Nissan’s Tariff Plan, Working Man’s Cybertruck, Cybercriminals Mimic Google

Paul J Daly  0:01  
Good morning, Tuesday, April 22 this is the automotive State of the Union. I'm Paul J Daly. This is Kyle Mountsier. Today we're talking about Nissan's big plan for tariffs, a working man, cyber truck, and cyber criminals doing a really good job at making pretend they're Google,

Kyle Mountsier  0:18  
which is not terrifying. It's not terrifying with all at all.

Paul J Daly  0:22  
PSA, at the end, it's a PSA, it's a good PSA. Kyle, there are a few things in life that get me more excited than new swag. You know, this is true, and you're like ice cream, and that's it. And and swag about ice cream would be amazing. So all of the ASOTU CON, two things are coming in right now, the swag for ASOTU CON, and also the new merch that we're going to be selling on our shop ASOTU CON com. And I'm going to have a few, I have a few pieces here for you this morning since, okay,

Speaker 1  0:51  
little show and tell, let's rage. Let's go. I'd like

Paul J Daly  0:55  
to introduce the the more than cars. Trucker hat featuring the new more than cars design, as you can see, more relatable, more than cars logo. You know, we thought we wanted something a little softer. We usually use a block letter. So in house here, we designed this beautiful more than car script. This hat features a truck brim, durable cotton, durable, durable cotton patch, woven mesh, backing with adjustable strap. Yes, you see that, right? I'm working on, I heard I can make my

Speaker 1  1:26  
Zoom. Done this before, Paul you used to be a QVC

Paul J Daly  1:30  
rep hat diameter 58 centimeters, which is standard, meaning it won't fit your big

Nathan Southwick  1:34  
head. The logo on the side. Show the logo on the side? Oh yes, there. It's

Paul J Daly  1:37  
a little bit of a sleeper logo you're not gonna be able to see on a camera. It also does feature a black on black sodu logo. Why the hat? So no details left unattended to we also have these adhesive patches with that same you can put this on a jean jacket, on a backpack, on your favorite shopping bag, or on the child you don't want to lose a Disney just put it on their back. You'll know it's them also. Oh, gee, love people more than you love cars. I have special plans for this patch. This is going on this, like, this jacket thing that I have, and we rocking this at a soda. I think I'm gonna need a new backpack just for, like, just that look great. Oh, like, check the Yeah, we could press that. And last but not least is this beautiful Special Edition more than cars pin makes a great accompaniment to your suit or your dress or your bag or your T shirt or your jacket, and it looks really great on this little card. So there you go. You'll get most nice if you come to a soda con, you're gonna get that plus a bunch more stuff, and by the way, much more important than the swag. But the swag is a good bonus. Is what you're gonna learn at a soda con coming up may 13 through 15th in Hanover, Maryland, tickets every day, tickets coming in. We have the full list of speakers and agenda live on the site right now. If you go to agenda, click detailed agenda by stage, you can see all the sessions talking about topics like AI, compliance, used car acquisition, company culture and leadership, F and I department and on and AI using AI, actual AI. Plus we're having pitch 10 competitions. You're going to have two full days, plus a welcome reception of the most progressive dealers and OEM. We had some OEM acceptances yesterday too. So dealers, OEMs, industry partners, Amazon autos, is going to be there. A lot of people have questions for them, and we would be remiss if we didn't give a special shout out to our friends at Reynolds and Reynolds and goober goo for being our presenting sponsor this year and helping us make it all happen from the OG stages. People don't understand the commitment you have to make at the beginning of planning an event in order to make the event happen. So they're true visionaries, the visionaries that see it 12 months out. I mean, I think they deserve the extra love, don't you?

Speaker 1  3:44  
Come on. I agree. Go say hi to him. Come around. We're a little excited.

Paul J Daly  3:48  
It's going to be the it's going to be, it's going to be a can't miss one. You can't we're leaning in on this one.

Kyle Mountsier  3:53  
I'm just excited to see the people that I'm just and ask the questions. I mean, I was looking at some of the topics around like used cars and inventory acquisition we got at the whole panel called the used car factory. Like we found it. We found it. It's my favorite

Paul J Daly  4:08  
title. We found the used car factory. Oh, I'm so jealous.

