The Keeping It Real SEMA 2025 Recap, Manufacturing Realities, International Copycats, & More | Ep 52
Clutch Culture Podcast
The Keeping It Real SEMA 2025 Recap, Manufacturing Realities, International Copycats, & More | Ep 52
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Car
1956 Lincoln
The 1956 Lincoln is a luxury car made by Lincoln, a brand known for high-end vehicles. This model is famous for its stylish design and comfort.
Car
Mach 1
The Mach 1 is a special version of the Ford Mustang, which is a fast and sporty car. It's designed for people who love performance and racing.
Company
Ring Brothers
Ring Brothers is a company that builds and customizes cars. They are famous for making cars look really good and perform well, and they show their work at car shows.
Company
Roadster Shop
Roadster Shop is a company that makes custom cars. They are known for their quality work and creative designs, and they often display their cars at shows.
Car
Pontiac Torino
The Pontiac Torino is an older muscle car that was popular for being powerful and stylish. Many people love it because it represents a fun time in car history.
Car
Ford Bronco
The Ford Bronco is a tough SUV that can handle rough roads and off-road adventures. It was first made a long time ago and has come back with new designs and technology, making it exciting for people who love outdoor activities.
Car
Jeep Wrangler
The Jeep Wrangler is a well-known vehicle that's made for off-roading. It's tough and can go almost anywhere, making it a favorite for people who love adventure.
Car
Toyota Land Cruiser
The Toyota Land Cruiser 100 Series is a large SUV that is very good for off-roading. It was made between 1998 and 2007 and is loved by people who like to drive in tough conditions.
Term
PPF
PPF is a protective film that you can put on your car's paint to keep it looking new. It helps prevent scratches and damage from rocks and other things that might hit your car.
Car
Ford Escape
The Ford Escape is a small SUV that is easy to drive and has room for people and their stuff. It's a good choice for city driving and everyday use.
Car
Ford Taurus
The Ford Taurus is a car that many companies used as a company car for their employees. It was known for being reliable and comfortable.
Car
Honda Odyssey
The Honda Odyssey is a minivan, and the Type R is a special version that usually means it has more power and sporty features. It's not a common combination since Type R models are usually associated with sportier cars.
Car
Toyota Tacomas
The Toyota Tacoma is a smaller pickup truck that is great for carrying things and going off-road. It's known for being reliable and is popular with people who need a tough vehicle for work or fun.
Car
Toyota Corolla
The Toyota Corolla Cross is a small SUV that is based on the popular Corolla sedan. It has more space and a higher seating position, making it a good option for families or those needing extra room.
Car
Toyota Sienna
The Toyota Sienna is a family minivan that has a lot of room for passengers and cargo. It's designed to be comfortable and practical for families on the go.
Car
Toyota Supra
The Toyota Supra is a high-performance sports car that is popular for its speed and style. It's designed for driving enthusiasts who enjoy a powerful and agile vehicle.
Car
Toyota Z4
The Toyota Z4 is a fun-to-drive convertible car that is great for those who enjoy open-air driving. It's sporty and stylish, perfect for summer drives.
Car
BMW Z4
The BMW Z4 is a fancy sports car that looks great and drives really fast. It's designed for people who love to drive and want a stylish car.
Car
Porsche 911 GT3
The Porsche 911 GT3 is a special version of the 911 sports car that is built for racing and high performance. It has a more powerful engine and better handling than regular models, making it very exciting to drive.
Car
Mercedes-Benz C63
The Mercedes-Benz C63 is a high-performance version of the C-Class made in 2008. It features a strong V8 engine and is designed for sporty driving.
Car
BMW E90
Car
Audi RS4
The Audi RS4 is a sporty version of the Audi A4, made in 2008. It has a powerful engine and is designed for better performance and handling compared to regular A4 models.
Term
aftermarket
Aftermarket means parts or products made by companies other than the car maker. For example, if you buy a new stereo for your car from a different brand, that's an aftermarket product.
Term
warranty
A warranty is like a promise from the car maker to fix things for free if they break within a certain time. But you have to follow their rules to keep that promise valid.
Term
ceramic coating
Ceramic coating is a special liquid that you put on a car's paint to protect it. It helps keep the car clean and shiny by making it harder for dirt and water to stick.
Car
Mazda Cx5
The Mazda CX-5 is a small SUV that many people like because it looks good and is fun to drive. It's great for families or anyone who needs extra space.
Company
Dinan
Dinan is a company that makes special parts to make BMW cars go faster and perform better. Many BMW fans trust Dinan for high-quality upgrades.
Company
HRE wheels
HRE Wheels makes custom wheels that are often used on sports cars. They're known for being high-quality and looking great, but they can be more expensive than other brands.
Term
OEM parts
OEM parts are the original parts made by the car company for your vehicle. They usually fit better and last longer than cheaper alternatives.
Term
paint protection film
Paint protection film is a special clear cover you can put on your car to keep the paint safe from scratches and damage. Better films last longer and look nicer.
Car
Buick Grand National
The Buick Grand National is a fast car from the 1980s that had a powerful engine and a unique black look. It's well-known among car enthusiasts for being very quick and sporty.
Car
Chevrolet Corvette
The Chevrolet Corvette is a fast and stylish sports car that many people dream of owning. It's known for being powerful and fun to drive, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts.
Car
Dodge Ram
The Dodge Ram is a big pickup truck that is good for carrying heavy loads and towing. It's popular because it combines strength with comfort, making it nice to drive.
Car
Jeep Wagoneer
The Jeep Wagoneer is a big SUV that can go off-road and has a lot of luxury features. It's known for being tough and stylish, making it a popular choice for families and adventure seekers.
Car
Honda Prelude
The Honda Prelude is a two-door car that was popular for being fun to drive and stylish. It has a loyal following because it was one of the sporty cars that many people loved in the past.
Car
Toyota 4Runner
The Toyota 4Runner is a tough SUV that can go off-road and handle rough conditions. It's popular with families and outdoor enthusiasts because it's reliable and has plenty of space.
Car
Toyota RAV4
The Toyota RAV4 is a small SUV that is great for families and everyday driving. It's known for being fuel-efficient and having a lot of space for people and their stuff.
Car
Toyota Tundra
The Toyota Tundra is a big pickup truck that can carry heavy loads and is great for work. It's known for being dependable and has a lot of room inside for passengers and cargo.
LIVE
We've made it here to the 52nd episode of the show, and you have made it, uh, walking 20 miles,
I think, in the last couple of days. I want to... Yeah, close to 30, probably. 30? So if you guys
can't hear it, Nick's probably a little toasty-wasty from his dogs are barking, probably the last
couple of days. Hey, it's, if you guys haven't been to SEMA, walking every aisle, doing everything,
it's, it's a big place. It's a, you know, one thing nobody has over Vegas is that much convention
center space. And by the way, even goes outside, right? So you're not only talking about, uh,
just a convention center inside. I mean, everything, by the way, we're still,
we're still doing Hoonigan. Yeah, I heard it's still a thing. At SEMA, which, I mean,
I guess that's still a thing. So if we have some time later on, we can have some fun with,
I think that's about, you know, 88 years in a row, we've been doing the same thing at the outside
of SEMA. So that's hilarious. I'm sure you're going to have some takes on pints and polishing
podcasts about the detailing world and the chemical world and all that. So here on Clutch
Culture, we'll be talking about just about everything else outside of that. So I hope you
guys enjoy the show. Thanks for making it 52 consecutive weeks. So in three weeks on December
1st, it'll be the official year mark, actually doing it 12 months, but we've officially been doing it
every week without missing a gear, essentially, uh, pumping out shows. So shout out to Nick for
just, you know, sticking with it, being the essentially the viral, I mean, live from Barrett
Jackson, SEMA. I mean, we've had a lot of weeks where it was tough to get, yeah, tough to get,
get going and we still did it and we got to appreciate everybody that's listened. And so
hopefully we can bring some clarification. Uh, I want to say another thing. It's really important
you guys follow us on all socials because the, the interesting SEMA stuff is better to do in
Instagram stories. It's easier, you know, so if you follow on YouTube, go to Instagram because
there's some things that are just easier to set, uh, share. SEMA is one of those things
very easy to share on Instagram stories live in real time, make a quick one minute video. So
that's kind of what went on all week. If you, if you're not on that platform, you,
you probably missed some of that for sure. Absolutely. Are you done as of this recording
with SEMA? Yeah. I mean, we saw the whole show, uh, you know, you got to really work hard to see
the whole show. I mean, you got to be organized. You got to, you know, so yeah, man, I, I made it
and, uh, had a bunch of meetings and different things on our side of the business and, uh,
some great people. One of the things I'll say before we start, yeah, that way anything after
this, people know where I stand. It's so great to see craftsmanship. Yeah. And SEMA allows you to see
that very tiny amounts of people that take a lot of pride in building a car, building a truck,
doing it really well, doing it uniquely. So I want to applaud the craftsmen that make stuff like SEMA
happen. I also want to say we got to start doing some new things. Yeah, let's, we got to start
doing some new things. I've been on this for five plus years, guys. This isn't new. I know I haven't
had a podcast for five years. I can only see so many 1956, Lincoln's, you know, we did another
Mach 1. Again, the guys at Ring Brothers are fantastic craftsmen. We've seen it. Okay. We,
we see it. We, we've been there. I say this, you know, we went to the Roadster Shop booth.
