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Show Notes with links:
Paul J Daly: 0:05
All right, it's Wednesday, August 28 today is a super special show in this week of guest host, because I get to hang out with my longtime friend gm of Walzer, Hyundai, the one and only troublemaker, Erica, Tiffany wells,
Unknown: 0:17
absolutely I am ready to go. I got my troublemakers.
Paul J Daly: 0:24
That's OG if you have that, you know. You know, in the very in the very beginning, like all we talked about was making trouble, like you and I and asotu as a whole, we still talk about making trouble, but we've kind of like taken the edge off it a little bit, because you got to be a little more palatable to some people, you know, but we're still making trouble every day. You can't help it every day. I know, I know. So. So you've been GM for a little while now, tell tell us just a little bit about your morning routine. Yeah.
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 0:54
So it'll be exactly one year, September 1. I usually get here around 645. For me, the early morning time by myself is how I like time block my day. I am not the most organized person. So for me, structuring my day out in time blocks and prioritizing my time to know what is the most important thing that I need to get done is a huge part of making sure that I leave successful.
Paul J Daly: 1:16
Oh, man, that's so good, and that I'm similar to you, like, I'm organized obviously enough to have the position I have. You're organized enough to have the position that you have, but really have to make up for it in, like, the forced discipline of behaviors. Yeah, good, because if not, I'll just flutter around like butterfly, like, talking to this person and that person having a great old time. Meanwhile, you know,
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 1:38
yeah, you realize being busy is not productive, and sometimes it's just about, like you said, having those good habits and routines to make sure that if there's one or two things that you have to get done today, those get off the list first, that you can really have time to be there for your team. Which you know, how I am about my team.
Paul J Daly: 1:52
I do. I do. Look at that first in the show, busy is not productive. That's the first one to write your little notebook today if you're watching and just ask yourself, Am I being busy? Am I being productive? What's the difference? We have a new podcast dropping. It's an in the dirt episode actually released yesterday. It's with Carrie wise and Ashley Cavazos of Vulcan. Had an amazing, amazing time at the luncheon at the name ed conference last week, and have Kyle interviewed Ashley and Carrie right outside in front of the step and repeat banner to talk about the organization's growth. And it's just so much fun to to watch you all grow, uh, kind of in lockstep with how, how asotu has grown. The timing is really pretty, pretty lined up.
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 2:30
It is. And congratulations on the ally being uh, thank you so much order of us. And hopefully that was a nice surprise for you guys. It
Paul J Daly: 2:37
was an amazing surprise.
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 2:38
Yeah, what you guys have done, what you did with the breakfast, and we had such a good turnout and so much feedback from the breakfast at asotu. And people were like, hey, this was amazing. When can we have it again? So I know our partnership is just kind of now, kind of cementing, but it's exciting to wonder of what's what's to come. Well,
Paul J Daly: 2:55
so good, we're going to do it again. If you are interested in going to a soda con, or you want to know what all the fuss is about, because you heard it and you and you saw the billboards and hear everybody talking about it. We do have a email like, first to know, sign up list up on asotu con.com and we're going to be doing another breakfast. We're gonna have to, like, open some of the dividers and make space, because y'all sold out that room last year. We certainly did. All right, we're gonna get into some news. Uh, hand curated this one just for you. Hyundai is pivoting toward expanding its hybrid offerings due to slowing demand for fully electric vehicles. They're planning to more than triple their global hybrid sales by 2028 basically doubling hybrid models from seven to 14, including the introduction of new drive trains with extended range hybrids set to release next year 2025 basically they have a forecasted surge to 1.3 3 million by 2028 which is up from 510,000 last year. So basically you're saying North America will see the highest increase, with sales tripling by 2028 part of their plan to expand to five and a half million global annual sales by the year 2030, but you know, who knows what's going to happen by then? CEO Jae Hoon Chang shared, said, with the recent slowdown the EV transition, the demand for hybrids is picking up. GM of a hybrid, I mean, of a Hyundai store. What are you seeing on the ground? Well, it's
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 4:16
interesting, because I didn't realize how seasons affected the car business, until I got to Minnesota, right,
Paul J Daly: 4:22
someplace that has seasons,
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 4:23
right? Yeah, kind of, you know, lineal. But being here and seeing that six months out the year we have snow, customers are very particular about making sure that they have vehicles that are going to support where they're at their lifestyle, and they think about those things, right? Our plug in hybrids are have not moved as fast as we'd like to see. You know, we joke about it that we have birthday parties for them here, sometimes on the showroom floor when they turn one, you know? But our hybrid models, to your point, have been a lot more popular. You have the early adopters who've been with hybrids for, like, since 2013 2014 they're like, Hey, I've been a long time hybrid owner. They've. Kept their cars a long time, and now they're being reintroduced to the hybrid market. And then you also have these guys that are coming in, and they're like, Hey, I'm very new to the scene. I'm not sure if it's worth the extra cost, but everybody wants to be budget friendly right now. And I think people are becoming more and more comfortable with hybrid, for those that are not quite ready to take the big plunge into EV myself included,
Paul J Daly: 5:21
what, what do you drive?
