15 Headlines in 30 Minutes: Rapid Fire Automotive News For Shop Owners [RR 1091]
Remarkable Results Radio Podcast
15 Headlines in 30 Minutes: Rapid Fire Automotive News For Shop Owners [RR 1091]
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37:34
Topic
Luxury brands market share shift
They’re talking about how more people are buying luxury cars now than before COVID. They use Lexus as an example and compare the market share over time.
Concept
plateau on the technology of the gadgetry
They’re saying car tech and cool features may not be improving as fast as before. So an older car can still feel pretty similar to a brand-new one in terms of features.
Brand
Lexus
Lexus is Toyota’s luxury car brand. In this story, Lexus had a remote-warming feature that the government required them to shut off.
Brand
Toyota
Toyota is a major car brand (and Lexus is its luxury line). Here, Toyota is mentioned as also having a remote warming option that was later turned off.
Term
remote start
Remote start means you can start your car from your phone without getting in first. Here, it’s used to warm the car up before you leave.
Concept
remote software disablement
Some car features are controlled by software. In this story, the government required the feature to be turned off, and the company could do it remotely on lots of cars.
Term
CO2
CO2 is a gas that comes from burning fuel. The idea here is that limiting car heating that runs the engine helps reduce CO2.
Term
plug-in hybrid vehicles
A plug-in hybrid is a car that uses both gas and electricity. You can charge it like an EV, and when the battery runs low it switches to gas.
Company
Stellantis
Stellantis is a big car company that makes brands like Jeep and Chrysler. Here, they’re changing course on some plug-in hybrid plans.
Term
EV plans
“EV plans” means a car company’s plan for making and selling electric cars. The segment says those plans are being slowed because people aren’t buying them and government support is changing.
Term
subsidies
Subsidies are government money that helps make EVs cheaper. The host says when those incentives go away, fewer people buy EVs, which affects what car companies decide to build.
Concept
EV future not as brave as it once was
The host is saying the EV boom might not happen as quickly as people expected. If incentives disappear and sales don’t rise, companies slow down what they planned to do.
Car
Toyota Highlander
The Toyota Highlander is a family SUV that can usually seat up to seven people. It’s built for everyday driving and carrying passengers and cargo. The podcast mentions it because a newer-looking Highlander can be similar to a 2015 model, even if the price is much lower.
Concept
vintage vehicles
“Vintage vehicles” just means older cars that people collect and show. People like them because they’re from a different era and can be hard to find in good condition.
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
This is a special-looking version of a 1972 Chevrolet Camaro. The “split bumper” means the front bumper is split into two parts, and that kind of detail can make the car harder to find.
Concept
EV sales slowing
They’re saying fewer people are buying EVs right now than before. But the EVs that are already on the road will still need repairs and maintenance as they get older.
Concept
EVs reaching an age where components wear out
They’re saying EVs won’t stay “new” forever—over time, parts wear out like they do on any car. That’s when repair work tends to increase.
Concept
EV repair capability gap
They’re warning that there may not be enough mechanics who know how to work on EVs. As more EVs come in for service, shops could struggle to keep up unless staff gets trained.
Term
hybrids
Hybrids are cars that use both gas and electricity. They usually have a small battery and an electric motor along with a gas engine. Shops often need extra knowledge to work on the electric parts safely.
Term
ADAS
ADAS means “driver-assist tech.” It’s the stuff in newer cars that helps you drive—like lane-keeping or emergency braking. After certain repairs, the car may need re-aiming or re-calibration so the sensors work correctly.
Term
special calibrations
“Special calibrations” means adjusting the car’s safety sensors so they read correctly again. If a camera or sensor gets moved or replaced, the shop has to set it up properly. Otherwise, the driver-assist features may not work right.
Term
PEBs
PEBs is one of the acronym labels people use for certain types of electric or electrified vehicles. The point here is that there are a lot of different abbreviations, and it can get confusing. The transcript doesn’t spell out what PEBs stands for.
Term
VEBs
VEBs is another acronym used for certain kinds of electric or electrified vehicles. The hosts are saying there are so many abbreviations that it’s hard to keep up. In this clip, they don’t explain the meaning of VEBs.
Concept
gas engine was going to make the EV
The idea being mentioned is: instead of the gas engine directly moving the car, it would mostly act like a generator that makes electricity. Then the electric motor would do the driving. The transcript doesn’t name the exact technology, but it’s describing that kind of setup.