I've seen all that stuff. I appreciate the hell out of the craftsmanship. How many times are we
going to do the same fricking cars? Because now, if you guys notice on video the unveilings,
there's very few claps. Those used to be hundreds, if not thousands of people at unveilings. Now it's
golf claps just around the room. I mean, two or three claps, five claps, 10 claps.
The world's telling you something. And SEMA hasn't listened. No. So let's put that on them,
but also the car builders haven't listened. They haven't watched. And, and so everybody knows
how this works for car building. And I want to say this is a pretty, almost 100% of the time.
I get that the car builder is building what that customer is willing to pay for that also
funds the SEMA build. They're not, they're not coming out of pocket to do these big SEMA builds.
There's a customer that they're building that for usually and they're footing the bill to have the
car built. The problem is the crowd that would be interested in those cars is no longer there
in big numbers. Some of them have retired, sold their businesses. And again, the guys, this is a
business expo. This is for business people in the aftermarket and mechanics and body shops and all
that kind of stuff. So when you look at it, I understand the game. I don't want anybody to be
like, well, what you don't, I know that somebody's funding these builds. Okay, I'm very aware that
Chip Foos is not footing the bill for that build at SEMA. He's, he has a customer for that build.
But this year was, I think the final year. I mean, they're going to keep doing it. They're
going to keep building these cars because somebody's commissioning them. But you know, if there's 10
people clapping when it used to be 1000 people, I think the market's telling you it's time to move on.
That's a perfect place to start because I know a lot of people that listen, maybe I've never been,
maybe never even planned on going, I'm one of those people I've never been. And
even though I have been invited and I've had people I've worked with that, you know, can,
could have like gotten me to go with them or whatever. And there would have been reasons
to go. I just didn't. And I honestly don't know if I will to tell you the truth. Like unless
something really blows up in a way with somebody that it just makes sense, I would go. And I know
some people get excited to go there just content creators and like to like the scene or have some
friends, you know, they get to go to some parties or whatever it is. And that's cool. But for those
that don't go, haven't been, probably won't go. And they kind of summarize some of the stuff that,
you know, you see there and that's been going on for a long time. So if you could recount
some of the 30 plus miles you walked without sounding like Clint Eastwood and Gran Torino,
right? Yeah. What, what can people expect or what could have people expected? And I guess without
sounding redundant, what, because honestly, as I hear you, and I think last year too, you did
a good recap on pines and polishing, it sounds like the future, if it doesn't go in the direction
we like, it's just going to be a lot of EV stuff, a lot of, you know, evolved. Yeah. Well, the funny
thing is that that's not a big, I mean, there's parts of the show that are that. And before we go
on, is your mic low is my headphones. So hey, we got, we got to make sure that our people got
the great sound. That's true. Yeah. I turned mine down a little bit because I don't want to be too
much louder than you. But let me know unless you can turn your volume up. Now my volume is all that.
Okay. So hey, guys, you're here in behind the scenes here. So we're going to keep this in,
of course, maybe Rob messed up. I'm the one that always messes up. So I got to take it where I
get it. But first of all, the international, the amount of boosts that were international,
and we all know what that means, you know, from, from, from, you know, the Asian countries was
at a level I've never seen before. And I actually was kind of surprised with all of the sort of
trade war stuff going on. They had international pavilions now. Again, basically just Chinese,
you know, companies. And I sent you pictures. They're real creative, or they try to hide it.
They don't speak English. You can't really talk to them. They, you know, if you, if you stop there,
there's nothing really to interact with. Very odd scene for SEMA, because they've been sprinkled
throughout the show. Now they're everywhere. I think there's, there's it's starting to come
to light in a way. The off road part of the show really showed me this is just how many people
aren't building their own stuff. They're essentially all going to the same factory overseas. It's now
becoming very, very more and more apparent. Again, I know many of us knew this was happening.
Now it's sort of like front and center because you go to the off road world. And this really
surprised me guys. And again, if you're deep in the off road world, I'm sure you have a much
different opinion and you got much more years under your belt than me. If it's not a Tacoma,
brand new, if it's not a Bronco brand new, if it's not a forerunner brand new, name the for
a Jeep Wrangler brand new, they don't make anything for it. They just simply don't make anything for
them. Like, and they're pretty up front like, Oh, this is what sells. No, that's what the factory
in China builds. So you, you know, do this. And I want to say where I come out on this is
I don't begrudge anybody doing what they have to do to run their business. I mean,
this has been the world for the better part of the late 80s to now. Right. The problem is,
I think we've gotten confused, especially in the automotive business, but I think in all businesses
that if you don't build it, but you do some type of design work that you're doing all the work,
it's like, Well, no, you don't build it. Yeah. Right. You don't actually do the building. So the
reason the 100 series Land Cruiser and the 80 series Land Cruiser doesn't really have a ton of
aftermarket companies supporting it is because they don't build anything. Because if they actually
built it in their factory, let's call it in the US, they would support, I mean, you wouldn't just
be building for four of the most competitive markets in the aftermarket, you'd go, Hey,
we're going to build a niche here, we're going to do this niche over there. You would see a lot
of that, right? You would see a lot of, Hey, we're going to do the core four or five that
everyone does, but we're also going to build these things in the niches because we're not
just going to compete on the most competitive scene, we're going to actually go after some
different off-roaders and some enthusiasts. And again, you wouldn't do it in mass scale,
but you would do it, you would charge appropriately so you could make money.
I was just astonished in the off-road. Again, seems to be a pretty pro American crowd. If I
had to say something about the off-road crowd, I hate to break it to most of you. I don't think
99% of the products are being built anywhere near America. They're all being built by one to two
factories in a certain part of the world. No hate towards that, but that's where we're at.
No inventiveness, no really anything different than the next guy. Maybe you have a different,
center part of your bumper. Maybe you have a little bit differently that you've cut around the
fenders. Okay. Innovation though, it's not there. Maybe people will argue with that. That's fine.
But this is where guys like us in our community that we're building, I put a rallying cry out.
Guys, if there are good people in America building for the platform that I have, give us their name.
We will reach out. We want to give them a shout out. We want to get their stuff. We want to show
people that you can build a 100 series Land Cruiser and that there's good companies doing it.
Now, we have some names, but many of you guys know a lot more about this than I do.
But the problem is, don't send me somebody's name who I know is going to China and is going
to make me buy 30 bumpers so they can produce them. Because that's a speech I got at the show,
by the way. Guys like, well, if you order enough of them, I go, yeah, man, I know how to order
from China. I don't know if you think you're breaking news. I know what the game is. You
know, I'm just called China myself. I don't really need you to, you know, get your 10%,
20% off the top, right? Like it's, it really slapped you in the face this year. And that's
why I'm talking about it. What's your MOQ? Well, I got one. I got one. So how many do you want me
to order? I have one Alex. This is this is this is one of those watershed moments that I didn't
actually think would happen specifically this year. True. You got a political climate. You got
all this tough talk around the world. SEMA didn't talk tough. They were like, Hey, come on, you got
money. Who's writing the check? Yeah, come on. Come on in. And you don't blame SEMA for that,
right? They're running a show, they're filling booth space, this and that. It's not doom and gloom.
It's just honesty. You know, I think people a lot of times when you say stuff like this, they think
you're saying it out of doom and gloom. I'm not really saying it out of that. I'm just telling
you how this worked, what I saw. Guys, when you walk every booth and you stop and you talk to things
to people that are interesting from tool manufacturers to this to that to the next guy,
all over you have this thing that spans all different parts of the world of automotive.
You got a real sense that the world's changing. It's now changed more rapidly
than most people thought it was going to. And I don't think everybody knows what to do.
No, absolutely. And, you know, I think we've made it clear over the last year now of doing the show
where we stand with like wanting to support people that are doing things here in the States.
We have listeners from outside of the country, but even if you guys are true enthusiasts and
you've been listening to the show for this long, you understand that at least coming from me,
and I don't want to speak for Nick, but I guess I could say is like, we want to try to support
those that are trying to build businesses here in the United States with platforms that people
drive here in the United States that are fans of companies here in the United States. And it
just is what it is. That's not to say we don't buy stuff from somewhere else that we wouldn't
support companies from somewhere else. But if we know that there's a list of people,
if I know there's a list of people that are making things here, that's primarily where I want to
focus on getting the attention to if they're doing it right, if they're doing it good, if customers
can vouch for the company. So I just want to set that landscape now and not to say that we're
obviously, you know, I talked to an Australian company. The whole problem was it says made in
Australia. And I believe them. I don't have a reason not to believe, except all of their
bumpers look like everybody else's bumpers. Right. And I'm not going to say anything in
their booth. It's their company. I'm not going to ruin their day. But I go,
I would love to buy something from from our folks listening to Australia. If it's high
quality, you guys are doing it right. You're building it there. You got something to offer.