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 5:23
I have a Sunday, not a hybrid yet, but I'm, I'm, I wanted to get through one more winter. Yeah, right, right. Just one more. It's not, it's not, you know, obviously, because you have, you have both the hybrids, not going to affect it as much, but for the cost, and my drive is short, I have a six mile drive to work. Just kind of this, is it worth it versus people who have to have that daily commute? A lot of the Uber drivers buy the EVS. They buy the hybrids. I have them parked outside of my facility, using my chargers all the time. So yeah, I mean, the hybrid has been extremely popular, especially in the Tucson. We
Paul J Daly: 5:57
covered a story, I think it was yesterday or Monday, about the like, plug in hybrid technology being kind of the next baby step toward full electrification. However, the cost of a plug in hybrid is still a big barrier, like seeing those three $4,000 more when, especially when people are like, I don't know if I'd use it, but, but you think about someone that has a drive like you have, you would be the perfect candidate for a plug in hybrid, right? Because you could run on full electric most of the time. But do you want to spend the extra money? Do you really see the fuel savings? Do you? Do you want to deal with the complexity? Have a home charger installed? That's it's a
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 6:31
hurdle. It's right? So it's like five or$6,000 more.
Paul J Daly: 6:35
That's that much more. Oh, and for oh, you have to save. I mean, you can't drive the car enough to save it well.
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 6:41
And then, to your point, it's kind of like, you know, the headache of it, do I want to install the charger? And then I'm always wondering if next year, it's going to be a little bit better in range, right? Like you need to be the guy that got the car, and then you find out it
Paul J Daly: 6:52
went up, and it went from 40 miles plug in to 90 Exactly, exactly. That's technology. See, cars are just technology. Now, same thing. Oh, man and technology breaks, speaking of reliability,
Unknown: 7:06
segway,
Paul J Daly: 7:07
alright, little dancing. Gotta thank Brian Ortega for making that for us. Years ago, he won. He won the Segway contest. Toyota and Lexus continued to dominate in reliability. According to Consumer Reports, first survey ranking used vehicles by brand. They always did the new vehicles. Their reputation for dependability is making them top choices for buyers to seek for long term value in the used market. Survey covered 150,000 vehicles focusing on issues in 2014 to 2019 model years, with ratings based on 20 trouble areas, including brakes, engines, transmissions. You can imagine the top 10, Lexus, Toyota, Mazda, Acura, Honda, Buick, Surpriser in there, BMW, that surprised me too, Subaru, Nissan and Mercedes Benz. The bottom five, RAM, Jeep, Tesla, Dodge and Chrysler. According to a June survey by Consumer Reports, 40% of Americans in the market for a vehicle in the past year considered only used cars.
