Photo: Lexus
In today's issue:
Lexus will send about 35,000 vehicles meant for China and the Middle East to U.S. dealers holding 16 days' supply
A Stellantis-Dongfeng executive says China-built Jeeps could go to Canada, which Stellantis Canada calls premature
Mercedes says the smaller G-Class arrives in less than 24 months
Filtered from 3,424 items published across 296 sources in the last 24 hours.
SHORT ON CARS
Lexus has secured roughly 35,000 vehicles originally destined for softening overseas markets, mainly China and the Middle East, for its 246 U.S. dealers, with most arriving in the fourth quarter and the first quarter of 2027, per Automotive News. About 10% of them, roughly 3,500, are the GX off-roader, and the rest are spread across the RX, NX and ES.
Lexus ended September with 16 days' supply and has not had a 20-day supply since June 2024, Lexus general manager DeJuan Ross said. Automotive News reports the supply squeeze has dragged U.S. sales down 2.9% to 262,768 through September after two record years.
The wider market has the opposite problem. U.S. new-vehicle inventory reached 3,001,250 at the start of October, 84 days' supply by Catalyst IQ's count and up from 73 a month earlier, per an earlier Automotive News report.
Ross told CBT News that September was a record month for sales, parts and service even though year-to-date sales trail last year's, and that Lexus is working on lease offers, especially for entry-level models, to narrow the payment jump facing customers whose leases are ending.
Dealers also got the halo-car plan. About 100 Lexus stores will sell Toyota's GR GT and GT3 road cars from late 2027, and the Century brand goes on sale in the U.S. in 2028 at far fewer dealers, which will have to invest in their facilities and staff training, per The Autopian, citing Automotive News.
Lexus is short of cars in a market that has plenty, and its relief is coming from markets where demand is softening. Lexus expects about 365,000 U.S. sales this year, just under last year's record 368,300, and a third straight record "will be close. Very close," Ross said, depending on logistics and port processing. It targets about 370,000 in 2027. The longer-term fix is product: Ross said about 90% of what dealers sell will be new or refreshed over the next 18 months, including a replacement for the UX, whose U.S. sales fell from 17,581 in 2021 to 8,421 in 2025.
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Also worth knowing
Ford's Certified Used Sales Jumped 44% and Took the Quarterly Lead for the First Time: Ford sold 130,112 certified pre-owned vehicles in the third quarter, up 44% and ahead of volume leader Toyota for the first time, while industrywide CPO sales fell 2.5% through August, per Automotive News. Ford's count includes other brands' vehicles, but it still led the quarter without them. It is on pace for a record 450,000 this year and wants "well over 500,000" and the top spot in 2027, said Rob Kaffl, Ford's director of U.S. sales and dealer relations. The push fills a gap: Ford's new-vehicle sales fell 9% through September, partly because of an F-150 shortage after 2025 fires at an aluminum supplier. #market
A Stellantis JV Executive Says China-Built Jeeps Could Go to Canada; Stellantis Canada Calls That Premature: In August we reported Jeep's return to China to build EVs for export; the new part is that Canada is now named as a target. From 2027 a Stellantis-Dongfeng joint venture will build two battery-electric and plug-in hybrid Jeeps in Wuhan for China and for export, with Canada and Mexico among the target markets but not the U.S., where China-made vehicles face steep tariffs, said Lv Haitao of Dongfeng Stellantis Automotive Technology, per Automotive News Canada. Stellantis Canada said "at this stage, saying these vehicles are planned for Canada would be very premature." Brampton has not built a vehicle since 2023, and Stellantis has a tentative deal with defence contractor Roshel that could lead to selling the site. Unifor president Lana Payne called the idea "entirely unacceptable," and the union's members hold their strike-authorization vote Oct. 17 and 18. #analyst
Toyota Plans to Run Its Arene Software in 50 Models and 10 Million Vehicles a Year by 2030: Only the RAV4 and Lexus ES use the software platform today, and chief technology officer Hiroki Nakajima told investors at a workshop in Europe last week that it will reach most of Toyota's volume with each model change and be offered to partners toward 2035, per Automotive News. Use by Suzuki, Daihatsu, Mazda and Subaru would put it near 16 million vehicles a year. In the RAV4, Arene cut the lead time for evaluating driver-assistance software by 70%. #analyst
Reveals & culture
Mercedes Says the Smaller G-Class Arrives in Less Than 24 Months, Built in Hungary: CEO Ola Källenius told Bloomberg the car is coming "sooner than you think" and "less than 24 months from now," per Autoblog, nearly five years after Mercedes announced it in 2023. It was planned as electric-only and will now also come as a hybrid, which U.S. dealers pushed for, and it will be built in Kecskemét, Hungary, not at Magna Steyr in Graz, where the G-Class is made. Land Rover's smaller Defender Sport is reportedly due as soon as 2027. The G-Class starts at $153,900 in the U.S.