Yeah, man, if it's great, we're going to buy it. I'd much rather buy from somewhere close to me.
I mean, look, if I could buy most of this stuff in Vegas, the project would be done.
Right. You know, like, let's be fair. Like, it's just it's a it's a it's a location issue more
than anything. But when I see repetitive, and I see that you're only building for certain
platforms, and the argument is that's the only platforms people buy. No, that's the only platforms
that you know you can sell the number of MOQ that you're required to buy from that Chinese factory.
I know how the game works. I have family who who who were big in the factory world in China
for who you've met. You know, for decades lived over there. I've been very familiar with this.
I'm not against it. I'm not I'm not one of those guys that's like pro again. That was the game.
That's how the world was set up. The problem is the rock in the hard place now is
you have so many people out there selling this stuff that you guys all look the same.
You guys are essentially trying to play a game. I don't really think that can be played anymore
because now you have Chinese manufacturers going on social media showing you that they're the ones
building this stuff. So the consumer like myself, I'm like just a consumer of this stuff is now
got it in their head that every time you walk into one of these booths, you go, oh my god,
this looks like the guy down there and that looks like the guy or what the hell is going on. Oh,
now I know. Right. And I want everybody to really, really hear me when I say this, I don't begrudge
this stuff. I got no dog in the fight here. I'm not in the aftermarket part world. I don't live in
that world. It was so stark how little they had to offer that was different than the guy one booth
over that that's not a that's not a marketplace. That is, we are rebranding out of the same factory.
And even if we did the design work, we have no say in the production. Yeah. And I don't think
that's that's not to say I won't put if it's if it's done well, and it's for the 100 series,
and I don't have many choices. I'm going to get the project done. I want my vehicle to look a
certain way. I'm not disqualifying people for that. But man, we need to say some of the quiet
stuff out loud. It's like this is crazy. Yeah. And on the other side of that, I have talked to
people here in the States that are smaller companies that were suggested that did good work,
you could just see did really good work and, you know, vouch for their quality. And they weren't
able to do a project with us or anybody for that matter, their words, not having a point
about exactly. But because they can't, they just can't it's not in their business that right now
they just can't whether it's even and this isn't even like free stuff by no means. The pitch from
us is always like, we're going to buy this stuff anyway, we just want to partner with somebody
who wants to collaborate to get more exposure to get more light or whatever, because we're going
to buy it anyway. And it's like, really, we don't have any wiggle room to do it. Basically,
they would just need the exposure and not really give anything other than just like, Hey, man,
you guys were cool to work with. And that's just not the way it operates. It has to be a little
give a little get a little kind of thing. And it's a bummer because these companies are too small.
They make good quality stuff. There's not enough margin or whatever the case, there's not they
don't have enough brand awareness. And we want to work towards working with some of those people
to make it, you know, worth their while, because I know people that listen would love to support
a you know, company, a brand that's manufacturing stuff here. There's countless stories due to
like, brothers, right, siblings, whatever, family members is created this company,
making cool kits, whatever it is, armor, interior stuff, whatever. And they just not enough people
know about it. And they don't have enough money to have them prevent promote themselves much
less collaborate with somebody else is going to expect something on top of the items.
Yeah, like I'll tell you one of the glaring places that this showed itself like roof racks.
Your favorite, your favorite, I mean, your favorite accessory.
Yeah, roof racks. I'm like looking at roof racks. I'm like, I've seen this same roof rack
300 times in this hall, not even in the next hall. Like, in this same aisle.
You know, I've seen this roof rack, like you guys didn't, you guys didn't build it. Number one,
you probably didn't even design it. Number two. And we're getting and the way I described it
leaving yesterday was we're in this rock and a hard place situation. So let me get to the solution
part. Okay, there is no solution. That's the that's the that's the crappy part. Let me tell you why.
In my opinion, again, this is my opinion of being here the last three days. And I want the consumer
to understand why it's this way this rock and a hard place moment.
They never charged enough to build up enough funds to actually build a facility in the US.
They were always just driving the price down, driving the price down, driving the price down.
Well, let's say you have to build a 20 million, a 50 million, $100 million factory.
Who's got the money? I could I went to these guys booths, I talked to executives, they ain't got
the money. I can I can tell who's got the money. Yeah, I've been around car collectors who got
the money to do big boy stuff. This ain't that. I don't care what brand you support in the any
off road community, you think these guys got the money to build a $50 million, $100 million, $60
million factory to bring stuff on shore. They don't have the money. Can they go to the bank?
Then can they go to private equity? And maybe that'll happen. But if those people buy in,
they're just going to say, let's just buy more from this Asian country, drive our costs down,
bring it over. That's what they're going to do. So the rock in the hard places,
everybody wants things to come back on shore. I got news for you. 90% of the businesses at SEMA
don't have the money to bring it on shore to build it. They don't have the technical know how
because they never did it. They don't have the money to build the factory, even if they automated
the whole thing. They don't know how to build it. And there's a very big difference as somebody who
has a chemical manufacturing business and my business partner Marshall, who carries a heavy
load of making and running our team there. Unless you build it, you don't own anything.
You don't own it. Because the minute you give that design to a factory, especially in the
countries that they're going to, that's now their design, because they control the means of production.
So that's why you see 10 roof racks in a row that look identical, because they're going to sell
that roof rack to 10 different companies and just change the stamp on it. No shade towards that.
That's the way the world went. But for all of you now that want to do quality builds and find
stuff for older vehicles, trust me when I say this, the argument that there's all this money in the
because the MOQ would be so high that that's why there's no money. But if they own the factory,
it would be made tomorrow because it would be a niche only they were in. That's the reality of it.
So when people look you in the eye and say, this is all people want, no, no, no, that's all they can
get. And if you actually built your own product, you would be in all of these little off-road
niches that no one else was in, because that would be higher margin, you'd be making more money.
It would be so lucrative that you'd be like, I can't believe nobody else is building this stuff.
You wouldn't be in only the most crowded space. That's not how manufacturing works. Matter of fact,
manufacturing works the exact opposite. Okay, if you can create something nobody else can build,
that's where you make all your margin. That's where the money is made in manufacturing. Trust
me, I know. Everybody forgot. That's the whole situation here. Everybody has forgotten the blue
ocean strategy. No one's even looking for a blue ocean anymore. They're in shark infested waters
and they're like, where is there a little slipper to get something out of this shark infested water?
Where can I get another five sales? Yeah, exactly. Instead of thinking, where can I go where nobody's
selling? Like people looked at me like, I mean, there were even certain people in some of your
favorite off-road brands who were employed there that didn't know what 100 series Landcruiser was.
That's a fact to my face, not secondhand knowledge. Think about that. And you guys are buying from
them, which some of these companies, hey, some of the stuff's really nice. I know why you're
buying from them. But you think they're an off-road company and people standing there with the polo
shirt on employed by these companies didn't know what 100 series Landcruiser is. And I had one,
one of the biggest suppliers that had to bring three people over to confirm what 100 series
Landcruiser, and if they had parts for it, the third person's the person that finally knew what it was.
When you went last year, I remember listening to Python Polishing and you had a really good
assessment of everything. It was a cool recap. Recaps are always fun, right? No matter who's
talking about them, like just interesting hearing people's perspective on it. Going from 12, from
those 12 months, and you even said at the beginning of this, like you didn't expect it to be this
year this fast. How optimistic, I guess, are you for next year, especially if we're just talking
about the off-roading and some of the, you know, what should be bigger departments or sections of
the whole convention? Yeah, I mean, it's going to be interesting to see one thing. People are
going to have to invest differently because how the world has changed. I think it's more likely
you see people out of business than you see people making the investment. That makes way more sense.
There's not enough of the business to make it a business. No, because they never created enough
margin. They never created anything unique. They never went after, again, you said Blue Ocean for
anybody who hasn't read that book. They never went to a place nowhere else was. So how many people
can make Bronco bumpers? I mean, they were unlimited at this place. Yeah. Everything was a
Bronco bumper, a Jeep bumper, a forerunner bumper. Cool. I know why you're doing it. So I don't want
people to get lost in that. I know why they're creating for the most popular products that are
doing that. There's going to be major losers as the economy starts to dump, which by the way,
anybody that has any idea that the economy is not in a full downward swing, SEMA showed it's
downward. I don't know how far down I'm not some, you know, economist. We'll start that podcast
next year where we'll fake that we're an economist. Yeah, I mean, you can play automotive journalists
when you're not a journalist. I mean, why can't we play fighting? I'm literally editing clips
from a previous episode where we're talking about next year starting the real estate show in the
finance brush. It's so funny you said that. So the joke is, is that, I mean, is anybody really,
I mean, how many journalists actually exist in any world? So I mean, we can be a finance journalist.
