The Automotive Troublemaker w/ Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

Stellantis Slashes MSRPs, Tesla Leans Into Autonomy, Starbucks Brings Back Sharpies

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Happy Election Day! Well, now that we’ve covered that… today we’re talking about how Stellantis listened to dealers and cut prices on some Jeep models, how Tesla has given up on the human-driven affordable EV, and how your name might start being incorrectly spelled on Starbucks cups this fall.


Show Notes with links:


  • Stellantis has decided to significantly reduce prices on its 2025 Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer models to address dealer concerns about high prices slowing inventory turnover.
    • Price cuts range from $3,000 to $7,000, depending on the model, with the base Wagoneer now starting at $61,945, while the Grand Wagoneer begins at $86,945.
    • The U.S. market has shown demand; Wagoneer sales are up 79% and Grand Wagoneer sales up 25% through September, supported by both retail and fleet sales.
    • Standard features have also been enhanced, including adaptive cruise control on the Wagoneer and a passenger display on the Grand Wagoneer.
    • Bob Broderdorf, Jeep North America chief, stated, “By lowering MSRPs as much as $7,000 and enhancing standard equipment... these vehicles have become even more compelling.”


  • Tesla CEO Elon Musk has put to rest hopes for a human-driven $25,000 EV. He recently revealed that an affordable Tesla would only make sense as a fully self-driving vehicle, shelving plans for an anticipated mass-market, human-driven model.
    • Musk called the idea of a $25K human-driven EV “pointless” and “silly” without full autonomy.
    • Tesla’s updated plan now features the “Cybercab”, a two-door, two-seat autonomous vehicle priced at $25,000, planned for 2026.
    • This strategy change represents a pivot from Tesla's initial goal of building 20 million affordable, human-driven vehicles annually by 2030.
    • Tesla analyst Seth Goldstein “Tesla realized they were late to making an affordable vehicle versus their Chinese-EV peers… So, they changed their strategy rather than make a large investment to produce a new vehicle.”


  • Get ready for your name to be spelled incorrectly on your coffee cup again. Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is bringing Sharpies back into stores as part of his "Back to Starbucks" strategy, aiming to revive a personal touch that Starbucks lost during the pandemic.
    • After three quarters of declining sales, Niccol is cutting unpopular items, like the Oleato, and removing charges for non-dairy substitutes.
    • Sharpies will replace digital stickers on cups, allowing baristas to write personal notes or names, enhancing the in-store experience.
    • Niccol’s “Back to Starbucks” plan focuses on creating a warm, welcoming environment that highlights skilled, personable service.
    • “Our fourth-quarter performance makes it clear that we need to fundamentally change our strategy so we can get back to growth,” said Niccol.

Hosts: Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

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Paul J Daly:

Music, folks, we made it happy election day, Tuesday, November 5. We're not going to talk about any politics today. So you are in the splash not in the splash zone. You're in the safe zone. We're going to talk about stellantis and Tesla and Starbucks and Sharpies and something else that starts with an S and

Kyle Mountsier:

my kids, you ever get this time, I'm gonna tell just a kid's story that's totally unrelated. The only reason it's related is because it has the word Sharpie in it.

Paul J Daly:

But last night, all kids and Sharpies are terrifying. Last night, my

Kyle Mountsier:

two year old daughter happens up. She's like, in the corner living room, and she's like, Daddy marker. No. Oh,

Paul J Daly:

every, every parent, light gray couch, right across it. Yeah, sharpies are from the devil. If you have a toddler, that's right, because they, I mean, it doesn't come off the skin easily. I mean, by design, it doesn't come off anything easily.

Kyle Mountsier:

It's called permanent marker for a reason, you know, is, yeah, you

Paul J Daly:

know it's bad, like when the skin is stained and you're like, I can't scrub the skin anymore. Like we have to just wait for your skin cells to shed, and I just be judged by all the other parents. Oh, we got some great stuff coming up. We have an another ASOTU Edge webinar coming up this week tomorrow, 2pm auditing your 2024 advertising performance with our friends at stream companies. This is part one of a part two. We're going to be with Sue B. Who else we're going to be with today? It's funny, I get this new I can't even see the names.

