Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. I'm Hannah Elliott and
Speaker 1: I'm Matt Miller.
Speaker 2: This is Hot Pursuit.
Speaker 1: Coming up on today's podcast. Matt had a great interview
Speaker 1: with Ford's Jim Farley that we're going to discuss.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll play the whole interview for you, because
Speaker 2: Ford actually moved to the top spot on JD Power's
Speaker 2: initial quality survey. So among the large manufacturers, not including
Speaker 2: you know, Niche, like Ferrari or even Portia, but the
Speaker 2: major car makers, Ford is number one in quality and
Speaker 2: it's a huge turnaround from where they were in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three, they were number fifteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really big deal. And automakers still really
Speaker 1: care about this because I you know, heard from Frank,
Speaker 1: our friend at Porsche earlier today that Porsche is also
Speaker 1: claiming a top spot on JD powers.
Speaker 2: Quality an overall quality, So including you know carmakers like them,
Speaker 2: they are number one, but you expect you expect it
Speaker 2: from from Porsche. I had a nine to eleven for
Speaker 2: ten years and never never once had a mechanical issue
Speaker 2: with it. You guys have had like fifty of them. So,
Speaker 2: but it's for Ford it's it's an amazing comeback story.
Speaker 2: I was comparing it when I talked with Jim to
Speaker 2: like Tiger Woods winning the Masters in twenty nineteen, or
Speaker 2: you know, uh Jordan coming back and winning the championship,
Speaker 2: Mark Marquez, Mark Marquez winning the Moto GP World Championship
Speaker 2: last year after almost ending his career from injury. So
Speaker 2: it's like an incredible comeback.
Speaker 1: And Jim is basically crediting what is he given credit to.
Speaker 1: He's saying it's a culture change up Ford.
Speaker 2: Right, I mean, yeah, it's really it's really the humans.
Speaker 2: The humans have done a great job.
Speaker 3: So it's not robots.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: I mean I would have thought hearing so much about
Speaker 2: automated factories in China that build hugely uh successful cars
Speaker 2: with you know, perfect panel gaps, I would have thought
Speaker 2: that using AI or like technology to monitor suppliers or
Speaker 2: improve factory processes. Note what happened was they said, we
Speaker 2: need to bring back our older and wiser, you know,
Speaker 2: engineers that have maybe retired or gone on. So they
Speaker 2: call them gray beards, right, the men and women probably
Speaker 2: way the women don't have beards.
Speaker 4: But wait a second, they brought back three hundred and
Speaker 4: fifty older employees to come back and not only train youngs, yeah,
Speaker 4: but also to train to retrain the AI that had
Speaker 4: just not been doing it right.
Speaker 1: That is so interesting, and I'm seeing it really help
Speaker 1: them in the truck department especially.
Speaker 2: Well, which I mean it's all they well.
Speaker 1: Don't forget the Mustang. It also help with the misting right.
Speaker 2: Oh, but they make their money from the trucks and
Speaker 2: the SUVs and the vans, and look, they make an
Speaker 2: absolute ton of money from Ford Pro, which is their
Speaker 2: professional unit that has double digits. They have he said,
Speaker 2: thirty to forty percent subscription rate subscription growth. So the
Speaker 2: business seems to be doing really well. It's still not
Speaker 2: on par in terms of margins with their crosstown rivals,
Speaker 2: General Motors, Like they both in the first quarter had
Speaker 2: forty three plus billion dollars in sales. But over the
Speaker 2: year GM is expecting ten to maybe fifteen billion dollars
Speaker 2: in pretext earnings, whereas Ford is expecting eight and a
Speaker 2: half to ten and a half billion dollars of pretext earnings.
Speaker 2: We'll hear all about this.
Speaker 1: In the Can't Wait to Listen the interview at Jim
Speaker 1: Farr and Jim was a great interview too.
Speaker 2: He is he looks fantastic, does he? I was thinking
Speaker 2: as I sat down, like, I know he's so successful
Speaker 2: because he's such a hard worker and he had such
Speaker 2: a long career at Toyota. And that's part of the
Speaker 2: reason that this is so such good news for him,
Speaker 2: because he you know, he beat Toyota and Honda and
Speaker 2: Hondai and Kia.
Speaker 3: Like he's beating he's in the ring.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But also he's so good looking.
Speaker 1: Oh stop it now, yes, it is. When I first
Speaker 1: saw journalistic on camera today, now was like a beautiful man.
Speaker 1: This is sounding No, no, that's got to help.
Speaker 2: That's got to help in terms of his success.
Speaker 1: I hope he doesn't listen to this. It's not we
Speaker 1: don't need to stroke as ego at all.
Speaker 2: Oh. I also got to talk to him a lot
Speaker 2: about racing because exactly so, like I was wondering if
Speaker 2: Max for Stappin is gonna drive their hypercar comeback.
Speaker 3: You know, they're feel like we're seeing it happen.
Speaker 2: I hope. But the thing is, I said, listen, do
Speaker 2: you have Max locked in for uh, what do you say?
Speaker 2: Ford red Bull F one next year? And he was
Speaker 2: like No, he has. The thing is he has a
Speaker 2: clause in his contract that the car has to be competitive.
Speaker 2: So yes, Max is going to still race in F one.
Speaker 2: He's confirmed next year, but it's not one hundred percent
Speaker 2: that he's going to still have the same seat at
Speaker 2: Ford Red Bull. I'm sure that he will, but there
Speaker 2: are rumors, you know, that he could go elsewhere for sure.
Speaker 1: I think the one thing we know about Max Verstappan
Speaker 1: is what he really cares about is racing, full stop.
Speaker 3: That's what he cares about.
Speaker 1: He doesn't he doesn't care about anything else, and that's
Speaker 1: why we.
Speaker 2: Love him absolutely. I mean, and it's like, say, he
Speaker 2: wants to.
Speaker 1: Be in the best he wants to be in the
Speaker 1: best car with the best team, the best chance to win. Period.
Speaker 3: Yep, you know, it's very simple, all right.
Speaker 2: By the way, speaking of racing, I don't know if
Speaker 2: you've had a chance to watch the Kevin Magnus in
Speaker 2: NASCAR event.
Speaker 1: I hadn't.
Speaker 2: Oh, you are in for a treat when you do. Now, first,
Speaker 2: do you get to watch it?
Speaker 1: You have not traditionally been a NASCAR.
Speaker 2: I haven't, No, And what did happen?
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 2: I mean, because it's a moment that's gone viral. I
Speaker 2: mean this is I spend more time on social media
Speaker 2: than you do, and I'm not proud of that.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to literally get to zero.
Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not proud of that fact. But you
Speaker 2: can't go on Twitter without if you're into motorsports.
Speaker 3: Without seeing Twitter completely.
Speaker 2: Without seeing people issue an opinion on k Mag in NASCAR.
Speaker 2: So he was invited to do a race by UH
Speaker 2: track House. So track House, which also has a very
Speaker 2: successful Moto GP team, is active in NASCAR, and they
Speaker 2: bring occasionally drivers from other leagues, and so he brought
Speaker 2: Kevin Magnuson. He's currently driving you know BMW, the BMW
Speaker 2: hypercar and WEC.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think he great River.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he got pole position at Lamon And anyway, he
Speaker 2: goes into NASCAR and he's got a driver in front
Speaker 2: of him that won't get out of the way, Noah Gregson,
Speaker 2: who's like a third generation NASCAR family driver, and he
Speaker 2: bumps Noah and then throughout the next like I know,
Speaker 2: the next ten, fifteen, twenty laps, Noah Gregson is obsessed
Speaker 2: with k Mag. He's like bumping him, pulling up beside him,
Speaker 2: giving him the finger hanging beside him, like not passing him,
Speaker 2: because what's important to Noah is giving k Mag the thing.
