CloselineDMS
What the trade is reading, watching, and talking about
Monday, October 26, 2026

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Every edition

57 mornings of the used-car trade, written the day it happened.

October 2026
  1. Crash scores and subvented leases are doing your appraising for you

    IIHS fails land on three popular crossovers, Volvo buys share at $599 a month, and a California title-jumping mess is the cheapest lesson on the board today.

    2026-10-26
  2. Used Metal Holds, New Metal Goes On Sale

    An $80k Cadillac flagship at Camry money, a Wagoneer outbidding a Bentley, and 1.99% on new EVs — the gap between what holds value and what doesn't is your whole margin right now.

    2026-10-25
  3. Record payments, broken car math, and margin that lives off the car

    October volume is holding flat while monthly payments set records and negative equity piles up — which means the front end isn't where your month gets made.

    2026-10-24
  4. Record payments, upside-down trades, and a used lot caught in the middle

    Nearly a third of financed trade-ins are underwater while new-car payments set another record — and the entry-level new metal just got cheaper, which is your problem too.

    2026-10-23
  5. Used prices hit a four-year high, and so does the negative equity walking onto your lot

    September listings averaged $27,235 as supply loosened — but the trade-ins carrying that value are buried under pandemic-era loans, and the wholesale pipes just changed hands.

    2026-10-22
  6. Used prices grind to a post-2022 high — and the rulebook moves under them

    Retail listings hit $27,235 while wholesale turns positive year over year, just as Washington and Sacramento start poking at how you display and personalize a price.

    2026-10-21
  7. Your Price Tag Is Now Evidence

    New York takes CarGurus to court over "Good Deal" badges and hidden fees while California's CARS Act tightens the screws — and shoppers are arriving payment-first, pre-briefed by a chatbot.

    2026-10-20
  8. Cheap Payments Up Front, Rising Delinquencies Out Back

    Subsidized new-car payments are setting the number your customers walk in with, while the loan-performance data says the back end of the market is getting thinner.

    2026-10-19
  9. Six-Figure Cars at Four-Figure Prices — and the Bill That Shows Up After

    The depreciation curve on used luxury and used EVs has never been friendlier to your buy-side, or less forgiving of your recon math — plus Google changes where your inventory shows up.

    2026-10-18
  10. The wholesale pipes are consolidating while your ad copy goes on trial

    Copart swallows ACV, Penske goes private, and a New York lawsuit says calling a car a 'great deal' is a legal claim — meanwhile a $23K V8 truck is still the best gross on your lot.

    2026-10-17
  11. A Tesla Flew Last Night. Your Buyers Were Busy Trading Down.

    Record new-car stickers and the loosest credit in a decade are pushing shoppers onto used lots — while the FTC starts collecting on its price-transparency warnings and Penske takes its chips off the public table.

    2026-10-16
  12. A $50K average, record payments, and 84 months to pay it off

    New-vehicle pricing is parked at the ceiling while terms stretch and rates climb — which means the affordability refugees are walking your lot, not theirs.

    2026-10-15
  13. Buyers Are Trading Down — And Your Buy Line Just Got More Dangerous

    Cox says affordability is pushing shoppers into older used metal and hybrids, Black Book says depreciation eased last week, and Carfax counts up to 48,000 flood cars already loose — before Isaias.

    2026-10-14
  14. Wholesale softens, buyers slide down-market, and the money moves to the back end

    Cox cuts its year-end outlook as the Manheim index slips and affordability pushes shoppers toward older metal and hybrids — which is exactly the car on your line.

    2026-10-13
  15. 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.

    2026-10-12
  16. 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.

    2026-10-11
  17. The FTC Still Has a Red Pen, and It's Hovering Over Your Advertised Price

    Washington dropped one price-transparency case and immediately settled another, while record transaction prices and record loan volume keep pushing the gap between the number on the windshield and the number on the contract.

    2026-10-10
  18. Cheaper Metal, Shakier Buyers, and an FTC Holding a Red Pen

    Wholesale slipped again in September and bankruptcy filings blew past 460,000 through Q3 — while a Florida dealer group just agreed that the advertised price has to be the actual price.

    2026-10-09
  19. Record payments, softer wholesale, and the FTC reading your price ads

    The average new-car payment just hit $787 and bankruptcies keep climbing, even as auction money finally eases — while regulators go line by line through advertised prices.

    2026-10-08
  20. Detroit's clearing 2026 metal at any price — and your trade desk eats the difference

    Silverado and Rogue fire sales are resetting the floor on late-model inventory, while four-year-old luxury SUVs keep proving that fast depreciation cuts both ways.

