Live From NYC at the JD Power Auto Forum - Trump Considers Parts Tariff Pause

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Paul, Kyle, Michael, and Nathan woke up at 4am so they could be in NYC by breakfast to begin the day of coverage at the JD Power Auto Forum in Manhattan. They’ll be talking to industry experts and Dealers about the current Dealer response to tariffs, inventory, and people strategy. 

Show Notes with links:

• Auto Forum preview: Mike Cottone (Pres. Volvo), Randy Parker (CEO N.A. Hyundai/Genesis), Sen. Bernie Moreno, John Bozzella, Tom Doll

• President Trump is considering exemptions to steep auto part tariffs to ease the transition for carmakers shifting supply chains back to the U.S. This could offer short-term relief for manufacturers—and markets took notice.
  • Trump may delay tariffs on some imported auto parts.
  • Automakers say immediate tariffs would trigger layoffs and price hikes.
  • Shares of Ford, GM, and Stellantis rallied after Trump’s comments.
  • The 25% vehicle tariff and upcoming parts tariffs are part of his American manufacturing push.
  • “They need a little bit of time, because they’re going to make them here,” Trump said.
    
    
    
• Insurance premiums for Teslas are rising nearly three times faster than the rest of the market, fueled by high repair costs and increased vandalism. Despite Tesla’s efforts, the financial hit is landing squarely on owners' wallets.
  • Tesla insurance premiums jumped 22–29% across key models.
  • The Model Y saw the steepest rise—nearly 3x the national average.
  • Vandalism and expensive repairs are the main culprits.
  • Tesla’s own body shops haven’t yet eased premium hikes.
  • Average 2025 insurance cost for a Model 3: $4,364 per year.

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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Episode Transcript

Paul J Daly (00:02):
All right, we're on the ground New York City, nice
and early. J.D. Power AutoForum, and we've already had so
many hugs and handshakes andgreat conversations with dealer
principals and leaders ofcompanies, and the event has
even started. Tom Castro,

Unknown (00:15):
literally, almost

Paul J Daly (00:18):
from behind you.
You didn't see it. We want togive a special thanks to lift
kit, who sponsored our coveragehere this year at the JD Power
auto forum, we're going to bringin somebody that has something
to do with lift kit. Should webring him in now? What are you
doing him in? Come on. He's theguy. Yes, there's the guy. It's
Michael Cirillo with lift ASOTUFlex, lift kit. Hi guys. Hi.
Actually, we never do this onthe show, but there's probably a

(00:42):
lot of people heard that termfor the first time. So yeah, why
don't talk about lift kit forlike, 20 seconds?

Michael Cirillo (00:49):
Lift Kit is a single source of truth for all
inventory data. So you know thatproblem where you're like, Hey,
how come I have rogue units onthat website that haven't
existed on our lot? What we dois we ingest all of your data,
all of your inventory data, weclean it, normalize it so we map
it to the right stock number,and then we send it out in the
format of whatever platform youneed it to be sent out with.

(01:11):
We've got APIs, and we've gotall that sort of stuff to speak
immediately to the

Paul J Daly (01:21):
couple people interested in that. So
obviously, programming is aboutto start here. Have a lot of big
names, Senator Bernie Moreno,Randy Parker, my did I see I got
Mike

Kyle Mountsier (01:32):
Catone from Volvo, John buzzella,
automotive. We got to catch upwith him.
John Paul is going to be here.
They've got him on the schedule.
Is retired, but

Paul J Daly (01:42):
God, OEM, brand building. That's I feel okay. He
doesn't put that on, but getinto brand, but, but if you ever
meet him, he seems about asleast like The Godfather as you
can imagine. He's the guy youwant to sit in an Irish pub with
and have a couple drinks with.
Yeah. So

Kyle Mountsier (01:57):
if you're paying attention live, we'll be
shooting a lot of content,interviewing a lot of these
people. Make sure and follow usalong on LinkedIn, on social,
follow us what we're doingtoday, and we'll make sure and
share everything that wepossibly can about the
conversations had here at the JDPower auto form.

Paul J Daly (02:10):
All right, we have two stories. Let's go. I'm gonna
go the first one, I'm gonna handyou the microphone. All right.
Oh, see, we're doing the phonething. I hope today too. I think
we have stories from today andnot last from today.
Unbelievable. If listen, if youdidn't watch it, go back and
watch yesterday's show. Where itwas. We ran a story from last
month, and I was like, you heardit here last and Michael

(02:31):
couldn't get a breath in Edgewise. Why can I not find this?
Oh, there it is. Here we go. Itis President Trump considering
exemptions this just announcedto steep auto part tariffs to
ease the transition for carmakers shifting supply chains
back to the US, this could offershort term relief for
manufacturers and markets. Tooknotice yesterday. Trump's
basically saying he may delaytariffs on some of these

(02:53):
imported parts automakers sayingimmediate tariffs would trigger
layoffs and price hikes. Sothat's like kind of the back and
forth of it. Shares of four GMand stellantis rallied after
these comments. The 25% vehicletariff and upcoming parts
tariffs are part of his Americanmanufacturing push. Very
eloquently, Trump said they needa little bit more time because

(03:13):
they're going to make them here.
Yeah, I

Kyle Mountsier (03:15):
think this was all over the news yesterday. It
was all over the markets. We'vegot all over the news, all over,

Unknown (03:21):
all over the market, is, look who just

Kyle Mountsier (03:25):
Steve, you actually were probably paying
attention to President Trumpyesterday, talking about
tariffs. Yet again, exactly.

