OTD means the full price you pay to buy a car, including the car itself plus all extra fees and taxes. It's the real total cost before you can take the car home.
The Jeep Compass is a smaller SUV that is easier to afford and good for both city driving and some off-road adventures. People talk about it because it gives you a chance to own a Jeep without spending too much.
The V8 Hemi engine is a strong engine with eight cylinders shaped in a way that helps it make a lot of power. It's used in some trucks and cars to make them go faster and pull heavy loads.
You don't want to buy their stuff to the tune of 23% decline year over year.
Well, if you've oversupplied your dealers for years and years and years and you
under-incentivized the sale of those oversupplied vehicles for your dealers,
then that's a recipe for disaster. So if at some point you have to make a correction,
well then the correction becomes we're going to produce fewer vehicles
because we need to cut inventory supplies. And that's what they've done. And one time
North America was their shining star as far as profits were. And today it's far from that.
I believe it's South America that produces more profits for Solantis than anywhere else at the
moment. So yeah, there were some incredibly poor decisions that were made, bad bets that were
made, and now they're suffering because of it. Now that's not to say they can't recover.
No, and there are some signs of hope. That's the other interesting thing here.
Shipments in the fourth quarter actually went up significantly, but they were replacing those
Ram 1500s with the V8 Hemi option. And so we've seen this resurgence of we're going to go back
to the basics, and it seems to be working to a degree already. And that's the positive sign.
Well, yeah, and their projection for 2026 is that there will be an increase of upwards of 100,000
vehicles produced with the Hemi engines that people wanted as opposed to the power trains that
they did not want. So a lot of this just comes back to EV playbooks. Like in another stone in
the chat, I'm very curious, would you be buying a 4xE or would you be buying the V8 Hemi? And I
think all of the data we see and the people we talk, it points to the V8 Hemi. That's what more
people want. This is a classic example of thinking that if you build it, they will buy it as opposed
to asking your customers what it is that you want. And what the customers overwhelmingly said,
at least in North America. In North America, yeah. But it came to the 4xEs and all that stuff,
they weren't in on that. You know, what people liked about the Stalantis products,
whether it had been the Ram pickup trucks or the Jeeps, whatever it was, they said,
we want it with the big ass engines. Okay, that's what they said. That's what people wanted. That's
why people gravitated towards those brands, dodge chargers and stuff. Why? Because people wanted
that. And did they kill the electric charger? Yeah. Did they kill the Ram rev, the electric
Ram pickup truck? Yeah. Why? Because they realized their consumers, their customers had spoken. And
they had spoken by not spending to buy those products, not showing a desire to buy those
products. So this is just a classic example of a manufacturer not asking their customers what it is
they want to have built. But the manufacturer dictating to the customer what it is we're going
to build and what you're going to buy. And the timing of it's really interesting. And I say that
because Stalantis dealers for the past year, two years have been in the hurt, but this is finally
showing up at the OEM level globally for them now a year or two years later. So again, because of
that wholesale to dealer relationship, these things don't show up on day zero. They show up a year
later, whereas they do show up on day zero at the dealership level. Walk into your local CDJR,
Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership a year and a half ago, and watch the four by ease pile up.
You'd know the alarm bells would start to go off. When we did the sale on Long Island two and a
half years ago, Staten Island, you could see it then. I mean, it was as plain as the nose on
your face. I mean, all you had to do was walk a lot, walk these dealers lots, and see all the
four by ease just collecting dust, weeds growing up under the chassis. It was just so plain to see
that it was willful ignorance on the part of upper management at that time. Carlos Taveras
and that we're not going to, we're going this direction whether you like it or not. Well,
the people spoke and said, you can go in that direction. We're just not going with you. Well,
that cost him his job, and it's costing Stalantis a profit for last year at least.
Definitely, and probably they say not next year, but we'll see what happens. Again,
y'all, we have a brand new tool. It is in beta. I just dropped the link in the chat, caredge.com
slash dealer dash ratings. I'm seeking your feedback both here in the chat, the comments,
and directly, Zach at caredge.com. Let's put this to the test. Dealers,
browsed by Grand. I don't know, Dad, we were just talking about them. Let's find one here, Ram,
and a Ram dealer. These are some good Ram dealers. These are some good Ram dealers.
Can I say one thing? Yeah, go for it. These are, this is a transparency score.
What that means to me is that these dealers are at least providing us with a transparent
interaction. Well, I want to be clear. I want to be clear, Dad,
this shows everything. It's not just dealers that are transparent, and those aren't. For
example, this dealership scored a 91.4 out of 100. You can see here why. Their fee transparency,
their dock fee is a little too high. They don't do add-ons. They're accurate with their prices,
and their data quality is high. So that's good. They get a high grade. If I go back here, let's
find a lower graded dealership. For example, yeah, this one. They have 100% of the time they
have add-ons. Their dock fee is above the Colorado state average, and you can see here the actual
add-ons that they're adding onto vehicles and how much they're charging for it. And to be clear,
here we show all of the data. So you can even come in here and view the original redacted quote.
So you can see, here's the add-ons that they're adding. So the project here, the dealer ratings,
dealer reviews, we're also calling it the transparency index. The point here is just to
provide data. You can do with it as they see fit. Dealers can do it as they see fit, just meant to
surface the data. I get it. And then look at that. There's a lot of dealers in California.
A lot of dealers in California. We've got Galpin Mazda here in Prescott, California,
Los Angeles. Yeah, there we go. Los Angeles. Yeah, so all sorts of good information here. And again,
in beta, so seeking your feedback, seeking your input, please share it in the comments
and in the chat. All right. Let's just call it a show. Let's call it a show. Let's call it a show.
Yeah. And for those of you who think that I might for a second consider going out and shoveling,
let me put your minds at ease. There's one thing I'm never doing that's shoveling. It's one of the
reasons I live in a condo. They have people to shovel. And it ain't 74-year-old out of shape,
old men. Okay, so I'm not going to be out there shoveling. Good, yeah. We don't want to see you
get hurt. That would be very bad, Doug. Yeah, I concur. I am 100% on board with that.
You know, it's very good though. We'll be back tomorrow with more Car Edge Live. No disruptions
this week. We're here Monday through Friday at 12 p.m. Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. If you enjoyed
today's show, please subscribe to the channel. We appreciate it. And yeah, let's do it again
tomorrow, Pups. I'll be here. I promise. All right. See you, Dad. Love you. Love you too.
Thanks, everybody, for being here.
About this episode
Car dealerships across the U.S. are closing at an unprecedented rate, with over 440 franchise locations shutting down recently. Brands like Buick, Lincoln, and Jaguar are seeing the steepest declines, with many standalone dealerships disappearing. Rising car prices, high financing costs, and shifting manufacturer strategies contribute to this trend. The episode explores how multi-brand dealerships are surviving while standalone stores struggle, and discusses the potential future of brands like Buick amid these challenges. Insights into dealer buyouts and the impact on consumers looking for deals add depth to the conversation.
Today on CarEdge Live, Ray and Zach discuss the latest news from Stellantis and Automotive News. Tune in to learn more! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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