The Auto Market Brief

New inflation readings, geopolitical uncertainty, and lingering tariff pressure continue to cloud the economic outlook, but the auto market is proving more resilient than the headlines suggest.

From inflation reading timing and consumer income dynamics to tightening used supply and disciplined OEM strategies, this episode unpacks why rising uncertainty has not yet translated into market disruption and what that means as the industry moves deeper into the second quarter of the year:

Inflation signals, timing, and economic context:
Recent CPI and PCE data point to ongoing inflation pressure, but differences in timing and composition matter. Erin Keating and Jeremy Robb explain why headline inflation can feel more alarming than the underlying trend, and how consumers and markets are still adjusting rather than reacting.

Consumer behavior, credit access, and market resilience:
Despite softer income growth and economic strain, vehicle demand remains relatively steady. The discussion explores how tax refunds, seasonal sales patterns, and improving credit availability are supporting transaction activity, even as affordability challenges persist.

OEM discipline, inventory dynamics, and industry strategy:
Tight used‑vehicle supply, firm wholesale pricing, and measured incentive activity signal an industry recalibrating around margin discipline and realistic growth. Insights from New York Auto Forum and the New York Auto Show reinforce how automakers are prioritizing affordability, hybrid momentum, and disciplined capital deployment in an uncertain policy and cost environment.

The Auto Market Brief delivers timely data, clear context, and practical insight to help industry leaders make smarter decisions—what’s happening now, and what’s coming next.

The Auto Market Brief is powered by Cox Automotive. For more industry insights and expert perspectives, visit our Insights Hub at https://www.coxautoinc.com/insights.

Creators and Guests

Host
Erin Keating
Erin Keating is an Executive Analyst and Senior Director of Economic and Industry Insights at Cox Automotive. She brings 30 years of professional experience, including 14 years in the automotive industry, providing analysis on market conditions, automaker performance, and consumer demand shaping the economics of the new-vehicle market. Erin spent 10 years with Audi of America, including leading Audi Motorsport North America, informing her perspective on both commercial strategy and competitive dynamics.
Guest
Jeremy Robb
As chief economist at Cox Automotive, Jeremy Robb oversees the enterprise-level economic outlook, monthly forecasts, client advisory, media briefings and the strategic integration of data from the company’s extensive retail and wholesale platforms. Jeremy leads Cox Automotive's Economic and Industry Insights team, working directly with clients and executive leaders in sales, strategy and finance. He draws on his background helping companies consume data and insights to make better business decisions. He has been focused on finance and strategy for large corporations in the financial services and automotive industry for the past 20 years. Jeremy joined Cox Automotive in 2018 after spending 6 years at Nissan where he led functions in finance and remarketing.

What is The Auto Market Brief?

The Auto Market Brief, powered by Cox Automotive, breaks down the latest trends and forecasts shaping the automotive industry. The show is hosted by Cox Automotive Executive Analyst Erin Keating, coupling years of experience translating data and trends with the data and industry insights of the largest automotive services and technology provider.

Joined by other Cox Automotive experts and outside guests, you’ll get data-driven insights and industry outlooks from some of the industry’s leading voices.​

Erin Keating:

Welcome to The Auto Market Brief from Cox Automotive. Each episode, our experts and special guests break down the latest trends, insights, and news shaping the automotive market. We'll give you the information that truly matters so you can make smarter decisions and drive your business forward. Hello, and welcome back to The Auto Market Brief. This week, we'll start with a timely read on the economy and the auto market as a full slate of new data points came in just days apart.

Erin Keating:

We welcome chief economist Jeremy Robb back. As usual, Jeremy will walk us through fresh inflation and GDP readings, what we're seeing in the consumer income, spending, credit availability, and why the timing of this data matters, particularly as broader geopolitical dynamics continue to evolve. This is something we continue to discuss that everything looks like it's a little bit crazy, but the auto market is presumably functioning as we expect for this time of year. And so, Jeremy, let's dive right in. You also just did the Manheim movie quarter one call.

