🛻 Ford recalls 223,000 F-150s over fuel tanks

Ford is recalling 223,472 F-150 pickups from model years 2023 through 2027. Some trucks left the plant with front fuel tank straps that never went into the frame rail the right way. A loose tank can leak fuel and start a fire, or starve the engine and stall the truck. If the tank drops off, it becomes a hazard for everyone behind it. Ford says drivers get no warning before it happens.

The recall has an odd twist. Ford only covers trucks that sat unsold or had under three months in service as of August 27. The company says the problem shows up early in a truck's life, based on what it has seen so far. Ford blames the defect on times when the plant cameras that check strap installation sat idle. It estimates about 1% of the recalled trucks actually have the defect, and it knows of 16 warranty claims and no crashes.

Why it matters: F-150s move through your bays every week, and this fix belongs to the dealer. Still, your customers will ask you about it. Fleet customers with newer trucks are the ones to flag, since the recall targets vehicles with barely any time in service. Owners can look up their VIN right now on the NHTSA site, and Ford mails notices between September 21 and 28. If you knock a truck into service on a lift, a quick look at the front tank straps costs you nothing and buys goodwill.

Read more

AAA's yearly study puts the cost of owning a new car at $12,863, or about $1,072 a month. Depreciation takes the biggest bite at an average of $4,422 a year. Gas prices did a lot of the damage this time, averaging $4.15 a gallon at the time of the study. That sits almost 32% above last year. Home charging for EVs rose under 8% over the same stretch.

Charging an EV runs about 66% to 70% cheaper than filling a gas tank, but EVs lose that edge on depreciation, fees, and finance charges. A medium sedan EV costs about 29% more per year to own than the gas version. Hybrids come out as the steadiest bargain, costing less than gas models in medium sedans, compact SUVs, medium SUVs, and pickups.

Why it matters: This is the number sitting behind every hard conversation at your counter. A customer paying $1,072 a month to own a car does not have much left for a surprise $900 repair. That pressure pushes people to defer work, and it also pushes them to hold onto what they drive. Both trends land in your bay. The hybrid finding is worth watching too, since a powertrain that pencils out best on total cost tends to show up in your service mix a few years later.

Keep reading

Canada's retaliatory tariffs went into effect September 8, covering roughly $20 billion of U.S. goods at rates from 15% to 50% across about 700 products. That followed a U.S. round of 50% tariffs on a similar amount of Canadian goods in August. J.P. Morgan strategists say this first batch stays too small to move national inflation much on its own.

They point to two places where that could change. The first is autos. North American production runs on parts crossing the border more than once before a vehicle gets built, so tariffs there create delays, rerouting, and hard sourcing calls instead of a clean price bump. Canada supplied 12.5% of U.S. auto imports last year. The second is oil, where Canada supplied 64.5% of U.S. crude imports in 2025. The planned 50% tariff on Canadian autos and parts takes effect January 1, 2027.

Why it matters: The analysts name repair costs and repair timelines as one of the first places this shows up, not just sticker prices. If parts get held up at the border, your cycle times stretch and your parts bill climbs before anyone sends you a notice. The oil side hits you twice, through your own fuel and delivery costs and through what your customers pay at the pump. Now is a good time to ask your distributors what share of your common parts crosses that border.

Full story here

💵 The average new car sold for $50,089 in August, back over the $50,000 line for the first time since December, while EV prices keep sliding and averaged $54,813.

💻 AVTG launched a live online training program for shop owners, service advisors, and techs, with two and four hour sessions on shop financials, diagnostics, and EVs.

🧰 Carhartt gave a $160,000 grant to TechForce Foundation for scholarships and tools, as the group projects the industry falls more than 20,000 new techs short every year.

🏪 AutoZone opened its 8,000th store in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 47 years after the first one opened in Arkansas.