Japan's Toyota expects the effects of the Iran war to cost it about $4.3 billion this financial year, in one of the most significant warnings yet ‌by a global company on the wider impact of the conflict. The world's largest automaker reported an almost 50% drop in quarterly earnings on Friday and said full-year profit is expected to fall by a fifth in the year just started, as rising costs from the war outweigh surging demand for hybrid vehicles.

Source: Reuters

Rising costs are reshaping how customers approach car buying, and F&I leaders must adjust their strategies to keep pace. Affordability pressures are not reducing the need for protection products, according to Paul Brown, vice president of Ascent Dealer Services on the latest episode of F&I Today. Instead, it is making them more essential. Ultimately, Brown said F&I success in today’s market depends on moving away from a transactional mindset toward a consultative approach.

Source: CBT News

New data shows a sharp decline as coordinated efforts and security improvements take hold.

Your neighborhood social media feed might be filled with Ring camera videos of bad actors lurking around cars at night, but the data show that there actually fewer cars being stolen than in a long time. And it’s not a small drop.

Vehicle thefts in the United States fell sharply in 2025, reaching their lowest level in decades. This after the pandemic years saw a major surge in thefts.

According to data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), 659,880 vehicles were reported stolen nationwide last year, representing a 23 percent decline from 2024. That drop follows a 17% decrease in 2024, which at the time marked the largest single-year decline in 40 years, says the NICB.

Together, the back-to-back declines essentially erased the spike that peaked above one million annually during the early 2020s. Officials credit the turnaround to efforts across multiple sectors. “Coordinated prevention efforts by law enforcement, auto manufacturers, insurance companies, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau are having a major impact on vehicle thefts nationwide,” said NICB President and CEO David J. Glawe. Despite the rosy report, vehicle theft remains a significant issue. NICB noted that one vehicle is still stolen every 48 seconds in the United States, and thefts remain heavily concentrated in major metropolitan areas.

Model	2025 Theft Totals
Hyundai Elantra	21,732
Honda Accord	17,797
Hyundai Sonata	17,687
Chevrolet Silverado 1500	16,764
Honda Civic	12,725
Kia Optima	11,521
Ford F150	10,102
Toyota Camry	9,833
Honda CR-V	9,809
Nissan Altima	8,445

National Insurance Crime Bureau

Source: Autoweek

America’s next wave of car buyers is value-driven, SUV-focused, and still overwhelmingly committed to gas and hybrid vehicles, with digital platforms remaining the go-to research tool for shoppers, according to a new YouGov study. The details: The report, based on YouGov BrandIndex and consumer survey data, found that 15% of Americans are likely to purchase a car or truck within the next 12 months, led by millennials.

Source: Car Dealership Guy

General Motors (GM) said a new study conducted with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) found that advanced safety and driver-assistance technologies significantly reduced crashes and injuries in real-world driving conditions, reinforcing the automaker’s broader push toward safer vehicle platforms and expanded ADAS deployment. GM and the UMTRI analyzed approximately 12 million GM vehicles from model years 2020 to 2024 and matched them with over 700,000 police-reported crashes across 18 states.

Source: CBT News

The era of globalization and free-trade expansion is over, and few expect it to return. More than a year after President Donald Trump implemented tariffs at levels not seen in nearly a century, the future of automotive trade remains unclear, industry executives and analysts said. North American trade rules are in flux: A major review is scheduled for July, legal challenges to Trump’s tariffs continue and trade deals the U.S. struck with some allies appear fragile.

Source: Automotive News

New-vehicle prices rose again in April, just not by as much as usual. The average transaction price (ATP) reached $49,461, up 1.8% from a year ago and 0.7% from March. Long-term averages run closer to 3.6% annually. That’s according to the latest data from Kelley Blue Book. Prices have climbed steadily for a decade, peaking near $50,000 in early 2023. They have held just below that number ever since.

Source: CBT News

Nissan Motor projected it would swing back to net profit in the current fiscal year after reporting its seventh straight quarterly net loss. The Japanese carmaker said Wednesday that it posted a net loss of 282.9 billion yen, equivalent to $1.79 billion, for the three months ended March, compared with net loss of ¥676.0 billion in the year-earlier period.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Global demand for electric vehicles rose for a second straight month in April as high petrol prices kept steering buyers away from combustion-engine cars, data from consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence showed on ‌Wednesday. Registrations of new battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles rose 6% from a year earlier to 1.6 million in April, a proxy for sales, although they fell 9% from March's record monthly high, BMI said.

Source: Reuters

First-quarter data show automotive lenders “faced particularly difficult conditions.” Research by the American Financial Services Association found a drop in auto loan demand by high-income consumers as subprime demand rose. The disparity seems concerning since prime shoppers have helped buoy U.S. vehicle sales in an inflation-constrained market. The association's Consumer Credit Conditions Index, conducted in April, asked financing providers to share their views on current consumer-lending conditions and their six-month outlook.

Source: Auto Dealer Today

Honda on Thursday reported its first annual loss as a listed company—equivalent to $2.7 billion—and cited electric-vehicle losses equivalent to about $10 billion after giving up on its main EV plans in the U.S. Here is what went wrong and how the company hopes to turn its fortunes around. Honda has canceled plans for three electric cars it had said it would sell in the U.S.—a sport-utility vehicle, a sedan and a luxury Acura model.

Source: Wall Street Journal

But Price and Charging Availability Still Driving Many Away

Rising gas prices pushed more new-vehicle shoppers toward electric vehicles in April, even as purchase price became a bigger reason some walked away, according to new research from JD Power. The 2026 JD Power U.S. Electric Vehicle Consideration Study found 26% of new-vehicle shoppers were “very likely” to consider an EV in April, up 3 percentage points from March. The share calling an EV “very unlikely” dropped 4 points to 18% that same month.

Source: CBT News