Today we’re talking about GM’s HQ move after 50 years. We also talk about Carmax’s major reduction in the customer return window, as well as an unintended acceleration issue with the Cybertruck.
Show Notes with links:
General Motors is relocating its headquarters from the iconic Renaissance Center to the newly constructed Hudson's Detroit skyscraper, heralding a major shift in Detroit's downtown development and GM’s operational focus.
GM is planning its move to a 404,000-square-foot office space in the Hudson's Detroit project by 2025.
The future of the Renaissance Center, Detroit's iconic complex since the 1970s, is now under review for potential new uses as GM did not announce plans to sell the property.
This relocation reaffirms GM’s commitment to Detroit, aligning with the city's broader downtown revitalization efforts led by billionaire Dan Gilbert.
"Together with Bedrock, the city and the county, we are reimagining the Renaissance Center for its next chapter," says GM CEO Mary Barra.
CarMax is reducing the time customers have to return purchased vehicles. Starting May 12, the window for vehicle returns and refunds will be shortened from 30 days to 10 days.
CarMax is modifying its Money Back Guarantee to 10 days, a significant reduction from the previous 30-day window.
This change will take effect on May 12, but CarMax will honor the 30-day return period for vehicles purchased on or before May 11.
The decision to shorten the return period is a response to "experiential headwinds" affecting customers and associates, as noted during CarMax's fourth-quarter earnings call.
CarMax CEO Bill Nash said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call, "A lot of our customers take advantage of it well before the 30 days. You get past the 10, some people are just working the system."
Tesla has temporarily stopped deliveries of the Cybertruck due to an unforeseen accelerator problem, causing significant inconvenience for customers awaiting their vehicles.
Tesla notified a client, “We have just been informed of an unexpected delay regarding the preparation of your vehicle. We need to cancel your delivery appointment on Sunday and we will reach out again when we’re able to get you back on the schedule. We apologize for the inconvenience and look forward to hosting your Cybertruck delivery soon!”
Tesla is pausing Cybertruck deliveries, informing customers of an unexpected delay linked to vehicle preparation issues.
A buyer reported on the Cybertruck Owners Club that the halt is due to a recall for an accelerator issue, although Tesla has not confirmed this.
A video surfaced on TikTok highlighting a potential safety hazard with the Cybertruck’s accelerator pedal, involving excess lubricant causing the cover to slide and jam.
Tesla plans to resume deliveries on April 20, but the ongoing issues may impact future delivery schedules.
Welcome to Tuesday, April 16. That's a fun thing to talk about it. We're about to hit a dealership tomorrow, you know? Carvana I mean, Carmax is changing things. GM changes things. cybertruck Maybe wishes they changed something. Yeah, I know that in a second.
Kyle Mountsier:
This is the moment where all of the like, you know, Ice Vehicle champions pile on, right? Like Cute, cute. q1 and q2, of 2023. Has been like 2024. Like, I don't know, it's like the resurgence of some, you know, great lost art. That's like coming back. That's like, Sue,
Paul J Daly:
I know. Just can't catch a break right now. It's brutal. They just can't catch a break. We'll see. I mean, they've pulled out of spots. But I mean, that's the beautiful part of like, now that there's actual competition in the Eevee market. Oh, when there wasn't actual competition in the Eevee market, it was a lot easier. But now that there is I think the consumer is gonna win. I think everybody's gonna end up winning, but definitely getting any. You
Kyle Mountsier:
know, what this week is like, the theme of this week is like consumers going to do what consumers are going to do. We gotta bring that sticker back. Like, we
Paul J Daly:
have it once we have some. Yeah, that'd be great. We should put that on the shirt. Yeah, it says consumers gone do what consumers gonna do. They're gonna do it, try to try to put incentives on it, they're gonna do it, they're gonna do it. No, no, no industry
Kyle Mountsier:
partner people are going to do and dealers gonna do what they're gonna do, which is they're going to come to ASOTU CON, if they know what's good for them. They know what's good for them. It's really heating up. The conversation is like, you come off a weekend, and people are emailing you texting you wondering when you're going. I had someone else messaged me this morning. They're like I'm coming. Getting my ticket. today. We've only got three hotel rooms left on the middle night. So if you're listening to this pod, and you're like, I really want to be there. With all the people there's only three left Get them while we keep
Paul J Daly:
getting them to open up like we've run out like several times. They keep giving us just a little drip feed more. Yep. And a little bit. We're just about out of hotel rooms in the entire hotel. Now the hotel with Adrienne Gibbs says good morning and my son, Dylan says hey to Dylan. Good morning to you, my so good. But if if you can, I'll get out to a soda con may 15. And 16th Thank you to our presenting sponsors Reynolds, Reynolds and Google goo for helping us make it all happen. Soda conduct commerce place to get your tickets, see the list of 60 speakers plus, see the agenda which is just stacked upon stacked upon stacked and then we're going to close out the whole thing with we'll get there as keynote author of unreasonable hospitality, and an awesome party immediately following his keynote, where you can kind of like, you know, have those final conversations and like, laugh about what you learn, share phone numbers, all that good stuff and then maybe have coffee with us in the morning. I love that part of the event. Down have coffee with us in the morning. Just
