In today's issue:

Two arms of the same administration went on record contradicting each other on Chinese manufacturing inside 72 hours. Ford's battery deal goes from "profound concern" to possible blueprint without anyone changing a single word of the underlying contract.

Sub-$15,000 Used Cars Just Got 26% Scarcer: Sub-$15,000 used inventory fell 25.9% year over year while overall used-vehicle prices held near the record high we reported September 12 at $27,239, with retail inventory tightened to 44 days' supply, per CBT News. #market

Toyota's New CEO Is Chasing a Lower Breakeven Point: Kenta Kon, who took over in April, is cutting parts and spec complexity across Toyota's lineup to shrink the volume the company needs to stay profitable, per Automotive News Europe. It's a quieter strategy than rivals' EV pivots, and it's aimed squarely at surviving demand swings rather than chasing them. #analyst

Hyundai Delays Its Own Self-Driving Software, Leans on Nvidia: Hyundai Motor Group is pushing its in-house driver-assist software to late 2029, two years later than planned, and leaning on Nvidia in the meantime, per Automotive News Europe. At the same media day at 42dot's headquarters in Seongnam, autonomous driving head Park Min-woo argued Hyundai can overtake Tesla and other rivals on driving data within five years of mass production, per Tesla North. With mass production now slated for late 2029, that pushes the goalpost to roughly 2034, betting that Hyundai's 7 million annual vehicle sales across 190 markets will yield more real-world fleet miles than Tesla can harvest. #analyst

Lyft Makes Its Driverless Debut in Nashville via Waymo: While Lyft previously tested AV partnerships with Aptiv in Las Vegas, May Mobility in Atlanta, and Waymo in Phoenix, Wednesday's rollout marks its first commercial robotaxi service using fully driverless vehicles without human safety operators, per TechCrunch. The launch makes Nashville the first US city where Waymo dispatches autonomous vehicles across both its own app and a partner network simultaneously. Lyft's Flexdrive fleet-management subsidiary handles local charging and maintenance, backed by a dedicated 80,000-square-foot depot opening in October. #news

90% of BRZ Buyers Still Pick the Stick: Manual transmissions make up just 1.7% of all new US vehicle sales, but roughly 90% of Subaru BRZ buyers choose three pedals compared to 52% for its Toyota GR86 twin, per CarBuzz. With the Porsche 718, Toyota GR Supra and BMW Z4 all retiring stick shifts this year, check the Manual Transmission Registry for what's left. #culture

VW Built the Most Efficient EV Ever Tested. You Still Can't Buy It.: Volkswagen claims its Mission Efficiency concept achieved a 0.158 drag coefficient, which would make it the slickest road-legal car ever tested, covering 1,278 km (794 miles) on one charge while consuming 6.89 kWh/100 km, per Motor1 and InsideEVs. It's built on ID. Polo hardware but has no production plans, and AutoCar asks why VW would prove this is possible and then shelve it.

Kia's New Van Is Bigger Than Anyone Expected: The production PV7 electric van delivers up to 460 km (286 miles) of range and targets Europe and Korea sales in the second half of 2027, per Carscoops. Autoblog calls it a direct shot at the Ford E-Transit for fleets and shuttle operators.

The Ferrari Whose Chassis Number Outlived the Car: A 330 GTO recreation built in the early 1990s is listed on Bring a Trailer carrying a chassis number tied to a different, long-gone original car, and per The Daily Vroom, everyone involved in the sale already knows it.

Ford Recalls 223,472 F-150s Over Fuel Tanks That Can Fall Off: The fuel tank strap campaign covers 223,472 F-150s from the 2023 to 2027 model years where corroding or loose straps can let the tank drop, leak, or fully detach while driving, per Road & Track and AutoGuide. Combined with two other smaller F-150 campaigns issued this week, Ford recalled more than 223,500 trucks in total, per Motor Illustrated. → If you own one: Check your VIN at NHTSA.gov for campaign coverage and schedule the strap inspection before your next highway trip.

Porsche Loses Bid to Kill Taycan Battery Fire Lawsuit: A judge denied Porsche's motion to compel arbitration and refused to dismiss the class action alleging 800-volt Taycan batteries can catch fire, covering 2020-2024 model years, per CarComplaints and Autoblog. The case now proceeds toward discovery rather than an early exit, adding pressure just as Taycan sales already lag.

GM Recalls Silverado and Sierra for a Warning Light, Not a Brake Defect: The 2024 trucks are covered by an emissions recall governed by on-board diagnostic (OBD) monitoring rules rather than safety standards, after a software fault could prevent the malfunction indicator lamp from warning drivers of brake issues, per Autoblog.

Stellantis's Roshel Deal Would Bring 2,000 Jobs to Brampton: Following up on the Roshel memorandum of understanding we reported September 11, Roshel now says the deal would bring more than 2,000 jobs to the Ontario plant that was retooled for the Jeep Compass before tariffs stalled it, per CBT News.

Japan Will Cut $8,450 Off Your EV, If You Keep It: Japan's CEV subsidy knocks roughly $8,450 off a Toyota bZ4X but comes with a four-year disposal restriction, per Autoblog.

Jeep's Willys JL-2A Package Gives the Wrangler Vintage Civilian Looks: Jeep is offering a retro Willys JL-2A tribute package on the 2027 Wrangler with vintage badging and civilian Jeep heritage styling cues, per Motor1.

Yesterday's picks

Ferrari's Most Extreme 296 Is a Track Car With 730 HP: The 296 GT Modificata, derived from the 296 GT3 Evo racer, produces 730 cv, 130 more than the race car it is based on, and is built in strictly limited numbers exclusively for Ferrari's Club Competizioni GT program, per Ferrari and RACER.

Costco Begins Rationing Motor Oil as Prices Spike to $58: Costco is imposing a two-case per-week limit per customer on Kirkland Signature full-synthetic motor oil after prices jumped from the mid-$30s to $58 for a 10-quart pack in recent weeks, per The Drive. An analysis by theautowire links the squeeze to fuel refiners maximizing high-margin diesel and gasoline output over base lubricant stock, alongside tighter licensing standards and additive costs. #market

Worth a listen

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

If This Happened to Your Car, What Would You Do? (Under The Hood show): The hosts diagnose why an engine keeps running after you turn the key off by tracing a body control module that won't shut down power, then walk through how that same module failure cascades into convertible top and security no-start.

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