Unknown Speaker  4:13  
Actually, I don't

Nathan Southwick  4:14  
know what to do with myself. You look like you look like you. You're a country center dude. I was

Paul J Daly  4:20  
just gonna say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna get myself an acoustic guitar

Kyle Mountsier  4:22  
and, yeah, come to Nashville, just hang out with Brandon Lake. He's been singing that song on everything, every single stage. You just jam with him. It'll be great. Think we

Paul J Daly  4:32  
could do that. I think this might be a thing you and Jelly Roll. You can never get over that name. We should probably talk about some news for

Speaker 1  4:43  
get into it. Speaking of Jelly Rolls, I don't know,

Paul J Daly  4:47  
not even close, nothing makes me think about a jelly roll that like a Japanese car maker. Yeah, right. Nissan is staying steady on their pricing through June 2, and is looking. To its underused us factories to soften the blow of auto tariffs, the strategy focusing on affordability and domestic production leverage. Basically, Nissan has a three month supply of tariff free vehicles and saying they are not going to raise prices yet, the company plans to boost its output at Smyrna, Tennessee and Canton, Missouri plants, all of which operated at half their capacity in 2024 so it's a great time to throttle those up. Rogue production is going to jump by 54% over the next year, adding 60,000 units, while price cuts of $1,000 on all 2025 rogue and Pathfinder are looking to you're looking to leverage that to drive demand. They're also incentivizing retailers with April and May dealer volume bonus programs which pay extra cash to stores that meet sales targets.

Speaker 1  5:44  
We're never going back to stair steps. Okay? Maybe we will, until we have to Nissan America's chairman, Christian Manuel manure. Munyer Moon, yay. Christian moon, yay. Says, quote, we count all the cars toward a sales target, but we only pay on the US made cars because we want to give them a tailwind. So a little added complication there. Yeah, I don't know if this is just because I'm in Nashville and we have, you know, one of the headquarters and, you know, the Smyrna Tennessee plant, but it feels like their advertising game has picked way up. They are really prioritizing a lot of like off roading in the rogue, in the Pathfinder, those are two hot models for them. You see that they have the an easy ability. This is, this is one of those things where, like, if you have US manufacturing, it's been under utilized. There's an easy ability to upskill that manufacturing. And the talent pool in both of those cities is wide open for hiring. So if they need capacity in hiring, they've got it.

Kyle Mountsier  6:44  
This is, this could be like the saving grace of Nissan, you know, like they've been in to all of it, they've been in, they've been in the run of it and and you've got this really open capacity in plants that produce your most sought after models, and you can drive down pricing and increase advertising. I mean, I'd watch out. They might, they might come with the with the swing around from, like, having a couple, you know, rough quarters. I

Paul J Daly  7:11  
know, hey. I mean, that's, that's, that's kind of, like the cool thing about business in general, right? You gotta stay in the game. And if you stay in the game, right? The Situation's changed. And if you're nimble enough to move, you know, I'm hoping that they can rally the dealer network enough, because a lot of the Nissan dealer network is reeling from a whole slew of issues, and a lot of people don't they'll realize this. But like, if you're a Nissan dealer, your banks looking at you a little sideways, right now, right? Yeah, trying to finance your floor plan, get your building, you know, your interest rates, all those things. So I'm hoping that this is some good news for all the Nissan dealers out there, so they can, you know, get get their feet under them, and then keep the momentum moving forward. Because, look, there's nothing like a good, affordably priced small SUV to get everybody excited. Yep, it's perfect. Speaking of not small or nor affordably

Speaker 1  7:58  
priced, but try and get everyone excited.

Paul J Daly  8:03  
I mean, I would actually venture to say they may. They should probably feature some of these more than cars trucker hats in their advertise. Advertising, as Tesla, is quietly shifting this cyber trucks identity from a status symbol to a workhorse. After early hype faded, trucks started stockpiling, and political ties turned divisive. The new approach aims to resonate with a more traditional truck buying, trucker hat wearing audience, cyber, truck deliveries remain under 50,000 units. Total demand has sharply gone down, with sales dropping 50% in q1 Tesla did update the product page, and if you go to it now, it looks like this rugged, utilitarian imaging. No more trucks on Mars looking stuff aligning with Ford's f1 50 ads. They're actually a lot of strange, coincidental similarities, even in what they're hauling in the back of the truck, sales teams are reporting it's harder to sell the truck to actual buyers because its novelty isn't enough. Edmunds, Ivan Drury said, quote, they need to advertise durability. It needs to be used and abused, and all of the capabilities that make it a work truck need to be on full display.