Paul J Daly (03:33):
Well, it's good article. It's good article.
Potter, right? There'ssomething, there's something to
write about. Yeah. So how manyJD Power forms have you been to?
There's only, like your third, Ithink you were here last year. I

Steve Greenfield (03:44):
this is one of my other than Asotu Con, of
thinkcourse. Well, this is one of my
favorite conferences. Actually,really, well, I really think the
insights that they get, thecontent they carry on stage, is
really, really powerful,

Paul J Daly (03:53):
easy to get to one day, relatively, right,
depending where you are, yeah,maybe not in California. Yeah,
that's true. I know

Kyle Mountsier (04:02):
I agree that. I mean, you just look at the list
here today, it's stacked.

Paul J Daly (04:05):
Yeah, it's really, really good. They were saying
attendance is probably 30% overwhat it was. Is gonna be my
favorite part right

Unknown (04:17):
here. So basically, they were

Paul J Daly (04:21):
saying attendance is about 30% up over last year,
expending expecting 600 thisyear. So I was obviously a
heightened interest on what'sgoing on right now and this
level of insight. So I

Steve Greenfield (04:32):
have no idea any additional insights today
about, you know, tariffs, but, Imean, I gotta imagine everyone's
like, freaking out and saying,What do I do? Yeah, Audi's
holding cars to the port. ShouldI be selling my Audis, or should
be holding on, right and when Istart implementing price
increases? Because in my localmarket, you know, I don't want
to be the first dealer toimplement price increases, but I
don't want to be the last,

Paul J Daly (04:50):
right, and I don't want to run out of inventory.
Where's the sweet spot? SenatorMoreno did Q and A at a dinner
last night, and we heard heanswered questions and spoke for
about an hour plus. So there'sobviously a lot of communication
coming from the White House ontariffs, from a car guy. It'll
be interesting to hear what he

Steve Greenfield (05:06):
says from the States. I think his session is
totally entering the golden ageof automotive. Is it really
can't wait to hear good to see

Paul J Daly (05:15):
you. We'll catch up with you 20 other times.

Unknown (05:22):
What a guy. I don't think. I

Kyle Mountsier (05:24):
think we're on to our second story. We're on to
our second story. There was,there was a really interesting
story this morning that coversthat insurance premiums on
Teslas are literally growingthree times faster than the rest
of the market, fueled by highrepair costs and increased
vandalism despite Tesla'sefforts, the financial hit is

(05:44):
landing squarely on their ownerswallets, and this isn't like
Tesla insurance outside ofTesla, this is Tesla's
insurance. Their captiveinsurance jumped 22 to 29%
across key models, the model Yseeing the steepest rise nearly
three times the nationalaverage. And their own body
shops, like the Tesla body shopshaven't eased any premium hikes,

(06:06):
um, average, 2020, 25 insurancecosts for a model three, you
ready for this? $4,300, a yearmodel three? For a model three,
you owned a model three? Didn'tyou? I did while I

Paul J Daly (06:21):
don't own a matter of your insurance costs when you
own it. Well,

Michael Cirillo (06:23):
I wasn't going through Tesla's insurance, but I
can imagine if I was, they wouldtake into consideration how
often my wife drove over thelawn when pulling into the
driveway. And I have to imaginethat is also being factored in,
because they can track yourdriving habits and your driving
behavior and

Paul J Daly (06:39):
all this. It's almost worse. Yeah, it's almost
worse for me. Yes,

Michael Cirillo (06:44):
that's like one of

Kyle Mountsier (06:45):
the cameras for your curb rash, yes, right?
Everything, every test, yes,every, every single Yeah,

Paul J Daly (06:52):
as a former wheel guy. So it's your dream
everywhere.

Michael Cirillo (06:56):
So basically, what I'm getting at is I want to
know in that vandalism number,how much of it is self inflicted
vandalism. See, you

Kyle Mountsier (07:06):
guys later.
Well, you know, and this is likeone of those education pieces
when you start looking at likethe cost of ownership across
every single vehicle right nowis being put under scrutiny
because it'sthe first time the talking point
has been front and center for avery long time. When people are
trying to consider EV, cost ofownership, they're thinking
about insurance, which is alsoimpacting hybrids and battery,

(07:26):
and those shopper behaviors arestarting to change. So when you
start thinking about like, whatis the customer considering
they're coming in the door?
They're not just considering, amI going to buy that car? But
what is the cost of theinsurance? What is the cost of
the ownership like that's in theheadlines. So be aware that your
consumers, whether they'relooking at an EB or not, are
thinking about

Paul J Daly (07:46):
that. I mean, it's just another hit for a company
that's been on the ropes, andthis definitely isn't helping. I
think things will normalize. But$4,300 for a model three let's
roll the outro. Liza, we havesessions to get into. It's
getting really that awkward,quiet level, so we gotta get in
there again. Thank you to liftkit. Thank you to lift kit for
special. Did I just you? Bam,we'll be back with you in a

(08:06):
little

Unknown (08:22):
bit. You