In today's issue:

AMG hasn't said what it costs. It didn't have to.

New Cars Cross $50K Again, While EVs Get Cheaper: Average new-vehicle transaction prices hit $50,089 in August, up 1.9% year over year and back above $50,000 for the first time since December, per Kelley Blue Book and CBT News. EVs went the other way, averaging $54,813, down 2.7% year over year as incentives grew. #market

Copart Buys ACV Auctions for $1.9 Billion: Copart will pay $10.50 a share in cash for ACV, the digital dealer-to-dealer wholesale marketplace, per Auto Remarketing. ACV sells more than 800,000 vehicles a year with virtually no physical locations, and Copart's 250-plus sites will become staging areas for them, CEO Jay Adair said; ACV stays an independent subsidiary under its current leadership, with closing expected by year-end, per Automotive News. The open question for dealers is what one owner across both marketplaces does to the fees they pay. #market

A Judge Keeps California's Car Pollution Rules Alive, For Now: For decades EPA has let California set stricter car pollution rules than the rest of the country, and the administration has been stripping them by having EPA relabel each one as a "rule" that Congress can vote down. On Sept. 2 a federal judge ordered EPA to withdraw or fix that move on six more, calling it "gamesmanship," and EPA says it is weighing an appeal, per Automotive News.

Ford Puts $1 Billion Into Its Kentucky Truck Plant: The investment funds a new paint shop at the Super Duty and large-SUV plant, adding to roughly $4 billion in recent Kentucky spending, per CBT News. #market

Missouri Troopers and Tesla's Federal Report Disagree on a Fatal Crash: Missouri State Highway Patrol said a 2024 Tesla Model Y "went off the road" on I-35 near Pattonsburg, killing its 64-year-old driver, while Tesla's report to federal regulators says Autopilot was active at the time, per Electrek. The gap surfaced days after Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi asked DOT Secretary Sean Duffy to explain oversight of Autopilot and FSD, citing an NBC investigation that found 43 videos of drivers asleep at the wheel, per Electrek. #analyst

Toyota's Cheapest GR Product Is a $2,500 Go-Kart: Gazoo Racing's GR Kart sells for ¥385,000 (about $2,500) in Japan and folds into a minivan, a gateway product for a motorsports arm whose next flagship, the GR GT, starts north of $200,000, per Road & Track.

Alpina's Founders Bring Back the BMW Z4: The Bovensiepen Spider takes BMW's discontinued Z4 M40i, bumps its inline-six to 435 hp, and caps production at 99 units starting around €115,500, per Motor1.

Volvo Will Sell Lynk & Co in Europe: Volvo becomes the exclusive European distributor of Geely's Lynk & Co brand from January 2027, taking over its commercial and operational activities there, per Automotive News. It lands a day after Volvo dropped its entry EV in the US.

WeRide and Uber Get Spain's First Level 4 Robotaxi Permit: Spain's traffic authority granted WeRide, Uber and Moove's Avomo the country's first national Level 4 license, starting with 20 supervised vehicles in Greater Madrid ahead of a commercial launch, per just-auto.

Geely Prices an EV at Half a Tesla: The Geely TT sedan launches in China at 129,900 yuan (about $19,100) with 800V charging and standard lidar, roughly half the price of a comparable Tesla, per Electrek.

Yesterday's picks

NHTSA Turns the Counterfeit Inflator Problem Over to Dealers: After the 11th death we covered Saturday, NHTSA is now asking dealers to check accident history on every used vehicle they take in and inspect any that received a replacement driver-side inflator after a crash, per CBT News. The banned DTN60DB inflator, which we first reported in July at 10 deaths, is now tied to 14 crashes, 11 deaths and three severe injuries, per Motor1. → If you own one: NHTSA's guidance is two-tiered, per CBT News. If your car had an airbag deployment since 2020, get it inspected promptly. If it is confirmed to carry a DTN60DB inflator, keep it parked until a dealer replaces the part with a genuine one.

Porsche Cashes Out of Bugatti for $1.16 Billion: Porsche completed the sale of its 45% Bugatti Rimac stake and 20.6% Rimac Group holding to a HOF Capital-led consortium on Sept. 9, netting about €1 billion ($1.16 billion), per Automotive News and Porsche. Porsche will put €250 million of it into its pension obligations, and Bugatti president Christophe Piochon is stepping down, with Mate Rimac taking the title himself, per Electrive.

China's Car Exports Have Already Beaten All of 2025, With Four Months to Go: Passenger-car exports in August jumped 67.1% from a year earlier to about 890,000 units, and the January-August total passed 6.2 million against roughly 6 million for all of last year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said, per AP. Plug-in hybrids and EVs drove the growth while domestic sales kept falling, per the same report. The cars a US-China deal would admit are the ones China increasingly cannot sell at home.

Worth a listen

One episode from Car Curious, our sister car-podcast platform, picked out of everything the shows published in the last day.

Inside America's Most Insanely Overpriced Porsche Dealership (Spike's Car Radio): The hosts pick apart Porsche San Luis Obispo's $2.3 million asking price for a 2019 911 GT2 RS, which the salesman pinned on a $90,000 Python green paint option.

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