March 10, 2026 | Edmunds’ Ivan Drury: Negative equity crisis here to stay; Nissan names new CFO

Welcome to Daily Drive for Tuesday, March 10th, 2026, I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas today on the show.

Jeremy Papin leaves Nissan amid turnaround struggles.

Infinity fast tracks a 600 horsepower QX80 red sport.

And Slate Auto names a new CEO ahead of its launch this year.

Plus, Edmunds director of Insights, Ivan Drury, joins the show and says the negative equity crisis is here to stay.

Unless you really force people to change their kind of behavior and call my sister stock going up, which we're like, yes, debatable too.

We'll just continue to see this issue.

Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.

Nissan is replacing CFO Jeremy Papin who's stepping down for personal reasons.

George Lyandis will take over April 1st as the auto maker braces for a 60 billion yen operating loss this fiscal year.

Papin oversaw North American operations from 2021 to 2024 and became CFO just last January under former CEO Makoto Uchita.

Lyandis inherits a tough job, shepherding Nissan through CEO Ivan Espinoza's revival plan to close seven factories,

cut 20,000 jobs and slash fixed costs through May 2028.

Meanwhile, Infinity is fast tracking a 600 horsepower QX80 red sport for spring 2027, aiming for quicker market entry before rolling out an even more powerful variant.

The red sport model targets around 600 annual sales. Infinity says it represents the first step toward a roughly 680 horsepower full performance QX80 expected in 2028.

The strategy acknowledges infinity's need for speed to market as it struggles with brand awareness.

Sam Fiorani of auto forecast solutions says infinity would be leaving money on the table if they didn't take advantage.

We'll have more on this story in a minute with our own Irvash Kakaria.

And Slate Auto has named a new CEO, former Amazon executive Peter Ferrisy will lead the Jeff Bezos backed EV startup ahead of launching its bare bones electric pickup this year.

Ferrisy replaces Chris Barman who becomes president of vehicles.

He previously led Amazon marketplace and brings marketplace and strategic leadership experience.

The company's two door pickup called the blank slate comes stripped of creature comforts and paint to hit a starting price in the mid 20,000s production at Slate's Indiana factory is planned for late 2026.

And those are today's headlines. You can read more about all those stories at auto news.com. Joining me now to talk more about the infinity story is automotive news Atlanta bureau chief Irvash Kakaria. Irvash, welcome back to daily drive.

Hi, Gell. Thanks for having me back.

Irvash, you mentioned infinity is adopting a pragmatic approach with the red sport variant before the more extreme track spec inspired version.

What's the intent with this more muted performance version?

Yeah, so infinity is planning a full blown performance line that would rival Mercedes Benz AMG or BMW M.

But that's going to take a little work. It's going to take a little time. They're going to partner with third parties to develop these high horsepower vehicles, you know, sporty designs.

So instead of waiting until all that gets developed and materialized, infinity is sort of taking a interim step where they're taking the QX 80, which is their flagship SUV and they are producing a red sport version.

So red sport is a was a performance line. It was applied to the Q50 and the Q60. So in this case, the QX 80 red sport will be a 600 horsepower vehicle. That's, you know, compared to, you know, about 540, 540 horsepower that the standard QX 80 is.

So it's not going to be as extreme as that AMG type model, which would be a 600 and almost 680 horsepower vehicle.

So it's kind of an interim step. It gets this performance vehicle to market sooner and it creates buzz.

One of the challenges infinity has is that it needs to raise its brand awareness, which is critical to driving sales. And by creating a vehicle like this, which won't be very high volume, it'll get people aware of the of the company.

It'll it'll draw in the enthusiasm crowd. It'll bring people into infinity stores, many of whom may not necessarily buy the red sport, but they will look at the rest of the lineup and they may buy one of the more, you know, standard vehicles.

Now the article notes infinity is targeting just 600 units annually for the red sport with dealer allocation based on QX 80 sales performance.

How does that limited volume fit into infinity's broader strategy to compete with established performance brands like AMG and BMW M? And what would success look like for this program?

So, you know, infinity is a luxury brand. They're not, they're not into mass volume. Their goal is as a luxury brand is to, you know, drive the price, sell at a higher profit margin.

And by limiting supply, they're able to get more profit out of each vehicle sold. So for dealers, this means, you know, a faster way to profitability.

It also is about creating scarcity. If you're going to appeal to sort of the enthusiast market with a high performance vehicle, you want to make sure that not everyone has one. You have to create demand.

And again, this vehicle is not about volume. It's about creating awareness of the brand, creating excitement in the brand, which will then help infinity sell. It's more volume models.