Kyle Mountsier:

Oh, who else is gonna be on there? Now I can't remember. Now

Paul J Daly:

you can't remember. Okay, it's not on the show. You go to asotu.com and just scroll down a tiny little bit. You should join the webinar. We have so much fun on these 2530 minute webinars. It's a great time. This two part series is great. Let's talk about what happened in 2024 let's start to get some thoughts on the board for 2025 this is a great way that, even if you haven't done that yet, but, you know, you should, you feel a little guilty about it, just sign up for the webinars. You'll get them in your inbox. It'll probably give you a couple little ideas. You can throw stuff down on a pad. Use GPT help build some of this out. And you can be, you know, have that feeling of being a step ahead even. I mean, yes, we have two months left this year. Speaking

Kyle Mountsier:

of GPT, should we like, should we like soft toss that into the win today? Yes,

Paul J Daly:

yes, just

Kyle Mountsier:

soft toss it. I

Paul J Daly:

don't think we're tossing the URL. I think we're tossing what's coming. Are we tossing the URL? Okay, listen, if you're on the CEO, right, you, you, you

Kyle Mountsier:

feel it out. Okay, okay. If you're in

Paul J Daly:

the live stream right now, or you're listening to the podcast, we have been working on the auto industry's first and only AI dedicated newsletter. It's gonna be in the soda publication. And if you listen closely, and you go to and yes, we got this URL, auto industry.ai, auto.ai. Go. There right now, there's a lot of stuff that's going to be published on that. We have contributors, Steve Greenfield, Todd Caputo, Kyle, myself, Michael Cirillo, are all starting getting to this thing where we're actually going to write contributing articles, because we have a lot of thoughts and a lot of execution experience with AI, and we want to contextualize it for the auto industry. It's moving fast. It's going to change everything. It is changing everything, it is changing everything, whether you like it or not. So go there. Sign up, subscribe for that newsletter. Be one of the first people on that newsletter. I think right now, there's like five people, and it's just the people that work at our company, right? Yeah, okay, we don't even have our own money yet.

Kyle Mountsier:

Maybe there'll be something that whoever's the first person to jump in there, I don't know. We might, we might do something special for you. So, yeah, if you're on the live stream this morning and you're listening like maybe you're first, you know that fun, little

Paul J Daly:

brand, fun little thing, little drop, okay, I think we did enough. We're heading to Austin tomorrow, and we're speaking to what a Doug, yeah,

Kyle Mountsier:

don't worry. We're not turning this show over to AI, not anytime soon. No, AI can't do what we do

Paul J Daly:

a I just can't do what we do. Doug for now, for now, but the moment it does, we're on a beach,

Unknown:

on a beach whatever.

Paul J Daly:

Yeah, not really beach guy. So we're going to Austin, Texas to spend a day with all of the communications directors for all of the state associations, and when we get excited about, like, bringing the more than cars mentality to every state, this is kind of way to do it. We're gonna do with all the comms director. We'll make some content. Of course, we'll take you along the journey, and this is if you know your comms director in your state, give him a shout out, tell him to say hi, and we'll take a selfie, and we'll make you jealous that you weren't there. There you go. Alright, let's get to some news. Atlantis has decided to significantly reduce prices on its 2025 cheap wagoneer and grand wagoneer models to address dealer concerns about slow inventory, high prices. The cuts are pretty deep, in some cases, up to$7,000 depending on the model, with the base wagoneer now starting at 61,009 four. 35 and the grand wagoneer starting at 86 945, the US market has shown demand, but wagoneer sales are up 79% grand wagoneer up 25% through September, and obviously those are slowing, so dealers are like, help us sell these expensive things. Bob Broder Dorff Jeep North America chief said quote by lowering MSRPs as much as 7000 and enhancing the standard equipment. I like the duality there. These vehicles have become even more compelling. So some moves by stellantis to look that's what we all

