Auto Credit Is the Loosest It's Been in 11 Years. So Is the Delinquency Rate.
Auto lenders are opening the door wider than they have in over a decade, at the exact moment a near-record share of auto debt is sitting 90+ days past due. Both things are true at once, and nobody's fully explained the gap yet.
We Expected Buyers to Bolt. The Data Says They're Just Walking.
Every few months, something happens that should reshuffle what people want to drive. Gas prices spike. Rates hold high. A conflict overseas ripples into energy costs. And every time, the instinct in this industry is to brace for a full-on migration: SUVs out, compacts in, buyers voting with their wallets in one dramatic swing.
🚙 Used EV sales climbed more than 10% year over year in July, and for the first time in six months, buyers shopping for a used EV actually had more to choose from than buyers shopping used gas vehicles.
Used EV Supply Just Overtook Gas Cars for the First Time Since February
Used EV sales climbed more than 10% year over year in July, and for the first time in six months, buyers looking for a used EV actually had more to choose from than buyers shopping used gas vehicles.
BMW Just Found the Line Between a Connected Car and a Connected Billboard
BMW put a Spider-Man promotion on dashboard screens in more than 70 countries for two weeks. Owners who paid premium prices for premium vehicles did not receive it as a nice surprise.
Toyota Is Closing In on GM's Century-Long Reign. The Two Are Betting on Opposite Playbooks.
GM's lead over Toyota has shrunk to just over 100,000 vehicles through July, with both automakers sitting around 1.5 million units sold this year. The gap isn't the interesting part. What each company is doing to defend or close it is.
🚙 Stanton told a story about a senator in Wyoming who cut him off mid-thank-you to hear directly from the dealers who actually hire and generate revenue in his state. It's the same logic behind NADA's September Washington Conference: state associations set the meetings, NADA supplies the talking points, and dealers bring the thing lawmakers actually showed up to hear.
Credit Just Got Easier to Access. That's Not Entirely Good News.
Auto credit availability hit its highest level since December 2015 in July. Read past the headline number, and the same report shows longer loan terms, rising negative equity, and falling real wages, three signs that easier approvals are covering for a buyer who's more stretched, not less.
NADA Is Renting Out an Entire Universal Theme Park for Its Orlando Welcome Reception
The NADA Show is heading back to Orlando for the first time in 13 years, and the exhibit floor already sold out with a waiting list before registration even fully opened. The welcome reception detail is the one worth sitting with: attendees get the run of Universal's brand-new Epic Universe.
Dealers Did 96% of New-Car Sales Last Year. NADA Wants 100%.
NADA President Mike Stanton joined the show to lay out the association's priorities heading into the back half of the year, and nearly every one of them traces back to a single number: dealers accounted for 96% of new-car sales last year, and NADA's goal is to close that last gap entirely.
