Vehicle Ages Peak, Political Jabs Fly, and Gen Z Seeks Balance

Paul J Daly: 0:19

Good morning. It's Wednesday already may 22. We have some really appropriate things to talk about. Today we're gonna talk about vehicle ages peeking political jabs flying, because someone took a cheap shot at auto dealers and we're not happy about it. We're not I'm not even close. We were getting text messages early. Do you see this? Did you see this?

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:39

This is this right here is like, this is not unbiased opinion, Wednesday. Yes. So everybody knows. That's

Paul J Daly: 0:49

shown disclaimer,

Kyle Mountsier: 0:50

we have realizations today that are not unbiased media coverage.

Paul J Daly: 0:57

No, no. And we can and we have the backup to prove our position. By the way, by the way, Doug Classen. Thanks for jumping in on the lightning only 357 days. Tila soda. He did 358 yesterday. So we agree we're super excited. Speaking of which, we already released the dates for a soda con 2025, throw the graphic up may 12, through 16th 2025. circled on your calendar. Now make sure like no one books, anything in there. If you're an industry partner, make sure you know where you are going to be. And

Kyle Mountsier: 1:32

they're not allowed to have 20 groups are actually

Paul J Daly: 1:35

we need we need more OEM representation next year. If you are an OEM or if you are close with an OEM relationship, drop the seed right now and be like next year, you need to be here. We want to get their voice in the conversation. We have very limited that right? Obviously, we're kind of like, a frontlines up. Media Company. Right. So we spent a lot of time there. Next year, we're gonna get to OEMs. You know what? I want to get some of the new entrants there too. Like, we need to get Scout there. We need to I mean, Scout is going to release a lot this year. So depending on what they released and how we'll see how maybe we'll try to get Ernie Garcia this year. 2025. That could be good. Yeah. Especially if they continue to rebound. The problem is yeah, like, we just gotta wait. And it could you never know.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:21

So much respect for the entrepreneurial nature of Oh, my daughter's back the Miracle Mile that we had a conversation yesterday, it was like i The person was like, I don't know how they could service that debt. But they figured it out. You know, they sure did. They just figured it out. They sure did. And you got to give some kudos to their training. We

Paul J Daly: 2:39

didn't cover the story. It's not I don't know why but their trend, they converted one of the ADESA auctions, they bought into their like in house reconditioning. Like it's only reconditioning Carvana cars and processing. All right, that's not one of the stories for today, though. That's not what I was doing this first one so we can get to the second. The average age of vehicles in the US has climbed to a record all time record of 12.6 years, with the total number of vehicles in operation increased to 286 million as of January 2024. So basically, it's up by two months from the previous year. Continuing what is a seven year trend vehicles lasting longer staying on the road only 8 million vehicles are one to five years old in January, down from 90 point 3 million in 2023. There are 110 million vehicles in the prime aftermarket service range which is six to 14 years. When the stuff breaks and the people are willing to fix it. factors driving the increase include better vehicle quiet quality, high prices of new vehicles COVID-19 impacts and hesitancy to buy EVs is listed in there as well Tom Campo of s&p Global Mobility noted the main driver of this is the pen was the pandemic and supply chain issues.

Kyle Mountsier: 3:51

Yeah, we kind of knew this was coming you're just going to have more cars on the road because you have sidelined buyers due to affordability supply chain pandemic accessibility to purchasing. So we knew this was coming, but it's still actually just researched. I knew we're covering the story. Listen to this, according to a 2020 report from assurance 2022 report from Assurant. So that's a couple years old, the average age of a phone is three and a half years, the average the average age of an iPhone is 3.51. The average age of an Android is 3.62. So there are some that are less. So when you look at 286 million vehicles in operation currently, the opportunity here is to work on as an industry our trade cycle management, own trade cycle management, get people have you know, like think about this. Right now. What's so you got a 12.6 year, right? A 286 divided by 12.6 I'm just doing quick math, right? People, you know like your maxar is 22 million we have Sorry, about 27 million or 17 million typically, right? If you want to get two more vehicles sold, you reduce the years that they're on the road that they're on the road and all the sudden you eat up more of that 286 million cars on the road.

