Quick Shifts

Each week I bring you the top stories in the auto industry along with my commentary or sometimes amusing thoughts about the craziness that goes on in the world of cars.   

• Repo Revenge: Buyer Grabs Dealership’s Name After Car Seized 
• Attack of the Scanners: Rental Cars Now Come With Surprise Billing
• Roadkill: Mercedes EQ Line Goes Dark in U.S. After BEV Sales Crash
• WWE Legend Attempts Surprise Highway Main Event, Guardrail Wins

Repo Revenge: Buyer Grabs Dealership’s Name After Car Seized.  In a plot twist worthy of a legal-themed soap opera, a Lima, Ohio, woman had her car repossessed by a dealership, then promptly turned the tables by seizing something of her own—the dealership’s name. After Tiah McCreary bought a 2022 Kia K5 from Taylor Kia of Lima and drove off the lot with financing arranged by Global Lending Services, the deal soured when GLS couldn’t finalize her loan. A month later, while McCreary was at work, Taylor Kia repossessed the vehicle. But McCreary didn’t just fume—she filed. While researching her legal options, she discovered that Taylor Cadillac, part of the Taylor Automotive Group, had failed to renew its registration for the trade name “Taylor Kia of Lima.” So, she registered the name in her own name and promptly sent the dealership a cease-and-desist letter demanding it stop using it. In June 2024, McCreary filed a lawsuit against Taylor Cadillac and GLS in Allen County Common Pleas Court, claiming violations of the Consumer Sales Practices Act, along with fraud, conversion, and unjust enrichment, and sought an injunction to bar the dealership from using the Taylor Kia name. The dealership fired back by demanding arbitration, citing the agreement McCreary signed during the sale, and the trial court agreed—dismissing the case so it could move to arbitration. But McCreary appealed, and the Third District Court of Appeals agreed with her, at least in part. The court found that while she did consent to arbitration for disputes related to the car purchase, her separate claim over ownership of the dealership’s name didn’t fall under that agreement. Writing for the court, Judge John Willamowski said arbitration only applies to issues tied to the consumer transaction—i.e., buying the car. Since naming rights aren’t tied to the sale, that claim must go back to trial court. So, while McCreary may be without a car, she might just get to keep the name Taylor Kia of Lima—if the court agrees it’s legally hers to begin with.

Attack of the Scanners: Rental Cars Now Come With Surprise Billing.  It used to be you returned a rental car, tossed the keys at the counter, and hoped they didn’t notice the crushed Dorito under the seat. Now, thanks to the magic of artificial intelligence, you get scanned like the space shuttle re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and billed $400 for a smudge you didn’t even see. Hertz and other rental car companies are unleashing AI-powered inspection scanners that can spot micro-scratches smaller than your trust in the process and convert them instantly into high-resolution invoices—often before you’ve cleared security at the airport. Hertz’s partnership with UVeye is already in place at locations in Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix, and beyond, and other brands like Sixt, Avis, and possibly Enterprise are jumping on the bandwagon faster than you can say “processing fee.” Apparently, it now costs $125 to think about your scratch, $65 to email you about it, and another $250 for good measure. Renters are discovering these charges not from a human conversation but through surprise texts or emails that arrive like digital mugshots of your rental, with a note saying “pay up or else.” One guy got dinged for a wheel scuff he didn’t notice. Another for a water reflection the AI thought was damage. Most are left battling a chatbot that takes 10 days to say “tough luck,” while early-pay discounts expire in seven. The best part is that nobody really knows what counts as “real damage” anymore—only the AI does. And disputing it is like arguing with a parking meter. So, if you rent a car anytime soon, bring a magnifying glass, a time-stamped photo album, and maybe a priest, because the machines have officially taken over, and they’re coming for your deductible.

Roadkill: Mercedes EQ Line Goes Dark in U.S. After EV Sales Crash. Mercedes has officially hit the pause button on its U.S.-bound EQ electric vehicle production, halting orders and shipments of the EQE and EQS sedans and SUVs effective September 1. The company isn’t saying when—or if—those models will return, which in Mercedes-speak sounds a lot like “don’t hold your breath.” This sudden stop isn’t just a speed bump, it’s a full-on EV retreat with hazard lights blinking. The EQB SUV and the upcoming electric CLA are still allegedly on the way, but everything else wearing an EQ badge is being quietly ushered out the door like an awkward dinner guest who overstayed their welcome. Meanwhile, dealers have been told to clear inventory, stop pitching EVs, and go back to doing what they do best: selling gas-powered luxury sedans and SUVs to customers who want horsepower, not kilowatts. Internally, Mercedes is shifting its development priorities back toward internal combustion, now promising to deliver more new gas and diesel models than battery-electric ones by 2027. That’s a pretty bold pivot from the same company that not long ago declared it would be “all electric” by the end of the decade. So, what happened? Car Pro Show listeners know, but to recap, electric vehicle sales have been sagging, especially in the luxury segment where price tags can reach nosebleed altitudes. U.S. EV tax credits are exiting fast, and not all Mercedes models even qualify. To move the metal, Mercedes quietly slashed prices by up to $15,000 on some EQ models—but even that hasn’t sparked the sales revival they hoped for. So now the EQ lineup finds itself in limbo: priced to move, but apparently not moving fast enough. It’s a humbling moment for a brand that threw everything it had into the EQ nameplate, and now finds itself quietly rolling it back like last season’s fashion trend. In the end, Mercedes’ dream of an all-electric future seems to be taking a pit stop—right next to a premium fuel pump.

WWE Legend Attempts Surprise Highway Main Event, Guardrail Wins.  WWE’s longtime puppet master Vince McMahon proved once again that rules, speed limits, and basic restraint are merely suggestions when you’re a billionaire with a need for speed and a Bentley. He reportedly tore down the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut at an estimated 80 to 90 miles per hour before plowing his 2024 Bentley Continental GT Speed into the back of a 2023 BMW 430i that dared to exist in his lane. The Bentley bounced off the BMW like a poorly choreographed wrestling bump, careened into a wooden median barrier, exploded into a confetti blast of carbon fiber and shattered ego, and managed to send debris into a nearby Ford Fusion that was just minding its own business like a lowly extra caught in a main event smackdown. While no one was seriously hurt and Vince himself walked away physically unscathed, his legal record picked up a new finisher in the form of a reckless driving charge and a tailgating citation—because apparently doing a two-car piledriver on a public highway still counts as a misdemeanor. To really drive the storyline into full surreal territory, the whole incident happened just hours before news broke that his old colleague Hulk Hogan had died, meaning Vince’s morning started with a crash and ended with a sad eulogy. Though knowing how WWE storylines go, someone probably pitched turning this into a SummerSlam event before the dust had even settled on the guardrail. Now fans and onlookers are left wondering whether this was just bad luck, a lapse in judgment, or a man trying to make a high-speed getaway from the PR disasters that have been trailing him like a forgotten tag team partner for the last few years. Because while the Bentley may be totaled, Vince’s long-running act of defying consequences at highway speeds—both literal and metaphorical—still seems to be very much intact.