Erin Keating:

So there's a couple interesting things happening in wholesale and used, which is what we always expect at this time of year. I'll wrap up the episode, just talk about New York Auto Show last week and a couple highlights from there. But let's jump in. Jeremy, macroeconomics. Why does it all seem crazy, but it is acting kinda normal?

Erin Keating:

Yeah. What are you seeing? It's a

Jeremy Robb:

good question. Everyone's expecting it to be kind of crazy. And if anything, if it's crazy, especially of the wholesale markets at Manheim, we talked about the MUVVI, it's crazy to the upside. And a lot of it's still driven by tax refunds that are pretty positive. But to your point, we got some data this week.

Jeremy Robb:

Several data points, some that just came out later in the week, some earlier on pricing. Right? And specifically, like, some of the prices that the Federal Reserve watches, their their preferred inflation indicators called the PCE deflator. That was up 0.4%, but that was a reading from February. That's why we talk about the timing matters.

Jeremy Robb:

Was still on a year over year basis, it was up 2.8%, so that's closer to three than the 2% rate. Goods prices were really the primary source of upward pressure there. Energy prices rose a little bit there too, but we weren't yet into the March timeframe. So that mattered. And then things like personal income and we saw things.

Jeremy Robb:

So personal income was actually down in the month of February. And that was pretty surprising to a lot of people, especially because of tax refund season to see that personal personal income being down and then personal expense being up. Those two things going in a different direction aren't necessarily great for consumers overall. But then later in the week, something really interesting that we got is the CPI reading, that came out. And the headline number was up 0.9% in March alone.

Jeremy Robb:

Obviously, that includes the price of gasoline, energy costs, and things that we know were impacted by the Middle East Conflict. If you strip out what happened there, the core CPI was only up 0.2, but it's still running up 2.6% year over year. So pretty strong reading for that. And that's what's going to get people, you know, a little bit more worried moving forward.

Erin Keating:

And which inflation remind me which inflation numbers specifically the Fed's paying attention to? Because I believe that's PCE, not CPI. Right? And we're using a lot of acronyms. So maybe let's make sure we know level set people.

Erin Keating:

What's CPI in PCE?

Jeremy Robb:

CPI is the consumer price index, and it's a pretty broad measure that that is readily cited across economic landscape in The United States in terms of measuring consumer prices. There's also an indicator called the producer prices in tech index, which isn't out yet. We're not talking about, but that's PPI. And then there's PCE or the PCE deflator that stands for personal consumption expenditures. It is more detailed.

Jeremy Robb:

It takes more time to get all that data put into place. Components of the CPI become part of what drives the PCE. So that's why it is more in arrears. So we got data this week on the PCE and on personal consumption and expenditures and the savings rate and incomes and all of that, but it's more detailed. So it's a reading from February, even though the CPI reading is a reading from March.

Erin Keating:

Right. Exactly. And we we want to pay attention to the difference there because of course the conflict started at the end very February So into you're keeping an

Jeremy Robb:

eye it. That's why the timing matters the most, you know. So but, know, let's dive in a little bit more like the reading. Some of the stuff you get on the when the PCE comes out, even though it's a little bit in arrears, you know, it gives you some good information. You think about personal expense, was up 0.5% month over month in the month of February, but then pricing was up 0.4%.

Jeremy Robb:

So real adjusted for pricing, price growth or consumption growth was only up 0.1%. And that's pretty low. You know, it's it's not a big move, especially for being tax refund season and thinking consumers would spend more money. And that was February before the impact in The Middle East came out. So that matters a lot too.

Jeremy Robb:

We saw the disposable incomes were down 0.5% in February. So that's not a a good read either. And I think that's the first time we've seen a negative month over month read since May. So, you know, that's been going in the right direction and that kind of reverse course for us there. So and then personal savings rates slipped to about 4% from four and a half percent in January too.