Speaker 2: He's so angry at these snobby open wheel drivers who
Speaker 2: come into my You're gonna come to my NASCAR and
Speaker 2: teach me how to drive exactly and the whole time,
Speaker 2: like you can listen to clips of it on YouTube
Speaker 2: or on Twitter or whatever. K Mag is like, man,
Speaker 2: this redneck is is really annoyed with me, and like
Speaker 2: he just bothered exactly. So finally, you know, after I
Speaker 2: don't know how many laps, but countless laps, finally k
Speaker 2: Mag says all right, I've had enough and just knocks
Speaker 2: Noah Gregson, spins him and sends him into the wall. Right,
Speaker 2: And Noah Gregson threw an absolute fit after the race,
Speaker 2: like ran over to him, why you crash me? Why
Speaker 2: you crash me? And k Mag was just like, you
Speaker 2: know what, and then find out, buddy, that's right, that's
Speaker 2: how it goes here. Anyway. Gregson is superid off. But
Speaker 2: I think most everybody thinks that k Mag was in
Speaker 2: the right totally.
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you for that quick catchup. Yeah, and I'm
Speaker 1: one thousand percent and I'll.
Speaker 3: I will watch the tapes.
Speaker 1: It's worth it on this, on this first blush, I'm
Speaker 1: totally pro Kevin on this.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And you know what, here's how I know that Noah
Speaker 1: is an inferior driver. And I'll say this with no
Speaker 1: actual knowledge of anything in this arena.
Speaker 2: Please do because that's what everybody on Twitter.
Speaker 1: Is doing too, because he was out of control because
Speaker 1: he got emotional. Yes, And the minute you get emotional,
Speaker 1: and I know, I know race, and I know driving
Speaker 1: on tracks, I've done it for many years and I've
Speaker 1: been around a lot of professional drivers and drive instructors.
Speaker 1: The minute you let your emotions control what you do
Speaker 1: on the track, you're done.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Period, Absolutely, he got a little bit of hot,
Speaker 2: he got hot under.
Speaker 1: The mullet, he got out, and he let Kevin come
Speaker 1: in and control the whole situation. So I don't even
Speaker 1: need to see the video, although I will watch it.
Speaker 2: It's worth watching anyway.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I already know no Kevin was out of control.
Speaker 1: That's too bad.
Speaker 2: It's And the funny thing is, you know NASCAR does
Speaker 2: this Obviously they want a little bit of marketing help
Speaker 2: from other leagues. So you bring in somebody from you know,
Speaker 2: F one or you bring in somebody from WEC, and
Speaker 2: people that normally would only watch F one or WC
Speaker 2: they watch the NASCAR race because Kmag's driving or whoever
Speaker 2: it is, and then maybe they get interested.
Speaker 3: And co ellination.
Speaker 2: It's worked for me because now I'm gonna start watching
Speaker 2: NASCAR like religiously. And at the time, I hope also
Speaker 2: that Kmag gets a permanent seat, because it would he
Speaker 2: set the fastest lap of the entire race of all
Speaker 2: the drivers.
Speaker 1: That's so cool. And this is why, like remember the
Speaker 1: race of Champions that they did in the eighties, like
Speaker 1: the Iraq races. This this goes into like we all
Speaker 1: want to see who the best driver is, regardless of
Speaker 1: the series. And this goes back to like what we
Speaker 1: were talking about, why don't F one drivers drive an
Speaker 1: Indy And we had a whole conversation with Zach Brown
Speaker 1: about that and he gave us his reasons that he
Speaker 1: thought which were very interesting and I could see, but like,
Speaker 1: don't we all want to see all of these great
Speaker 1: drivers from Indy, from Lama, from F one, from NASCAR,
Speaker 1: like all just go all out. They would never agree
Speaker 1: on a car and they would never all agree on
Speaker 1: a track.
Speaker 3: But this is what we want to see.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, bring back Iraq. I would love to see it.
Speaker 2: And you know, some people have made the suggestion like
Speaker 2: there should be a series where they switch off car
Speaker 2: so drivers, but then they would complain that that car
Speaker 2: was better for that track, and I don't know. I'm
Speaker 2: happy that there's so much great racing to watch these days,
Speaker 2: so I'm all in. Obviously, Moto GP is insane. Mark Marquez,
Speaker 2: by the way, last weekend was nuts and Moto GP.
Speaker 2: Just to quick I know there's a car podcast, but
Speaker 2: just a quick two weird round up. Uh Marco Betseeki,
Speaker 2: who was leading the championship a month ago by over
Speaker 2: one hundred points above Mark, he crashed in the sprint
Speaker 2: on Saturday. A marshall, one of these volunteer workers, you know,
Speaker 2: safety workers, came out and tried to pick up his
Speaker 2: bike and accidentally goosed the throttle and bet Seki got
Speaker 2: so mad that he slapped the marshal, slapped him, then
Speaker 2: he turned off the bike. Then he stood up again
Speaker 2: and slapped him again in the face. You know, maybe
Speaker 2: a little frustrated because he wrecked, and also a little
Speaker 2: bit worried about his motor. I get that, but you
Speaker 2: don't slap a marshal who's volunteering his time to help
Speaker 2: your sport, right, It's just not cool. So he was
Speaker 2: so he was suspended from the race, and he lost
Speaker 2: all of all of his points. Oh no, and Mark
Speaker 2: won the race. So now Mark, in the span of
Speaker 2: a month has gone from a deficit of one hundred
Speaker 2: and five points to forty points behind the leader. And
Speaker 2: it's just amazing to watch, amazing.
Speaker 1: Incredible, And it's this type I don't I can't condone
Speaker 1: slapping of race.
Speaker 3: Marshal, but it is kind of funny, it is.
Speaker 1: I mean, and this goes to show, like I think
Speaker 1: we need strong personalities and moments of uncontrolled surprise just
Speaker 1: like this to make this type of thing interesting.
Speaker 2: It is so dramatic, and all the Italian fans they
Speaker 2: hate Mark, you know, so they're all, you know, caught
Speaker 2: in a position where they have to kind of defend
Speaker 2: bet Seki. Mark rises above it all as usual and says, hey,
Speaker 2: don't give them too much crap. He's he's young, we're
Speaker 2: all young, we're all learning in front of millions of people.
Speaker 2: It's very emotional, like this kind of thing can happen,
Speaker 2: but it's just amazing to watch and you get it, uh,
Speaker 2: there was because of this an old clip surface where
Speaker 2: James Hunt had a similar incident. He wrecked a car
Speaker 2: and a marshall ran up to see if he was
Speaker 2: okay and try and help him get off the track,
Speaker 2: and James Hunt punched like, clocked the marshal in the face.
Speaker 2: But to his credit, Hunt like looks down, starts to
Speaker 2: walk away, and then realizes what he's done. Then he
Speaker 2: turns around and gives the marshal a huge hug and
Speaker 2: they walk off like arm in arms.
Speaker 1: Bros. That would never happen with women on so many loves,
Speaker 1: but this.
Speaker 2: Okay, do you not think do you not think it would?
Speaker 1: Women won't physically fight and then all of a sudden
Speaker 1: be friends.
Speaker 3: That's because dudes do that. That's that's that's bros.
Speaker 2: That's standard operating.
Speaker 3: That's easier.
Speaker 1: But my point is, obviously these guys are running on
Speaker 1: so high levels of adrenaline and testosterone when they're in
Speaker 1: their sport doing their sport, especially racing at that high level,
Speaker 1: that like you can't just turn it off off. The
Speaker 1: emotions run high. This is this is why, like when
Speaker 1: something bad happens, they're obviously still all hyped up on
Speaker 1: adrenaline and testosterone. It reminds me of something that Total
Speaker 1: Wolf told me, which was something like, if you want
Speaker 1: to lie in behind the steering wheel, you can't expect
Speaker 1: a puppy dog outside of the car. True, it just
Speaker 1: doesn't work if you want someone who's extremely aggressive.
Speaker 3: And you know, I think we were exceptional.
Speaker 2: You were talking to him about the car. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: you're one hundred percent right. I remember when he told
Speaker 2: you that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's and it's so true. I'm not excusing bad behavior,
Speaker 1: but like I kind of get it. And also I've
Speaker 1: been watching you've been watching NASCAR clips. I've been watching
Speaker 1: clips of Dennis Rodman for the past week.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know why, Like somehow my algorithm.
Speaker 1: I'm just obsessed with Dennis Rodman right now. And I
Speaker 1: just love his attitude. I just love it. He He's
Speaker 1: the classic example of it's the most difficult ones that
Speaker 1: have the most to give. And I have a big
Speaker 1: soft spot for people who have so much spirit they
Speaker 1: just you just need to channel it.
