TOGETHER WITH:
Welcome, Fam.
As you know, today is the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. While the day will surely have plenty to do, let's take a moment to remember the lives lost that day and since.
Today's email has...
A €16 billion number attached to Volkswagen's restructuring plan, broken down plant by plant
A study that says the trait most service advisors get praised for isn't the one moving dollars per RO
Ford answering DOT criticism with a $1 billion bet on Kentucky
Two AI executives making the case that "wait and see" won't work this time
A few quick hits, including a Tesla FSD investigation and a guy with seven identical blue Chryslers
Let's get into it.
Keep Pushing Back,
—Chris with Paul, Kyle & Kristi
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VW Puts a €16 Billion Price Tag on Its Restructuring Plan
Volkswagen has attached a number to the restructuring pact it struck last week, and it's a big one: a person familiar with the plan told Reuters the automaker expects the job cuts and potential plant closures to cost around €16 billion (about $18.6 billion).
Here's where that money goes:
Plant | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|
Emden | ~€1 billion |
Zwickau | ~€1 billion |
Neckarsulm | ~€2 billion |
Hanover | ~€2 billion |
Severance, up to 60,000 jobs worldwide | ~€10 billion |
That's on top of a reduction of 50,000 more positions than VW had already planned. Four German plants are now on the table for closure once their current models run out over the next decade, with Volkswagen framing the move as an existential fight against Chinese competitors, steep tariffs, and years of overcapacity.
(Fittingly, the VW Group's other big headline this week has nothing to do with cost-cutting: Porsche closed the sale of its Bugatti Rimac stakes on September 9, ending Volkswagen's 28-year run with the brand Ferdinand Piëch built in 1998. Same corporate family, opposite kind of news.)
For a company built on stability and scale, a bill this size signals the old playbook no longer covers the cost of staying competitive.
Being Friendly Doesn't Move Dollars per RO
Every GM has a theory about which staff behaviors drive service revenue. Widewail CEO Cuyler Owens actually tested those theories, matching six months of customer reviews at 350+ franchise dealerships against the repair-order revenue behind them.
The headline finding:
Friendliness, the trait most advisors get praised for, doesn't correlate with higher dollars per RO.
Owens's data instead identifies:
Which specific behaviors do move the number
How to coach an advisor with evidence instead of a gut feeling
Which nearby competitors are actually pulling business away, using review data across every franchise store in the country
The bigger shift is methodological: reviews and revenue have always lived in separate conversations, one for the service manager, one for the accountant. This study connects them.
Consider this today: pull your last CSI report and ask whether "friendly" is still the behavior you're coaching toward.
Ford Answers DOT Criticism With a $1 Billion Kentucky Bet
Two days after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called Ford's China ties "troubling," Ford announced a $1 billion paint shop for its Kentucky Truck Plant, the facility building its Super Duty trucks and Lincoln Navigator. Ford called the letter a "wrongheaded attempt to capture headlines."
The White House called Ford a "great American company" on X the same week.
Average New-Vehicle Price Tops $50,000 for the First Time since December.
Numbers to know from August:
SAAR: 16.8 million, up from July's 16.3 million
Average transaction price: back above $50,000
Incentive spending: $3,264/unit, down 7.3% year over year, a third straight monthly decline
Diesel: nearing $5.60/gallon, adding fresh inflation risk
Why "Wait and See" May Not Work for AI This Time
Mia's Scott Traylor and Thuy Adomitis argue the usual dealership playbook won't hold up here.
"You don't have that long. This is hitting different." — Scott Traylor
Their case: the timeline is compressed versus past shifts, hallucination fears haven't matched real-world use, and every month spent waiting is training data competitors are already banking.
🚘 Car Stuff
Congressman Presses DOT on Tesla FSD — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi gave DOT until September 30 to explain its response to an NBC investigation that found 43 videos of apparently sleeping Tesla drivers, 17 posted this year alone.
China Exports More Cars in 8 Months Than All of 2025 — China shipped 6.2 million passenger vehicles through August, already topping 2025's full-year total, with NEV exports up 154.7% year over year.
One Guy, Seven 2007 Chryslers, One Color — Ryan Maruca, 25, owns a 300C, Aspen, Crossfire SRT-6, Pacifica, PT Cruiser, Sebring, and Town & Country. All from 2007. All the same shade of Marine Blue. Truly a man who knows what he wants.
1970 - Ford Motor Company introduced the Pinto to the North American market as a low-cost subcompact car designed to compete with rising Japanese imports. It later became infamous for rear-end collision fuel tank safety controversies.
1977 - Atari released the Atari 2600 (first known as the Atari VCS). It became the first major home video game console to popularize using ROM cartridges for switching game software rather than having games built directly into the hardware.
2001 – Nineteen members of al-Qaeda execute the September 11 attacks, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks that killed 2,977 people using four hijacked aircraft. Two aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, a third crashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
