TOGETHER WITH:
Howdy, Fam!
With Veterans Day a week away, here's a story worth passing around your store.
Roy Mora served four years in the U.S. Army, including a 2012 deployment to Afghanistan. Today he's been married 15 years, homeschools his five kids, and volunteers with nonprofits that support families going through hard seasons.
At Friday's Miami Heat game, Mora was surprised with a new car and a two-year scholarship to Miami Dade College, made possible by Lithia Motors, the Military Warrior Support Foundation, and Chase.
"[A] dependable vehicle that takes a lot of weight off our shoulders."
Roy Mora, retired U.S. Army specialist
If your store is planning something for Veterans Day, that's the bar: show up for someone who's spent their life showing up for others.
In today's email...
October sales: hybrids did the heavy lifting
Used EVs now cost more than gas cars
Ford's '80s mode and Starbucks' $1 billion seat buyback
Tomorrow on Auto Collabs: Tomi Mikula
Keep Pushing Back,
—Chris with Paul, Kyle & Kristi
First-time reader? Subscribe Here!
Hybrids and retail demand powered October sales gains at Toyota and Hyundai.
Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and Kia all posted October gains behind continued strong retail demand for hybrids and crossovers. The numbers to know:
Toyota Motor Corp.: sales up 6.5%, with the Toyota division up 5.7% and Lexus up 12%. The RAV4 posted its first sales gain of 2026.
Hyundai: record October sales of 73,452, up 5% from 70,118, with retail sales up 9% to 62,646.
Hyundai hybrids: up 20% to 29% of total volume. Year to date, Hyundai's hybrid sales are up 50%.
How much of October's gain should dealers count on?
Some of it. October had an extra selling day this year and a soft October 2025 to compare against, so the headline growth is flattered. The retail numbers are the more telling signal: Hyundai's retail sales grew faster than its total, which means individual buyers are walking in for these vehicles.
Check your hybrid days' supply against your October pace before November orders go in.
See What Gets Lost After the Call
Join us TODAY at 2:00pm EST, CallRevu's Trish Kaliandasani and Gaffney Buick GMC's Earl Wheless are getting into a problem almost every dealership has: the customer called, texted, showed up, and left clues in three different places.
The question is whether your managers can actually see the whole story.
They'll break down where information gets lost between phone calls, texts, CRM activity, and in-store conversations, plus what that disconnect costs in follow-up and accountability.
If your team is still piecing customer conversations together after the fact, this is worth 30 minutes.
(Can’t make it? Register for free, and we’ll send you the replay.)
Used EVs now cost more than gas cars and sell nearly two weeks faster.
On Tuesday's show, we dug into new iSeeCars data covering more than 1.5 million 1- to 5-year-old used vehicles.
What should your used car team know this week?
What changed?
Used EV prices rose 9.8% in a year, from $29,637 to $32,533. They now average $579 more than gas cars, after costing $2,227 less a year ago.
Are they actually selling?
Yes. EV days on market fell from 46.6 to 41.9, while gas cars slowed from 45.7 to 54.8.
Does every EV move?
No. The Cadillac Escalade iQ averaged 128.7 days on market, and the GMC Sierra EV and Chevy Silverado EV both sat for roughly 90.
Pull your used EV aging report this week and see which units are sitting past 60 days.
Ford launched a privacy site that lets owners opt out of data sharing anytime.
It went live Nov. 2, days after GM agreed to pay $220 million to settle claims it sold driver data to brokers. Depending on the model, Ford owners can turn off sharing for navigation, diagnostics, and geolocation, in the vehicle or the Ford app.
"[F]or someone who does not want to share any connected data with Ford at all, they can opt out and essentially create a quasi-'80s mode car."
Kristin Jones, Chief Privacy Officer, Ford
Every opt-out comes with a trade-off, and your delivery team will be the ones explaining it. Here's our full take.
Starbucks is spending more than $1 billion to bring back the seats it removed.
Then: roughly 30,000 comfortable seats pulled out to speed up mobile pickup. Now: more than 25,000 coming back.
Renovations run about $150,000 per store, adding upholstered seating, warmer lighting, and plants, as CEO Brian Niccol works to make the coffeehouse a place to stay again. The lesson for dealers: cut the time customers have to spend, and make your store somewhere they want to spend time.
The negotiator dealers love to hate sat down with us in person.
Tomorrow on Auto Collabs, we're releasing a long-form, in-person conversation with Tomi Mikula, founder and CEO of Delivrd.
Who is Tomi Mikula?
He spent years working inside car dealerships before launching Delivrd, a flat-fee service where a professional negotiator works on the buyer's side of the deal. The Wall Street Journal called him "a car dealer's worst nightmare."
Why are we talking to him?
Whether you love him or can't stand him, your customers are watching his videos. This conversation goes behind the scenes with someone a lot of dealers have in their crosshairs, so you can hear his case straight from him and know what your customers are hearing.
When can I hear it?
Thursday on Auto Collabs. Subscribe now and turn on notifications so it's waiting for you.
Missed Jack Hollis? Read our takeaways from his conversation on what's really wrong with dealership culture.
🔧 Under the Hood
South Jersey's Bridgeton Auto Mall launched on Amazon Autos, putting its GM, Stellantis, and used inventory in front of Amazon shoppers.
An auto industry group is urging Congress to make the ban on Chinese vehicles permanent.
Automotive News publishes its full 2026 ranking of the 150 Best Dealerships To Work For today.
📈 Market Moves
Shopify's Q3 revenue grew 32%, from $2.84 billion to $3.74 billion, as merchants moved $119 billion in GMV through its platform.
Canadian landlord RioCan raised its 2026 outlook as retail occupancy hit a record 98.9%.
James Ritty receives a patent for the first mechanical cash register. (1879)
Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected the first woman governor in U.S. history. (1924)
A UNIVAC computer correctly predicts the presidential election on live CBS television, an early milestone for computing. (1952)
Thanks for reading, Friend! See you soon.
