GM Smiling, Tesla’s Fuel Toggle, Over-Surveyed

The Automotive Troublemaker w/ Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

This Tuesday we’re talking about why GM is smiling from their robust financial performance in Q1. We also talk about a controversial toggle on Tesla’s website, as well as what companies are ignoring in their surveys.

Show Notes with links:

• General Motors is kicking off 2024 with a robust financial performance, boosting full-year guidance after a stellar first quarter.
  • GM's net income soared by 24% in Q1, reaching $2.98 billion, driven by strong vehicle demand, especially in North America where revenue hit a first-quarter record of $36.1 billion.
  • Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes grew to $3.9 billion, prompting GM to raise its full-year EBIT forecast by $500 million to between $12.5 billion and $14.5 billion.
  • Despite new-vehicle prices expected to drop slightly, GM's pricing remained stable in Q1, supported by sales of small crossovers like the Chevrolet Trax and Buick Envista.
  • Cost-cutting measures, including $300 million in reduced fixed costs from marketing and engineering, are on track to meet GM's $2 billion reduction goal by year-end.
  • "Globally, our team is leaning into every opportunity with a focus on profitability to build on our strong start to 2024," said CEO Mary Barra, indicating the company's proactive strategy amid challenges.
    
• The Tesla toggle: Elon Musk recently tweeted a Model Y price starting below 30k. This was reflected on their website. The catch is that the price included calculated fuel savings based on an assumption of use. This could be adjusted and toggled off.
  • Could Dealers get away with this?
  • Are they violating the rules?
  • Will they get in trouble?
    
• Customer satisfaction surveys are pervasive, a new Business Insider article explores whether they really help businesses, or just annoy customers with constant requests for feedback?
  • Surveys have become a standard practice across industries, aiming to optimize customer experiences for business gains, not necessarily customer benefit.
  • The spending on market research, specifically customer surveys, has ballooned to $80 billion annually, with a significant focus on monitoring and improving customer satisfaction metrics.
  • Despite the intention to gather useful data, the overwhelming number of surveys has led to 'oversurveying', making many people less likely to respond, which paradoxically leads to more surveys being sent out.
  • Companies are now focusing less on the quality of products and more on whether their offerings meet customer expectations; the current emphasis in surveys is on the entire customer experience, not just product quality.
  • "Companies are using surveys to cling to unloyal customers. It’s much cheaper to keep a customer than acquire a new one," explains Brad Anderson of Qualtrics, highlighting the economic motives behind the survey onslaught.

Hosts: Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier
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