Ford’s Sales Say Truck Buyers Are Shrugging Off High Gas Prices: TDS

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Ford’s Sales Say Truck Buyers Are Shrugging Off High Gas Prices: TDS

Ford's CFO said the company "has not seen any decreases" in F-Series sales despite the cost of fuel, coming off a strong quarter. The post Ford’s Sales Say Truck Buyers Are Shrugging Off High Gas Prices: TDS appeared first on The Drive .

Welcome to The Downshift , a daily sweep of the morning’s top headlines from the auto industry and car culture, curated by The Drive’s editorial team. Each story gets a short summary and a link to the original source if you want to dive deeper.

Here’s your bulletin for Thursday, October 29, 2026:

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Ford raked in $2.7 billion in pre-tax earnings in the third quarter, good enough for the automaker to raise its full-year earnings guidance to investors by half a billion dollars. It achieved this off the back of strong truck sales, which, according to the company, have not seen any downturn despite high fuel prices. “We have seen a customer that has remained incredibly resilient in the truck area, and that is both in retail as well as in fleet,” CFO Sherry House said. “We have not seen any (sales) decreases in the F-Series.” [ Automotive News ]

Meanwhile, Volkswagen posted its worst quarter since the Dieselgate fallout a decade ago: a staggering $6.5 billion operating loss, compared to $1.4 billion over the same period in 2025. CFO and COO Arno Antlitz said in response, “The nine-month results make ​one thing clear: We cannot afford to lose any time. We must act quickly and decisively.” [ Reuters ]

A new report claims that in addition to Audi’s Georgia SUV hub announced over the weekend, another model bearing the four-ring badge will also be rolling out of Scout’s South Carolina facility. The assumption is that this will be a battery-electric off-roader, potentially supplemented by a gas range extender, built on the bones of Scout’s Traveler SUV. [ CarBuzz ]

Remember Carvana’s struggles earlier in the decade? Those are a long way away now. The used-car retailer just posted a whopping $8 billion in revenue, a quarterly record. Net income rose 84% to $483 million as it sold 217,000 vehicles in the three-month span, marking the first time it’s ever surpassed the 200,000-car threshold. [ Automotive News ]

The China Passenger Car Association just predicted the biggest annual dive in the country’s auto sales ever come the end of the year, to the tune of 22%. The committee cites a number of causes for this beyond the obvious geopolitical ones, like a change in the way the government awards subsidies that has negatively impacted cheaper vehicles. It’s yet another reason why the nation’s biggest automakers have turned their focus to western expansion. [ Automotive News ]

McLaren had some PR function in London today that involved a sculpture of its new kiwi mascot; on the side of this little guy was the name “McL 820,” perhaps teasing the moniker for the company’s replacement for its discontinued 750S supercar. 820 is more than 750! [ Autocar ]

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The post Ford’s Sales Say Truck Buyers Are Shrugging Off High Gas Prices: TDS appeared first on The Drive .

Источник: The Drive