Feb. 3, 2026 | Hyundai, Kia set January sales records; Chrysler CEO Chris Feuell

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Welcome to Daily Drive. For Tuesday, February 3rd,

2026, I'm Kellyn Walker in Las Vegas. Today on the show,

Hyundai and Kia both set January sales records. Hybrids dominate the latest consumer reports

picks for top new cars. And Penske and Hendrik top retail customer sentiment rankings for the

second straight year. Plus, Chrysler brand CEO Chris Fuel talks about the minivan resurgence

and why Chrysler is moving away from its all-electric strategy.

Chrysler has always been known as a mainstream brand that delivered great value and luxury at

an affordable price. So that's really the direction that we're moving forward in.

Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.

Hyundai and Kia set January US sales records with both brands driven by strong hybrid and

crossover demand. Hyundai's deliveries rose 2% to more than 55,600 vehicles,

while Kia jumped 13% to about 64,500, marking the first time since February 2025 that Kia

outsold Hyundai. Hyundai said hybrid sales surged 60%, offsetting weaker EV volume

after federal tax credits ended. For Kia, crossovers like the Sportage,

Telluride and Celtos all posted January records. Overall, the results signal momentum for both

automakers coming off record US sales in 2025. You can read all of the latest US sales results at

AutoNews.com as they come in. Hybrids are taking over the top spots in the Consumer Reports

2026 vehicle rankings. 9 of the 10 best new cars, trucks and SUVs are hybrids,

with only one fully electric vehicle making the list. Consumer Reports says hybrids now

deliver the convenience of gas engines with better fuel economy and handling. And they've

gotten so refined, drivers barely noticed they're in a hybrid. Winners include the Honda Civic,

Toyota Camry and Ford Maverick. The Tesla Model Y was the sole EV pick. And Penske Automotive Group

and Hendrick Automotive Group held onto the top spots in Reputation's annual customer sentiment

rankings for the second straight year. The rankings are based on online reviews collected

throughout 2025. They measure how dealership groups and brands perform in areas like sales,

service, pricing and finance. Reputation says both groups succeeded because their laser focus on

customer satisfaction, constantly responding to reviews and using AI to analyze feedback.

Among brands, Lexus topped the luxury segment while Subaru led non-luxury.

And those are today's headlines. You can find more details on all those stories at AutoNews.com.

Dealership mergers and acquisitions are still going strong heading into 2026. Automotive News

retail tech reporter Mark Homer is here in Las Vegas ahead of this week's NADA show.

He caught up with George Corollis, president of the Presidio Group on the sidelines of

AutoTeam America's annual summit. They talked about the state of dealership M&A and what's

driving consolidation this year. What is the state of M&A and dealerships in 2026?

Sure. Well, it's a highly active market. It continues to be leading the industry.

We see a high cadence of deals that have transacted over the last five years post-COVID and we see

that cadence continuing. There's a lot of unique buyers, more buyers than there are sellers in the

market. And so we see a lot of activity in the market this year and into the future as consolidation

continues. The market's still highly fragmented and we're going to talk about that as well.

So if there are more buyers than sellers, does that mean that they're approaching

dealerships that hadn't really expressed interest in selling and trying to get them to?

Well, yeah, there's a regular cadence of that, of course. Most of the deals that happen are

through advisors like us, but there are oftentimes one-on-one. And you look the average dealer,

we hear this all the time, gets called daily from brokers or even dealers that are looking to grow

and acquire because, again, there's more buyers out there than there are deals available on the

market. How are dealers reacting to getting cold calls like that? Yeah, they don't necessarily

love them, but they're used to it. So it's just kind of part of the deal and most of them are

professional and respectful about it. But it is, again, more of the cold call is not really where

the activity comes from. Okay. Is there anything new about M&A in 2026 that dealerships should know

about? You know, I think there's a trend that we see continuing. We represent a lot of largest

companies and a lot of the public companies in the industry. And this trend of portfolio

management where dealers, as they're growing, will take a step back to go two steps forward

to optimize their portfolio. Sometimes that means selling off stores that don't match with their

long-term strategy. And we see that cadence picking up and we see a lot of activity more

along those lines. And so this year, for example, we have seven deals closing in the next couple

months. And all but one relate to portfolio management activities by large groups. And so

we see that as a higher proportion of activity in the space as dealers optimize their portfolio.

So portfolio management means that they're looking at everything they have and they're

saying, you know, we could sell this dealership and get another one that fits our strategy.

That's right. There's all different reasons. Sometimes you just have a dealership that doesn't

work for you, isn't generating the return, is requiring a lot of human capital, too much human

capital, the 80-20 rule. That's one reason. Oftentimes there's geographic outliers.

You know, there's diversification of brand, maybe too much of one brand. And, you know,

and just ultimately, you know, it's an ROI and a human capital and an ROE play a return on effort.

