Dealertrack’s credit availability index rose to 105 in July, up 6.9% year over year and near its loosest level in 11 years.

Approval rates held at 74%, while lenders competed harder on pricing.

At the same time, 5.5% of auto debt was 90+ days delinquent in Q2, just under the record 5.6% set in Q1. Loan write-offs, though, stayed at just 0.2%.

Subprime’s share of auto loans rose to 16.4%, up from 13.7% last year, with dealers reporting that some subprime lenders are getting more aggressive.

Friendship Cars’ Adam McCoy said, “The [banks] going after it. It’s a competition right now. It’s good for us.”

Amazon bought Zoox for $1.2 billion in 2020. Today the fleet is around 100 vehicles, but has logged more than 3 million driverless miles and carried nearly 1 million riders.

The NHTSA recently approved Zoox to operate up to 5,000 vehicles over the next two years.

The approval still comes with limits: no operation in heavy rain, snow, large amounts of leaves, or on roads above 45 mph.

Zoox is known for their iconic vehicle that looks like a toaster on wheels and says building from the ground up lets it design around the rider experience instead of retrofitting a traditional car.

Zoox CEO Aicha Evans said, “It takes a lot of imagination, belief, resilience and tenacity to do this when you’re going against conventional wisdom.”

ABI Research estimates AI-driven in-cabin experiences could grow from about 5 million vehicles today to 70 million by 2035.

The challenge is making the experience fast and seamless enough that drivers don’t give up and reach for their phones, especially while voice remains the safest primary interface.

Some examples: booking a restaurant, ordering flowers, handling productivity tasks, or completing other requests through a natural voice conversation.

For automakers, the bigger risk is dependency. Once an AI request leaves the vehicle, the experience depends on connectivity, latency, mobile networks, cloud infrastructure, and third-party services.

Cubic3’s Steven Cochrane said, “No one can possibly own the whole ecosystem across what’s in the vehicle, in the network and in the cloud.”

GM’s lead over Toyota has shrunk to just over 100,000 vehicles through July, with each selling roughly 1.5 million vehicles this year.

Toyota is growing with models like the Camry and Corolla, while GM has largely exited traditional sedans in favor of trucks and SUVs.

GM’s factory utilization has fallen to 73%, compared with 91.9% for Toyota, even as GM tracks toward near-record operating profits.

Toyota is also expanding U.S. production, including shifting a $1.5 billion battery order to a Lansing plant that GM walked away from.

Cox Automotive’s Charlie Chesbrough: “Maybe the naysayers were correct that Toyota is going to take over the U.S. market.”

36,810 used EVs sold in July, up 10.1% year-over-year and 7.9% from June.

Supply reached 46 days, up 13.6% year-over-year and slightly higher than used ICE vehicles for the first time since February.

Ford led high-volume brands with 18.9% month-over-month sales growth, while Chevrolet, Nissan and Cadillac also gained traction.

Average used EV listing prices were $37,832, up 8.3% from last year but down 1.2% from June.

Cox’s Jonathan Gregory: “Off-lease EV supply…continues to build and gives buyers more choice.”

The two-week promotion ran in more than 70 countries, displaying a Spider-Man banner when owners started their vehicles.

Owners quickly pushed back online, with one Reddit user writing: “You spent $100,000 on a 7 series…but that’s not enough money for BMW.”

BMW says it wasn’t advertising, calling it optional themed content available through its Festive App while vehicles were stationary.

The opportunity is significant: infotainment-enabled digital aftersales are projected to become a nearly $14 billion global market by 2030.

IDC’s Roger Beharry Lall: “It’s not just about the revenue stream. It’s about balancing that against your brand.”

FTC pricing remains front and center. NADA is working directly with the FTC as dealers adapt to the agency’s pricing guidance, with additional FAQs expected in the coming months. Stanton says the focus is much narrower than the proposed CARS Rule and believes greater pricing clarity will ultimately benefit customers and dealers.

Protecting the franchise model remains NADA’s north star. Stanton called out direct-sales efforts, including Volkswagen’s strategy, while emphasizing that dealers can defend their position by continually improving the customer experience. Dealers accounted for 96% of new-car sales last year, and Stanton says the goal should be 100%.

NADA is also focused on Chinese automakers and the Repair Act. Stanton says dealers broadly support keeping Chinese OEMs out of the U.S. in the near term, citing national-security concerns, while NADA continues opposing elements of NADA’s September Washington Conference brings dealers to Capitol Hill, with state associations coordinating meetings and NADA supplying talking points. Stanton’s message: lawmakers want to hear from the dealers employing people and generating economic activity in their districts. Stanton summed up dealers’ importance in Washington simply: “They really are our best lobbyists.”

