2023 DETROIT | NORTH AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW | PRESS DAYS REPORT | INDUSTRY FORCASTER REPORTS!!

Speaker 1 0:00  

If you're trying to move the needle as much as manufacturers are and electric vehicles, there's no such thing as old news. Oh sure it was at the CES show or was at the LA Auto Show. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the heartland. This was your team's to explain that. I believe, from my perspective than spending the whole day at the show waiting for the car to drop out of the ceiling. This was a fail. This was a fail for the heartland.

Speaker 2 0:34  

Jeff Sterns connected through cars, if they're big wigs, we'll have him on the show. And yes, we'll talk about cars and everything else. Here he is now. Jeff Sterns

Jeff Sterns 0:52  

Jeff Sterns connected through cars with my good friend and third time guests now, Warren Brown. Now, Warren is a former General Motors senior exec that started with the humble beginnings of junior male boy, later, senior male Boy, am I right?

Speaker 1 1:12  

I got that birth promotion was fantastic,

Jeff Sterns 1:15  

right, who ran manufacturing because Brazil, Poland, Germany and eventually negotiated with the land location and the government and customs and the unions and the construction of the General Motors plan Russia. Warren is now our man on the street. He spent some time at the North American International Auto Show, also known as the Detroit Auto Show, on the press days, and he's got some stuff to share with us. So please warn, oh, and warn, let's not forget, currently, CEO of the company he founded. WP Brown, also known as RFQ, insights, helping manufacturers dial back their forecast because if they all sold as many cars as they forecasted, I think our annual numbers would be somewhere between one and 2 billion sales per year. Am I right word?

Speaker 1 2:17  

Well, 1 billion, at least it was a good show. Wasn't a great show. So I will summarize the show this way. It was a dealer show, in my view. And what is the reality of today and always has been with dealers is that they sell what they have. So

Jeff Sterns 2:45  

can you explain to the audience Warren, what is the dealer show?

Speaker 1 2:49  

Well, this this would be in the last time I was at the North American show was in 2019. And it was clearly dominated by what manufacturers GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, or Honda Mercedes were bringing to the party in terms of the displays the amount of press conferences that they had the or interviews that they did with the press in all of the what what is typically historically an auto show structure. In this particular Auto Show post COVID It certainly scaled down and now I'm calling it a dealer show, because it was a combination of probably what manufacturers gave as support. Um, and what the cars that the manufacturers brought to help the dealers. But in essence, it didn't have all the pizzazz and sparkle and two tiered displays that you had in old shows, and that's why I'm kind of referring it to it as a dealer show

Jeff Sterns 4:03  

and staffed by dealers, not just manufacturer staffing or spokes models, etc. Correct. Dealers meeting customers trying to make an appointment for Tuesday to show them a car

Speaker 1 4:17  

and you didn't have the the you didn't have the glamour models, explaining what the vehicles were etc. So it was it was scaled down. It was a good show. And the only time that I saw that the manufacturers were really engaged was when you did the E V ride or you did the Bronco or Jeep ride over at the at the Ford and Jeep centers. That was really heavy manufacture oriented, but the rest of it was just kind of like you know, a Chevrolet stand and and here's our Chevrolet vehicles so What I saw was what dealers are currently selling a lot of gas powered vehicles. Okay, if you walked the floor and you weren't savvy, you would have a hard time seeing the electric vehicles. Now, there are some exceptions. Obviously, GMC showed their Sierra electric and RAM showed their Rev. So and they had nice signs on those saying all electric etc equinoxes well. But the essence of it was a gasoline show. And that's what shocked me. Okay, I was so you have this conflict now, between what the OEMs are saying about their visions going to be and now we have an auto show that burst, Heartland mod Motor Show where there's some electric vehicles coming out in the heartland, not in California, or Florida, or New York, but in the heartland. Here's your show. Go explain to journalists from all over the country. What you're going to do to capture the hearts and minds of consumers with electric vehicles. That's what I thought I was going to now I could be wrong. So I go to the first Cadillac press conference thinking they're gonna be pressing the, the Cadillac Escalade, IQ not on the floor, but they're gonna you know, it's gonna drop from the ceiling somewhere. No. Here's what they did. They pressed did a press conference on the 2025 Cadillac CT five sedan I could death imagined a more boring presentation. Okay, why? Because it looked like the 2023 ct, but unless you were the design engineer of General Motors,

Jeff Sterns 7:14  

and it certainly wasn't Bob Lutz arriving in a MiG.