Speaker 2: Do not disagree, right, I do not disagree. Let's get
Speaker 2: to the cars we're driving. Because you sent you sent
Speaker 2: me a picture. I thought you were going to be
Speaker 2: driving the M two, the BMWM two this week.
Speaker 1: I'm getting that in like a week. Okay, I'm getting
Speaker 1: that in a week or so.
Speaker 2: You sent me a picture of a gorgeous Mercedes.
Speaker 1: US even it took my breath away slightly.
Speaker 2: So what is it?
Speaker 1: So? This is the twenty twenty six Mercedes AMG SL
Speaker 1: sixty three S Performance. I hate all of their naming things,
Speaker 1: but it's basically an SL sixty three in light moss green,
Speaker 1: which is a ten thousand dollars option.
Speaker 3: Of course, it's worth every penny.
Speaker 1: It's so pretty. It's not a racing green. It's not teal,
Speaker 1: it's the perfect it's not all of It's a true
Speaker 1: light moss green with black NAPA interior, red contrast stitching
Speaker 1: carbon fiber trim. It's got the red badging for the
Speaker 1: AMG SL sixty three S E Performance line. And it's
Speaker 1: a convertible.
Speaker 2: So, so is this not the same car that was
Speaker 2: your choice for Car of the Year last year?
Speaker 1: This is the convertible version of my favorite car of
Speaker 1: the year last year.
Speaker 2: So no wonder you took a short answer.
Speaker 1: To your question I guess I still stand by my
Speaker 1: choice from last year and I had. It's been like
Speaker 1: basically a year since I've been in this model. This
Speaker 1: is a convertible version, and you know what, I'm sticking
Speaker 1: with my choice. It's so I'm smiling. I'm just smiling.
Speaker 1: It's so great.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have driven the slick Top, not the Cabrio,
Speaker 2: and I was in love with it as well. It's
Speaker 2: like so much power, I think it happens, yes, so
Speaker 2: much torque. It's like, I don't know, fifteen hundred newton
Speaker 2: meters or over one thousand pound feet of torque.
Speaker 1: One forty seven according to the specs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like driving it is an absolute pleasure. It
Speaker 2: does feel kind of heavy. Steering is a little heavy.
Speaker 3: I did not find that to be true.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I mean that in a good way.
Speaker 2: Maybe solid is a better word.
Speaker 3: Sure, very precise, but confidence inspiring.
Speaker 2: I also think like everything inside works perfectly. The touch screen,
Speaker 2: I mean there aren't buttons and knobs as much as
Speaker 2: I'd like. You have to go into touch screens, but it's.
Speaker 3: Not like barely.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they do the best infotainment basically set up that
Speaker 2: there is. It's a giant screen, right, it's like a
Speaker 2: large iPad size.
Speaker 1: It's I wouldn't say giant, it's it's there. It's it's
Speaker 1: large ish, but it's not giant. It's at your easy
Speaker 1: fingertip within reach. Everything is easy. I sinked my bluetooth
Speaker 1: in about five seconds.
Speaker 2: You know that tilts. This green tilts so that you can.
Speaker 1: You don't have to go with a bunch of layers
Speaker 1: of software. It's everything is you know, top layer options.
Speaker 1: When you're sinking things and using the radio, which is
Speaker 1: the number one thing, and probably the climate too is
Speaker 1: the number one thing. All of that's easy. It just
Speaker 1: is like a big exhale. But also it's really fast.
Speaker 2: It does weigh about five pounds, so it's I'm seeing
Speaker 2: the non convertible version four and thirty nine pounds pishposh.
Speaker 2: So you know, I'm just saying like it's very heavy,
Speaker 2: and I mean that's almost as much as my old
Speaker 2: BMW seven sixty. But the interesting thing.
Speaker 1: Is, yes, and I will say compared to that too.
Speaker 1: I see in my piece from last year, I did
Speaker 1: note that the nine to eleven turbos weighs thirty eight
Speaker 1: hundred pounds. So yeah, it's heavier, you don't feel it.
Speaker 2: And but the thing, so my issue with with this
Speaker 2: car if I have any issue, because I think I
Speaker 2: agree with you. It's one of the best cars new
Speaker 2: cars you can buy if you have unlimited funds.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you have a lot of money.
Speaker 2: The problem is it does cost like a quarter of
Speaker 2: a million dollars, right. What's the all in with options
Speaker 2: MSRP on the model that you're driving?
Speaker 1: The model I have this week, all in including the
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars paint job, the AMG Performance seats for
Speaker 1: twenty five hundred a night package, driver assistance, all that stuff,
Speaker 1: two hundred thousand, two hundred and twenty eight thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: seven hundred and.
Speaker 3: Fifty So two thirty okay, yeah, two thirty.
Speaker 2: Because that's probably not including the destination charge.
Speaker 1: That is, including destination and delivery. That's all in.
Speaker 3: The suggested read tail price is two hundred and eight thousand.
Speaker 2: So I mean a couple comments that I would make
Speaker 2: is how much was the paint The paint.
Speaker 1: Was paint to be exact, was nine nine hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: There was a funny thing I saw on Twitter this
Speaker 2: week and I double checked it to be true. Portia
Speaker 2: offers a shark blue option as a PTS paint to sample. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it's about fifteen thousand dollars if you wanted a
Speaker 2: non GT nine to eleven.
Speaker 1: That's an exclusive manufacturer.
Speaker 2: Yes, but Folkswagen used to offer it as a standard
Speaker 2: option on a golf as cornflower blue, and it was
Speaker 2: three hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: Are you sure it's the same, exact same, exactly. Sure
Speaker 1: you don't have mail mail pattern color blindness.
Speaker 2: No, I have double checked. I mean, I oh, sac
Speaker 2: check with AI. So maybe it's a scoop. Yeah, fifteen
Speaker 2: grand if you want it as a PTS on the
Speaker 2: on the nine to eleven, three hundred dollars, if you
Speaker 2: wanted it on your boss.
Speaker 1: Well that's that is. I don't like to be taken
Speaker 1: for a fool.
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, I guess if you're if you're
Speaker 2: buying a new nine to eleven, being taken for a
Speaker 2: fool isn't something that bothers you. And and for A,
Speaker 2: it's a non GT option, so you're not buying the
Speaker 2: car to flip like if you're buying a GT three
Speaker 2: A it's less and B it doesn't matter because you're
Speaker 2: not gonna drive it, You're just gonna sell it and
Speaker 2: bring a trailer. But the other thing is destination charges.
Speaker 2: I feel like a lot of people aren't including those
Speaker 2: as part of the price, but why would you not?
Speaker 3: This week it's non negotiable.
Speaker 2: What's what's the name of the Amazon spinoff or the
Speaker 2: Jeff Bezos company that makes the cheap pickup truck slate
Speaker 2: slate right there. They have been for years saying we're
Speaker 2: gonna come out with this super cheap pickup truck, and
Speaker 2: it's just totally bare bones, no options, and you want
Speaker 2: to you can change it up, customize it yourself, and
Speaker 2: it's going to be twenty thousand dollars. Now they've come
Speaker 2: out with the price in quotes right because they're not
Speaker 2: including the destination charge. It's twenty five grand. And if
Speaker 2: you put the it's going to be one thousand dollars
Speaker 2: destination charge.
Speaker 1: It'll probably be fifteen hundred.
Speaker 2: So it's gonna be thirty percent more than the price
Speaker 2: they were promising us. And basically that's like you're already
Speaker 2: could buy a Ford Maverick. So it doesn't seem to
Speaker 2: be the great thing that we thought it would. And
Speaker 2: but my whole point is I want people to include
Speaker 2: destination charges.
Speaker 1: Might well, I agree, you include you're not getting around it.
Speaker 2: The cost to design it, to build it, to market it,
Speaker 2: to ship it, those all should be in the price.
Speaker 1: I totally agree. I totally agree. I think I should disclose.
Speaker 1: This is a tiny pivot to but on this car,
Speaker 1: it is a hybrid car. We haven't talked about that.
Speaker 1: They're basically saying you'll probably get around twenty nine to
Speaker 1: thirty miles per gallon equivalent combined.
Speaker 3: Oh, combine.