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Hey, welcome back.
Great partners, great sponsors for us.
We have Tom Ham with us.
Tom's from the Automotive Management Network.com.
Hey, Tom.
How you doing?
Tom, I'm great.
He also owns AutoCentric and import specialty shop
in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
I was actually watching the weather for Buffalo recently, Tom.
And I saw some incredible lightning and thunder
come across Grand Rapids.
I think it was yesterday, but Tom isn't there.
It's too cold up there this time of year.
Tom's an FLA guy.
And also another really cool thing
I really got to talk to you about,
and we've done episodes on the Labor Rate Tracker
and a great feature in AutomotiveManagementNetwork.com
is the exclusive Labor Rate Tracker
sort by the rates city-state shop type.
What an incredible piece of software
and information for many shop owners in a market.
Wow.
Yeah, that's one of our hottest features on the website.
I bet you.
Okay, so we've done this with Tom in the past
and we're going to do it again.
Look at this.
It's a special episode.
We're going to do 15 headlines in 30 minutes.
Rapid fire kind of stuff.
Me and Tom, and he actually was the guy
who found all these great headlines for us.
And it's going to be fun because I have him right in front of me.
And let's do number one.
Okay, here's number one.
AI will take a lot of jobs you can prepare.
I mean, Tom, before you even start discussing this,
I've read articles both ways on AI.
It's doom and gloom or it's incredible
and there's going to be a lot of opportunity.
How do you see it?
It sounds like there's going to be a little bit of both.
We're going to cover several stories here
that kind of go from that gamut,
that whole area that you talked about.
Some immediate things that we are noticing right now.
Block, which is the Jack Dorsey from Twitter,
he's cutting 40% of his workforce.
He had, I think, 10,000 people.
He's cutting 4,000 because what they did
is now going to be done with AI.
Meta is cutting 20%.
Amazon, 10%.
UPS is closing, I think, 90-some facilities.
Most of this is being attributed to AI
and the things that AI can do.
And this is kind of just the beginning of the shift
that's going to go on.
And the recommendation to everyone,
and this is virtually everyone.
I mean, everybody on the planet, you might say,
is to learn AI.
Don't be afraid of it.
Don't learn it.
It's not as scary as you think,
at least what I've seen so far.
Learn what to use it for, what not to use it for.
There's certain things I use it for, certain things I don't.
And then folks who are in AI-threatened jobs,
and there's a lot of them, tons of them,
really need to look at what other kind of occupation,
what kind of skill can they develop?
What do they enjoy doing that is not something
that is on the AI radar in the near future?
It can be anything.
But take a look, consider what those are.
Start taking the college classes or whatever,
or start doing the on-the-job training,
part-time job in these other areas,
and see if so you're prepared.
Because I think a lot of this is just going to come on suddenly.
People are just going to be noticing,
yeah, this company is going to be cutting 1,000 jobs,
and you're one of them.
And it's kind of like, we'll not see you Monday morning.
Thanks for bringing this up, Tom.
Do them in gloom.
I mean, people are losing their jobs,
and they're blaming it on AI.
I really feel for you.
But yet, I'm the kind of individual
who would probably say this, Tom,
I'm going to pick myself up by the bootstraps
and just go figure this thing out.
What else to your point?
Am I good at?
What else can I do?
And then they say that there's an awful lot of opportunity
that AI is going to create.
Listen, this is a shift, no doubt,
that we're going to have to learn to live with.
And I think this is not like the gas fluctuating
and all this other stuff that's going on
because of world crisis ease.
This is a technology burst, if you will,
that we'll have to learn to live with.
Yeah, I think culture is going to be a big challenge,
because like what you just referred to,
you think that way, I think that way.
A lot of people, I don't know,
over the age of whatever, 50 or 60 or whatever,
think that way.
The last couple generations,
they don't think that way so much.
I'll just adjust.
I'll just find a different way.
I'll just pick up bootstraps.
That wasn't part of the educational system,
so they're going like,
what are you talking about?
So that could be the challenge, but anyway.
Anyway, I know we exceeded our two-minute review
of this headline.
Yeah, you're going to have to prompt me on these.
No, we're going to go to the next one.
But this AI is hot, it's juicy, and I'm glad we...
Oh, we got more AI stories coming, so let's go.
Oh, I know that.
So here's our number two.
