The DEETs Issue #8

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Even the Pope has gone electric these days, with a new Mercedes Popemobile. It has an open-air design with a large white plush chair, perfect for 360-degree hand waving.?

Stellantis were having a particularly bad time when they issued five separate recalls in a single day. The recalls impact more than 80,000 vehicles, including the Grand Cherokee and the Grand Wagoneer, which have rear view cameras which “may not show images when reversing.” Yikes.?

Stellantis isn’t even the worst when it comes to recalls though. Tesla tops the list, with 5,135,697 cars recalled. And speaking of Tesla, I know we’re all looking for a greener vehicle, but this guy really didn’t expect to find grass growing inside his Cybertruck.

We all know by now that a Toyota can withstand pretty much anything, but it’s still pretty impressive that this 2013 Tacoma pickup truck kept running even after being melted in the California wildfires.?

Senators Push for Driver Data Privacy: Taking Back The Wheel On Your Info

Cars these days don’t just drive; they keep an eye on everything you do. From tracking your favorite coffee shop to recording how often you brake too hard, modern vehicles are gobbling up your personal data like it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet.?

But Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) are here to put the brakes on data-hungry automakers and put more control back in the hands of consumers with their Auto Data Privacy and Autonomy Act.

Their mission? To give you the steering wheel to your own information. With connected vehicles predicted to dominate 95% of the market by 2030, this bill is here to ensure that your personal data doesn’t end up in some shadowy server—or worse, in the hands of advertisers who suddenly know you love late-night Taco Bell runs.

What’s Under the Hood of the Bill?

• Opt-In, Not Opt-Out: Automakers must ask nicely before collecting your data. No sneaky settings or confusing terms allowed.
• Sharing is (Not) Caring: Your data can’t be sold or shared unless you say so. It’s your info—period.
• Hit Delete: Don’t want your car to remember every road trip? This bill lets you delete personal data tied to your vehicle.
• Watchdog on Duty: The FTC will play referee, ensuring automakers don’t go off-road with your privacy.
• National Security Measures: Foreign adversaries can forget about accessing U.S. car data.
• DIY Data Access: A standardized system will let you see exactly what your car knows about you.

“This bill empowers individuals to regain control of their vehicle data and restores transparency to a system that has left too many in the dark,” said Senator Lee.?

“You shouldn’t be worried about billionaire corporations invading your privacy and stealing your data every time you start your car,” Senator Merkley added.?

"With strong backing from consumer advocates, this bill promises to restore transparency and trust in the auto industry. Next time you’re behind the wheel, you can focus on the road—not on whether your car is spilling your secrets."

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? New Year, New CRO?

We’re hitting the gas in 2025 as Stephen Foster takes the wheel as our Chief Revenue Officer. To read all about Stephen’s proven track record of success and the plans he has to drive revenue at Authenticom, check out the blog post.?

Interesting Facts & Stats at a Glance

• Could the customer credit environment be improving? According to the Dealertrack Credit Availability Index, November 2024 saw a significant uptick in auto credit access - reaching 95.4. This is a 1.0% increase from October and a 0.8% rise from the same time last year, making the highest level of auto credit access since October 2023. (Source)
• New car loans now average over $42k, with 18.9% of borrowers paying more than $1,000 per month. (Source)
• EU tariffs are limiting the expansion of Chinese EVs into the European market. In November 2024, Chinese automakers held 7.4% of the European EV market, a significant drop from 8.2% in October. (Source)
• The average American is shifting towards buying smaller cars, with large pickup truck sales falling 1.9% this year and compact car sales rising by 16% in November alone. (Source)

Plus, sports cars are falling out of favor, with sales slumping by almost 20% compared to last year. ?(Source)

Authenticom Partner of the Month

This month’s Featured Partner is Brendan Dougherty , Senior Director of Product Marketing at @Auto, a finance-centered digital retailing and point of sale solution that helps dealers sell smarter online and in the showroom.?

In this interview, Brendan shares how AutoFi aims to improve the car buying experience by increasing transparency and efficiency, especially when it comes to finance.?

