Steve Greenfield's Midyear Check-In: Affordability, Tariffs, and AI

Episode #1387: Steve Greenfield of Automotive Ventures joins Paul and Kyle for a midyear check-in on his 2026 predictions and the four big stories shaping the year: affordability, Chinese pressure on legacy automakers, tariffs creeping into MSRPs, and AI everywhere.

In this episode:

• New car prices push into the $53-54K range as the K-shaped recovery makes new cars an affluent buyer's game

• Why pressure on OEMs overseas trickles down to US dealers through shrinking front-end gross

• Steve's five-year prediction: dealers stop logging into systems entirely, and the seven-open-tabs workflow dies

• Vibe coding comes to the dealership — why your best employees are about to get dramatically more efficient

• What to watch in the back half: Slate's $25K stripped-down pickup, the Polestar shock, and the Carvana-Stellantis wild card