Affordability Drives Sub-$20K Segment, AI EV Battery Checks, Shrinkflation Survey

Paul J Daly  0:03  
All right, it's October 16. Listen, it's Wednesday, and tonight, you and I get to be at a 100 year celebration. But first we have to talk a little bit news, and then we'll talk about that, or maybe we'll do it in reverse, I don't know, just do whatever feels right, whatever

Kyle Mountsier  0:18  
feels right, business we're just always running. There's so many things, I feel like you know now we know why news channels can run all day. You know what? I mean, there's always something to talk about. You can always find something. I mean, whether or not it's valuable, yes,

Paul J Daly  0:36  
that's the that's why we do this.

Kyle Mountsier  0:38  
We just picked the three things that you should think about this morning. Yes, yes. Well, the

Paul J Daly  0:44  
reality is that tonight we're both going to be in, is it where we in Charlottesville tonight, right? Charlottesville. We're gonna be in Charlottesville. Yeah, mixed up, see with CMA Carter, Myers automotive celebrating their 100 year anniversary. Just think about the things that weren't even a part of existence. You know, what's crazy, though,

Kyle Mountsier  1:04  
it's actually the the actual company is older than 100 years, right? Because it started as like a, what was it like a, what was it the hardware store, hardware store, right? And then it transitioned, changed, changed the names, became a manufactured got the Ford franchise.

Paul J Daly  1:22  
What cars do you sell 100 years ago? Besides Fords,

Kyle Mountsier  1:25  
that's it. Well, I read an interesting stat that over 50% of the vehicles in operation four years after they started were Ford Model Ts. That's a great time to be a Ford dealer. It was great. They were like, we're good, 50%

Paul J Daly  1:41  
market share, folks.

Kyle Mountsier  1:45  
It's like all the Toyota dealers today, you know? Oh, got them.

Paul J Daly  1:52  
They we, by the way, we have a new podcast that we just released. It's a podcast that is, uh, an ASOTU production, but it is namad, National Association of minority auto dealers. It's their new podcast we produce for them called now we're here where Damon Lester is the host, and first guest is Reggie Davis from J M, a, you have to check this out. We have such a great guest lineup, and Damon is an amazing host of the show. We're having so much fun producing this for them. You can find it on our platforms, but just search ASOTU Now we're here, or a name ad. Now we're here, and you'll get to it on Apple Music or Spotify, or wherever else you find your stuff. That's insane. You can

Kyle Mountsier  2:31  
see to all the podcasts, they're great. They're really good podcasts. We

Paul J Daly  2:35  
do get also podcasts.

Kyle Mountsier  2:36  
Sometimes I get silly sideways about how many podcasts customer

Paul J Daly  2:40  
media company where media, we make media. It actually is interesting. I kind of love having a podcast that you and I aren't hosting.

Kyle Mountsier  2:47  
I know it's great, yeah. But like, Nathan's like, well, I get to produce it, right? That's the thing. Like

Paul J Daly  2:54  
we're not even producing it, which is so sweet, because it's like a fresh a fresh listen when we get to see it. Nathan, you're doing a great job keeping wrangling all the podcast people into one group so they can record something that's right, that's an easy job. Should we talk about some news? Do we need to talk about the webinar next week? Yeah, there's

Kyle Mountsier  3:12  
a webinar next week. You should join us. Throw the

Paul J Daly  3:15  
graphic up. Throw the graphic. Boy Amol from full throttle, what's the topic? I should know this. Oh, finding your shoppers using free TV on that topic. Hey, now look them all is always fantastic to have a conversation with. He is so well read across a lot of disciplines, in auto, in the auto industry, and these podcasts, I mean, I'm sorry, these webinars, 2030 minutes, we're in and we're out. The last few have just been so much fun. So you can join for free. Go to asotu.com right there, register so you can be with us live or get the recording. And we hope you're there with us live, though, because we love questions, we love heckling, we love that real time interaction and all the things that come with it. Let's

Kyle Mountsier  3:58  
talk about your comment feed is just the way to be. You know, so good, it sounds good.

Paul J Daly  4:01  
All right, let's talk about some news. Well, new data suggesting lower priced vehicles are surging in popularity. Despite the average price of new cars remaining high, buyers are acting fast before all these affordable models disappear, with notable increases in sub 20,000 cars. Basically, the Kia, forte, their sales rose 6% ni subursa, Nissan Versa, by 64% Mitsubishi Mirage was, I have some first hand experience with from our last little vlog, an incredible 114% I think hurts auto ball, even though the Mirage is said to be discontinued, I have no idea why you should watch.