Speaker 2: People still pay attention to that. I don't know, do
Speaker 2: they I've I didn't until I got this. Well, that's
Speaker 2: new BMW.
Speaker 1: And that's new. I mean your BMW is not a hybrid, right.
Speaker 2: No, But it's still it's like I'm lucky to get
Speaker 2: eleven I'm lucky to get double digits miles per gallon.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's the way territory and the prices are still.
Speaker 2: I pulled up to a shell station last week and
Speaker 2: by the way, we're recording this on Thursday, the twenty
Speaker 2: fifth of game Stamp. Last week, when I filled it
Speaker 2: up for the first time, it was like six dollars
Speaker 2: and sixty cents for ninety three octane at the shell
Speaker 2: station near me. I know that the national average for
Speaker 2: gasoline has fallen now to below four dollars, but that's
Speaker 2: for regular fuel.
Speaker 1: It's not in Cali, and it's.
Speaker 2: Not in Cali or in New York. It's still super high.
Speaker 2: The hybrid, Yeah, they used that so that amg SL
Speaker 2: sixty three s E performance. The E performance is the
Speaker 2: giveaway that it's a hybrid and it uses like some
Speaker 2: fround inspired tech.
Speaker 1: That's I This is to me is a case where
Speaker 1: a hybrid I'm fine with.
Speaker 2: I mean me too.
Speaker 1: It adds weight, but like it's great.
Speaker 2: Love it. Oh, I'm okay with hybrids, as you know.
Speaker 2: And in so many cases, yeah, I love the I
Speaker 2: love the E Ray hybrid.
Speaker 1: More things I think could be probably hybrid and no,
Speaker 1: and no one would really bat and eye.
Speaker 2: And nobody would know except for uh, it makes it
Speaker 2: much harder to repair it yourself. Right, it's one more layer.
Speaker 1: We're talking about them.
Speaker 2: No, we're not going to talk to right about right
Speaker 2: to repair, not right now.
Speaker 1: Not right now, but you should talk about your aston Martin.
Speaker 2: Yes, so and and by the way, this is where
Speaker 2: I think a comparison is apt between the Mercedes you're
Speaker 2: driving and the and the Aston Martin. So I'm driving
Speaker 2: the Aston Martin DBS twelve Valante the convertible, the convertible version.
Speaker 3: And we both have convertibles. Yeah, quick question.
Speaker 1: How often do you drive the top down?
Speaker 2: I all the time, Like I always put the top
Speaker 2: down because I don't drive convertibles very much. And also
Speaker 2: I'm a New York so you know, the weather isn't
Speaker 2: always doesn't always allow me, so when I can, I do.
Speaker 2: And by the way, the car is as you would expect.
Speaker 2: It's amazing, Like it's beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. The paint is
Speaker 2: so deep and sparkly. The design. You know, every time
Speaker 2: I look at it when I walk out, I think
Speaker 2: I might get a James Bond. And it's also an
Speaker 2: absolute joy to drive. It too, feels heavy or solid
Speaker 2: maybe is a better word, but I don't mind. The
Speaker 2: acceleration is addictive, the way it sounds, the way it feels,
Speaker 2: the way it builds up, and the steering is heavy
Speaker 2: and a really good way. It's totally I trust myself
Speaker 2: driving it fast. The breaks are confidence inspiring, like the
Speaker 2: seating position is great, the interior, the leather is beautiful,
Speaker 2: like everything is good, except for the maintainment system is
Speaker 2: just like a continued failure from Aston Martin.
Speaker 3: And they they know that they know it, and they have.
Speaker 2: Come out with like they were one of the first,
Speaker 2: maybe still the only manufacturer to use car car Play
Speaker 2: plus like the extended version of Apple's Car Play, And
Speaker 2: yet every Aston Martin I get, I hook up the
Speaker 2: phone the first day, and then the next day or
Speaker 2: later that day, I get in the car and it
Speaker 2: doesn't work. And I have no idea how to get
Speaker 2: the car Play to work other than disconnecting my phone
Speaker 2: and then redoing it again. And I can't imagine the
Speaker 2: anger you would experience as an owner who's paid hundreds
Speaker 2: of thousands of dollars for a car and every time
Speaker 2: she or he drives it, you've got to reset your
Speaker 2: iPhone connection. It's it's maddening.
Speaker 1: It's maddening, and it's like this little gnat that keeps it.
Speaker 1: It's like kind of a small thing, but it's so
Speaker 1: annoying because it's he's there. It's like this gnat that
Speaker 1: is just pestering and pestering. And I remember when I
Speaker 1: had the dB twelve, Uh not the convertible the coop
Speaker 1: and uh. In my piece, I mentioned that they had
Speaker 1: integrated a center touch touch screen, which was an upgrade
Speaker 1: because the dB eleven didn't have any touchscreen at all.
Speaker 2: Right, or wireless car play right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yes, And to your point, Matt, it just feels like
Speaker 1: these cars, I don't I don't get. They just feel
Speaker 1: so far behind technology. They are just so far behind.
Speaker 1: I mean, you should never have to deal with recinking bluetooth.
Speaker 2: The truth is, it's such an expensive vehicle. And if
Speaker 2: you're gonna buy this car instead of a nine to eleven,
Speaker 2: well you probably have a nine to eleven, right, or
Speaker 2: I mean it's got to be your third car, and.
Speaker 3: It's definitely your third car.
Speaker 1: If it's definitely if.
Speaker 2: I had that much money, I still would buy this
Speaker 2: car because Okay, it's it's different, because yes, you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's more unique. Yeah, you don't see them very often.
Speaker 1: Yes, and it makes you look twice.
Speaker 2: It feels like such a special experience it and it
Speaker 2: is like, yes, in terms of driving tech, amazing, Like
Speaker 2: it's the carbon ceramic brakes are standard. It's got you know,
Speaker 2: seven hundred horse power, it has six hundred pound feet
Speaker 2: of torque. It's everything. It checks every box right, It's
Speaker 2: got a great transmission. It's not a dual clutch, but
Speaker 2: it's this, it's the ZF eight speed. It's it's it's amazing.
Speaker 2: It's robust. But you can barely see the screen because
Speaker 2: there's so much glare. There's no contrast. It's it looks
Speaker 2: like boxy and uh, you know, maybe they're using sixty
Speaker 2: four bit technology, you know, like my old Nintendo. I
Speaker 2: don't know, but let's.
Speaker 1: Put this in really stark terms. You have a it
Speaker 1: is a is a B twelve right, No, sorry, misleading,
Speaker 1: it is misleading you call it.
Speaker 2: I think the dB twelve they should have gone straight
Speaker 2: to thirteen because it has a four leter twin turbo
Speaker 2: V eight. It's an amazing motor. I have no problem
Speaker 2: with the motor. It doesn't bother me that it's not
Speaker 2: a V twelve. Okay, everybody I show it to in
Speaker 2: my block when I say dB twelve like, oh wow,
Speaker 2: you're breathing twelve cylinder engine, I'm.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, okay, so too. Okay, So even more to
Speaker 1: my point, we've got two convertibles that are eight cylinder cars.
Speaker 2: In fact, they're pretty much the same motive.
Speaker 1: It's very very similar.
Speaker 2: Because Aston Martin buys these motors from Mercedes. Pens Right,
Speaker 2: So Mercedes.
Speaker 1: Has more horse power and is actually less expensive, drives
Speaker 1: arguably better, I would say, with a far superior infotainment
Speaker 1: system and it costs less. Maybe you could say the
Speaker 1: Aston Martin is a more beautiful, more classically beautiful car.
Speaker 2: It is, I might.
Speaker 1: Say that, but does that outweigh everything else? Well?
Speaker 3: Ultimately, which would you choose?
Speaker 2: So to be clear, this is the engine is directly
Speaker 2: sourced from Mercedes. So the reason that the Mercedes that
Speaker 2: you're driving has more power is because of its hybrid component. Sure,
Speaker 2: and it has electric motors, right, This doesn't. This is
Speaker 2: just a turbo charged gas motor. So if they made
Speaker 2: it a hybrid, it probably would be the same, or
Speaker 2: or they would insist that it's more. If you're going
Speaker 2: to have a car like this as a daily driver,
Speaker 2: you take the MRK every time, like it's cheaper and
Speaker 2: it's easier to use. It's superior to probably live with.
