How Dealer Ads Have Changed Since the FTC Got Serious About Price
Under the FTC’s guidance, the most prominent price in an ad must be the all-in price any customer can pay, including dealer fees like doc fees. Only government-required charges, such as tax, title, and registration, can be left out. Dealers can still show MSRP or discounts, as long as the actual price stays most prominent.
Why Transparency Is Table Stakes and Community Is the Dealership Edge Carvana Can’t Copy
When it’s time to buy, the store that kept showing up is top of mind. Then transparency and an easy process close the loop. Patrick says the industry spent years doing it in reverse, earning the business first and showing up in the community after.
How Carvana’s Delivery Network Gives It an Edge in New-Car Sales
Carvana now owns seven franchised dealerships, mostly Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram stores, and it’s using its used-car delivery network to sell new vehicles far beyond a typical market area, Automotive News reports.
Shawn Fain Declares Victory in His Race for a Second UAW Term
Fain declared victory Friday in his bid for a second term leading the roughly 400,000-member United Auto Workers. Preliminary totals released by a federal monitor showed him winning a majority and easily topping five challengers, according to Reuters. GM, Ford, and Stellantis did not immediately comment.
The FTC's Greenway Settlement Puts Advertised Prices Under the Microscope
Greenway Automotive, an Orlando-based group ranked No. 23 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups, reached a proposed settlement with the FTC over allegations of deceptive price advertising. Greenway neither admitted nor denied the allegations, and the settlement still needs court approval.
Toyota Brings Every Stage of Battery Testing to Michigan
The Toyota Battery Center of North America opened Oct. 1 at Toyota's R&D headquarters in Saline, Michigan. Announced in 2023 as a $50 million investment, it lets Toyota's teams evaluate battery technology through the entire development cycle.
Porsche Plans to Sell Fewer Cars and Earn More on Every One
Porsche needs a reset. Its operating income plunged 93% in 2025 to €413 million ($465 million), revenue fell 9.5%, and its profit margin dropped to just 1.1%, far below the high teens it earned when it went public. New CEO Michael Leiters, who took over in January, laid out his plan, called Sportswagenschmiede '35, this week.
The FTC Dropped Its Case Against Asbury, but Not Its Focus on Pricing
"Based on the totality of the circumstances, we have come to the difficult conclusion that the public interest requires that this litigation no longer be continued." FTC order of dismissal
Average asking prices for used vehicles at US dealerships fell 2.5% over four weeks, according to the first weekly national snapshot from OAV.io, a data platform that calls itself "The Automotive Answer Engine." The report compared asking prices on roughly 1.43 million vehicles listed on both Sept. 5 and Oct. 3.
Q3 Sales: Hyundai and Honda Set Records While Ford and GM Slip
New-vehicle sales neared 4.1 million in the third quarter, less than 1% behind last year's pace and down roughly 3% from the second quarter, according to estimates reported by Car Dealership Guy. But the results split sharply by automaker.
Britain Is Falling for Chinese Cars, Led by the "Temu Range Rover"
Britain has embraced Chinese brands more enthusiastically than any other major industrialized economy. Nearly one in six cars sold there in the first half of 2026 carried a Chinese brand, and vehicle imports from China have almost doubled from a year ago.
Gas Cars Just Fell Below Half of Global Sales for the First Time
In the first half of 2026, pure gas-powered vehicles fell below half of global new-vehicle sales for the first time, according to Mobility Global data reported by Car Dealership Guy.
Toyota Is Rewriting Its Marketing Playbook for AI Shoppers
Toyota marketing chief Mike Tripp says AI agents are rapidly replacing traditional search for early vehicle research. Traffic to Toyota.com and other top-of-funnel sites is down about 20%, which Tripp says matches the broader industry.
CarMax's Turnaround Plan Is Already Showing Up in the Numbers
CEO Keith Barr, a former hotel industry executive, took over in March after the board fired longtime CEO Bill Nash. His four-part plan has been in place since June:
This month, GM began building EVs with battery cells made from 100% recycled nickel, cobalt, and manganese, all recovered from its own end-of-life battery packs. Those vehicles, built at Factory Zero in Detroit and Spring Hill Assembly in Tennessee, are now headed to customers.
Farley and Reuss Say Patience Wins, but the Clock Keeps Speeding Up
Paul is pretty sure he puts more thought into his outfit every morning than Jim Farley does. That's about where the comparison ends, though. On Wednesday's show, we dug into what Farley and GM's Mark Reuss told the Automotive News Congress, and both leaders made the same case: stay the course, even when the ground keeps moving.
Washington Set the New Fuel Economy Bar Just Below Where the Industry Already Is
The Transportation Department finalized lower fuel economy standards Monday, dropping the 2031 fleetwide target from 50.4 mpg under the Biden-era rules to 34.9 mpg. The rule also ends credit trading among automakers in 2028.
Trump and Xi Talked for Two Days. Automotive Trade Never Came Up.
China gave the US two giant pandas this week. What it didn't give, or even discuss on the record, was anything about automotive trade. If you're wondering whether the pandas come with any data-collection tech of their own, you're not the only one asking that question this week, just about the wrong animals.🚙
Akio Toyoda Wants the Industry to Row Together. He Knows Exactly What That Means.
Rowing is a sport now. It wasn't always. For centuries it was naval warfare's most literal test: a crew living or dying based on whether they could pull together, obey the same command, and endure exhaustion without breaking formation. When Akio Toyoda stood at his Automotive Hall of Fame induction and asked, "Wouldn't it be great if we could all just row together?" we don't think he was reaching for a nice metaphor. We think he knows exactly what that image used to mean.
Diesel Isn't Just a Trucker's Problem, It's a Grocery Store Problem Too
Diesel price issues never stay in the truck. It ends up on the grocery shelf, in the price of freight, in the cost of nearly everything that moves before it reaches a customer. If this "Iran situation" drags on long enough, do we end up with a farmer's market revival, more people buying local simply because local means fewer diesel miles between the field and the table?
China Already Restricts What America Is Still Debating
Sens. Bernie Moreno and Elissa Slotkin's bill, with 51 co-sponsors split almost evenly across party lines, is the American attempt to catch up to a standard China set for itself years ago. As Bozzella put it, that kind of bipartisan agreement is rare enough on its own: "I can't think of a single other thing" that unifies Washington the way this has.
Toyota's Building a 620-Mile EV. We're Not Getting It. Again.
Does anybody else feel like the fattened calf every time some genuinely cool, genuinely affordable automotive tech shows up in every market except this one? Why is America always last to the party? Is it the music? Somebody explain it to me.
No Pressure, Mary: Barra Walks Into the Room That Could Define Her Legacy
Barra's seat at that table isn't symbolic. It's happening the same week Trump signaled he might let Chinese automakers manufacture on US soil, the exact outcome her own industry coalition just publicly asked him not to allow.
Dealers Have Always Been the "Real People" Review. China Is About to Test That.
Rumors that BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu could join Xi Jinping's Washington delegation set off alarms industry-wide. Sen. Elissa Slotkin didn't mince words: Chinese companies are "licking their chops" for US access. A coalition including NADA sent a letter urging the administration to "keep the door firmly shut."