Okay. In 2026, I'm wondering if there's a private dealership that's going to approach the scope of

the big six, the publicly traded ones. Is there anyone that's getting closer?

Well, there are a few that are already there, right? Some don't report there. They're obviously

they're holding and they're the revenues. But, you know, I'd say aside from the large groups that

already exist, you know, I don't expect to see that, but we do expect larger groups continue

to add in stores and, you know, continue to improve their portfolios. But a majority,

you know, there's only 24 dealership groups that own more than 50 stores in the country.

And there's only nine that own more than 100. Really? And most of those are the

publics. And then there's three private setter in that realm. And so a majority of the bulk is

11 to 50. And again, that's actually of the larger groups. And that's just, I think, a fraction

of the total groups out there as well with the biggest proportion, two thirds owning just one

to 10 stores. And so we'll see those groups continually grow. And some being sellers,

obviously some obviously being buyers and a little bit of a reshuffling of the deck.

Okay, heading into 2026 then. Is there a dealership group that's on an acquisition

track that we should pay more attention to? What's the one that people will be talking about?

Oh, there's numerous of them. But I'll keep that. I won't comment on that. There's a lot

of groups that are active in the space and that we see as innovators and growing.

And so I think you guys do a good job at auto news of reporting on that as it is.

Fair enough. Is there anything you want to add about dealership M&A in 2026?

Yeah, look, I think dealers will continue to be a little bit more diligent and focus on quality

of what they're acquiring, not just buying for the sake of buying, which we saw a little bit

more of at the peak of the pandemic. So I think it'll be more intentional growth.

But again, there's a large imbalance between the number of folks interested in buying,

probably 10 to one, than there are deals on the market. And we'll talk about that in my

presentation today. Okay. And I'll be sitting down for that. Looking forward to it.

Right. Thank you very much. Thanks, Mark. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, Chrysler brand CEO Chris Fewell explains why minivans are making a comeback

and what's next for the Chrysler brand. That's next on Daily Drive.

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Welcome back to Daily Drive. I'm Kellan Walker. Chrysler saw double-digit sales growth in the

first half of 2025. The brand credits millennials entering the parenting stage,

Gen X and Boomer grandparents, and even gig economy workers discovering the Pacifica's

versatility. Now Chrysler is launching a refreshed Pacifica in May and pivoting away from its all

electric brand strategy in favor of affordable mainstream vehicles. Automotive News Canada,

digital and mobile editor Greg Lason spoke with Chrysler brand CEO Chris Fewell about what's driving

the minivan resurgence and what's next for Chrysler. Here's a piece of their conversation on the

minivan sales have surged in Canada, obviously led by the Pacifica and the Grand Caravan.

They're also up in the U.S. What's going on in the minivan market in North America?

Well, the minivan segment in general has been really strong. Double-digit surges in the first

half of the year and then settled into a more normal pace in the second half of the year,

but that allowed Chrysler to gain market share in H2 and a lot of that had to do with

additional support that we were providing from both marketing and sales and we improved our

inventory position in the second half of the year as well in both the U.S. and Canada.

Happy to report that we retain sales leadership in the U.S. and also regained

minivan sales leadership in Canada for 25 calendar year.

Is there something that was leading to a kink in the supply chain or in terms of inventory?

What was ironed out if that was indeed part of the reason for the resurgence? What happened in

2025 that smoothed it out and allowed you to sell more minivans?

Well, what happened was Liberation Day, so with the uncertainty related to tariffs and what the

various costs related to the tariffs were going to be, we derated the line speed at Windsor

for a brief period of time until we got a better understanding for how the tariffs were going to

impact the business and that reduction in production for about six weeks got our inventory

levels down to about a 30-40 day supply in Canada and the U.S. and when we ramped production back

up in late May, it allowed us to restore the inventory levels to healthier levels and improve

our mix and thus improve our turn rates. Are customers moving from other seven or eight-seat

vehicles to minivans because they provide the same thing but they also provide cargo with

stow and go and they have various other options and advantages over other seven passenger vehicles?

Are you seeing any movement or shift of customers away from a seven passenger vehicle that's an

SUV to a minivan? To a certain degree, yes. We've got one of the largest cohort groups,

the millennials, that are coming into the parenting life stage and they are considering

minivans at a much higher level than they had in previous years, so that's really attractive.

We're also seeing a shift in demographics where we've got older buyers. So,

minivans have always had a bimodal distribution of customer segments. You've got

parents with younger families and the millennial cohort is growing in size and their consideration

for minivans and then you've got Gen X and boomers who are entering the grand parenting life stage.

