400th episode! Manchin Is MAD, Insane NYC Toyota/Lexus Store, College Grads Actually Writing Cover Letters

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It’s not ‘just another Thursday’ as we celebrate our 400th episode of the Automotive Troublemaker. We’re talking about Senator Joe Manchin’s fighting words, an insane new Toyota/Lexus store in NYC, as well as the slowdown in hiring college grads.

• It looks like Senator Joe Manchin is ready for a showdown, and Dealers and Auto Consumers are in the mix. Manchin has threatened to take legal action over how the US Treasury Department interprets the rules around EV battery sourcing in the Inflation Reduction Act's consumer tax credit for new electric vehicles. 
  • He believes that the Treasury may interpret key terms in a way that goes against the law's intent of reducing dependence on foreign adversaries, such as China, for battery materials and manufacturing. 
  • The Treasury is expected to release guidance on the tax credit's critical mineral and battery component requirements, having already missed the statutory year-end deadline in 2022.
  • In Manchin's words: "I think they're going to try to screw me on this. I'm willing to go to court. I'm willing to stop it all...Manufacturing is meant to bring manufacturing back to the United States. It's not basically allowing everyone to put all the parts and build everything you can for that battery somewhere else and then send it here for assembly."
• We all know that Dealers will always find a way to make it work. Well John Iacono and his partners at BRAM Auto Group have just raised the bar as they’ve opened a joint Lexus/Toyota store in one of the most expensive and complicated places to put a Dealership with a view of the Hudson River in Hell’s Kitchen NYC. 
  • “The used cars are on the roof, the new cars are in New Jersey, and the more than 200 vehicles in line for service on any given day are stacked three high and three deep on racks like a kid's giant Matchbox set.”
  • Customer cafe, 52 service bays featuring natural light, a FedEx staging facility on the ground level and an elegant leased event space on the top floor with 35 floors of luxury apartments on the way
  • New vehicles are stored 6 miles away and drivers are paid a $42 flat rate to get them to the store which could take as little as 15 minutes depending on that NYC traffic
• Soon to be college grads are facing a much tougher job market than they were at the beginning of this year as many of the companies that were in bidding wars for them in September have since laid off thousands. 
  • Companies like Amazon, Wayfair, Meta, McKinsey and many more were on a hiring spree as the classes of 2021 and 2022 were coming into the market. Many of them were in bidding wars for Seniors as recently as the beginning of this 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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