Speaker 1 7:17  

It was not or Bob Bob rappelling down the war Hall to to introduce the next generation Cadillac. No, that wasn't there. But I said okay, it better stuffs coming. So the GNC press conferences next. What are they roll out? The Sierra Ed? Nope. Do they roll out any of the EBS that I know they're coming out with in the next year or two? Nope. They roll out the 2020 for gasoline for Katie. Okay, I thought, okay, Jeep, the third press conference, this is going to be at the show, they're really going to have something okay, because they're a little behind on electric vehicles except for the for for the for the Wrangler, you know, for x, or at sea, but they're behind. So I figured they're going to really do that. No, what did they push and that their show was better? I think the Cadillac and GMC kind of like fallen in their presentations. Honestly. Jeep did a good job. They had ads, they had all the things that you would expect from what I would call a 2019 auto show they did a great job. But what do they roll out? A 2020 Ford gladiator pickup truck.

Jeff Sterns 8:50  

There must have been swooning, not as much as with the Acadia

Speaker 1 8:56  

that mean they all looked E L the CT find the the Acadia in the glass certainly the gladiator look like like last year stuff. Right last year and then the night before or out. There facelifted F 150 gasoline version dealers sell what the hell? That's right. It was clear to me in terms of emotion. This was a dealer show. This was a dealer show to sell what we have. And so from my walk around, so the tone was different and I probably had a different expectation.

Jeff Sterns 9:43  

This was like a 10 sale to get rid of inventories.

Speaker 1 9:47  

Well it's a pretty expensive 10 sale on manufacturers kicked in dope. There's no There's no question about that.

Jeff Sterns 9:52  

But it was really a dealership Sales Event. More than a manufacturing this was not ditch Right, Geneva, Tokyo la

Speaker 1 10:05  

introduction. Germany IAEA No. Certainly was not. Gil down. Now, we're manufacturers really weighed in is that they and again, I was excited that the night before they talked about the electric vehicle drive session inside the Huntington place, arena.