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 8:10
Yeah, I would say definitely. We've seen that trend, and it's all about budget. You know, there's customers are coming in. They just want to be a lot more budget conscious. They're very sensitive about depreciation, either they were the ones that bought the cars
Unknown: 8:23
during covid. Oh, yeah. Once, big once,
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 8:26
yeah, they heard about the people who bought the cars during covid and are not filling it, right? So, I mean, it's a unique time, because you're getting a period where there's so many less vehicles coming off lease. And even for the customers that are coming off lease, they're deciding that I want to buy my car out. I'm seeing a huge surge in customers that are just buying their vehicle where before that wasn't the case. Because when they look out in the market and see where the used cars are priced and say, why don't I just keep what I have, they have to stand it. Yeah. And so we're really trying to encourage customers to consider leasing again, and with some of the interest rates kind of starting to creep down, encouraging them that at the lower rate they still can get very close to a new car payment, but people are looking for that budget vehicle, and they're looking for used cars so they can avoid risk,
Paul J Daly: 9:08
you know. So I spoke with one dealer group, and they were pretty creative in the way they were approaching people who were in that negative equity position. They were basically saying, and they have the advantage, and not everyone has this, but they have the advantage of being able to say we didn't do that to anybody Sure, right? Like we didn't put five or 10 grand on the sticker, and then put you in the position we know you might be in that, and we know you can't get out of the car right now. Let us help you. Give you a plan to get out of the car, like they were really savvy about it. And I think that's a great place for anyone who did sell sticker throughout that period, you have people coming in that might be in that spot. If you can't do it right now, what you can do is acquire a customer in, you know, for 12 months from now. From a reliability standpoint, when people come in, you say they're budget conscious, are they? Are they thinking only monthly payment? Are they thinking total price and monthly payment? How they approach that conversation?
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 9:59
I think right now. Was still a lot of monthly payment. I mean, we know it's inflation. Grocery bills are higher than ever before. I mean, you talked about going back to school right now. It's just conscious to say, hey, everything costs, everything's more expensive. So we're still seeing a lot of monthly payments. You of course, get the buyers that can come out and write a check for them. It's not much has changed. They've done well with their money. They're going to continue to do well with their money. But we are trying to encourage people to again lease because we're saying, hey, in two or three years, you don't know if your lifestyle is going to change. You don't know if the situation is going to change. You don't know what the economy and politics and all these things that are distractors from making the right decision right now is to encouraging them to give those three years a try, figure out where they're at and then reconsider purchasing their vehicle at the end. So the monthly payment piece works really well. If you can encourage the customers to lease and Hyundai is a value brand, it's just really to your point. Educating the customers on what their options are, especially those that have made mistakes in the past, is to slow them down and say, Hey, we're part of the solution. We're here to help, and then educating them on how our solution is the best one for them, what
Paul J Daly: 11:01
is, would you say is the most popular well, what's the best value lease right now that you have at your store,
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 11:07
Elantra for sure. I mean, you can get Elantra for like 249 on a lease. The Santa Fe, the brand new model that just came out, is actually a nice lease too. You can get it for, for under 500 with just 1000 $2,000 down, you know, as big as the palisade, that's a big car palisade. So I mean, the manufacturers getting really aggressive to make sure customers have a nice price point. We even got a sonata. We've been promoting our gotta get a sonata sales event, right? Gotta get so you can, you can lease the Sonata sign and drive for 389 with first payment due. So we want to keep that. People want to be under 300 and that's like almost impossible nowadays, right? Four or 500 is the new 300 so it's just getting their heads wrapped around it and understanding that with Hyundai. I mean, not only do you get that great powertrain warranty, but if you lease it, you're going to be able to get out of it in three years and make a decision on what's next. I have
Paul J Daly: 12:02
to say, that's the first time I've heard the the phrase sign and drive in years. Like I literally haven't heard that phrase since, like, 2019 it's good to hear it coming back.
