Daily Recap: Wednesday, April 29, 2026
38 episodes · If you only listen to one: Matt Latino on Pro Stock Racing, 1500HP NA Engines, and Making Horsepower With Cats, Minnoxide
Western automakers reported broad Q1 earnings declines, with Mercedes and Volvo down across the board and Geely's profit falling 27 percent despite higher sales. Aston Martin narrowed its losses but still took a fresh $68 million capital injection. Porsche's Andy Preuninger detailed why the new GT3 SC arrived as a cabriolet rather than a Speedster, and what the Touring's manual-transmission take rate says about how owners are using the car.
Mercedes and Volvo Slide Across the Board; Geely Profit Falls 27%
Mercedes and Volvo posted double-digit Q1 declines across sales, revenue, and profits, while Geely's sales rose marginally and revenue increased — but its net profit fell 27 percent, according to Autoline Daily.
Aston Martin cut its losses by 87 percent but still required a fresh $68 million capital injection from an investor group, bringing total funding from CEO Lawrence Stroll and his consortium to over $800 million since his 2020 acquisition.
Billions burned: The great EV reckoning
"Stellantis losing 27 billion dollars on their EV development taking that right down for 19.5 billion Honda 16 billion GM 7.6 billion VW group 11 billion"
Autoline Daily attributed the broad weakness to 'the strain of the war and Iran, Trump's tariffs and the slowdown in China.'
"Mercedes saw it sales, revenue, profits, and free cash flow dropped by double digits. The same goes for Volvo, it was down by double digits across the board. Geely posted marginally higher sales and a nice increase in revenue, but its net profit dropped by twenty seven percent."
Preuninger: GT3 SC Is a Touring Cabriolet, and a Speedster Would Have Cost a Year of Development
Andy Preuninger described the new GT3 SC to Spike's Car Radio as "the open version of what we have sitting here, the GT3 Touring," and said choosing a cabriolet body over a Speedster saved at least a year of development time.
The Touring variant itself has quietly reshaped the GT3's buyer profile: 80 percent of Touring customers now select the manual transmission, a share that reflects a broader shift toward drivers using the car on the road rather than the track.
Why You’re WRONG About the 911 GT3 S/C with Andy Preuninger
"The touring has an 80% share of manual transmissions."
Preuninger frames the GT line's appeal as something other than outright power, telling Spike's Car Radio that "enjoying a drive is not about horsepower" but about "agility, the lightweight and the feeling the car gives you."
"Enjoying a drive is not about horsepower. It's about the agility, the lightweight and the feeling the car gives you."
Episode Spotlights
On Ford's unsold new-car inventory:
"Ford has 81,000 of those unsold new cars."
Dealer TRIES TO ADD $4,000 of MARKUP on a HYUNDAI!!
On dealership package bundling tactics during negotiations:
"I can get you $3,000 off the price of the car only if you agree to the full package... the package is $3,998."
"Stop Throwing Parts at Your Car! Why Intermittent Problems Cost You BIG "
On diagnosing intermittent vehicle problems without guessing:
"If you've got a noise that's annoying you in your vehicle the best thing I can do for me for in my sanity and for you is we got a road test together... the flip side of that coin is an intermittent no start is enough to put any service tech in some kind of treatment plan therapy facility"
S2 Ep34: We Just Bought The BIGGEST Financial Mistake In History!
On buying a six-figure luxury car as a project:
"New, back in the early 2000s, it was £110,000. I think it was actually more than that. Okay, starting from £110,000. Today's money, that's £220,000. And it's big. The engine's big."
If You Only Listen To One
On how motorsport sponsorship drives B2B relationships, with racing used to connect trucking fleets and performance-components suppliers.
"So if I'm bringing FAS on board and then I go invite some trucking fleets that we have some connections with to the racetrack and make some introductions and they can start doing business with some of these guys through B2B connections that we make through motorsports, then if we're asking them half a million, let's just say on a ballpark, but we can generate 10 million in revenue for them, that half a million dollar marketing expense is a no-brainer."
By the Numbers
Most-Mentioned Cars
Mention counts across today's episodes; not every car here appears in a dedicated story section.
| Car | Mentions |
|---|---|
| Chevrolet Corvette | 4 |
| iX3 (G08) | 3 |
| G-Class Gwagon | 3 |
| Ford Mustang | 3 |
| Toyota A90 | 3 |
| Jeep Wrangler | 3 |
| Jeep Liberty | 3 |
| Dodge Charger | 3 |
Trending Terminology
Mention counts across today's episodes; not every term here appears in a dedicated story section.
| Term | Mentions |
|---|---|
| EV | 4 |
| torque | 4 |
| pole position | 4 |
| oil change | 3 |
| mileage | 3 |
| stock number | 3 |
38 episodes. 388 car mentions. 2902 terms explained. Browse every episode with searchable annotations and plain-language term definitions in the Car Curious app.