Amazon accelerates last mile delivery war
with a new one-hour option.
Oh, by the way, I think you have to pay for that, right?
Yeah, anywhere from five to 20 bucks,
depending on what your membership status is
and how fast you want it.
I think there's a one-hour option, a three-hour option.
There's prime and not prime.
But the point is, they're really putting AI
and other things to the test
and figuring out what they can do.
And that's going to...
It's on 2,000 towns and cities, 90,000 items.
So a toothpaste, probably, yeah,
a water pump for an Audi, probably not.
But still, that's going to come.
Eventually, we're going to...
I think the auto repair shops can look forward
to faster delivery times
because the auto parts vendors are going to be threatened
by this because Amazon...
It's not in those 90,000,
but they carry the same stuff that the parts stores do.
And they can get it to you awfully quick.
So I think deliveries are going to get immediate for everybody.
I'm looking forward to that.
You know, I find that this whole next day and one mile thing...
And I get this if you have an immediate need
and there's a crisis,
but this whole, how fast can life really go?
I will never plan ahead.
I will always rely on Amazon
to pick up my faults of not trying to plan ahead.
We're being trained, yes.
Very good.
Headline number three.
Are new cars becoming a luxury item in America?
And boy, do I have an opinion on that.
Yeah, this was from Fox Business.
You know, the average MSRP now is over 50,000.
The average sale price is slightly under that
for discounts and so on.
But, you know, cars are very expensive.
We're going to have a couple of stories on this in here
and that's something we'll talk about more in a later story,
but just some other points to make.
But here's an interesting one.
Luxury brands, you know, Lexus, for instance,
luxury brands are now 19% of the market.
Pre-COVID, they were 11% of the market.
So I find that amazing.
You know, up a couple of percentage points,
and it surprised me almost doubling,
really does surprise me and shock me
that the luxury brands are up that much.
A new car costs about 30 to 35% more
than a three-year-old car.
And one thing that's happening,
we're kind of hitting a plateau on the technology
of the gadgetry and cool stuff that's on the cars.
It's kind of plateauing out.
In other words, I even, you know,
a lot of us have like a 10-year-old car
and it's got a lot of the stuff that the brand new ones have now.
They started to max out with this stuff
and the car makers are running out of new shiny gadgets
to throw on the cars to amaze us.
It's kind of like, yeah, well, my five-year-old car
has all that.
What's the point?
I mean, this guy, Shane, your wheel covers.
I mean, I'm not getting why I should get the new car.
So that's coming into play there, too.
I have a friend, Tom, who does some work with dealerships
and I was chatting with him the other day.
They were talking to their sales team
and found out that in this particular group,
and I think it was in Florida, Tom,
$1,000 was the average walk-away price per month
for that vehicle at 84 months.
Yes, the car payments, and I think, again,
we'll hit that note story here, are up, too.
It is scary.
It is unbelievable to think.
And the only other thought, my, as you were telling me,
the part of this story was the word affordability.
Everybody's complaining about affordability,
but yet, look at where luxury cars share is.
And have we created more wealth of recent,
where people then just want to go out and spend it
on a piece of thing that's going to depreciate faster than man?
I think you have a good point there.
The affordability thing, and on one hand, I get it.
I posted something the other day that I'm not a candy addict.
My wife is.
So I went in the store the other day to buy something useful,
like bourbon, and she said, get me a candy bar.
So I don't know.
I grabbed a candy bar.
I didn't have the prices.
I don't know.
It's just a little Reese's two cup candy bar thing, okay?
What?
It's $2.50.
$2.50.
$2.50.
Now, I looked it up.
I was in shock.
But anyway, a little while later, I looked it up
because you remember things when I was younger.
You remember that?
You go out, people say your memories junk.
So I actually looked it up.
And a Hershey bar in 1968 was how much?
How much?
You guess.
It was $0.30.
$0.05.
Whoa.
In $0.68.
It went to $0.10 in 1969.
It was $0.05.
So that's a $0.05 to $2.50.
That's an increase of times 50.
If I did that for an oil change,
oil change was $10 in 1968.
That made an oil change today to be $500.
Anyway, that was just an example of the whole price thing.
The affordability thing, I think half of it is legitimate.
And I think the other half of it is their people's money
skills, even with Dave Ramsey, are worse today than they ever
have been.
The people are just clueless on handling money, on depreciation,
and interested.
They don't know how to do a budget.