Kyle Mountsier:

know. Stellantis has some work to do, and this is one of those vehicles that they can win with. Have you been in and around a wagoneer like, yeah, I love them. Oh my goodness, I love that. Every time is amazing. I

Paul J Daly:

feel like that's the rental that we always end up getting when we go to Orlando. You always end because I big family with the extended one, and every single minimum, I'm always surprised by how much I like it.

Kyle Mountsier:

Yeah, it's interesting, because I think it's like, it's almost a departure from the Jeep brand, right? Like, it's still rugged, but it is a premium truck. And so to be able to get that premium truck in the low 60s, and then, you know, the grand wagoneer under 90k for the first time, that's

Paul J Daly:

crazy. When that started at 94 or whatever it is, it's like, yeah, really

Kyle Mountsier:

impressive. And I would say this will probably accelerate the sales velocity for these vehicles pretty quickly. And I'm sure Jeep dealers are all about it, but stellantis has a lot more work to do than just working on a single vehicle line in the jeep brand. But kudos to them for this. And yeah, it's not in my wheelhouse, but like, that's a that's a great truck. It is. Just call it like see it,

Paul J Daly:

alright. Speaking of call it like he sees it. There's a man that only calls it like he sees always, only sometimes to his own peril. But Tesla CEO, Elon Musk has put to rest the hopes for a human driven $25,000 EV he recently revealed that an affordable Tesla would only make sense as a full self driving vehicle, shelving the plans for the much anticipated mass market human driven model. He called the idea of a $25,000 human driven, EV quote, pointless and silly without full autonomy. Their updated plan now features the cyber cab. Is what they're calling it, the two door, two seat autonomous vehicle. We saw it when they released it at the launch event plan for 2026 it's basically a big change, because Tesla was on the we're going to produce a low cost EV for a long time. I guess this is still a low cost EV, but it just can't be driven by a human. So their initial goal was building 20 million human driven, affordable EVs by 2030 but that's doesn't seem like it's going to happen. Analyst Seth Goldstein said, quote, Tesla realized they were too late to making an affordable versus vehicle versus their Chinese EV pure, so they changed their strategy, rather than making a large investment to produce a new vehicle.

Kyle Mountsier:

That is so clearly the path here. It's like, hey, look, if we couldn't be first to beat BYD to this low price vehicle, then let's just, let's just divert all resources into finding out how to do autonomy at scale. You know, it's a very Elon Musk. It's a very Tesla move like bob and weave. Don't do the things that other people are doing. I also am like to say that a vehicle can be $25,000.02 years prior to it being released. Is kind of like a silly

Paul J Daly:

it's like a $60,000 cyber truck. Remember, the cyber truck is gonna be, yeah, exactly.

Kyle Mountsier:

So I wouldn't take too much stock in that, but I definitely, I would take stock in the fact that the new strategy for Tesla will, without a doubt, be autonomy. You know, I've talked to so many people that have driven full in full self driving mode that have just been shocked and staggered already available, and we talked two years from now, when they start to release this to mass market. You think of what's going to come into the market as a $25,000 just autonomous thing that people are going to be driving around in, yeah, like the pace of innovation is going to happen like that. For sure, it is. I

Paul J Daly:

mean, it's kind of sad when you think about the US market, and it's a huge market, and so there it does. I do feel like there's room for a $25,000 EV made by Tesla, but it is about resource allocation. And like you said, I mean, like, Kyle's coming out with some great stuff, Chevy coming out with some great stuff. And, you know, I don't know. I mean,

