Volkswagen's supervisory board signed off on killing half the group's model portfolio and 50,000 more jobs by 2035, with four plants on the block and a 75% cut in build complexity — and it's installing Audi's sales chief over North America to stop the bleeding here. Honda, meanwhile, wants "extremely large" cuts, targeting north of $9 billion in supplier costs by 2030 and leaning harder on Chinese parts. Neither story moves a car off your lot this weekend, but both tell you where parts availability and residual risk are heading on the odd trims and low-volume variants. Appraise the weird stuff accordingly — a discontinued nameplate with a thinning parts pipeline is a longer sit and a costlier recon three years from now.

IIHS handed Top Safety Pick+ to the redesigned Kia Telluride and current-build Model Y, while the 2026 GMC Canyon crew cab came away with nothing — rear-passenger protection and front crash prevention dragged it down. Pair that with J.D. Power scoring Hyundai and Kia at satisfaction levels the Germans used to own, and used Hyundai N cars now trading around new-Corolla money. The Korean value story is no longer a pitch you have to make; the ratings agencies are making it for you. Print the award on the window card, and know which build years actually carry it before a shopper checks on their phone in your lane.

Cox Automotive is embedding Nova Credit's Income Navigator natively into Dealertrack, putting near-real-time cash flow data in front of lenders to speed funding and cut fraud risk. FICO's auto scores lead was on the Auto Remarketing podcast this week recapping the fall Credit Insights report and where the broader credit cycle sits. Translation for the subprime and BHPH desk: bank-account cash flow is becoming a second opinion on thin-file buyers your bureau pull turned down. If your lender mix adopts it, some deals you've been killing at 4pm start funding by close.

The FTC tacked seven more days onto the comment window on its proposed policy statement about personalized pricing — how you price the same car differently for different shoppers is officially a live federal conversation. Separately, Ignite Dealer Compliance Group says it's fielding a wave of questions about privacy notices, an obligation plenty of stores treat as a dusty PDF from 2003. And for a lesson in optics: a Hyundai store set its public charger at $5 per kWh plus $5 a minute to chase off outsiders, then left it listed as public, and a driver got a $418 bill and a viral news cycle. Read all three; the last one costs nothing to avoid.