Hacked Teslas, Home Depot Sees Fewer Shoppers, & Dealer Consolidation

The Automotive Troublemaker w/ Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

May 17 2022 • 20 mins

Tuesday’s are for Troublemakers as we talk about the revealing of a new Tesla hack with broader implications, Home Depot is seeing fewer customers but higher revenue, and the great Dealer consolidation marches on.

Research firm Escalent finds consumers prefer dealerships
- The majority of respondents prefer to rely on dealerships for financing (60%), delivery (85%) and repairs and services (79%). Almost half of the respondents (45%) prefer to have dealership staff educate them about various models.
- “What we found, pretty overwhelmingly, is that consumers prefer to buy their vehicles from dealerships,” K.C. Boyce, vice president of Escalent, tells Wards. “They want to do test drives, to touch and feel and see vehicles. When we look at the macro picture, the idea that (car buying) is going to move entirely online is fundamentally flawed.”
Hacker reveals a method to gain entry and start certain Teslas
- “A hack effective on the Tesla Model 3 and Y cars would allow a thief to unlock a vehicle, start it and speed away, according to Sultan Qasim Khan, principal security consultant at the Manchester, UK-based security firm NCC Group”
- Hack was made known to Tesla, no response at this time
- Similar hacks exist for any smart lock using BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) tech to make the device think the owner is in proximity
- Hardware costs about $50
Home Depot reports fewer transactions but higher transaction amounts
- number of transactions declined 8.2%
- average amount spent per transaction rose 11.4%
- “The retailer was a major beneficiary during much of the pandemic. At one point during the last two years, Home Depot posted four straight quarters of comparable sales growth above 20% as the public-health crisis’s social disruptions left people spending more time in their houses.”
Dealership consolidation keeps rolling in 2022
- The trend decision seems to be ‘get bigger or sell out’
- “Dealership consolidator Gregg Ciocca, who wants to double his store count to 50 within five years, says acquisition opportunities are "coming fast and furious" in today's robust buy-sell market. Ciocca, CEO of Ciocca Dealerships in Quakertown, Pa., which last year acquired the country's highest-volume Chevrolet Corvette dealership, has signed multiple dealership purchase agreements that he expects will close this year.
2021 arguably the biggest acquisition year in Auto history
- 640 stores over previous high of 463 in 2015
Top states: Texas, California, New York, Colorado and Florida