Why not? Yes, I love it. All right, you need to invest in VQQ just kidding. Don't take financial
loans from us. So I have no idea how far down we are. I just don't know. I can't quantify that for
everybody. Attendance was down. People were standing in the booth talking to nobody talking to each
other on their phones. The hustle was gone. It was it was a very weird SEMA. Doesn't mean it was a bad
SEMA or the world, you know, that SEMA is going to go away. None of that's true. But SEMA obviously
felt as if if we don't bring this huge international contingency in, we are going to lose money here
that we can't afford to lose because they went all in and never to this level. And I'm talking
exponentially, not, you know, an extra five booths. We're talking about an extra 5,000 booths
over what it ever was. I mean, to have two pavilions opened up that weren't open last year to
basically put quote unquote international. It was one country. And nobody speaks English,
you know, you can't even talk, you can't even communicate. You, you know, it's a very odd
scene for those that have never experienced that you know they're building like LED lights is the
perfect example. Okay, I just use this as talking to somebody before we get on here. I would venture
to say all LED lights are being built in one place. Okay. Yeah. You can't, you know, you look at their
product, you go, Oh, that was the American brand over here. This is identical. I can tell it's
identical. The connectors are identical. The design is identical. Everything's identical.
The problem is the supplier, you can't speak to them that nobody in the booth speaks English.
So I'm not sure what that really does to drive business one way or another, except for you go
to these other LED lights that are companies established here. And you go, I just saw this.
And so you kind of get jaded really quickly. And you go, I didn't have this connection in person.
So in my face, except for this year, where you go, Oh, man, there's a problem here. And that's
the rock in a hard place. There's not enough money in the LED business for somebody to build an LED
factory, making headlights aftermarket headlights in America. There's not enough money. You should
have man, I should have thought of this before dude, you should have gotten the Apple, the new
AirPods Pro threes. And then you know how that they have that like on the fly translation.
Oh, that would have been such a great idea. Yeah, yeah. I don't have a lot of great ideas, Rob.
So I mean, you could have said sorry, sorry. Next time next time. Next year when there's 10,000
booths instead of the 5000, we'll just do it then. Yeah, you'll be wearing the Meta Ray bands and
you'll you'll video it, you'll get the translations, we'll decipher them and then we'll do a whole show
on them. Yeah, look, man, I always find a way and I really believe this I always find a way to enjoy
it. You know, this year was one of those tough years where you had to look for the positive.
You know, you had to find a dig in the positive. Did I meet some
met this guy who was in the air hose business out of LA. First thing out of his mouth. Everybody
along this line, we all get it from the same place. Mine's the same as theirs. There's the
same as mine. I'll give you a great deal. He was like a swap meat hustler. Let's go. You know what
I mean? I hope you bought him Dallas. He had to move to LA. He goes, I hate it there. He goes,
how do you like living here? I'd like to move here. I mean, he was just a hustler.
Love it. If you buy this, I'll give you these three things free and I go, hey, at least I respect
the hustle. So that was one of the bright spots in the show of like he was just a real genuine,
hey, let me tell you, we're not making it, but I can give you a good price on this. I mean,
he was Mr. Swap Meat. It was actually, I respect people and I think many of you listening to us
would probably understand us about me. Just shoot me straight. Yeah. I'm good with whatever the story
is. Let's stop playing the game. And I think some companies are going to have to stop playing the
game because the secrets out for all of us now, all of you listening myself, the secrets out,
and when it's in your face in person, that secret really punches you right between the eyes.
And that's, that's, that's a, that's a weird thing. Well, this, this shifts in perfectly to
another topic still on this though, another subject, I guess that we'll probably end up talking about
for, you know, days and weeks to come. Nick and I, that is like on, on calls and stuff.
And that is where do some of these people that do want to, like you said next year,
there's more likely less of these people in business than they are to invest in the business.
So where are they to go? If you want it to double down on, look, we need
some more brand awareness. We need to connect and collaborate with the right people. We're not
either using social right, we're not advertising right. If there is any money and resources to
even advertise or collaborate, but let's just say that there is, and you're not at absolutely zero
or negative, who's, I mean, who's to win here? How, or better yet, how can they win? Because
you've said it, and we've both said it before on calls, like a lot of these companies aren't
using the internet to its fullest potential, social media in particular, or at all, or at all, right?
And we're talking about American companies. I'm not talking about, I'm not talking about the other
companies. Yeah. One of the craziest things to me guys is one of the things about the LX build
that has sort of been at the bedrock of how Rob and I have been thinking is, is we want to tell
stories to you guys. So maybe you guys would say, Hey, this looks like a good option for me.
But we want the brands to tell you the consumer their story.
They don't think they have to do that. And that's across the board. That's not just off-road parts,
that's everybody. They want to talk to the shop. And then they want the shop to handle everything.
Well, I got news for you. How many shops have massive social media, you know,
departments? You know, you work with shops, I know tons of shops. How many have social media
departments that are out there pushing at a high level? None. I mean, 1%. I'll give you 1%
just to make sure, you know, we cover ourselves for a shop that's out there doing that. Very,
I mean, because it's super expensive. I mean, it's a very cost prohibitive thing to do.
But these brands off-road tools, air compressors, tires, wheels, they don't think they have to
speak to guys like you and I and our listeners. Huge mistake. Okay, huge mistake. But to do it,
you got to commit to it. Right? So you got to see the vision of if Nick and Rob do something with
a company, they're going to provide value to the end consumer that end consumer is going to call
their local installer and they're going to get the part. So you have to have this big picture
mentality of the guys and gals listening to this, you're the bedrock of all of this. Yeah,
it's not the shop. Because if you don't buy from the shop, then there is no shop, then there is no
bumper company, there is no light company, there is no PPF company, whatever. They give no thought
to you, the consumer. And tell me if I'm wrong here. People buy from people. Do they not?
100%. I mean, I think everybody out there, people just don't think they have to tell you their story.
Yeah. And maybe they're scared to tell the story because the story is not interesting.
Because it's not a story of we came up with this interesting thing and we really love this platform
or we really love this thing and we came up with this and we think it's a cool thing. Maybe that's
the reason. They don't have a story. The story is we saw a need to start a bumper company because
we could make some money, so we started a bumper company. That may be their story. I'm not saying
it is or it isn't, but it sounds crazy to me that you wouldn't want to tell your story.
And the other thing that I want to say to everybody out there that's become really apparent,
there used to be this lineage to get into a tool company, let's say. Let's just take something
completely away from anything with any emotion, a tool, a socket that you use.
Usually what happens is the guy or the gal used to be a mechanic.
Maybe hurt their back, maybe blew out some knees, maybe their shoulders messed up,
they go, I couldn't be a mechanic anymore. So now they got a job with the tool company.
So when you walked in the booth and started talking tools, they knew what they were talking about.
Right. They go, let me tell you, if you're going to take this engine out, you need this,
this is why it's innovative. There's all this energy because that man or woman
knew the job. As we have sort of advanced as a society and people have gotten more college
educations and taken different paths, you walk in a booth now, you're not sure these men and women
have ever done any of the work. I'm even talking in a training at corporate office
that they've ever even done the work. So it creates this barrier that you go, well,
even if this person got on camera, could they do the oil change? Like, could we actually
like do the work together and you explain the tools together?
Probably not that.
Could you do aftermarket bumpers? Okay. You've retrofitted them. It's just plug and play. But
if I brought you, who I'm talking to, to my shop, could you and I get it installed off
of your expertise? The answer is probably no. And trust me, I talk to everybody.
It's weird. There's a lot of them. I go, oh, I don't know if this guy is ever,
do you drive like a Ford Escape? Are you in this world? Like, I know you work for XYZ company,
but like, is it just a job? Which I understand, right? Everybody just needs a job. I'm cool with it,
but I think that is a big transition in the SEMA world where you used to walk into a booth. If
there'd be a whole bunch of people that started their life in the body shop world. And so you
talk to them and you go, hey, tell me why I should buy this paint booth or why I should,
you know, use this product and they go, well, when I had my business and I, you know, or, you know,
I still, you know, do some work for this shop over here and this is what I do.
That's basically gone. Not saying 100%, but it's basically gone.
Dude, so a couple of weeks ago, we talked about buying, you know, young people, especially needing
to buy into the system, the system that we're in and all that kind of stuff. And in this case,
you would think that people would buy into whatever the hell their job is. Like when you were
explaining that, I just remember back in the day, working for a, I used to work for a chemical
coatings company and the sales reps all drove four tourists. I feel like these people just
pull up in their four tourists, whatever the equivalent. Yes, company car. Yeah, the company
car, whatever it is. They're a GLI or general, whatever it is. And this is, they don't give a
fuck. They just go do whatever the job is for the day. But also people don't seem to understand
this. And for a long time, I've witnessed this in many industries and, but especially in the car
world is that, or in anything, man, enthusiasm is infectious. Okay. You need to go be enthusiastic
about whatever the hell it is you're doing. And other people will see that we'll feel that we'll
buy from you again, going back to people buy from people. But if you're not enthusiastic and you
also don't know, if you don't know is one thing, but if you can be enthusiastic about the little
you do know, you would be surprised at how much of a difference that makes a lot of people on
their phone, a lot of people talking to other people in their company, not talking to customers.