Jeremy Robb:

So some of the things that happened with all this are pretty interesting. Like, we talk we've talked a lot. There's a lot of weather impacts in late January and February. Part of what drove personal consumption expense higher, we saw is a higher reading in in automotive sales from the month of February. So back into our world here at Cox Automotive.

Erin Keating:

Right. And so just out of curiosity, do you have any theories on why personal income would have dipped? Would that have also been maybe weather related people not being able to get to work or whatnot? Or is this something that you're just kinda monitoring for now?

Jeremy Robb:

You know, the citation from the report was there's lower dividend income, you know, that so that comes into income, a drop in government transfer receipts, and then in, you know, weak employee compensation growth. And we you know, the jobs market for February showed that it was negative, you know, so maybe all that comes into play, but I I don't really have anything outside of that. Think we'll

Erin Keating:

keep an eye on it.

Jeremy Robb:

That's Yeah.

Erin Keating:

Luckily, we're here every two weeks, so you can fill us in if something, comes up between now and and the next time that we speak. Yeah. So what about credit availability? Because I know that that continues to be a a big topic and and I think generally going in a positive direction for consumers. Or no?

Jeremy Robb:

Have you Credit reduced availability, which we released, you know, the the report just recently, rose to a 102.4 for our index overall. That's the highest reading since June 2022. So, you know, pretty good reading there. We saw increases in approval rates in subprime share, in negative equity. That might sound weird.

Jeremy Robb:

We talk about this sometimes, but that's one of the reasons the credit availability index is moving higher is because we've got higher subprime share, higher negative equity being financed. And it's showing that lenders are willing to, you know, finance consumers that have that. And that's a growth thing. So that's good from a economic activity standpoint, especially we don't measure that. We only measure it in the automotive index.

Jeremy Robb:

Right? But if if you could do the same thing and it showed you the same thing for larger components like housing or something like that, that could be even more impactful to the economy at large.

Erin Keating:

Right. It signals that we have the ability to grow because consumers are being given that ability to borrow.

Jeremy Robb:

Yeah. They're given the funding, you know, and that matters too. We talk sometimes about delinquency rates and default rates on loans. Those have been pretty high, But we're also at the peak of the year for that. We haven't seen the March data come in for that yet.

Jeremy Robb:

I'm I'm kinda anxiously awaiting to see where that happens because I I I would love to see it come down. But, you know, seeing that lenders are willing to grow in terms of expand credit to consumer types that may be a little bit more strapped is is beneficial for driving new transactions Sure. For automotive.

Erin Keating:

Exactly. It's exactly what dealers want to hear. Give me the ability to get more people into cars through better loan terms and or at least just more expanded lending. So that's great news. So this week, of course, you did our movie quarter one call.

Erin Keating:

And so just as a reminder to anyone listening, we do, always make sure that these are available. The recordings of these and the documentation from them are available on our website at coxautoinc.com into the insight section. But give us the highlights because there's some pretty good news there too.

Jeremy Robb:

Yeah. The that's the one thing and I, you know, I really like talking about used cars.

Erin Keating:

So No.

Jeremy Robb:

And I I it's been my world for a while.

Erin Keating:

It's great.

Jeremy Robb:

But the, you know, the Manheim index was really strong. It's up 6.2% year over year, pretty strong, through the March. Strongest level we've seen since kinda 2023. So so moving back, prices started moving higher really as soon as 2026 started this this year. We've seen that.

Jeremy Robb:

We've we've seen a lot of positivity. And one of the things that's surprising people, the EV index is actually more than the non EV index on a year over year basis right now. In some of our more minutiae data that we monitor, we've seen EV prices tick a little bit higher over the last couple of weeks too. And maybe some of that is driven from dealers' expectations that this higher gas price, Middle East conflict is going to drive more consumers to look into the used EV market. So and honestly, that would be great for the market because there's a lot more EVs coming back this year.

Erin Keating:

Right.