Kyle Mountsier  4:36  
Anyone know why? Look, we're sorry if you work with Mr. Malishi and you're listening, we're sorry. We

Paul J Daly  4:42  
don't know why we don't get it, I know. And man, if people are buying these, rent a car. Bought them all they did. I drove one of them. Vehicles priced between 20 and $30,000 saw nearly a 44% growth in sales during q3 meanwhile, luxury cars priced at 100,000 or more saw. Sharp decline, with sales down 46% in the last nine months, the party might be over. Kevin Roberts from carguru says consumers are becoming more cautious due to economic uncertainty, high interest rates and get this elevated vehicle prices. Hey, listen.

Kyle Mountsier  5:13  
If you haven't been listening to this show, we apologize if you've missed this. If you have been listening to the show you've heard us say this. Get you a used Kai inventory in line. You know what I'm saying? Because everybody is interested in that low price vehicle, and they are going to be after them, especially into the last half of this year. And obviously we're seeing that in new cars. We're seeing that in used cars, people are after a price point that's more affordable and accessible for the regular budget out there. Look, used cars are the way to go, because only a few of these people you got the fourth day, the first day, the Mirage, and I think a couple other cars that can potentially get under 20,000 with a couple incentives. Everyone else has to buy a used car. And if you're looking to find the majority of where the market is headed, that 15 to $25,000 car is a sweet spot right now, I'll

Paul J Daly  6:03  
tell you what. Though I've had several people ask me over the last 3060, days. You know, you get the two airline what car should I buy? Here's my budget. Here's what I want, right? I've been pointing more people towards the ionic five that I can shake a stick at, and I get the little the napkin math out of my list. And if you put 3900 what's your budget? Good, 15 grand. Sweet. Put 3900 down. You pay 159 a month for this what you're driving. Like, great, zero fuel expense, crazy, awesome, brand new car. No maintenance, no surprises. And basically it was like, the depreciation of that car that you were gonna buy is the same as what you're gonna pay to drive that brand new one. And, you know, I said, Dave Ramsey might not be happy with you. He said, No leasing, no leasing, because it's bad. But I think that, if you know, I secretly think he disagrees with that. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier  6:54  
I Liza car.

Paul J Daly  6:55  
Well, Kyle sold, which, when everybody walked in with their Dave Ramsey. I

Kyle Mountsier  7:01  
sold cars less than half a mile away from Dave Ramsey's headquarters.

Paul J Daly  7:07  
So everybody walked in. We're not supposed to lease like, yeah, right. Watch this. Here we go. He's like, positive at least great. He's like, hold my Red Bull. Yeah. Have you ever drank Red Bull.

Kyle Mountsier  7:20  
I did back in the day, like twice, and then you want

Paul J Daly  7:23  
a Red Bull is a scary proposition. You have enough energy without it. It's that every morning, that's for

Kyle Mountsier  7:29  
sure. I just do coffee Red Bull is too much.

Paul J Daly  7:34  
Yes, it's natural. It's all natural. All right, I don't have a segue for there's no thing I was trying hard. Yeah, yeah. All right, so technology firms are racing to tackle EV battery defects with the help of some AI no surprise, AI models are dramatically speeding up quality checks, helping identify potential issues before they become costly or dangerous issues. Unit X, the name of the company, their AI tools scan cells in three and three and a half seconds compared to five minutes for human operators. That sounds like pretty efficient. Richard alfeld of monolith, he says, AI can have half battery testing time, while Neo in Europe is leveraging AI to accelerate battery development. Let's see SES AI. I think that's another company, right. SES AI is using AI models to map new molecules, potentially revolutionizing material discovery for future EV batteries. Patrick hartsky of McKinsey, we know McKinsey, we know it's that improving get battery chemistry like pharmaceuticals, takes time, but the long term value is tremendous. So AI is getting its little tentacles into battery production and troubleshooting, I guess, oh,

Speaker 1  8:43  
making EVs with AI. And then give me a couple of more acronyms. You know,