I think we're seeing in their country, you know, look, I'll say, I'll say this, we're seeing a
resurgence in the booth chicks. Oh, that's good. You know, a little bit of a resurgence. But when
you used to go to SEMA, every booth had pretty girls, you know, they'd be wearing whatever
they're wearing some in company shirts, some in other stuff. And that would draw because again,
guys SEMA is what 95%, 98% male. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's like having a beer commercial with
no chicks. We know who drinks beer. This just right. So go ahead. Go ahead. I mean, right? So
you go, the infection used to be there was something to draw them in, which was the booth
models, right? They would be there, they'd be handing stuff out, come in the booth.
Some companies did that well. But even then you'd walk into the booth and guys would be on their
phone. Guys wouldn't know what to talk about. They wouldn't have any interpersonal skills,
even if this is with their job. It's a very different vibe. And this show now is what you
make of it, right? It's no longer this show is going to be impressive, just walking around like
it's impressive seeing all the stuff. Sure. But it's not impressive from the interactions and
the knowledge and all the sharing and all the stuff that people are supposed to be doing in
these booths. We are very much and I'll stay on this rocking a hard place moment. We have set up a
system where people just acted like middlemen and now they are complete middlemen in a time when
the middleman probably is going to get cut out. And so I don't know if they're feeling it. I don't
know if the pressure inside these buildings is building. They see what's the writing on the wall.
Management's not treating people well. They're riding them hard or they're doing whatever they're
doing. I can tell you it was a very weird vibe and the person that hurts from this is the consumer,
which is why we're talking about it. You only win as a consumer when innovation, new stuff,
new options, new energetic companies, people doing new stuff that they invented. That's when we all
win. It's not everybody playing the middleman. Well, the pinch is officially underway and by
this time next year, we're going to see who the squeeze takes out. It's going to be evident. There's
not going to be any more just kind of coasting along. Yeah, now it's a cash game. Who's got the
biggest cash reserves? Who's got the war chest? Yes, exactly. That's all this is now. So a little bit
of a palate cleanser before we get to some listener emails. We appreciate you guys always sending
in emails. You ever watch Workaholics? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Dude, you explaining
the booth chicks. For whatever reason, so the three guys have a podcast. I think it's called
This Is Important or Why. It's something like that, right? For whatever reason, Twin Peaks sent
them a swag bag, a swag box package for some reason. By the way, coldest beer in the game. Twin
Peaks love it. Their wings are great. Their beer's always the coldest. So one of the actors, I
forgot who it was, holds up what this is, which is a mouse pad. And they sent someone with one of
the Twin Peaks chicks. And where you put your wrist is just a huge set of knockers.
For the next five minutes, they're flabbergasted of what they just got in this gift pack from Twin
Peaks. It was so funny. I got to find the clip. I'm going to send it to you. It made my morning
when I saw it this morning. Hey, were you the one that was telling me that the original Hooters
owners are like, we're bringing this thing back? That's right. I was telling Nick the other day,
man. So the original group of owners, they still have like the original location. And now they're
from what I read, regaining or retaking over the interest of all of the locations because they
want to revitalize and bring back what was like this beachy, vibey, kind of attractive women.
It was just like an iconic thing. Of course. It was just one of those rare moments in time with a
rare place that you didn't have a lot of them. Like, yeah, look, but now you got Twin Peaks.
What's the Oh Host Locals? Yeah, that's right, buddy. I knew he was going to go there. Yeah,
you know, you know. There was a video, there was a video, this lady who I think she was either a
black lady or something else. I can't remember what it was. It was she was like Dominican maybe,
but she was like, I went to this Oh Joe's Locals, right? And this lady was like,
I should have just eaten in there because these bitches were hot and she was just going on and
on. And she's like, what is this Oh Joe's Locals? Yeah, I mean, and I guess, you know, if you take
this to SEMA, there needs to be more fun. There needs to be more fun. Yes. Like that's one of the
things I really, really despise about this week. The one negative is like, where's the fun? Well,
couldn't you just go out back? They were having a lot of fun out back. Yeah, I mean,
just so everybody's clear, I've watched a Hoonigan thing for 15 years. I know exactly what
you're getting. Sorry, I decided not for that one, everybody. Yeah. No, and by the way, all
powered to them, you know, I'm glad that stuff like that exists. You've seen it once, you've seen
it a thousand times because the track is the track. I mean, it's pretty, pretty understandable what
you're getting out there. I saw the announcement or like a brief little like the next Jim Khanna
was coming. I don't forget where it was going to be. I don't know if you saw it is, you know,
Pastrana is well, and you know, I'm going to go ahead and say this. I mean, it's wild that people
do these at car meets. Yeah, where would they get the idea to act this way to car? I have no idea.
I have no idea. I don't know. It just comes out of the blue. Okay, a couple of things actually
before we get some emails. Did you see the Honda Odyssey Type R? No, I want to see it now. Okay,
I can't unfortunately play the audio because you're playing music and we'll obviously get
dinged on YouTube, but I'll just play the video for you so you can see it. So they got a song
from Fast and Furious. Oh, Sun King. Yeah. So it's a. So go ahead. Just so we're clear,
and I want to say this before Sun King does this thing. He said vans were great after I said it
publicly and I took all the heat. Like he's now Mr. Van. Love it. Love Sun King's vibe. Yeah,
but I was way in on vans before any of these guys. This is true. I can vouch for this. It's
on its own recordings way before these guys. Like it's so cool. Like one of the most disappointing
things that seemed to me was Toyota did such a great job with stuff in their booth. Like they
deserve a ton of credit. New Tacomas. They had the old Land Cruiser all souped up. Looked awesome.
Yeah. They even had the Corolla Cross kind of tricked out. Oh, yeah. Cool. You go to the Sienna.
They didn't do anything. Just like a Sienna. I'm like, come on, man. This is the moment.
You had your opportunity. Yeah. Like this is your moment. This is your booth. You're the big dog on
the block. You got the biggest booth in the place. I was disappointed. I was because they did. Look,
I don't want to. They did a great job. Like they had a lot of cool stuff there. You know,
I got to make a lot of Costco jokes on Instagram. It's all good. But that was a missed opportunity.
I go, so we're going to do the Corolla crossover pimped out, but we're not going to do anything
with the Sienna. What a loss opportunity. What about the did you see the Zupram?
Yeah. Let me see it. I'll pull it up for you. Also, I was there for quite some time.
Also can't play the audio, but I'll show you. Yeah. I saw this. Okay. So the Z4 is set to
in production in spring of 2026. I feel like if it looked like that, you're right. If they did a
little bit more, whatever that flair was, it'd be a really cool thing to keep making. Yeah. Do you
think it's just sales of those types of cars are so low that these companies are just like,
we're done. You know, that's what kind of sucks for the enthusiast, man, that at some point it's
this bottom line number that they go and read in a meeting and they go, Hey guys, we can't keep
doing this. And for all you guys that are clamoring for sports cars or different options, like all
your buddies need to buy them. That's true. You know, like, if you guys don't buy them,
they don't get billed. And I mean, I think that's the argument that many people who look at that
side of the business say is it's like, everybody screams, they want these things. But when we
have these things, nobody buys them. Right. And that's what sucks about that. I mean, I'm with
you if they made it look better, if they did this, but that's all investment. And then everybody that
says they're going to buy it doesn't buy it. Then they're stuck with something that's just a drain
on their business. What was man, what was that? There was something we talked about recently
about this. Did you see that? Did you see the graffiti GT threes? No, I didn't actually,
I'll put them up on Instagram story. Like that was a really cool in the paint part of the,
of the show where all the paint companies were. Yeah, they did these like graffiti GT threes.
That's cool. And they looked awesome in person. Like I can only imagine Porsche guy being like,
well, that's, you know, what color stitching is in there? I mean, your favorite, these look bad
ass in person. Really cool and unique. Speaking of sports adans by chance, did you see on the
Haggerty channel, they put out the BMW, it's basically the peak sports adan video. Have you
seen it? Oh, let me see it. Well, it's 30 minutes. I can't play it. Okay. I have to go out. You
dude, you got to watch it. So it's a retrospective. It's Camisa, obviously one of the greats. And
they put up the E90, the RS4 and the C63 from all from 2008, all with the V8s. Dude,
such a good video. That's why I mean, it was incredible. I got an E90. I got a 2008 E90.
Dude, so cool. You know, I'll have to, I'll have to message Camisa and say you didn't do it justice.
