In today's issue:

Ram's quarter was the 1500 up 73%, and the Hemi Rumble Bee is now claimed through the first quarter of 2027.

Ford Held No. 3 Over Hyundai Motor Group by 3,564 Vehicles: Following up on Hyundai's run at Ford's No. 3 spot: Ford sold 509,764 vehicles in Q3, down 6.6%, against 506,200 for Hyundai, Kia and Genesis combined, up 5.4%, per Quartz. Hyundai sold 246,896, Kia 236,659 and Genesis 22,645, per Hyundai, Kia, Genesis's chief operating officer and Automotive News. Ford's light-duty count of 507,395 leaves a gap of 1,195, per Quartz, and Ford says the drop reflects the Escape and Corsair phase-out. #market

GM Slips for a Fourth Straight Quarter as Toyota's Electrified Share Hits 57%: GM sold 670,974 vehicles in Q3, down 5.5%, per Automotive News. CBT News says GM's EV sales fell about 62% and Cox expects the Detroit Three near 36% share. Toyota sold 633,223, up 0.6%, and electrified vehicles were 57.4% of its volume, per Toyota's release. #market

Tesla Delivered 486,532 Cars, 2% Below Last Year and 25,000 Above Estimates: Consensus was 461,974, and Tesla's 8-K shows production of just over 464,000. Deliveries ran about 22,000 ahead of output, per Electrek. Motor1 reports the Model Y L Premium now shows a January to February 2027 delivery window. #analyst

VW Terminates Wage Deals With Its Union, Raising Strike Risk: Volkswagen ended several IG Metall agreements, including the umbrella wage deal covering about 100,000 workers at its main German plants, and exits most of its collective bargaining framework from Dec. 1, per Automotive News. The union's strike truce expires Jan. 1, and the two sides meet again in the second half of October. This follows the 100,000-job-cut push. #analyst

Honda Sold 392,341 Vehicles in Q3, Its Best Third Quarter Since 2019: American Honda's Q3 sales rose 9.3%, and hybrid sales topped 106,000 for a Q3 record, per Honda. Honda says it got there despite inventories of 16 to 17 days for key models. #market

Aston Martin Pushes Its First EV to 2033 or Later and Keeps the V8 and V12 Through 2035: CEO Adrian Hallmark said "It could be 2035, it might be 2033, but it’s in that three-year-window. It’s not 2031," per Autocar. He had suggested 2030 earlier in his tenure, and the previous management's target was 2027. Aston has a Lucid deal for EV technology and says its EV spending is research and study, "not even single-digit millions," per Autocar and Motor1. #analyst

Mercedes Drops the EQE Sedan, the Maybach EQS SUV and the AMG S63 for 2027: A Mercedes spokesperson confirmed to Car and Driver that the Mercedes-Benz and Mercedes-AMG EQE sedans, the Maybach EQS680 and the AMG S63 E Performance are gone for 2027. The regular EQS sedan and SUV stay on sale, and the EQE lasted three years in the U.S., per InsideEVs. #news

Stellantis Says It Has Nearly 50 Quality "War Rooms" and a 2028 Deadline: CEO Antonio Filosa said Sept. 30 that engineers, quality, manufacturing and supplier staff are working on known problem components, and that Stellantis wants every segment in the top quartile for quality by 2028. "We are fixing them very, very, very quickly," he said, per Automotive News. Jeep and Ram both ranked below average in J.D. Power's quality surveys this year, and Stellantis added more than 2,000 engineers in 2025, per Automotive News and Motor1. #news

Following up on Hyundai's Tucson redesign: the U.S. spec is out, with up to 288 HP: Motor1 lists up to 288 hp. Hyundai's release details Pleos Connect, with 17-inch and 12.9-inch displays and the Gleo AI agent. The Tucson has sold over 160,000 units this year, per Autoblog, and the redesign arrives early next year, per KBB.

Ford Returns to the World Rally Championship in 2028: Ford will field a full factory team with M-Sport, 16 years after it withdrew, per Autocar. Next season M-Sport plans to run a Fiesta Rally2 car fitted with the new FIA WRC kit, per Autocar. The new rally car, built to the FIA's WRC27 spaceframe rules and modeled on an upcoming production vehicle, follows in 2029, per AutoGuide, which puts the factory return a year ahead of the new car.

Toyota Dropped a Caravan on the Electric Hilux, and It Drove Away: Toyota UK let Reddit pick the test, and users chose a 760 kg (1,675 lb) caravan over a one-tonne wrecking ball, per Motor1. The caravan fell about 9 meters (30 feet) at Bentwaters airfield in Suffolk, and the truck powered up and drove off with a cracked windscreen, a dented roof and a misshapen bed, per Paul Tan. It recreates a stunt from a 2003 Top Gear episode, per Carscoops.

Carrera GT Heads to RM Sotheby's London: The 2004 car carries a $2.7 million to $3.4 million estimate, per Stuttcars.

A 66-Mile 1993 Mustang SVT Cobra Is at $110,000: The Bring a Trailer auction ends Sunday, Oct. 4, per Bring a Trailer.

BMW Tuner AC Schnitzer Is Saved From Closure by a Dutch Buyer: AM Group is acquiring the tuner from KOHL Automotive after it announced in March that it would close, taking the equipment, technical documentation and TÜV approvals, per Carscoops and BimmerLife.

Yesterday's picks

Hyundai and Kia Post Record Q3s While Ford Rebuilds F-150 Supply: Kia America sold 77,009 vehicles in September, up 18%, and 236,659 in the third quarter, up 8%. Both are company records, per Kia's press release.

Tesla Opens $30 Billion in Credit It Plans Not to Touch in 2026: Tesla's 8-K shows three unsecured facilities signed Sept. 29: a $20 billion three-year delayed-draw term loan administered by Citi, an $8 billion five-year revolver and a $2 billion 364-day revolver, both administered by Wells Fargo. Nothing is drawn, and Tesla does not currently plan to draw on them in 2026. They replace a $5 billion revolver that ran to January 2028. Electrek ties the move to shrinking profits and higher guided spending.

Mexico Says a 15% Car Tariff Is Close: Multiple Mexican officials say a deal cutting the U.S. tariff on light vehicles to 15% from 25% is within reach, though nothing is final, per Automotive News and Transport Topics. Track the rest in our US Auto Tariff Tracker.

Worth a listen

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

571-Rogue Agents And Layers Eight (Apex Adjacent, also at linktr.ee/apexadjacent): Between AI-agent talk and DJ sets, the hosts trade Volvo V70 R reliability stories, including why first-generation Haldex all-wheel drive needs a fluid flush at basically every oil change.

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