Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short, The Drive‘s daily news roundup that gathers the biggest automotive headlines from around the world.
The Downshift summarizes stories into a few sentences and peppers in links for those seeking more detail. August is officially in the rearview, so here’s your bulletin for Tuesday, September 1, 2026.
📉 Mazda enjoyed a string of very successful quarters after fully committing itself to SUVs, but that good fortune has seemingly started to wear out. President and CEO Masahiro Moro told a Japanese publication that the company is planning refreshes to its product line “on a scale unprecedented to date,” in an attempt to turn around a sales slide that’s been deepening for nearly two years. Mazda targeted global deliveries last year of 200,000 units, but only managed about 150,000. [Autoblog]
🔌 Ford is recalling just under 150,000 Mustangs, model years 2024 through 2026, for a fault with the ground connections for the engine-compartment wiring harness, leading to a risk of losing drive power or some other functions, like climate control, headlights, and windshield washing. Ford dealers will replace the ground terminals free of charge as part of the recall. [Reuters]
💸 Honda and Hyundai have released their August U.S. sales figures, with Honda up 1% and Hyundai down 1.7%. The auto market was predicted to slow last month, and Hyundai’s slight drop was in line with its expectations, citing a softening in deliveries at the beginning of the summer. [Automotive News]
🚙 Porsche is planning a new SUV targeted at U.S. buyers, larger than the Cayenne with three rows of seating, per a new report. This is not to be confused with the canceled, electric K1 SUV that it had been working on earlier in the decade; this new project may share the platform Audi is using for the new Q9. [Automotive News]
🌍 Genesis expects to enter four new European markets next year—Austria, Denmark, Poland, and Portugal. Hyundai’s luxury arm only entered France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands in 2026. [Automotive News]
🐏 While U.S. truck buyers still await Ram’s smaller pickup offerings, like the Dakota and Rampage, Brazil is getting a limited edition Rampage, called the Rebel Ignition, with exclusive Pacific Blue Metallic paint, and it looks good. The Rampage is currently built only in Brazil. [Mopar Insiders]
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