Front pageEditionsMonday, October 12
Paris throws a concept party while your lot does the depreciation math
Retro EV concepts dominated the wires, but the items that touch your money are hybrid scarcity, a Maverick that refuses to depreciate, and a dealership fire that ate six cars.
The first-year Ford Maverick is still holding money five years in, while the 2021 Tahoe has given back enough that it's now the bargain three-row play — two very different curves, same five-year window. At the enthusiast end, the E60 M5 has finally crossed into collector pricing at $70K-plus for clean manual cars, which tells you the market still pays a premium for the last-of-its-kind badge. The pattern is consistent: compact utility and unrepeatable drivetrains hold, big body-on-frame luxury bleeds. Price your acquisitions off the curve, not off the nameplate's reputation.
Honda is getting picked apart in the compact crossover segment for one reason — no hybrid HR-V — and Toyota's Corolla Cross Hybrid is quietly collecting the defectors. Honda's answer, a new-generation hybrid system, doesn't land globally until 2027, which means another model year of one-sided supply. For your lot, that's two more years of used hybrid compacts trading tight and gas-only trims sitting a few days longer. If a clean hybrid Corolla Cross or RAV4 shows up at auction, you already know you're not stealing it.
A 2027 Kia K4 LX lists at $22,390 with steel wheels and a straight face, which is the new-car floor your 2–4 year-old inventory gets compared against every day. Meanwhile the Mitsubishi Eclipse Sportback asks about $8,000 more than the Nissan Leaf it's built from — proof that badge premiums still exist and still get argued about on the lot. Both numbers matter when a payment buyer is deciding between your three-year-old sedan and a stripped new one with a factory warranty. Know the floor cold before the customer quotes it to you.
A Fort Worth Cadillac store lost six cars, several of them EVs, in a fire that burned more than 17 hours — a reminder that lithium packs change the math on lot layout and insurance conversations. Nashville police tied two stolen Hyundais to a theft ring possibly covering two dozen vehicles, and a viral walkthrough of an Arizona dealer's red flags is doing the rounds with buyers who are now trained to look for them. None of this is a new rule to comply with; it's a reputation and exposure problem. Worth a read with your insurance renewal and your lot-camera coverage in front of you.
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