Jeff Sterns 10:30  

So you're gonna drive some cars, you are jacked,

Speaker 1 10:33  

right? Well, as it turned out, this was an Eevee ride experience, not ride and drive. No, you got to sit in the passenger seat while a driver drove around the test track. And when you'd be the best thing about it was that at least the marketing folks had the common sense to capture my ID, my email. And the very and I and I drove the Volkswagen ID for which I was very, very impressed with in terms of the, especially the interior, the way they did the what the driver sees, and what's the middle, you know, iPad, or whatever they're calling it these days, I think Volkswagen did a good job. And the very next day, I got an email saying, Thank you for coming to see Volkswagen. If there's anything more we can do for you, here's how you contact us. And here's some more information about the ID four, thank you very much for spending time with us. So the marketing guys at the at the manufacturer level were certainly engaged in in bridging the gap between manufacturers and dealers and supporting them. I thought that that was very well done. But it was a ride session, not a ride and drive session as I walked around the floor, and I said, Okay, I'm going to find out what's really interesting here. And I found what I felt were two significant vehicles. And I think both of them are going to surprise you, Jeff. The first one which really grabbed my, my attention of what lunch would call gotta have styling. You looked at it, I thought it was a Lexus. He was on it was on the Buick steam. Okay, and it's the 2020 or Buick in Vista way to put that up nice color. Nice styling, predominantly displayed on the view extend in you know, in terms of what historically has been showcase stuff. I thought that from the front end, if you take a look at the front end there and and how it's it's very well style, it's a very well styled issue, be it and and it has the new Buick badge on the front of it yet. It's a gasoline powered vehicle. This is what we're going to have it 2024 Combine it 2025 and 2026 or we're going to launch three EVs don't pay attention to that. Pay attention to this, but this was well done. I think it was one of the cars of the show. The other one of which may surprise you is over at the Toyota Steen. I was very, very impressed again with the Toyota crown. Got to have styling. It's kind of like a cheatin SUV in terms of the way that they did the rear and I was obviously enamored by the red color Sure. But this car I think was like $46,000 It was well done. And it's everything that everything that Avalon um, and everything that I think could compete with a BMW or, you know, a Mercedes C Class vehicle in terms of how it looked on the inside. Obviously, they did this one up for the show, but it was it was very, very impressive. On and it stood out relative to the rest of the gasoline. Again, this is a gasoline powered version, I think if they're coming out with a hybrid because they're Toyota, but but this was a gas version vehicle along with the indicia that stood out and not hybrid. I don't think that they showed the hybrid but I believe from walking around there. They will ultimately have a hybrid version of this if not already for 2024 but it's a it's a hybrid it's not an electric vehicle, what I felt and for whatever my opinions weren't I don't I don't have any I can't hold the candle and some of the the auto writers but I thought that two best vehicles at the show were the two that you showed in terms of capturing the customer's attention. Have I got to have that car, they did have electric vehicles there. I think the one that they tried to make stand out, like the Sierra was silver. The the ran valve was black. The lightning was blue, dark blue, classical pickup colors, right? The one that they really tried to make unique and kind of stand out with different styling, I felt and did a good job. What's the Chevy Equinox? You know, in the way that I do my numbers for the industry, you know, the equinox is going to be one of the high volume EVs. Mary has said that it's going to be around $30,000 on it will get the federal tax credits, it will count until they bring it back attempt to substitute some of that bolt volume.

Jeff Sterns 16:13  

Now, not all of us are in a first name basis with the CEO of GM. So you said Mary said

Speaker 1 16:20  

what Mary Barra, the CEO of GM who said this is going to be around $30,000. But the thing the equinox was there, the Blazer was there, there was let's say a handful of vehicles that are not being sold yet that are electric.

Jeff Sterns 16:40  

But they weren't promoted. Or they got to sell what they got now. No, they

Speaker 1 16:44  

weren't promoted to the journalist what that what they do, I was wondering what I want to go back to the consumer day with the with Janet, my wife and and take a look at it from a consumer perspective. But this was my heartburn legacy manufacturer, and I mean GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, one died, he need to convince the Heartway that the move to electric vehicles has a value proposition two is something interesting is something that you need to shop, consider and buy. And they had all of the press there. And they didn't take the time to push them. And my point is, if you're trying to move the needle, as much as manufacturers are electric vehicles, there's no such thing as old news. Oh, sure. It was at the CES show or was at the LA Auto Show. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the heartland. This is Mid America. They're not convinced yet. This was your chance to explain that. I believe from my perspective than spending the whole day at the show waiting for the waiting for the car to drop out of the ceiling. This was a fail. This was a fail for the heartland.

Jeff Sterns 18:33  

Detroit Auto Show North American International Auto Show a fail according to Warren Brown.

Speaker 1 18:39  

Correct? Because I know dealers know how to sell gas versions. That's a given. Okay, as manufacturers probably short supply. They don't know how to sell electric vehicles.

Jeff Sterns 18:54  

Can we look at this floor plan of the event? Absolutely. This is very interesting to me. In the upper right corner in the green, we've got luxury import manufacturers and smaller than the footprint are about the same as the Ford footprint about the same as the Chevrolet footprint, much smaller than the stolen is Chrysler, about the same as the Jeep. This is looks like 123456 a dozen ish 1112 manufactured and absent Mercedes. Well,

Speaker 1 19:33  

again, I think that the upper upper right corner green are what the dealers brought to the party. In terms of vehicles, I'm sure they got some manufacturers support me to think that the manufacturers weren't supportive of their dealers. I don't want to leave your listeners with that impression. That's not true. But But clearly, premium manufacturers said I need to be there But I'm not going to break a pic here. And in the old days, Mercedes BMW, they had the biggest stance. Right? They had the biggest stands at show could because it was the North American International Auto Show.

