Honda-Nissan Merger, EV Equinox Too Quiet, FTC Bans Junk Hotel Fees

Paul J Daly  0:00  
Today, we're talking about the Hyundai, Honda, Nissan merger, potentially Equinox being too quiet and FTC cranking down on entertainment junk fees. It'll be interesting to see how this applies to automotive. But we have Michael Cirillo. We have a purple fireplace. We have our Christmas trees. We have here in extravaganza tomorrow. Things are

Michael Cirillo  0:22  
good. Things are looking up. We got so many things we have.

Paul J Daly  0:25  
And Michael Cirillo has the optimist prime voice. That is the season we are in where his voice takes just half an octave down. Now, for the seasonal I don't know, is it allergies?

Michael Cirillo  0:37  
It's allergies, but they go to my chest, and then I say before time began, that's unbelievable. There was the cube. Yeah, I don't know why. It just does. It has a mind of its own. So if you guys want voiceover work, now's the time to get them done.

Paul J Daly  0:52  
It's extra expensive between December and March, right? There's discounted rates starting in

Michael Cirillo  0:58  
borough. You know, there's a surge on voice overs right now, you should

Paul J Daly  1:02  
literally train an AI on your voice right now. From lemon labs, you should do that we need.

Michael Cirillo  1:07  
What I like is, when I say scoozy, it goes a little bit low. Gosh,

Paul J Daly  1:11  
it goes so low, scoozy, that's unbelievable. It's optimist. Cirillo, well, listen, we only have seven days until Christmas. I don't know if everyone's noticed, but we're there. Come before the storm. We have a couple things going on this week that we hope you pay attention to. Number one, we have a webinar today. Is it 2pm 2pm Eastern. We're talking about the service drive to the sales department and all of the goodness that can happen there. We're talking to our friends from Chandler, I'm sorry, Chapman, BMW, Chandler, we're meeting with their GSM to talk about how they've turned their service drive into a 30 to 45 car a month producer in sales. There's like 200 people signed up for this already, most of them dealers. We're going to be with our friends automotive mastermind, who are helping us put this on we hope you will join. You can learn something before the end of the year. It is not too late. We also have our fourth annual year end extravaganza coming up on Thursday. Just take out your calendar now, circle 1pm on Thursday, or set it aside to be with us on the live stream. We have some amazing guests. We have David Kane, David spizack, Zach Ken Justin con Roy, Daniel Gover, Elena cicatelli, of course. Michael Cirillo, he's not a guest. He's a host. Trey Warman, Liza Borches, Lady bros, art Ed Roberts, lots of fun. We even pull out a couple of things that may be a bit controversial. I know that's not really in fashion for a Christmas program or holiday program, but you know what? We're gonna do it anyway. So the best way to watch that with us is to go to go to LinkedIn. Go to our LinkedIn page. You can just search ASOTU. ASOTU. You should follow us, if you don't, and then click on Events. You can sign up for the live stream, be there in the comments. It's always a good time, and we hope you can join us while I'm out of breath already,

Michael Cirillo  2:56  
I'm frozen.

Paul J Daly  2:58  
Well, you're only frozen on the video part. I'm

Michael Cirillo  3:01  
frozen. I'm staring at you. Oh, I'm enamored by all of these announcements. Yeah,

Paul J Daly  3:08  
you're looking at them. You're trying to keep up reading them. You're frozen on screen. Listen at this point, we will just go. The audio is good, and most people listen to this on the audio. Sorry for the friends on the live stream, but you do have a really nice side profile of Michael Cirillo. Now

Michael Cirillo  3:25  
I look like I have a just I'm enamored by whatever you're gonna say next, or terrified.