    2026-10-04
  21. Hybrids Carry Q3 While the Average Used Car Outprices a New RAV4

    GM keeps the sales crown but bleeds EV volume, Toyota's electrified mix surges, and Edmunds says a three-year-old car now costs more than a base RAV4 off the showroom floor.

    2026-10-03
  22. Six new finance records, and nobody's throwing a party

    Amounts financed, payments and terms all set highs in Q3 while one refi lender shut its door to new customers — the payment is now the whole deal.

    2026-10-02
  23. Fuel Prices Are Rewriting Your Appraisals — And Regulators Are Reading Your Doc Fee

    Diesel pain is bleeding into wholesale values just as Q4 opens, while a $500K settlement in Alaska reminds independents that the cheapest compliance fix is the one you do before the AG calls.

    2026-10-01
September 2026
  1. Subprime Comes Back Off The Bench

    Lenders are stretching again just as floorplan costs bite — and the smart money this week is being made in the service drive, not at the Tuesday sale.

    2026-09-30
  2. All-In Pricing Arrives, and the Cheap Money Bill Comes Due

    California's total-price rule lands Wednesday, the FTC is already pulling threads on mismatched ads, and a $694M subprime settlement reminds everyone who eats the risk when a deal is built to fail.

    2026-09-29
  3. Fuel's Up, Sub-$20K Metal Is Scarce, and the Floorplan Clock Never Stops

    Independent dealers take their agenda to Washington while pump prices reshuffle demand, factory incentives gut EV residuals, and a truck plant goes quiet — all of it landing on your turn time.

    2026-09-28
  4. The $12,000 Car Is Now a 100,000-Mile Car

    Affordability at the bottom of the market is being bought with odometer miles, not price cuts — which puts recon, disclosure, and merchandising squarely in charge of your gross this fall.

    2026-09-27
  5. Asian brands own half the board, and EV prices are falling out of the sky

    Cox has Hyundai passing Ford for the first time, VW is dumping $12,500 on leftover ID.4s, and old Teslas are repricing overnight — all of it lands on your lot in 30 months, or next week.

    2026-09-26
  6. Used demand holds, new-car payments get cheap, and the calendar starts billing you Oct. 1

    Cox nudges its full-year used forecast up while factory subsidies gut the bottom of the new-car market — and the Fed takes a hard look at how BHPH customers actually pay.

    2026-09-25
  7. Hybrids are eating the EV lane while money gets more expensive

    July registrations show buyers voting hybrid now that the credits are gone, borrowing costs are squeezing the same shoppers, and the buy-sell market keeps paying up anyway.

    2026-09-24
  8. The money desk gets smaller while your software stack gets bigger

    CarMax trims corporate, another subprime lender heads for the door, and Washington picks a fight over the CFPB — all while vendors line up to answer your phones and value your trades.

    2026-09-23
  9. Wholesale finally blinks — and the fee cops are working the F&I office

    Manheim posts its first down month of 2026 just as a New York AG settlement puts seven figures behind the words "deceptive fees," and a fat stack of recalls lands on common trade-in metal.

    2026-09-22
  10. The luxury badge quit charging rent

    Used German and British metal is landing at mainstream-crossover money while factory incentives set a floor under everything — and the recon risk on those bargains hasn't gone anywhere.

    2026-09-21
  11. Record pump prices, $179 new-car payments, and tariffs waiting at the parts counter

    Fuel costs are pushing shoppers toward anything that sips gas, captive lenders are buying the low end with subvented payments, and the recall list keeps growing — all of it lands on your front line.

    2026-09-20
  12. Nothing Got Cheaper in August — and the Scammers Noticed

    Affordability stayed ugly on both sides of the lot, the EV price gap keeps shrinking, and AI is now working your lead funnel and your fraud exposure at the same time.

    2026-09-19
  13. Rates Up, Stickers Up, and Regulators Reading Your Ad Copy

    A Fed hike lands on top of a $50,090 average new-car price, the FTC posts price-transparency FAQs, and Credit Acceptance writes a $700 million check — all in one 36-hour stretch.

    2026-09-18
  14. Money Got Dearer, Diesel Got Brutal, And The FTC Finally Put It In Writing

    A rate hike, a $5.5 billion near-prime exit and $6-plus diesel all landed in the same 36 hours the FTC handed dealers a pricing rulebook — and Copart went shopping for the wholesale pipes.

    2026-09-17
  15. The FTC Puts Your Price Tag in Writing — and Carvana Buys the Recon Bay

    New federal price-transparency FAQs land the same day the Fed decides on rates, Car-Mart sweats a Friday credit deadline, and an Ohio dealer pleads guilty to importing fake airbags.

    2026-09-16
  16. Used Prices Hit a Four-Year High While Lenders Quietly Open the Spigot

    August listings averaged $27,239 — the priciest since 2022 — and credit access loosened in the same breath. Cheap inventory is the whole ballgame this fall.