GM Won't Answer Ford's Nürburgring Lap With the Corvette: The Mustang GTD Competition's 6:40.835 Nordschleife lap with Dirk Müller, reported in August, is about eight and a half seconds under the Corvette ZR1X's 6:49.275, but Ford's time sits in the prototype and pre-production table while the ZR1X's is a production-car record, per Motor1. "I'm not planning on running back and tit-for-tat 'look at what we can do' to answer what they did," said Corvette chief engineer Tony Roma. He pointed to the ZR1X's 9:30.104 at this year's Pikes Peak hill climb instead, an event Ford's electric SuperVan 4.2 won outright in 8:18.202.
Corvette ZR1X. Photo: The Supercar Blog
BMW Now Expects 450 Miles of EPA Range From the iX5: That is up from the 435-mile EPA target BMW gave this summer, and the official rating is due in the coming weeks, per InsideEVs. The 144-kWh battery is the largest BMW has put in a production vehicle, using taller cylindrical cells than the iX3 and i3, and BMW quotes a 10% to 80% charge in 22 minutes. It goes on sale in the first quarter of 2027.
Photo: BMW
Quick links
Lutnick Reportedly Resists Cutting the 25% Tariff on Mexican Cars: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick opposes significant cuts to the 25% tariff on Mexican vehicles and the 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum, the Wall Street Journal reported, per CBT News. Mexico's deputy trade minister said the talks had made progress.
A Tesla Driver Told Police He Was Asleep on FSD When He Hit a Patrol Car at a Closed Crash Scene: The Tesla drove at highway speed into lanes closed with cones, flares and emergency vehicles on Interstate 80 on Oct. 13 and hit a CHP patrol car, seriously injuring two officers, who have since left the hospital, per Road & Track. "Technology does not relieve drivers of their responsibility to safely operate their vehicles," the CHP said.
Slate Opens Its First Showroom, in Chicago, With Test Drives: Slate will not run its own service centers and is partnering with RepairPal's network of independent shops instead, per CBT News. The 205-mile pickup is due on sale by the end of 2026 at $26,400 including destination.
Photo: InsideEVs
Recalls & legal action
New York City Sues CarGurus, Saying Its 'Great Deal' Labels Hid Dealer Fees: The city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection alleges more than 2,000 violations of its consumer protection law, including an AI chatbot that lists deals without their fees. In one example, a 2018 Honda was rated a "Great Deal" at $2,212 below market, but mandatory fees in a disclaimer put the real price $1,473 above market, per Auto Remarketing. The city seeks up to $3,500 per violation, and CEO Jason Trevisan said the claims "ignore our decades-long track record of setting the standard for transparency in car buying and selling," per Automotive News.
Yesterday's picks
Tesla's Flying Roadster Hit 60 mph in 0.81 Seconds on Stage, but Its Reservation Terms Don't Guarantee a Delivery: Tesla unveiled the second-generation Roadster on Oct. 15 at a SpaceX test facility in McGregor, Texas, and Elon Musk said production begins in 2028, eight years after Tesla's original 2020 target, per CBT News. In the demo a prototype clung upside down to a curved ramp with a fan-based suction system, flipped in the air and landed, then used compressed-air thrusters to jump over five Tesla vehicles. Musk said the stunt cars ran without a driver for safety.
Auto Credit Access Hits Its Highest Level Since 2015 as the Subprime Share Climbs to 17.4%: Cox Automotive's Dealertrack Credit Availability Index rose 1.9% in September to 107.1, its fifth straight monthly gain and the highest reading since April 2015, per Auto Remarketing. The subprime share of loans reached 17.4%, up 230 basis points from a year earlier, and 57.8% of contracts carried negative equity, against 52.4% a year ago. Lenders are earning less for the extra risk: the average contract rate rose 23 basis points to 11.22% while the five-year Treasury yield rose 42 basis points to 4.80%.
Volvo Will Build Its Next Driver-Assist System on Nvidia, With Hands-Free City Driving Around 2030: Volvo is widening its Nvidia partnership to use the Hyperion sensor and computer platform and Nvidia's reasoning-based Alpamayo driving software, with the first release being supervised driving in which the driver stays responsible, Volvo's head of software engineering Alwin Bakkenes told Reuters, per CBT News. Hands-free city driving is due around 2030, though outlets differ on the exact timing, per InsideEVs. "Eyes-off and mind-off" driving is promised later with no timeline.
Worth a listen
One episode from Car Curious, our sister car-podcast platform, picked out of everything the shows published in the last day.
#345 Car Buyers vs. Car Dealers: California Changes the Rules (Wrench Nation, also at wrenchnation.tv): Host Frank Leutz walks through California's new CARS Act, which requires a dealer's online price to be the full price before state tax and DMV fees and gives used-car buyers three days to return a car priced at $50,000 or less, minus any restocking fee.
Wrench Nation Podcast
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