Have One Million Car Buyers Disappeared?

Issue #200

We’ve reached our 200th issue! Thank you for being with us through it all. We’ve learned a lot from you and hope you have learned from us! 

Here’s to another 200 issues, and many more. 

Today, we’re discussing how 1 million American car buyers have disappeared.

Or, you can continue to read by scrolling down.

Market News

• The Trump Administration wants 50% of cars sold in Mexico, Canada and the US to be “Made in America.” Here’s how these conditions have never existed before. 

• These are the 97 car dealers that had deceptive pricing, according to the Federal Trade Commission. 

• The Chinese-car ban could eliminate Mercedes-Benz from the US. Here’s how. 

• Honda pauses production on the Ridgeline until 2028. Here’s why. 

• Mitsubishi partners with Nissan to create its new mid-size pickup truck, which could use the Xterra as a base. You can read more about it here.

Safety and Recalls

• Honda recalls more than 100,000 vehicles because of a potentially deadly airbag issue. Here’s more. 

• Along the same lines, Jeep recalls 420,000 Grand Cherokee SUVs to fix faulty airbag sensors. Here’s more.

Car Culture

• Here’s how car crashes are 60% more dangerous for women, because of how the industry has tested crashes all along. 

• This new AC Cobra is truly the stuff of dreams, perhaps, even Caroll’s dream, as well. 

• A fake manual transmission can still stall, leaving you in a shameful moment of mockery. Here’s how Toyota did this. 

• It turns out that nobody likes the new Ferrari Luce EV, but the aftermarket kits are just as ugly. 

• The world is torn with Mazda’s new “green” color for the Miata. Here’s more.

Video Of The Week

These guys pit two legendary and depreciated sports cars, with one conclusion.

In The Know

In an ideal world, a car loan shouldn’t be too long. After all, it’s a depreciating asset, so the industry standard used to be, not too short, not too long. The problem is that these conditions vary over time.

For example, can you guess what would’ve been an alarming car loan “back in the day?”

As this article from the past highlights, there was panic because of how many people were taking out 60-month car loans. 55% of new car buyers opted for a five-year loan.

Today, a 60-month car loan is probably one of the best deals, and, as Edmunds puts it, it’s almost impossible to afford because of the interest rate. You can read more about it here.

If you want to see how car loan interest rates on 48-month loans have behaved since 1972, check out this cool chart.

However, the times of a 48-month car loan are long gone. New-car prices continue to rise, with the average price for a new car at $49,461, 1.8% higher than a year ago, as you can read here.

Buying a new car is a challenge for most American families, one they can only solve by taking out car loans that are growing longer and longer. 35% of American car buyers are opting for loans that are 72 months or more. This article explains how even 85-month loans are growing.

However, long, costly loans are only one of the many consequences of rising new-vehicle costs. Another, much more direct effect of these trying times is that some new car buyers are disappearing altogether.

All automakers with a presence in the US agree on one thing, as Gizmodo reports: many Americans won’t buy a new car anytime soon.

But, how many is “many” precisely?

One million.

That’s because Cox Automotive and S&P Global agree that US sales will be 15.8 million in 2026.

That’s 500,000 fewer vehicles than in 2025, and an astounding 1.3 million fewer than in 2019. Any way you look at it, it’s not looking great.

So, what can automakers do?

On one  side, not much, because there are plenty of outside factors. On the other hand, a lot. Offering a cheaper car is possible, and it seems that some automakers are listening to the buyers. Stellantis wants to bring a $30,000 car back to the US. GM is considering bringing back the sedan.

Ford promises to bring cheap EVs soon.

But that might be too little, too late, and this entire situation is actually highlighting something even worse.

At the beginning of the article, I asked you to think about what would have been an alarming car loan,, and I used the example of people panicking over 60-month loans. That was in 2006: two years before the 2008 Financial Crisis.