Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. All Right, the driver's seat
Speaker 1: a familiar place to Cheryl Miller. She knows a lot
Speaker 1: about cars as the president and chief executive officer of
Speaker 1: Auto Nation. Joining me on the phone from Charleston, South Carolina.
Speaker 1: I have to say, if I was jealous of Taylor
Speaker 1: Riggs being in San Francisco, I'm much more jealous of
Speaker 1: Cheryl Miller being in one of my favorite cities in
Speaker 1: America or the world, Charleston. Cheryl, how are you. I'm
Speaker 1: doing great, and it's a great thing in Charleston. I
Speaker 1: know it always is, isn't it. I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: it really is one of America's great cities. I know
Speaker 1: you don't just listen Rainy the New York this morning.
Speaker 1: I know we're the worst this time of year. So
Speaker 1: what are you seeing in the car business right now?
Speaker 1: Being strong custer and demand. So we reported all time
Speaker 1: record quarterly and full year earnings per share today. Fourth
Speaker 1: quarter was up in the quarter year of a year,
Speaker 1: and then the annual was up fifteen. So we're seeing
Speaker 1: low unemployment for our customers. Three interest rate cuts and
Speaker 1: a lot of strength. So as we look at compared
Speaker 1: to two thousand nine, we think total industry sales between
Speaker 1: new and used will be at a similar level, and
Speaker 1: that's a really solid level. So we're feeling good well
Speaker 1: and investors, we should point out, clearly happy as well,
Speaker 1: pushing the stock up six point three uh percent, So
Speaker 1: talk to us about you know, inventory and and and
Speaker 1: customer demand as you go sort of a level deeper, absolutely,
Speaker 1: So inventory is in great shape. We've reduced our new
Speaker 1: vehicle inventory by eleven thousand units year over year, so
Speaker 1: we're around the fifty two days supply, which is a
Speaker 1: really healthy supply. So we love the positioning as we
Speaker 1: go into the spring selling season. And what we've seen
Speaker 1: from a customer perspective is customers continuing to migrate from
Speaker 1: new to nearly new. And why is that. Over the
Speaker 1: last five years, we've seen average prices for new go
Speaker 1: up about fifteen percent, so a five thousand dollar increase
Speaker 1: from two thousand fourteen to today in new vehicle prices.
Speaker 1: There's still healthy new demand, so we're seeing new retail
Speaker 1: being down about two to three percent, so it's still
Speaker 1: a pretty healthy retail news Star, but we are seeing
Speaker 1: customers love the affordability of used, so that migration is
Speaker 1: something we anticipated years ago. We built the automation brand
Speaker 1: towards that, and we're seeing success in the numbers. If
Speaker 1: you look at the fourth quarter use vehicle profitability up alright,
Speaker 1: So play that affordability question out for me, because if
Speaker 1: you are a manufacturer of a car, how much does
Speaker 1: that worry you this sort of trend and transition. There's
Speaker 1: some great products coming from the manufacturer, so just to
Speaker 1: be clear, particularly an electric and as you know, they're
Speaker 1: investing a lot in electric. So we've got the new
Speaker 1: portion of Icon coming out that's would be in our
Speaker 1: stores this quarter that's going to be spectacular, already sold
Speaker 1: out and back ordered for the next six months, and
Speaker 1: it's really an outstanding vehicle. So they've been investing in electric.
Speaker 1: It's not just Porscha, but you see the major premium
Speaker 1: luxury manufacturers coming out with product. They've got good production
Speaker 1: in terms of trucks and SUVs, cuvs, and that's what
Speaker 1: the customer demand is right now. There's a reasonable level
Speaker 1: of Awfully's vehicles, so they're also playing in the certified
Speaker 1: pre owned space. So we feel like the manufacturers they're
Speaker 1: going to have to continue to invest in electric. The
Speaker 1: payback is further out for electric. But they've done a
Speaker 1: good job of production. So one thing that we're not
Speaker 1: seeing is we're not seeing O. E M stuffing inventory
Speaker 1: on us. That's really great place to be. Well, let's
Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about e v s if
Speaker 1: we can, because you know, you mentioned some brands other
Speaker 1: than the one that we are obsessed with talking about,
Speaker 1: which is Tesla. You know you mentioned the Taikon. That's
Speaker 1: something we've talked with Klaus Selmer a lot on this
Speaker 1: program actually about what they're doing. We saw their big
Speaker 1: Super Bowl ad, the heist, that was all the very
Speaker 1: sighting and and as you say, you know, they're really
Speaker 1: pushing that forward in the in the demand seems to
Speaker 1: be there. Where are we more broadly in terms of
Speaker 1: big manufacturers embracing evs and maybe more importantly actually getting
Speaker 1: them out to customers. Yeah, so in the next two
Speaker 1: years you'll be seeing those come out. So you see
Speaker 1: Audi out with product, you're going to see BMW. I
Speaker 1: was just at summit with BMW and saw some of
Speaker 1: the new product coming out, and then behind that you're
Speaker 1: going to have Mercedes Bend, so they're actually going to
Speaker 1: be coming out on the roads, and I think that's
Speaker 1: the difference rather than just being in the pipeline. You're
Speaker 1: actually going to see those coming in place. That's actually
Speaker 1: great for automation because we love servicing complex vehicles, so
Speaker 1: we like hybrid servicing, we like electric servicing. We even
Speaker 1: service autonomous with Weymo. So you're actually going to see
Speaker 1: those vehicles on the road with manufacturers that can produce
Speaker 1: at scale, and so we think that's pretty exciting for customers.
Speaker 1: And we do think the Ticon as an outstanding car
Speaker 1: and that's going to be a legitimate competitor for Tesla.
Speaker 1: I drove one recently and super fast. You have to
Speaker 1: be a little careful when you when you hit the
Speaker 1: pedal on that one. Well, and I have to say
Speaker 1: I got to sit in one. I didn't get to dry,
Speaker 1: but I got to sit in one here at Bloomberg
Speaker 1: when they were unveiling it, and uh, it feels like
Speaker 1: a pretty sweet ride inside. Only about a minute left here. Cheryl,
Speaker 1: you mentioned Weymo. You know you are a chief ARCHITECTI
Speaker 1: of that deal. Remind us what that is and where
Speaker 1: it goes from here. So Weymo is really a way
Speaker 1: that we have one ft in the future. So about
Speaker 1: three years ago now in Phoenix, we started a partnership
Speaker 1: saying I wonder what this is going to look like
Speaker 1: over over the next several years. So I'm pleased to
Speaker 1: say three years later, we continue to have a great
Speaker 1: servicing relationship with Weymo. So we got to see what
Speaker 1: it was like to service autonomous vehicles early in their
Speaker 1: life cycle, and now that they have many more miles
Speaker 1: on the road, were able to see the evolution of
Speaker 1: what service looks like in autonomous In addition to that,
Speaker 1: we started doing parts delivery with Weymo out in Phoenix,
Speaker 1: so a continued expansion of that partnership. We want to
Speaker 1: make sure we're running the business for today, but also
Speaker 1: that we're leaning into the future with things like our
Speaker 1: partnership with Weymo and also our investment in room. All right,
Speaker 1: Cheryl Miller, thank you so much. Come see us here
Speaker 1: in New York City, maybe when the weather is a
Speaker 1: little bit nicer, when we can get you out at Charleston.
Speaker 1: The president and CEO of Auto Nation, Johnny Men on
Speaker 1: the phone from down there in Charleston uh A nice
Speaker 1: report for uh ITS investors today. Auto Nation stock up
Speaker 1: six point three p