Man With A Plan, Ebay Leans Into Used Cars, ChatGPT Tasks

Michael Cirillo joins the show on this hump day, as talk about incoming NADA Chairman Tom Castriota, how Ebay is joining the online used car game and ChatGPT making repeatable tasks happen.

Show Notes with links:

• Tom Castriota, incoming chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), has outlined his priorities for 2025, focusing on regulatory changes, the EV transition, and franchise system challenges.
  • Tom is a Marine Corps veteran with 27 years of service and was recognized as the 2011 TIME Magazine Dealer of the Year. His philosophy is to “try to do it right, every day. Do it honestly and do it correctly.”
  • On the incoming administration: “I believe personally that we have an administration that’s a little more pro-business. The consumer is very important. Without the consumer’s ability to buy, then we’re all struggling.”
  • On affordability: “My biggest concern is the average consumer, they’re stretched…  Those are the ones that are struggling today to buy that $30,000 truck or that $30,000 car or $30,000 EV. And that’s where I really believe that we as an industry, from the retail standpoint, that’s where many of us are missing that opportunity to grow.”
  • On inventory and day supply: “I don’t know if we, in the next few years, the manufacturers, want to get to that standpoint that there’s 3 million, 4 million cars and trucks sitting on dealers’ lots at a 120-day supply. I don’t think any manufacturer wants to do that."
• eBay has announced plans to acquire Caramel, a Los Angeles-based startup that simplifies the final steps of car sales, including financing, ownership transfer, and insurance. The acquisition aligns with eBay’s strategy to enhance trust and efficiency in its automotive marketplace.
  • The platform facilitates identity verification, title transfers, financing, and vehicle delivery, aiming to reduce post-sale complexities for buyers and sellers.
  • eBay aims to expedite and secure used car transactions, building on its existing escrow services and maintaining its competitive edge in the growing online automotive market.
  • The move comes as Amazon enters the car sales space with its Amazon Autos platform, signaling increased competition in the industry.
  • "The acquisition is all about ‘creating trust’ in the vehicle buying process," said Chris Prill, General Manager of eBay Motors.
• OpenAI has announced a new feature for ChatGPT called 'Tasks,' allowing users to schedule actions and reminders. The feature, currently in beta, aims to position ChatGPT as a digital assistant for Plus, Team, and Pro subscribers.
  • Users can schedule up to 10 simultaneous active tasks such as reminders, daily updates, or specific prompts, either as one-time or recurring events.
  • Tasks can be managed, modified, or canceled directly within chat threads or a dedicated "Tasks" section on the web interface.
  • ChatGPT can suggest tasks based on conversations, but users must approve suggestions before they are created.

Hosts: Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

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Transcript

Paul J Daly: 0:00

Wednesday, January 15. Super exciting day, because Michael Cirillo is with me this morning to talk about the NADA chairman, man with a plan, eBay, eBay leaning into used cars and chat. GPT now says they say they have task management. I tried it underwhelming. I'll give you my report later. So I just found out, as we were just jamming before the show, that you wake up at four, like four something every day. Yeah,

Michael Cirillo: 0:33

and I wish I could say that strategic, that's the inner we're over. Hey, anybody that's over 40, yeah, will understand the primary reason why I wake up that early, and it's because I've already been holding myself for at least two and a half hours. But,

Paul J Daly: 0:49

you know, you think about this industry is full of early risers, right? It's nine. Yeah, it's it's like nine in the morning in this industry has already been working for a long time, you know, especially the service department. And you know, there's something to be said for waking up early. Met last really. Matt, last year, our friend with West Herr and streamline, he made a post yesterday about having, like, time that is intentionally not structured, like quiet time when no one's around. He mentioned things like, you know, sitting on a chairlift by himself. I don't ski, not much skiing going on where you live, but, but I was just thinking. It got me thinking about, like, oh, the unstructured time, or the time that's quiet when the world is asleep. And I was like, I really do my best thinking and most productive work during that time. You feel the same. It