Here’s our conversation with Brendan:

Tell me the origin story of AutoFi. How did it come about?

We were founded in 2015 by Kevin Singerman and Mandar Gokhale, both fintech professionals in the Bay Area.?

With the development of platforms like Cars.com and AutoTrader, there was so much information about the car you were buying. You could see every little scratch and dent on the car and almost virtually smell the new car smell. But the one piece that was glaringly missing was finance and what purchasing would look like for the customer.

A lot of the platforms will just list an MSRP or a full buying price, but most people are payment driven. There was a huge opportunity to create something that layered on finance to the online automotive shopping experience.?

Fast forward to March 2020, things dramatically changed and there was a need for dealerships to have some form of online buying on their website. This created a massive spike in dealer interest and demand. That led into working not just within the website experience, but expanding our platform to include the showroom as well.?

That’s something I’ve been hearing when I talk to a lot of founders in the automotive tech spaces. 2020 was a big tipping point!

Absolutely! We thought that since dealers had adopted all of this website technology, there’d be a dramatic change in the way dealers sold when it was safe to go back into stores. But in the showroom, everyone reverted back to the old way of pen and paper and long drawn out processes.?

The majority of shoppers want to go into the showroom and touch the car and smell it - all the physical experiences you can’t get online. So, that’s been our big area of focus, bringing digital into the showroom. How do you take the excitement and change that happened during that two or three year period and then apply that to the 90%+ of consumers who buy their cars in person??

So, what’s the big problem that AutoFi is solving for automotive dealerships - and how is it solving it?

According to Cox Automotive, consumers are spending up to 14 hours shopping online before buying a car and still spending almost 3 hours in the showroom. Even with pricing becoming more competitive, there’s still so much back and forth, and dealership reviews often mention long transaction times.?

AutoFi addresses this by equipping salespeople with tools to make pricing and financing more transparent. For example, “What does the payment look like if I change the term here, or change the down payment?”

Dealerships already allow customers to do this online, but they’ve been hesitant to let the customer do it in the showroom. When dealers push back, we joke, “Well, you’re letting my grandma do that on your website. Why wouldn’t you show her the same thing when she’s in the store?”

It’s about creating an aura of trust and collaboration. For the dealers, there’s a big fear they will end up losing money. So we’ve built in lots of control for the dealerships to configure the experience, add markups and build in their fees to the showroom experience.?

Sounds like you’re focused on building a relationship based on trust. It’s not an adversarial “salesperson vs customer” interaction. Instead, both are working together to reach a deal everyone is happy with.?

Yes, exactly. Traditionally, you’d go into a dealership and sit down at a desk across from the sales person. But we built our technology so dealers are sitting side by side with customers, looking at the monitor together and letting the customer play with the buttons - without the fear that they are going to have to give the car away.?

By working on a deal together rather than having a back and forth battle, that’s where we’re seeing people sell smarter, not harder. It’s a better experience and you’re making more money because you create that trust right away and there’s less negotiation in the process.?

What sort of trends have you noticed evolving since you launched AutoFi??

A dealership salesperson makes an average of 9-10 vehicle sales per month, and that’s stayed the same for the last 10+ years. This means despite all the technology designed to make everybody’s lives easier, dealerships are not getting any more productivity out of their employees.?

But with AutoFi, we’re seeing less friction and we’re able to take that three hours down to 45-60 minutes. When you do the math, salespeople are selling upwards of 50% more cars per month. That’s 13, 14, 15 cars per month on average, compared to 9 or 10. Those salespeople aren’t giving the cars away - it’s simply that the deals are more upfront and transparent in a way that reduces friction.?

A trend we’re seeing, especially over the last 6-12 months, is that credit is tightening, and lenders are becoming much more restrictive on who they offer credit to. Car payments are skyrocketing and delinquencies are on the rise, and many buyers are upside down on their cars and getting them into the next car is a real challenge.?

How does AutoFi help dealerships handle these difficult economic situations?

