If you’re eyeing a new Jeep Wrangler or maybe a Dodge Ram, perhaps even a Chrysler Voyager, then you were smart to not take advantage of the “America’s Freedom of Choice” program rolled out earlier this year. That “Freedom of Choice” really just meant you couldn’t get employee pricing and any number of other discounts the various Stellantis brands are offering. The choice, as often is the case, was an illusion.
No more! CDJR Parent company Stellantis is going to make some much-needed and consumer-friendly changes to its employee pricing. It’s Friday here at The Morning Dump, and I generally try to be positive on Fridays, so I’m going to “compliment sandwich” the news a bit. Do you know the compliment sandwich? This is where you say something critical in between two pieces of good news. For example, Jason woke up this morning and said to me:
Your eyes are roughly in the same place on the top of your head, if you bug me about image credits one more time I’m going to melt all your frisbees, you generally don’t smell that bad.
[Editor’s Note: Matt made this quote up. I work remotely from Matt, and have no idea how bad Matt smells on a day-to-day basis. I suspect it’s pretty significant, though. – JT]
The middle part of this news sandwich is going to be a layer of cheese, which is the sudden realization on the part of Tesla’s board that maybe they need to do something about Elon Musk. Above that, a thin slice of roast beef that’s tariff impacts, and my sense that a recession is maybe coming.
Then some sweet, sweet soft bread in the form of a One Lap of America update.
America’s Freedom Of Choice, Now With Less Choice, Which Is Actually Better
If you’ve ever been to The Weiner Circle in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, then you know better than to ask for ketchup. It’s possible to get a hot dog made your way there. You just have to be willing to absorb an incredible amount of abuse from the sausage shop’s employees. It’s one of the few places where yelling at customers is a perk of the job.
As an employee of an automaker, you probably shouldn’t yell at buyers, but one of the perks is the so-called “employee pricing.” This varies a lot by automaker, vehicle, and how many rings out you are from an actual employee. If you know someone who works for an automaker, you should at least be able to get a “friend” discount, which could be worth anywhere from $500-$1000 off a vehicle.
The innermost ring of employee pricing brings you closer to something like “invoice pricing,” which is how much a dealer, in theory, pays the manufacturer for a car. As with anything in this crazy, mixed-up world, invoice pricing may not always be precisely what an automaker pays, given other discounts and programs. That caveat aside, somewhere close to invoice pricing (which is lower than MSRP) is what you should be shooting for.
Both Ford and Stellantis offered employee pricing as a way to take advantage of panic-buying ahead of tariffs, and it’s been working out great for Ford so far. Stellantis doesn’t release monthly sales numbers, so we’ll have a clearer idea of how successful it was later. Ford extended the plan and Stellantis joined them, but also doubled down, as The Detroit News reports:
Stellantis NV told retailers that its “Employee Pricing for All” program will continue for this month, and those discounts can now be used on top of select other vehicle incentives.
The pricing program, originally named “America’s Freedom of Choice,” was set to expire Wednesday, and now shows an end date of June 2 on the carmaker’s brand websites. It previously allowed customers to choose between the employee price or current cash incentives on a particular model, but is now “stackable” with other offers, dealers were told. A few select models and trims are excluded from the renewed employee offer, which also doesn’t apply to fleet customers.
I’m not sure how much of this has trickled down to dealers, so I picked a random CJDR dealer in Tomball, Texas, and it’s offering up to $20,000 off Ram 1500s right now. That’s not bad. The Ram 1500 Lone Star MSRPs for $57,880, but you can roll out of there with one for $43,462 before the usual fees. It’s not clear if this is pre- or post-stacking, though, so it might be even better. A quick perusal of dealers shows a ton of discounting, so it’s not a terrible time to buy.
Why are some automakers doing this? Market share. If you sense the economy is going to be in bad shape, then it’s a good time to grab more of the market at the expense of profits (the inverse was the main strategy during the pandemic). This works for automakers with less exposure better than for those with high-tariff exposure, in theory, because the impacts will be lower. Ford’s U.S. production is more robust than Stellantis’s, which means Stellantis might be banking on USMCA exceptions to hold up a little longer.
If you’re a German carmaker, the best you can probably do right now is delay tariff pricing for as long as possible.
