TOGETHER WITH:
Howdy, Fam!
Used-car asking prices slid 2.5% in four weeks, and your shoppers saw every cut. We discuss how to get your team talking about it before the customer does.
Also in today's email:
The new car-loan interest deduction leaves out negative equity, which shows up in nearly 30% of new-vehicle trade-in deals
The FTC dropped its Asbury case after two years and kept price transparency on its list
Red diesel hits the highway, headlight rules get an overhaul, and researchers hand an LLM the steering wheel
Claude moves into the Google-verse, ICANN's new domain round could bring us some wild new domain names, and Amazon's much more judgy than we thought
Keep Pushing Back,
—Chris with Paul, Kyle & Kristi
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Used-Car Prices Continue to Slide
Data platform OAV.io tracked about 1.43M used listings from September 5th to October 3rd, and found that average asking prices fell 2.5%. More than half of listings got cut by more than 0.5%.
Segment | Average asking-price drop |
|---|---|
SUVs | 2.7% |
EVs | 2.7% |
Vans | 2.5% |
Trucks | 2.3% |
Cars | 2.2% |
Your shoppers see those cuts. On a $30K car, 2.5% is $750, and that can be the difference between a payment that fits and one that doesn't.
Where The Rubber Meets The Road
Give your team a one-line answer at the next morning meeting:
"Used prices have come down about 2.5% over the past month, and here's what that does to your payment."
Pair it with your own lot data on which units got cuts and which are moving fastest, so reps can talk about specific cars instead of the whole market.
The Car-Loan Tax Break Has a Negative Equity Problem
Falling used prices give your customers some payment relief, and the new car-loan interest deduction was supposed to add more.
The final IRS rule carves out one big group: customers rolling negative equity into the new loan. Interest on that balance falls outside the deduction.
Here's who qualifies:
New vehicles with final assembly in the U.S.
Up to $10K in interest a year
Reduced benefits above $100K in income for single filers and $200K for joint filers
That covers a lot of desk deals. Edmunds found nearly 30% of new-vehicle purchases with a trade-in carried negative equity in Q2, averaging $6,884.
That puts the customers stretching hardest to make a payment work at the back of the line for this break. NADA asked the IRS to include them, saying that for many consumers "there would be no purchase without this arrangement," but the IRS declined.
A deduction only lowers taxable income, so the average $1,800 claim saves a fraction of that. Lenders also have to split interest between the car and the negative equity, so some customers will see less deductible interest at year-end than they expected.
Ask about trade equity early and walk customers through the deduction before they sign.
NADA Show 2027 Education Lineup
NADA Show 2027 just announced its education lineup, with sessions built around the challenges dealers are navigating right now — including two Super Sessions dealers won’t want to miss:
🌟 Borrowed Brilliance brings the always-popular 20 Group Best Ideas format to Orlando, sharing proven ideas from dealers who are finding smarter ways to run their stores, lead their teams and improve performance.
🌟 Disney’s Approach to Quality Service goes behind the magic to explore how Disney creates exceptional customer experiences — with lessons dealers can apply to their own teams, culture and customer interactions.
And that’s just the start. The lineup also includes workshops, Spotlight Series sessions, The Exchange and Dealer Learning Lab sessions, right on the Expo floor, giving dealers more opportunities to find practical ideas, hear different perspectives and come home ready to put what they learned to work.
The FTC Drops Complaints After Two Years
Surprises on paperwork are keeping regulators busy, and this week the FTC changed how it chases them.
It dismissed its 2024 complaint against Asbury Automotive Group, three North Texas stores, and a general manager that alleged unauthorized add-on charges. The FTC pointed to years of litigation ahead with only limited agency resources.
KPA's Adam Crowell expects the FTC to skip in-house administrative actions moving forward and file in federal court instead. California's CARS Act takes effect this month, so pricing and add-on practices sit under a brighter spotlight.
Review your advertised prices, your add-on disclosures, and how your team presents optional products. Transparent pricing makes for the best compliance plan.
🚘 Car Stuff
President Trump is temporarily allowing tax-free red-dyed diesel on highways as a way to cut fuel costs for truckers and farmers. 🩸
U.S. headlight regulations are getting an overhaul after years of complaints about glare and restrictions on newer systems. 💡
Researchers wanted to know whether LLMs could drive a car and the answer was mostly no with one notable exception. 🚗
💰 Not Car Stuff
Anthropic just made Claude a lot more useful for Google Workspace teams by letting it work directly inside Docs, Sheets, and Slides. 🤖
ICANN’s first new domain round since 2012 could bring hundreds of other fresh endings to the web like .fart or .meow. 😹
Amazon shoppers are discovering just how much the company thinks it knows about them and some of the guesses are wildly specific. 🛍️
1860: Telegraph line between Los Angeles and San Francisco opens. 📨
1945: American inventor Percy Spencer applies for a patent for the microwave. 🍽️
1956: Don Larsen pitches the only perfect game in World Series history for the New York Yankees. ⚾️
Thanks for reading, Friend! Got your ticket yet? ⏳
