Front pageEditionsSunday, October 11
Cheap new-car payments are quietly setting the ceiling on your used-car pricing
Factory lease money is anchoring what shoppers think a payment should be, just as the FTC backs off a price-transparency case and automakers churn engines under every hood on your lot.
Genesis is moving a G70 for $319 a month, Toyota is advertising a Sienna LE at $329 against a $419 Pacifica, and there's a whole crop of new metal landing under $500 a month — though the cheap leases come loaded with low mileage caps and fat drive-off money. Your customer doesn't read the fine print; they read the number and bring it to your desk. When a new luxury sedan advertises three-nineteen, a four-year-old one at $420 feels like a bad deal even when it isn't. Know this month's captive programs on your top five nameplates so you can explain the difference instead of eating it in gross.
The FTC dropped its price-transparency case against Asbury, which takes some federal heat off advertised-price practices — but state AGs and plaintiffs' attorneys never signed that settlement, and the public shaming cycle is alive and well, as the clip praising a Texas Toyota store for doing it straight shows. Meanwhile Unifor has a Stellantis strike vote set for Oct. 17–18, and Ford gained retail share while the overall market slipped. Worth a read on both counts: the compliance reprieve isn't a green light, and a Stellantis work stoppage tightens the same Mopar supply your reconditioning and parts orders depend on.
The BMW Z4, GR Supra, and Genesis G70 V6 all end production after 2026, the 2027 Telluride trades its V6 for a turbo-four that makes less power and costs more, and Toyota dealers are now stocking leftover 2026 Land Cruisers next to 2027s. Enthusiast cars that go out of production tend to firm up on the used side for a year or two; mainstream SUVs that lose a smooth V6 tend to make the outgoing version the one customers ask for by name. Watch the overlapping model years especially — when a franchise store is discounting leftovers, your two-year-old version of the same truck has to move with it.
J.D. Power's 2026 Vehicle Dependability Study put the 2023 Ram 1500 over the F-150 and Silverado, the 2010 Ford Ranger turned up as the cleanest-record model of the last 25 years with 11 complaints on file, and $30,000 still buys a solid late-model midsize pickup. That's three separate pieces of third-party cover for trucks you probably already have sitting out front. Print the dependability line, put it in the window, and stop arguing about brand loyalty with a guy who's just nervous about repair bills.
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