Jeremy Robb:

So that's, that's my main takeaway is prices are have been pretty strong this year. They've started to level out a little bit, but they're not they're leveling out does not mean coming down this week. And demand looks pretty good. And this the underlying dynamics and what's happening in the EV space, I think, are are just so critical this year alone. We've built out a lot more data points, slides, things like that, talking points about it.

Jeremy Robb:

So if anybody hasn't seen that, I would encourage them to go look and listen. And, we'll we'll keep monitoring that and probably figuring out some more things to show on that front too.

Erin Keating:

Right. I mean, it's everyone thought that once the credits went away, we would never be talking about EVs again and little did they know. You know, the used story is definitely a story and it's good because I think it keeps us focused on a powertrain and it is going to continue to be a part the story. Right? So, I mean, flipping to new, what are you seeing in new car pricing and inventory that's and how is that sort of holding up against used?

Jeremy Robb:

Yeah. So there's there's more inventory out there on the the new car side. The it's it's definitely if we look at, like, day supply on the new car side, it's been coming down. It's still I think it's up 7% year over year for, like, the most recent data point that we have, but we're at we're at the top like, sales have been moving up. Today's supply has been coming down a little bit.

Jeremy Robb:

On the used side, it's a lot tighter. The U used day supply is about thirty seven days, and used unit inventory levels were the lowest we have on record at Cox Automotive. So we think about the wholesale markets, the used market, it's pretty tight. I say this a lot. I think the new market is just more and more of an upper end market.

Jeremy Robb:

We keep seeing people trade down. That puts more more pressure on pricing, on supply, on demand, on the used car market with prices where they are and and all the things with tariffs, you know, pulling away different cars. So but the the new car market, as you know, right, we are about to start to anniversary some some pretty strong comps on a year over year basis from last year with the And when we start talking in May and June about what's going on, I would expect that we're seeing maybe a little bit rougher of a year over year what we're talking about new car side.

Erin Keating:

Yeah. No, that's good to remember is that, for everyone listening is that last year, again, was a roller coaster year. We saw numbers, really be pulled forward in the March, April timeframe. We saw that again happen in what the July, August, September run up to the October credits expiring. And so just for everyone to remember, year over year is important, but keep an eye on the game, and we'll try to keep you honest on what's how it really feels even if the year over year number feels very big, maybe in months where we had a dip when we previously wouldn't have expected one or where we had an increase where we wouldn't have expected one.

Erin Keating:

We have to kinda even that out, I guess. Hopefully, this year, we won't be saying the same thing as last year where every month we're off by 20%, but we end up where we're supposed to be. Hopefully, it's not that volatile, but

Jeremy Robb:

I hope so. Yeah.

Erin Keating:

Yeah. Any winners or losers that you wanted to know in the new the new car space? I certainly know what I was keeping an eye on, but didn't know if you had any thoughts.

Jeremy Robb:

No. You know, that I'd as the chief economist here, I have a pretty macro view of things, but I do think it's important to note out that incentives were up just a little bit on a percentage basis, but they're not much. So even in the environment that we're in with a lot of m MSRP is being a lot higher kind of like year over year from tariffs and things like that, you know, we've not seen a a huge pickup in, like, incentives right now. And I and I think that just tells you that the industry dealers, everybody, they're trying to hold for margin because they got they got hit a little bit last year.

Erin Keating:

Absolutely. I'd agree with you. Yeah. And and again, Hyundai and Kia continue to really be I think they were one of the I've I've not been looking at the data all week because I've actually been on vacation, but I believe they were some of the few that did actually see a sales increase, whereas, like, Toyota was down a little bit, and people would typically expect them to keep running at a high pace. But I will tell you that, you know, I'll certainly catch everybody up on what happened in the Eric Auto Show, it was certainly a Hyundai Kia story anyway.

Erin Keating:

So maybe that makes sense that that's, why we are seeing them continuing to be successful, but they've really got the gamut of the portfolio and new car sales. To your point, I think automakers more than ever are trying to just hold that pricing discipline, hold that production discipline Yeah. And and keep the market where it is as opposed to trying to test boundaries right now.