Michael Cirillo: 1:31

kind of makes sense. Like, look at how many people in the world are looking at their calendar the night before and going, Whoa. Yeah, right. It's like, every 40 minutes is just something. So the only way to mitigate that is to get up earlier or stay up later. Yeah, I can't I'm in bed by like, 625,

Paul J Daly: 1:49

30. That's how that works. You know, we have a new Auto Collabs podcast releasing today or released yesterday. Auto Collabs is where me, Michael and Kyle just kind of make fools of ourselves, and then have a guest. It's kind of that, and then we close the show by making fools of ourselves. But we have Bobby goudrova activator to how to avoid the digital retailing trap. Bobby is super smart, super sharp. He and, like, I felt like we could have talked tech for a really, really, really long time. It's gonna be exciting to be with him at nada, but check it out. Great, great. Like, kind of mind opening stuff. I don't remember the intro of this one, but I'm sure we did something dumb. I

Michael Cirillo: 2:27

think it's, it's probably the most true reflection of who we are in real life.

Paul J Daly: 2:32

Yes, the beginning of these shows, if you unscripted, this is, this is where it is, speaking of unscripted. Listen, go to nada, parties.com. This is the site that we built so that you know what it is that you can do in the evenings of the NADA show. Actually, there are a few breakfast events on there too. So, like, there's three that I can think of off the top of my head. So there's a lot going on around the show. So we partnered with our friends at clairvoy to build this site offer it to you free of charge, so it can serve as your little planning guide to all the things that are happening after the show is over. And we will say that we're having our own party, which you can get to on the site. It is wait listed right now because it filled up really quickly, but make sure you sign up on the wait list, because as people don't show up, and we're going to confirm attendance. More spots are going to open up, so make sure you're on the wait list. So you get one of the open spots. We have this limited edition swag. Have it right here. Look at this so cool. It is. Got little love people in the Nola logo. It's a it's you're not gonna be able to see it. It's a custom it's a custom pin.

Michael Cirillo: 3:35

Go check it out. It's on LinkedIn, right

Paul J Daly: 3:39

yesterday. So go to nada parties.com. Check it out. All right, let's talk about a little bit of news. So public policy Day is an event that happens the week after nada this year in Washington, DC, put on by the Washington area new car dealer Association, where they have lawmakers rights in the heart of DC at the convention center, lawmakers, regulators, dealers, vendors, industry partners. It's a little bit of a smaller group, but we're going to be hosting a stage there this year, and one of our guests is going to be Tom Castrillo, the chairman, incoming chairman of nada, represents the dealers. So we thought it'd be nice to give you a little like who is Tom. So basically he outlined in in an automotive news article this morning, he outlined his priorities, a great article written by Lindsay van HEU so Tom marine Corvette. So he's got a little bit of determination. 27 years of service, recognized as the 2011 Time Magazine Dealer of the year. His philosophy to try to do right every day. Do it honestly, do it correctly. That sounds like the kind of guy I want at the front.

Michael Cirillo: 4:43

This is, and by the way, there's, there's a little like nugget here. I didn't know this until I started working with my pal imer, who's a Marine Corps veteran who did 20 years and then retired. Apparently, I and I didn't know this because I'm from Canada, 20. Years is considered a full career. Yeah? In the military, yeah. So Tom was like, Hey, I'm going to do a full career, and then seven, you know, then

Paul J Daly: 5:09

build another career where they make me, where they make me the leader, yeah, yeah. So, that's pretty phenomenal. It is. Put that picture back up. I didn't get a good look at that. Look at that. Look at that helicopter in the back too. I feel like that's like, I've seen movies with that exact

Nathan Southwick: 5:25

help. And Paul, I don't know if you can, if you can read that there, but it's, it's an, it's an ad for him winning time Dealer of the year in time. And it says, go ahead. It says, you might think car dealers spend their free time on the golf course. And it's him there in full gear, with a helicopter in the background on the ground, doing the work, defending our country. Holman

Paul J Daly: 5:43

M 16, by the way,

Michael Cirillo: 5:45

wow, America. I'm glad that whatever building is underneath him is well air conditioned. Yeah, I can

Paul J Daly: 5:51

definitely see there's several units up there, unless, unless that's a See, this is before they Photo Shop stuff that.

