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- 🚗 100-Month Loans Are Here & Ford Is Rewriting EVs
🚗 100-Month Loans Are Here & Ford Is Rewriting EVs
🚙 Also: Strategy sessions start today.
PRESENTING
Howdy Fam!
Before we hit today’s news, I want to invite you into something we built for this exact moment.
Starting Today, we’re dropping the 2026 Strategy Sessions on Automotive State of the Union, hosted by our own Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier. These are real conversations with leaders who are in the work right now, sharing what they’re seeing, learning, and prioritizing heading into the new year.
The first session with Brian Benstock drops today, then we roll straight into next week with Liza Borches, Brian Kramer, Steve Greenfield, and Damon Lester, plus a special ASOTU / More Than Cars look back at 2025.
Keep Pushing Back
-Chris with Paul, Kyle & Kristi
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Highlighting the Real Ones
This industry has never needed a script. It has just needed someone to pay attention.
Our docu-series is built on the grit, chaos, and humanity that actually lives inside a dealership.
Real dealers. Real people. Real impact.
If you haven’t seen it yet, this is a good place to start.
THE NEWS
100-Month Car Loans Are Showing Up: What Dealers Need to Know
giphy/ “Wait. How many months?”
Payment pressure is pushing buyers into longer terms, and 100-month auto loans are starting to appear. New-vehicle prices have climbed sharply since 2020, and monthly payments have followed. This is changing how shoppers think about affordability, and it is changing the shape of the deals landing on your desk.
What do 100-month auto loans mean for dealers?
Longer loans keep more customers in the “can I make the payment” lane, but they also keep more customers upside down for longer. That creates more trade friction, more sensitivity to rate, and more urgency around protecting the ownership experience over time.
Payments are the headline. Average new-car payments were estimated around $760 in November, and consumers are working hard to get the monthly number down.
Longer terms are becoming normal. A growing share of buyers are already taking 72-month loans and beyond.
Underwater risk rises. Experts warn that the longer the term, the longer the borrower is likely to owe more than the vehicle is worth.
How should dealers talk about longer loan terms with customers?
Be clear about payment, then explain time. If someone is choosing eight to ten years of payments, the value conversation becomes “how do we keep this vehicle reliable and protected for the full term.”
Ford’s EV Retreat Shows a New Reality: Build for the US or the World
giphy/ “Retreat.”
Ford’s latest move is part of a bigger shift: EV strategy is becoming regional. Automakers still have to compete and comply globally, but the US market has become tougher to serve profitably, especially after policy changes and incentive shifts. Dealers will feel this through product cadence, messaging, and incentives that can change quickly.
What does Ford’s EV strategy shift mean for dealerships?
Regional variance is the plan now. Lineups will be tuned to different markets instead of one global approach.
Hybrids are gaining traction. Ford and others are leaning harder into hybrids as demand for full EVs cools.
EV economics are tied to government support. When incentives move, demand moves.
The stores that explain charging, total cost, and incentives with confidence will win share in any policy environment.
2026 Dealer Threats Are Already Visible
giphy/ “Threat detected.”
As we head into 2026, three pressures keep showing up: affordability, credit friction, and EV policy volatility. Buyers are stretching terms, approvals are slowing, and the cost of an inventory mistake is rising. The next 12 months will reward operators who tighten fundamentals and communicate clearly.
What are the biggest challenges for auto dealers in 2026?
Affordability is shrinking the buyer pool. Prices near $50K, rates around the mid-6% range, and $750+ payments are forcing tradeoffs.
Credit friction slows deals mid-funnel. More verification and slower approvals are changing how stores manage momentum.
EV policy volatility raises inventory risk. Off-lease EV supply and incentive swings increase downside if your mix is off.
Time to tighten the process, sharpen the affordability story, and train the team to explain the new math fast.
SOMETHING FUN
The Holiday You Know, The Origins You Might Not
December 26 might not come with the same hype as Christmas, but in a lot of places, Boxing Day is just as baked into the holiday season.
The tradition started in Britain during the Victorian era. Wealthy families would box up leftovers, gifts, or money and hand them out to their staff, who had worked straight through Christmas Day.
It was a simple gesture of thanks. Servants got the day off and took their boxes home to celebrate with their own families.
The name also ties to charity. Churches collected donations in boxes leading up to Christmas, then distributed them to those in need the next day. That part of the tradition still carries through in modern charity runs and events like the Boxing Day Dip, where people dive into freezing water in costume to raise money.
It’s a quiet little holiday that asks nothing more than a full belly, a cozy seat, and maybe a moment to pay it forward.
AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE
Coming Soon
February 3-6: NADA Show 2026, Las Vegas, NV
May 12-15: ASOTU CON 2026, Hanover, MD
Today in History
1933: FM radio patent granted to engineer, Edwin Howard Armstrong. 📻
1941: Winston Churchill becomes first British Prime Minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress. 🇬🇧
1982: TIME names The Computer it’s Man of the Year. 💻
Honestly, some threats aren’t that threatening if you see them from far enough away. Hopefully, with enough folks in the crow’s nest, we can go around the next hurricane 😄
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