The Morning Drive to you
Used values are slipping. Buy the car, not last month's market.
The Morning Drive
Florida dealer intelligence. Every weekday.
Tuesday, October 6, 2026 · 4-minute read
Good morning. Hope your week is off to a good start. If your day is already bouncing between an appraisal, a sales meeting and an open position in service, this one's for you. Today, we're digging into smarter buying, the hybrid sales picture and a different way to recruit technicians. We're also looking at a dealership fraud case and the customer wait that can spoil an otherwise good deal. Let's get into it.
The Business Office
The deal was easy. The wait wasn't.
CDK's October 1 report on September buyers found 39% said the process took longer than expected, up from 33% in August. Just 64% said the paperwork was easy, versus 68% a month earlier.
Where does your customer stop moving after agreeing to buy? Consider timing the sales-to-F&I handoff and the wait for delivery, then decide who owns each gap. A friendly salesperson cannot make a silent hour in the waiting area disappear.
Case Watch
The customer, the loan and the check didn't match
Lei Zhou received a 42-month sentence on September 23 in Connecticut federal court. DOJ described a scheme involving at least six luxury vehicles worth more than $650,000 from a Greenwich dealership.
For your business office: do the applicant, identity documents and payment source tell a consistent story? Decide who can stop delivery when they do not.
The Big Picture
Buy the car, not last month's market
The Morning Drive / Used-vehicle values
−3.1%
Month over month
−3.3% year over year
The mix matters. Full-size pickups, minivans, midsize cars and full-size crossovers/SUVs were among the larger decliners; sporty cars were the only segment to increase month over month.
One useful question for the used-car meeting: if this vehicle arrived today, would we still buy it at our current all-in cost?
Dealer Operations
The hybrid story now has an industrywide scorecard
The Morning Drive / The hybrid picture
15.6%Share of U.S. new light-vehicle sales
+22.4%Sales growth, year over year
Compare demand by model, trim and payment range. Then check whether your team can explain the difference between a conventional hybrid, a plug-in hybrid and a battery-electric vehicle without turning the conversation into a specifications quiz.
The Service Lane
Recruiting is one option. Building the pipeline is another.
Tom Wood Auto's fixed-operations director Bill Demaree said its training program has 33 students and a waiting list, with enrollment expected to reach 50 to 60 next year.
Before approaching a local school, identify the mentor, the skills progression and the person responsible for making paid work experience useful. A recruiting promise needs an operating plan behind it.