Jeremy Robb:

And they're, you know, one thing I've noted out lately too, they are are making a lot more hybrids. Like the Yes. If we back into the production rates in our data, EVs down a lot year over year, plug in EVs, we're like, we expect that. ICE is up, I think 35 ish percent and hybrids running up about 40%.

Erin Keating:

Absolutely.

Jeremy Robb:

So, you know, we know that's a hot part of the market. Be interesting to see like where they take it, you know?

Erin Keating:

Yeah. I do think we'll probably see more hybrids in it and maybe that, you know, in months in the future when we look back on this time because the Middle East crisis is bringing so much attention to gas prices and such, and yet we're not seeing all that uncertainty really kill the The US sales, new vehicle market that perhaps part of it is because people have really gotten accustomed to really efficient powertrains. And even if they're not choosing EVs, hybrids are to your point, they're surging. And so maybe gas prices just aren't as harmful to people's wallets as they used to be. Yeah.

Erin Keating:

Don't wanna sound ignorant, certainly, there's plenty of people out there that are certainly being challenged by gas prices. But we have really crazy efficient cars now. So considering. Yeah. At least if you compare the last time we had a gas price.

Jeremy Robb:

Yeah. And gas prices, they to your point, like they they may not affect the consumer directly in terms of driving to work or things like that quite as much as they did before. They do affect all your delivery Oh, costs and yeah. Airline fees and all that jazz. So

Erin Keating:

Yeah. Exactly. Maybe we'll make you put your Amazon shopping list all in one cart instead of just ordering 17 different packages. Is that is yeah. Are you doing that in your family?

Jeremy Robb:

Bulk buy.

Erin Keating:

Buy. Exactly. Jeremy, as always, really appreciate that macro picture. Appreciate you being here. I know a lot's going on right now.

Erin Keating:

New data's hitting us every every day, but look forward to seeing where all this shakes out in two weeks.

Jeremy Robb:

Thanks for Good to talk to you again.

Erin Keating:

This week, I wanna tie together a couple of things that I've been watching closely, especially as of last week, which would have been the week of the New York Auto Show. So March 30, thirty first, April 1, April 2, these were the pre events for the New York Auto Show, which was the, Auto Forum New York, which is an event where a lot of industry perspectives come into play. And then the, press days for the New York Auto Show were April 1 and April 2. So just to kind of recap on what we were seeing there, I will tell you that if I zoom out, the messaging basically says they were all remarkably consistent, and the industry really isn't that volatile right now. It's really re anchoring to a couple of key dominant themes.

Erin Keating:

With the Auto Forum New York, the dominant theme really wasn't recession fear or demand collapse. It was just everyone was talking about, like, structural recalibration. You know, the consensus across all the economists and the OEMs, the dealers, the lenders, everything is that The US auto market has basically just settled into a lower volume, higher value equilibrium. And importantly, that the industry is okay with that, and we sort of were just talking about that with Jeremy and I saying, you know, we there's not there's a lot of good production discipline being held by the OEMs, and they are willing to sacrifice some margin discipline if it means that we keep volume where we are as opposed to chasing volume with higher incentives and trying to just overproduce for the industry. There was some headline, you know, challenges seen and some headwinds for the industry from the auto forum, similar to what Jeremy was talking about as far as the macro conditions, they seemingly have us feeling uncertain, but they don't necessarily translate into what's happening into the auto market industry just yet.

Erin Keating:

So it remains that we're all keeping an eye on what the temperature is from a geopolitical standpoint and what that means in the macroeconomic conditions. Everyone's keeping an eye on that. But yet people are still cautiously optimistic that the industry is gonna perform decently this year. If nothing else, stay on pace with where we had where we saw sales last year. Electrification, everyone was really talking about how we're just accepting that electrification is now an alternative powertrain to the portfolio.