So I think a lot of the affordability is,
I just pee away all my money.
There's no more.
It's amazing to hear you say that.
It hurts me to hear your comment on that.
All right.
Let's go to topic number four.
Government turns off car heaters.
Are you serious?
This looks like, well, this is a Babylon B, obviously,
but it's not.
And this is actually, this is Germany.
You know, the Germans over here.
Yeah, you're too warm.
We want you cold and unhappy in Germany.
But because of the pollution and the green emphasis and so on
and so forth, that Lexus has an option.
Toyota has an option on their cars, otherwise due to, but where,
you know, you're going to leave for work in 10 minutes and your
car's in the street because nobody has a garage over there.
So you hit the button on your app, on your smartphone and the
car warms up for 10 minutes.
Well, Germany talked to Lexus and said, yeah, y'all got to turn
that off, turn that off.
And Lexus had the ability to do that remotely on all the cars.
You know, there's over 100,000 cars in this case where people
went and they don't work anymore.
It's kind of like, yeah, we turned it off.
The government said we had to.
So obviously they had their reasons.
And I think it had to do with the CO2.
Yeah.
Wow.
The option, they have the option on ice cars and on EVs.
It still works on the EVs.
Oh, and there's no wasted energy there.
Right.
Works on the EVs, but they turned it off in the ice cars.
Oh my God.
Okay.
There's a cycle of genius right there.
Okay.
Number five, highest skilled trade technical demand jobs in
2026 automotive.
Wow.
Yeah.
I love this because they listed their top 20 hot jobs.
Monster did that.
They're predicting based on what they're seeing on their
website, et cetera, et cetera.
They divided it up into like four or five different categories.
And under the category skilled trades, there were three or four
in there.
The top one they listed first was auto mechanic as far as one
of the highest demand jobs.
So this kind of ties back into a story you mentioned earlier.
You know, what kind of skills can you develop?
I think there's going to be people coming in from other
industries that AI take care of.
And we're looking for jobs in automotive shops.
So I think that's good news as far as employment goes.
Thanks for bringing that up.
I do believe in the word career, not trades.
So it's a skilled career.
And you know, of course, in my language shift, I don't believe
in mechanic and or technician anymore.
I believe in, we have specialists that work on our great
vehicles.
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Number six, if you're freaking out about a future jobless
AI dystopia, oh my God.
Interesting video from Mark Andreessen who's in the tech
world is fairly well known.
There's a video you can find, YouTube or wherever else.
It's probably an hour or an hour and a half long,
something like that where he just talks about it and he
kind of sees it just the opposite of all the doom and gloom.
He says it's going to be one of the greatest thing that
happens in general is AI and he goes into details.
Why is it, you know, production is going to go way up,
technology is going to go up and because of that,
prices are going to go down, which means the economy is
going to go up, wealth is going to go up,
safety nets will be easier to finance and almost
everything is going to be better for everyone.
And also he says it's hitting at the perfect time because
a problem that you don't hear much discuss nowadays is
population growth in the developed countries,
for instance, United States, Japan, et cetera, et cetera.
Population is, I mean, is headed for extinction.
If you look at this, if you look at it statistically,
there's maybe, I think in Japan, it's something like
every couple is producing I think 1.2 children.
So they can show you on a graph where the population in
Japan is going to go to zero here as time goes on.
There's just nobody having babies anymore.
This ties back in with that where you get the robots
coming in doing certain other things and also ties in with
income going up or humans being in more demand.
There won't be as many jobs that demand humans,
but there won't be as many humans.
So the value of a human doing something that A.I.
can't do is going to go up and going to be of more value.
So anyway, that's kind of a rough sketch,
but that's what he's talking about.
And it's just a complete opposite of the doom and gloom.
I agree.
You're bringing up, when you say the opposite of doom and gloom,
there's always two sides to every story, Tom.
There really always is.
I appreciate how you're approaching this because I can be
very neutral on how it hurts and how it helps.
And you have to decide what side of the fence you want to be on.
Yeah.
Of course, a lot of that with people in general is just the
attitude that the old glass, half full, half empty type thing.
I mean, there is always, and what we were referring to,
the bootstrap thing a few minutes ago.
I mean, well, what's next?
I like the analogy of if you watch car racing at all,
NASCAR race, whatever, you know, you crash,
you spin out after things are going, you restart last.
Well, what are we going to do?
