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Welcome to Daily Drive. For Monday, April 6,
00:21
2026, I'm Kellyn Walker in Las Vegas. Today on the show,
00:25
three Democratic senators push Trump to keep Chinese automakers out of the U.S.
00:31
Nick Saban's dealership group expands in South Florida,
00:34
and Jeep's simplified Grand Wagoneer strategy is working. Plus,
00:39
Alliance for Automotive Innovation CEO, John Bozella,
00:43
says it's time to get rid of the federal gas tax.
00:46
What would that say to customers? They'd be thrilled if we took the gas tax away,
00:50
and what we could do is replace the gas tax with a fee-based system like a user fee or an access fee.
00:57
Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.
01:02
Three Democratic senators are pushing President Trump to keep Chinese automakers out of the U.S.
01:08
market entirely. Senators Tammy Baldwin, Alyssa Slotkin, and Chuck Schumer say letting Chinese
01:14
manufacturers set up shop here would give them an insurmountable advantage over American automakers
01:20
and create national security risk. It's a response to Trump's comments back in January
01:25
when he told the Detroit Economic Club he'd welcome Chinese factories if they create American jobs.
01:32
The letter comes ahead of Trump's planned summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in May.
01:38
Dream Motor Group, which is partially owned by former Alabama football coach Nick Saban,
01:44
just picked up two dealerships in South Florida. The group bought a Nissan and Mitsubishi store
01:49
from Bill Seidel's automotive group in a deal that closed April 1st. It's Dream Motor's first
01:56
time selling those brands. Saban owns the group with his business partners Joe Agresti and Steve
02:02
Cannon. And Jeep's revamped Grand Wagoneer strategy seems to be paying off so far. The brand dropped
02:09
the confusing Wagoneer nameplate, lowered the Grand Wagoneer's starting price to about $66,000
02:15
and slash configurations from $64,000 to just $9,000. First quarter sales soared
02:21
more than six-fold to more than $14,000 already surpassing the Grand Wagoneer's best full-year
02:28
performance. Joining me now to talk more about this story is our own Vince Bonjr, who covers
02:33
Stellantis and its many brands for us at Automotive News. Vince, welcome back to Daily Drive.
02:38
Thank you. So Vince, this is a pretty dramatic turnaround. What was going wrong with the original
02:43
Wagoneer strategy that Jeep had to make such a big change? Well, the big thing was there was a lot
02:50
of complexity in the lineup. And so you had the Wagoneer, you had the Grand Wagoneer. And some
02:56
consumers were actually confused that the Grand Wagoneer is, they thought it was bigger than the
03:02
Wagoneer, but that's not the case. They each have a regular version and they also have a long
03:09
wheelbase. And so there was a longer Grand Wagoneer L and Wagoneer L. And so beyond that,
03:17
consumers was really confused about that. They also had their, the trim lineups was also hard
03:24
to understand for some folks as well. So they had the series one, two, and three for each model.
03:31
And then on top of that, dealers didn't know how to explain it. They were, I spoke to one dealer
03:37
who had to use Czech GPT just to figure out how to figure out what features were in each trim.
03:44
So there was some confusion around that as well. And so, yeah, they had to really, they had the
03:49
streamline that cut down those configurations. And as you saw in the first quarter, you're seeing
03:55
some major growth in that nameplate. Well, the new pricing strategy is interesting, starting at about
04:02
$66,000 puts the Grand Wagoneer right where the regular Wagoneer used to be. Now, how is Jeep
04:08
positioning this now against competitors like the Cadillac Escalade? Yeah, so the thing is what
04:14
they did is that, and so obviously the Grand Wagoneer now starts as you mentioned in the mid-60s
04:19
where the Wagoneer was. And so this Grand Wagoneer is not exactly as, I guess, as upscale as the
04:27
previous base Grand Wagoneer. And so they had to remove some features to get it down to that,
04:32
that level. But at the same time, they also have, they still have the upper level Grand
04:36
Wagoneers that can compete directly with Escalade that start around, you know, around $90,000 if
04:42
you want all the massage seats and the passenger display, infotainment screen and all that kind
04:47
of stuff. And so they have the upper Grand Wagoneer still. They just have to expand the reach of it
04:53
and they brought it down to, you know, the old range of the Wagoneer too.