Erin Keating:

Yes, there was an overshot there on regulatory requirements, and the industry is having to reset around all of that. One key thing that was brought up actually that I felt was fair from senator Bernie Moreno was saying, hey, let's not turn AVs, so autonomous vehicles, into EVs. So as we're realizing EVs got pushed into the market, that there was a lot of regulatory framework around it that complicated both the mathematics for, you know, OEMs to figure through and created a bunch of headwinds from a financial perspective for the industry. Let's not do that with autonomous vehicles too because autonomous vehicles are now becoming the new thing, the new technology. Well, the new old, I should say, technology that we all wanna discuss.

Erin Keating:

So let's do it with some apprehension towards over regulating it or requiring certain things without really thinking through how is it going to have a long term impact. And most importantly, what is the consumer adaption going to be and appetite for it. So a lot of acknowledgment of just let's not flip the story to the newest thing we want to talk about, and let's not overcomplicate the automotive industry right now. The last thing, of course, that came up was China. A lot of companies still thinking what's gonna happen with China.

Erin Keating:

So, you know, we know that several senators have gone forward and congressmen have gone forward to say, please do not let Chinese automakers come into the country, especially that we know that Canada had started to allow by quota Chinese vehicles being brought there. So there's some significant work being done by NADA, the Automotive Alliance, and certainly Senator Bernie Moreno was talking about how we really need to be mindful of keeping Chinese automakers out of The US. So I think that's still a long term proposition that people are considering as possible, but certainly a lot of focus on trying to make sure that that doesn't happen in the near term. If we turn over to what happened at the New York Auto Show, you know, auto shows have drastically changed over the last ten years. Anyone that's in the industry knows that when you go to an auto show now, you are seeing just a very different thing than you saw ten years ago.

Erin Keating:

It's just the amount of money, which automakers are there. The fact that even automakers find it to be an option to maybe not show up in full form in an auto show is just very different from the industry of past. But one automaker group that has been, you know, continuously using auto shows to stay relevant in the market has been the Korean group of the Hyundai Motor Group. So it's Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis. They continue to leverage these auto shows, whether it's LA, New York, etcetera, to really have a presence, and they didn't disappoint this time.

Erin Keating:

So, Hyundai brought out a concept, the Boulder concept. It was their clearest signal where they were saying, hey, we are very plainly going to be looking at body on frame trucks and rugged SUVs. We know they matter in The US. It's been a long dated play for us. And strategically, we really think that it's time to start shifting capital that way.

Erin Keating:

So they were a little bit cagey on exactly what that means for when it's gonna come out, when what we're specifically going to see, what powertrain was going to be. Underneath it, they were clearly making a statement that, hey, we want to make a foray into the segment. And what I think is important about that when we were talking about sales, new vehicle sales, Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis arguably continue to tick up in sales. And this is just one more sign that they see it is relevant to make sure that you have a car that's available in every segment that a consumer wants to go searching in. And so those big brands that can accommodate the industry from all you know, from down to the sedan all the way up to a pickup truck or a rugged SUV to a three wheel SUV to the compact SUV, etcetera, etcetera.

Erin Keating:

So that was sort of the clearest signals we were seeing. Kia, again, also arguably stole the show from a consumer standpoint as far as having just really pragmatic solutions being delivered. So the redesigned Seltos, it's now larger. It has a hybrid option, sort of positions it as that mini Telluride, exactly right where the market demand is. Then they also showed the EV three, which shows that they are trying to make sure they get get, take care of that EV affordability story without having to go upmarket.

Erin Keating:

So they're just really being smart about what they're bringing. Even the PV five van concept, thinking through how Kia can play in the fleet space without being too flashy or too disruptive into the market, really tells us that Hyundai and Kia are focused on continuing to break through The US market. And Genesis, again, came out swinging from a luxury performance perspective, showing this beautiful new wagon. So they're they're also really trying to stay relevant and and use the one last experiential sort of component of the automotive industry, these auto shows. So that was really pretty cool.

