The California New Car Dealers Association has officially demanded that Honda and its Sony Honda Mobility division stop collecting deposits for the Afeela 1 EV from California residents. +

Spectrum Automotive Holdings has established May 19 as National Automotive Dealer Day via the National Days Archive. +

Lotlinx’s Len Short digs beneath the headlines to review a litany of first quarter auto retail and finance reports and distills them into four key points in his latest contribution to DealerELITE. +

Carvana increased sales by 46% year-over-year in the first quarter, moving 133,898 units and generating $4.2 billion in revenue, both all-time quarterly records, following a similarly positive Q4 report. +

Kelley Blue Book reports U.S. average transaction prices increased by 2.5% for new vehicles between March and April while Carfax finds used units enjoyed an unusually large “spring bounce.” +

U.S. and Chinese officials announced a 90-day pause on steep tariffs imposed upon each other’s exports, including vehicles and parts, in a sudden de-escalation that could lead to a long-term agreement. +

The United States and the United Kingdom have agreed to a new trade deal that will lower U.S. import taxes on up to 100,000 U.K.-built vehicles per year from 25% to 10%. +

Citing import tariffs, Ford has informed its U.S. dealers that MSRPs will increase by up to $2,000 per vehicle, effective May 2. The first affected units are expected to be delivered in June. +

Nissan will tie all dealer compensation to new vehicle sales targets starting June 3, dispensing with its current 20-metric program and standardizing spiffs, according to an Automotive News report. +

Lotlinx’s Lance Schafer attributes increased adoption of machine learning and predictive modeling to a growing desire for “better, faster business decisions” that affect inventory management and pricing. +