AI Hit-Or-Miss For Dealers, Mach-E That Looks Like A Mustang, The Chick-Fil-A Network

Kyle Mountsier  0:00  
Music.

Good morning. It's Tuesday, October 22 I got Amit with me hanging out. He's the new CEO. We're talking Mach-E and the Chick fil A streaming network.

Kyle Mountsier  0:23  
with how you doing on this bright, early California, dreaming 5:50am morning.

Speaker 1  0:33  
Oh, Dark 30. That's how it works, right? This, this is the time that Kobe used to get up. So this is, this is perfect for

Kyle Mountsier  0:39  
us. Why not? And it's and it's west coast, so everybody's got to get up at that time, I guess, right. Oh, man. Just a couple of things rocking this week. We've got a really cool ASOTU Edge Quick Shot webinar tomorrow with a mall of full throttle. We're going to be talking about finding shoppers using free TV. You're not going to want to miss it. You can go to asotu.com scroll down just a wee bit hit that also, if you don't know about our Docu series, more than cars and you'd been living under a rock or not listening to this show, you should check it out. You can go to more than cars.tv but more importantly, head to our LinkedIn on November 13. That's right, November 13. Circle that old date in your calendar.

Nathan Southwick  1:33  
Hey, Kyle, I just lost your audio right when you started talking about more than cars. Stand by everybody. This is your friendly producer, Nathan, hey, dude today. Hey,

Unknown Speaker  1:46  
I think we just got him back.

Kyle Mountsier  1:51  
They were like, cut the mic. This guy's too much.

Speaker 1  1:53  
Hey, we're with the tech company. So something's gotta go wrong. That's right, there's

Kyle Mountsier  1:58  
something's gotta go wrong. But more, okay, more than cars. November 13, you can't miss it. It's gonna be at Mohawk Chevy, and so make sure to circle that on your calendar. Speaking of Mohawk Chevy with emit here, I know that they have actually been users of a company that as of this morning, we've announced, and you've announced that you're the brand new CEO of congratulations. First away. First of all,

Speaker 1  2:26  
thank you. I find it fascinating, because I think I've said this before, I'm not even the CEO of my own house, but somebody has given me the keys to this. But it's super exciting. Yeah, they're a great partner. And I think it's just, you know, these these dealers, that are becoming so progressive about that extreme evolution of the customer experience, right? You got it. We got to start doing stuff that is a little bit different for the dealer, for the customer. Excuse me. And mill logs, certainly one of those, those dealers that's always been on the forefront. So super exciting. Thanks for having me. Bam. Alright,

Kyle Mountsier  2:59  
so you're brand new, but you got to give me, like the two sentencer on Kirby. What exactly is Kirby? Just give us the two sentences, and then we'll get into it this morning. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1  3:10  
So we're a software company, software solutions and service, and we enable dealers to offer mobile service. And the reason we're able to do so is because we've done it. We've eaten the dog food. We were a direct to consumer company before, and pivoted like everybody loves to business to business for the dealers.

Kyle Mountsier  3:29  
Nice. Well, speaking of pivoting operations, segue let's get into it this morning. Auto dealerships are embracing AI with the hopes of transforming operations, but AI's initial impact has been a little bit hit or miss. While there are some real gains, the promises of instant transformation haven't fully delivered. The Auto news article this morning pointed to a lot of generative AI tools like GPT helping with things like service scheduling or customer emails, but a lot of chat bots have struggled. We pointed to a story almost a year ago now where pranksters have hijacked dealership chat bots making observed requests.

Troubles this morning, fam, it's just one of those things, but we're here. Dealers are remaining hopeful, but many are still cautious. Jason Bickford of Bickford Ford said it's a really strong tool of support and helps you do your job faster and better and be more thoughtful with it. Steve Greenfield, our friend who's been on the show a lot of automotive venture said we've only just scratched the surface, and the fear is we may have dealers that are already getting disillusioned with the over promise and under livery, under delivery of what AI can do for them. They may already be getting numb around entertaining any vendor that is trying to sell them AI enabled features, which I've heard that. From just a couple dealers at this point. Yeah, it

Speaker 1  5:03  
makes it makes sense, right? I think it's, I think if you're not being cautious and curious about it, then you're maybe going to miss the bus, per se. Yep, you certainly have to be aware of AI, but you have to be aware of how you at your dealership are going to have the opportunity to incorporate it, right? You know, if you I remember, you know, I've worked with OEMs and now vendors for so long that if you're not creating a soft matrix when you're evaluating your vendors, and one of them doesn't say some level of, you know, whether or not it's artificial intelligence or some level of intelligence that they're incorporating, you might want to be fearful that they're not going to keep up over the next couple years, but you also want to make sure that it's not a two person company that's just fully powered by AI, because we just have no idea what they're going to get at that point. Right? It just hasn't been fully vetted out yet. It's certainly, it's certainly some component of the business model that we all need to keep our eyes on, and it can be helpful.

Kyle Mountsier  6:01  
Yeah, I agree. It's like, if you're not leveraging some level of AI in in your operations, whether you're a tech company or a dealer, you're missing the boat on a huge opportunity for efficiency. But if you're leaning in too dramatically, you potentially are creating risk in a place that you don't want to create that risk. And so this, like cop cautious optimism, yet not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Like, if one thing goes wrong, you just throw it out altogether. I think that's that's a point that we don't need to get to right now. And so be, be aware of it, be involved with it, but don't go so deep that, like you just don't know what you're getting into at this point. Because even the creators of this stuff don't know what they're getting into.

