Dealers Have Never Lost Money in 50 Years. AI Might Be the Reason That Streak Gets Even Better.
Our own Michael Cirillo sat in the room this week at Reynolds and Reynolds' Amplify 2026, where Automotive Ventures' Steve Greenfield opened a keynote panel with a fifty-year chart that made the whole room go quiet: the average American dealer has not lost money in any year over the last five decades.
The Lease Return Wave Is Coming Back. Get Ahead of It Before Auction Does.
Pandemic-era shortages broke the familiar lease-return cycle for years. Now Penske Automotive says it's finally refilling, and the dealers paying attention are about to get two wins for the price of one.
Ford's Reputation Problem Isn't the Trucks. It's the Price Tag.
Ford showed dealers a $25,000 crossover and a sub-$40,000 four-door Mustang at a private Las Vegas meeting, and the timing says a lot about where the brand thinks it needs to fight next.
EV Lessees Are Getting a Reality Check at Renewal, and Hybrids Are Winning the Rebound
EV leases were once the ultimate "why not" deal. Now that those leases are maturing, returning customers are discovering a very different market, and a lot of them are landing on hybrids instead.
VW Has 4% of the U.S. Market. A Pickup Truck Is How Every Underdog Brand Tries to Fix That.
Volkswagen is overhauling its U.S. strategy with new leadership and, in a very on-the-nose move for a German automaker, a plan to build an American pickup truck.
Would You Buy a Car Fully Online? That Question Is Lying to You.
A new Urban Science and Harris Poll survey of over 3,000 buyers and 252 dealers found shoppers are researching longer, cross-shopping harder, and putting price ahead of brand loyalty. But the most interesting number in the survey might be the one measuring the wrong thing entirely.
Some Customers Aren't Shopping on Price. Stop Selling to Them Like They Are.
❝ Ram is reviving the street-truck formula with a four-model Rumble Bee lineup, and dealers believe the buyers it attracts care far more about sound and speed than fuel economy or monthly payments. ❝
Are Dealers Actually Mad at Carvana, or at Themselves?
Car Dealership Guy spent weeks talking to 40 sources about Carvana's Stellantis stores, and the real question isn't whether Carvana is selling a lot of cars. It's whether they're doing it with exceptions no one else would get.
The More Stickers You Own on a Customer's Race Car, the More You Win
Lithia Motors posted record second-quarter revenue, but the megadealer is treating affordability like an operational problem to solve, not just a pricing headache to absorb.
New-Car Grosses Are Shrinking. Here's Kyle's Checklist for Making It Up Elsewhere.
❝ Average gross profit per unit softened across the largest public dealer groups in Q2, but the story isn't all bad. New-vehicle margins came under real pressure. Used vehicles picked up the slack. ❝
GM Is Backing Off Killing Apple CarPlay. Here's Why That's the Right Call.
GM may be easing off its plan to eliminate Apple CarPlay and Android Auto after real customer backlash, and the 2027 Cadillac Lyriq configurator is the tell.
Rivian's R2 Bet Is Working. The Cash Clock Is Still Running.
Rivian's second quarter was all about the R2 launch, stronger revenue, and narrowing losses, though the company is still burning serious cash to get there.
Leasing Is Coming Back. The Deals Aren't as Good, and That's an Opportunity.
Americans still want to lease, but the deals aren't what they used to be, and the gap is quietly pushing more buyers into loans that will follow them for seven years.
Tesla's China Split Isn't About China. It's About SpaceX.
Tesla may be preparing to separate its China business as Elon Musk weighs a potential merger with SpaceX, a move driven more by defense-contractor restrictions than by competition on the ground.
Hybrids Just Took Back the Lead, and Franchise Dealers Are the Ones Who Win
For the first time in four years, hybrid registrations overtook EVs in California, and the shift structurally favors franchised dealers over direct-sales brands that don't offer hybrids at all.
Your Best Trade-In Customers Don't Know They're Sitting on $13,000
Two-thirds of trade-in customers are walking into dealerships with record positive equity averaging $13,330, and most of them have no idea it's a ready-made down payment.
Carvana just posted its biggest quarter ever, selling 197,325 vehicles for $7.4 billion in revenue, up 38% year over year. The headline number is impressive. What Paul and Kyle pulled out of the call is more useful.
Ford's revenue slipped and U.S. sales fell nearly 10% in H1. The company raised its full-year profit outlook anyway, betting that high-margin trucks and off-road trims keep carrying the business while a genuinely affordable EV arrives in 2027.
Ford's Building Trucks for the Army Again. It's Been Decades.
Ford is competing with GM and off-road specialist BC Customs for a Pentagon contract to build the Army's next tactical truck, marking Ford's biggest defense push since it exited the business in 1990.
A 7.1 Earthquake Hit Japan. Here's Why Your Lot Might Feel It in a Few Weeks.
A powerful earthquake struck southern Japan near major Toyota and Nissan plants. Both automakers report no major damage, but the real risk sits deeper in the supplier network that feeds those plants.
GM Is Quietly Becoming a Software Company. The Margins Explain Why.
GM's OnStar and Super Cruise subscriptions keep roughly 70 cents of every dollar in revenue, dwarfing the 4-10% margins on the vehicle itself. The company is explicitly betting on this recurring revenue to smooth out its historically cyclical business.
Buy-Sell Activity Is Up 23%. Buyers Are Also Getting Way More Picky.
Dealership M&A activity is climbing fast, but Presidio's data shows this isn't a fire sale. Operators are strategically pruning and buying based on brand strength and long-term earnings potential, not chasing peak profits.
Tesla Just Had Its Best Quarter Ever and Its Stock Dropped Anyway
Tesla delivered a record Q2, 480,126 vehicles, $28.2 billion in revenue, yet posted negative free cash flow after pouring $5.8 billion into robotaxis, AI, and Optimus. The market punished it for exactly the kind of long-term bet that used to define the company.
The Nation's Second-Largest Dealer Group Might Go Private. Here's Why That's Smart.
Penske Corp. and Mitsui have offered $3.8 billion to take Penske Automotive Group private. Both our hosts and the analysts quoted agree: freedom from quarterly earnings pressure is the real prize here.
