🚗 Market Temperature Check: Wholesale, Payments, EV Pivots, and GM’s Signal

TOGETHER WITH

We read about used-car data, the price of payments, automakers taking chances, and some who even win.

But first, did you see our 2nd strategy session with the ever-wonderful Liza Borches of CMA? She shared how dealers can have reach in 2026, and it’s not a stretch to see the wisdom in her words.

Check it out here and get ready for another one this morning with Brian Kramer!

Keep Pushing Back,
-Chris with Paul, Kyle & Kristi

_{Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here!
Reading time: 3 min}

TOGETHER WITH MIA

New Year. More Opportunities Captured.

Make 2026 the year your dealership stops missing calls and starts capturing real revenue. Whether customers call or text, Mia answers instantly, books appointments automatically, and never lets an opportunity slip – 24/7/365.

From day one, Mia delivers:

• 50%+ more appointments

• $50K+ in new monthly revenue

• 70+ staff hours saved

No voicemails. No lost leads. Just more conversations turned into revenue.

Ready to see Mia in action? Visit mia.inc today.

THE NEWS

Hey, it may be rocky, split, stalled, or "bifurcated," but we only really have one market. So these four stories may feel disconnected or even based in different times and places, but they are all true about the water we're swimming in at the same time. So it makes sense we would check the temperature.

Let’s dig in!

Used Car Wholesale: values down seasonally, conversion down too

Black Book’s weekly update says wholesale values declined again at a normal seasonal pace, and the conversion rate fell about 2% week over week.

But don’t sell the store yet.

The signal is not “prices are falling,” it is liquidity is thinning: the market still moves, but it takes more work to get a yes. Conversions are softening, and I hear that means very little about the inventory, marketing, or quality of the showroom coffee. It’s a cash thing.

F&I heading into 2026: the market is splitting into two buyers

Rick Kurtz at AutoSuccess frames 2026 around a two-track customer reality:

1. Prime buyers are insulated enough to keep buying newer cars, and

2. Payment buyers are leaning on longer terms and older inventory to make the payment work.

The cash thing is keeping used prices stubborn, so vehicle age is climbing, and term length has been the tool buyers use to stay in the game. That is why the piece puts so much weight on protection products as “deal stability,” not just profit.

If consumers perk up knowing they can bring their monthly down, see how they feel when you say they can insure themselves against a bad day 83 months from now…

EV strategy got expensive because policy swings keep rewriting the math

Car and Driver’s story makes one point plainly: vehicle programs take years, but federal policy has been swinging faster than the product cycle can follow.

I mean, imagine your spouse wants the couch over there, but before you get it over there, they want it over here, and before that, guess what, they want it over yonder. Yonder, y’all!

Ford’s had a pretty wide-scale EV write-down and cancellations. Plus we’re seeing a broader pivot to hybrids, extended-range setups, and high-margin ICE as OEMs regain footing. A rising tide blablabla, but a pulled rug ends the dance party.

The practical information here is the direction of capital: less “all-in EV,” more “choice,” more hybrids, more EREVs, more trucks and SUVs.

Wall Street is rewarding inventory and incentive discipline

CNBC reports GM stock is up 55%+ in 2025 and hitting record levels, its best year since 2009. Analysts cited cash generation, earnings resilience, disciplined incentives, and inventory management as the drivers, with multiple firms raising targets (UBS to $97, Morgan Stanley to $90).

Just as soon as you try to say “everybody’s having a rough one,” GM pops up with a bangin’ year. Maybe Mary Barra will return my calls and tell me the secret.

The brand’s success seems to rest on the market paying for control, consistency, and margin protection.

The throughline

These four stories align: the used market is still moving, but more selectively, buyers are stretching harder, OEMs are reallocating away from pure EV bets toward hybrids and margin products, and investors are rewarding disciplined operating. That is why the ground-level reality can feel messy while the macro signal is fairly clear.

AROUND THE ASOTU-VERSE

Dealer Conferences and Industry Events (2026)

• February 3-6: NADA Show 2026, Las Vegas, NV

• May 12-15: ASOTU CON 2026, Hanover, MD

Other Trends to Follow

• 🌍️ Global: Knock knock, who’s there, Hyundai, Hyundai who, Hyundai can’t buy back its Russia plant as the buyback window (and door, we guess) is closed, a quick reminder that global OEM footprints are hardening and “optional” capacity is getting less optional.

• 🧪 Science: You can fix most things with enough salt and pepper, and CATL is betting sodium does for EV batteries what seasoning did for food: cheaper ingredients, better cold-weather performance, and a recipe that finally works at scale by 2026.

• 👽 Weird: Is it too late to become Amish? Because when more than 20% of what new users see on YouTube is AI-generated slop engineered to farm attention and ad dollars, opting out of the algorithm starts to feel like a productivity strategy.

Thanks for reading, Friend! The new year is almost here. Are you feeling ready for another month of writing the wrong year on documents?