Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short.
TDS is your one-stop shop for all the auto industry headlines you need to know. Each one is summarized in a sentence or two, and you can follow links to dive deeper if you wish. This morning’s edition is coming in a little late as we’ve had a last-minute scheduling change here at The Drive, so hopefully you still have coffee in your mug to sip as you read it. Or, go get yourself a refill. Who’s gonna stop you?
Let’s get into it.
? What I’m driving: This week, I have a banana yellow 2025 Toyota Prius Nightshade loaner car to review. It’s been getting a lot of thumbs-ups from people in traffic!
? Lamborghini’s chief sales and marketing guy, Federico Foschini, told Autocar that the Italian automaker is looking to make more wild and wacky production cars like the off-road Sterrato, saying, “we don’t only want to upgrade, we want to surprise.”
? Online auto parts retailer RockAuto, a super-popular parts source for DIYers, plans to stop selling parts to customers in Arizona this November due to the state’s wacky tax and cybersecurity policies, per The Autopian.
? Mercedes-Benz is adding a Meetings for Teams app, native integration of Microsoft Intune, and Microsoft 365 Copilot to the CLA and GLC models so you can work on your commute (yay?), per Automotive News.
?️ Honda’s released an absolutely goregous and modestly priced retro-liveried CB350 motorcycle special edition that, unfortunately, it’s only selling in India for now, per Gear Patrol.
? People are once again debating who’s responsible for autonomous cars’ behavior after cops in California tried to ticket a driverless Waymo for an illegal U-turn, per The New York Times.
? Elon Musk is officially worth half a trillion dollars now, per Forbes.
? Meanwhile, everyone else is strapped for cash—new car downpayments have hit a four-year low, per Fox Business.
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Automotive journalist since 2013, Andrew primarily coordinates features, sponsored content, and multi-departmental initiatives at The Drive.
