AFIP's director is flagging a fresh recalibration in how the FTC polices dealership pricing, and the agency backed it up the same week by finalizing $930,000 in orders against Cox Media Group and two other firms over ad claims that didn't hold up. Add the latest hidden-camera-style dealer callout making the rounds on YouTube and you have the whole picture: the advertised number and the number in the box need to match, and somebody is always recording. Worth a read before your next batch of listings goes live — especially if a vendor is writing your ad copy for you.

Stellantis is recalling almost 850,000 vehicles for rearview cameras that may not display, Nissan pulled back 149 2025 Altimas over airbags that could deploy improperly or not at all, and China ordered 4.3 million cars back over retractable door handles while European regulators shrugged and kept watching. The Stellantis number is the one that matters on a used lot — that's Ram, Jeep and Chrysler metal you're already retailing, and a dead backup camera kills a test drive fast. Run your VINs before the cars hit the front line, not after a customer runs them on their phone.

The auctions are leaning hard into AI to squeeze cost out of their operations, dealers are back to arguing first-party acquisition versus lane cars on the forums, and one podcast is making the case that the competitive-set data you price against is quietly lying to you. Meanwhile north of the border, wholesale declines moderated but sale rates limped in just above 18% — a reminder that a soft lane is a buying opportunity only if you know your real comp set. If your appraisal number comes from a report you've never stress-tested, that's your margin leaking, not the market.

The average new vehicle in the US has crossed $50,000, Experian's Q2 finance data shows refinancing continuing to ripen as borrowers look for relief on payments they already signed, and more than half of consumers now say they'd consider a China-built car. Read those three together and you get a shopper who is price-first, brand-loose and payment-sensitive — which is exactly the customer who walks past the new-car store and onto your lot. The three-to-five-year-old clean unit priced under a $500 payment is still the best product in America.