Automotive News journalists Larry Vellequette and Michael Martinez discuss the past week’s biggest stories, including the state of the auto market at the halfway point of 2026, analyst John Murphy’s warning about a product pipeline slowdown, Polestar dealers reacting to the U.S. ban and how Ford pulled off one of the biggest initial quality turnarounds in recent memory.

June 27, 2027 | Weekend Drive: Midyear market outlook; Polestar U.S. ban

Automotive News Daily Drive

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Automotive News Daily Drive

## Participants

- **Jake Neer** (None)
- **Michael Martinez** (Automotive News)
- **Larry Veloquette** (Automotive News)
- **Michael Martinez** (Automotive News)
- **Larry Veloquette** (Automotive News)

## Transcript

This podcast is brought to you by Reynolds and Reynolds. There are three waves of AI transforming our industry. Explore what they are, where AI technology is headed, and what these emerging innovations mean for automotive retailers at rayray.com slash AI dash waves for more info. Welcome to this Weekend Drive edition of Daily Drive for the fourth week in June, 2026. I'm Jake Neer in Detroit, in for Kellen Walker.

Today on the show, the auto market is holding steady at the midpoint of 2026, but underneath the surface, a major share shift is underway that could knock GM off the top of the sales charts. A new report says the industry's product pipeline is thinning out fast, and the automakers that stay busy now will take market share from rivals going quiet.

Polestar dealers are reacting to the news that their brand is being forced out of the U.S., and the word coming back is devastated. And Ford just pulled off one of the biggest quality reversals in recent memory from 23rd three years ago to the top mass market brand in J.D. Power's IQS study. Joining me today to talk about all of this and more is Michael Martinez, who covers Ford in the UAW for us at Automotive News. Mike, great to have you on. Thanks, Jake.

And Larry Veloquette, who covers Toyota, Subaru and Mazda for us. Larry, great to have you on here. I'm sorry, I should say Larry Legend. Keep that keep that going here on Daily Drive. How are you doing, man? Good, Jake. How are you doing? I'm great. I'm great. It's great to be here with you guys. It's nice to see you in front of the curtain for once. There you go. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Larry, let's start with the big picture. We're getting close, at least to the very midpoint of 2026.

You wrote a sales preview for this midpoint. And I'm curious, you know, Cox Automotive's mid-year read on where things stand is pretty interesting. The headline number looks fine, but tell me what's happening underneath that number. So, yeah, the headline number, it looks like they're predicting about a 16.1 SAR for June, which would be, you know, fairly consistent for what it's been this year.

And that really is the surprising thing for all the turmoil that we're going through in the industry. Sales have largely stayed where they are. Now, the underlying subtext here is that underneath that top line number, there's a lot of movement. We are going to see some pretty large market share swings among the top automakers.

Hyundai-Kia continues to be hard charging, and they have a pretty good opportunity to finish ahead of Ford, which has stumbled this year because of the, as Mike can talk about, the loss of the Escape largely. Stellantis picked up market share for the first time sin...

June 27, 2027 | Weekend Drive: Midyear market outlook; Polestar U.S. ban

Transcript

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June 27, 2027 | Weekend Drive: Midyear market outlook; Polestar U.S. ban

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.