The average new vehicle sold for $50,562 last month, $52 shy of the all-time record, and buyers are papering over it with record monthly payments and 84-month terms. Add last month's rate hike and the chance of another, and the gap between what a shopper wants and what a shopper can carry keeps widening. That gap is your business — the trade-down customer who priced a new Palisade and walked. Stock and merchandise to the payment, not the window sticker, and make sure your $300-a-month aisle is the first thing they see from the road.

Auto credit access just hit an 11-year high on its fifth straight monthly climb, with loan terms longer than they've ever been — the oldest trick in the book for making a stretched deal pencil. Meanwhile Credit Acceptance's $710 million settlement with 40 states has regulators and commentators arguing the problem isn't the lender so much as the structure of the loan itself: inflated vehicle prices, unaffordable payments. California's new requirements took effect this month and vendors are already racing to say they're covered. Worth a read before your next buy-here-pay-here deal jacket closes, especially the commentary on loan structure.

Discontinued F-150 Lightnings are moving briskly on the used market at roughly half their original MSRP — the depreciation that gutted the first owner is exactly what's making them sell now. The catch is running cost: Tesla Supercharging prices are up 15% year over year, so the "it's cheaper than gas" pitch needs real numbers, not vibes. Supply on the new side isn't helping either, with Volvo's EX60 pushed deep into 2027. If you've been EV-shy, cheap off-lease and discontinued electrics are getting hard to ignore — just price in the reconditioning and know your local charging story cold before you take one in.

The Trade Desk's auto GM argues that 71% of the brands a shopper will consider are locked in before they ever type a search, which makes a 90%-search-and-social budget a bill for demand you didn't create. On the back end, operators are trading notes on the unglamorous stuff: missed callbacks, promise tracking, and the five ugly scenarios every BDC software demo conveniently skips. The vendor picks the lead, the script, and the time of day — your Saturday doesn't. Before you sign another twelve-month agreement, go count how many of last month's ups never got the call they were promised.