Michael Cirillo: 5:58

Yeah, there are dudes right now out there trying to make this exact photo right with AI, and this is incredibly unsuccessful. No matter how hard they try, they keep ending up in a clown car with a bunch of bears

Paul J Daly: 6:12

surrounded by that hard you definitely can't So, So Lindsey, in this article, asked him a bunch of questions, and he gave his thoughts. One of the things he was talking about was the fact that at the NADA show this year, we are going to be kind of sandwiched between the inauguration, which is happening on the 20th show, technically starts on the 22nd 23rd so throughout the time where we're at the show, these new regulations that are coming out and the administration's position on the industry are actually going to become more and more clear throughout those several days where we're at the show. So it's an interesting case where we're going to start the show in one place and we're going to end with a new level of clarity. What a great place to have the conversation. He says, I believe, personally, that we have an administration that's a little more pro business. He means Trump administration coming in the consumer is very important. Without their ability to buy, then we're all struggling. Has concerns about the average consumer on affordability. So he says we're going to still pay attention to that. He has a lot of concerns about EV. He says dealers see today, the Trump administration could potentially affect the EV rollout based on what they do with the tax incentive funding, saying, you know, leasing 50, 60% of your sales and EV as it is, so if that gets adjusted, we're definitely going to, you know, see some changes there. He does talk about, though, on the upside is that economically, everyone seems to be doing better, so in a better place to kind of absorb some of this, to make good changes. You know, he talks about day supply and his concerns there. He talks about the cars rule, saying President Trump's indicated already he's going to appoint who he's going to appoint as the federal FTC chair, and so it'll go to the Republican side as three to two. And when you take the degree of oversight the FTC was doing under the cars rule, what they were doing, he's saying wasn't going to benefit the consumer, nor was it going to benefit the dealer? So he said, what they're doing has no basis of doing what they're proposing they're doing, which is helping the consumer have a better thing. And you know, he also leans in a little bit on technician recruiting, saying, you know, a lot of people, a lot of the younger generation, still doesn't have this thought in their mind, like, hey, it might actually be good to do something with my hands. And he's saying, well, now with automotive and technology sees a resurgence of, you know, technician recruiting and kids going into the trade. So he sounds like an old school, but practical man,

Michael Cirillo: 8:31

this is like for me. The the underscore here is, you know, you're each of us are having these conversations. Sometimes we feel like they're siloed. Sometimes we're wondering, how do I get more of this narrative out there? I think what we're seeing here evidence here Paul is here. Here comes a guy who's a student of the industry, who's a master of the industry, who pays attention, who's very strategic. And what we're seeing in some of his quotes is an indication that he's he's leaning in, he's paying attention. He's hearing the conversations and watching LinkedIn and watching, you know, things like what we put out there, and some of the other, you know, influencers, or whatever you want to call it. And so if there's a day that inspirational moments with if there's a day where you're like, Man, I feel like we need to talk more about this. Keep just keep talking about it, because sooner or later, you're going to stumble upon a situation like this, where the incoming nada chair is somebody who is seeing it all, technicians, hiring, regulations, EVs, he's thinking about it all. So I think that's that's kind of cool, how, in a small way, we are all helping shape what gets floated to the top. I

Paul J Daly: 9:47

couldn't agree with you more. And thinking about a leadership perspective, a leader knows how to connect with people. The first time I met Tom was at the name ad conference this year. Mike Stanton introduced me and Tom after we talked for a few minutes, and Tom real. Liza, like, Oh, this guy really cares about what's going on. He pulled this out of his pocket, which is a challenge coin. And he and Mike was telling me that he had these made up, and he's he's using these as a connection point. If you know what a challenge coin is, in the military, they give them out, um, basically, they can give them out as an honor. When you can't give a pay raise or a promotion, right? You can give someone a challenge coin around a specific mission or a specific, you know, lane of thinking. And so Tom was passing these out, and he gave me one, and I just, it just made me think, like this guy knows how to align people. So I'm really excited to see what the tenure is. Excited to be with him at nada show, at public policy day, and keep, keep moving forward, helping dealers do what they do best.