Well, we're going to go after the car ahead of us and we're
going to be second from last.
That's what we're going to do.
And we just keep doing that,
which can be fun.
It really can be fun and challenging and just good for us in a
lot of ways.
Well said.
Thank you.
I'm here with Tom Ham, 15 headlines in 30 minutes.
These are rapid fire topics that we're working with Tom on
number seven.
Stellantis scraps the Jeep Chrysler plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Interesting.
Yeah.
It's the whole Chrysler gang, Ford, Honda, everybody else,
everybody, they put together these fantastic EV plans over
the past few years.
And now they find out, yeah, it ain't working.
The governments are de-emphasizing them.
The people aren't buying them.
You know, they're not selling, the inventories are stacking up
and the ice vehicles are becoming more efficient.
And the climate scare, it turns out to be not as bad as we thought
it might be.
And just the $7,500 subsidies are gone.
You know, those are gone, I think last September or whatever.
So just the whole EV thing has really, the EV future is not as
brave as it once was.
So a lot of the EV stuff that was going to happen ain't going
to happen now.
Got it.
So, so interesting.
You know, I read the article, very interesting how they're all
looking at it.
Number eight, we are all paying for Big Tech's AI fire sale and
nobody's talking about it.
Yeah, this is probably the most serious story among our lineup
of the 15 stories here.
It's a difficult one to explain in just a minute or two.
But to overemphasize it, AI is being sold to us at a massively
discounted rate.
I think currently open AI is spending about $2.25 for every
dollar they're taking in.
AI is a massive loss leader at this point.
And at some point, they're going to have to recover that money
because they're taking in billions, if not trillions and investments
and at some point they got to pay them back.
So what's going to happen is the cheap AI is the prices in the
future at some point are going to skyrocket.
And when it does, that's going to change that whole thing.
You're going to say, I think maybe getting rid of all those people
wasn't the smartest thing I did.
Thank you for that scary piece.
Number nine, it's just crazy.
High car payments make ownership feel impossible.
This kind of tax onto that other thing, yeah.
Yeah, here we circle back to that.
The average car payment now $7.44 in 2021 is $5.88.
That's a huge increase in just five years.
20% of car payments now are over $1,000.
Total cost of car ownership from car payments to repairs,
everything else is up 40% in six years.
40%, that's amazing.
Average car age 13 years and still climbing.
Here's an interesting one, tariffs, the evil tariffs.
What tariffs have done, they have slowed new car purchases,
but they have increased car repairs at the car repair shop.
Tariffs have ultimately been good for car repair shops,
not as good for car sales.
And then it just what we referred to a minute ago,
the whole car payment thing, nobody can afford it.
There's a simple fix for that.
Don't get car payments.
It's something that I swear people are indoctrinated
that they need to do, but they're unnecessary.
They're not something one needs to do.
As a matter of fact, they're probably the biggest financial
drain negative that your typical family has is car payments.
Depreciation, interest and all that is just a massive,
massive drain on finances.
And you can hear people call in to, I can hear Ramsey telling them
that they'll call in, they'll tell their financial situation.
They can't afford a house.
They'll go, how much is your truck payment?
They'll say $800.
And that's why you can't afford a house.
Right, exactly.
You know, Tom, I look around when I'm out on the road.
We did a lot of traveling this particular past weekend.
We went to New York.
Tracy did a keynote down there at the TST Big Event.
And thank you so much to G Trulia for his great hospitality.
But I'm looking as we drove down the hardware that's on the road.
I'm thinking, wow, I've never seen a vehicle like that.
That is so new.
It's so slick.
Look at the lighting.
You know, look at the design.
And I'm thinking, how can people afford this?
And it's either we've got to keep up with the Joneses.
I want something brand new.
I am blown away.
Tom, I own both my cars.
I have no payments.
I feel like there's this level of, ooh, I can't tell you.
It's gooey.
It feels so good that I don't have to do that.
And you know what?
I guess I would love a brand new high tech slicker than anything vehicle.
But I think I have a level of practicality in me that says, don't be stupid.
Don't be crazy.
It's really cool for the first month.
And after that, you realize now is an expensive month.
Your brand new car doesn't look that different from my 2015 Toyota Highlander.
Except, you know, I only paid whatever 15 grand for it.
Especially today, as long as cars last so that I could go on for hours in this one.
But I've never spent more than $19,000 on a car in my life.