In the past, dealerships would take the “shotgun” approach. They’d send their customer’s credit application to 10 lenders to see who would approve the loan. This is bad for the customer, the dealer and the lender.?

Plus, it’s time-consuming for the dealership because they have to follow up with so many lenders. It also impacts the relationship with the lender because they don’t want to get applications that have been sent out to multiple lenders. Despite sending out so many applications, the typical approval rate for this approach is less than 50%.?

Instead of sending credit applications to many lenders, AutoFi uses data to identify the best three lenders for a customer. With this technology, dealers are getting approval rates of up to 77%.?

It’s about quality vs quantity, isn’t it?

Yes, and also about data and optimization. Lenders are always changing their programs and it’s hard to keep track of what they are approving at any given time. We can take that burden off of someone in the dealership and let technology help make those decisions, so they can focus on other things.?

What do you anticipate is coming next for the industry? What plans do you have for Autofi’s future??

Passing the baton to Gen Z will be huge. There’s going to be more reliance on technology, and a lot of the tools out there haven’t evolved much over the last 20 years. With this new generation, I think you’ll see providers like AutoFi leaning in to understanding the expectations of their Gen Z dealership personnel user base.?

And another thing, right now, the automotive industry is pretty good at helping consumers find the car they are looking for and matching consumers to financing. The next frontier will be tying all three of those things together. Rather than finding the car and then finding the financing, or vice versa, bringing all three together is an area we’re leaning into.?

We’re also creating ways that? lenders and dealers can use technology to connect and rehash the deal without them having to pick up the phone and call each other.?

If I’m a salesperson and I don’t have to get up every five minutes to go check something with my manager or make a phone call, I’m able to engage with more customers. Ironically, this means technology can help people become more connected and have more human to human experiences.

A lot of the dealerships these days offer a really great experience, with a Starbucks in the showroom and play centers for the kids. Dealers can create more time for consumers to enjoy this amazing, high-touch experience.?

You could remove the time spent waiting for all the different offers to come back and forth and, for example, spend that time showing customers all the cool things their new car can do. There’s so much technology in cars these days!

Oh definitely. I’d rather be getting a tour of my new car or exploring a cool facility, than waiting for all that back and forth.?

Exactly. The other big piece is an increase in attribution. I’ve been in automotive since 2004 and there’s a whole thing around understanding what is driving results. That goes beyond what percent of my leads I close, to what things are creating a higher close rate.?

That’s where the data from Authenticom comes in. We see when a sales person does something like adjust a payment or pitch F&I products and we can see the effect of that on their close rate. Who’s closing more leads? Are you making more money on those leads? Are those people more likely to come in for service??

The next frontier is really deep attribution stories we can start to build together as an industry.?

Absolutely. That data really is everything! Now, a fun question to wrap things up - what’s your dream road trip??

I ride motorcycles and I’ve done quite a few cross-country camping trips. I’m in the Chicago area, so I’ve done plenty of East Coast and South kind of stuff, but my dream would be to ride Route 66 and camp along the way. Well, eventually I’d have to sleep in a hotel because my back would probably kill me.?

I think it’s the Lincoln Highway in Northern Nevada, that they call the “Loneliest Highway in America.” I think going out west through some of those really remote areas and being able to completely disconnect would be ideal.

Thanks so much, Brendan! You can learn more about AutoFi on their website.?

Why GM Is Making Big Waves in the EV World

General Motors are going all in on electric vehicles, reaffirming their bold commitment to ditch gas-powered cars completely by 2035.?

The automaker just hit a massive milestone, selling over 300,000 electric vehicles since 2016 - and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. A record 32,095 EVs were sold in Q3 alone. This makes GM the second-highest seller after Tesla, pushing out ahead of traditional competitors Ford and Hyundai.?

While challenges like battery production delays have briefly slowed down progress, GM’s vision remains clear: to make EVs accessible, affordable and desirable for all.?

