Automotive State of The Union

Live From NYC at the JD Power Auto Forum - Trump Considers Parts Tariff Pause

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Paul, Kyle, Michael, and Nathan woke up at 4am so they could be in NYC by breakfast to begin the day of coverage at the JD Power Auto Forum in Manhattan. They’ll be talking to industry experts and Dealers about the current Dealer response to tariffs, inventory, and people strategy. 


Show Notes with links:


  • Auto Forum preview: Mike Cottone (Pres. Volvo), Randy Parker (CEO N.A. Hyundai/Genesis), Sen. Bernie Moreno, John Bozzella, Tom Doll


  • President Trump is considering exemptions to steep auto part tariffs to ease the transition for carmakers shifting supply chains back to the U.S. This could offer short-term relief for manufacturers—and markets took notice.
    • Trump may delay tariffs on some imported auto parts.
    • Automakers say immediate tariffs would trigger layoffs and price hikes.
    • Shares of Ford, GM, and Stellantis rallied after Trump’s comments.
    • The 25% vehicle tariff and upcoming parts tariffs are part of his American manufacturing push.
    • “They need a little bit of time, because they’re going to make them here,” Trump said.


  • Insurance premiums for Teslas are rising nearly three times faster than the rest of the market, fueled by high repair costs and increased vandalism. Despite Tesla’s efforts, the financial hit is landing squarely on owners' wallets.
    • Tesla insurance premiums jumped 22–29% across key models.
    • The Model Y saw the steepest rise—nearly 3x the national average.
    • Vandalism and expensive repairs are the main culprits.
    • Tesla’s own body shops haven’t yet eased premium hikes.
    • Average 2025 insurance cost for a Model 3: $4,364 per year.

Join Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.

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Paul J Daly:

All right, we're on the ground New York City, nice and early. J.D. Power Auto Forum, and we've already had so many hugs and handshakes and great conversations with dealer principals and leaders of companies, and the event has even started. Tom Castro,

Unknown:

literally, almost

Paul J Daly:

from behind you. You didn't see it. We want to give a special thanks to lift kit, who sponsored our coverage here this year at the JD Power auto forum, we're going to bring in somebody that has something to do with lift kit. Should we bring him in now? What are you doing him in? Come on. He's the guy. Yes, there's the guy. It's Michael Cirillo with lift ASOTU Flex, lift kit. Hi guys. Hi. Actually, we never do this on the show, but there's probably a lot of people heard that term for the first time. So yeah, why don't talk about lift kit for like, 20 seconds?

Michael Cirillo:

Lift Kit is a single source of truth for all inventory data. So you know that problem where you're like, Hey, how come I have rogue units on that website that haven't existed on our lot? What we do is we ingest all of your data, all of your inventory data, we clean it, normalize it so we map it to the right stock number, and then we send it out in the format of whatever platform you need it to be sent out with. We've got APIs, and we've got all that sort of stuff to speak immediately to the

Paul J Daly:

couple people interested in that. So obviously, programming is about to start here. Have a lot of big names, Senator Bernie Moreno, Randy Parker, my did I see I got Mike

Kyle Mountsier:

Catone from Volvo, John buzzella, automotive. We got to catch up with him. John Paul is going to be here. They've got him on the schedule. Is retired, but

Paul J Daly:

God, OEM, brand building. That's I feel okay. He doesn't put that on, but get into brand, but, but if you ever meet him, he seems about as least like The Godfather as you can imagine. He's the guy you want to sit in an Irish pub with and have a couple drinks with. Yeah. So

Kyle Mountsier:

if you're paying attention live, we'll be shooting a lot of content, interviewing a lot of these people. Make sure and follow us along on LinkedIn, on social, follow us what we're doing today, and we'll make sure and share everything that we possibly can about the conversations had here at the JD Power auto form.

Paul J Daly:

All right, we have two stories. Let's go. I'm gonna go the first one, I'm gonna hand you the microphone. All right. Oh, see, we're doing the phone thing. I hope today too. I think we have stories from today and not last from today. Unbelievable. If listen, if you didn't watch it, go back and watch yesterday's show. Where it was. We ran a story from last month, and I was like, you heard it here last and Michael couldn't get a breath in Edge wise. Why can I not find this? Oh, there it is. Here we go. It is President Trump considering exemptions this just announced to steep auto part tariffs to ease the transition for car makers shifting supply chains back to the US, this could offer short term relief for manufacturers and markets. Took notice yesterday. Trump's basically saying he may delay tariffs on some of these imported parts automakers saying immediate tariffs would trigger layoffs and price hikes. So that's like kind of the back and forth of it. Shares of four GM and stellantis rallied after these comments. The 25% vehicle tariff and upcoming parts tariffs are part of his American manufacturing push. Very eloquently, Trump said they need a little bit more time because they're going to make them here. Yeah, I

Kyle Mountsier:

think this was all over the news yesterday. It was all over the markets. We've got all over the news, all over,

Unknown:

all over the market, is, look who just

Kyle Mountsier:

Steve, you actually were probably paying attention to President Trump yesterday, talking about tariffs. Yet again, exactly.