They're also active road trippers and minivans are a great option for them

as they're doing their road trip travels and also the vehicle has really attractive ingress

and egress and comfort level that's attractive to those customers. We're also seeing

a higher level of consideration for people who are gig economy workers. Maybe they

provide Amazon or Grubhub or DoorDash delivery services, DIY repairs like the fact that they

can fit a 4x8 sheet of plywood in a minivan when all of the seats are folded flat. So,

it's a really attractive multi-use vehicle and for customers who aren't necessarily using

extreme off-road 4x4 performance kinds of features, it's a good value for them as well and it's a

vehicle that can serve customers who are looking for the value end and that's where the Grand Caravan

is a really attractive option for customers as well as a fully equipped pinnacle pacificum

model which has won multiple awards for the most luxurious interior in the minivan segment.

So, we've got something for everybody. What is the future for the minivan market and specifically

the Pacifica now that 2025 and its resurgence is in the past, what do we see in 2026 and beyond?

We're seeing the minivan market continuing to maintain its current volume levels or even growing

slightly. What we're excited to talk about is the fact that Pacifica is launching a refresh

in April of this year. So, we start a production at Windsor Begins in late April and we'll start

to see those new models hitting dealer lots in May. So, very excited about that. We'll see a fresh

and exterior as well as a fresh and interior and some new technology features incorporated in the

vehicle. So, we'll be in a position to talk more about that as we get closer to launch.

Earlier this week, I saw a video of a minivan with a Hellcat engine installed inside. Obviously,

these are gear heads and enthusiasts that are tinkering with product that is out there and available.

And earlier this year, Chrysler, I guess last year now in 2025, Chrysler unveiled the Grizzly

Peak concept called the Ultimate Adventure Minivan. Does any of this mean there's real potential

for off-road, upscale performance and overlanding badging and branding for this segment? Is that

realistic? Why or why not? It is realistic. We're always looking for opportunities to tap new markets

and fill unmet needs. And Grizzly Peak in particular really hit the sweet spot when we showed that at

the Overland Expo last year. So, this is a vehicle that when we took it to the Overland Expo and

talked to customers, this is attracting a new buyer to the minivan segment. Predominantly,

men around 40 years old, they said, finally, you know, we're seeing a minivan that's attractive to

me. And why it's attractive is not only the way it looks, but the way it performs and the fact

that it can be used as an overlanding vehicle or a daily driver. And it's just very appealing to

those particular customers. And it's a much better value than a tricked out Sprinter van,

for example, that can cost upwards of $100,000 or more. You know, this is a vehicle that we can

bring to market for $50,000 or less. In terms of Chrysler as the brand, there was a plan to make

the brand all electric. There was talk of the airflow concept coming to fruition as an EV.

What's the future for the brand now and that product roadmap look like as you and I speak today?

Yeah. So, we're definitely pivoting away from the intention of positioning Chrysler as an all

electric brand. It's obvious that customer preferences and needs have shifted. And also,

you know, as we celebrated our 100 year centennial anniversary last year, it's important for us to

really get back to the roots of the brand. And that's being a brand that's squarely positioned for

the mainstream market, delivering beautiful products with high value innovation, well engineered

with the highest of quality. And Chrysler has always been known as a mainstream brand that

delivered great value and luxury at an affordable price. So, that's really the direction that we're

moving forward in and the refresh specific is going to deliver outstanding value and give customers

something in every price range that they can imagine from the Voyager and Grand Caravan at the

at the value end of the equation to select and limited, which are squarely positioned in mid

market and then the pinnacle trim level that is more skewed to upscale premium minivan segments.

You can hear our own Greg Laysen's full conversation with Chrysler brand CEO Chris Fuell

on the latest episode of the Automotive News Canada podcast available now wherever you get your

podcasts. That's Daily Drive for today. I'm Kellen Walker. Thanks to Automotive News executive

producer Jake Neer as well as our own David Phillips, Molly Boygon and Gail Howe for their

reporting for today's podcast. You can get the latest news on Chrysler, NADA coverage from Las

Vegas and everything happening in the auto industry at AutoNews.com. We'd love to hear from you.

Let us know what you think of the show and the topics we covered today. Send us an email at

DailyDrive at AutoNews.com or leave us a voicemail at 313-444-2774. And if you enjoy the podcast,

remember to like, leave a review and subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Feb. 3, 2026 | Hyundai, Kia set January sales records; Chrysler CEO Chris Feuell

About this episode

Hyundai

hybrid

Kia Telluride

crossover

Kia Celtos

Kia Sportage

Honda Civic

Tesla Model

Ford Maverick

Toyota Camry

Hendrick Automotive Group

Penske Automotive Group

Chrysler Pacifica

Chrysler Grand Caravan

minivan market

gig economy

4x8 sheet of plywood

refresh

Hellcat engine

Chrysler Grizzly Peak

overlanding

daily driver

EV

Chrysler Voyager

pinnacle trim level

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