Dealer Sentiment Shift, Mixed Emotions On Carvana, Apple Encryption, and a Lego EV

The Automotive Troublemaker w/ Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

Thursday is all the rage as we talk about the results of the Q3 Cox Dealer Sentiment Survey. We also talk about Carvana’s current spot, Apple putting data recovery in user’s hands, and the Lego indicator we’ve all been waiting for.

• The quarterly Cox Automotive dealer sentiment survey of 1000 franchised and independent dealers communicates that profits remain strong however concerns are rising over interest rates and the overall economy
  • Since mid 2021, lack of inventory had been the top concern
  • The survey focuses on what Dealers think will be the case 3 months from now based on current conditions
  • Affordability remains a top issue
  • New vehicle prices holding, pressure to incentivize is rising, the need for sales responsiveness is growing
    • Earl Stewart from EST is expanding training sessions for sales staff, pushing them to respond to customers quickly and ranking them in comparison to their peers. “I’m disturbed because my salespeople have become order takers”
• Carvana stock price is reeling after a pact made from lead investment firms
• The investment groups are now forced to negotiate with Carvana for debt restructuring together for the next 3 months instead of separately
• “In the case of Carvana, its bonds are all unsecured. But the company could borrow against assets like real estate, effectively putting existing creditors further back in line to collect money if the company were to file for bankruptcy.”
• One concern is a looming liquidation of inventory, potentially driving a lower wholesale market, which is already down 14.6%, for used vehicles than expected over the next 3-6 months
• End to end encryption is coming to Apple’s iCloud backup for their device suite.
  • Apple says it will be available to the public in the US by the end of 2022 and will come to the rest of the world in early 2023.
  • Recovering any data will now be solely the responsibility of the user, similar to backup codes used in crypto
• Lego has gone EV with their ‘Electric Sports Car’ Set. Now we’re official.

Hosts: Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier
Get the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/

JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/

Read our most recent email at: https://www.asotu.com/media/push-back-email