04:58
Gotcha. Good stuff. Vince, thank you so much for joining me. Yeah, no problem.
05:02
Coming up, John Bozella of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation talks about how
05:06
surging gas prices are affecting EV demand and the industry strategy going forward.
05:12
That's next on Daily Drive.
05:16
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05:27
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05:50
Running a dealership today isn't just about finding the right cars.
05:53
It's about finding the right cars consistently, efficiently, and at the right price
05:59
while the market keeps shifting around you. Inventory management has become more complex.
06:04
Vehicles come from more sources, margins are tighter, and every buying decision carries
06:09
more risk than it used to. Yet too often, inventory decisions are still made with
06:14
fragmented data, disconnected tools, and limited visibility into what's actually working.
06:19
The most successful dealerships are approaching inventory differently.
06:23
They're managing it as a system, not a series of one-off decisions.
06:27
They're looking at market data, demand signals, pricing, and acquisition opportunities together,
06:32
so every move is more informed and more intentional.
06:36
When inventory is managed end-to-end, teams spend less time reacting and more time acting.
06:42
They can see what's selling, what's stalling, and where the next opportunity is coming from.
06:46
That clarity helps reduce aging, improve turn, and protect profitability.
06:52
The right vehicles are out there. The difference is having a smarter, more connected way to find
06:56
them, price them, and move them. Learn how dealerships are rethinking inventory management
07:01
with the Auto, and what a more confident, data-driven approach can do for your business.
07:08
Welcome back to Daily Drive. I'm Kellan Walker.
07:12
Gas prices have surged past $4 a gallon in recent weeks, driven by the Iran war and disruptions to
07:18
oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. And that's reshaping the conversation around
07:23
electric vehicles and the auto industry's electrification strategy.
07:28
At the JD Power Forum in New York last week, our own Molly Boygon spoke with John Bozella,
07:34
CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. They talked about how the spike in gas prices
07:39
is affecting consumer behavior, and what it means for EV demand, and the Alliance's push
07:44
to get rid of the federal gas tax. John Bozella with the Alliance for Automotive
07:48
Innovation, thanks so much for joining us. Happy to be here.
07:50
So you had some really interesting things to say on stage at the JD Power Auto Forum here
07:55
in New York City. One of the interesting things that came up was how the gas prices increase
08:03
because of the Iran war is impacting the auto industry and in particular impacting
08:08
a sort of buzz for EVs. So how are you thinking about the impact of the Iran war on the auto
08:14
industry? So clearly what we've seen in addition to other challenges and disruptions,
08:20
broader economic impacts, impacts to supply chains is this dramatic increase in gas prices.
08:28
And it's been like, I mean, I've seen at least in my experience, gas prices go up over a dollar
08:35
just in the last three weeks. So there's no question everybody's seeing it. So what is happening?
08:41
Well, we are starting to see signs that customers are looking at more fuel efficient models. Now,
08:46
this has been true for quite some time with regard to hybrids. So we've seen a long time
08:51
run up in hybrids, but we're also seeing a little bit of interest in dealer lots for EVs as well.
08:59
What the data tells us is once customers perceive that that gas price increase is lasting,
09:06
that usually drives a shift in behavior either to more fuel efficient vehicles or to smaller
09:12
vehicles that would be more fuel efficient than a larger vehicle. And what about the other impacts
09:18
on manufacturing? Oil prices impact so many parts of the auto industry. We've been covering that
09:23
even just beyond the actual fuel for manufacturing into plastics, chemicals.
09:29
What are you hearing from automakers about that burden?
09:32
Yeah. So we're starting to hear that there are some other stresses in the system related to
09:38
other components and commodities. And so we're going to have to continue to watch that.