Perfect. Arvash Kakarya. Thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you, Kel.

Coming up, record levels of negative equity are trapping car buyers and loans they can't escape. Edmunds director of Insights, Ivan Jury talks about why this problem isn't going away anytime soon, and what it means for dealers trying to move metal.

That's next on Daily Drive.

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Welcome back to Daily Drive. I'm Kellen Walker.

The average amount owed beyond a vehicle's value hit $7,200 in the fourth quarter. And the share of trade-ins with negative equity is creeping back up.

Around John Hunter recently spoke with Ivan Jury, Edmunds director of Insights about why the pandemic era spike wasn't temporary and why he thinks the problem is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

I saw the large article you did on negative equity, which was just fascinating stuff. I mean now that we're hitting record levels and even the hair is starting to creep back up.

I guess one of the things I was trying to figure out and I thought I'd ask you is is this just like is this just going to be a temporary problem or you know where okay everyone who bought during the inventory shortage.

They're the ones that are actually driving this up and then in a couple of years it'll kind of work its way back through the system.

So just get your thoughts on how long this thing is going to the negative equity thing is going to kind of stick around as an issue.

Yeah, let's put it this way. The only reason why we saw the number go down years ago back in 2022 and 2023 when these loans originated that we're now seeing today is buyers were saved from themselves.

It had nothing to do with like you know systematic changes in the way people are thinking of the purchasing of cars or how long they're holding them.

It literally was used values were so high you could do no wrong right we're back like a normal trend where people are like hey you know it's been like years.

Let me go buy something else it's like yeah but you signed a seven year loan you don't remember that and you paid like 50.

So this problem is here to stay it's exacerbate by the problems of 2022 to 2023 that helped to go away in one sense right you had people say look I'm good I'll go back and I truly wonder if that same consumers thinking my used vehicle should be worth more and then they're like whatever I'll roll over that debt and we're back to business as usual.

Okay, so that's interesting so you think it and you think both the the share and the because the share was kind of up like I mean you pointed that out you know in your in your work that pre pandemic and everything the share of people with negative equity is higher than it is today but the matter to the amount they have is a lot higher is that's the you know that's the record.

I guess you see both persisting but you know both the share and the you know the amount or is it the amount starts to get less again but the share you know continues I think the the share will increase right and it's kind of like one's a function of another right you can only get that loan if you buy that expensive car if you have that much negative equity roll over.

So we know there's people being rejected we've got like 15 K upside down but they're trying to downsize to a $30,000 car sorry that's just not going to happen right so we kind of have these both moving in the same direction but that percentage tells me there's more people that want to do this right there's more people who are being denied that loan.

That loan the show the dealership they're like hey I'm itching get out of this car the payments too high or something like sorry can't help you know you're not buying an expensive enough car to get that LTV to be an acceptable rate for the bank so there's more consumers that want to do it.

The only question is how many are willing to how many can find financing that dollar amount that they're upside down I mean yeah we see that average sims 200 but it blows my mind and I look at this data at the VIN level.

Sometimes just to make sure I'm like let's drill it down yep that's $20,000 being rolled over in that grand wagon here you know it's like yeah after ends and the thing is that it's like as long as you have like the handcuffs on some people can't do it but you take the handcuffs off this this number both numbers are going higher guaranteed.

So just going you think going forward they're both going to rise then both amount and then used values kind of normalizing a bit right we're seeing more off we show up for you old values going to come down more off rental showing up in history that really near new news having lower values.

Yeah make this problem worse because we knew that when you look at the average age of who's trading these in yeah that's around like four years that's actually when the years we've seen which is kind of crazy.

Yeah you know that is fascinating yeah I noticed it was it was ticking up a little bit so you're thinking is that the with the share is even a like you're thinking it would be higher it's just that these guys can't get deals done at all you know like today share of negative.

Yeah if we install banks go above a hundred twenty five hundred thirty percent if they said I'll do a hundred feet with long value guarantee the numbers would be higher without a doubt.

Wow interesting do you see the amount dropping at all I don't know like you know what we're kind of like you said the you've still got kind of low you know like used values being pretty high and everything I mean do you see the amount dropping maybe in like you know I don't know like in that five to 10 year time frame is things kind of get back to normal a little bit or or

no maybe maybe five and ten years if we have some like systematic changes and like kind of how people approach ownership but I think the other problem is that as it stands our current trend is few releases.