Speaker 2: If you're going to have this car as for a
Speaker 2: special occasion, you know, or to or to make a statement,
Speaker 2: you take the ast In because you'll never see another.
Speaker 2: You rarely see another one in New York. I mean
Speaker 2: obviously La London. Yeah, I do buy maybe.
Speaker 1: You see them, but they're more rare, certainly.
Speaker 2: But the but the bottom line also is at this
Speaker 2: price level for a new car, like very few people
Speaker 2: if you, if you don't work at SpaceX, like, there
Speaker 2: are hardly any people out there that are going to
Speaker 2: go and drop essentially a quarter of a million bucks
Speaker 2: on the murk or you know, three hundred thousand plus
Speaker 2: on the on the ass ten.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but they're out there.
Speaker 2: They're out there for sure.
Speaker 1: And they probably have a Bloomberg terminal. It might be listening.
Speaker 2: That's definitely.
Speaker 1: You know, we're always told at pursuits, and I agree.
Speaker 1: The real, real, the real scarcity in resources is time,
Speaker 1: not money for.
Speaker 3: A lot of our people, for our clients.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's time.
Speaker 2: Maybe not for our listeners.
Speaker 1: Maybe not for our listeners. But that's okay, I mean,
Speaker 1: I get it, it's time. It's not the money is
Speaker 1: not the limiting factors.
Speaker 2: Well, the thing I think for people listening to this podcast,
Speaker 2: most of people I know who listen to it, and
Speaker 2: by the way, a lot of people listen to this podcast.
Speaker 2: I got so much feedback last week, What do you mean?
Speaker 2: Just so many people wrote, wrote to me, emailed me,
Speaker 2: texted me, called me because they heard from listening to
Speaker 2: this that I had gotten that new oh seven sixty,
Speaker 2: And I was like, wow, cool people listen. But I
Speaker 2: think so. I think the the commonality of many of
Speaker 2: our listeners is that they see this, they see in
Speaker 2: Aston Martin like this, and they are interested in care
Speaker 2: you know, and love to look at it and hear
Speaker 2: about out drives. And then also five years later they're
Speaker 2: shopping for it because they depreciate so significantly.
Speaker 3: There you go, right there.
Speaker 1: Your were just doing our bit for anywhere along the
Speaker 1: sales chain, well start or the middle or the end
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 2: And I think also, like everybody, or like a lot
Speaker 2: of people, I like to think about what I would
Speaker 2: do if I did work at SpaceX and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden I had ten million dollars. Would I buy this? No,
Speaker 2: I still probably wouldn't pay three hundred and fifty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars for it, And I wouldn't pay for a new
Speaker 2: nine to eleven Turbo S And I wouldn't pay for
Speaker 2: that new Mercedes.
Speaker 3: I might not me because you know.
Speaker 2: What, I would rather go get a two thousand and
Speaker 2: sixteen Acid Martin V eight Vantage with three pedals. I
Speaker 2: would still I still want that depreciation. Yes, I still
Speaker 2: want to be because I can have just as good
Speaker 2: a time, even better with the.
Speaker 3: Stick for sure.
Speaker 2: And I'm only gonna on the on the twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2: I'm only going to spend sixty sixty five grand for
Speaker 2: a sweet one.
Speaker 1: Have you ever actually bought a new car off the lot?
Speaker 2: I bought a new uh G five hundred. Oh was
Speaker 2: that wagon?
Speaker 1: Why did you buy that new?
Speaker 2: Because?
Speaker 1: What made it worth it to you?
Speaker 2: Because so? Because I bought it in twenty nineteen, right
Speaker 2: when they had come out with the new generation of
Speaker 2: G Wagon.
Speaker 3: And that was important.
Speaker 2: Unlike the purists, I did not enjoy the steering on
Speaker 2: the old G Wagon, you know, I did not enjoy
Speaker 2: the way the old G Wagon drove.
Speaker 1: We wouldn't call it a nimble dancer.
Speaker 2: No, But the new one I did enjoy it, and
Speaker 2: so I put my order in. It took two years,
Speaker 2: maybe I ordered it at the end of eighteen. I
Speaker 2: finally got it in twenty twenty. And that's also the
Speaker 2: only car new ore Us that I've ever made a
Speaker 2: profit on when I sold it.
Speaker 1: Oh, no way, Yeah, so that buck the trend.
Speaker 2: I mean I saved up for years to be fair,
Speaker 2: and when I did buy it, I paid I don't know,
Speaker 2: I think one thirty or one.
Speaker 3: You actually made money on a new car purchase.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I sold it like two years later with thirty
Speaker 2: thousand miles on it for one point fifty.
Speaker 3: Dude, that's really good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, congrats, that's really really good.
Speaker 2: Because I was going to say everything else I I
Speaker 2: bought my Raptor. I bought new kind of part of
Speaker 2: my reporting because I was doing a story on building
Speaker 2: f fifties. Yeah, but that wasn't you know, a high
Speaker 2: car that was affordable. At the time I bought my Raptor,
Speaker 2: it was only fifty fifty eight thousand dollars sticker, and
Speaker 2: that was when it had the six point two liters
Speaker 2: V eight. That was when it was the really good Raptor.
Speaker 1: Did you buy that or the g Wagon thinking that
Speaker 1: you were going to lose money? Yes, and you're okay
Speaker 1: with that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean a car is a depreciating asset, like
Speaker 2: in my world right in not maybe not in your
Speaker 2: world because you guys have so much experience I know,
Speaker 2: but when you buy a car, you know you you
Speaker 2: already have been doing this for a long time, so
Speaker 2: you probably could sell one of the cars you've bought
Speaker 2: for more than what you paid. I'd like to think
Speaker 2: so yeah, but I, you know, was just a normal
Speaker 2: person before and so stop. I always expect appreciation on
Speaker 2: a vehicle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, I think, I mean, we all kind
Speaker 1: of should. Anyway. That's I was going to say, I just.
Speaker 2: Sold my Challenger for a loss. You know, I think
Speaker 2: I paid sixty four for it new and I sold
Speaker 2: it for fifty one.
Speaker 1: There's a part of me that thinks, at one point
Speaker 1: we're talking like if we win a million dollars or
Speaker 1: join SpaceX's investor board, whatever, that new car smell, it's
Speaker 1: kind of cool.
Speaker 2: What would you get?
Speaker 1: Probably, honestly, if I was getting a new car, I
Speaker 1: would probably either get one of the SL sixty three's, Honestly,
Speaker 1: I would seriously consider that, or a nine nine to
Speaker 1: two turbos probably really yeah, Yeah, the SL sixty three
Speaker 1: I get, But the turbos I do not get.
Speaker 2: I don't feel like, well I haven't actually I haven't driven.
Speaker 1: Well, what I really want is the st but that's
Speaker 1: kind of in a different category.
Speaker 2: Now, that's where I'm with you. That's why, that's where
Speaker 2: I'm right.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, now that's that's all. If I had
Speaker 1: SpaceX money, one hundred thousand dollars car now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know it's going to appreciate right way.
Speaker 2: That's like a nine to eleven R. You know, maybe
Speaker 2: if I had that kind of if I had SpaceX money,
Speaker 2: I would definitely get an st Yes, if I could
Speaker 2: get the allocation, sure, because I wouldn't want to buy
Speaker 2: it flicking for a trailer. But yeah, what else do.
Speaker 5: We have that?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 1: Can I can I do a venting thing?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: You have time for event and you can talk. Then
Speaker 1: we'll we'll get to Jim Farley. Perfect. Here's my little
Speaker 1: rant for the day, and you guys can weigh in
Speaker 1: on your pet peeves. Here's a pet peeve when somebody
Speaker 1: parks way too close to the bumper of your classic
Speaker 1: Rolls Royce vehicle, when they have all the room in
Speaker 1: the world and they literally park, I would say, generously
Speaker 1: eight inches from your bumper. And it happens to be
Speaker 1: a Tesla with a no elon license plate, which to
Speaker 1: me is the height of stupidity and virtue signaling. That
Speaker 1: just really grinds my gears.
Speaker 2: I have a real problem with the parking issue.
Speaker 3: Who does that?
Speaker 2: You know you're right?
Speaker 1: Is it malicious or is it completely just not spatially aware.