I spent more than NRVs, but not on a car.
That's a ridiculous waste of money.
What would people do?
I have not had a whole time of 30 some years since I last had a car payment.
None of my cars have been towed either.
So, but anyway, it's us.
Okay.
But you bring up such a great point.
We've done some great episodes on the 250,000 mile maintenance mindset that we as shop owners
can bring out to our clients and say, do you really want that
and show them some math as to what's the investment in keeping this vehicle going
and these miles right and what the manufacturer recommends we need to do
at all of these intervals of mileage and to show people how much money
they can have in their pockets by just investing in their current vehicle.
So, thank you.
I'm glad we brought that up now.
Number 10, auto repair and maintenance to reach an unbelievable 2.07 trillion by 2035.
That's nine years away.
And today it's just a fuzz over one trillion.
So it's going to double.
It's going to go up about 7% a year.
People say, yeah, is there going to be enough business for car repair shops?
Oh, yeah, there's going to be a lot of business.
Plus at the same time that you're going to happen, have car repair shop population decreasing.
So you're going to have more per shop.
So the future for a repair shop, it looks really good.
So anyway, thank you for that.
And so I guess my comment about that to my audience, our audience is, are you prepared to be growing at 7.5% and if you're not, then you're missing an opportunity.
And there's so much you can do inside your business, your culture, your leadership, your systems, your processes, your protocols to make a company that can get that business and maintain it.
Thank you for that.
Number 11, American values are under attack.
A county places four ways stop with a roundabout.
Now, Tom, I love roundabouts, by the way.
Now, this is one of our stories from the Contributor of the Babylon Bee.
And it just refers to Batesville, Indiana, where they replaced a four way stop.
The roundabout in the population is not happy with all this woke D I communist socialist road stuff.
They want to have the roads back the way God intended them like back in Rome with the first roads that intersect in Rome were four way stops.
You know, we know that from history.
And here we've gone, that's worked for 2000 years.
And now we're going with this communist crap of roundabouts.
The first week in that town, they had 32 accidents at the roundabout.
Okay.
Well, you and I are aligned on a lot of things, but in this one particular thing, I love roundabouts.
I don't know why we have one of the towns close by eight miles away.
They put in five roundabouts about five or six years ago.
And I remember waiting at red lights forever trying to get through this town just to go from one end to the other.
And now it's a flash.
I guess that's why I like them.
Obviously, this is where we're just doing the B story here, which is kind of humorous.
I know that it's so cool.
Okay.
So that's cool.
Thank you for bringing that up.
Number 12 tax season will bring record refunds.
Use them wisely.
Yeah, we're looking at average tax payers going to get about $1000 more this year.
Average tax filer will get about 1000 more.
Military is going to get about 1700 more this year due to some changes they made in the tax law and so on and so forth.
So bottom line is there's going to be a ton of money coming out there.
And repair shops should certainly be prepared to get a chunk of it.
You know, look for it.
It's going to be there.
You know, be ready to compete for it.
Be ready to take care of folks quickly and just tie that in.
Your tax refunds larger.
Save some of it for your car.
Your car would like a little bit of it, would like a piece of it.
So anyway, that's just plain great news for auto repair.
A lot of these stories are really great news for auto repair shops.
Yeah, they really are, Tom.
And take this information, get it to your service advisor.
And if you're a service advisor listening, it may not be bad to explain to your customer.
Listen, I know you've declined some work and I know the tax season is coming out
and I know you're going to realize some extra money.
Please remember this is really critical and important to this vehicle.
This jobs need to be done and maybe you can use your tax refunds for that.
So that's a great point.
I'm here with Tom Ham special episode 15 headlines in 30 minutes.
Boy, am I having a ton of fun.
Number 13.
This guy's solution for cleaning backup cameras with a push of a button is why
America is the greatest.
I left.
Okay.
This is from the other Babylon B website called not to be Babylon B is anyway,
you got to enjoy a couple of websites.
You want to smile?
Those are two websites.
Start with Babylon B and you also check not to be serious.
This is from not to be enough.
So this is not a joke.
This is serious.
And what's it called?
It's called the lens lizard.
I mean, what a great name in the first place.
You know, depending on where you are and where you drive and all these kind of things,
sometimes what happens is your rear backup camera gets covered with stuff,
mud and crud and all kinds of stuff.
And this thing, it's a license plate frame with a sprayer on it.
So you can change it in about three minutes.