Tariff-Related Car Cost Estimates Range From $2,000-$15,000
“Shipping ports are empty across the United States. Nothing is coming in. Businesses have cancelled the remainder of their 2025 orders.”
(h/t FreightWaves)
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) May 2, 2025 at 5:56 AM
There’s an article in the Detroit Free Press this morning that puts the range of cost increases related to tariffs at anywhere from $2,000 to $15,000, which is quite the distance:
Anderson Economic Group started analyzing the costs of tariffs imposed on a variety of vehicles sold in the United States as soon as Trump signed his latest executive orders on auto tariffs, Patrick Anderson, CEO of the consulting firm, told the Detroit Free Press.
The firm’s new estimates include the changes Trump made on April 29 intended to provide some relief to automakers who assemble vehicles in the United States but use foreign parts in them. The order provides a small break on tariffs for two years to allow automakers time to re-source parts from domestic suppliers.
“The adjustments provide significant and beneficial softening of the cost impact of these tariffs, at least for US-assembled vehicles,” said Anderson, who is the lead author of this study. “However, the cost is still substantial for most American cars and trucks.”
In these situations, it’s often the suppliers who get squeezed to keep costs down. Unfortunately, these particular tariffs might cause suppliers more issues than anyone else. It’s possible that automakers try to avoid upsetting the president and don’t raise prices in the near term. Can that last forever? I don’t think so.
I am an armchair economist at best, and I’ve never worked in government, just politics. It’s much easier to work in politics because you can just make promises and leave it to someone else to try and fulfill them. The actual governing is much harder. This is all to say, I don’t know what will happen.
The current environment worries me. Our economy has proven to be enormously robust and, if a bunch of trade deals are made, I think we might be alright. Non-governmental employers seem to have learned the lesson of the past when it comes to shedding employees too early, so employment numbers haven’t retreated yet.
I just don’t know how long we have. No one knows how long we have. If something isn’t fixed, and soon, I fear we’ll see a cascading effect of layoffs and cutbacks tied to key areas of employment. Specifically, I worry about trucking, warehouse/logistics, shipping, and tourism. If a recession comes, and I hope it doesn’t, we might end up calling it the “truckers recession.”
Ok, enough doom-posting.
What To Do About Elon Musk
Oh, great, Tesla CEO Elon Musk. No one ever gets worked up about that guy.
When a company has a”Key Man Risk” it usually means the person who runs the company is so essential to the underlying value that losing him (or her) is possibly existential. There’s a weird inverse risk with Elon Musk in that, by making his personality and actions so controversial, there’s a secondary risk within the company of his sticking around.
Somehow it works for Musk, or as our buddy Patrick George put it in The Atlantic:
It’s a rare thing to shoot yourself in the foot and win a marathon. For years, Elon Musk has managed to do something like that with Tesla, achieving monumental success in spite of a series of self-inflicted disasters. There was the time he heavily promoted the company’s automated factory, only to later admit that its “crazy, complex network of conveyor belts” had thrown production of the Model 3 off track; and the time a tweet led him to be sued for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission; and the time he said that the Tesla team had “dug our own grave” with the massively delayed and overhyped Cybertruck. Tesla is nonetheless the most valuable car company in the world by a wide margin.
The title of that piece is “Tesla’s Remarkably Bad Quarter Is Even Worse Than It Looks” and the general view is that his luck is finally running out. I’m not so sure, but there was a big piece in The Wall Street Journal yesterday indicating that the Tesla Board of Directors–heavily populated by Musk’s family and friends–at least had the conversation about finding a replacement for him if he kept up his many sidequests.
Musk denied it, but I’m less interested in whether or not it’s true. If it leaks to the press and is reported by someone like the WSJ then there’s enough credibility from the source that it could be true. Who is that source? As with the RJ Scaringe drama lately, when you see an article like this in the press, it’s usually because someone wanted it to be in print.
As always, the question is: Who? I’m sure Musk is trying to figure that out if he doesn’t already know.
It’s Charger Daytona Vs. Ioniq 5 N In One Lap This Year
One Lap of America is one of those events I eventually have to do, combining a road trip across the country with a bunch of different kinds of automotive tests at different facilities. This year’s event will have multiple EVs, including a Dodge Charger Daytona from Stellantis and an Ioniq 5 N from Hyundai in the Alternative Fuels class.
