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A daily hot lap of headlines from the auto industry and car culture, curated by The Drive’s editors.
Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, a daily sweep of today’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.
Happy Friday! Here’s your bulletin for October 16, 2026:
🕹️ Some interesting details about Porsche’s Mission S flagship supercar emerged after the concept’s reveal yesterday in New York. In response to a question of whether the vehicle could offer a manual transmission, CEO Michael Leiters said, “Customer demand will define what we build on this platform.” It’s also worth highlighting that the shifter is height adjustable, and you’d have to wonder why Porsche would go to the trouble to engineer such a mechanism if it didn’t expect drivers to interact with the stick on a recurring basis. [Road & Track, Motor1]
🚢 Lexus is running dry on supply these days to the point that it’s affecting the bottom line, so the company will redirect 35,000 vehicles planned for overseas markets to the U.S. to alleviate the drought. A North American brand executive also confirmed that about 100 Lexus retailers will begin carrying the GR GT in late 2027; the Century super-luxury high-riding coupe is also still on track to be sold in the States, but that won’t happen until the end of 2028, and even fewer stores will offer it. [Automotive News]
🪲 In other Toyota universe news, the automaker is recalling 31,000 2026 model-year RAV4 plug-in hybrids globally for a glitch that could prevent the electric motor from working properly, leading to reduced power or even complete loss of drive. There have been 58 warranty claims in the U.S. alone related to this problem. [CarBuzz]
🛻 Slate has opened its first Experience Center in Chicago, where prospective customers and those just interested in the thrifty electric pickup can see them in person and survey all the available options, of which there are a great many. Test drives will also be offered from these facilities. [InsideEVs]
💺 95,000 Genesis G80 sedans ranging 2015 to 2020—including the Hyundai Genesis, before the brand was broken out into its own thing—have been recalled due to overheating seat motors, which have been a problem as of late for the Hyundai group. Believe it or not, this tiny defect could result in a fire, so owners are being urged to park outside until a fix is available. [Autoblog]
🤖 Nvidia has offered its self-driving technologies through a number of automakers in recent years, and the latest is Volvo. The automaker insists that it will deploy such features slowly and only in conditions and for use cases that it knows are safe, and plans to begin rolling them out in vehicles before 2030. [Reuters]
🏁 Weekend races to watch (all times Eastern):
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Phoenix: Friday at 7:30 p.m. on FS1
- NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at Phoenix: Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on CW/ESPN
- FIA WEC 6 Hours of Barcelona: Sunday at 6 a.m. on Max
- NASCAR Cup Series at Phoenix: Sunday at 3 p.m. on USA
- NHRA Texas Fall Nationals Finals: Sunday at 4 p.m. on FS1
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Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.
