Happy Saturday, Friend!

Did you catch our big preview at NADA yesterday?

Of course you did! (but just in case, check this out.)

The Truth About Car Dealers Season 2: Coming soon.

Feel free to use Season 1 to answer people who ask why you care about the car business even when you’re clocked out.

Keep Pushing Back,
-Paul, Kyle, Chris, and Kristi

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Affordability is doing that thing where sticker prices chill out… but everything around the car keeps getting more expensive. Payments stay high, overhead creeps up, and buyers keep shopping with their monthly budget front and center. The big takeaway: used and CPO matter more than ever, service retention is gold, and customers are walking in with “modern tech” expectations shaped by what they’re seeing overseas.

Tuesday brought the numbers: dealership profits cooled a bit in Q4, but fixed ops and F&I are still carrying real momentum. California teased new EV incentives, China banned hidden door handles (yes, really), and the industry got another reminder that tiny design details can have huge ripple effects. Tight margins mean dealers have less room to waste, but plenty of room to win.

Midweek on the NADA floor came with a hybrid-heavy headline: Consumer Reports’ top picks are all electrified. Safety got sharper too, as IIHS raised the bar on whiplash testing, and a few big-name SUVs stumbled. Add in a long list of discontinued models and a rare dip in insurance costs, and Wednesday felt like a reset week for the market.

Thursday’s theme was speed. Cox Automotive says buyer satisfaction is at an all-time high, mostly because deals are taking less time and fewer handoffs. Insurance premiums for luxury rides are still wild, charging infrastructure is growing fast, and amber turn signals quietly proved they might be one of the simplest safety upgrades out there. Small changes, big impact kind of day.

Friday wrapped with a NADA victory lap and a big congrats to TIME Dealer of the Year David Wright. Policy-wise, automakers are pushing for a longer, slower EV runway with fewer hard mandates and more credit flexibility. Meanwhile, hands-free driving laws are rolling out across more states, giving dealers and fleets one more reason to update training and habits.

You know this handshake. Two powerful dudes. Mutual respect. Instant trust.
That’s TradePending Trade meeting TradePending Payments on your website.

One arm answers “What’s my car worth?” fast, with real local market data.
The other answers “What would my payment look like?” without a crazy-long process or hard pull.

Individually, they’re strong. Together, they convert early shoppers into actual conversations.
No 30-minute processes. No rage quitting. Just clarity.

Trade 🤝 Payments.
This handshake wins.

Day 1 on the NADA floor felt big: strong turnout, deals getting done, and plenty of optimism. The crew chats with Joel from Easterns Automotive about making the jump from used to new, simplifying a bloated tech stack, and using NADA for real relationship-building.

His advice: pick one priority, finish it, and don’t ignore service profit.

Managing 76 dealerships and 11% of Toyota’s U.S. sales isn’t about control. It’s about care, trust, and showing up better every day.

In our latest Auto Collabs conversation, Marcus Williams, GM of Toyota’s Los Angeles Region, shares what he’s learning at scale, from starting on Toyota’s 1-800 line to leading with Kaizen, to why residuals and captive finance quietly shape affordability, and where AI belongs right now (hint: service).

Last week, Michael caught up with Subi Ghosh, the talented EVP at Fullthrottle.AI.

They talked about the changes in search and social, the importance of education in shifting the narrative of media investment, and how she sees winning across the board as the missing piece of the industry’s thinking.

Check it out!

Okay… I just ran into this Porsche patent, and I’m kinda excited.

We toss around “modular platforms” all the time in the auto world, but that usually means the factory can build different models off the same bones. Once the car’s built, it’s built. Porsche’s new patent basically says, “What if that wasn’t true?”

The idea is a vehicle made in three main sections — front, center, and rear — designed to clamp together with special connectors. And those connectors wouldn’t just hold parts on. They’d carry the “brains and nerves” of the car too, so the vehicle can recognize what’s attached and run it… whether that’s electric, gas, hybrid, whatever.

So yeah: in theory, you could drive an EV during the week, then swap in a gas-powered setup for a weekend road trip or a little more drama when you hit the throttle. It’s like Porsche looked at range anxiety, shrugged, and said, “Fine. Just change the whole car.”

Now, quick reality check: patents don’t mean production, and this might be more about simplifying manufacturing than letting owners swap sections like a pit crew. Still… as a “what if,” it’s unreal.

Imagine if other brands pick up on this and one day we’re driving EV pickups with tank tracks and a trunk big enough for an IKEA run with your grandma?

Be honest: would you ever want a car you could reconfigure based on your plans?