Paul J Daly  3:30  
I can't tell. I can't tell what it is. All right, let's get into it. Nissan, big news yesterday. Nissan facing a crossroads as merger talks with Honda seem to be intensifying, spurred by Fox con interest in a controlling stake in the competitive pressures reshaping Japan's auto industry, an announcement by Honda and Nissan could come as soon as December 23 it's Monday, with plans to sign a memorandum of understanding to discuss shared equity stakes in a new holding company, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi. Merger would create two of one of two Japanese auto power houses, the other led by Toyota in their Subaru, Suzuki and Mazda Alliance. Fox con interest in Nissan reportedly accelerated Honda's push for a merger. If you don't know Fox con, big producer, they've gotten into the auto industry. They're doing a lot of work. Who? What are they doing a lot for? Tesla, what were they doing a lot for I don't remember. Michael Cirillo is back, but they also put together a lot of iPhones, a lot of iPads. And there's been a lot of question like, are they going to get in the auto industry, and what will that mean? So now that they're knocking on the door, you know, competition is definitely good for the seller combined. They all Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, sold 4 million vehicles globally in the first half of the year. Toyota is a little bit ahead, 5.2 million. Nishan, Nissan shares, of course, surged on the news almost 24% the biggest one day gain in history. So talk about shaking up the space a little bit,

Michael Cirillo  4:56  
you know, like, here's what's funny to me, because we never really think. About it on this side of the the globe. When I was in Australia, I was shocked at how Mitsubishi was the status vehicle. It was like, if you drove a Mitsu, really? Yes, I'm telling you, I was like Land Rover, and they're like

Paul J Daly  5:21  
Mitsu even more than Toyota, like, yeah, because like Africa, the Middle East, yeah, like Toyotas, right? That's even South America Toyotas, uh huh, interesting. It'll, you know, I think the the most like Honda, Nissan totally makes sense. I think there are a lot of Nissan dealers and a lot of our friends who are very excited about this news, because Honda is definitely a franchise that has been known for, you know, a lot of just stability over the years, solid products, solid quality control, solid leadership, um, working together with dealers in in a in a pretty close way. You know, I don't think at the level like which Toyota dealers or Subaru dealers see their OEM, but Honda is definitely a solid player. Nissan obviously gone through a lot of leadership changes, a lot of new lineups, a lot of questions. So I feel like this is good news for everybody. Yeah, maybe except for maybe except for Fox con. Well, I know. Well, we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. And just, you know, it's good to hear the noise. You want

Michael Cirillo  6:20  
me to take a crack at this one now hearing

Paul J Daly  6:22  
the noise you're back

Michael Cirillo  6:25  
this young old motors issued a recall for the 2025 Chevy Equinox EV, due to its pedestrian alert system failing to make sufficient noise at low speeds, potentially putting pedestrians at risk if my dad were driving one of these, he's plowing through all sorts of stuff. I'll tell you that right now, because sometimes those those hearing aids don't connect the alert system software may not meet federal noise requirements for hybrid and electric vehicles, affecting over 7500 Equinox EVs GM resolved the issue in its assembly plan in October, current owners can get a free body control module update at dealership starting January 27 20 that sounds really official, by the way, January 27 2025, Body Control Module, BCM,

Paul J Daly  7:16  
for all of you in the Service Department, you know, it's this, this type of upgrade, a couple things here. Number one, it's really sad. I understand the safety element of it, for sure, but it was really awesome to be able to sneak up behind your friends on a lot in an EV, and then just honk the horns like it's one of the one of the most. But you feel like you're like a sleuth, where they're standing there, creeping on them in an EV, and then it's like, that's what they should actually replace it with, in my opinion. But this is also one of those things where the vehicles that don't have the capability for over the air updates are at a disadvantage, because this still generates like the consumers have to be inconvenienced with coming into the dealership and getting this updated. The bright side of that is, though, for dealerships, have always used recalls, even simple recalls, as a reprogram, as an opportunity for a touch point with the consumer. And I would encourage dealers that, as these are coming in, like it's kind of a fleeting thing where you have the opportunity to have a customer come in on an electronic recall, try to make it a good experience for them. Obviously, you're going to use the opportunity to look at the rest of the car and see if there are things you can upsell. But when they come in, this is your chance to give them a reason to come back to your store the next time they need to buy or service. So I think it's an opportunity for every dealer, even though it's an inconvenience for consumers. Yeah. I

Michael Cirillo  8:37  
mean, look, I did an interview yesterday with the guy, and his bold statement was, everyone will drive an EV. Whoa. He was like, everyone will drive an EV.