Kyle Mountsier:
chill with us have coffee, you know,
Paul J Daly:
send it off or I'll make you coffee
Kyle Mountsier:
I'll make for your coffee out of the you know, the wonderful. Oh, so
Paul J Daly:
good. So good. All right, let's get into some news. GM is General Motors, the the entire HQ is relocating from the iconic Renaissance Center, you know what it looks like? It's got like, kind of looks like a battery pack. Actually, the Renaissance Center, it's got like the four cylinders around the main cylinder in the middle. And they're moving kind of just down the street, I guess to the newly construction Hudson Detroit skyscraper. This is a major shift they've been in that building for over 50 years, is built in the 70s. They built it. They're planning to move to a 404,000 square foot office space, which is a downsize. The building that they originally built was 5 million square feet. By the way, the future the Renaissance Center, the place that they had built, is now under review for potential other uses. They have not said they're going to sell the property or anything. The relocation, again, they say reaffirms their commitment to Detroit, aligning with the city's downtown revitalization CEO Mary Barra said together with bedrock, the city and the county we are reimagining the Renaissance Center for its next chapter.
Kyle Mountsier:
Well, I like that and it would be really cool to see like, GM be a part of making that something that serves the city in a different way. You know, and like obviously, the big three are just so dedicated to the Detroit area. And I'm sure that they're going to be working hard to make sure that that thing doesn't just, you know, sit for four years. It makes a ton of sense that they're downsizing office space, right that's that's A common theme of the last four years we've seen multiple companies, including companies like cars.com, dealer, and spire just kind of say, hey, look, we're a remote company or hey, we're downsizing to a smaller office space. So it makes sense for GM to do something like that, too. Yeah.
Paul J Daly:
So it's a nice little thing. I'm trying to think what do you do with a building like that? I mean, it's just a big big office building. It's kind of like the Pentagon in the sense no,
Kyle Mountsier:
it's you don't make it a we work. See, you know, you and I had to do there
Paul J Daly:
that's buildings deceptively large. It's like the Pentagon. You look at the Pentagon. You're like, oh, it's big. But no, like, no, that's the biggest office building in the world. Like how square footage same thing with the GM. When you look at the building, you're like, that's 5 million square feet. It is. I don't know. Maybe we can visit before they shut her down.
Kyle Mountsier:
Oh, that'd be fun little tour.
Paul J Daly:
I know. We need to do a little tour Detroit. We've
Kyle Mountsier:
been invited for invited to Ford. Now we should go to G we should just do the big knock up do a little tour and then we'll go visit LG at Northwood right after that. Yes,
Paul J Daly:
yes. 100%. Yeah. Oh
Kyle Mountsier:
my goodness, we're coming to Detroit people one of these days that
Unknown:
was like the traits on the menu. Speaking of yes or no.
Paul J Daly:
Other say no. Car Max is reducing the time customers have to return a vehicle that they purchased starting on May 12. The window to read for vehicle returns and refunds will be shortened from 30 days to 10 days. Carmax is modifying the money back guarantee, which is a significant reduction right? You have 30 days to 10 days and the 30 days was the longest window in the industry. The change will take effect may 12. But Carmax have said they will honor the 30 day return period for vehicles purchased on or before May 11. So it may 11. You can bring it back by June 11. By it may 12. You can only bring it back by June 22. It's very complicated. The decision to shorten the turn period return period is in response to what they called experiential headwinds. I like that one affecting customers and associates that they said it sucks is basically what they said, for everybody. As they noted during their fourth quarter earnings call Carmex CEO Bill Nash said a lot of customers take advantage of it. Well, before the 30 days talking about the return policy. He said once you get past the 10 Some people are just working the system, what they mean is what people are what this story
Kyle Mountsier:
means is lots of people are just working the system, not just some people. Yeah, I mean, look, this is this is an interesting development. And I think it's important for for franchise dealers to look at because a lot of dealers have have created three 710 day return or exchange policies in response to what Carmax and Carvana had brought to the market. And so watching a major player like this make a move. It might it's either something that, hey, look at what that does to consumer behavior, potentially. But also, hey, if you have a seven day return policy, it's a lot easier to make it 10 than it is to try and match car Max is 30. So you may actually have been given an advantage in the market extremely quickly, if you can adjust your policies to match that. Because now you match a big box retailer instead of having to go well, yeah, I know that car Max is 30. But seven most people you know, there's a lot of explanation there. Now, you can just match the market real quick. Yeah, seven
Paul J Daly:
and 10 days if you know, by seven days, like you know, by probably five days, four days, whatever.