09:42
One thing I would say, by the way, back on the question of the price at the pump,
09:48
that policymakers ought to pay attention to is we're in the middle, in Washington,
09:52
we're in the middle of reauthorizing a five year surface transportation bill. Every five years,
09:59
like the locusts, every five years, Congress does reauthorize this funding for highways. And highway
10:05
funding has been reliant on the gas tax. You know what we could do? We could right now repeal the
10:11
gas tax. Right now, what would that say to customers? They'd be thrilled if we took the gas
10:16
tax away. And what we could do is replace the gas tax with a fee based system, like a user fee or
10:23
an access fee. And that would actually increase highway funding, reduce burdens on customers,
10:31
and be a fairer way to fund our surface transportation needs. And I really hope
10:37
policymakers look at this moment and decide now's the time to do that.
10:41
When you talk about user based fees, are you thinking of tolls?
10:45
No, I'm thinking about a registration fee. So no one's going to pay attention to how far you
10:50
drive or where you drive. Nobody's going to be, there's no nanny state, nobody's going to be looking
10:54
into your dashboard to try and figure out where you're going or how far you've gone. It's a pure
11:00
annual registration fee type of idea. We don't, we have them at the state level,
11:05
but we don't have it at the federal level. And so it's a clean, easy way to do it. And you do it
11:12
for every mode of transportation and you base it on weight, the lighter the vehicle, the less
11:16
you pay, the heavier the vehicle, the more you pay. I want to come back to that. But just before
11:19
we turn away from oil, gas, electric vehicles, hybrids, you were saying on stage at the auto
11:26
forum that you feel that right now there's been sort of a lot of movement between extremes.
11:32
And that you're hoping for more middle ground on policy encouraging,
11:37
alternative power trains, electric vehicles. Can you talk a little bit about what that middle
11:41
ground would look like? Yes. So here's what I mean by middle ground. Let's take emissions and fuel
11:47
economy. Here's what a middle ground looks like. It looks technically feasible. It looks responsive
11:54
to consumer needs. And it looks like continued progress. Those are the three key principles.
12:01
Right? If you're focused on those three principles, focused on the customer and providing customer
12:05
choice, focused on continued investments in technologies, but technologies that we know
12:11
how to build in that are feasible, and we're focused on continued improvement, we're going to
12:16
get it right every single time. And the most important thing about that, in addition to
12:21
serving the customer well, is it provides the manufacturer with certainty and predictability.
12:27
And when you talk about the technical feasibility purpose, I sort of think,
12:34
does that include a bit of a stretch? Is the government still supposed to be challenging
12:38
the manufacturers? Yes, of course. And that's what I mean by continued improvement.
12:43
You have to expect that year over year we're going to continue to reduce emissions and we're
12:48
going to continue to improve fuel economy and we're going to continue to improve safety.
12:51
What you want to do that is with a balanced approach to technology, right? Not a guess on
12:59
what technology might be in the future, but understanding where manufacturers are and where
13:04
they're heading and a little bit of stretch to make sure that we're making progress.
13:08
I want to turn to the affordability question because I think, I wonder about if there was the
13:14
imposition of a registration fee at the federal level, if that wouldn't sort of hurt the consumer's
13:20
perception of vehicle affordability, or if it's your understanding that consumers would
13:24
basically understand that was coming from the government rather than the manufacturer,
13:27
but it still sort of leaves open this idea of the overall price of the vehicle to the consumer.
13:33
So I guess generally, how are you thinking about addressing affordability and then how
13:37
does it fit in with your idea about the registration? Great question. So first,
13:40
the overall question on affordability. Affordability has always been important to
13:45
manufacturers, and I would argue important to dealers as well. We absolutely have to provide
13:50
customers with what they need and want at prices they can afford. By the way, we do that. On the
13:56
floor of the auto show tomorrow, you're going to be able to walk across the floor and see
14:01
products available in the low $20,000 to products available in six figures. We do that today.