Kyle Mountsier  9:11  
Yeah. I mean, this is, this is a necessary pivot. There's only so many people that will just buy a truck for the novelty of it, like most people want a truck to do truck things. And you look at it and it's like they've got the airstream on the back of this thing. They're pulling trucks up, you know, they're pulling horse trailers up mountains. You know, it's all about like, gear and puff on the outside, comfortable on the inside. You've got stuff in the in in the trunk, or in the whatever you I don't know, the bed trunk thing, yeah,

Paul J Daly  9:45  
yeah. Still,

Kyle Mountsier  9:48  
it's like a it's like a bunk, like a bed trunk, or something like that, is what I'm gonna call it. But you know this, it's a necessary pivot. I just wonder if they can kind of overcome the like status. Symbol thing my kids, my kids make fun of it all the time. We see a cyber truck rolling around, and they're like, there's the same person. It's like,

Paul J Daly  10:08  
I don't know. They've only sold 50,000 Paul,

Kyle Mountsier  10:10  
it kind of looks like you with that hat on, middle aged white dude with a trucker hat. Trucker hats really well, you are in Nashville. It doesn't ever we're in Nashville. It's okay, okay, okay. I'm sorry, yeah, I get a little

Paul J Daly  10:21  
cowboy script. I know. I mean, look, I've driven them. It's an amazing truck to drive, right? The operating experience is pretty incredible. It's so nimble, it's got four wheel steer. So I made a U turn faster than I ever thought I would, tighter than I ever would, which is pretty sweet. But I think the biggest headwind here, obviously, it's a truck that looks differently, but I think the majority of it is, is this Tesla issue that we're having right now, because it's so unavoidable to see if you're, if it's within your eyesight, you're gonna pick it up. You know, it's not like a model Y or model three that looks like a sedan, still. And you have to really know what you're looking for if you're gonna find it. Cyber truck is, I mean, so from a distance, yeah. And we'll see. I think if they make it really affordable and market it to the right group of people, I think it could become a very like a very designed I

Kyle Mountsier  11:10  
mean, they've got it advertised starting at $62,000 with the tax credit. So, like, that's in line with most trucks that have its capabilities at its baseline, like, they don't have a work truck. Mode of it where it's like a $45,000

Paul J Daly  11:23  
they did that, that other that version of it, though I was reading about some of the stuff, they stripped out and, like, they stripped out a lot. And I think one of the most important things that they stripped out, that a worker would probably make it, make it attractive for work vehicle, are the bed outlets.

Speaker 2  11:39  
Oh, why would you strip that so cheap? Just a little wiring harness.

Paul J Daly  11:45  
Who knows

Speaker 1  11:46  
they're not truck people. Hire some truck people. You know, I'm saying,

Paul J Daly  11:51  
speaking of hiring some people, the criminals, the criminals, I don't think they hired any COVID Googlers. But

Kyle Mountsier  11:58  
this is a quick PSA, because we know a lot of our fam is on the Google network, there are a bunch of cyber criminals kind of taking a new route at phishing emails. They're exploring Google's own sites. So if you don't know, you can, you can create a website Google has, kind of like a mini version of a website creator app to run a phishing campaign that convincingly mimics law enforcement subpoenas and bypass email authentication safeguards so the emails appear to be from no reply@google.com and claim law enforcement access to your account. Attackers are using the Google Sites to con to create portals, even that you like go and click to and get to, but they're able to evade the DKIM. So domain key Identified Mail, if you're familiar with like, a little bit of like, Email Setup, a lot of information came out of that about that about a year and a half DKIM and an SPF records, but they can bypass it because it's within Google's own ecosystem. So Google marks it as safe, doesn't put it in spam, doesn't flag it as phishing. Google has acknowledged the issue. They're deploying some mitigations to it. I'm sure they'll fix it fast, but it's a good reminder to go to your team, go to your IT department, remind people what to look for when they're looking for phishing emails common traits of like misspellings or misalignments or different types of characters and and really type, you know, tighten up, kind of just internal communications around what phishing and what scam emails may or may not look like.

Paul J Daly  13:30  
I mean, the they're always constantly getting more sophisticated. Actually, somebody on my team almost fell prey to one. They actually came to me like, Is this from you? Right? Yeah, it was good. It was really good. I mean, they would, they would definitely guess that I would want $500 worth of Cold Stone Creamery gift cards. I mean, it was right.

Kyle Mountsier  13:50  
They knew they see the ice cream. I told the people it

Paul J Daly  13:54  
wasn't ice cream. But, you know, but it was good. I was like, No, that wasn't me. And here's why, you know, education experience. But you know, if you want an education experience, if you want to have a good time, if you want to get a hat just like this one, and be with all of your friends who are really smart at what they do, you would come to a soda con. You would go to go to soda con com. Check it out.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

‍