    2026-09-15
  17. Record $812 payments, rationed motor oil, and one fewer wholesale middleman

    Customers are stretched thinner than ever, your recon bay just got more expensive, and Copart is buying the pipe your trade-ins flow through.

    2026-09-14
  18. Everybody's Chasing Cheap — And The Floor Keeps Moving

    A $25K Chrysler promise, a $15,800 Fisker, and a quarter-million-mile Tesla taxi: today's coverage is one long argument about what a car is actually worth on your lot.

    2026-09-13
  19. Credit's the loosest it's been in a decade — and that's the cheap part

    Approvals are flowing and new-car supply is thinning, but transaction prices are back over $50K and the terms doing the heavy lifting keep getting longer.

    2026-09-12
  20. Copart Buys ACV, And Your Wholesale Channel Gets A New Landlord

    A $1.9 billion deal reshapes the lanes you buy in, new-car ATP climbs back over $50,000, and used demand keeps grinding higher — while the Nov. 9 loan-interest rules and a global oil pinch sneak up on the back end.

    2026-09-11
  21. Cheap Cars Are the Whole Market Now

    Wholesale prices slipped again in August as inventory tightened, dealer sentiment sagged on affordability, and the EV story split hard between Europe and the US lot.

    2026-09-10
  22. Values Slip, Recall Notices Pile Up, and the Buyer's Payment Keeps Climbing

    August wholesale retention softened while bankruptcy filings rose and the Fed teed up another move — and three of the recalls hitting mailboxes land squarely on cars sitting in independent inventory.

    2026-09-09
  23. Buy Off The Street — Then Check The VIN Twice

    The operators winning right now are sourcing retail-direct and cutting debt, just as recall counts quadruple, title-washing maps go public, and shoppers hit a website that won't let them buy.

    2026-09-08
  24. Cheap, boring, and bulletproof is having a moment

    Sedans are selling again, hybrids are eating their own V6 siblings, and the long-term-cost math is quietly doing your closing for you — while EV values and EREV timelines keep slipping.

    2026-09-07
  25. Hybrids Are Eating the Lot While Yesterday's Flagships Hit Civic Money

    Buyers keep voting hybrid, automakers keep retreating from EVs, and the luxury depreciation curve is handing you cheap iron that isn't cheap to own — plus an FTC warning worth ten minutes of your Sunday.

    2026-09-06
  26. The Cheap Car Is Easy to Buy and Hard to Finance

    Lenders are rewriting how they judge a thin file, Black Book's tidy depreciation forecast hides a lot of pain, and everything upstream — tariffs, diesel, factory cuts — is quietly repricing your next acquisition.

    2026-09-05
  27. The Factories Are Shrinking. Your Lot Inherits What's Left.

    VW guts half its lineup and Honda goes hunting $9 billion in supplier costs — while lenders quietly rewrite what a fundable customer looks like.

    2026-09-04
  28. Somebody Else Is Running a Dealership With Your Name On It

    The FTC is warning shoppers about cloned dealer websites the same week the trade is arguing over which dealers the chatbots recommend — and new-car product keeps thinning out.

    2026-09-03
  29. The Discount Is Real — The Diligence Is On You

    Used EVs have fallen to Altima money and there's finally battery data to sort the good ones from the gutted, while recall lists, fee exposés and a wobbly new-car pipeline punish lazy buying.

    2026-09-02
  30. F&I is holding up the P&L while rates and tariffs work the other side

    Back-end gross hit record first-half highs just as the Fed hints at another hike and a 50% Canadian tariff gets penciled in for 2027 — and your AI bill keeps climbing.

    2026-09-01
August 2026
  1. Depreciation Is Doing Your Selling For You — If You Merchandise It Right

    A pile of "three years old and cheaper than new" stories, an eBay airbag ban with a September date on it, and fresh evidence buyers don't care about the screens you're paying to recondition.

    2026-08-31
  2. Luxury Depreciation Is Doing Your Sourcing For You

    Badge cars are landing in mainstream price bands, trucks still refuse to depreciate, and the warranty story you tell on the walkaround just got more complicated.

    2026-08-30
  3. Cheap, Thrifty, and Financed: The Market Keeps Voting With Its Wallet

    Gas hasn't dropped below $4 all month, used sedans and small cars are the only segments moving up on price, and hybrids are eating a bigger slice of the loan book.

    2026-08-29
  4. Regulators re-load on pricing while a million recall notices land on your used rows

    The FTC is recalibrating how it polices dealership pricing, Stellantis is recalling nearly 850,000 vehicles over backup cameras, and the average new car now stickers at fifty grand — all of it lands on your lot.

    2026-08-28
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