Kyle Mountsier  8:53  
not, not much about this, except for the fact that, look, I have to believe that the current technology on the road for alternative fuel is not going to be the alternative technology that we'll see it in even three or four years. It will be dramatically different. It will be version 3.5 or whatever, when we're on version 1.0 and we're just going to see a whole lot of difference when it comes to charging capacity, when it comes to the price of these things, it's it's just going to be a whole new world, because the speed of technology right now, and the ability to measure this battery or any other alternative fuel, is going to get so much better, quicker than we've ever seen with gasoline, because gasoline is a one way street, right? And battery technology, I mean, you look at like, the battery in an iPhone over the last 20 years, oh my gosh. I

Paul J Daly  9:51  
remember it was like, middle of the day. You're like, am I gonna make it now? It's like, you don't even think about it. You don't even think about plug it in. Again, you're doing so much more processing. Yeah, that's the crazy part. If you look at, like, I don't know, there's probably a measurement for it, like, you know, like, yeah, milliamps per processing unit.

Kyle Mountsier  10:08  
If you were to, if you were able to put the battery of the current iPhone in the original iPhone, it probably run for a month. It

Paul J Daly  10:17  
probably, I don't think, hey, remember, I'm trying to think now, did I ever have a phone with a replaceable battery? Was that a thing I did? Yeah, a little battery door, like, on the little rectangle battery thing, yeah, oh my. And that's the iPhones. Like, no, the battery's built in. You can't replace it. What think of the, think of the paradigm shift that was? That was a paradigm shot a battery you didn't have to replace, because it was way more efficient and way more reliable, like in the cars in 345, years from now, I think you're right, we'll laugh. It'll either be the battery laughs, technology will laugh. I can't wait. I can't wait speaking or not be able to wait. I have no idea what that segue meant. I don't know what that means either. I

Kyle Mountsier  11:01  
can't wait to hear you read this last story. A new lending tree study has revealing just how widespread shrinkflation is in the US, with many products shrinking in size while prices stay the same or even on the rise, leaving consumers to pay more for less, even though they may not even know about it. 31% of the 98 supermarket products studied in this survey have shrunk over the last four years. So the volume, the amount, anything like that. Paper products, like toilet paper, were the most affected, with 60% shrinking in size since 2019 so they're like, look same price, less material, Charmin, ultra strong rolls, check this out, shrank by 15% while prices per 100 sheets increased by 30 Oh,

Paul J Daly  11:46  
what a swing. You pay 31 points point 4% more and get 15% less. One believe. What a math game that is

Kyle Mountsier  11:54  
breakfast, cereal and candy also impacted. Reese shrunk by 11% I don't even know how they did that. They just like slightly made the release just slightly smaller, and this price has skyrocked by 68.2% Matt Schultz of lending tree, who did the study, notes shrinkflation adds insult to injury for already frustrated customers, so your prices are up and your sizes are down, fam, the

Paul J Daly  12:17  
most frustrating thing is that if you compare that to the package size, right, the package size is probably the same, yeah,

Kyle Mountsier  12:25  
you get that bag of chips, and it's like, yeah, right,

Paul J Daly  12:28  
right, right, exactly. I know there's some legislation in place right now trying to mandate, like, it's too late, though, trying to mandate that like you somehow indicated or put, like, I don't know what you do, with, like, a little flag on the packaging now featuring sling new shrinkflation size, like, Yep, it's just

Kyle Mountsier  12:46  
a mess. I think all this points to is, like the media consumers, everybody is just so price sensitive right now, yeah, and it's, it's dangerous for for our industry, because our advertising is so predicated historically on price sensitivity. And going back to the first story, right, where people are looking for the price the affordability, right, if you dive too much in that direction, the scrutiny on the capacity to purchase for a consumer is going to be so much higher. So moving away from that, from a branding, from a marketing perspective, is going to help you get out, get the consumer out of that mindset that they're being trained with in all of retail, in all of consumer experience and all of service experience right now, and kind of eject them from having to make a consideration based on that. You

Paul J Daly  13:40  
know, I think, like, auto industry is probably one place where it's shrink flation is kind of impossible. That's true. I can't think of one instance.

Kyle Mountsier  13:49  
I don't know you missed the story about the little Fiat 500 e earlier this week, how they're like, look at

Paul J Daly  13:56  
it now. Look at it. Now. What is this? A car for ants.

Kyle Mountsier  14:02  
For ants. Oh, well, look,

Paul J Daly  14:03  
we're going to celebrate 100 years of a company that is a very short list of companies at all that have been around for 100 years, and it's in the best industry in the world, auto industry. We'll have content from you. We'll bring you along. We'll see you tomorrow.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

‍