Speaker 2: It's malicious. It's it's weak on the part of the
Speaker 2: person who does. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't get it. I couldn't get behind that car
Speaker 1: to open my trunk if I needed to.
Speaker 2: Not a good person.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's a good person.
Speaker 1: And then on top I don't in La, it's a
Speaker 1: very big deal to if you do have a Tusla,
Speaker 1: you got to have like an anti elon bumper sticker.
Speaker 2: Now that I'm okay with that, I'm okay.
Speaker 1: Why don't you just get a different car? If you're
Speaker 1: driving a Tesla anyway you can afford it. It's not
Speaker 1: like just get swap it out.
Speaker 2: Like a Model three Performance or no, some random models. Okay,
Speaker 2: So it's first of all, it's the best car. It's
Speaker 2: the best Tesla.
Speaker 1: It's the best good it's not there's.
Speaker 2: A tireless design, it's elegant.
Speaker 1: Get an e Tron.
Speaker 2: And it's old. It's old. The person for one, the
Speaker 2: person it's fair to say that the person new bottom
Speaker 2: Model S bought it before Elon Musk was defiably.
Speaker 1: Unclear because this person owns two Teslas.
Speaker 2: How do you know that?
Speaker 1: Because they live in my neighborhood.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Okay.
Speaker 1: I've been clocking this person. If I know who this
Speaker 1: person is.
Speaker 2: If you have to Tesla's, then the bumper sticker or
Speaker 2: the right. Dude, you can't just no longer disc.
Speaker 1: You can't have no Eli license plate. You've been owning
Speaker 1: Tesla's for years. Yeah, that's not This is just someone
Speaker 1: who's trying to be what they think is cool. That's
Speaker 1: not okay, Just get rid of the car, dude, I
Speaker 1: don't get it.
Speaker 2: I agree, I agree, But the thing is like, if
Speaker 2: you're parking, I well, I'm of two minds because I
Speaker 2: think the Model S is a great a great vehicle
Speaker 2: and historically also.
Speaker 1: Historically extremely significant.
Speaker 2: And but I was gonna say, if you the Tesla,
Speaker 2: the Tesla driver doesn't care if you hit her bumper
Speaker 2: or his bumper, whereas the roles are voice driver does
Speaker 2: care care.
Speaker 1: Very much, but also show some respect for an old rules. Seriously,
Speaker 1: I'm with you. It's not about me.
Speaker 3: It's about my car.
Speaker 2: I'm one hundred percent with you on that, But I
Speaker 2: think it's okay for normal A normal person who bought
Speaker 2: a Model three before Elon Musk took up the chainsaw,
Speaker 2: it's fair for that person to say, I bought this
Speaker 2: car before I knew it was crazy.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 2: I think Dan Neil actually wrote a column about that
Speaker 2: in the Wall Street Journal, remember that, like a year ago.
Speaker 3: I love his writing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, here's the other thing. And I don't actually know
Speaker 1: if I myself live up to this standard that I'm
Speaker 1: going to say I hold other people to. But don't
Speaker 1: you at least try to have a general idea about
Speaker 1: any big purchases, about who's behind what you're buying. The
Speaker 1: car is probably your second biggest purchase in life for
Speaker 1: most people, So regardless of anything, you have a little
Speaker 1: idea about the philosophy behind the object that you spend
Speaker 1: money on.
Speaker 2: I mean, I hear what you're sorry. I think before
Speaker 2: like about two years ago, it became clear that Musk
Speaker 2: was like gonna run around with the chainsaw, had like
Speaker 2: thirteen children.
Speaker 1: You know, Like, well, he's had thirteen children for about
Speaker 1: twenty years.
Speaker 2: It just wasn't really out in the open that he was,
Speaker 2: so he's.
Speaker 1: Been talking about Mars since day one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's cool. That's the cool part of Elon Musk.
Speaker 2: The things that he's achieved for, you know, humanity are
Speaker 2: still like you can't debate that, right, Am I wrong?
Speaker 1: Do you not think that's I'm not sure what your
Speaker 1: point is.
Speaker 2: I think at the time the Model S came out,
Speaker 2: you could be proud to buy a Tesla. You know,
Speaker 2: at the time the Model X came out, you could
Speaker 2: be proud to buy a Tesla that was still when
Speaker 2: you're sling, you.
Speaker 1: Would have been proud to buy a Tesla. And no,
Speaker 1: and no, And this is at the I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: tout my own self for a minute. I have spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time with Elon before people knew he.
Speaker 3: Was who he is now, And wasn't it cool?
Speaker 1: He was a very nice person. He was very nice
Speaker 1: to me at that point. Obviously, I'm a reporter, so
Speaker 1: he's going to be on his best behavior and all
Speaker 1: this stuff. But even then, when I could have a
Speaker 1: nice conversation with him, I would not have bought a Tesla.
Speaker 2: Well that's because you're a car enthusiast.
Speaker 3: I love that's my own thing.
Speaker 2: Yes, I get it. I mean you are a big
Speaker 2: fan of authentic quality and real materials, and it's not you.
Speaker 3: It's just not me.
Speaker 2: You bought like a nineteen seventy one Rolls Royce. That's
Speaker 2: very different. That's the other end. You know who I
Speaker 2: love spending time with and who is cool and I
Speaker 2: liked him as long as I've known him, so for
Speaker 2: fifteen Jim Farley. Yes, Jim Farley is a great guy.
Speaker 1: Is that who we're gonna say?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: He seems pretty authentic.
Speaker 2: It's so cool what he's been able to do. Like
Speaker 2: his I think his like grandfather worked at Ford and
Speaker 2: the first car that he bought and drove across country
Speaker 2: was a Mustang. And he worked very successfully at Lexus
Speaker 2: for a long time, so for the competition before he
Speaker 2: came to run Ford. And it's just sweet that he
Speaker 2: got them back to JD. Power's number one spot because
Speaker 2: it's not something you can buy. It's not like car
Speaker 2: of the Year for some mag that you know, we'll
Speaker 2: give it to you if you put enough ads in
Speaker 2: their book, Like you have to make better cars in
Speaker 2: order to achieve that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to put a qualifier in here and
Speaker 1: say it makes me uncomfortable to like speak in such
Speaker 1: glowing terms of any car executive because because of journalists
Speaker 1: but journalistic integrity. So I'm like not going to say
Speaker 1: very much glowing about anybody, but I will agree with you,
Speaker 1: Matt that and obviously with a grain of assault, because
Speaker 1: he's he's incredibly smart, and he understands his audience and
Speaker 1: he understands who he's talking to, and so he plays
Speaker 1: to that of course, but you know, he can read
Speaker 1: the room. Anybody can. But my point is also he
Speaker 1: is a little bit different when you're dealing with him
Speaker 1: in like in a straight interview for a story or
Speaker 1: a specific future or something, because unlike a lot of
Speaker 1: car other car executives, he doesn't speak in bullet points.
Speaker 1: He he can articulate in a normal conversation, very high
Speaker 1: minded ideas in a normal manner, and he doesn't speak
Speaker 1: in pullet points and he doesn't have five pr people
Speaker 1: standing around him because he can't. He's unsure that he's
Speaker 1: going to say the right or the wrong thing. He
Speaker 1: is able to articulate exactly what he means like.
Speaker 2: A well because it comes from the heart.
Speaker 3: And yes, you know that is admirable.
Speaker 2: You know he's not playing, he's not putting it on
Speaker 2: because when he talks about the importance of forward to him,
Speaker 2: it's a family matter. Yes, when if you're fronting, then
Speaker 2: you're not going to be driving classic race cars because
Speaker 2: you could die.