Whatever he did, even if he did, I'd be like, oh, you could have done better. By the way,
love Camisa. Of course. We need to keep saying that. Probably one of the true,
one of the true guys left. Yeah. Well, yeah. Him, actually a clip going up, I think later today,
him and Leno. I think in our opinions, they're some of the truest of true car guys because
they love it all. They drive it all. They talk about it all. Yeah. And I think, you know,
Camisa does the work and Camisa, you know, I think keeps somewhat of a journalistic integrity.
Yeah. Says stuff that's negative. He says it. So that's why I will support you. I gotta,
I'll watch it. Send me that link. I will. All right. We're going to go through a couple of
listener emails. So thank you, everybody that listens. Here's our one always say,
like, thanks guys and the one gal. Here's the one gal. Nicole, Nicole asks, how come,
how come? All right, Nick, you're going to love this one. How come Porsche, the Porsche dealership
that she bought her car from is telling her that she has to get it washed at the dealership
and that they do not advise her to detail it herself or pay for it to be serviced?
Well, this could be one really main reason. If they told you they put some type of coating on the car,
you got taken, unfortunately. That's, that's a bad scene. None of you should be buying anything
aftermarket from any dealership. I don't care how nice you think it is. Lambo, Honda, all the way
down. Don't ever buy any of that stuff from the dealership. That could be the reason. I don't
know Nicole's paperwork and what she signed. But basically what they're probably trying to tell you
is if you do anything outside of this exact thing, we're going to quote unquote void your warranty
so if you see a failure point, which you will because it's not good product. It's not good
anything. They're using a certain company that I know very well. So for everybody that doesn't
understand how this aftermarket stuff works at a dealership, there's a federal law to be in compliance
with warranties. It's very loose. It's very outdated. It's very whatever. We're in compliance
with it at our company just out of necessity. Basically you pay a fee to a third party you're
in compliance. Let me tell you how hard that paperwork says certain stuff. Everybody's paperwork
says the same thing. It's a really dirty business. We don't even really utilize it but we have to
have it sort of as part of our company. So to stay in compliance, there's all this fine print
and they're boiling down the, excuse me, they're boiling down the fine print to tell you
that if you don't do it how we say we can void your warranty. That would be my guess.
Dang, that's wild. Okay. Well, let's just say, I'm not sure. I'll find out if she did or didn't.
But if somebody, let's just say it's her or anybody else, did unfortunately have some sort of
aftermarket or whatever, ceramic coating or whatever on their car, what do they do from
there? What is your advice typically? Yeah, don't rely on the warranty. It's just a mistake you made
and go to the most reputable shop and the most reputable people, have them service your car,
learn how to do it yourself. We got plenty of videos on hyperclean store to show you exactly
how to do this, but you just got to chalk it up to a bad decision. But do not take your car.
Matter of fact, we hang a tag on all customer cars. We hang a tag on all my personal cars when I go
to the dealership that says, do not wash, do not touch. That's how much I don't because I have PPF
on my cars. My customers have PPF. They have coatings, reputable stuff done the right way.
You don't want the dealership ever touching it. You don't even want them vacuuming your car.
It is a do not wash, do not touch. That is the best way to operate. Anytime the old
change gets done on most specifically my wife's on the CX-5, we have the inside of the glass
film on the windshield and don't put anything on there. Don't put the sticker on there. They always
put the fucking sticker on there. Yeah, you have tint. That becomes a big issue is what you have
tint on your windshield to block the heat. And guys, I don't say this out of anything other than
experience. They are not in the business of this stuff. They're in the business of selling you
cars. And as consumers, you have to be aligned with that fact. They do nothing else well
because that's not the business they're in. Like think about this. They don't even do warranty
work well. And they're factory technicians. I'm not blaming the technicians. I'm saying the service
department as a whole puts the technicians in a bad position, right? They rush work. They are put
under unbelievable time constraints. They aren't giving all the stuff they need in a timely manner.
It's not a technician thing. The whole system at a dealership is great at distributing and
selling you a car. Nothing else at the dealership should you be doing. Got to say, one of the
saying to get the front windshield tinted. That is by far one of the best upgrades.
You live in a hot area, man. There's only one thing to do.
Hands down, one of the best decisions ever made. As a matter of fact, you're talking about price
right now. Taking the car. If you did sign up for one of those things, take it to the best,
most reputable shop. I screenshotted a comment that we had on a recent video that I just wanted
to read and get your thoughts on. There's a difference between paying to have things done
right and paying for a name. True quality proves itself over time, not through brands
or price tags. I think we were talking about good shops that charge them most. I don't know
if you had any thoughts on that because... Yeah, it's just not true. He has a point in the part
side of the business as we've seen with off-road bumpers in our conversation there.
But trust me, when Steve Dynan owned Dynan, which was the best aftermarket parts you could buy
for your BMW, there was a difference. And yes, there was a name and yes, there was a price.
You buy an HRE wheel, go look at HRE wheels on a Porsche and then go look at
other brands on a Porsche. Yeah, they're more expensive, but yes, they look better.
And they're higher quality and they have a long lasting history and that kind of thing.
There's parts of the business he's correct in this parts world. When it comes to servicing your car,
100% of the time, the best shop is almost always the most expensive because their technicians make
more at whatever service they're providing. They have the proper insurance to cover your car being
in there. Big one that many people don't think about until your car actually gets damaged and
they have no coverage. They do things and have the right tools and the right products and they
buy the highest quality stuff. All of that adds to the price tag. It's not that they just make
more profit margin. So the reason things getting done right cost so much money is the whole input
cost is higher. So if you went to a place that serviced your Toyota that was an independent
service guy and you go, he's really expensive, but he used all OEM parts. That's the reason
he's more expensive. It's not that he's making more money in his pocket, right? So people don't
understand the input cost of what high quality means. Perfect example is paint protection film.
The highest grade paint protection film you can get that lasts the longest, that looks the best,
installed by the best technicians is going to be infinitely more expensive than everyone else
that's using a cheap Chinese film or cheap film from somewhere that's going to break down on you.
So the film cost automatically in some cases could be double the price. So you've already
doubled one of the input costs. Not saying always, but you could be 30% higher, 40% higher,
60% higher or sometimes double the price. Now that's what people don't love hearing. And so this
guy I think was trying to get at this aftermarket parts world that's become a little bit gray area
like we talked about with the off-road stuff. He might have a point on some of that. When it comes
to somebody touching your car as a service, he's completely off base. Talking about a PPF, I mean,
I know you know this because way back in the day when Nick started off, he had a large amount of
experience with graphics and vinyl and PPF intent and all that stuff, but there was such a stark
difference in like a high quality film, whether it's PPF, vinyl, whatever, then really cheap stuff.
If you've never worked with it, been in it or around it, some of that stuff will fail. You leave
it outside for 30, 60 days. It's just literally flaking off. Think about how many people have
seen like back windows with bubbles in their tent? Right, or tent, yes. Almost always. It's
because it's a cheap tent. Again, there can be some installer error. They'll give me wrong. But
if you went to the high quality shop and they had an installer error, that stuff would have been
off for free and replaced. So I already know you either got cheap film or you went to a cheap place,
probably both, because the high quality place, if you called up and said my tent is bubbling,
because manufacturing defects happen, they'd go, bring it back. We'll take it off. Sorry,
we didn't know there was a problem with that role. We're going to put another new piece on for free.
Sorry, we wasted your time. We didn't mean for this to happen. It was a manufactured defect.
Or one of our installers had a bad day. When you pay the high price, you pay the high price for
high quality products being used on your car. But you also pay it for when something goes wrong,
those people fix it. Absolutely, dude. You buy something for $50 and then you expect it to be
the quality of something that costs you $250. I'm telling you, there's going to be a difference.
Always. I mean, again, are there very pockets where you guys will say, well, I have this proof
and that proof? Sure, I'm not. But that's not the majority. Again, we talked last week about
recency bias and how people look at the last four years. It's just like if you had one good
experience with something cheap, you think that's the experience of cheap. That's not the rule.
That was the exception to the rule. Yeah, and that's where a lot of these businesses,
like we said at the top of the show, could benefit from just talking to the customer,
talking to the audience that they want to buy their stuff, make them feel confident in why
they're buying or paying the price that you're charging them. But that's going to be for a
whole huge lift of omission in 2026 if these people actually want to get more brand awareness
or sell more stuff. Not to say that we're going to do it for everybody. But if you do it with us,
we're going to help you get whatever it is that you want to get out of your customer.
A lot of us just want to know. That's kind of the pitch that I made to everybody. Some people
just want you to talk and explain to them how things work. Look, man, I mean, you guys are
accountants or plumbers or contractors in your day job, you don't have all day of your life to
figure out who makes the best bumper or who makes the best side skirt or who makes the best this.
