New Pebble Beach Concours Chair Says People Under 40 Don’t Care About The Cars, It’s Expensive, And The Merch Is Boring

Our approach to Monterey Car Week every year is that there’s really no one right way to enjoy cars, so long as your enjoyment is socially responsible and friendly (e.g. not takeovers or coal-rolling). Over the course of one week, this little peninsula supports weirdos (Concours d’Lemons), raceheads (Historics), broccoli-headed paparazzi (Exotics on Broadway), vintage cars (Concours d’Elegance), new hypercars (The Quail), and everything in between. I fall into many of those camps, so I typically have a great time.

One of the big reasons why this is such a huge week is the flagship event, Sunday’s Concours d’Elegance. In the roughly decade that I’ve been going it’s grown in prestige and importance every year, thanks in no small part to the woman who has seen it become the pivotal show for a certain kind of car person. She’s passing the baton, and the new guy is curious if there’s enough of that certain kind of car person for the event to survive.

Today’s Morning Dump is all about barriers to entry. One big one for car buyers has been credit, and one of the key measures of credit availability just hit a ten-year high. Another challenge for affordability are the trade barriers put up by the President, and a new book details how hard automakers fought to stop them. With the loss of the Escape and the EcoSport, Ford’s biggest barrier to more sales might be an entry-level car. A new one is coming, and it sure sounds like the OG Escape.

‘Wow, Who’s Vince?’

There’s a lot to enjoy about this Hannah Elliott piece in Bloomberg on the legacy of Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Chairman Sandra Button and the new guy. It captures the inherent tension of the event and the challenges facing the next chair, Vince Finaldi, an attorney and car restorer. Lemme just start with this hilarious quote from McKeel Hagerty, though:

In this rarefied air, Finaldi is almost totally unknown. “As soon as it was announced, it was like, ‘Wow, who’s Vince?’ ” Hagerty says.

The joke here is that Hagerty has a Rolodex the size of a Packard Super Eight, so it’s noteworthy for him not to know someone important. I also had no idea who Finaldi was and I was also curious how anyone could replace Button. In just ten years, Car Week has exploded, and a lot of that has to do with the stature of the Concours, which has attracted new events, new auctions, and new people. Her tenure has seen the slow introduction of post-war cars, Japanese cars, and other vehicles that were not allowed, but the pricey event (it shuts down the Pebble Beach Golf Links) has still always felt authentically like the Concours.

Should things change? According to this article, the new guy has thoughts:

Over hash browns and eggs at Carmel’s Little Swiss Cafe, Finaldi lays out his objective: to modernize the $550-per-person fête that is prohibitively expensive for many families and dominated by cars unrelatable to pretty much anyone under age 40.

“It’s got a lot of room to scale,” says the ex-Marine. Top of his fix-it list are parking, official concours merch (“Car guys don’t wanna wear golf stuff”) and social media strategy. “When my own personal social media is more active than the leading car event in the world, that’s an issue,” Finaldi says.

The transition arrives as a younger cohort in car culture is now in the position to define the next generation of auto icons. Indeed, the market for vintage rides is increasingly driven by the tastes of influencers and investment firms rather than hobbyists. Even the most prestigious concours must adapt or risk calcifying into irrelevance.

I happened to be hanging out with Victor Muller of Spyker fame yesterday and, when talking about what Car Week might be like, he mentioned the Angeles Death Highway reel, which sums up some of the potential vibes:

 

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Do I want the Concours to change? It should evolve, of course, but I think I agree with Hagerty when he told Hannah that there are so many Paganis just driving on the streets of Monterey, or at The Quail, that they don’t necessarily need to be at the Concours yet (in 50 years, sure). No one is making more Brass Era Cars or Voisons, and it’s wonderful there’s a place for them to be appreciated.

At the same time, what’s classic to someone who is 83 isn’t quite the same to someone, like me, who is 43, and I don’t want to know what a 23-year-old thinks is a classic. A Lamborghini Miura is a classic to me, and this year’s tribute at the Concours to the Miura feels right, even though there will certainly be people there who remember when that was a new car. The last few years has seen cars from Le Mans, more Japanese vehicles, and fascinating categories like Wedge Cars:

I do agree the accessibility issues are real, both in terms of price (every year we generally talk to the same longtime attendee, and she’s mentioned that the expense is getting harder to justify) and in terms of sheer volume of people overwhelming the infrastructure. This isn’t specifically a Concours issue as much as it is a greater question for Car Week and the local authorities to address. Just getting anywhere during Car Week is a huge hassle, and David suggested yesterday that we might honestly be better off on eBikes.