Paul J Daly: 5:19

It's funny that you bring this up, because we talked about Ernie Garcia. already. Yes. When that was his automotive news. He's like, Listen, if we make a car, a used car, particularly easier to buy more enjoyable by people will do it more often, they won't avoid it. Right? Because it's fix it buy a new one. Like there is a thing like people avoid it. He's like, we can kind of control the size of our own market. If we speed up just the trade cycle just a little bit, we can actually increase the entire market. I was like it. I watched the whole room of car dealers, it was that the auto news retail forum, I watched everybody be like, because he was approaching it like a startup founder and not like a car guy. And

Kyle Mountsier: 5:59

I always I always argue I'm like, you know, you got the you've got these dealers with 5070 100,000 Records in their DMS. Yeah. Right? Like, why do you ever have to go acquire a new customer every single year? If your goal is to sell two or 300 or 800 a month doesn't matter if you have 100,000 people in your DMS if you just increase slightly, yeah, the retention rate or the trade cycle management, like you're set. I know. Well, that takes an opportunity for

Paul J Daly: 6:30

our industry, man. The hard part is the is the allure of just increasing the ad budget. That's a that's a lever you can pull with some dollars and the other one just takes a long term strategic execution but the dealers you know that are doing it. I'm doing it well. Oh, boy, speaking of not doing it. Well, segue. Right we got it. We got a video to show you. Because Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown's new ad is targeting Republican challenger and car dealer Bernie Moreno. Basically, he uses his past as a car dealer to be the reason you wouldn't vote for him. Sparking backlash from a lot of auto dealers who support Marino's campaign and backlash of these two guys right here. And the few 1000 people we have behind us that understand the truth of the industry. Let's watch the ad and then we'll break it down. Right now. Hi, I'm Bernie Moreno as

Unknown: 7:25

a car salesman, Bernie Moreno would say anything to sell a car. We offer excellent sales guarantees 52 car washes a year as an amazing vehicle. Well, that isn't believable. And now that he's running for Senate, Bernie Moreno hasn't changed. Not one bit. You couldn't trust him as a car dealer is really cool carwash, kid. So why would you trust Him as your senator nobody else can offer you learn more and truth about moreno.com? I'm sure Brown and I approve this message here guys. Okay, so listen.

Paul J Daly: 7:57

When I heard this story, oh, what do you want the leather Paul? The carwash kids couldn't possibly be cool. Nobody

Kyle Mountsier: 8:03

wants 52 free car washes a year.

Paul J Daly: 8:06

I was so I was like girding my loins when I was about to watch the commercial because I didn't know anything about their advertising. And I was expecting to see like cowboy hats, like kicking doors in and I was like, first of all, I'm so happy. These are like really good ads anyway. They're well shot. He's saying things that are like broken, you know, like, and okay, so basically, he's making the claim that because he's a car because he's a car dealer. Therefore, that's it. We learned about this in logic class because he's a car dealer, therefore, he cannot be trusted. Therefore, all car dealers are untrustworthy. You know, it's just very insulting Tim Glockner of Glockner Chevrolet was said his comments are a slap in the face to so many hard working Ohioans in the auto sales industry. You know, and we can we can talk about it some more, but I did have to go look, I was like, let me go look at the trusted professions and ethics data. And, and Mr. Brown Sherrod Brown. He's a career politician. Right. Like that's that's what he's done in his career. And they're like, way less trusted than car dealers. Which is I think so ironic.

Kyle Mountsier: 9:18

So interesting. Yeah. I mean, you know, I'm what I'm interested in and and I you know, I can't We can't go look back and look because I think he like recently sold it back in 2020 to I think I saw sold the last store so I'm not sure like, what the history of you know, like, how did the reviews and how was the profitability? I guarantee you if that was I said it was pretty strong.

Paul J Daly: 9:47

I guarantee you if it was an issue that the the opposing political campaign would have used that but the best they could come up with it like this carwash kits really awesome. Oh my gosh, what?

Kyle Mountsier: 9:58

Oh, he's got to be Bentley

Paul J Daly: 10:00

in the background talking about how great the leather is the leather is not great. I mean, you know, this is a super sore spot for us. We would love to get Bernie Marino on the show. So if you know Him or know somebody who knows him, please reach out to him and point him in this direction. Because we would love and I really wish we had time to do this shoot a more than cars episode in Ohio. Right? But however, this is exactly the thing the reason one of the reasons that preemptively we create created the more than cars Docu series, you can go to more than cars.tv watch any of the episodes. And this is the truth that we know about the industry. And this is also I think one of the truths that can move auto industry up the ethics