So you'd love for somebody to go, tell me your story. Like, I'm looking to buy, I got the money,
I just don't know who to buy from. Exactly. And don't worry guys, it's going to be a long time
before we're classified as sellouts when we take a fat back from somebody overseas. All right,
we got a lot of time before that happens to us. Hey, if the Saudis come knocking, Billy Bonesaw.
All right, Danny, you asked a fun question. Whatever happened to the cool commercials?
Remember the Grand National from Buick? Bad to the Bonesong or the Brotherhood of Mosul for Dodge?
I could go on and on, but I feel like commercials, they suck. They don't have any emotion, no
connection to inspiration. They don't have anybody in those buildings that know what you're talking
about. It's true. And just like this, here's the funny thing. It's just like people telling me,
Jim Farley is a car guy. Okay, what's that mean? That's a good question. What does it mean a car
guy? Yeah, because I can tell you this, there's a lot of their cars that need a lot of updating
if a car guy is running it, because I can look at Tim Caniscus and go, that's a car guy.
He built TRX. He built this. He built that. He's in charge of this. Look at what he's doing.
Now he's making other decisions for the general population, but there are things to point to.
You made a GTD, so you're a car guy? No, you made it because you were mad about Corvette
dusting you, so you went and made it. I'm all for you doing that, right? I'm all for that.
But the reason cool commercials don't get made is that the people in the buildings now,
they're not one of you. They're not one of us. Those aren't the people there. They're good people.
I'm sure there's nice people. I'm sure there's people good at their jobs in those buildings,
but they're not trying to speak to you. And largely it's just they make everything white and
gray to appeal to the masses in there. And that's their grand scheme of things. They want to appeal
to the masses. They want to make it a white and gray world. That's why the colors are the way
they are now. There's nothing interesting in that world, largely on a day-to-day basis.
I understand it. It's a business decision, but he's exactly right. There's a lot of brands that
are struggling. Infinity comes to mind. Hell, if Infinity just went all in on becoming cooler,
just in the commercial, they might move the needle a lot. I'm sure there's lots of good people,
lots of nice people in these businesses. They're all good people, but they are dropping a ball
in a lot of the departments when it comes to brand awareness and sales and marketing or whatever.
But who do you think is actually, what's the last commercial from a car manufacturer that you
thought was kind of like pushing the envelope in a cool, funny, interesting way? Well, I mean,
when Dodge relaunched with Caniscus, I mean, that was the most recent. They just went all in.
They had Dana White reading off voiceover. It was very apparent there was a new head guy in
charge and they made that immediately, which also tells you if they actually want to make a change,
it doesn't take years. No, it can be done. He walked in the door, busted the door open and goes,
go make this commercial. He laid it down on the desk and said, hey, go do it right now.
Yeah, just pulled it out and said, let's go. So anybody that gives an excuse like, well,
these are big companies. Well, we also, it's not like Ram is a small company.
You know, the Dodge whole brand is a small, tiny little upstart company. No, they're a big company
and when the right guy walks, the right gal walks in the door, guess what happens? They go, we're
going to fix this now. So that's where the excuse, it's like when people tell me about the small
Toyota truck. Well, you know, they got to take about, no, they don't. No, they don't. They're
choosing to slow roll it. That video still, I mean, it's, it blows up every day still,
the small truck, mini truck video on Instagram. Yep. Well, I'll give you, I'll give you a,
you know, for all you Toyotas out there, another large engine recall.
Ooh, he is a large 125,000 more vehicles added to that recall, including the GX
from a certain time of production with actually, as of yesterday, no fix
for that. Now, we also know what that means is they can't make the engines fast enough. They're
going to replace the engines. But again, all of you fanboys told me there's never trouble.
We're at now 550 plus thousand vehicles that need new engines
on the new platform. Things happen. That's what we say. That's not what you say.
Man, drop mic drop right there. Have you by chance seen the Jeep Wagoneer commercials,
the campaign that they just started with Eliza Schlesinger, the comedian?
Is it good? They are pretty good, dude. I didn't have him queued up, but this is
reminding because we're talking about commercials. You know, if you're in the comedy, like Nick loves
comedy, he listens to a couple of comedy podcasts, I'm sure I do too. And I'm sure a lot of you guys
do as well. Most of you will be familiar with Eliza Schlesinger. If you've listened to any
Rogans in the past or just maybe even just a fan of her comedy, I'm a fan of hers. You know,
she'll say some stuff that's hilarious and other things that annoy you, but that's just like most
people. I'm sure we're the same way to people. But when they rolled up the campaign about a week
or so ago, it just, I thought, I think they did a great job with checking all the boxes for the
moms, essentially, that are going to be buying these Wagoneer. So after the podcast, I'll find
a couple of the commercials because they've rolled out like one, kind of in sequential order. And
it's kind of like a story that they're telling. And she's like the new, she's calling herself
like the new CEO or COO and they made some other like funny acronym for it. And it's just like
the delivery is good because she's a great comedian. And the whole thing is just like, dude,
that brand right now is doing a good job. So if everybody doesn't know why I say Billy Bonesaw
is because Rob and I were a fan of Bill Burr's podcast real early on when he first started it.
And he took the Saudi money. And so that's the Billy Bonesaw joke explained to those that don't
know why I keep saying that. There you go. So I got to send you that. I'm seeing those commercials
for sure after the show. Moving on, we got from John here, the new FJ. It's not my type of vehicle,
older suburban dad who thinks the Honda Prelude is great because it has enough room to fold down
the rear seats and put in a golf bag. Hey, dude, love the honesty. Yeah, dude, love it, right?
That's what I'm talking about. We need more of that, which by the way, it's a good idea.
That's actually, that's like almost like Corvette-ish. Like when you think about it,
like get a Corvette, put a golf bag in the back, the Prelude smaller, more efficient,
but kind of a similar idea. I like it. I think Toyota is going to sell a butload of these.
And then he followed up in a separate email, not coming to America. What are they, mental?
I just laughed. So shout out to John for sending that. We did talk about it last week. I don't
know if they've like updated that as far as not coming to North America or America.
Look, we're speaking now. I think the announcement was a week ago, right?
I don't know. I think Toyota makes, everyone needs to, I think, realize something about Toyota.
And I mean this sincerely. When they can crack heads on 4Runner, when they can crack heads on Tacoma,
they are real squeamish about denting into that. You guys keep thinking that this brand is going
to do something to bring the price down. They got no interest in that. Your cracking heads for
60 grand on Tacoma on average, you know, let's call it 55 to 65 on 4Runner on average.
Why do they want to sell something that's $40,000? Because they already have options,
right? You can go to RAV4, you can go to these other... Highlander.
Yeah. So they got you hooked at this big price point. You guys think they're going to mess with
that? That's why when people said, they've been working on a small truck for the U.S. for five
years. No, they haven't. They have one designed. That doesn't mean you're working on it. They have
designs, you know, coming out their ears of things that could come to the States. In that
building, here's exactly what they say. Well, if we release that cheap truck, you know, we're
going to sell less Tacomas. Yeah, let's don't do that. Yeah, let's not do that. Yeah. So, I mean,
you guys think you know this brand, it's very obvious to anybody looking on, as long as you
keep buying Tundra, Tacoma, 4Runner at these elevated prices, there ain't nothing that they're
going to cut into that at all. Nothing's changing. Shout out to a different John who sent in an email
with just a subject line, GM swallowed another retard pill. So, that just made me laugh. So,
it's obviously about GM Gate. We talked about that one too. So, I'll leave it at that. I just
wanted to give him a shout out for sending a hilarious subject line. Ben, shout out to Ben.
He also sent an email about GM Gate, but he is a software engineer, I believe, deep in the world of
software, computers, and automotive. So, I'm going to actually save that one for next week,
because he sent a bunch of interesting articles about a larger story or diabolical plan at play
here, and I want to take some time to read it and then kind of summarize it for Nick so we can
talk about it on the show. But essentially, thanks for sending a big tech overlord and big auto
story and thought out email, and I'll send it over to Nick as soon as I kind of condense it with
some stories and articles. Yeah, and these types of emails, guys, we want to do them justice,
because I know you guys are spending a lot of time. So, we do want to get to this email,
because I think it's interesting, especially, you know, some things you've shared with me.
Yeah. We want to look into it and we want to go. Probably what we're going to say is,
we've kind of been on this, whether we've said it publicly or privately,
there's this big data thing that's going on that everybody doesn't realize, and I think this data
is going to lead to a place people aren't ready for, which is, this is going to clue in insurance
companies, and insurance companies are going to skyrocket rates based off this data that gets
collected, not just for sales to, you know, companies like Google or whatever, or any of those
types of things that's a moneymaker. But remember, everything's going to less parts. Okay, this is
one thing I want to say that I haven't said publicly. These companies make a lot of money
on continuing to build parts that need to fix your vehicles. As they go more EV, there's less
parts, they're going to recoup that money. They're not giving it away, right? And they're going to
recoup it by this whole data thing. They're going to get the insurance companies on your back,
through that data, they're going to sell your data to people you're unaware that they're selling
it to that you signed your life away to sell your car data to, they are not going to lose guys.
