shinymetalboxes

If you’re not advancing, you’re falling behind By Gary S. Vasilash Sometimes it is hard for people to see too far beyond not only where they are, but where they have been. And there is most certainly something to be said for heritage and authenticity, but aren’t we in a place—or at least aren’t Generations Z, Alpha and Beta in a place—where the present moment seems to be the most deserving of one’s attention? Let’s face it: You are reading this now.

By Gary S. Vasilash One of the things I find most concerning about the rhetoric against allowing Chinese vehicles into the U.S. market is that it generally points fingers at the Chinese government and then warns that the U.S. industry will be absolutely destroyed should the Chinese vehicles come rolling onto our shores. And that’s pretty much all that is said. The finger-pointing is the most troubling. Let’s assume someone forwarded this to you. Don’t you really want to get your own? For free?

By Gary S. Vasilash Last year Toyota sold 479,288 RAV4s in the US. That number alone doesn’t really mean a whole lot. So to put that into context: Last year Chevrolet sold 274,356 Equinoxes and 57,945 Equinox EVs. A total of 332,301 vehicles. Last year Ford sold 139,387 Escapes and 134,493 Bronco Sports. A total of 273,880. This means the sales of two models from Chevy combined are about 69% of the single compact SUV from Toyota. And the sales of two models from Ford combined are about 57% of the RAV4.

By Gary S. Vasilash While the tendency is to open “Racing legend Alex Zanardi died on May 1, at age 59,” it would be more appropriate to open “Amazing human being Alex Zandari. . . .” This one is atypical. Still, you may wish to subscribe if you haven’t. . . . Zanardi raced in Formula 1, participating in 41 Grands Prix. He moved to the American CART series (which morphed into IndyCar) and was champion in both 1997 and 1998. In 2001 IndyCar held a race at the EuroSpeedway in Lausitzring, Germany.

By Gary S. Vasilash A thing to know about investments automotive companies make in manufacturing operations: These are for the long run. Machine tools, material handling equipment, quality control systems, robots, tooling, and other things that are part and parcel of production can be costly, which means there needs to be a comparatively long lifespan in order to achieve a return-on-investment.

By Gary S. Vasilash “When you have a shock, like we did in ‘21, ’22, people have this set of prices still emblazoned in their head. I used to call it the “personal price vector,” which is this idea that we walk around knowing what the things we buy kind of cost. And when that gets shocked, you know, it’s really quite upsetting to folks, and it takes a while for them to acclimate. The question is, what do we mean by “a while”?

By Gary S. Vasilash As I started writing this on the morning of April 17 (a.k.a., last Friday) I saw a report from Reuters headlined “Brent crude tumbles to $90 a barrel, stocks and bonds jump after Iran says Strait of Hormuz is open.”All of which is good. But it needs to be put into some context, as in on February 27, the day before the U.S. and Israel started the campaign against Iran, Brent crude was at $72.48 per barrel. That’s about 24% less than the $90.

By Gary S. Vasilash Let’s face it: we all buy a lot more stuff than vehicles. And the prices of that stuff have an impact on whether or not we buy a new vehicle—to say nothing of the price of the vehicle in question itself. Which isn’t looking good, either from the perspective of the overall stuff or vehicles. There are some troubling numbers in this piece. But this is a good one: 0. What you can subscribe for.

By Gary S. Vasilash Although the first quarter of 2026 included a full month during which the US was at war in Iran—or in an “excursion” or “lovely stay” or whatever the president says it is—the likelihood that it had much of an effect on vehicle sales is small. For now. As is often pointed out, a vehicle purchase is, monetarily, second only to buying a house.

By Gary S. Vasilash During last week’s Cox Automotive Q1 2026 Industry Insights and Sales Forecast call, what was surprising is that the Cox economists seemed rather unsurprised about the current perceived roiling in the market that one might imagine would be caused by the sudden spike in gas prices caused by the war in Iran. Apparently, they’re not seeing a whole lot of evidence of much in the way of a change in terms of what’s actually happening in the market.