Michael Cirillo: 10:44

Note to self is nada. Mission, get challenge coin.

Paul J Daly: 10:52

I've ever, I don't know if I've ever showed you this, so a good friend of mine in my first business is, or was, a Marine, and he taught me about challenge coins, and so we had these made up for my first company, and I would go

Michael Cirillo: 11:06

around, Oh, shut Where do you get one of those? They're

Paul J Daly: 11:10

so cool.

Michael Cirillo: 11:12

I'll show you note to self. Get challenge coins. Challenge coins made,

Paul J Daly: 11:19

speaking of places where you can get things made or bought, so eBay has announced plans to acquire Carmel, a Los Angeles based startup that simplifies the final steps of car sales, including financing, ownership transfer and insurance. This acquisition is aligning with their strategy to enhance trust and efficiency in the automotive marketplace, it has so basically, it facilitates identity verification, title transfers, financing, vehicle delivery, looking to reduce the post sale complexity. Sounds like all the things that dealers are doing for the customers every day they want to expedite you, secure used car transactions, build on their escrow services. Basically do anything they can to make peer to peer used car sales more trustworthy and fast it's coming as Amazon is entering the car space, obviously in new cars, with Amazon autos platform signaling increased competition, right? We all think like Amazon is gonna get into used cars at some point. Phil Chris Prill, General Manager of eBay motor, said this acquisition is all about creating trust in the vehicle buying process.

Michael Cirillo: 12:26

Also like a good time to remind everybody there are, believe it or not, parts of the world who don't have access to Amazon yet. So like when you think at a global scale, there are parts of the world where eBay, like, when's the last time you said the name eBay? No offense, just now, just now, 10 seconds ago. But like before that, there are parts of the world who still rely so heavily on eBay services. Yeah, that's true. That's true. And like the from South Africa all the way up into the Middle East and Europe and all those sorts of things. So like this, this is kind of an interesting thing to bring back to the forefront, just how big our industry is, and that there are players that we may not tend to think about top of mind that are doing some really, really big things globally. So

Paul J Daly: 13:16

you know, it'll be interesting to I haven't looked in this platform. I'm interested to see because there are a lot of tech, technologies and industry partners that are serving dealers in this way to help title processing across state, delivering vehicles and and I'm wondering what this company was doing in like, did they serve dealers then? I should have looked a little bit before. I'll check it out. But the bottom line is this, that is the one of the hardest parts of the whole process. I've bought vehicles from out of state from a dealer, and even that is complex, so I think it does highlight the need, like, when you're a dealer, leaning into the fact that you solve all these problems already. And just saying, like, this is something that we do, that people might not be thinking about, but it is a complex part of the process, I guess, like any good process, or any good service. If it doesn't seem complex, it means you're doing it right, right? So I don't know. Maybe I wonder. I wonder, what the crossover here? I think this probably affects independent car dealers more than it affects, yeah, car dealers, yep. Just because the part I don't know what they're selling on eBay Motors these days, I would think it'd be, I don't know. I'm gonna check it out. The heck is on eBay Motors these days? Like, I'm really, I'm literally thinking of that, like going on eBay Motors in the US anyway, it's like, if it's a collector's car, I feel like it'd be on, like, one of those other, you know, more collectors. He's looking at what

Michael Cirillo: 14:38

I think is interesting. I just did a Google search for it, their eight their title in search engine results actually starts eBay Motors, auto parts and vehicles like it puts auto parts first, yeah, which I think is interesting.

