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Howdy, Fam!
ICYMI
ASOTU CON West tickets are officially live, with pre-release access already claimed before the public sale even opened.
Full details on the agenda, keynotes, and venue are here.
Also in today's email:
What Carvana's near-1,000-unit-a-month Stellantis store proves about speed-to-yes, plus what Stellantis is weighing on the manufacturing side
A relocation promise that never materialized, and what it should teach you about getting commitments in writing
Three quick reads: GM's new UI and the CarPlay question, Ford's F-150 price cuts, and last week's wholesale numbers
A cab-less truck now running real routes in Germany
Keep Pushing Back,
—Chris with Paul, Kyle & Kristi
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Carvana's Casa Grande Store Is Now Moving Nearly 1,000 Stellantis Units a Month
It opened at 30 to 50 vehicles a month.
Today, it's the highest-volume Stellantis dealership in the country, nearly triple the next-highest store.
Three numbers worth chewing:
New-vehicle registrations across Carvana's Stellantis stores rose 65% between March and June
That's more than 4,300 new Stellantis vehicles in a single quarter
Carvana is charging up to $4,533 more than local competitors on some models, and still turning inventory almost twice as fast
Speed-to-yes is the whole mechanism here. Every point of friction in a traditional deal is a chance for a customer to hesitate, and Carvana stripped almost all of it out. The market paid a premium for that relief.
Also worth watching: Stellantis is reportedly studying whether to shift heavy-duty Ram production from its Saltillo plant in Mexico to Warren Truck in Michigan, hedging against tariff exposure on one of its most profitable vehicles. No decision has been made yet, and the company is calling it speculation for now. Treat this as a signal to watch, not a done deal.
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What Happens When a Relocation Promise Isn't in Writing?
An Arizona Chevrolet-GMC dealer is suing GM for $20 million.
The allegations:
GM induced him to buy a struggling border-town store on the promise of a future relocation to a more prosperous market, then blocked two attempted moves once he'd already committed. The complaint also alleges fraud and racial discrimination tied to how the deal was structured and approved.
GM hasn't been served and says it doesn't comment on active litigation. None of this is settled fact yet.
What's not in dispute: a buy-sell built around a verbal expectation of future relocation approval left this dealer with zero leverage when that approval never came, and floorplan financing tightened right as the dispute escalated.
Consider This
If a manufacturer is dangling a future relocation, expansion, or allocation change as part of why a deal makes sense right now, get it in writing, with specific terms, before you sign anything.
Next, we’ll figure out what to do when you get your Chevy to the levy but the levy is mysteriously missing water.
Will CarPlay Come Back to GM's EVs?
GM unveiled a new split-screen interface for the 2027 Silverado and Sierra.
Buried in the announcement: a line calling it "a single scalable foundation across electric, gas and diesel-powered vehicles." GM dropped CarPlay from its EVs back in 2023, and that wording is exactly what's fueling speculation it could return. GM hasn't confirmed either way, but the debate it's reignited in the CarPlay-or-native camp is worth watching.
Ford Is Lowering Prices on Some of Its Highest-Performance F-150s
The 2027 Raptor drops $4,000 to $77,800. The Tremor falls about $5,300 to $62,400. Ford got there by trimming standard equipment like heated second-row seats and swapping some power controls for manual ones.
The V8 is also now available across the entire F-150 lineup, including King Ranch and Platinum for the first time since 2023, a direct response to dealer and customer demand.
Truck Values Fell Twice as Fast as Car Values Last Week
Per Black Book's Market Insights report for the week ending September 12, wholesale values softened across the board following the Labor Day bump, with trucks taking the bigger hit:
Segment | This Week | Last Week |
|---|---|---|
Cars | -0.38% | -0.69% |
Trucks & SUVs | -0.83% | -0.47% |
Full-size pickups (2-8 yr) | -1.77% | -0.31% |
Minivans | -0.88% | (21st straight weekly decline) |
Auction conversion actually improved to 61%, up two points, so buyers are still active. They're just being more selective about condition and mileage, which is likely what's pushing full-size truck values down so sharply.
🤖 Stuff
1908: The birth of General Motors
1920: The first Lincoln automobile
1997: Apple Computer named co-founder Steve Jobs as its interim CEO
Thanks for reading, Friend! See you in LA!
