CarGurus Sued By New York City For Allegedly Lying About Dealership Prices – Jalopnik

Good morning! It’s Monday, October 19, 2026, and that is The Morning Shift, your every day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from around the globe, in a single place. This is the place you may discover a very powerful tales which might be shaping the best way Americans drive and get round.

In this morning’s version, New York City is suing CarGurus for deceptive prospects over car costs on its web site, Tesla is asking its shareholders to re-elect Elon Musk at its annual assembly (shock!), Jeep could begin constructing automobiles in China for Canada and Ford has gone too lengthy with out a recall, so it is issuing one.

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New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection goes after CarGurus, saying the web car itemizing firm deceived prospects about dealership costs on its web site. The client safety enforcement motion, filed earlier this month, contends that the corporate’s on-line value ranking system and use of synthetic intelligence chatbots in the end current false costs that cover further charges.

The division famous over 2,000 violations of town’s client safety legislation, and it is searching for penalties of as much as $3,500 every. All in all, it might price CarGurus tens of millions of {dollars}. The new lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, seems to be to completely cease CarGurus from deceiving New Yorkers and impose these civil penalties. From Automotive News:

“New Yorkers should be able to trust that a ‘Great Deal’ is actually a great deal,” division Commissioner Samuel Levine mentioned in an Oct. 15 assertion. “Our lawsuit seeks to stop bait-and-switch pricing, eliminate hidden fees, and ensure customers aren’t getting fleeced when making one of the biggest purchases of their lives.”

[…]

CarGurus mentioned it rejected town’s claims and vowed to “vigorously” defend the corporate.

“The allegations in the complaint ignore our decades-long track record of setting the standard for transparency in car buying and selling,” CEO Jason Trevisan mentioned in a press release posted to its web site Oct. 15.

CarGurus presents deal scores on its car purchasing web site that embody such labels as Great Deal or Overpriced. The firm says these scores are based mostly on a clear and goal evaluation, and now embody necessities that dealership charges are disclosed.

CarGurus did not implement its personal guidelines, town alleged. It mentioned the scores cover required charges or make them tough to seek out and that an AI chatbot featured on its web site additionally doesn’t present particulars of the charges in lists of offers it generates.

“CarGurus claims that it takes steps to remove such deceptive listings from its website,” the division mentioned, however added that it “found CarGurus failed to take adequate steps to enforce its own guidelines, leading to increased consumer confusion.”

CarGurus and different third-party itemizing websites needed to modify their itemizing insurance policies after a Federal Trade Commission choice in March instructed 97 dealership teams it thought-about it unlawful to promote costs omitting obligatory dealership fees, like doc charges and pre-installed car equipment. It mentioned marketed costs need to be true, out-the-door costs, except for authorities charges and taxes.

Sometimes, information is so surprising that you have to drop all the things to take discover of it. This is a type of instances: Tesla simply filed its proxy assertion with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asking shareholders to re-elect CEO Elon Musk to a three-year time period at its December 3 assembly. It’s an actual shocker, I do know.

Additionally, the submitting seeks re-election of Chair Robyn Denholm and ‌director JB Straubel to three-year phrases. The transfer comes a few 12 months after the Austin, Texas-based EV maker’s board granted Musk a efficiency award that was billed as a $1 trillion pay package deal. From Reuters:

Musk’s 2025 CEO Performance Award of about 423.7 ​million restricted shares is reported at a $158.4 billion complete ​within the abstract compensation desk.

None of the $1 trillion efficiency award’s 12 tranches has been earned. Each wants a market-cap ​milestone from $2 trillion to $8.5 trillion plus operational targets, ​and the unearned shares vote in proportion to all different shares.

Musk ‌exercised ⁠all 303.96 million choices from his 2018 award on June 16, leaving 286.4 million restricted shares that vest in January 2028 if he stays in a management ​position.

Tesla revealed ​it spent ⁠months working instantly with the SEC to pioneer a voluntary retail investor voting ​framework, in the end acquiring a proper SEC ​no-action letter.

Tesla’s ⁠pledging coverage caps borrowing secured by Musk’s pledged shares on the lesser of $3.5 billion or 25% of ⁠the ​shares’ worth.

In complete, Musk personally owns about 20% of Tesla, together with 207.5 million pledged shares, whereas Vanguard Capital Management holds 5.3%. I’m unsure if Musk will ever make that trillion-dollar pay package deal from Tesla itself, however he is actually going to attempt, and it isn’t just like the board is not going to do all the things in its energy to attempt to give it to him.