Kyle Mountsier:
So most people I mean, we had a return and exchange policy, it was pretty immediate. The majority of people that did it was within 24 to 48 hours and it was because the car you know the back or something like it was it was typically not buyer's remorse or it wasn't working the system. It was an actual thing. And most of the time, those people like what I remember is most of those time people actually wanted to exchange the car they wanted to just like make it an easy change can be difficult.
Paul J Daly:
Or whatever it is. Yeah, they're not trying to drive something. It's because there's a lot of hassles still, no matter how great your system is. It's a lot of hassle to buy a car, just as it is speaking of a lot of hassle. Segway
Kyle Mountsier:
Tesla's feeling the heat this week as they've temporarily stopped deliveries of the cybertruck Yes, the cybertruck due to an unforeseen accelerated problem causing significant inconvenience for customers awaiting their vehicles. Tesla notified a client we have just been informed enough of an unexpected delay regarding the preparation of vehicle we need to cancel your delivery appointment on Sunday and we will reach out again when we're able to get back on schedule. We apologize for the inconvenience and look forward to hosting your tribers cybertruck delivery soon. They they the unexpected delay is due to things like vehicle prep issues. Even a one on one Tesla owner took to Tiktok and highlighted a safety issue where's the issue? Yeah, this is crazy where the accelerator pedal when pressed in. So slid through. Because of too much lubricant jammed up and kept it in accelerate mode,
Paul J Daly:
it feels like not enough adhesive to me. Yeah, if you watch the TIC tock video, basically, the cybertruck pedal is kind of, I don't know, probably like an eight or nine inch stainless steel and pedal with some grips on it. And it's just a rectangle, pretty much actually, it's a little more of a trapezoid smaller in the top than it is in the bottom. And basically, the the cover that's on it slides back and forth, and the guy showing it and if you push the pedal all the way down, which if you ever cybertruck, you're definitely doing you're doing that, because zero to 60 and 2.6 seconds makes you just want to do that. And there's like a little ridge that if you press the pedal all the way down and it happens to slide forward, it then get stuck under a piece of carpet trim holding the pedal down is crazy, which is where if you're at 60 miles an hour in two seconds are put like that's a big problem.
Kyle Mountsier:
Like it's one of those things that you just should have called Toyota first. I know. Do you remember the old elevator pedal? Unintentional
Paul J Daly:
acceleration every Toyota dealer and OEM just shut it a little bit when I said that? Yeah. floormats getting caught floor.
Kyle Mountsier:
It's like basically the same thing. It's floormat the carpet like it's the same idea. Like someone should have called you know,
Paul J Daly:
they did I mean, it's it's amazing. This hasn't had an accent, but they did say there is a Fortunately, there's an override built into the system if the accelerator ever is stuck. Or if you push on the brake pedal, like push it all the way down. It overrides the acceleration. So it's not like you know, the old, the old muscle cars really like push the gas down and the break down and the wheels start to spin. Now the car is like, Wait, something's going on the pedals down and the brake pedals down. We're going to stop the vehicle. You know, but if you'd like to break, it's going to lurch forward again.
Kyle Mountsier:
Yeah. So they said they said they plan to resume deliveries on April 28. That's coming up obviously, the end of this week. So we'll see. You know, Tesla, the one thing about Tesla is they typically are very quick to address a problem. They address it universally. They know what they put everybody on it. And they get it to the finish line quickly. Yeah,
Paul J Daly:
I mean, there's no no pun intended. Yeah. They do it pretty fast. So well, they can fix this one with a software update. No, they can't physical fix. So it'll be interesting to see. Fortunately, there's only like 38 Cyber trucks out there. There's a couple more Yeah, they got a couple 1000 out now. So yeah, a little just a little issue though. Little issue. All right. I think we've done enough damage to the industry for the crushed it. Oh, we hope you have an amazing day out there serving people selling cars supporting the dealers who are doing that. And we'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning from an actual dealership