🚗 Dealer Habits Meet New Pressure

Welcome to Saturday, Friend!

Did you know that we just launched a new YT channel called The Pushback?!

Not to brag, but we’re already pulling some VIP fans.

Go check it out (breakfast optional).

Keep Pushing Back,
—Paul, Kyle, Chris & Kristi

_{Reading time: 3 min and 08 sec
First-time reader? Subscribe Here!}

Monday — VW's Blume wants to double job cuts to 100,000 while the quarter's actual numbers show real stabilization, a tension analysts called "an almost impossible needle to thread." We also flagged why Penske's own stock trading above its buyout offer suggests $210 a share won't be the final number, plus a new Ford/BlackRock/Google coalition tackling the technician shortage with real wage data behind it.

Tuesday — GM keeps roughly 70 cents of every OnStar and Super Cruise dollar versus 4 to 10 cents on the vehicle itself, and every OEM is watching that math closely. We also broke down Ford's expanding customization program, already wanted by 46% of buyers, and dealership buy-sell activity climbing 23% as buyers get pickier about which brands are worth a premium.

Wednesday — A McKinsey survey found 1 in 4 shoppers would switch brands entirely for better driver-assistance tech, with younger buyers even more willing to walk. We also covered what happens when a customer-facing feature depends on one outside supplier, using Volvo's Luminar lidar shutdown as the cautionary tale, plus a 7.1 earthquake in Japan worth flagging with your inventory team.

Thursday — AI agents are becoming a real, if early, discovery channel for dealership visibility, right alongside Ford's off-road trims proving surprisingly resistant to affordability pressure and GM's AI platform cutting Silverado development time in half.

Friday — Wholesale values kept softening while retail affordability kept tightening, a gap worth explaining to your customers before they hear about it somewhere else. We also broke down the two things worth copying from Carvana's record quarter, and a summer camp quietly building next decade's technician pipeline.

If you had to rank the six biggest dealership trends heading into 2026, what would make your list?

That's exactly what our very own Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier tackle in the premiere of The Pushback. They debate the strategies every dealer is talking about, defend their picks, and aren't afraid to change their minds along the way.

Watch the first episode and tell us where you'd push back.

A ten-car month can feel respectable.

Raul Tomsa, Client Advisor at Motor Werks, says it can also become a very comfortable ceiling.

In this episode, he breaks down the habits that keep salespeople there, from hunting for only the highest-gross deal to ignoring the customers who look less promising at first glance.

Catch the full episode and see where your own ceiling may be hiding.

(Psst…there’s also a dope freebie at the beginning of the video!)

This lil’ yellow van looks like a pound cake learned how to parallel park.

Meet the 1995 Toyota Deliboy 502, a Japanese-market oddball that recently sold for $6,100 after landing in the U.S. with roughly 94K miles on the clock.

Its résumé reads like someone raided a parts bin with confidence. One regular front door. One sliding front door. Asymmetrical mirrors. Asymmetrical cargo doors. A column-shifted five-speed manual. Rear-wheel drive. Seventy-ish horsepower doing its absolute best.

Inside, you get striped cloth seats, gray vinyl, a folding passenger seat, a rear jump seat, and a CD stereo for maximum period-correct ambiance. Outside, the cheerful yellow paint and tiny Enkei wheels give it the energy of a lunch truck that booked a supporting role in a Wes Anderson movie.

For a bit over $6K, someone bought character, utility, and the kind of parking-lot presence that modern crossovers spend millions trying to fake.

Stay weird, lil’ guy.