Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short.
Light, snappy, and short, TDS gathers the latest automotive news from around the globe and puts it all in one place. Stories are summarized in a single, sometimes long, sentence accompanied by a link for those seeking more information.
It’s been a long day attending the debut of the new Toyota GR GT, GR GT3, and Lexus LFA Concept here in Japan and it’s time for dinner. So let’s get into it.
🚙 President Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that lowering fuel economy standards could “allow” automakers to resume making station wagons like they did in the 1970s, though, he didn’t seem to mention whether there suddenly, and magically, would be demand for station wagons again.
🚌 The Federal Government is investigating why Waymo’s self-driving taxis have illegally passed school buses 19 times in Austin, Texas since the start of the school year.
🔋 Subaru said the 2026 Trailseeker will cost $41,445 and have up to 280 miles of range when it arrives in dealerships early next year.
🐏 Ram released a cringe-worthy ad for its new cologne that’s so bad it’s funny to the point of laughing out loud.
🌟 Kia’s Vision Meta Turismo concept looks like an electric Stinger from the future.
🇸🇦 Lucid said it will initially build its mid-size $50,000 Tesla Model Y fighter in Saudi Arabia, which would enable it to avoid the tariffs on the China-sourced components.
🏎️ Toyota will take over as the title sponsor for the Haas Formula 1 race team in 2026.
🤖 Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said the startup automaker’s next phase hinges on the smaller, less expensive R2 and autonomy, which he said will reshape the future auto industry by 2030.
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