NADA Show is headed back to Orlando—and demand is already strong. The exhibit floor sold out in record time with a waiting list, and the welcome reception will give attendees access to Universal’s new Epic Universe.

Catalyst IQ found Carvana priced eight models above local competitors, including the Ram 2500 at an average $4,533—or 6.2%—higher.

Carvana’s seven new-car stores posted an average 69% turn rate versus 39% for competing CDJR stores. Its Boston location hit an eye-popping 107% turn rate.

The proposition is straightforward: no-haggle pricing and online purchasing, building on the digital-first experience Carvana has refined over 13 years of selling used vehicles.

Carvana’s approach also features no doc fees, a seven-day money-back policy and same-day delivery.

Brian Maas of the California New Car Dealers Association summed up the appeal: “Do you want the car? Here’s the price.” That simple model, he says, is attracting a certain kind of customer.

Tesla employees have been testing fully driverless Cybercabs on private roads since July, while other test vehicles have been spotted around the country equipped with steering wheels and pedals for data gathering.

Austin first responders have already received training on how to move a Cybercab during an emergency.

The Cybercab relies on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software. Tesla says the technology is significantly safer than human driving, while independent safety experts and federal regulators have questioned those claims.

FSD remains under active NHTSA investigation for traffic-compliance failures, and more than a year after Tesla launched its Robotaxi service, human safety monitors are still being used in some markets.

Tesla’s Robotaxi account is already teasing an imminent “Cybercab launch event,” offering current Model Y robotaxi riders a chance to win a ticket.

Teen accounts automatically receive age-appropriate safeguards, break reminders and learning-focused tools, including “responsible homework reminders” intended to recognize when students are outsourcing assignments.

When asked to write an 800-word essay on the Crucible, the teen version initially refused and instead provided an outline. After some persistence, however, it eventually produced a 776-word essay comparable to the adult version.

The homework guardrails were even easier to get around in math. Asked to solve an algebra homework problem and show the work, the teen experience provided the complete solution immediately, then acknowledged afterward that giving hints would have been a better approach.

However, parents can enable Study Hours, which turns on Study Mode during typical homework times and shifts ChatGPT toward step-by-step guidance rather than immediate answers.

When the reporter emailed OpenAI with his finding, a spokesperson emphasized that the product is brand new, noting the “teen experience is just rolling out today.”

Wertheim, 87, was born in Philadelphia, but built his fortune through inventions and decades of investing, including early investments in Apple and Microsoft. He holds more than 100 patents.

All proceeds from the auction benefit The Ferrari Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity. The charitable structure could allow Wertheim to deduct the amount paid above the vehicle’s fair-market value.

This isn’t Wertheim’s first major Ferrari charity purchase. Last year, he paid $26 million for a one-off Daytona SP3 at Monterey.

The Luce carries an MSRP around $640,000 but received several unique treatments, including Madreperla Semi-Gloss white paint, matching wheels, and a Tailor Made interior featuring metallic white leather from selected Swiss hides.

Group 1 plans to acquire 10 Hennessy dealerships in metro Atlanta representing about $1.7 billion in annual revenue and growing its footprint from three Atlanta-area stores to 15.

Atlanta will become Group 1’s second-largest market by revenue and its ninth U.S. cluster market. Houston remains its largest concentration with 19 dealerships, followed by Boston with 18.

More than 60 U.S. dealerships have already been rebranded under the Group 1 name, representing more than half of the company’s annual U.S. sales volume.

The strategy is designed to improve marketing efficiency, customer awareness and employee retention.

CEO Daryl Kenningham: “Our business model works when we sell and service customers locally.”

Only 24% of U.S. consumers said brand labels were important when buying clothes, but brand-conscious shoppers were twice as likely to have spent more than $200 on clothing recently: 30% versus 15% of price-conscious shoppers.

Quality ranked as the top consideration for 28% of brand-conscious consumers, while 26% of price-conscious shoppers identified price as their priority.

Nike had the highest consideration among brand-conscious shoppers at 57%, followed by Adidas at 47%, Levi’s at 43% and Old Navy at 42%.

Gen Z and millennials make up 60% of brand-conscious shoppers.

Sonic is willing to trade some margin for volume, targeting 25% more used sales at franchised stores or about 20 additional units per rooftop each month.