Kyle Mountsier:

well. And actually, I think about it like, this is like, you know, this is another example of, like, Tesla not being the skip vehicle. The the thing to get you into the EV path, I think they're still going to rely on the legacy automakers to move people from like gas to hybrid, to plug in hybrid to EV, and the the autonomous vehicle is another example of that. It's only going to be really for early adopters. It's going to be people that are excited about the tech, interested in being alpha beta testers of a technology. And so, you know, they've never claimed to just be like mass market idealism. So I think. Just lives in that kind of thesis. Yeah, well, we'll see, I guess we'll see. Speaking of mass, Mark wonder he Elon

Paul J Daly:

Musk is voting for today. Oh

Kyle Mountsier:

no, he had to do it again.

Paul J Daly:

I mean, that's gonna, it's, I might still make this post on LinkedIn, like, it's like leaving the show now, here's, here's who I voted for, right? And then like, dot, dot, dot, Seymour, and they were like, Are you out of your freaking mind? I love all of my friends.

Kyle Mountsier:

I like my friends. I will keep them. I like, I

Paul J Daly:

like the half of my friends that would like me if I said this. The blank we both hit it.

Kyle Mountsier:

Get ready for your name to be spelled incorrectly, especially if your last name is Mountsier on your coffee cup again. See Starbucks CEO Brian Nicole, who we've just been talking about like crazy recently, is bringing back sharpies into the stores as part of his back to Starbucks strategy, aiming to revive a personal touch that was lost a lot during the pandemic after three quarters of declining sales, nickel is cutting unpopular items like the ole auto you know, that weird drink with like all the you know, I never got whatever I was like, and removing charges for non dairy substitutes. We covered that last week. Sharpies will replace digital stickers on cups, allowing baristas to write personal notes or names, enhancing the in store experience. The back to Starbucks plan focuses on creating a warm, welcoming environment that highlights skilled, personable service. He said, our fourth quarter performance makes it clear that we need to fundamentally change our strategy so we can get back to growth. And it seems like that strategy is going to a people first business. This is first of

Paul J Daly:

all, first of all, has anyone ever written your last name on your cup? No, they

Kyle Mountsier:

write Kyle. And then sometimes,

Paul J Daly:

do you spell Kyle?

Kyle Mountsier:

I don't know. They put an eye in there. Sometimes Kyle,

Paul J Daly:

oh, yeah, yeah, that's right. We I had a guy work for me. His name was Kyle, k, e, i, L, and we called him Kyle or Kyle. We called him Kyle anyway, just for fun. This is quintessential brand first thinking it doesn't cost any money. It costs less

Kyle Mountsier:

money. Oh, right. And printers and technology debt, and people fixing the technology. It's like, go down to Walmart and grab some sharpies. I wonder how

Paul J Daly:

the order is gonna go on the cup. Because, like, the order still, you know what I mean, it's like, listed there, and people, like, know how many pumps and all that thing. So I wonder how they're going to solve that problem, without a doubt, the personal touch. Getting back to the things that may be starting

Kyle Mountsier:

as every small coffee shop, right? Like you get shorthand, yeah,

Paul J Daly:

but I'm thinking like online orders. That's true. Like if someone getting there, look, that's not, that's not cheaper having someone writing on the cup instead of having the thing spit it up. There's

Kyle Mountsier:

definitely a time cost. They're

Paul J Daly:

going to figure they're going to figure this out. But the reality is, guess what? I'm excited to have it back. I'm going to like it when I see it. I always thought, you know, especially the ones that take a little intentionality, a little smiley face on there, a little thing, like, I love Starbucks, getting back to its roots. Sometimes it takes a brand a really long time to have to get back to its roots. And I think, what's what CEOs name? What's his name? Brian, Nicole, Brian. Brian, we're fans. We're fans. Turn around and we're rooting for you. So if you're out there on the front line, if you're out there working in the auto industry, we're rooting for you too. You get out there and vote, but vote with your heart and take care of people. How about we do that today? Let's do that together.

Unknown:

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Paul J Daly

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