But there's so many people that think okay I need that new car three years well they're not having a special so I'll sign up for fuck a seven year or like I'll go more than five years that I'm used to and it's like I think it was some of the other dynamics of how we finance cars and how we acquire them.

Now matching up ownership cycles this is how far where we are and it's like well would you have to have a subscription.

Well yeah maybe comes back in a play like people say when he made there's well I don't think we're there yeah I think American idea ownership isn't there yet but that sounds like a great solution I don't think it's the right one for right now.

But five to ten years like unless you really force people to change their kind of behavior.

Yeah.

And my sister's stock going up which we're like yes the baitable too.

Yeah.

We'll just continue to see this issue.

Yeah and you raise a good point here because I've talked to people where they're like well it's a temporary you know it was a temporary thing it was all the elevated you know during the the

interventory shortage but it's not like price new vehicle prices have really dropped back down to where they you know were before the pandemic or anything like that.

No and we have more vehicles being sold such high values and guess what they don't hold value right like this is down this problematic behavior we see is that yes you buy more expensive vehicle you buy fully loaded.

And yeah it's nice to have while you own it but guess what it falls at a quicker rate for depreciation might not be as bad as say 10 years ago but what if you buy a bunch of tech options what if you're buying options really no

whole value like leather sunroof they have an inherent value everybody get behind five little tech and three year old tech highly debatable right and thing is is that once we start seeing more new car incentives too.

We're starting to see cars sit even longer on the new car and it reflects the news car it's like it all comes tumbling down yeah it's not going to be like fall off a cliff but are the numbers going to be kind of like by popping every single every month every quarter yeah you better believe it.

Are you hearing more from dealers just that they can't get they just can't get customers placed with the negative equity they've got in terms of you know kind of back to the point of the deals we don't even see

because they don't even you know they don't even have.

Yeah that's the things that you know I haven't got out survey dealers yet on this data yeah all the people are highly receptive to it and then we get a lot ahead not in what it does come out when we look at comments and reactions but it's one of those things in which I think it was like Wells Fargo was even testing that 150%

to see hey how many more loans can we get it's like but you see more that behavior that lets you just demand there right and again yeah I keep getting reporters asking the same thing 96

month loans how many of those are we seeing and it's less than 1% but it's like look if all the other mechanics are there to allow this kind of to happen yeah it's wanted by dealers as well right because they do want to sell someone to call

it's like look I can do everything possible I can get you the exact car you want and I can get like the color you want from the dealer across the way or whatever it is

so I can get you to work out except for finance because you owe too much then yes I want that to happen in terms of a relief valve for the people with the high negative equity is it do you see them as is it you buy something just a really cheap used car and roll it into that or do you or is it a leasing is that kind of the way they can get it I guess

any I mean you guys are more customer facing you know what any thoughts on the best play there you don't hear that vote the best way because if it's like you've done it once I get it man like things happen

in life or maybe now you've got a job you got a drag to instead or something and like yeah you bought the wrong partner in the pandemic totally understand right down this twice shame on you you know three times you're a habitual

offended you need to lease you did you want to two year lease don't even go three year leasing like yeah leasing is really the best way to get out of it because it fulfills all your needs

right no you know it's technically more expensive well guess what's more expensive paint for car you haven't had in your driveway for five years now right because you're already on the

card number two with that negative that would be enrolled over again and again it's telling people to buy like a lower cost option while yes that would serve a very small portion

of the population that can actually keep that used car for a long time they just can't get the loan right you got average use car for 30,000 dollars

and now you're trying to roll over like 15k and then we the math the math out in the end it's not going to work you know it's

unfortunate because if somebody does like really have that like come to Jesus moment like you know what I've been doing it

all wrong all all this time and I want to make it right it's like unfortunately you can't it's just not going to happen so most people

honestly leasing is the way they should go and people have a stigma is against leasing that like oh well it's just like renting I want to build equity in my car

we're not doing all the way or there's mileage on the lease it's like you can buy more miles and it's like education could help but

you first got to start researching and finding out what those pitfalls are and a lot of people is just like well it's a shiny new

object I just I just want it so bad how do I make it happen seven year long let's go and three years later I don't like that

car it's like well you got a problem that's daily drive for today I'm Kellan Walker thanks to automotive news executive

producer Jake Nier as well as around Urbosh Kakaria Hans Grimo and Lawrence I live for their reporting for today's podcast

you can get the latest news on the negative equity crisis executive moves and everything happening in the auto

industry at auto news.com come back tomorrow for a look at how some dealerships are ready to test whether

AI can help them bypass third party listing sites entirely listing companies have been outdated for a long time

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