Experian's new chartbook has subprime originations up 24% year-over-year through June and near-prime up 18% — lenders are absorbing risk they wouldn't touch two years ago. CarMax, meanwhile, posted a Q2 rebound while trimming roughly 150 jobs and installing two new executives, which is what a recovery looks like when you're still cutting. More approvals means more deals you can actually fund, but an approvable customer isn't a collectible one — price the paper for the back half of the term, not the delivery.

The commentary desk at Auto Remarketing makes the case that dealers don't have an inventory problem, they have a decision problem — rising floorplan, pickier buyers, and no more thin-supply margin to hide behind. The case studies backing it up are all about pipelines: a single-point Ford store that quit leaning on auctions and built its own supply, and a reminder that the best trade on your lot next month is probably sitting in your service lane today. Every car you acquire off-auction is a car you didn't overpay for in a bidding war against a national group.

A used 400-hp Macan Turbo now trades for base four-cylinder money, a 2020 Jaguar EV that stickered at $76,250 is bidding $13,950 with a recall hanging over it, and a handful of mainstream models have barely moved off their pre-2020 numbers. Badge equity is doing real work too — discontinued GR Supras are holding better than the BMW that shares their bones. The cliff is the opportunity and the trap: cheap German performance and used luxury EVs pencil beautifully on the buy and can eat a month's gross in recon, warranty claims, and days on lot.

NIADA took four policy priorities to the Hill, pushing the REPAIR Act into the surface transportation reauthorization — right-to-repair matters to anyone who recons in-house. Separately, a Northeastern study found 19 of 21 late-model vehicles shipping owner data to third parties including big ad platforms, and the CAFE rollback is generating more questions than clarity for truck and SUV supply. None of it changes your Wednesday, but all three are worth a read before a customer asks you about any of them.