1970’s Toyota Wait Lists, Stability Of Retail Auto, Tesla Bumps Prices

The Automotive Troublemaker w/ Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

Throttle down with us this Tuesday as we talk about the benefits of “legacy” in our conversations about broad stability in Retail Auto as opposed to much of the popular workplace narratives.Steve Gates started selling Toyota’s in high school…over 50 years ago. He’s now the dealer principal of Gates Auto Family, a group of 11 rooftops in Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana that includes three Toyota stores. When the pandemic started he didn’t think there was any way they could survive with no ground stocThen he remembered selling Toyota’s with his dad in the 70’s, much the same way as today when a $25 deposit would reserve you a soon to be built Toyota

• After spending many years on the board, Gates is now the Chairman of the Toyota National Dealer Advisory Council
• "I would love to get younger dealers involved in dealer council because it is vital," Gates said. "We don't need guys that are 70 years old on dealer council — we need 30-year-old dealers. And so that's one of the things I hope to be able to do, is convince men and women to get involved in dealer council."
  
• Big tech layoffs continue as Google and Spotify enter the mix
  • Google, known for its profitability and current $100B cash reserve, high pay and lavish perks announced the layoffs of 12,000 people via a sudden and unexpected email on Friday. The largest in the company’s history
    • Yesterday the company with over 180k employees had an all-hands meeting where Executives and CEO Sundar Pichai responded empathetically but also offered counter arguments to employee comments including:
      • Two employees asked for ‘psychological safety’ to which the response was: "If you interpret psychological safety as removing all uncertainty, we can't do this," said Philipp Schindler, Google's chief business officer.”
      • One Googler questioned the accountability of the leadership "Responsibility without consequence seems like an empty platitude. Is leadership foregoing bonuses and pay raises this year? Will anyone be stepping down?"Pichai said Google executives would take a "very significant reduction in their annual bonus."
    • Spotify also announced an overall 6% reduction in its workforce as 600 of the companies 9000+ employees will be let go from across the company
      • Ambitious spending during the pandemic is cited by CEO Daniel Ek “Over the last few months we’ve made a considerable effort to rein-in costs, but it simply hasn’t been enough,”. “So while it is clear this path is the right one for Spotify, it doesn’t make it any easier.”
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• After a recent and significant price decrease of $13k just over a week ago, Tesla is now raising the price of its popular Modely Y Long Range
  • As of right now the price of the Model Y is $500 dollars higher than it was still allowing it to qualify for the federal tax incentive…unless you want red
  • Selecting the red multi-coat paint color or the most expensive 20” wheel package would put you over the incentive limit

Hosts: Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier
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