In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, one half of a couple elects to remove the too-painful memories of their partner from their mind. All the happy moments. All the sad ones. The triumphs. The fights. The simple quiet hours that provide the foundation of a good life. If you were a Chrysler dealer, would you want to make the last few years disappear, too?
One of my go-to measures for the state of various brands is the chart that shows how long it takes them to sell the cars on dealer lots. Chrysler is the easiest to look at because they have basically one vehicle, which gives deeper insight into the state of that model. The Morning Dump is nothing if not a collection of deep insights and songs featuring women with guitars.
If Chrysler has one model that has too much inventory, Infiniti’s problem is a little different. It only has two models and it keeps changing the names of everything it sells. It’s the job of the new Nissan CEO to fix that.
Is AI going to take his job if he fails? Is it coming for everyone’s job? Certainly not mine. A neural net can gather the news, but can the neural net make Millennial-coded movie references? Oh, it can? Bummer. The head of the UAW and Senator Bernie Sanders got together to warn of the impending AI jobpocalyspse.
Will Polestar make it? The company lost more money, but also earned more money.
Chrysler Is The Brand In The Box
As an Elder Millennial, I’m also qualified to make Gen X references, and what’s more Gen X than an Alice in Chains allusion? This is the chart I love, and it shows Days’ Supply as broken down by brand. This is essentially the number of cars on dealer lots (or in transit to dealer lots) versus how quickly that brand sells those vehicles. So, looking at the green bar, the national average is 79 days, meaning that it would take 79 days to sell all the cars currently on lots or in transit if no new cars were built.
If you’re far to the left of the bar, that means you’ve either got a tight supply, you’re selling fast, or both. In the case of Lexus and Toyota, those are fast-selling brands with production discipline. The same is true for Honda. If you wonder why people pay at or above MSRP for Toyota products, it’s because they’re popular and Toyota doesn’t overbuild. Audi is interesting, because Audi is both in the middle of transitioning to new models and has been one of the biggest victim of tariffs, which indicates to me that the brand has been cutting back on imports. If you’re far to the right of the bar it usually means you either have produced a lot of cars, they’re selling slowly, or some of both.
And then there’s the box. You never want to be in the box. In order to preserve scale, brands that have more than twice the national average go in the box. Right now there’s exactly one major brand in the box and it’s Chrysler.
This makes sense. The brand has just one car after the axing of the Voyager, which is just a slightly cheaper version of the only thing it really makes. Does the brand even have a future? It doesn’t have a second model yet, though it’s getting a redesigned Pacifica (and keeping the old one around as the new budget model).
So far as I can tell, there are few (if any) of the redesigned Pacificas currently for sale. This means that there’s probably an opportunity here for buyers. If you’re in the market for a minivan, the brand is both about to start selling a somewhat new model (it at least looks different) and currently has a ProMaster’s worth of inventory, making it the perfect time to strike.
Just to see if my theory held any water, I went to the Pacifica subreddit and, sure enough, people are reporting great deals:
Given that the base Pacifica retails for $44,000, these self-reported scores are pretty good. I don’t think the Pacifica is the best vehicle in this class, but a non-PHEV one is probably a great way to soak up a lot of miles if you have a family. If the choice is between waiting and paying over MSRP for a Sienna or walking it with a Pacifica that’s thousands of dollars under MSRP and available right now, well, I can’t blame anyone for choosing the Chrysler.
How Is Infiniti Going To Win You Over?
The extraordinarily talented Kristen Lee and I may not always have the same taste in cars, but we have similar taste in car-related press events, so we both excitedly signed up to see Infiniti show off the new QX65 with Rob Gronkowski and that other guy.
The question on one of the cue cards this woman was holding up was “have we won you over yet?” That’s an important question for Infiniti, which is on the left side of the above chart, but probably only because Infiniti only sells two cars, the QX80 and the aging QX60, and has been careful to not import too many.
Nissan’s new CEO Ivan Espinosa talked to Hans Greimel in Yokohama and touched on something that I have long wondered about Infiniti:
Espinosa outlined six pillars of Nissan’s U.S. growth strategy:
1. Dive into body-on-frame SUVs and pickups, starting with new XTerra
2. Roll out more hybrids, including e-Power and a new parallel setup
3. Revitalize the Infiniti lineup with a consistent stable of five nameplates
4. Boost localized U.S. production to 80 percent
5. Concentrate on retail customers over fleet to get 5.7 percent retail share
6. Generate more volume per nameplate with wider powertrain selection
That bolded point is what interests me. Can anyone who isn’t an Infiniti dealer name all the cars Infiniti has made the last few years? It’s hard enough to remember model names when they’re words, but Infiniti has always been an alphanumeric brand. If you want a Lexus ES in 1996 or 2026, you can get a Lexus ES. In 1996, if you walked into an Infiniti dealer, you could get, what, a G20, an I30, or a J30? The next year you could get a QX4 I guess.
Being able to have “consistent” nameplates seems like a big deal.
Senator Bernie Sanders And Shawn Fain Are Worried About AI
As you can see in the video above, Senator Bernie Sanders and a bunch of labor leaders came out to say that, hey, maybe this Artificial Intelligence thing should come with protections for workers. Well, specifically he said that people who wanted to replace American workers with AI should “go to hell.”
The UAW’s Shawn Fain was there, and he had some thoughs, via the Detroit Free Press:
“Workers must have the right to negotiate how AI will impact their jobs,” Fain said.
The union is becoming more and more vocal about the impact of AI on the manufacturing workforce. On April 25, UAW Region 1 Director LaShawn English, who represents UAW workers in Detroit and surrounding areas, will host an “AI workshop” to inform members on the threats and use cases of AI in the manufacturing industry.
Automakers who employ union workers have been eagerly adopting AI technology.
I’m guessing this will be a part of the next round of UAW contract renegotiation.
Is Polestar Doing Better Or Worse?
Are you a glass half empty person or a glass half full person? Are you a Polestar lost more money than ever person, or a Polestar made more money than ever person?
The Swedish company’s net loss widened to $2.36 billion in 2025 from $2.05 billion a year earlier, it said Friday, marking its largest annual deficit since being spun out of Volvo Car AB in 2022 and listing on Nasdaq. A total of $1.05 billion was due to writedowns, mostly on models.
[…]
The wider loss last year came even as revenue jumped 50% to $3.06 billion, with more than 60,000 cars sold as it rolled out new models and thanks to robust demand in countries like the UK.
Polestar reiterated that retail sales volumes are projected to rise at a low double-digit rate this year, driven by a growing share of the Polestar 4 coupe and the introduction of a new Polestar 4 sport utility vehicle variant later this year.
Despite the hefty annual loss, the company’s net loss narrowed to $799 million in the fourth quarter.
I guess I’m the third kind of person: a net loss narrowed.
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What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
It’s Japanese Breakfast with “Picture Window.”
The Big Question
Which brand has had the most chaotic naming conventions?
Top photo: Chrysler
The post Chrysler Dealers Are Sitting On A Giant (Over)Supply Of Minivans, So It Might Be A Good Time To Get A Deal appeared first on The Autopian.