Here’s how Hyundai, which is also providing support vehicles, describes it:
Created by the late legendary automotive journalist Brock Yates, One Lap is widely regarded as the toughest street-legal car challenge in North America, a true endurance test of participants and their machines. Amateur and professional drivers alike compete in stock and heavily modified vehicles of every description, battling it out in a series of scored challenges, including timed events at road courses, drag strips, skid pads, and autocross courses. In between tracks, competitors safely travel thousands of miles around the country, proving the mettle and durability of the vehicles and the teams that drive them. The event’s route and tracks change every year. This year, 86 teams from all over the country will compete in 17 scored events over the course of eight days. Tracks include Virginia International Raceway and NCM Motorsports Park.
“One Lap of America has a hard-earned reputation as the country’s most grueling street-legal motorsport competition for drivers and their cars. But it’s not only demanding for competitors, it’s also a singular test for our event staff and support vehicles,” said event organizer Brock Yates Jr. “Safely logging thousands of miles in between long days timing and scoring events requires vehicles that have the right mix of space, comfort, reliability, and intuitive tech. These Hyundai SUVs aren’t just welcome, they are essential.”
If anyone is going this year, let us know in the comments.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I just got turned on to the great Augustus Pablo, so please enjoy “King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown” and jam your way straight into the weekend.
The Big Question
What would you take on One Lap of America, understanding it has to be both tracked and road-tripped?
Lead photo: Depositphotos.com/Platinum CDRJ
Lap of America vehicle choice (assuming Elon is paying): Lucid Air Sapphire.
My entry for OneLap? As as-new except for modern tires and disc brakes ’66 Cadillac from before GM went all in on cost-cutting would be tempting, but realistically it would be easier and less of a risk to automotive heritage to settle for a G90. I’d either have pretty awful lap times or a fiery crash (or both – I could definitely see myself wiping out at 30 mph), so I might as well embrace it with a big and cushy excuse for my inept driving.
Either an M5 or Aston Martin Vanquish
Fun fact! During the height of the 2021 pandemic price-gouge, some Stellantis dealers forbid employees from receiving “employee pricing”.
So only customers stood a slim chance of actually getting the discounts reserved for employees (assuming they were getting that neon green Renegade that had been sitting in the lot since 2019).
Gotta love retail sales!
I’d just take my own car. Do I have to try to win it?
Also, how long does this take, cuz I still have an actual job.
Maybe when I retire, I could do it.
Ah, only a week. And only a small lap of America. What is it, like 1500 miles?
I’ve wanted to one lap of america for a while now. What car I think it would be a stripped out G35 sedan or X35 as then you have wagon space awd.
For the One Lap? I would have to go with a Porsche Cayman. Out on the highway, once the PDK hits 7th gear, I’m scoring upper 30’s MPG. And it is the best handling Porsche, so you know it’s a viable track-event weapon.
For the one lap maybe a Bentley Continental GT or a Cadillac STS V
Funny that I just got a survey from plugshare that started out generic and boring, but the last few questions were directly asking if my opinion of Tesla changed based on Musk’s recent actions (much worse), and if he resigned how my opinion of Tesla would change (much better). Someone must be pushing to do something with him.
As far as a Lap of America, vehicle cost no option I’d probably go with a top spec Lucid Air, or maybe a Gravity if I wanted to sleep in the vehicle. Or a manual Maserati GranTurismo with the old NA V8 if it existed, not to do well in any of the events, but just for fun.
Tesla’s board is about as unlikely to reign in ‘Da Boss’ as Congress is.
One thing I find interesting and lacking in press coverage of automotive manufacturing is that generally all of the discussion surrounds assembly plants of large OEMs. Arguably a more important contribution to employment are the many smaller independent businesses that make parts. True, they rely on the top of the chain and usually cluster around them to form an ecosystem, but they rarely get discussed. I bring this up because if there is one hope Trumps hacking might work is that, while it takes years to build a new automotive factory, smaller specialized parts suppliers can re-shore much quicker and with less investment. Every little 100-1000 person operation adds up. It irritates me to give Trump any credit, so I’ll give it to Tommy Callahan.
+1 for the Augustus Pablo shout out. Check out East of The River Nile.