14:10
Part of what's happening with affordability is American consumers are purchasing sort of a
14:15
richer, higher level mix of vehicles, but that doesn't mean that there aren't affordable vehicles
14:20
available. I hear this all the time. The average transaction price, average transaction price
14:26
is around $50,000. That's probably true, but 70% of Americans buy cars at a lower price point than
14:34
that. So in other words, the median price is lower, and that means that there's lots of choices out
14:41
there. So what do we have to do? We have to continue to focus on cost as manufacturers. We
14:45
have to continue to focus on having a balanced policy environment, making sure that we don't
14:52
have an excessive tariffs, making sure that we have alignment with regard to what the regulations
14:56
are that creates certainty and an opportunity for manufacturers to continue to invest,
15:01
and we have to make sure that we're responsive to what the customers need and want. So I think
15:06
if we're doing those things, we will continue to address affordability concerns, and we have to.
15:13
Now, to your question about, gee, does a registration fee, you know, customers are going
15:17
to say, shoot, you're increasing the overall cost of ownership. I'm repealing the gas tax.
15:24
And if you look at what's happening with gas prices now, gas prices are increasing so dramatically
15:29
that there are a larger percentage of total cost of ownership than they've ever been.
15:34
And so the fee would reduce that burden, right? And so, and also fully fund the roads, which,
15:42
you know, having lived in Michigan and a part of it, like, you know, like, you know, fix the
15:46
darn roads, right? Like, so, so let's do both. Looking ahead to this year, 2026, and, you know,
15:53
midterms are coming up, lots of action in Congress. I'm wondering about what policy
15:58
decisions you are looking ahead to. And as sort of a part B of that question, I would ask you,
16:03
how has your interactions with the administration changed? Do you feel that the administration
16:07
is getting more or less receptive, more or less available? What is that interplay looking like
16:13
at this point? Yeah, great. So, so first, first thing first, okay, what's on the policy landscape?
16:18
I mentioned this highway funding bill. Part of that bill is a what's called a safety title.
16:25
So there's going to be a massive amount of policymaking around how to create a more
16:31
competitive and more effective national highway traffic safety administration,
16:37
remodeling the new car assessment program. All of that will create a new opportunity
16:43
for safety policy. And I think that's critically important. So we're going to be focused
16:48
on safety and getting that safety title over the line in a way that creates more safe outcomes,
16:54
even than we have today. So, so that's, that's, that's a big piece of it. I think there's a lot
17:00
of discussion in the policy space around this China question. China is not only a geo strategic
17:07
challenge for the United States, but it's also a national security challenge. So we're going to
17:12
continue to see policy on China and in the national security space. Now to your last question about
17:17
how we're doing with the administration, I will say this, I am highly confident that the Trump
17:25
administration understands the critical importance of the auto industry in the US, not only to
17:30
our economy, but to our national security. And so I think we have started and continue to be in a
17:36
good place. He recognizes how important this industry is, how important it the men and women
17:42
who work across the country in this industry are. And so, so that's always a foundational
17:50
place that we start. Alliance for Automotive Innovation CEO, John Bozella, spoke with our
17:56
own Molly Boygon at the JD Power Forum in New York City. That's Daily Drive for today. I'm
18:02
Kellan Walker. Thanks to Automotive News executive producer Jake Nier, as well as our own Vince
18:07
Von Jr. and Gail Howe for their reporting for today's podcast. You can get the latest news on
18:12
electric vehicles, gas prices, and everything happening in the auto industry at AutoNews.com.
18:19
Come back tomorrow for a conversation with Randy Parker, CEO of Hyundai Motor North America.
18:24
If you just take a really good look at what that body-on-frame SUV looks like,
18:28
I think it's going to give you a really good indication of what the future could be.
18:32
We'd love to hear from you. Let us know what you think of the show and the topics we cover today.
18:37
Send us an email at dailydrive at autonews.com or leave us a voicemail at 313-444-2774.
18:45
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