🚗 Tesla, Hyundai, and The Stop-Start

TOGETHER WITH

July 25th.

Love rules the world, Friend!

We talk all the time about Loving People More Than Cars—and we hope you never mistake that for simply “liking people more.”

Love isn’t different from like in quantity, but in quality.

Like is a preference for what is received.
Love is a commitment to what is offered.

Love sets like aside. Love sets preference aside. Love seeks the best for the other.

Loving people more than you love cars is easy when we realize:
The value of people isn’t different from the value of cars in quantity, but in quality.

Go love and serve somebody today, Friend.

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

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MORE THAN CARS MOMENTS

Why Stop at a Scholarship When You Can Make Music?

Fred Martin has spent decades in the car business, but his latest gift is all about the arts.

Martin recently made a $500K gift to Lake Erie College. And while that number alone is impressive, it’s how he chose to give that makes this story something special.

Fred’s donation includes two top-of-the-line Steinway pianos. One is a concert grand that will take its place in the college’s Morley Music Hall for students to perform and practice. The second is a Spirio Player, a self-playing model that will be housed in the school’s historic Manor House, serving as a centerpiece during campus events and community gatherings.

“I am deeply grateful to Fred Martin for this extraordinary investment in our students and campus,” said Lake Erie College President Jennifer Schuller. “By honoring his family legacy in this way, Fred has created something truly meaningful and enduring.”

THE UNION

From the Automotive State of the Union

Tesla’s Q2 earnings show the shine is wearing off. Profits and revenue both fell 16%, while regulatory credit sales were nearly cut in half. Elon Musk pointed to expiring tax incentives and softer EV demand, and hinted at more “rough quarters” ahead. Tesla’s next bets? A stripped-down Cybertruck, a cheaper Model Y, and a push to expand its invite-only robotaxi program across half the U.S. by year’s end.

Also in this episode:

• Stop-start backlash: With fuel economy fines gone, automakers may ditch the much-hated feature. Drivers already are—with aftermarket hacks and pedal tricks.

• Southwest shifts: Assigned seating replaces open boarding starting in January, adding premium seat options and eight new boarding groups.

From The News w/ ASOTU

Hyundai’s profits fell 22% last quarter—even as sales ticked up—thanks to rising U.S. tariffs, marketing spend, and labor costs. The automaker is holding off on price increases for now, but warns that steeper challenges are coming if trade tensions continue.

Meanwhile, U.S. fuel economy rules are still technically on the books—but no longer enforced. With fines waived retroactively to 2022, automakers may reconsider how much efficiency to bake into future models. The bigger question: will customers care?

Also inside:

• More on Tesla’s Q2 decline and its pivot to autonomy

• European car sales down across major brands—even as EV adoption climbs

• Steve Greenfield’s outlook on global innovation, tariffs, and dealership pressure points

TOGETHER WITH MIA

Monsters Belong in Movies, Not in Dealerships

Does your tech stack look like it was stitched together in a lightning storm?

Thuy Adomitis calls them “Franken-systems,” and if that term feels a little too familiar, you’ll want to catch her latest episode on Auto Collabs.

After surviving a 14-hour car-buying saga, Thuy set out to fix what’s broken in dealership communications. Today, as VP of Sales at Mia Labs, she’s helping dealers replace those patchwork systems with a voice AI that actually works.

Mia never sleeps, never calls in sick, and never drops a lead. She answers calls, books service appointments, checks parts availability, and frees your team to focus on what really matters: relationships and revenue.

Ready to slay the monster holding your dealership operations hostage? Book a demo with Mia today!

DATA & INSIGHT

If Employees Can’t Grow, They Go

A recent Gallup poll found that when supervisors don’t support using work time to learn, employees are 58% more likely to be job hunting. Yet in 2024, nearly half of U.S. workers reported receiving no job-related training at all.

The top barrier? Time away from daily duties. But the deeper issue is leadership. Gallup reports that most managers haven’t been properly trained themselves, which makes them more likely to block growth than enable it.

And the stakes are real. Companies that prioritize development see up to an 18% lift in profit and a 14% boost in productivity.

The message is clear: if you don’t invest in your people, someone else will.

AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE

In this inspiring episode of ASOTU Unscripted, host Errol Bomar sits down with 23-year-old rising star Gavin Reeves, who shares his rapid ascent through the automotive industry.

Starting at just 18 as a porter, Gavin moved through roles in BMW product education, service tech, and sales before landing in a Center Performance role—all driven by his core passion for people over product.

If you’ve got 5 minutes to spare, spend it wisely and catch the replay here.

🥊 Quick Hits

• Topgolf is looking to hire a summer Dadtern to keep the greens clean and the puns painful. ⛳️

• Amazon is making a $40M movie titled Artificial about the sudden firing of OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman in 2023. 🍿

• Elon Musk's brain implant company Neuralink says they expect to put chips in 20K people a year by 2031. 🧠

• Get your little piggies sticky with Croc’s new Krispy Kreme collab. 🍩

🔁 Today in History

• 1945: Kaiser-Frazer is founded. 🚙 

• 1959: A hovercraft crosses the English Channel for the first time. 🛥️ 

• 1965: Bob Dylan goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival signaling a major change in folk and rock music. 🎸 

Do you feel it in the air?