Presented by:
Hey everyone,
As you develop a strategy for sourcing inventory for the end of the year, listen to our Used Car Buying Roundtable featuring:
Frank Knox, Chief Operating Officer at AutoAcquire AI
Charlie Spradlin, General Manager at Art Moehn Auto Group,
Rob Ruth, President / Owner at Bob Ruth Ford
Brooke English Guy, General Manager at Coastal Chevrolet Cadillac Nissan
— CDG
First time reading a CDG Newsletter?
Welcome to The Weekly, a roundup of the top five auto industry headlines of the week.
Toyota announces new pricing for 2027 RAV4, Tundra
Toyota’s 2027 RAV4 will be hitting dealers’ lots this fall with a starting price of $32,300 for the front-wheel-drive hybrid, one of nine trims this year for its top-selling model.
The automaker also announced Thursday pricing and options for its full-size pickup, the Tundra.
The RAV4 finished October with a brand-leading 39,888 units sold and is at 293,552 units for the year.
Bottom line: Toyota is starting delivery soon of the 2027 models of two of its top-performing vehicles, the RAV4 and the Tundra. They will arrive as the brand comes off its top October for sales.
Used EV prices climb 9.8% since last September, double rate of hybrids
Although used EV prices have dipped slightly in the last three months, they're up nearly 10% year over year.
And with gas prices remaining elevated, used EVs are also selling faster than ICE vehicles on average.
Driving the news: Analyzing data from more than 1.5 million used vehicles between 1 and 5 years old, iSeeCars found that used EV prices are up 9.8% (or $2,896) from September 2025 to $32,533 this September.
That jump is exactly double the 4.9% increase for used hybrids. Used ICE vehicles are up by just 0.3% in price over the same period.
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Penske leads publics with GPU of $4,158 on new vehicles
Amid its move to a private corporation through its merger with Mitsui & Co., the Penske Automotive Group led the other five top public auto groups in third-quarter gross profit per unit for new and used sales.
Stephens, Inc., published its compilation of sales data for Lithia Motors, Penske, AutoNation, Group 1 Automotive, Asbury Automotive Group and Sonic Automotive for the third quarter.
Lithia, with its 471 stores, led all the publics in revenue with $9.9 billion, a 3% increase from the third quarter of 2025. Penske finished at $8.4 billion, AutoNation $7 billion, Group 1 $5.3 billion, Asbury $4.4 billion, and Sonic $3.9 billion, a record quarter.
Hyundai, Kia, Toyota set sales records in October
Hyundai, Kia, and Toyota brands turned in record October sales, capitalizing on consumers looking for hybrid options.
Driving the news: Overall October sales estimates ranged from JD Power’s seasonally adjusted annual rate of 15.6 million to Cox Automotive’s SAAR of 16.1 million.
Cox Automotive put the sales volume at 1.38 million for the month, a 3.6% increase from September and a 7.2% jump from October 2025.
Bottom line: October was a strong month for several automakers offering affordable and hybrid options. Overall, the market remained resilient again.
Ford Escape, Jeep Wagoneer stand alone as affordable options in 2022 SUV categories
Among five-year-old compact SUVs, the Ford Escape stood alone on affordability and the number of original owners still owning the vehicle. The same for the 2022 Jeep Wagoneer in the full-size category.
Driving the news: New research from CARFAX looked at the affordable options among 5-year-old SUVs, looking for those under its affordable ceiling, and matched those with the vehicles that had the highest percentage of original owners.
SUVs have the largest share of the used market, making up collectively between the different segments, around 50%, during the third quarter, according to Catalyst IQ data. CARFAX, in the study, featured subcompact, compact, midsize, full-size, luxury subcompact, luxury compact, luxury midsize, and luxury full-size SUVs.