Paul J Daly  8:50  
I don't know who it was, but

Michael Cirillo  8:53  
he's like, the time's coming. And I think it's interesting. I mean, he's from Europe. And I mean, when you look at over 30, you've got now 30 Chinese EV makers already in their market. Yeah, I think he's looking at it from a different vantage point. But to your point, whatever happens, I double down on what you said. Make it a make it an amazing experience. That's that's what we have as humans. We have experience. That's what we need to lean in on. There you

Paul J Daly  9:20  
go, everybody. I can see, I can see how he would think that, like in Europe, with all the activity. But you know, in America, we're stubborn. We're stubborn. We have oil, we have we have the South. They don't have anything like the south over there. Nothing like it. We have rednecks like there's never, ever, ever going to be a time, and if it is, I will be far dead and gone by the time. If it ever happens where we're only driving,

Michael Cirillo  9:53  
he didn't put a time frame on it. I'll say that he did not put a time frame on it. He just said the time will come. I was like, Alright, time will come. How old is by the way, he's our age, actually exactly my age. How about that? Exactly So 29

Paul J Daly  10:14  
speaking of showing our age, stop segway, all right. Michael Cirillo, and I remember a time when the only way you could buy second hand concert tickets was by going to the corner of the venue and hoping that they were real tickets when you bought them in cash to that weird looking dude standing on the corner, whispering the people as they went by. But today, the F yesterday, the FTC passed a rule requiring ticket sellers hotels and rental sites to disclose prices up front. Sound familiar? Addressing quote junk fees that increase consumer costs. So these companies must now include service fees, resort fees and any other charges in advertised prices, eliminating last minute add ons it could save. Americans are saying up to 53, million hours, whoa, annually uncovering hidden fees, it was passed by four to one. The rule may face challenges under the incoming administration. However, FTC chair Linda con said, quote, I encourage state federal policy makers to build on the success with legislation that bans unfair and deceptive junk fees across the economy. So definitely, we've been fighting that in automotive definitely, there's going to be more implications. Be more implications. And here's an example of it just making its way into more broad scale consumer transparency.

Michael Cirillo  11:29  
Look and, I mean, if you are curious, who's spending these 53 million hours, go hang out on X for 25 minutes. You'll see at least half of them in

Paul J Daly  11:39  
one feed. You know, this is, this is the thing, though, like in everyone who's bought tickets online, especially through like Ticketmaster, it's like, Oh, good. The tickets $60 like, how is this ticket? $89 all of a sudden, right? Service fees, event venue fees, this and that, especially, and also, you think, if anyone's ever booked a hotel room that is like a hotel resort. You're like, Oh, good. It's 239 a night with an $89 a night resort fee, right? Also, read

Michael Cirillo  12:07  
the fine print, how did we all of a sudden end up at a four food ers concert? You're like, dang it, who's who's Dan gruel,

Paul J Daly  12:18  
and why does he have a beer belly and a mullet. No, but this, I think this is going to continue to have more consumer pressure on transparency auto. We have a jump on this already. We've been talking about it. We've been dealing with the cars rule. And look, we've, we've talked about it many times on the show and on a lot of stages, saying, like, the basic elements of the cars rule are great. They're consumer friendly. The best operators in the country are already abiding by the car rule before it was even put into place, because they're saying, hey, we want our consumers. We don't want them to be surprised. We don't want the stress and anxiety that it costs. We don't want the F and I office to be a place, right, where people hate we want people to leave smiling, look and

Michael Cirillo  12:57  
I mean, I don't want to be I don't want to be that guy. But we just came off of what felt like the Klondike Gold Rush of 1847 in the car business, with what felt like a largely unregulated heyday of profit. It did feel like that. It kind of makes sense now that on the tail end of that, people are like and maybe a little more disclosure of what we're spending our money on,

Paul J Daly  13:22  
especially as all that negative equity is making its way back into the sales room, and that's going to be the case for the next three years at least. Yeah. So, so

Michael Cirillo  13:31  
congratulations to everybody that sold cars during the pandemic who are no longer in the business, and congratulation all those green peas who are dealing with what this is now, Paul,

Paul J Daly  13:43  
listen whatever you're dealing with, wherever you are the industry. We got your back. We hope you join us for the webinar today at two, and for the year end extravaganza tomorrow at one. Whatever you're doing today, make sure you take care of the people.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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