Paul J Daly:

Well, it's good article. It's good article. Potter, right? There's something, there's something to write about. Yeah. So how many JD Power forms have you been to? There's only, like your third, I think you were here last year. I

Steve Greenfield:

this is one of my other than Asotu Con, of think course. Well, this is one of my favorite conferences. Actually, really, well, I really think the insights that they get, the content they carry on stage, is really, really powerful,

Paul J Daly:

easy to get to one day, relatively, right, depending where you are, yeah, maybe not in California. Yeah, that's true. I know

Kyle Mountsier:

I agree that. I mean, you just look at the list here today, it's stacked.

Paul J Daly:

Yeah, it's really, really good. They were saying attendance is probably 30% over what it was. Is gonna be my favorite part right

Unknown:

here. So basically, they were

Paul J Daly:

saying attendance is about 30% up over last year, expending expecting 600 this year. So I was obviously a heightened interest on what's going on right now and this level of insight. So I

Steve Greenfield:

have no idea any additional insights today about, you know, tariffs, but, I mean, I gotta imagine everyone's like, freaking out and saying, What do I do? Yeah, Audi's holding cars to the port. Should I be selling my Audis, or should be holding on, right and when I start implementing price increases? Because in my local market, you know, I don't want to be the first dealer to implement price increases, but I don't want to be the last,

Paul J Daly:

right, and I don't want to run out of inventory. Where's the sweet spot? Senator Moreno did Q and A at a dinner last night, and we heard he answered questions and spoke for about an hour plus. So there's obviously a lot of communication coming from the White House on tariffs, from a car guy. It'll be interesting to hear what he

Steve Greenfield:

says from the States. I think his session is totally entering the golden age of automotive. Is it really can't wait to hear good to see

Paul J Daly:

you. We'll catch up with you 20 other times.

Unknown:

What a guy. I don't think. I

Kyle Mountsier:

think we're on to our second story. We're on to our second story. There was, there was a really interesting story this morning that covers that insurance premiums on Teslas are literally growing three times faster than the rest of the market, fueled by high repair costs and increased vandalism despite Tesla's efforts, the financial hit is landing squarely on their owners wallets, and this isn't like Tesla insurance outside of Tesla, this is Tesla's insurance. Their captive insurance jumped 22 to 29% across key models, the model Y seeing the steepest rise nearly three times the national average. And their own body shops, like the Tesla body shops haven't eased any premium hikes, um, average, 2020, 25 insurance costs for a model three, you ready for this? $4,300, a year model three? For a model three, you owned a model three? Didn't you? I did while I

Paul J Daly:

don't own a matter of your insurance costs when you own it. Well,

Michael Cirillo:

I wasn't going through Tesla's insurance, but I can imagine if I was, they would take into consideration how often my wife drove over the lawn when pulling into the driveway. And I have to imagine that is also being factored in, because they can track your driving habits and your driving behavior and

Paul J Daly:

all this. It's almost worse. Yeah, it's almost worse for me. Yes,

Michael Cirillo:

that's like one of

Kyle Mountsier:

the cameras for your curb rash, yes, right? Everything, every test, yes, every, every single Yeah,

Paul J Daly:

as a former wheel guy. So it's your dream everywhere.

Michael Cirillo:

So basically, what I'm getting at is I want to know in that vandalism number, how much of it is self inflicted vandalism. See, you

Kyle Mountsier:

guys later. Well, you know, and this is like one of those education pieces when you start looking at like the cost of ownership across every single vehicle right now is being put under scrutiny because it's the first time the talking point has been front and center for a very long time. When people are trying to consider EV, cost of ownership, they're thinking about insurance, which is also impacting hybrids and battery, and those shopper behaviors are starting to change. So when you start thinking about like, what is the customer considering they're coming in the door? They're not just considering, am I going to buy that car? But what is the cost of the insurance? What is the cost of the ownership like that's in the headlines. So be aware that your consumers, whether they're looking at an EB or not, are thinking about

Paul J Daly:

that. I mean, it's just another hit for a company that's been on the ropes, and this definitely isn't helping. I think things will normalize. But$4,300 for a model three let's roll the outro. Liza, we have sessions to get into. It's getting really that awkward, quiet level, so we gotta get in there again. Thank you to lift kit. Thank you to lift kit for special. Did I just you? Bam, we'll be back with you in a little

Unknown:

bit. You

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Paul J Daly

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