Speaker 1: I can't fake you cannot fake driving, and not just driving,
Speaker 1: you can't fake racing. And that is another distinguishing factor
Speaker 1: for Jim Farley, And you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2: About it, like important. I remember when I was talking
Speaker 2: to him many years ago at the LA Auto Show
Speaker 2: about the g and it was incredibly important to him
Speaker 2: to build a car that would get around the track
Speaker 2: faster and as an than a portion nine to eleven
Speaker 2: and be a better experience. He he put the the
Speaker 2: what do you call the flat plane crank in that car,
Speaker 2: knowing that it would be difficult, right because it shakes
Speaker 2: the engine so much and it's hard to keep it durable,
Speaker 2: but because he wanted that exotic experience, right, He's I'm
Speaker 2: sure been at least part of the driving force between
Speaker 2: keeping a manual transmission in the Mustang platform. When you
Speaker 2: know the Camaro was canceled, the Challenger was canceled even
Speaker 2: before it was canceled. Yes, they had a manual transmission,
Speaker 2: but they hardly made any of them. Like, he cares
Speaker 2: about the product for you know, for enthusiasts, even though
Speaker 2: he's obviously running a business and here about that too,
Speaker 2: so he's like authentic, but also of course he's a CEO. Anyway,
Speaker 2: listen to what he told me about winning jd Powers
Speaker 2: initial quality standards among all manufacturer, mainstream manufacturers. Let's take
Speaker 2: it off, Jim. I mean, it is such an incredible feat.
Speaker 2: Not only coming back from the slide that you were
Speaker 2: in to take number one the number one spot, I
Speaker 2: mean number two or number three would have been impressive,
Speaker 2: but beating Toyota, beating Honda, their legendary for quality. How
Speaker 2: did you actually achieve that?
Speaker 6: Well, it took us four years of hard work to
Speaker 6: be an overnight success story.
Speaker 5: You know, it's been. It's been just an amazing culture change.
Speaker 6: It for literally, Matt, every one of our engineers has
Speaker 6: been in the plant, every one of our supply chain
Speaker 6: teams are in our suppliers. We are paying attention to
Speaker 6: every detail. It has taken a few years to get there,
Speaker 6: but I think it's really about the culture of putting
Speaker 6: quality before profits before anything else. And that really is
Speaker 6: what's exciting about this because now what I'm seeing is
Speaker 6: the team really focusing on learn tern durability.
Speaker 2: So what was it your team? Was it an employee
Speaker 2: of labor issue? Was it you know technology? Did you
Speaker 2: use AI? Was it factory processes?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: Can you get into specifics of how you did it?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: If you if you were to visit today the Rouge
Speaker 6: plant where we make the F one fifty matt what
Speaker 6: you would see is a whole control center around data
Speaker 6: and quality data. So we measure the torque of every
Speaker 6: one of our fasteners. We have AI tools for vision systems,
Speaker 6: but most of all, it's just old fashioned hard work
Speaker 6: of our team members all working together to pay attention
Speaker 6: to the very small details that will make a difference
Speaker 6: between a perfectly built four and okay built Toyota. It's
Speaker 6: just an incredible attention to every single detail.
Speaker 2: So, I mean, it's interesting now that we're in the
Speaker 2: age of AI and we're talking about this technology killing jobs,
Speaker 2: but it seems like in your case, it's really experienced
Speaker 2: human workers that made the big difference it did.
Speaker 6: I have to say the process coaches, the area coaches,
Speaker 6: you know, they get up every morning they look at
Speaker 6: the last shifts quality data. We look at how many
Speaker 6: vehicles are repaired, and we work that process every moment
Speaker 6: of every day. Every employee walks into anyone on our plants,
Speaker 6: they know exactly are we winning, are we losing yesterday
Speaker 6: and today? Everyone is fully aware of where we stand.
Speaker 6: We know exactly where Toyota is, we know exactly how
Speaker 6: to you know where we need to get to beat
Speaker 6: Tundra and Super Duty better than any of the other
Speaker 6: domestic competitors. And so everyone is aware exactly the quality
Speaker 6: is coming out of our plant in any particular shift
Speaker 6: every fifty seconds. And that is that human motivation to
Speaker 6: pay attention to everyone. Everything is amazing. Look, we make
Speaker 6: eighty five percent of our vehicles in the US, Matt.
Speaker 6: That means these are US factory workers versus even our
Speaker 6: domestic competitors. They're some of the biggest importers in the US.
Speaker 6: We're not building these vehicles in South Korea or Japan.
Speaker 6: These are American workers beating Toyota and Hyundai and our
Speaker 6: domestics who import their vehicles. We beat them all with
Speaker 6: the American workers, with the attention to detail, it's.
Speaker 2: An incredibly compelling narrative. I agree, of course, being at Bloomberg,
Speaker 2: we're focused on the numbers and quality issues. Recalls and
Speaker 2: the like had dragged down profits and margins to some
Speaker 2: extent over the past few years. Can you quantify in
Speaker 2: dollar terms how much this will contribute to to your
Speaker 2: recovery this year?
Speaker 6: Hundreds of millions of improvement. We're seeing our warranty coverages
Speaker 6: come down, We're seeing our costs come down. These are
Speaker 6: all contributing to literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of
Speaker 6: dollars of a tailwind for Ford on costs.
Speaker 5: But we didn't stop there.
Speaker 6: We also negotiated our parts costs with our suppliers. We've
Speaker 6: looked at all of our bill material and even our
Speaker 6: manufacturing inventory and our plants and all our manufacturing logistics costs.
Speaker 2: Imagine for Ford Pro it's the most important. You've got
Speaker 2: incredible growth there, You've got double digit margins, You've got
Speaker 2: thirty percent subscription growth. Correct me if I'm wrong on
Speaker 2: any of those numbers. How important is this for Ford
Speaker 2: Pro and does it change the picture at all?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 6: Good question, I would say for Ford Pro, really what
Speaker 6: this means Bill Ford tough really means something to our pro.
Speaker 5: Customers on the vehicle side, But.
Speaker 6: What we're really seeing there is an obsession with long
Speaker 6: term powertrained durability. We're testing every end two to three
Speaker 6: hundred thousand miles with transmissions, axles, everything. So those pro
Speaker 6: customers who use their vehicles literally ninety percent of the
Speaker 6: day to run their business, they can not only be
Speaker 6: happy with ninety day quality, but also five to ten
Speaker 6: year quality. That's what it means for our pro customers.
Speaker 2: In the pro business. I'm really interested in the subscription
Speaker 2: growth that you've seen. Can you give us targets there?
Speaker 2: Are you looking at even stronger growth as that business grows.
Speaker 6: We are seeing quarter over quarter, as you said, between
Speaker 6: thirty and forty percent growth. The margins are over eighty
Speaker 6: percent on our growth margin side. Here's what people are buying.
Speaker 6: They're buying productivity. These vehicles, you know they run their business. Plumbers, electricians,
Speaker 6: ambulance police, you know these customers.
Speaker 5: They use the date off the vehicles.
Speaker 6: They teach the drivers how to be easier on the brakes,
Speaker 6: to accelerate better, not to go past the speed limit.
Speaker 6: You know, did you tells and route the vehicles efficiently
Speaker 6: to their next job. All these productivity software tools that
Speaker 6: we offer customers allows them to reduce their cost and
Speaker 6: improve their uptime so their vehicles never off the road.
Speaker 6: We're now able to send them prognostics or predictive failure
Speaker 6: of vehicle components so that their vehicles are never off
Speaker 6: the road. They can do that predictive maintenance before problem happens,
Speaker 6: and they absolutely We're approaching a million subscriptions now for pro.
Speaker 2: So and at a time when we see you know,
Speaker 2: eight hundred billion dollars of hyperscaler capex this year alone
Speaker 2: to build out US infrastructure, tell us what kind of
Speaker 2: opportunity this is for Forden and how much you're able
Speaker 2: to participate in that in that data center build out.
Speaker 6: Well, I have to say, in the old days we
Speaker 6: used to look at housing. Today what we look at
Speaker 6: is construction. The construction trades are booming, super duty transit,
Speaker 6: exportable power to the job site. This is what customers want.
Speaker 6: They want new vehicles that are efficient with software. But
Speaker 6: also what they want is storage batteries. We're now going
Speaker 6: to be one of the biggest domestic makers of energy
Speaker 6: storage batteries.
Speaker 5: Now we're scaling up that plant. We actually have two plants.
Speaker 6: We'll have twenty giga want hours of energy storage and
Speaker 6: not only for sustainable grid and the grid reliance, but
Speaker 6: also Hyperscalers. They're going to use our battery electric storage
Speaker 6: batteries to run to really run our country, help run
Speaker 6: our country. Between pro and best our energy storage business,
Speaker 6: we're very well positioned.
Speaker 5: Have you got.