Things are getting mighty bizarre for Stellantis in Canada. The automaker is outwardly laying the groundwork for importing electrified Jeeps to our neighbors up north from China following a choice to scrap plans to construct the next-generation Compass on the idled Brampton Assembly Plant in Ontario. It now plans to promote the plant to a neighborhood protection contractor.

Starting in 2027, a three way partnership between Stellantis and DongFeng will construct two Jeeps on the market inside China and for worldwide export — together with Canada and Mexico. Don’t fret, these automobiles will not be coming to the U.S. From Automotive News:

The battery-electric and plug-in hybrid Jeeps, to be inbuilt Wuhan on the Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile plant, will leverage Dongfeng’s electrified car expertise. Lv supplied no additional particulars on the export plans.

Stellantis Canada mentioned the plan to import the Jeeps from China stays preliminary.

“At this stage, saying these vehicles are planned for Canada would be very premature,” spokesperson LouAnn Gosselin mentioned in an electronic mail.

She added that “potential imports” of the China-made Jeeps didn’t issue into the corporate’s Brampton choices.

The automaker’s weighing abroad Jeep imports comes as its Canadian arm stays entangled in a battle with authorities and its unionized workforce over the way forward for the Brampton plant.

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“The idea that Stellantis will import EV Jeeps built in China to Canada, while attempting to shutter a promised EV Jeep plant in Brampton, is entirely unacceptable and out of touch with Canadians,” Unifor President Lana Payne instructed Automotive News Canada in an electronic mail.

The plant hasn’t constructed a car since 2023, when Stellantis started retooling it for the brand new Compass. However, the undertaking was scuttled in February of 2025 when the Compass program was moved to the U.S.

Ford is recalling 2,276 2025-2027 F-150s as a result of somebody forgot to ensure the entrance seats are correctly bolted down. The excellent news is, lower than 1% of automobiles will truly be affected, in accordance with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The dangerous information is that it is the newest in an extended line of remembers for the Blue Oval in 2026. From The Detroit News:

The improper securements could not restrain occupants sufficiently, growing the chance for damage throughout a crash, it mentioned, although Ford reported it is not conscious of any deaths or accidents associated to the issue.

Dealer service departments will examine and tighten or substitute the entrance seat bolts, if mandatory. The repair will achieved freed from cost to the buyer, for the reason that recall classifies the difficulty as a security danger.

Owner notification letters are anticipated to be mailed on Oct. 26. The resolution is eligible for cell restore and seller pickup and supply, in accordance with a Ford letter to retailers.

A guaranty report on June 23 recognized a lacking seat-to-body entrance seat bolt on a car and that the entrance passenger seat-to-body entrance bolt was not totally seated, in accordance with a recall report. An investigation discovered an autoworker was unable to safe the seat on the car inside the workstation cycle time, which brought on a line stoppage in accordance with plant protocol. A workforce chief accountable for the restore indicated within the monitoring system that the repair had been accomplished, but it surely hadn’t. Investigators regarded for related points and repairs to establish the recall inhabitants, figuring out 62 car identification numbers based mostly on guarantee and area reviews with improperly secured seats.

This is Ford’s eightieth recall of 2026 — greater than doubling second-place Stellantis’ 39 remembers. All in all, FoMoCo has recalled 14,093,368 automobiles up to now. While we in all probability will not get to the 153 particular person remembers it issued final 12 months, we have already eclipsed the variety of impacted automobiles. Good work, guys.

History.com

Being implicated in a drug ring is without doubt one of the many causes I think about John DeLorean to be the good automotive government of all time. Nobody has sauce like that anymore, for higher or for worse, and you can’t deny that the DMC-12 seems to be sick as hell. I can not say it will have been fairly so iconic with out the film, however we’ll by no means actually know, will we? In any case, if you wish to be taught extra about DeLorean’s authorized points, head over to History.com.

Fuel costs have continued to development in the correct course, however at a snail’s tempo. Sure, fuel and diesel costs are happening, but it surely’s not taking place in any method that is actually significant for the typical American driver. It’s not serving to that WTI Crude Oil futures and Brent Crude are each nonetheless extremely elevated, sitting at $98 and $108, respectively, on the time of publication.

Here’s the place nationwide common costs stand proper now, in accordance with AAA:

AAA

This all shakes out to the typical value of a gallon of standard fuel staying just about the identical in a single day, in accordance with AAA. While Regular did technically drop a fraction of a cent, the typical value remained $4.30. It’s the same story with diesel, which was additionally technically down a fraction of a cent, whereas nonetheless remaining at $6.32.

There goes Olivia Rodrigo, dropping one other banger. This time, she’s received the assistance of Chappell Roan, and my private goat, David Byrne, even makes a cameo within the music video. It’s like this piece of media was made for me — a 30-year-old white man. I do know it wasn’t, however hush.