AutoNation Puts a Bow On It, Russian Used Cars, A Rabbi Uses Chat GPT

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It’s Friday, folks! Today we talk about this morning’s earnings release from AutoNation with a killer opening line. We also talk about the Russian used car market as we near the 1 year anniversary of the Ukraine invasion. We also talk about a Rabbi who used ChatGPT to write a sermon.

In a press release issued just this morning, AutoNation announced their Q4 earnings report indicating a 2% increase in YoY revenue and a 26% drop in net profits. 

• Capped off a record year of $27 Billion
• Led the press release with the phrase, “America's most admired automotive retailer…”
  • “Our commitment to our Customers was recognized in Reputations' Automotive Reputation Report as we were ranked the No. 1 Public Dealer for 2022”, said CEO Michael Manley"
  • Said success was due to: focusing on operational excellence, including Customer satisfaction, sales efficiency, sales effectiveness, and asset utilization
    • Also opening four additional AutoNation USA stores and adding nine franchises acquired from the Moreland Auto Group
    • “Enhanced their digital storefront”
    • Acquired Repair Smith mobile service company
    • $1.7 billion was deployed to repurchase 15.6 million shares, reducing shares outstanding by 25% from a year ago.
      
      
      

If you think there are affordability issues in new cars in the US, consider what is happening in the Russian used car market as we approach the 1 year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine where the new car business which is heavily dependent on imports has been decimated. 

• Used cars accounted for 75% of all vehicles sold in 2022
• 1 ruble = $0.013
• Avg new car 2.33mrbls = $31,289
• Avg used car .89mrbls = $11,900
  • 2.62x
• US new avg: $49,388 
• US Used avg: $29,533
• 2019 sales of new and used were even
  • In 2022, 19.6B New 57.7B used (almost 3x)
• One employee at a major Russian company, Anton, felt lucky to get a used Skoda (offshoot of VW)  in December, for 2.5 mrbls which was almost twice the price as it was only a year earlier
  
  
  

We’ve been talking a lot about Chat GPT and many of its potential benefits and risks over the last months. A NY Rabbi, Joshua Franklin, recently used the AI generator to write a 1,000 word sermon based on a portion of the Torah focusing on intimacy and vulnerability

• He told the congregation that he was reading someone else’s sermon and the congregation assumed it was written by "wise, smart, thoughtful individuals.” but then he revealed the real ‘author’. 
• At the end of the sermon, there was applause. The Rabbi said "Now, you're clapping — I'm deathly afraid, I thought truck drivers were going to go long before the rabbi, in terms of losing our positions to artificial intelligence."

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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