Speaker 1  6:47  
Yeah, I don't know. I'm going to butcher the quote, but there's several of them out there, and especially when it comes to hiring, and even using the technology where they say, you know your job's not going to be replaced by AI, excuse me, but you may be replaced if you don't know how to use AI. And I think that that makes a lot of sense,

Kyle Mountsier  7:06  
brutal, brutal, speaking of making a lot of sense. Stop segway. It looks like Ford has finally done it. They are refreshing their popular Mustang Mach E for 2025 and it might actually look a bit more like a Mustang. Now they're featuring some key upgrades in both tech and design, all while slashing the price to a new starting price of 36 495, undercutting the model Y by nearly eight grand. The other thing that it does is it adds a standard heat pump, improving winter performance and charging efficiency. Some of the exterior upgrades include a sport appearance package with design cues from the GT model and Brembo bake calipers. While inside has sportier accents like red stitching sports pedals and ventilated front seats their updated blue blue crews 1.5 now features automatic lane change available via, you guessed it, subscription. Hey. But look, have you seen a photo of this thing?

Speaker 1  8:09  
Yeah, it's pretty cool. It is. Yeah, I'm waiting for, I'm waiting for the the full retro 1967 Mustang that's electrified so it looks no plugs in, but just like you know the everatti approach, right where they J iconic vehicles, and they're, they're fully retrofitting these things for EV and for the longer life. So there's just these cars are so fast, they they're so unbelievable to drive. I have a, I have a Tesla which has free full self full serve driving, full full self driving this, right? I think it's over the last couple weeks. Have had it. I just used it a couple days ago. It's amazing how easy it is to roll in that vehicle. And I think I saw a video with with Paul a couple days ago driving in FSD, yeah. It's unbelievable. And it's a little scary because of how good it is. Think about this. I was driving it. I'm a pretty impatient driver. I've got a personality. We have highs and lows. That car doesn't right. It just does what it's supposed to do, and it has a few more sensors and cameras doing its job. So I'm excited about this. I think it's it's going to be super cool. And, you know, I think the Mustang is just one of the most perfect vehicles to be able to put around in with light switch power,

Kyle Mountsier  9:25  
yeah. Like, like you said, like, these cars, because you get all of the torque at go, just feel so fast and then so, like, I've always been this, you know, the the Mustang Mach e kind of looks like this, you know, cross between a Mustang and a crossover that doesn't really know what it is, and so getting back into a little bit of that, like sport vibe, and retuning it for that, I think you know, more and more of of these cars that just like feel so fast out the gate looking like they feel. So I think is a really good thing for the EV thing, because, you know, you look back at, like the original EVs, and it's like the Nissan LEAF, and it's just a little bubble, right? And, and so now you get this, like almost enthusiast feel with the EV and the power that comes alongside of that. And you start to kind of circle around, like, Oh, okay. Like, this could be sustainable for multiple types of buyers, and not just kind of like the Fiat, Fiat 500 E, you know, it's cute. It's,

Speaker 1  10:28  
I like that. It's got that aggressive Bulldog stance. I think the thing that people miss the most is the sound, and let's be fair, that that's available too in most of these EVs. Now, Yep,

Kyle Mountsier  10:36  
exactly. All right, I got no segue for this one, but we've talked about this a couple times, and it looks like it's official now, but Chick fil A is officially branching out into the entertainment space with a new app launching November 18, aimed at keeping families engaged with original content, games and more. The App Lab, podcast, games, recipes and animated shows, and it's part of a strategy to connect with customers outside the restaurant, especially in the drive through or at home. Kyle Kyle Cooper, VP of brand strategy, said, We want it to be an extension of our in restaurant hospitality and generosity. I mean, all I gotta say about this is we know a show that I think would look would work really well on this note,

Speaker 1  11:23  
all right? Another, another quote I'm going to give you. It's only weird if it doesn't work, right, right? I mean, yeah, Chick fil A with its own show, but at the end of the day, brand extensions work, right? I mean, who thought that the place where you would buy books is the place where you watch most of your television and football? Yeah. So in the future, it seems like as long as these brand extensions deliver on what they're supposed to, customers are simply going to align or just lean into the brand. I mean, who does? Everyone loves Chick fil A for the most part, right? So if the brand extension works, like I said, it'd only be weird if it doesn't

Kyle Mountsier  11:59  
work, yeah, I think, you know, when we look at this from like a retail perspective, or from Auto, and I love the phrase that you use brand extension is this encouragement that, like your brand doesn't have to just live in we sell and service cars right here in a location, and that as you extend that brand, we are actually talking about Mohawk Chevy and Some of the stuff that they've done with their community. Partners, or, you know, brand extensions that create, you know, community centric events or things like that, that allow the community to experience your brand in a likewise manner, but outside of the four walls of where you exist, really gets people a lot more sticky to the why of doing business with you long term, and creates a ton of lifetime value, because that, like repetition of of brand over time just becomes so ingrained in people and so looking for these places to extend your brand, not just like by being injected into other people's things, but creating net new cultural centers, you know, there's no cars and coffee in your area, create the brand center for that. It was something of that nature,

Speaker 1  13:11  
yeah. I mean, I think the Listen, the more you create relevant, positive engagement, the more affinity you're going to drive towards your brand. And all of us are trying to do that, right? I mean, you do look at even companies us or business partners to dealers and OEMs, we're letting people behind the veil. We're showing you what our hiring like. We're presenting our values. We're talking about our cultures. Because for the most part, I think dealers, OEMs, companies, at the end of the day, people that eat Chick fil A, they want to align with brands that they have something in common with or something that they admire, yep, so you know, and Mohawks done a great job of that also, right? Like, the office episode that they put together was super cool, and it's a ton of fun too. Yep, exactly.

Kyle Mountsier  13:53  
Well, hey, look, you gotta check out the more than cars episode. We couldn't stop talking about Mohawk today. But look today, your extension of your brand is right there with your people connecting with other people on the showroom in the sales drive. Go do it.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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