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Good morning and welcome to\u00a0The Downshift<\/a>, or\u00a0TDS\u00a0for short.<\/p>\n TDS\u00a0is about getting you up to speed on all the critical automotive headlines of the morning, and it\u2019s designed to pair well with a cup of coffee. Really brings out those citrus notes, in my opinion. It\u2019s Friday, let\u2019s dig in.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udefb Ford is recalling approximately 1.4 million F-150 trucks, built between March 2014 and August 2017, for a potential gearshift glitch that could result in a \u201ctemporary, unintended downshift to second,\u201d per the AP via U.S. News and World Report<\/a>. To remedy the issue, Ford dealers will update the vehicles\u2019 powertrain control modules.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcb5 Hyundai has confirmed<\/a> pricing for the Elantra N TCR special edition, and it\u2019s surprisingly reasonable at $40,495. The TCR variant adds an adjustable swan-neck rear wing, lightweight forged wheels, and Alcantara interior touchpoints, and is meant to commemorate the Elantra N\u2019s success in the category.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc54 Speaking of Hyundai, Stellantis has poached the company\u2019s former VP of national sales, Michael Orange, in a bid to capitalize on a decent first quarter and continue growth, per Automotive News<\/a>.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udd27 A Polestar exec for the Australian market told Drive<\/a> that plug-in hybrids are becoming \u201cirrelevant,\u201d and represent \u201cthe worst of both worlds,\u201d because they unite all the complexity and weight of electric and gas powertrains, increasing maintenance costs.<\/p>\n \ud83e\udd16 Mercedes-Benz shareholders are worried about the company\u2019s strategy to apparently double down on luxury, rather than technology, in China, according to Reuters<\/a>. I\u2019m curious if these investors have seen the dashboard of the new C-Class<\/a>.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfc1 Weekend Races to Watch:<\/p>\n IMSA at Long Beach: Saturday, April 18 at 4:05 p.m. Eastern on NBC<\/p>\n NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series at Kansas: Saturday, April 18 at 7 p.m. Eastern on CW<\/p>\n WEC 6 Hours of Imola: Sunday, April 19 at 7:00 a.m. Eastern on HBO Max<\/p>\n NASCAR Cup Series at Kansas: Sunday, April 19 at 2 p.m. Eastern on FOX<\/p>\n IndyCar at Long Beach: Sunday, April 19 at 5:30 p.m. Eastern on FOX<\/p>\n Got a tip? Give us a shout at tips@thedrive.com<\/p>\n 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\u2019s slate of daily stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[3543,1149,3544,103,3545],"class_list":{"0":"post-3568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-stellantis","8":"tag-f-150","9":"tag-ford","10":"tag-pickup","11":"tag-stellantis","12":"tag-truck"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}