 2025, and NADA Chairman Tom Castriota is gearing up for another round of battles. Here’s what’s on the docket:

✅ The FTC’s CARS Rule? Vacated.
✅ California’s ZEV mandates? Under scrutiny.
✅ Volkswagen and Honda testing direct sales? Facing major pushback—Castriota calling any attempt to sell vehicles directly or compete with U.S. dealer partners “outrageous and misguided.”

🔹 What It Means for Dealers:
The fight for franchise protections, emissions standards, and tariffs is heating up. A new administration is shifting policies, and NADA is making it clear—dealers won’t be left behind.

Because in retail auto, there’s no such thing as a “calm year”—just a new game plan.

🚀 The Claim: BYD’s CEO says Chinese EVs are five years ahead of the competition.

⚡ The Reality:

🔹 What It Means for Dealers:
The industry is watching for a flood of Chinese EVs into global markets, but right now, even their homegrown customers are hitting roadblocks.

So…would your customers want to field-test the future on their daily commute?

Paul and Kyle covered how the deal isn’t totally dead yet on The Automotive Troublemaker yesterday morning. Check it out.

Any of these sound like your AI texting tool (or why you still don’t have one):

Too often, these tools don’t move conversations forward because they're not providing information your shoppers truly care about. 

Foureyes cracks the code on AI texting by providing updates about the inventory on your lot that matches your buyers’ interests. 

Join the webinar TOMORROW to see how Foureyes boosts your long-term close rates by up to 30% – and get 30 days for free!

Register here.

The latest J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study just dropped, and it's telling us what many have already been hearing in their service bays: we're looking at the highest problem rates in over a decade.

Problems per 100 vehicles jumped 6% from last year, hitting 202 PP100. For those keeping score at home, that's 12 more headaches per 100 vehicles than last year. And for the second year running, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity is the number one complaint, jumping from 6.3 to 8.4 PP100.

Some brands are holding strong, but others are taking a major hit—especially when it comes to software-related issues.