Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short.
Tight, dense, and lacking filler, TDS gathers the latest automotive headlines from around the globe and puts them in one place. Stories are summarized in a single sentence accompanied by a link for those seeking more information.
🔊 Episode 6 of The Drivecast went live yesterday and it’s all about Rivian’s RAD. You can listen to the latest episode on the site by navigating to the Podcasts tab or on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify..
🚨 Just to reiterated what Senior Editor Adam Ismail said yesterday, we are making some scheduling changes that will see Mr. Ismail taking over TDS duties on the regular every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You’ll still get your full dose of Feder on Tuesdays and Thursdays most weeks.
And with that, the first cup of coffee is gone, definitely ready for a second, and it’s almost time to get my daughter to school. Let’s get into it.
🚘 What I’m driving: Spending the week with the 2026 Volkswagen Golf GTI and am simply charmed by the iconic hot hatch. But the control interfaces, particularly the touch-based sliders for the climate and volume, are horrid to live with and hard to comprehend how someone thought these were a good idea. At least they are now backlit.
💨 Subaru of Australia General Manager Scott Lawrence said “there has been a significant volume of feedback” regarding the desire for a new STI and “the tempo of news and activity out of STI publicly is picking up;” the comment comes hot on the heels of Subaru displaying two STI-badged concepts (one electric and one gas-powered) in Japan in October and another STI-badged car in January, “as those concepts proved, lots of work in that space – STI isn’t dead,” Lawrence said.
🔋 Lexus announced pricing for the new 2026 ES lineup and the EV costs less than the hybrid model.
🎉 The first new Alpina model under BMW’s ownership will debut on March 6 at the Amelia Concours show in Florida.
🤖 Subaru’s no-cost hands-free driver-assist system for highway driving has arrived for the 2026 Outback.
🚨 Honda and Acura recalled 65,135 EVs for two separate issues that are both software related and will require a trip to the dealership for updates.
📈 For the first time the retail king, Honda, will shift some focus to include fleet sales to help lift volume while attempting to shield used-car residuals.
🗓️ The BMW i3 will debut on March 18.
🪦 The Kia EV6 GT has been put on ice until further notice for the U.S. with the performance variant of the mainstream EV getting hit by tanking sales and tariffs.
😳 The Honda Insight has returned, but not in the way you remember it; the Insight nameplate has been resurrected as an electric crossover for Japan.
🚨 Ford recalled 604,533 vehicles due to the fact their windshield wiper motors may fail.
🚕 The NTSB said Waymo robotaxis did indeed illegally pass stopped school buses in multiple incidents.
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