Sales Numbers Are Bleak, Except For Cheaper, Smaller Cars That Aren't Built By American Car Companies

TGIF Morning Shifters, it's Friday, December 5, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift: Your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, all in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

Today's TMS is a blast from the past, with headlines that seem ripped from the glorious decade of the 1980s. Consumers are trending towards cheaper, imported vehicles, our executive branch is dreaming of a return to wagons, NHTSA is not thrilled with Waymo's actions in Texas, and Ford is recalling just under 109,000 cars for just kinda falling apart. Strap in kids, let's get at it. 

Our daily check in with the affordability crisis anyone with a brain saw coming years ago: yep, it's not good. Automotive News reports that new car sales this November are down overall by 6.3% over last year. Now that the rush of folks looking to act on the murdered EV tax credit are gone, EVs are being hit the hardest, but they are not alone. From Automotive News: 

Sales of most EVs declined significantly, continuing a recent trend. While the overall market fell for the second consecutive month, some brands such as Toyota and Kia posted modest gains driven by strong demand for hybrids and lower-priced models.

"People are looking for affordability right now," Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds, told Automotive News. "We know there's higher prices, interest rates are still high from a historical perspective, and that is kind of coming to roost at this point in the year where people are more deal-oriented. Folks that offer vehicles in that vein are doing quite well."

[...]

GlobalData said sales of small and midsize nonpremium utility vehicles were particularly strong in November, leading to market share increases, as share for large pickups fell.

Sales are down, but not for Toyota and Kia, which saw modest gains during this bleak sales month thanks to smaller, more affordable SUVs and CUVs. Toyota won with big SUVs as well, like the Grand Highlander and Sequoia. Will tariffs push these massive SUVs from a foreign automaker into the unaffordable range, leaving Americans with no other choice than to turn to U.S. automakers again? I highly doubt it, because when both options are unaffordable, people will tend to the higher quality, longer lasting vehicle. When it comes to durability, Toyota still holds the crown in many consumer's hearts and minds, not to mention how many Toyotas are now built in the U.S. 

So we are a country attempting protectionist policies in order to right the short-sighted business decisions of our industries while Japanese and Korean automakers clean up. Sounds familiar doesn't it? President Trump and his posse seems determined to send us back to the '80s in every way, shape and form. 

Speaking of a blast from the past; Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy thinks the only thing holding back a deluge of woody longroofs on American roadways were fuel efficiency standards. If only it were that easy, from Reuters:

"This rule will actually allow you to bring back the 1970s station wagon — maybe a little wood paneling on the side," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on CNBC. "We can bring back choice to consumers so yeah the minivan is awesome but maybe the station wagon is cool too."

The Transportation Department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in its proposal Wednesday that fuel economy regulations led manufacturers to reshape the market in unanticipated ways "such as by almost eliminating the production of station wagons."The Detroit Three automakers ended production of full-size station wagons in the mid-1990s but smaller wagons remained in production by U.S. automakers until 2008.

While we at Jalopnik feel your pain Duffy, and I hate to be the one to tell ya bud, but fuel efficiency standards aren't why we don't have station wagons in the U.S. Despite the alternate reality you and your boss live in, we still build gas guzzlers by the boat load. You can take a look at the sales numbers for any wagon brought to the U.S. in the past few decades and see why we don't have them here–they just don't sell. It's hilarious that Duffy thinks the American car buyer's option is between minivans (a body type also in fast decline) and station wagons. Talk about out of touch. 

Affordability is one thing, sure, but what about safety? Congress is convinced that automotive safety peaked in the 1980s (again with this damn decade) and automakers need to turn their focus on self-driving technology to improve the dire state of traffic deaths on U.S. roadways, but there's one thing self-driving cars are not good at–sudden traffic changes, like first responder vehicles or, as Texas is discovering, school bus stop signs. 

An investigation is underway in the Lone Star state over these pinnacles of safety blowing through those little fold out stop signs meant to prevent children from being creamed as they exit the school bus. While Texas likes to think it is special, this isn't just an issue in the U.S.'s second largest state, according to Reuters: 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a probe in October after an incident in Georgia in which a Waymo car did not remain stationary when approaching a school bus with its red lights flashing and stop arm deployed.

In a November 20 letter posted by NHTSA, the Austin Independent School District said five incidents occurred in November after Waymo said it had made software updates to resolve the issue and asked the company to halt operations around schools during pick-up and drop-off times until it could ensure the vehicles would not violate the law.

"We cannot allow Waymo to continue endangering our students while it attempts to implement a fix," a lawyer for the school district wrote, citing one incident involving a Waymo that was "recorded driving past a stopped school bus only moments after a student crossed in front of the vehicle, and while the student was still in the road."

Oh come on, can't kids just take one for the team in the name of technological progress? To be fair, self driving cars are still shown to be much safer than the human-driven counterpart. But failing to stop at school bus stops, as well as for police, fire and EMS vehicles, is the height of inappropriate and dangerous driving. Self-driving car companies had better wrangle this issue and fast. 

It's a day that ends in Y which means it's time for another Ford recall! This one involve 108,762 vehicles with improperly secured lift gates that could detach from the vehicles. This is generally regarded as something you do not want to happen. The defect affects 2020–2022 Escape and 2025 Escape models and dealerships will patch you right up if you have a faulty or missing part. 

As a little amuse bouche, Ford also recalled 12,000 2016-2019 Lincolns MKTs, also for detachable parts that should not detach. Forget affordability crisis, when are we gonna talk about the quality crisis? More blasts from our Malaise Era past.

The Civil Rights Era began right here on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. It took decades of selfless struggle and bravely facing sometimes fatal violence to make it even this far, and there is still so much work to do. 

If you think ditching fuel efficiency standards will bring back the station wagon, well, you might just believe in anything.