Erin Keating:

The other things that we saw there, you know, Subaru did bring out a a new electric getaway, which is a family oriented utility focused vehicle. The Forester Hybrid was reinforced and talking about how that sort of really fits with the brand DNA and customer expectations. Volkswagen refreshed their Atlas. That was a good thing. It was a good looking car if you ask me.

Erin Keating:

You know, that's a strong segment for them, the the three year SUV. We did see Nissan actually bring out some technology, so they're continuing to try to leverage the show. But overall, there was nothing earth shattering. It was more that the manufacturers that were there understand the assignment. Make sure that you have vehicles that are available in the key segments that consumers are looking for.

Erin Keating:

Make them fresh, make them relevant, and make sure that your consumers know about them. So no one's doing it better than the Koreans, if you ask my opinion right now as far as leveraging the New York or any auto show for that matter. Last that I kinda just wanted to make sure that we wrapped up on was tariffs because, this, you know, I think will continually be a topic of discussion for us for the rest of eternity as far as I'm concerned. We did hear a couple of things in the news. I just wanna clarify.

Erin Keating:

We did hear that steel and aluminum were changed around. The tariffs on those were changed around. It was really more about where they're where you're actually getting hit with the pricing. The bottom line here is that they did not go away. The material cost impact is still there for most manufacturers.

Erin Keating:

There was no expansion in the tariffs. It was just more in how they're going to be calculated. And so OEMs are going to be subjected to, you know, less complicated ways of accounting for the metals, but still going to be exposed to the tariffs of the metals. And then, of course, we did have the EU say, wait, we're gonna pause on ratifying our trade agreement with you, which, of course, could impact the German manufacturers, and that's a real big concern for the industry right now, and that's all tied to sort of the geopolitical uncertainty right now. So we're waiting patiently to see what happens there, but for now, we believe that the tariffs are going to stay in place as listed.

Erin Keating:

And then, of course, there was a big threat from president Trump saying, hey, anyone who's supplying any munitions or weapons to Iran, we're gonna slap you with higher tariffs as well. Just to note, there was no countries mentioned there specifically that likely would you can infer that that's a China Russia thing that doesn't really impact the auto market. So we don't believe that that's gonna be a big impact directly to the auto market. But, of course, again, any of these types of things that are out there will continue to breed uncertainty. Again, most manufacturers, I think, are really laser focused on USMCA right now and just trying to make sure that that deal goes through to their benefit.

Erin Keating:

And so we're listening carefully for what's happening in those negotiations, but we're keeping an eye on and a pulse on what's happening with the other tariff announcements. So stay tuned for more details or if anything changes between now and the next time we we come to you here, but wanted to make sure we touched on that because some of those were brought up and could scare people away of what's happening in the auto industry specific. So keep an eye out on what happens with the EU agreement, and do they go ahead and ratify it because that is important for the German manufacturer specifically. And then let's just keep an ear to the ground on what's going on with USMCA. So if you tie it all together, the story is actually pretty coherent.

Erin Keating:

You know, again, the Auto Forum New York told us that the industry is re anchoring around discipline and affordability. This sounds very much like in line with the conversation that Jeremy and I had earlier in the show. Auto Show showed us that, you know, automakers are being smart about product strategies, that they're aligning with this reset. The tariff environment explains why the OEMs are prioritizing those hybrid utility localization over big bets right now. And so nothing's going backward.

Erin Keating:

We are just trying to build a market that works, you know, for consumers, dealers, and manufacturers alike in a world where capital is more expensive and policy risk is just really no longer theoretical. It's something you have to consider on a day to day basis. We appreciate you joining us here on the Auto Market Brief as usual. Please make sure to always check-in at coxautoinc.com in the insights section. That is where you'll find the replays of all of our major calls like we mentioned today, the MUVVI call, any of the documentation behind those calls as well.

Erin Keating:

And we look forward to talking with you in another two weeks and perhaps with some episodes in between. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining us on this episode of the Auto Market Brief. To stay up to date with all the latest news and perspectives from our team of experts, be sure to visit our insights hub at coxautoinc.com.