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 12:13
No one wants to pull any money out of pocket if they don't have to. Right now,
Paul J Daly: 12:16
right? No. Sign and drive is a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. All right. Finally, moving on to the last Auto Trader is making car rides more affordable for dogs or more enjoyable for dogs and their owners by launching new ASMR inspired spotified playlist designed to relax pets during trips in celebration of yesterday's National Dog Day. Basically a Cox automotive survey found that 52% of dog owners experience stress managing their dog's anxiety in a car. I don't want to deal with any of that. I have enough kids to manage anxiety. Country singer Walter Hayes supports the initiative, emphasizing the playlist benefits during family travels and auto traders also providing tips car accessory recommendations and top car brands for dog owners. Do you have? Are you a dog owner?
Unknown: 13:02
No, I do not, especially not in the snow out here,
Paul J Daly: 13:06
yeah, oh, come on. It's so much fun to have a dog in the snow. You have to get a dog that can live outside, though, right? So that's funny. How do Hyundai drivers like? We know Subaru drivers, they love the dogs. There's always the dogs and the ads and the cars. But what are the Hyundai drivers like? Yeah,
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 13:23
I mean, we get a few dogs from time to time. I keep some dark treats at the front desk for those few dog owners. But I wouldn't say we lean heavy towards dogs. You know, it's funny, though, with the playlist, they need to do one for kids. To your point, maybe have something to put your kids to sleep. I will sign me up.
Paul J Daly: 13:39
That would, that would be, I know, like, there's no national like kids in the car month,
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 13:43
yeah. Where's the parent anxiety? Where we need something to calm? It's ever present. It's
Paul J Daly: 13:47
just an accepted norm. I feel like, when you have a dog in the car, that's a choice that you made that day, yeah, right. But when you have a kid in the car, like you made that bed long time ago, and you're just in the game, what? What are you so, how old are your kids? Again, you have a whole range. Now,
Unknown: 14:03
I do 517, and 22 Okay,
Paul J Daly: 14:06
so let's talk about the 17 and 22 year old. What did you used to do to manage them in the car? Well, they kind of grew up in an era there were, there weren't iPads, like when they were under 10. None of that iPads.
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 14:17
I gotta remember the old school games he played, like, you know, punch buggy, yep. Or, you know, or, I see, I
Paul J Daly: 14:25
Spy, right, the alphabet game, another one just called, looking out the window.
Unknown: 14:30
How about the quiet game? Let's see how long you can be quiet in the car. I
Paul J Daly: 14:34
you know, the quiet game needs a comeback. The quiet game we're going to play the quiet. Who can be quiet for that? And you always, but you always but you always have the one kid that's like, I lose, you know, ruins it for everybody. How about, how about your young one? What do you what are you managing in the car these
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 14:48
days? Oh, you know, with joy, she's fun. She just sing alongs are great. I mean, it's funny, how, how much these kids will pick up a song. I'll have a song, and I'm playing on repeating, I'm listening to her say the words, and I'm like, yep, changing that playlist, you know?
Paul J Daly: 14:59
Oh, yeah. Yeah, over and over and over and over again. Yeah, we we do the music is a big deal. You know, I had a Honda Pilot before that had the screen in it with the DVD player, yeah, and like, that worked really well. But that was back when, like, you had to bring the DVD with you. Yeah, right. So you only we watched, like, a lot of who was the one? I can't remember. It's like, Toy Story or something like that. That was just constant. I could only hear it driving hear it driving, right? So I know the whole script, but, but these days I don't know. Screens and cars just don't seem to have they haven't figured out how to get it from the phone to the screen easily. No,
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 15:32
they have not, and the technology is not seamless, and then you got to download more subscriptions and customers. Yeah,
Paul J Daly: 15:37
a bit I don't understand, I don't understand what's so hard to be able to just
Erikka Tiffani Wells: 15:41
like project it like you do what you're I mean, you send
Paul J Daly: 15:44
it to the screens, right? I don't, I don't know, figure it out. OEMs, yeah. I mean, you don't have anything else to worry about these days. Erica, thank you so much for joining us today. Always great to have you. Best of luck getting actual things done today. Thank you so much. All right, we're out of here. Got work to do you?