Jeff Sterns 20:16  

This was the daddy. That's the one I left out earlier on the list Frankfurt. But this is Detroit. This is the, at least the figurative birthplace of the automotive industry. I understand there's some countries saying we build a car before Henry Ford, I understand.

Speaker 1 20:39  

So the next to the green is the ed ed ride track. And you know, the manufacturers did a good job there, I but I waited as a journalist 15 minutes. Tomorrow at the show, it's going to be 60 minutes. So it's going to be very representative, it's going to be kind of like the wait time that you're going to need when you recharge your vehicle on the road. So you'll get you'll get the old customer experience. There may be books will come back. But for the rest I mean, the the suppliers I don't even want to talk about it wasn't very good.

Jeff Sterns 21:19  

Or in what did they highlight on the ride? Because you were being driven? Was it the sound levels? Was it the braking? Was it the accelerate? What What were they trying to highlight with the professional drivers

Speaker 1 21:32  

taking you up? Good question. Good question. Clearly, they were explaining the interior of the vehicle. And a for a segment, which is the back segment the top of the picture there. They demonstrated very well the acceleration of the vehicle. Okay, you went? Yeah, it was a neck snapper in the ID for there's no question about that, Jeff. Okay, and they demonstrated that, but this was one where you're in the vehicle for five minutes, they're not going to explain why you need to buy one of these versus a gasoline version or, or what your recharging time is or how big the battery is. It was more of sit in the car. What do you sense? And the idea was very well done. Well, I

Jeff Sterns 22:24  

think when you talked about the acceleration, I mean, that instant no RPM needed torque of an electric car is definitely a departs from internal combustion, no doubt about it. But man, the lifestyle difference if you're not in a major, not even all major metros, you know if you're not in certain pockets of the country,

Speaker 1 22:53  

that's a tough one. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna go back and see the retail day with what I would call it versus the press day that the retail days are different. I need to go back and do that. I need to determine whether I'm going to raise my grade from a fail, maybe up to a C minus depending upon what's there. As I walked around and did my own intelligence, the Cadillac Bo did tell me that the Escalade IQ was going to be for the retail days. And the Volkswagen folks I wrangled out of them that the ID buzz ban is going to be there to both I questioned and and why didn't you have them for the show for the for the press? And they both said Donal just didn't get here. So here was an opportunity I feel that was missed a lot of great stuff. Walk around the head all the vehicles there the the Ford track where you could ride the Bronco up and down or drop out right in the Bronco up and down on on track or, or the Ford Bronco or the Jeep Wrangler stand. It was good. Okay, it was good. But the summary I want to leave you with is you're in the heartland. You're with all the journalists. You didn't talk about where you're gonna go. And I found that to be odd. To to close, and now I don't get a vote on this. Okay. I'm not a voter. I'm not part of the Car of the Year Truck of the Year awards, but I do like to weigh in my two cents. So I want to go on the record. Was that okay? Please? Car of the Year. Toyota crown. They are up for a poor vote. I buy that sedan. Tomorrow at $45,000 credible This is not your father's Avalon okay it's a nice vehicle utility no question the Kia e v nine the EB nine Y it's a three seater got to start at $56,000 And so what I view this as you know forget about the riviana SUV for like 90 or the Hummer This is the first mainstream three seater e v three row not three seater three row right three row pologize you're correct. That's going to be somewhere below 60,000 bucks. Incredible. And then finally the truck Chevrolet Colorado This is everything you ever wanted in a Silverado and I don't mean that to disparage Silverado This is a well done midsize truck with all the bells and whistles. And it's it's I think it's going to be good so crown Evie nine and Chevrolet Colorado those are my choices. Warren is

Jeff Sterns 26:17  

on record with his choices for car, truck and SUV of the year we'll see how that pans out if you win. We'll make a new video if not, we'll just let it faith. Fair enough.

Speaker 2 26:32  

This has been Jeff Sterns connected through cars

Transcribed by https://otter.ai