Almost buried amidst the bullet points for July sales was a surprising fact: after a 44-year run, the Ford F-150 lost its crown as the nation’s best-selling vehicle during the first half of 2026. Who’s toppled the king-of-the-hill? And can they maintain their lead for the full year? Headlight.News has more.
Automakers are coming under increasing pressure to move production to the U.S. – with hefty tariffs penalizing not only products imported from abroad but those built in the States using foreign parts. Which products are the most “American-made”? A new study finds Tesla and Jeep at the top of the list, though Japanese brands make up six of the top 10 spots, reports Headlight.News.
It’s a big week for automotive recalls – among the biggest, Jeep and Honda each are targeting more than 1 million vehicles due to safety defects. A potential fire risk has Jeep telling owners they should park their vehicles outside.Then there’s Ford which could soon set another recall record. Headlight.News has more.
Sales of new vehicles remained steady in May. But despite conventional wisdom that the battery-electric market is dying, buyers showed renewed interest in electrified models, including EVs and hybrids. Headlight.News has more.
Once given up for dead, the midsize pickup segment is booming — but faces a real battle as more players get set to enter the game. Get the story at Headlight.News.
Toyota’s scrapped plans for the LF-ZC, the sedan that was set to serve as the new Lexus flagship. The move, Toyota said, reflects “fluctuations in market demand and the workload associated with vehicle planning and manufacturing,” and marks a sharp turnaround in EV strategy by the Japanese automaker’s new CEO. More from Headlight.News.
Honda will temporarily idle production of its midsize Ridgeline pickup later this year, though it plans to relaunch the truck in new form for the 2028 model year. The automaker blames trouble meeting new emissions rules. But skeptics say the truck has failed to generate the sort of sales numbers the automaker had been hoping for. More from Headlight.News.
Honda reported its first loss in seven decades, largely due to major cuts in its EV program. But the automaker plans a major ramp-up of its hybrid line-up, its CEO revealed. Mazda is following a similar strategy, albeit on a smaller scale, as Headlight.News reports.
Hybrid sales set a record in April, accounting for about one in seven new vehicles sold by U.S. dealers – in the process helping prop up an otherwise weakening overall market. By year-end that could reach one in five, and it’s not just fuel prices driving the surge in hybrid demand. Headlight.News has more.
Car sales headed downward in April as gloomy economic news spawned by rising oil prices and higher inflation took the edge off the excitement of the traditional spring buying season. More from Headlight.News.
At a time when the typical buyer now spending around $50,000 to drive off the dealer lot, millions of American motorists are being forced out of the new vehicle market. Budget buyers could soon find their choices even more limited, however, depending upon negotiations to update the U.S. -Mexico-Canada Agreement. How that shakes out may lead a number of U.S. and foreign-owned automakers to drop their most affordable models.
Nissan is getting ready to roll out an all-new version of its best-selling product line. But it will be taking a big risk with the 2027 Nissan Rogue. It’s not just the fact that the compact SUV will be offered solely as a hybrid for at least the first year, but the fact that this will be Nissan’s all-new e-Power technology which takes a radically different approach from the hybrids currently on the road. Headlight.News has more.