Penske’s $16.3B Buyout: Your Car Dealer Goes Private — Car News, Oct 16

Penske Take-Private

Penske Automotive agrees to a $212-a-share buyout

On Thursday, Penske Automotive Group signed a deal to be bought out by its two biggest owners. Penske Corporation and Mitsui & Co. will pay $212 in cash for every share they don’t already hold. The offer values the whole business at about $16.3 billion including debt.

This didn’t come out of nowhere. Back in July, the pair made an unsolicited bid of $210 a share. A special committee of independent directors spent the summer haggling and squeezed out two more dollars. The final price is about 8.8% above Wednesday’s closing price.

After closing, Penske Corporation will own roughly 64% and Mitsui about 36%. The deal has no financing condition, so the money is already lined up. It still needs regulators and shareholders to sign off, including a majority of the investors who aren’t tied to the buyers. The target is the first quarter of 2027. After that, the stock disappears from the New York Stock Exchange.

How big is this company? It sells cars in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and Australia. It employs more than 28,900 people. It’s one of North America’s largest sellers of Freightliner trucks. It also owns 28.9% of Penske Transportation Solutions, the business behind those yellow rental trucks, which manages more than 373,600 vehicles.

For a sense of scale: at today’s average new-car price, $16.3 billion would buy roughly 322,000 new vehicles off a lot. That’s more than a full year’s output from a typical large car factory.

Why it matters to you. If you buy from a Penske store, very little changes on day one. Same brands, same sales staff, same service bays. The bigger shift is in what the owners can do without Wall Street watching every quarter. A private company can spend on new stores, buy rivals or ride out a weak sales year without a stock price punishing it.

And the timing is telling. Car retail is a strong business right now, partly because prices stay high. Kelley Blue Book says the average new vehicle sold for $50,562 in September. That’s just $52 below the all-time record set last December. Incentives averaged $3,359, almost 9% less than a year ago. The owners are betting those fat margins last.

There’s a downside to watch. Public companies must publish detailed results. Private ones don’t. Shoppers, analysts and journalists will lose one of the clearest windows into how much dealers really earn on each car, each loan and each service visit.

Toyota Recall

Nearly 31,000 RAV4 plug-ins can lose drive power

Toyota is recalling 30,978 2026 RAV4 Plug-in Hybrids in the US. A software glitch in the motor generator control unit can make the hybrid system cut power, or shut down entirely, at higher speeds. NHTSA warns that losing drive power that way raises the risk of a crash. The fix is a free software update at the dealer. Letters start going out November 22, and Toyota says all owners will hear by early December.

The RAV4 is one of the most popular SUVs in Kenya, though most there arrive as used imports from Japan. If you’ve brought in a new-generation plug-in, ask Toyota Kenya whether your vehicle is covered.

Porsche Strategy

A new Porsche every year until 2030

The Mission S is the first piece of a bigger money plan Porsche calls “Value over Volume”: fewer cheap sales, more expensive and personalized cars. Porsche aims to launch a new model every year through 2030. Electric 718 Boxster and Cayman models are due in 2027, and a Macan replacement with gas and plug-in hybrid power follows in 2028. A three-row SUV above the Cayenne is still being studied.

NASCAR Phoenix

NASCAR lets Cup teams swap front brakes before Phoenix

After several Cup cars suffered brake failures at World Wide Technology Raceway in September, NASCAR will let teams replace front pads and rotors after practice and qualifying at Phoenix this weekend. Officials say there’s no limit on the work. The stakes are high: Sunday is race seven of ten in the Chase, and Kyle Larson leads Denny Hamlin by 49 points.