Either way, we leave tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to seeing what this new year brings.

This Key Car Affordability Metric Just Hit Its Highest Level In A Decade

My new theme lately has been that, for all the k-shapedness of the economy, it’s not all completely terrible news for carbuyers. With interest rates climbing from nearly zero during the Pandemic, the availability of credit has been an ongoing issue. While it’s not an entirely solved one, the Dealertrack Credit Availability Index from Cox Automotive shows that a narrowing of yield spreads has led the index to its best level since 2015.

What’s going on here? More approvals for buyers with decent or good credit, slightly fewer subprime loans, and a lower share of negative equity all played a part. Cox Automotive provides a little more detail:

Conditions for financing a vehicle were more favorable in July, though the improvement was not evenly distributed. Approvals rose for a fourth straight month, improving across all four lender types and every used channel, with New the lone exception. Rate relief was narrower: The average contract rate fell 8 bps to 10.9% even as the 5-year Treasury rose, leaving borrowers in aggregate paying less over the benchmark than at any point since January 2025, though that decline came almost entirely from captive lenders, which cut 25 bps, while banks, credit unions and finance companies all edged higher.

So, generally good, but note that a lot of this is coming from automakers themselves via captive lenders, who are more incentivized to extend deals than traditional lenders. So long as the economy stays good and people can pay, this isn’t as much of an issue.

Automakers Tried, Unsuccessfully, To Stop Tariffs

President Trump’s “Liberation Day” has mostly been a liberation from profits for automakers, as the joke goes. Having potentially the most leverage, the Detroit Three automakers attempted to prevent tariffs according to a new book “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump” from New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.

I haven’t gotten a copy of it yet, but the Detroit Free Press has, and shared these details:

“In an early March call with three titans of the American auto industry — Stellantis (Chairperson) John Elkann, Ford CEO Jim Farley, and General Motors CEO Mary Barra — the president broke some tough news. Auto executives, echoing leaders across other sectors, had been making the case that the supply chains underpinning their industry would be thrown into chaos — and the industry itself crippled — by Trump’s 25% tariffs on vehicles from Mexico and Canada.”

Trump had paused the implementation of tariffs by a month, offering a little reprieve. But the book said he told Elkann, Farley and Barra during that call that “they all needed to buckle up” and “get on board” because the full tariff implementation would go into effect on April 2, a day that Trump dubbed “Liberation Day.”

The White House has granted various exemptions related to the USMCA, so it hasn’t entirely crippled the industry. Some of this seems to stem from the work of new Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has done a good job of maintaining peaceful relations with President Trump. Why has President Trump listened to President Sheinbaum? The book also offers an explanation:

Trump was not moved by the automakers’ pleas, the book said. In fact, it appears the only one to move him was Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who called Trump on March 6, 2025, requesting a delay on tariffs. She got her wish, in part because Trump liked the sound of her voice.

Sometimes it’s the message, and sometimes it’s the messenger.

It Sure Sounds Like Ford Is Bringing Back The Escape As Something Like The OG Escape, Just In Pure Hybrid Form

As our Mercedes has noted, the original Ford Escape was an exceptionally good vehicle. I’ve always thought it looked great, was the right size, and the fact that it was available as a hybrid two decades ago was impressive. Slowly, though, the Escape morphed into something more like a conventional, blobby crossover. You could argue the car got better in certain quantifiable ways, but I think it became less and less like an Escape.

According to information from a dealer meeting obtained by Automotive News (seemingly the same one with the Mustang news), Ford also showed a $25,000 hybrid that looked kinda familiar:

Ford executives showed dealers at a private meeting in Las Vegas early mock-ups of a small crossover that will have a starting price around $25,000, according to multiple people who were in the room. The vehicle, which the people said would be offered in gasoline and hybrid versions, is expected to go on sale in 2029.

People at the meeting described the crossover, shown on video and in early prototype form, as boxy and wide, with one person saying it resembled a first-generation Escape. Executives did not reveal the vehicle’s name to dealers and indicated that the designs were not finalized but shown only to give a general sense of size.

That sounds awesome. Just call it the Escape, make it kind of look like the one above, and make it a cheap hybrid to compete with the Traxes and Corolla Crosses of the world.

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

Do you know what David Tracy and Frank Zappa have in common? Both lived in Monterey because their fathers were attached to the Naval Post Graduate School (David’s dad as a student, Zappa’s as a teacher). This is where Zappa first learned to play music, and so today you’re all going to be treated to some “Cosmik Debris.”

The Big Question

Are you even aware of Car Week? Have you ever been? Does it mean anything to you?

Top photo: Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance