In today's issue:
Nearly one in five new-car loans now carries a payment of $1,000 a month or more, even as a million buyers have quietly left the market
More than half a million Jeeps and Hondas were recalled in a single week over airbag faults
The people Tesla paid to train Full Self-Driving mostly say they won't ride in a car using it
PRICED OUT
Nearly One in Five New-Car Loans Now Tops $1,000 a Month. A Million Buyers Already Left.
Almost 19% of new-vehicle loans now carry a monthly payment above $1,000, up from about 17.4% a year ago and 5.4% five years ago, per Experian's Q1 2026 data via Carscoops.
The average new-car loan climbed $2,150 year over year to $43,925, pushing the typical monthly payment from $748 to $770, per Experian via Carscoops.
This is not a luxury story: roughly 74% of those $1,000-plus payments are for non-luxury vehicles, often pickups like the Chevrolet Silverado 1500, Ram 1500, and Ford F-150, per Experian via Carscoops.
Buyers are stretching terms to cope, with the average new-car loan now running 69.5 months and 35.6% of new financing extending past six years, up from 30.8% a year earlier, per Experian via Carscoops.
Meanwhile the U.S. market has shed roughly one million new-car buyers over six years as the average transaction price nears $50,000, a structural contraction the Wall Street Journal reports automakers are content to accept, per Carscoops and Autoblog; the new-vehicle CPI sat flat at 179.174 in April 2026, per FRED.
The reassuring read is that buyers are still making the payments. The number that should worry the industry is the one that already left: a million households that stopped shopping new cars at all, served by a profit model that no longer needs them back.
Also worth knowing
The people Tesla paid to train FSD won't ride in it: Reuters interviewed nine former Tesla data specialists who labeled training data for Full Self-Driving; seven said they would not ride in a vehicle using FSD, and one said they would refuse even if paid, per The Next Web. Separately, a Beijing court held its first hearing in a consumer-fraud case against Tesla over FSD, with 10 Chinese owners seeking 3.95 million yuan ($583,000) in damages, per Electrek. Tesla is pushing the feature outward at the same time, expanding FSD (Supervised) to Estonia, its third EU country, per Teslarati. #news
Synthetic motor oil shortage arriving in June: Tariff disruptions have created a looming synthetic oil shortage expected to start in June and last more than a year, per Automotive News. Dealerships have already received rationing bulletins from Nissan and Toyota directing them to use alternatives, per the Automotive News Daily Drive podcast. #analyst
Chinese EV resale values collapsing in Europe: A new study shows Chinese EVs are depreciating rapidly in German markets, creating alarm among lease companies whose residual-value assumptions are now underwater, per Carscoops. The low entry prices that drove early adoption are now working against buyers at trade-in. #market
Peugeot rebounds on European EV surge: Among retail customers in France and Germany, EV orders topped 50% of total orders for models including the 208, per Automotive News Europe. Stellantis's Peugeot brand is using the demand wave to recover from quality issues that had been eroding its customer base. #analyst
What's new
Ferrari's first EV finally has a price: The 2027 Ferrari Luce, the brand's first battery-electric car, was detailed with 1,035 hp, five seats, and a price around £474,320 (roughly $603,000), per Motorsport Week and Drive.com.au. CEO Benedetto Vigna said Ferrari will keep petrol, hybrid, and EV powertrains running in parallel, framing the Luce as a market expansion rather than a change of direction. Car Curious, our sister car-podcast platform, rounded up the reaction: why the Luce is splitting the room.
Mazda MX-5 gets Zinc Green Metallic, sales up 60%: Mazda officially announced Zinc Green Metallic as a new body color, debuting first on the 2026 MX-5 Miata soft-top and RF, per the Mazda Newsroom. Autoblog noted MX-5 sales jumped 60% in April even as Mazda's overall U.S. volumes fell 17.3%, making the Miata a rare bright spot in a tough stretch for the brand.
Recalls & legal action
Two airbag recalls in one week cover more than 518,000 vehicles: Stellantis recalled 419,035 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Grand Cherokee L SUVs (2022-2026 MY for the GC, 2023-2025 for the L) after a software error in the Occupant Restraint Controller module was found to delay side-airbag deployment in side-impact crashes, per TopSpeed, CarComplaints, MoparInsiders, and MotorTrend; MotorTrend noted fault codes may remain active even after the software fix. Days later, Honda recalled 98,982 vehicles after a cracked, short-circuiting front passenger seat weight sensor was found to trigger airbag deployment during a crash rather than suppress it, affecting 2017-2024 Honda and Acura models including the Civic Type R, TLX, and RDX (NHTSA ID 26V332000), per CarComplaints. Two opposite airbag failures, one not firing and one firing wrong, surfaced across two automakers in the same week. #news
Quick links
FTC names 97 dealerships over deceptive pricing: The agency publicly identified 97 dealerships and dealer groups that received formal warnings about deceptive pricing practices, per CBT News.
Mercedes-Benz faces U.S. market threat over Chinese ownership ties: Chinese state-owned BAIC (9.98%) and Geely founder Li Shufu (9.69%) together hold 19.67% of Mercedes-Benz Group, tripping the 15% foreign-adversary threshold in the proposed Motor Vehicle Modernization Act of 2026, which could bar the automaker from importing, selling, or building cars in the U.S., per Autoblog citing CNBC. The bill has only cleared a House committee with no Senate companion, and the report notes Mercedes may be an unintended target. Volvo separately secured U.S. approval to keep selling China-developed connected-car tech, per CBT News.
Evans leads Toyota 1-2-3-4 sweep at Rally Japan: Elfyn Evans won Rally Japan for the third time in four years and extended his WRC championship lead to 20 points, with Toyota Gazoo Racing locking out the entire top four, per DirtFish and Autosport.
Aprilia ends Ducati's Mugello streak: Marco Bezzecchi won the MotoGP Italian Grand Prix for his fourth win of 2026, breaking a three-year Ducati domination of the Mugello race, with teammate Jorge Martin second for a full Aprilia 1-2, per Motorsport Week and Autosport.
BMW outselling Mercedes and Audi in Europe Jan-Apr 2026: BMW's core brand rose 1.1% to 267,075 units across Europe in the first four months of 2026, topping both Mercedes-Benz and Audi in the same period, per BMW Blog citing ACEA data.
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Sources: Carscoops (car loans) · Carscoops (buyers) · Autoblog (buyers) · The Next Web · Electrek · Teslarati · Automotive News · Carscoops (EV depreciation) · Automotive News Europe (Peugeot) · Motorsport Week (Luce) · Drive.com.au · Mazda Newsroom · Autoblog (Miata) · TopSpeed · CarComplaints (Jeep) · MoparInsiders · MotorTrend · CarComplaints (Honda) · CBT News · Autoblog (Mercedes) · DirtFish · Autosport (WRC) · Motorsport Week (MotoGP) · Autosport (MotoGP) · BMW Blog