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AUTOMOTIVE
Auto Loans Are Up
The price of new and used vehicles continues to rise and pull along US debt.
The average monthly payments for new cars are up 15% year-over-year to $667. The average auto loan size also increased 13.2% to keep pace. The loan length stayed flat at around 69 months.
Used car monthly payments jumped 17% to $515. A used car's average value climbed 18.7% to $28,534. Loans for used cars accounted for 61.8% of all auto loans compared to 2021's 58.5%.
Telling it like it is — Some of the articles covering this are written like people are choosing between taking on loan debt or spending their vacation fund. They aren’t. Dealers can be understanding partners, whereas others may miss the human story here.
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AUTOMOTIVE
Honda’s New Battery Factory
Spurred on by the Inflation Reduction Act, Honda and LG will open a $4.4B EV battery factory in the US. Construction of the factory will begin early next year and mass production will follow by the end of 2025.
The factory will bring Honda EVs into compliance with the manufacturing rules so customers will qualify for tax credits.
Telling it like it is — Nobody can tell consumers who to buy from, but they can give them a massive tax break…and that is kinda the same thing.
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Tape Measure For Savvy Marketers
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Imagine a single platform to look at all of your marketing and turn insights into action. Visatdash is the leading agnostic marketing measurement platform that delivers actionable insights and return on ad spend data so dealers can market effectively!
Not your grandpa’s tape measure…way better! Contact Vistadash today.
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AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE
- The Automotive Troublemaker Podcast
- Auto Collabs
- Social Media
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AUTOMOTIVE
More EV News
The adoption and growth of automotive electrification continue to accelerate. EVs are not yet hitting dealerships quite like their gas-powered predecessors, but tracking the technological developments (even in non-franchise dealership model companies) will help dealers prepare for customer questions.
Rimac's Nevera takes just 1.85 seconds to leap from sitting still to 60mph. The Croatian EV hypercar company says getting that number below 1 second is not just possible but will be a feature of Rimac's production vehicles with time.
We all know EVs are not the powerless golf carts people thought they were a few years ago, but at 1.85, the Nevera now holds the fastest time among ICE or EVs.
Tesla recently teamed up with T-Mobile to provide service coverage using Starlink cellular broadcasting. Now the EV maker will use the same feature to migrate its vehicles from the AT&T LTE to the Starlink network.
Cars are only becoming more connected and more remote capable. Whole recalls could soon be more like a late-night cell phone update than a trip to the dealership.
Rivian's year has been full of ups and downs. One consistent story has been their work with Amazon. Efforts to electrify the online retail monolith's delivery fleet will put more than 100,000 EVs in the field by 2040.
The most extensive public test of EV reliability will not be published in a scientific journal but in Amazon reviews.
TL;DR — EVs are in position to match or improve upon performance expectations, introduce whole new normals for in-car software, and become the workhorse tech of the current era. Reasons to wait until later on EV readiness are getting few and far between.
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TODAY IN HISTORY
- 1959: The first "Austin Mini 7" goes on sale for £497
- 1980: Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” hits the charts at #78
- 1967: Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
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WHAT THE KIDS ARE INTO
Playstation Goes To Court
A $5.9B lawsuit says Sony Playstation overcharged customers for games and in-game purchases. The class action filing could include 8.9M UK customers.
Throwing their weight around. Concerns that Sony's central role in the $200B video gaming industry has allowed the company to provide excessive and unfair prices sparked the case. The case is pending approval by judges as a collective opt-out action, meaning affected customers who do not intentionally opt out will receive compensation if awarded.
Telling it like it is — Ripping somebody off while they try to play video games is like kicking down the door at their therapy session and playing bagpipes. Cold as ice. Also, Honda, duly noted.
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QUICK HITS
- An unprecedented flood hit Pakistan. Now the country is requesting international aid.
- Nothing is safe from inflation’s cruel reach. Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte returns with a $0.50 price increase.
- Expecting lift-off? So were we. NASA explains the technical issues that lead to canceling the launch of Artemis 1.
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