New-car prices are cooling, but not because automakers are fixing affordability at the sticker. They are using incentives, software bundles, AI ad tools, and service-lane control to protect margin from every direction.

Today’s episode breaks down $49,220 average transaction prices, 14% EV incentives worth about $7,600 per vehicle, Xiaomi’s estimated $5,600 loss per car, AI chat conversion math, and the federal right-to-repair fight over who controls vehicle data.

Today's Key Headlines

~Average U.S. new-vehicle transaction prices fall 0.5% to $49,220

~EV incentives reach roughly 14% of purchase price, or about $7,600 per vehicle

~China has 55.5 million units of vehicle capacity against about 23 million in domestic demand

~Xiaomi is estimated to lose about $5,600 on every vehicle it sells

~AI dealer cha ...