Three Pedals, Sedans Are Dead, and Ford Suddenly Loves AI

Another week has passed– let me catch you up on what is new in the automotive news. We have everything from new cars to the FTC naming names, to Ford entering the data center game, and charming Wall Street.

In this edition:

1. The spicy Corolla GRMN: Rear seats deleted, carbon spoiler on, complete with three pedals. Toyota made the GR Corolla even hotter-- just what we needed.
2. The Pajero and Montero Return: Mitsubishi is taking a trip down memory lane, giving us two more SUVs in a market desperate for more. Bring back the Lancer EVO.
3. FTC Names 97 Dealers: The deceptive pricing list you really did not want your name on.
4. Ford's Battery Gambit: Wall Street remains bullish on data centers, and Ford's old EV packs might be the solution they have been looking for.
5. BMW M2 Gets xDrive: All-wheel drive comes to BMW's rowdiest coupe, and mercifully, the rear-drive manual lives on.
6. Waymo's Ojai Debut: Swedish design, Chinese bones, American "manufacturing". Dr. Frankenstein would be proud of this Robotaxi.

Let's get into it– and Be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn and tell me what you want to hear next!

The Corolla GRMN: Toyota Built the One Nobody Asked For

Toyota looked at the most sensible car on Earth, the appliance your aunt drives to Costco, and decided what it really needed was less practicality and more violence. Meet the Corolla GRMN, the sportiest Corolla ever, and it earns the title by removing things.

The rear seats? Gone. In their place, presumably, a roll of duct tape and the spiritual residue of every track day this thing will ever see. On top sits a carbon fiber wing big enough to file its own flight plan. And, sit down for this one, there is a manual transmission. Three pedals. In 2026. Toyota is out here doing the work the rest of the industry quietly abandoned.

It is gloriously stupid in the best way. Nobody needs a back-seat delete, carbon-winged Corolla you row yourself. But I needed to leave the chat the moment someone in Aichi signed off on this. Whether enough enthusiasts open their wallets to justify it is another question, but for once, the Corolla is not the answer to what is cheap and reliable. It is the answer to the question of what the most fun I can have while still looking responsible is in the driveway.

The Pajero and Montero Return

Mitsubishi is bringing back the Pajero and Montero, and depending on which version of you shows up to read this, that is either a celebration or a eulogy.

Let us be clear about what Mitsubishi used to be. This is the company that gave us the Lancer Evo, the 3000GT, and the Eclipse back when an Eclipse still meant something. Genuine performance heroes with attitude and a chip on the shoulder. The Pajero and Montero coming back are fine; the nameplates carry real off-road history, but they also confirm the direction of travel: away from the sedans and coupes that made enthusiasts care, and toward yet another SUV in a market already drowning in them.

So, yawn? A little. The world did not exactly send up a flare begging for one more midsize crossover. But also, and I hate that I am saying this, the Pajero name still means something to anyone who watched it dominate the Dakar. If Mitsubishi builds it with even a fraction of that spirit instead of phoning in another beige box, this could be worth caring about. The bar is on the floor. Clear it, Mitsubishi.

FTC Names 97 Dealers Accused of Deceptive Pricing

The FTC just published the names of 97 dealerships accused of deceptive pricing, and somewhere out there, 97 general managers are having a very bad week.

This is the part of car buying everyone hates, put into a spreadsheet. The advertised price that mysteriously grows by four figures once you are in the chair. The mandatory add-ons nobody asked for. The fees with names invented purely to sound official. Naming names is a bigger deal than another vague warning, because reputation is the one thing a dealer cannot discount.

Whether this actually changes behavior or just becomes a cost of doing business is the real question. But for once, the people who spend an afternoon haggling over a number that was never real to begin with get a little daylight on the practice. Check the list. Your local lot might be on it.

Ford's Battery Gambit

Ford's stock climbed this week, and the reason is going to make your eyes twitch: artificial intelligence. Specifically, Ford wants to take its used EV batteries and repurpose them as energy storage for data centers, the giant power-hungry warehouses keeping the AI boom alive.

On paper, it is clever. EV batteries do not die so much as retire. A pack that is no longer good enough to move a truck can still happily sit in a building and store energy, and data centers are starving for power. Ford turning a waste stream into a revenue stream is the kind of story Wall Street eats with a spoon, and the share price said so.

Here is the twist that makes it interesting. Wall Street is cheering Ford for joining the AI party at the exact moment overall sentiment on AI is hitting an all-time low. Everyone else is nervous about a bubble, and Ford strolls in late, points at its pile of old batteries, and gets applause. Either Ford found the one genuinely grounded angle on AI, real hardware nobody else has, or it is the last guest arriving as the room starts eyeing the exits. Time will tell which.

BMW Gives the M2 All-Wheel Drive (and Spares the Manual)

This morning, BMW made it official: the M2, its angriest and most stubbornly rear-driven coupe, can now be had with xDrive all-wheel drive. The configurator is already live. For a car that has spent its entire life as a celebration of oversteer and questionable decisions, this is a genuine plot twist.

Before the purists reach for the pitchforks, here is the part that matters. The rear-wheel-drive manual M2 is not being killed off. BMW is adding the all-paw version, not replacing the real one. You can still buy the three-pedal, tail-happy M2 that turned the nameplate into a cult object. The xDrive simply hands the all-weather crowd, and anyone who wants to deploy every last horsepower without saying a prayer first, a way in.

It does come at a price. The M2 xDrive lands at $73,600, with a $1,350 destination and handling charge, which makes it the most expensive M2 you can buy. Whether the M2 you actually want is quicker, grippier, and pricier depends entirely on what you think an M2 is for. Track toy or daily weapon, BMW now sells both. Choose your fighter.

Waymo's Ojai Debut

Waymo's new Ojai robotaxi is officially carrying riders, and its origin story reads like a customs form. Designed in Sweden, built in China, finished in Arizona.

Here is how the sausage gets made. The Ojai rides on a platform from Zeekr, the premium EV brand owned by Chinese giant Geely, the same conglomerate that owns Volvo and Polestar. Zeekr builds the chassis, body, battery, and motors in Ningbo, China, then ships the bare gliders to Waymo's facility in Mesa, Arizona. There, Waymo installs its own sensors, computers, and connectivity hardware. Crucially, the cars arrive without Chinese telematics, which is exactly how Waymo threads the needle around US rules on Chinese connected vehicle tech.

It is a fascinating bit of geopolitical engineering as much as automotive engineering. Waymo gets cheap, high-quality Chinese EV manufacturing without tripping the regulatory wire, reportedly slashing costs compared to the Jaguar I-PACE it replaces. The bigger story for the rest of us is what it signals: Chinese EV hardware is now so good that an American tech giant built its next-generation robotaxi on it and simply engineered around the politics. The Ojai is rolling out in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix first. Wave hello. It traveled a long way to pick you up.

That is the news. See you next week. Keep your hands at ten and two.