Speaker 2: Contracts with any of these big hyperscalers, Microsoft, Amazon, Google,
Speaker 2: Meta that you can tell us about.
Speaker 6: Jim, Yeah, good question. Well, we're in the middle of
Speaker 6: building out and converting these batteries from vehicle batteries to
Speaker 6: energy storage batteries, which are actually very different chemistry wise.
Speaker 5: Format wide MATT.
Speaker 6: To your point, we've had literally hundreds of customers now
Speaker 6: in the contracting phase. We announced one large one edf
Speaker 6: and they've committed about five gig WAT hours over the
Speaker 6: course of several years now, and we're in the process
Speaker 6: of contracting many many customers.
Speaker 5: It's a mixed MATT.
Speaker 6: We see sustainable grid you know, Win and solar. We
Speaker 6: also see hyperscalers building out. They want that one hundred
Speaker 6: percent up time on their facility. The Ford batteries are
Speaker 6: really useful for that, so it's a mix of customers
Speaker 6: so far.
Speaker 2: If I mean, since we're on Bloomberg, you're talking to
Speaker 2: every single investor on the planet, so you can share
Speaker 2: financial information with us that's material. Is this the right
Speaker 2: time to boost your EBIT target for the year.
Speaker 6: A great question, because we're right about right about a
Speaker 6: quarter or two earnings.
Speaker 5: I don't want to give a preview.
Speaker 6: I would love to love to give everyone insight into
Speaker 6: where we're running, but I would say, you know, good
Speaker 6: solid progress at Ford in our base business but also
Speaker 6: our non vehicle business.
Speaker 5: We're just seeing growth across the board.
Speaker 6: Boy, I got to tell you, I love American consumers.
Speaker 6: They absolutely love our Ford trucks. So you know, on
Speaker 6: the sales side, you've seen two months of sales, very
Speaker 6: strong results so far. We got out of the escape business,
Speaker 6: but still our sales are growing and actually I really
Speaker 6: believe June could be a breakthrough year a month for
Speaker 6: Ford sales, so we'll see how it ends.
Speaker 2: I have to say that I love watching Max first
Speaker 2: stapp in and it's been frustrating in some races, but
Speaker 2: he's been incredible to watch. I'm rooting for you and
Speaker 2: Hajar getting a podium was amazing. Can you confirm that
Speaker 2: they're going to drive for you next year as well?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 6: Max has I think Isaac were in good shape. Max
Speaker 6: does have a specific in his contract around around the
Speaker 6: car being competitive, but I think you know he's world
Speaker 6: multiple world champion, as you said, Matt, he'll have the
Speaker 6: option to choose that what I'm most confident and it's
Speaker 6: a bit of a dilemma for us, but the FIA
Speaker 6: and the Formula One said that the Red Bull Ford
Speaker 6: powertrain was the most powerful powertrain in the paddock. Unfortunately,
Speaker 6: that doesn't allow us to make as many changes as
Speaker 6: our competitors who are behind us. But I am really
Speaker 6: proud of the four team that a brand new powertrain
Speaker 6: that all the competitors are struggling with. That we at
Speaker 6: Ford were able to partner with Red Bull and give Max,
Speaker 6: multiple world champion, such a great powertrain, But we got
Speaker 6: to put.
Speaker 5: The whole package together.
Speaker 6: We got a big race coming up this weekend and
Speaker 6: we're going to do everything we can to give Max
Speaker 6: world championship caliber powertrain power unit, and then the rest
Speaker 6: of the team has to do the work. Boy, if
Speaker 6: we give it to Max, he will definitely deliver. How
Speaker 6: about some of those qualifying efforts this year.
Speaker 5: He is just amazing.
Speaker 2: He is amazing. And you know I was with you
Speaker 2: and Lamal last year when you announced here coming back
Speaker 2: to the hyper Sport class in twenty twenty seven, will
Speaker 2: you get Max behind the wheel of that car?
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, Max has been driving a Mercedes at the
Speaker 6: ring and you know, sure would be great to see
Speaker 6: him in a Ford. You know, look, we won four
Speaker 6: years in a row. We're the first American company win Lamar.
Speaker 6: We're the only Ford American company that had a chassis
Speaker 6: driver and an engine by an American company, Win Lamar.
Speaker 6: We're still the only one, and we're going back next
Speaker 6: year to win. It would be great to have Max
Speaker 6: in the Ford hypercar. You know, I'm going to have
Speaker 6: to really put on my charm school act to get
Speaker 6: him in that car, though, I.
Speaker 2: Think you can do it, Jim. I think you're you
Speaker 2: can pull that one off. If anybody can, it's you,
Speaker 2: all right. So that was Jim Farley talking about business,
Speaker 2: talking about to some extent, talking about AI right because
Speaker 2: this has been a huge boon to them and a
Speaker 2: new unexpected tailwind to make batteries for data centers, and
Speaker 2: talking about racing, because he does really care about racing.
Speaker 1: That's why we love him.
Speaker 2: What do you got going on this weekend? Anything special? Anything?
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm going to a bar mitzvah on Saturday.
Speaker 3: And I've asked all lots.
Speaker 1: Of Jewish thank you. I've asked my Jewish friends, like,
Speaker 1: I've been told we should give cash in increments of eighteen.
Speaker 3: I knew that the occasion. Yeah, that's so, this is
Speaker 3: what I've learned. Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 2: I knew that it was increments of some number.
Speaker 1: Yes, So I'm actually really looking forward to that. I
Speaker 1: know it's a big deal and I'm so happy for
Speaker 1: our friend Milo. And yeah, and then Sunday we have
Speaker 1: this big like society journalism, Society press dinner at the
Speaker 1: Biltmore in La that a bunch of us are going
Speaker 1: to for the LA Bureau. Cool excited about that too.
Speaker 3: I kind of like them.
Speaker 1: They're like little trade They're not little, but they're they're
Speaker 1: trade dinners, you know, kind of like the Oscars, but
Speaker 1: for journalists. Yeah, so not as not as good fashion,
Speaker 1: but no, it's still fun.
Speaker 2: I love those those things. Yeah as well.
Speaker 3: What about you?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm gonna keep driving this aston Martin to totally
Speaker 2: assess how good it is.
Speaker 1: Yees, research, more research is needed.
Speaker 2: Uh, and we're I mean, it's possible that I have
Speaker 2: a baby, that my wife has a baby.
Speaker 1: Wait what we're in the zone.
Speaker 2: Yes, like could be today, tomorrow, Oh my god, it
Speaker 2: could be any day now. So the little Miller Tana
Speaker 2: number three will be the gender A boy?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 2: Freddy? Wait? My first boy? What? Which? I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm not that excited about that part of it.
Speaker 1: I come from a family of two girls, one boy.
Speaker 1: Were the boys the youngest?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, it's a really nice mix.
Speaker 3: It's a really nice mix.
Speaker 2: My girls are like the lights of my life.
Speaker 1: My dad always said it was good he had the
Speaker 1: son laugh because the girls softened him up a bit,
Speaker 1: and then by the time you got to the sun,
Speaker 1: he was a good parent.
Speaker 2: I hope that's true as well, because I'm the oldest
Speaker 2: of four boys.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 2: And I often doubt like the goodness of my soul,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm just like, we were all problematic, like
Speaker 2: borderline bad people, you know. And I just I feel
Speaker 2: for my parents and I don't want any of that repeated.
Speaker 3: So, oh, you got a good thing going.
Speaker 2: So I'm glad that I have the girl, had the
Speaker 2: girls first. Yeah, because we can make a good one.
Speaker 1: I can't I can't wait to meet Freddy. That does
Speaker 1: it for this week's show. Remember to follow and subscribe
Speaker 1: to Hot Pursuit on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you listen.
Speaker 1: You can also send us your comments. Email us at
Speaker 1: hot Pursuit at bloomberg dot.
Speaker 2: Net, and check out Hannah's columns and stories on bloomberg
Speaker 2: dot com and the Bloomberg Business app. Go there for
Speaker 2: car reviews, events and stories that you won't find anywhere else.
Speaker 2: Find out all Bloomberg dot com, slash Pursuits, slash autos.
Speaker 2: I'm Matt Miller and I'm Hannah Elliott.
Speaker 1: We'll be back in your podcast feed again next week