Let's just remember that these companies aren't going to lose. So they are already putting things
in place to take all this data and sell it for millions and billions of dollars to replace this
parts business that they're going to lose overnight, if it's all goes the way they think it's going to
go. Absolutely. I got to end the podcast and land the plane with this video that was sent to me
because it was about the, I think a week ago, we talked about the know it all, right? The people
that know everything, right? That the cancer in your life, the, you know, so check this out, dude.
Shout out. I forgot who sent it to me. Sorry. But I'm going to play it for you here. Audio should
be playing. So I could pick this truck apart left and right, but this is the type of stuff that drives
this nuts and mechanics. So this guy put his own upper control arms in and then put a big old note
across the dash, across the gauge cluster that said alignment only. Well, first off, you can't
weld bolts in in place of your eccentric cam pins because now the control arm is not going to move
back and forth. He did this on both sides. He also installed his cams upside down, needs an
idle and pitman arm because they're about to fall out. All four tie rods are shot, lower ball joint
shot, but this guy has the audacity to say alignment only because you know what you're talking about.
Look at this. He put a piece of paper sideways, just wrote alignment only.
The incidental Chevy too, which I used to have that same steering wheel cover in my high school
truck. This guy needs to talk to me. I know you did. I know you did. Yeah. Yeah. You damn right I
did. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. I know you did. By the way, a man sitting on this podcast has never
and I mean never had a steering wheel cover on any vehicle. Well, I'm not sitting. So there you go.
That answers that. Just let you know. I am never going to be caught with a steering wheel cover
on my cars and none of you should be either. Get them reupholstered. I had that Chevy one and then
I had a four performance one and one of the diesels and one of the ranch trucks because
I really needed something to grip on because that steering wheel fell apart real quick.
Four performance one and it's back. Four performance four racing. Sorry. Go ahead.
Yeah. Let's let's say this just to kind of go on this mechanics, you know, side here.
For those of you that don't work in this world, this happens all the time every day and here's
the cancer. That guy tells his coworkers, tells his family, tells his friends that he knows what
he's talking about. And that the shop wouldn't do what they were asked to do. And then yeah,
so he's going to bash the shop. He's going to infect his circle. So for all of you that have
blamed manufacturers, dealers, Nate, mechanic shops, the cancer in the car industry, the biggest
cancer is the man or woman that infects the hundred people around them that they know what
they're talking about when it comes to the car world. It's been that way my whole career.
And I know everybody hates hearing it, but this proves it once again. You could literally start
a YouTube channel. If you could go to enough shops on a daily basis and show no at all mistakes
like this on an endless loop 24 seven. If you had the ability to set up cameras in
enough shops around the United States, you would never run out of contact. So essentially what
we need to do is start something like a libs of Tik Tok, be like, know it all of auto shops,
you know, and just have the mechanics send in their videos. Dude, that's a great idea.
I know that just cancel ridiculousness. Maybe we can be the next MTV show just about cars on there.
Your boy made some cash. Oh yeah. What was it like 42 consecutive seasons or something like that?
You know, Deirdic is like my neck of the woods. What are you a buckeye? What was your college?
Yeah, come on. Don't don't don't. Oh, sorry. I wasn't trying to. You're talking about the number
one team in the nation. Yeah, we are. Yeah. That's okay. And love it. I love it. In this case,
it's we, but if I say anything about the Astros. Oh, yeah, I went there. You didn't you never even
work for the Astros? I've been on the field before. I've done some some work at the field.
Hey, I paid. You paid. I got paid to go. Let's go. By the way, I've been on the field at Houston
as well. It doesn't make me part of the Astros. So no, and look, if you believe it, it's not a lie.
I can't I can't believe how long that ran. I think it's cool what Deirdic has built. Oh, yeah,
it's just amazing. Like, you know, but what are they going to run on MTV now? You know,
I had read that it just might be going a way all together. MTV as we know it. That'd be kind of
sad. It would be kind of sad, right? Not that we ever watch it, but I don't know. It's nice to
know it's there. Yeah, dude, I'm caught. I'm caught up in the YouTube TV thing. Are you caught up?
What do you mean that you can't get you can't get ESPN? Oh, okay. I just saw JJ Watt and Pat
McAfee really roast an ESPN about this like five minutes ago or five minutes before we started
recording. What's the deal? Yeah, I have YouTube TV. It's not on. They're in an argument. So
Google said we're not going to pay and they took it off. You can't get ABC or ESPN.
On top of that, I know I don't know how much football used to watch, but like,
actually, before we land the plan, let's read, let's reengage into the air real quick. What's
up with the NCAA and the gambling scandal that's going on? I don't know if you've heard about this.
Oh, the NBA. Yeah, the NBA. Or the NBA. Yeah, it's it.
You know, living in Vegas, you become kind of immune to the gambling thing. I don't think the
rest of these states knew what they were getting into. You know, I don't think the rest of the
world of the United States should say the rest of the United States knew what was coming. But
they took for granted how much Vegas is on top of this stuff, meaning like as a city, they easily
found out when something shady was going on. I think it's just now it's just hitting people in
the face of like, this has been going on for generations. People have been fixing games,
doing stuff. It's just now it's going to start coming to light. Stop thinking it's just the
NBA. Look at the Shohei Otani stuff. Come on. His interpreter was, give me a break. Dude. You
know, it's it's it's everywhere. It's widespread. Stop thinking it's new. The difference is when
it was controlled in Nevada, there was so much oversight in a small area, they could catch the
stuff and they just don't have that ability to do it as quickly now. I don't think so. You know
this week, earlier this week, the NCAA now allows their athletes to bet on pro sports.
That's crazy. Dude. So that and that's the NBA thing was one thing, which was wild because
I used to be a huge Chauncey Belts fan while I was a kid. I don't know why I think there's
gonna be jail time. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. They'll be made an example of but so the NCAA
approved a rule change on Wednesday that will allow athletes athletes and athletic department
staff members to bet on professional sports. This will go well. This is as if we don't already
have how many 30 for 30 is about people that go broke, you know, in sports. Now you're going to
start them in college when they'd already don't know any financial literacy. I'll tell everybody
this. You know, obviously you guys know where I'm at. You know, the people with money. Some of
these people are my clients. The casino owners always went. In case you're confused. They have
compounds and they have lots of cars and they have it's it's entertainment guys. Take it as
anything else. You're cooked. Yeah. Hey, great way to end it. You're cooked. Look at this guy.
Old man. Hey, I was kind of cooked, but then I got fired up. You said back in the chair. Everybody
might have tuned out after the conversation. So we don't know how many people made it. No,
no, no. They made it to the end. I'll give our audience that they make it to the end of the show.
Whether you're watching on YouTube, the full hour or the audio, you guys are the best. All right,
now we're going to reland the plane and say, Hey, we've made it 52 episodes. We've got three more
weeks until we actually make our one year anniversary on December 1st. We got some cool
things coming up on the LX. We've got some cool things coming out around the holidays.
Those are my final words. Anything you want to leave people with your final seeming impressions,
Nick? It's still a week. I love, you know, it's still a week that it's worth it.
You know, you get, it's a lot of walking, a lot of talking, a lot of brain wattage used,
but it's always worked it to me. I love this stuff. I want to say all the craftsmen that
brought stuff that was done really well. I think it's amazing the talent that's out there.
It's still a week that means something to me. I know it doesn't mean a lot to everyone else,
maybe at this time, but I'm glad it exists, man. It's a cool week. All right,
let us know your thoughts in the comments. We'll see you everybody next week. See you guys.
About this episode
The 52nd episode dives into a recap of SEMA 2025, highlighting the challenges and changes in the automotive industry. The hosts discuss the craftsmanship on display, the increasing presence of international companies, and the decline in enthusiasm at unveilings. They express concerns about repetitive builds and the disconnect between manufacturers and consumers. The episode also touches on the future of the industry, the impact of electric vehicles, and the importance of supporting local businesses. With a mix of humor and candid observations, this episode offers a unique perspective on the current state of the automotive world.
aftermarket
ceramic coating
Dinan
HRE Wheels
OEM parts
paint protection film
PPF
Ring Brothers
roadster shop
warranty
Audi RS4
BMW 3 Series
BMW Z4
Buick Grand National
Chevrolet Corvette
Dodge Ram
Ford Bronco
Ford Escape
Ford Mustang Mach-E
Ford Taurus
Ford Torino
Honda Odyssey
Honda Prelude
Jeep Wagoneer
Jeep Wrangler
Mazda CX-5
Mercedes-Benz C 63 T-Modell (S204)
Porsche 911
Toyota 4Runner
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Highlander
Toyota Land Cruiser
Toyota RAV4
Toyota Sienna
Toyota Supra
Toyota Tacoma
Toyota Tundra
Original notes
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Clutch Culture Podcast
Robert Garza & Nick Walters
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