The Themes That Defined NYAF

This year’s New York Automotive Forum covered a lot of ground.

Tariffs. China. EVs. Hybrids. AI. Fraud. Fuel prices. Inventory. The list goes on.

Still, the tone felt seasoned rather than anxious, like an industry with a high tolerance for turbulence and a very low tolerance for wallowing.

In the opening remarks, John Oyler put a frame around the whole day early:

That idea stayed present for the rest of the day. Adaptation shaped nearly every panel and nearly every answer.

Patrick Manzi (Chief Economist, NADA) and Thomas King (President, OEM Solutions, JD Power) gave the room the economic reality check early.

Consumers are still buying. The pressure just shows up faster now.

Manzi pointed to a widening split in the economy, with higher earners continuing to drive spending while lower-wage households feel more strain from rising costs and shrinking disposable income. He also flagged a shift toward essentials, rising maintenance costs, and higher fuel prices following the conflict involving Iran.

King added the dealership-level version of that same story. Q1 sales came in down year over year. Incentives moved higher. Retailer profit per unit fell. Total retailer profit fell. The subprime loan and lease mix climbed to its highest level since March 2016, while trade values stayed strong even as the equity behind them kept thinning.

That combination matters because it changes how mistakes show up. Weak inventory decisions sit longer. Payment sensitivity surfaces earlier. Gross gets harder to protect when the customer walks in already doing tighter math.

There was some near-term optimism in the room too. Manzi said higher average tax refunds should give used-car season a lift, even if that bump fades quickly. And King said 2026 still has the potential to become the highest year yet for consumer expenditure.

The customer still has demand. The store just has less room to be sloppy.

Fixed ops had a strong day at the forum.

Recipient of the 2026 Industry Leader Award in Retail by the Automotive Hall of Fame, Rick Hendrick (Chairman & CEO, Hendrick Auto Group) put it bluntly: “Our fixed operations have expanded past our variable operations.”

That line landed because it matched the broader market conversation. More than half of the vehicles on the road are now over 10 years old, which gives dealers a longer service runway, and newer vehicles keep bringing more technology, more software, and more systems that smaller independents can’t always handle as easily.

Dealers still have room to grow fixed ops, but that growth will come from better tools, better training, and a smoother experience for technicians and customers alike.

Liza Borches (President & CEO, Carter Myers Automotive) pushed directly on technician pay, training, and usability. If dealers want stronger service absorption, stronger retention, and better customer trust, they have to invest in the experience of the people doing the work. Better tools help. Better pay helps. Clearer process helps.

A few years ago, product conversations at events like this could drift into theory pretty quickly. This year, they stayed much closer to the driveway.

Christian Meunier (Chairman, Nissan Americas) said Nissan has already moved U.S. production from roughly 40% to 65% in under a year and made it clear that entry-level vehicles still matter. He also put hybrids right in the center of the current demand conversation: “Hybrid is becoming the next thing, the customer is ultimately making a choice and we need to have a range of products.”

That same theme showed up in different forms across several OEM conversations. Ford’s Andrew Frick talked about learning from first-generation EV products and shifting toward more practical customer use cases, including an affordable EV expected around the $30K mark next year. Honda’s Lance Woelfer leaned into hybrids, dealer profitability, and retention, while GM’s Duncan Aldred kept coming back to flexibility and speed in responding to whatever the market throws next.

That shift shows that product planning has moved back toward reality (hallelujah!).

Buyers want options. They want product that fits their budget, their routine, and their comfort level with new tech. OEMs sounded a lot less interested in forcing a timetable and a lot more interested in meeting demand where it already lives.

No one at the forum treated China like a distant problem.

John Bozzella (President & CEO, Alliance for Automotive Innovation) called the potential entry of Chinese automakers into the U.S. market a “clear and present threat,” and he kept the focus on two things at once: buying domestic manufacturers time and pushing the industry to use that time well.

Senator Bernie Moreno raised the temperature even further. He talked about sealing off the U.S. auto industry from Chinese expansion, urged Mexico, Canada, and Latin America to follow suit, and framed the issue as far bigger than market share. He also made it clear that tariffs have settled into the landscape in a much more lasting way than many people expected.

That pressure showed up in how OEMs talked about production too. Nissan highlighted its move back toward U.S. manufacturing. Ford talked about adjusting floor plans and expense structures in response to policy shifts. Honda pointed to the strength of its North American production footprint and its focus on building where it sells.

All of that gave the policy discussion a very practical feel. This wasn’t just about Washington. It was about product planning, sourcing, dealer confidence, and how quickly the industry can respond when the rules move under its feet.

AI came up all day, but the most useful conversations stayed away from the magic-show version of it.

Jenni Newman (Editor-in-Chief, Cars.com) brought the shopper side into focus with a stat that says a lot all by itself: awareness of AI tools has reached 98%, and 47% of customers already use AI to compare makes and models while shopping.

That means dealers are increasingly meeting a customer who arrives with more context, more filters, and a much faster path through the market than even a year ago.

That changes the job inside the dealership. BDC teams, salespeople, and marketers are dealing with a customer who has already done deeper homework and, soon enough, may have AI contacting stores on their behalf.

Newman pointed to that too. Over the next year, AI will likely search for the exact year, color, and price a customer wants, then start sending outreach at scale. A shopper who once bounced between a couple of rooftops can now comparison-shop the whole market before lunch.

Katie O’Neill (Head of Auto Fraud Prevention, Capital One) brought the finance side of the same story into the room. Fraud losses are projected to top $10B in 2026, up from $3.9B in 2014.

AI has made that problem cheaper to run and harder to spot. Fake documents look cleaner. Spam campaigns scale easily. Deepfakes can slip through tools that used to catch fraud quickly.

One line captured the biggest takeaway perfectly:

The market still has demand, but it is rewarding sharper operators.

Through all of it, the same priorities kept rising to the top: stay close to the customer, run a tighter store, invest in the team, and keep adapting while the market keeps moving.

These expert insights are brought to you thanks to our partners at Force Marketing!