All you got to do once you get it in there is just get it aimed assuming you have the
backup camera, which is over the license plate, which is most cars.
And then you just, just a button that you hit and it'll spray it off and it just cleans
it like new.
Great idea.
One of those, you know, Henry Ford type things that develop car a hundred years ago.
It's just one of those inventor stories of something that's really cool.
Anyway, that's a great thing.
Tom, thank you for that.
And I started to realize that I actually do have one of them.
And if you're watching a video, you can see it.
It's called my finger.
In the video where the guy sells them, he says, instead of stopping your car and getting
your finger and doing this, just hit the button inside your car.
And anyway, everybody can catch that lens lizard.
Lens lizard.
Interesting.
I don't know the guy I've never heard of, but if you want to clean your lens lizard,
go get it anyway.
I'm having a blast here with you on this.
This is great.
Thank you.
Number 14, students learn skills of restoring vintage cars in a one of a kind program in
a Kansas city college.
Yeah.
This is very cool.
There's I think 175 students enrolled in this program.
And when they say vintage cars, they mean vintage.
I mean, there's stuff in there from like 1905 all the way up to obviously classics in the
50s and 60s.
And the program is really dedicated towards this.
I don't know if you've noticed that classic cars have become a staggering industry after
going to auctions and so on and so forth and finding out that there are thousands and
I don't know how many thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people.
Apparently, you know, guys like you that are loaded that have a massive pole barn or series
of pole barns on their property packed with classic cars.
They're like their own private museums.
These things are tens of millions of dollars.
And it's just and then, of course, what they need, one thing they need, they need staff
to take care of all the cars.
So this is kind of an interesting industry.
This is more in your league though, Tom.
Yeah.
The house in Florida.
The anyway.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I try.
I get by.
I think this is an amazing story and to your point about the vintage vehicles.
I think Tom, when this whole disappearing ice thing started to happen, maybe four or
five years ago, I think people looked and I started to talk about my first vehicle that
I ever, ever had.
And every time I go to a car show, I look for this vehicle.
It is a split bumper Camaro from 72.
And you don't see many split bumpers with it with the nose peak on this Camaro.
You know, I looked it up as to what it would cost today.
I think it was like 50 grand or something like that.
The point is, we won't make them like that anymore.
They won't run like them anymore ever.
And I think holding on to this stuff is precious.
It's fun.
Yeah.
It's a fun family oriented hobby that if you've never been to a car auction, go to a
car auction sometime, one of the big meekum or whatever car auctions, buy a bidder's ticket
sit down on the floor and it'll be one of the coolest experiences you've ever seen.
But to teach young people who have that skill or that I want to repair, fix, I
want to be involved with something with my hands and teach them how to restore vintage
vehicles, they'll never hurt for a job in my opinion forever.
Oh, I agree.
Yeah, absolutely.
Wow.
Cool, cool, cool.
Finally, number 15, urgent training plea as EV sales on strip repair capabilities.
That's cool.
Yeah.
One thing that's happened here now, EV sales indeed are slowing.
That's true.
But keep in mind, they're still out there.
They're going to continue.
And also keep in mind, they've been out there for a few years now and they're going to start
to hit a point in time and age where they're going to break a lot.
There's a lot of things on those cars that are going to wear out and need attention.
And what's happened is the EV training is really thin.
Then EV trained technicians, specialists are few and far between.
At some point here, this thing's going to kind of peak where you have this massive number
of cars, EV cars coming in to need service with nobody to service them.
And it almost looks like we're already too far behind to catch up.
So it's coming, you know, getting your staff trained on EVs be a very profitable way to
go at this point and getting the infrastructure and getting things in place.
Absolutely.
A comment here, 20 years ago when people put up the hybrid sign was a brilliant, brilliant
move for them.
I think they started to realize that because they were doing the hybrids, they needed to
get into EVs.
So anyone who decided, it's kind of like this whole ADAS thing.
I don't want to get into this and listen, we've been to the Napa EV Ready training
center in Canton, Ohio.
It's a beautiful center.
They've got all the right stuff there from safety to whatever jacks they need to get
batteries out and to get inside and start playing with them.
And I do know that there are some great training companies around the US like Napa that really
continue to have and will continue to improve their EV training program.
And for any of us in this industry, talking about being specialists in ADAS, you know,
special calibrations, we need to commit to this.
It's not like it's a huge investment.