Kyle Mountsier: 10:42

like we're gonna move up Yeah, I mean it's it's literally our core passion, we got a text this morning from tagged Pooja, I was like this is at the center of what also do is all about is rewriting the cultural perception of auto and why the vast majority, the vast majority of dealers do not operate in a way that is unbecoming of the culture. And, and that story just has to be told. And that story has to be righted and put right in in consumers minds, because we ask the question all the time, all the time, Paul, we go to these man on the street. And the reason we asked How was your last vehicle purchase? Did you enjoy it? How was it buying a car? And the overwhelming majority is? Oh, yeah, I loved it. I would do it again. I loved doing what we're like, what was the favorite? What was your favorite part? And they like eight out of 10 times, say the salesperson or salesperson and salesperson, you can immediately ask them a question. What do you think about car dealers, and they revert their their opinion and our feeling and so it's not a personal interaction issue. It's a cultural, like stigma that needs to be erased. Nathan, our

Paul J Daly: 11:48

producer just put in a note here to give a little background. Marino's distinguished career as a car dealer owner began in Cleveland oh five with the purchase of one small underperforming Mercedes dealership on the west side in just one year. The dealership earned the coveted Best of the Best award for Mercedes and went on to win it for the next 10 consecutive years. Something no other Mercedes dealer has accomplished even still to this date. He went from a single dealership to impressive collection of luxury dealerships across several states, and would become the largest luxury volume dealer in the Midwest. So take that. Wow. So this is a conversation we want to continue and Zig like you said Kyle is literally literally why we do what we do. All right speaking, understanding why you do what you do in

Kyle Mountsier: 12:33

a big way? No, we've had a lot of contrarian conversations about this particular topic. And contrary to popular belief, a new study shows that Gen Z workers may have many of the same aspirations and values as their older colleagues focusing on decent salaries, meaningful work and work life balance. A study by Sarah MT found that Gen Z workers value work life balance and flexibility with a desire to be listen to this in the office for the social interaction and learning. But we have it every day. Only 11% of Gen Z want to work remotely full time compared to 34% of older work that they're probably talking about as millennials. You know, I'm saying financial stability is obviously important across the generations with 51% of Gen Z, desiring that and 40% 47% of older workers prioritizing salary related sense with their with their careers. And and they also want they and they desire leadership, they want strong relationships with leadership. The John vz, debtors of Paramount noted, Gen Z is not different from other generations. We're just the newest one.

Paul J Daly: 13:50

I've said this many times. I mean, I have I have Gen Z kids, all this being 17 about to turn 18 and August. And I he and his friends and my daughter's 15 and 12 year old so three Gen Zers 12 year old is not alpha right there. She's Gen Z barely. There is I feel a lot more similarities to the Gen Z, the Gen Z demographic just in the way they approach things. And I know you and I are just a little slightly different. Kyle you and I like as far as like, how we came up. But there is this desire to like be in the mix be in the grind, right? It's not. It's not the stigma. They say that COVID In this article, it says that COVID actually hurt them quite a bit because they wanted to be out now this over desire to like be around people like that's, honestly that's what it's like when you just get started, right? Like I want to be in there. I want to be in the mix. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 14:47

exactly. Like, you know, you look back and a lot of Gen Zers. Were coming through college and coming through like the entry into the workplace for the last five years because I think Gen Z goes up to like 26 or 27 Now What is the number is the HA,

Paul J Daly: 15:02

I guess? Gen Z is almost 30 MG is

Kyle Mountsier: 15:05

in the workplace, right? And so you look at that and like they came through a time where they just didn't get the interpersonal interaction so they didn't get the care and leadership of mentorship in person so much. We see this this is hard for us, like our organization is completely remote all except for like, two people are together. And I like it, you know, there are special things about it, because there's a different pace and a different ability and different time zones that we can work in as an organization. But it's also difficult, because we don't get that like rubbing shoulders interaction on a day to day basis. And so, you know, I think I think that just points to like these, this, this crew is ready to go and so don't like, I think we're gonna I'm gonna say this probably till I till I die is don't discount the next generation. We've seen over and over and over the narrative being discounting the next generation and the next generation constantly having to fight back against that narrative. What if we can move the script and encourage the next generation into success

Paul J Daly: 16:10

snaps on that? snaps on that old man Gen Z is going to crush the auto industry. We know we hung out with some of them at Northwood students were crashing into your crush. Listen, go out there and prove everybody and the stigma wrong

‍