Paul J Daly: 14:51

Yeah, interesting. Well, we'll see. That's what eBay is doing with Carmel. One more story today open. AI has announced. A new feature for chat GPT called tasks very clear course, allowing users to actually schedule actions and reminders. The feature, currently in beta, aims to position chat GPT as a digital assistant for plus team and pro subscribers. So if you're in the free version, you don't see it show up. Users can schedule up to 10 simultaneous active tasks, daily reminders, updates, specific prompts, either as one time or recurring events. Basically, they suggest task tasks then based on conversations it's having with you, but a user has to approve turning it into a task they're also developing, and they're calling agentic. Agentic like an agent tool called operator. Isn't that what they call the guy in the matrix, like when you operate, yeah, pick up the phone, operator for advanced automation, like taking control of your entire computer, surfing the internet on its own, going and do things and coming back. If you want to use the feature, you can just have to pick the model. I tried it this morning where you just, you know, you can use 440, io. It just says it's four, oh, tasks. It says, and it says beta. I tried it, you know,

Michael Cirillo: 16:07

it's delivering my groceries right now, right

Paul J Daly: 16:10

now. My kids think I'm home.

Michael Cirillo: 16:18

Guys, it's coming. Don't, don't be afraid of it anymore. Lean in. Yeah, that's without a doubt. So George Jetson was born in 2022 Yeah, he flew cars. He's

Paul J Daly: 16:30

a history lesson now. So I tried it this morning. You know, I just had it remind me of something in three minutes. And really, the A couple things are weird about it. Number one, how does it let you know? Like it said, allow desktop notifications, but I'm using GPT within a browser, and so I didn't get a notification. It did come up in the in the thread, but who's got their thread open all day? And it's like, yeah, and then I open the app on my desktop, because you have, you know, the Apple app, and you can't even set tasks, tasks. It's not even available within the app right now, so obviously, obviously, it's in beta, but you can definitely see it as going into this personal assistant life where you just tell your computer to do something, and it just takes care of it. And

Michael Cirillo: 17:11

well, when you think about the implications of the video chat that you can do, yeah, and how accurate that is in so many different languages, in native like, I can speak Visayan, Filipino to it, and it is like, I'm I speak to it now to practice keeping up that language. Do you really Yes, and it's, I'm telling you, it's unreal. So think about there's so many. I feel like we are now in an era, like people need to wrap their head around this. I don't know if I'm right here, but this is my thesis. The last 30 years, people have made their living being the one who knew how to do the thing. We are moving into an era of whoever can fix the thing fastest, because knowing how to do the thing, everyone will know how to do the thing. Few of us, like, think

Paul J Daly: 18:03

so. You're saying not knowing how to do the thing, but knowing how to get the thing done.

Michael Cirillo: 18:08

Yeah, like, let's use if I were an IT guy. Why do I get hired? I get hired because I know how to take the cable, and I know what the cable is and how to plug it here and put it there. Now I can pull up GPT and say, I need to clean up this mess. What am I looking at? And it's going to be like, well, first of all, you're or think of plumbers. The majority of the the the money a plumber makes is knowing how to diagnose the problem, the man hours of getting in there and, oh, I found it. The fix is actually the faster parts, knowing how to now the implication of a leaky pipe under my sink and pulling up GPT and saying, How do I there's a leak? What do you see? And where could it possibly be coming from? And then that person calling the plumber and saying, I have a leaky gasket under my kitchen sink that I need you to come and replace. Yep, now it's a 15 minute fix, not a two hour. Oh, we need to be thinking about that in our space. Well, what are the things that actually don't require the diagnosis anymore? Because we cannot buffer our paychecks in the diagnosis, we're going to have to volume play ourselves if we want to continue doing that discipline.

Paul J Daly: 19:19

If you don't realize the world is changing. The best way to keep up with that is to hang out with guys who are paying attention to it. We're some of those. Our whole community is paying attention to it. It's just a Wednesday, though. Get out there, take care of the people, and they'll take care of you.