But if you can't put the shingle up there that says, we repair hybrids, EVs, and again,
one of the articles that I think you brought up that I read was all these damn acronyms
that describe what these vehicles are.
You remember that, Tom?
PEBs, VEBs, EVs.
It's getting so damn crazy is that, and who did I just recently?
Oh, God, Tom, remind me what I read about where someone was going to have this EV, but
the gas engine was going to make the EV.
It was, well, that sounded like a hybrid to me.
It's like, can't these manufacturers get this thing straight or right or at least simplify
things?
Anyway, that's just me being crazy thinking here.
One of the most amazing things with EV predicting for the future, and then sales are slowing
down.
We mentioned that earlier, and a story that we didn't use in there is Honda has taken
a right off of, I think, $15 billion right off.
It's Honda's first financial loss since the Lions were last in the one in NFE Championship
game, which if you're a football fan, that means 1957, almost 70 years ago since the
Lions won that game and almost 70 years since Honda had a negative profit year.
We didn't call that one up, and maybe we should have, and I think that's an illumination
part of why we in this industry need to pay attention to the over-global industry and
what's going on with it then.
Oh, there's so much going on, and that's obviously what I do as a hobby.
I try to keep track of this, and I do it on a worldwide basis.
Anything related to cars and transportation, that kind of thing, and it's fascinating
right now.
It is absolutely fascinating.
Just amazing, amazing stuff.
Tom Hamm, Automotive Management Network at AutoCentric Import Specialty Shop in Grand
Rapids, was here.
We did 15 headlines in 30 minutes.
We had a lot of fun doing it.
There were a lot of great talking points here, and also while you're hanging out on Automotive
Management Network.com, check out the Labor Rate Tracker, I think is the coolest thing
in the industry.
Tom, thank you for this.
It was fun and very enlightening.
Yeah, thanks.
Great time.
About this episode
Rapid-fire headlines for shop owners move from AI-driven workforce disruption to parts logistics, pricing, and regulation. Hosts discuss Amazon’s one-hour delivery rollout and how faster parts could change repair workflows, then pivot to new-car affordability, luxury market share, and higher total cost of ownership. They also cover remote vehicle heating rules, EV/ADAS training gaps, and why EV repair demand may peak without enough technicians. Between stories, they promote Napa AutoCare Gold and Napa Tracks shop management tools.
Original notes
Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS
Watch Full Video Episode
The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/
...
In this fast-paced episode, shop owner and founder of the Automotive Management Network, Tom Ham, breaks down 15 major industry headlines in just 30 minutes, offering insight into the rapid changes reshaping automotive service, technology, and consumer behavior. From artificial intelligence and electric vehicles to rising car ownership costs and the exploding demand for automotive repair, this conversation connects today’s news with what it means for shop owners, technicians, and the future of the industry. Along the way, Ham also shares several quirky and entertaining stories making waves across the automotive world.
What You’ll Learn
- Why major tech companies are investing heavily in AI and what that could mean for jobs, pricing, and the future workforce
- How rising vehicle prices and soaring monthly payments are changing consumer behavior
- Why maintaining and repairing existing vehicles is becoming a smarter financial decision for drivers
- How the average age of vehicles on the road is creating unprecedented growth opportunities for auto repair shops
- Why automotive specialists and skilled trades are becoming some of the most valuable careers in the economy
- What slowing EV sales mean for automakers and the growing demand for EV-trained technicians
- How repair shops can benefit from changing economic trends, including larger tax refunds and deferred maintenance
- Fun and unusual industry stories, including remote-controlled vehicle heaters, backup camera cleaning devices, and vintage vehicle restoration programs
The automotive industry is entering one of the most profitable and transformative periods in its history. While technology, AI, and shifting consumer habits continue to disrupt traditional industries, the need for skilled automotive professionals is only increasing. As vehicles stay on the road longer and repair demand rises, shops that adapt, invest in training, and embrace emerging opportunities will be positioned for long-term success.
Tom Ham, Automotive Management Network. Tom’s previous episodes HERE.
Running a shop is a never-ending cycle of preventing problems and looking for solutions. Automotive Management Network is a 15,000+ member Website full of high-value documents, resources, and tips. Being a member gives you quick access to all the information you need to run a smooth, profitable shop.
https://www.automotivemanagementnetwork.com/
https://laborratetracker.com/
Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Connect with the Podcast:- Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/
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