At $1.82 million, this 1955 Mercedes 300SL Gullwing was a top seller at the Artcurial Paris sale. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.
Today’s headlines:
+ Toyota Motor reports that global vehicle sales and production fell for a third straight month in September, dragged down by significant slumps in China and the Middle East. More at World Auto Forum.
+ According to iSeeCars, used EV sales rose 9.8 percent year-over-year in September, compared to a 4.9 percent increase for hybrids and a 0.3% gain for ICE vehicles. More at CBT News.
+ Ford has produced 5,000 unicastings at its Shelbyville, Kentucky technical center for testing in advance of production of the 2027 Fathom EV pickup at the Louisville plant. More at Autoblog.
+ Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves is likely to try for a fifth win at Indy in 2027 driving for Meyer-Shank Racing, team co-owner Michael Shank reports. More at Racer.
+ The city of Los Angeles has installed the first 25 of 125 surveillance cameras to capture vehicles speeding and will issue warnings for the first 60 days before writing tickets. More at The Drive.
+ General Motors will pay $220 million to settle allegations that it illegally sold drivers’ private behavior and location data to brokers, who then sold the information to insurers. More at ET Auto.
+ The list of best-selling luxury vehicles in the U.S. for 2026 is dominated by SUVs from Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, with no American brands cracking the top 10. More at Car and Driver.
+ The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation into camshaft and lifter failures in Ford’s 7.3-liter Godzilla V8 truck engine. More at Hemmings.
+ Top sellers at Artcurial Motorcars’ 2026 Automobiles sur les Champs auction in Paris included a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing once owned by raging legend Klaus Ludwig. More at Old Cars.
+ At last weekend’s Talladega Cup race, NASCAR warned most of the teams in the field to increase their speeds as they employed aggressive fuel-saving race strategies. More at Motorsport.com.
Photo courtesy of Artcurial.
Review the previous MCG Executive Briefing from October 26 here.
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Rough week, looks like ODI was dragged kicking and screaming to open that PE on Ford’s Godzilla failures with an anonomous petition from pissed-off fleet owners.
The NHTSA finally announced a public meeting titled “Recalls Next: Technological Innovations and Safety Recalls,” scheduled for November 5, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Attendees must register by October 29, 2026. For some odd reason NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison (J.D. Notre Dame ’04) finally decided to gather “stakeholders” to address “lagging” recall completion rates, TA-Dummmm! Of course all predatory highway infrastructure safety defects, wargamed speed trap/crash trap MUTCD breaches, fake detours and the national outbreak of lethal ADAS vision hacking failures shall remain off limits and outside of NHTSA and USDOT Inspector General jurisdiction and oversight, womp womp, cue laugh track aaaaasand cut to commercial.
Latest NHTSA safety defect recalls from mr.intenet:
• Toyota Sienna Hybrid (2022–2026) #26V690 Second-row seatback latch failure unlocks during frontal crashes.
• Lexus NX Series (2022–2024 NX250, NX350, NX350h, NX450h+) #26V687 Instrument display software failures.
• Ford F-Series Trucks (2025–2026 F-250 to F-750 Super Duty & 2026 F-150) Ford #26C46 [No NHTSA# yet] Instrument cluster software failures.
• Ram 2500 Pickup (2026) #26V701 Steering column control module software failures disables Electronic Stability Control.
• Hyundai Elantra, Tucson Hybrid, & Venue (2026) #26V692 Loose fasteners leading to steering loss and wheel detachment.
• Koenigsegg Jesko (2026) #26V688 Parking brake software failure rollaways.
NHTSA’s Standing General Order 2021-01 (SGO) database has crash incidents from over 60 named ADAS and AV manufacturers and fleet operators in two categories: SAE Level 2 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and SAE Level 3-5 Automated Driving Systems (ADS). NHTSA has collected over 7,000 reported crashes, 76 confirmed fatalities and 3,491 documented injuries so far. Multiply that by 10 or more gets closer to the truth.
80 Tesla drivers arrested in Seoul, South Korea for hacking/jail breaking FSD (full self driving) software activation with no paid purchase, facing two years in prison and a 20 million won fine ($15,000). Tesla Korea called the cops after noticing “FSD piracy” in routine vehicle data anomolies, lmfao…
Oops, tomorrow is the federal deadline where Tesla must submit sworn answers to the NHTSA Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance Audit Query AQ26002, launched the same day Tesla deployed its paid driverless Cybercab fleet in Austin, Texas. Because Cybercab is built without traditional controls and safety equipment—lacking a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, brake pedal, or mirrors—the feds are demanding Tesla explain its “self-certification” logic on the record under oath…