Affordability is Driving GM’s Electric Surge

• The Chevy Equinox EV LT offers 315 miles of range, at a starting price of only $35,000.?
• The next-gen Chevy Bolt is due to launch in 2026, offering another budget-friendly option.?
• According to the numbers, electric vehicles save consumers around $1,500 on gas and maintenance per year.?
• Plus, certain models are eligible for a $7,500 tax credit through the Inflation Reduction Act. (Although consumers need to act soon, as President-elect Donald Trump has suggested that he will end these benefits.)

But GM’s EV strategy isn’t just about selling cars - it’s about reducing emissions and creating a more sustainable future. Their goals also include expanding charging infrastructure? and adding new charger stalls in convenient locations across the country, to make EV ownership more practical for everyday Americans.?

And the push can’t come too soon. Each fuel-powered vehicle on the road is responsible for an average of 4.6 metric tons of CO2 annually according to the Environmental Protection Agency. So, every time we swap out a gas-guzzler and put an EV in it’s place, it’s a win for the planet.?

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Snippets

Helpful Resource: If you’re a short king (or queen) and you’re tired of not being able to find a comfy driving position, you’ll want to check out Jalopnik’s list of the best cars for height-challenged folks.?

Looking for some inspiring automotive retail folks to look up to? CBT News has announced their 2024 40 under 40 list and it’s packed with people who have made exceptional strides in sales, management, marketing, innovation, customer experience and more.?

Working Wheels, a non-profit that provides transportation for families in need, is working to get survivors of Tropical Storm Helene back on their feet - and back behind the wheel. They’ve succeeded in raising nearly $400k to purchase 30 replacement cars for those who lost their vehicles in the flood.?

Top Tips: In this episode of Driving Solutions, Amberly Allen from Dealer Merchant Services reveals how to save on credit card processing fees, without disrupting your CSI.??

Did you know that you can build an EV “engine” from 50 cordless drills? Well, you can, but word is still out on whether you should.

Utah Man Goes Full “Fast & Furious” Over Subaru Refund Drama

When life gives you lemons, most people try to make lemonade. But one Utah man took a slightly different route—straight through the glass storefront of a car dealership.

The drama unfolded at a Subaru dealership in Sandy, Utah, when a customer, frustrated over being denied a refund for what he claimed was a faulty used Subaru, decided to take matters (and his car) into his own hands. The result? A spectacular crash through the dealership’s front entrance, leaving employees and onlookers stunned.

Thankfully, no one was injured in this impromptu demolition derby. But the man was promptly arrested and now faces charges, including felony criminal mischief.

The Plot Thickens

• The Grievance: The customer had reportedly been trying to return the vehicle for weeks, claiming it was riddled with problems. The dealership stood firm, saying the sale was final.
• The Finale: After the dealership denied a refund, the man returned in his Subaru, drove it through the glass entrance, and came to a halt inside the showroom.
• Damage Control: The dealership is left dealing with around $10,000 in damages, but no injuries were reported—miraculously.

Let’s Be Real

We assume we don’t have to tell you not to drive your car into the dealership window, no matter how frustrated you might get. Right??

Still, this incident will definitely go down in the “What not to do when buying a car” hall of fame.

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Around the Web

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?A 23-year old in Arizona stole a Volvo semi loaded up with 10 brand new Corvettes worth around $1.2M in total. His excuse? He had just been let out of jail and he needed a way to get home.?

Someone needs to tell this kid that Grand Theft Auto is not real life.?

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Who needs lo-fi beats to work to when Toyota has a three-hour-long video that’s just Lexus LFA V-10 engine sounds??

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Tesla Cyber Trucks have been making people sick. Literally.?

Apparently the “jerky and abrupt” acceleration and the lack of visibility from the vehicle’s interior make a pretty carsick combo for many folks.??

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These are the licence plates that the state of Illinois rejected this year for not meeting “standards of good taste and decency”, including HOKTUAH and THICCAF.?

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The weirdest and most unnecessary EV of the year??

It’s this wheeled suitcase with four speed settings, electronic braking, cruise control and a top speed of 18mph. You’ll never miss a flight again!

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