Honda Wants To Bring Back The Crosstour

Happy Monday! It's July 27, 2026, and this is The Morning Shift — your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning's edition, we're looking at Honda's desire for a revived Crosstour, and Porsche's new round of job cuts. We'll also look at Waymo ending things with Uber, and Audi's plans for the rest of 2026. 

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Remember the Honda Accord Crosstour? Yeah, you and about eight other people. Honda thinks the car may have just been ahead of its time, though, and now it sounds like the company wants to bring it back. From Automotive News: 

Honda is considering a lifted Accord hatchback that would offer more utility, a higher driving position and cargo versatility for a sedan-like price.

The midsize model, called the "Accord SUV" in a Honda planning document, is expected to enter production in mid-2029, potentially in Marysville, Ohio, a person with knowledge of the plan told Automotive News.

The vehicle would arrive alongside a redesigned Accord sedan. Both versions of the nameplate would feature Honda's next-generation hybrid powertrain.

I had a high school classmate whose mom had a Crosstour. It sure was a car. I wonder if Honda will bring the name back, given the popularity of the similarly named Crosstrek. 

Porsche, as with every other Volkswagen brand, seems interested in shrinking. The company recently announced plans to cut 5,000 jobs, and now that plan is official — though the company doesn't actually want to fire anyone. From Porsche: 

Socially responsible reduction of a further 5,000 jobs by 2035, largely through natural attrition, demographic effects, the expansion of the special partial retirement programme and voluntary severance agreements.

If you have to cut jobs, this is the way to do it: Make retirement attractive, and simply don't backfill the roles. If you want to make incredible cars, the way Porsche long has, are job cuts the way to go about it? I don't know. 

Waymo lets you hail its driverless taxis through Uber in Austin and Atlanta, but the company now wants to take control of that part of its customer experience. The company wants its own app for ride-hailing, making Uber no longer relevant. From Automotive News: 

Waymo is exploring options to exit its robotaxi partnership with Uber Technologies, the latest relationship twist between two companies that have functioned as both rivals and partners.

Uber currently offers rides in autonomous Waymo vehicles on its platform exclusively in two U.S. cities — Austin and Atlanta — after ending a more limited partnership in Phoenix last month. An Uber spokesperson said that Waymo has given notice that it plans to launch service through its own app in those cities in January 2028 "alongside their existing deployment with Uber." This "would end Waymo's exclusivity in Austin and Atlanta and allow us to launch with other AV providers in those cities, which we will be prepared to do," the spokesperson added.

The current fleet of Waymo vehicles will remain on Uber's platform through at least May 2028, the duration of the current contract, Uber said. The Financial Times reported earlier that Waymo was exploring options for exiting the partnership.

No matter which app they're on, I still won't hail one. 

Say it with me folks! Due to U.S. tariffs and the downturn in China as customers increasingly choose domestic cars, a foreign automaker is lowering its estimated profits for 2026. This time it's Audi. From Automotive News: 

Audi sees lower sales and profitability this year as worsening conditions in China and U.S. tariffs hamper the automaker's turnaround efforts.

The Volkswagen Group subsidiary cut its operating-margin guidance on July 27 by one percentage point to as low as 5 percent. It also pared back its expectation for revenue to as little as €58 billion ($66.2 billion), from an earlier expectation of at least €63 billion.

Germany's automakers are under sustained pressure as once-robust luxury demand in China dwindles and import duties in the U.S. drive up costs. Audi also cited the conflict in the Middle East for dialing back its guidance.

What's the point of all these profit estimates if companies can just change them?

I always thought this was a weird arc for the show to tackle, but Robert Sean Leonard truly had some incredible facial acting during the scene where everyone listened to the tapes. 

Up, up, and away!

That kinda day, folks.