Cox's Dealertrack index says credit availability hit its highest mark since November 2015, up 7.7% — which explains why more of your deals are getting bought lately. The catch is the cost: rates and stretched terms are doing the approving, and KBB flags long loans as the growing problem underneath the good news. Separately, the IRS finalized the $10,000 new-car loan interest deduction, effective Nov. 9, and it's worth a read since it's a new-vehicle perk your used shoppers will hear about anyway. Looser credit is real oxygen for a buy-here lot, but a customer who only qualifies at 84 months is tomorrow's repo, not today's win.

Automakers closed August with a 73-day supply, down from 77 and below where they'd like to be, while average new-vehicle transaction prices climbed back above $50,000 for the first time since December. Tighter new inventory at higher prices is the oldest tailwind in the used business — it pushes payment shoppers onto your lot. Meanwhile Copart's Jay Adair is openly courting independent buyers ahead of the $1.9 billion ACV deal closing, which means your wholesale sourcing map may look different by spring. Get comfortable on more than one platform before the auction landscape rearranges itself around you.

A Fisker Ocean that stickered at $69,000 is now trading under $16,000 — an orphan-brand wipeout, but a reminder that battery-car residuals can fall through the floor faster than your floorplan clock ticks. At the same time, Auto Dealer Today reports consumer EV consideration is climbing even after federal incentives went away, credited largely to better charging coverage. So demand is real and getting realer; the risk is buying the wrong badge at the wrong number. Appraise used EVs on brand survivability and battery warranty transferability, not on what the thing cost new.

Spyne's Dave Purgason told the NCM crowd that thirty years of auto tech made cars easier to find without making dealerships easier to buy from — the dead zone is still between the lead and the appointment. Reynolds' Greg Uland is making a parallel case that the next efficiency gains come from AI agents squeezing more out of the staff you already have, not from hiring more. On the back end, EvenFlow's Dave Anderson argues smarter shop loading gets more recon and recall throughput from the same technicians. On a small lot, all three point the same direction: your bottleneck is a process, not a headcount.