EchoPark, Sonic’s used car division retailed 19,601 used vehicles in Q2, up 17% YoY. Retail used gross fell 9%, while total gross profit rose 3% to $64.5 million.

They boosted non-auction sourcing from 32% to 42%, helping secure more affordable vehicles while avoiding costly wholesale lanes.

After shrinking from 52 locations to 18, EchoPark plans to add at least one location in Q4, with Sonic believing its hub model has plenty of room to grow.

Sonic President Jeff Dyke says used prices are nearing the sweet spot of half the price of new: “That’s when the used business really fires.”

Domestic sales fell 2.3 million units in the first half of 2026, while exports jumped 71%. Excess capacity is making global expansion less of an ambition and more of a necessity.

BYD illustrates the shift: domestic sales fell 35% through July, while overseas sales jumped 79%, led by markets including Brazil and Britain.

Chinese brands have grown from 3% to 16% of Europe’s passenger-vehicle market since 2022 and now represent nearly a quarter of European EV shipments.

Abhilash Gupta, Counterpoint Research on the European expansion: “Tariffs can slow that curve, but they’re not going to reverse it.”

Prestige Imports, led by friend of the show Matthew Haiken, filed a $25 million lawsuit, alleging Polestar violated New Jersey franchise law and owes the fair market value of its franchises plus five years of parts and warranty support.

Polestar is set to be barred from U.S. sales beyond the 2026 model year because of its ownership by China’s Geely. Prestige claims Polestar spent two years planning its exit and “maneuvered the [government] into a ban.”

Prestige, one of 32 U.S. Polestar retailers, argues Polestar’s force majeure notice effectively terminated its franchises without the required notice or good cause.

The dealer also alleges Polestar didn’t pursue an exemption similar to Volvo’s, despite Volvo also being owned by Geely.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, cited in the suit, argues Polestar was treated no differently than Volvo: “Polestar was screwed by Polestar. It wasn’t screwed by the U.S. government.” He called Polestar’s force majeure argument “a convenient excuse.”

Tesla registered nearly 62K EVs, up 8% YoY, while non-Tesla brands fell 31%, with the Model Y alone capturing 42% of all EV registrations in June.

For comparison, Tesla held roughly 80% of U.S. EV sales in 2020, 72% in 2021 and 64.5% in 2022, meaning June puts it back around late-2022 levels of dominance.

Total EV registrations fell 11% YoY, marking the ninth straight monthly decline, with EV market share dropping to 6.9%. However, June was also the first month since September with more than 100,000 EV registrations.

Incentives remain substantial even without the federal credit: automakers averaged $7,290 per EV in June, roughly 13% of average transaction price.

Loren McDonald, CEO of Chargeonomics: “Tesla is still the Kleenex or Vaseline of EVs — it’s like the EV brand.”

The EV3 Light FWD starts at $29,890 before the $1,495 destination charge, while the lineup stretches through Wind and Land trims to the $45,890 EV3 GT.

The headline combination is sub-$30K pricing and up to 321 miles of range—giving dealers a compelling option for EV-curious and first-time EV buyers at a time when affordability remains a major hurdle.

The EV3 comes with a built-in NACS port and can charge from 10% to 80% in about 31 minutes on a DC fast charger.

Kia America spokesperson James Hope said the EV3 is designed to expand adoption by offering “advanced technology, and everyday practicality in a small SUV package,” calling it an attainable option for EV intenders and first-time shoppers.

Steve shared a stunning stat: For 50 years, the average American dealer hasn’t posted an annual loss, generally holding around 1.5%–2.5% net profit before tax. In 2025, that number sat at an elevated 3.3%.

With personnel representing 47% of dealership costs, the panel sees AI’s biggest opportunity as removing repetitive work so existing employees can spend more time selling, serving customers and building relationships.

Jeff Swickard of Swickard Auto Group is already pricing more than 80% of used inventory with AI, helping drive a 20% volume increase. He’s also deploying automated inventory replenishment that can identify needs, bid at auction and arrange transportation.

Howard Tenenbaum of Keyes Motors is focused less on chasing shiny new tools and more on making proven processes better. His view is that AI can support the salesperson, but it can’t replace them: “Cars are sold, not bought.”

John Keoughan of Temecula Valley Buick GMC moved from generic mass texting to personalized outreach, lifting open rates from 2.5% to 4.5%. His new AI phone system also measures customer sentiment across 100% of calls.

Tenenbaum summed up both dealerships and their approach to disruption: “We're like cockroaches. We're resilient. We keep changing, and you have to adapt.”