This means using an app to get a ride when you need one, instead of owning your own car. The hosts are saying fewer people can afford to buy cars, so they’ll rely more on ride services.
“Robo-taxies” are self-driving taxis—cars that drive themselves. The point here is that if cars are too expensive, people may use these services instead of buying their own vehicle.
A car subscription is like renting a car on a monthly plan, usually through an app or a company. Instead of buying the car outright, you pay to use it—and the hosts say past versions didn’t really work out.
Interest rates affect how much it costs to borrow money for a car. When rates are high, the monthly payment is higher, so fewer people can afford to buy.
Volvo is a car brand. Here, the host quotes a Volvo executive to show that even big automakers think new-car affordability is becoming a serious issue.
This is a way to look at car sales by price category—like how many cars are sold in the $5k–$25k range versus $45k–$65k. The segment uses it to show how the mix of what people buy has changed.
An “affordability issue” means the cars cost too much for many people to comfortably pay. That can include the sticker price and what it costs to finance the purchase.
“Price point” just means a target price—like the starting price a company says the car will cost. They’re arguing that the real market prices and availability didn’t match those targets.
The Tesla Cybertruck is Tesla’s electric pickup. The point in this discussion is that the company’s earlier claims about when and at what price it would be available didn’t match what buyers saw.
The F-150 Lightning is a pickup truck that runs on electricity instead of gas. It’s designed for people who want a truck for work or hauling, but with the benefits of an EV like charging at home. It also includes ways to use its battery to power some things.
Profit margin is how much profit a company makes on each sale after paying its costs. The hosts are saying that in the past, companies used discounts to sell more, which can shrink profit margins.
“Deals and incentives” are things like rebates or special financing that make a car cheaper to buy. The hosts are saying automakers have used these to boost sales before, but it can reduce how much profit they make.
“0% financing” means you borrow money to buy the car and the loan doesn’t add interest. Your monthly payment is lower than a normal loan, but the car’s price still has to be affordable.
MSRP is the official sticker price for a new car. If that sticker price goes up a lot, then even a “0% loan” may still lead to monthly payments that are too expensive.
They’re saying the real issue isn’t whether there are good loan offers—it’s that new cars cost too much for most people. Even with discounts or 0% loans, the total price is still too high.
Ivan Drury is an Edmunds expert being quoted here. He’s saying car companies don’t necessarily panic about selling fewer cars because they can still make money per car, mainly from the more profitable SUV and truck market.
The “balancing act” here means car companies are trying to deal with customers who can’t afford new cars, but they’re still making money with what they already sell. The trade-off is that making brand-new cheaper cars costs a lot of money.
General Motors (GM) is used as the example of how a big automaker thinks about money and product mix. They’re investing in making the cars they expect to sell well and profit from, while also funding cheaper-model production—even if they don’t plan to launch a bunch of new low-cost vehicles.
A V8 engine is a type of engine with eight cylinders arranged in a V shape. The segment mentions it because GM is investing in vehicles that tend to use this kind of engine and sell well for higher profits.
Tariffs are taxes imposed on imported goods. Here, the segment notes that even after accounting for tariffs, GM claims its lower-priced compact SUV models can still be profitable.
Making a new car from scratch costs a lot of money. That’s why companies may only build new models if they think those cars will pay off over time, not just to chase sales headlines.
Stellantis is mentioned as a car company that’s trying to improve its situation. The idea here is that it will rely on offering lots of cheaper models to win back customers who are price-sensitive.
Cars need computer chips for things like controls and infotainment. When there aren’t enough chips, car companies can’t build as many cars, so they prioritize certain models first.
The Honda Odyssey is a minivan people buy for family trips and daily use. The hosts mention it to compare pricing against the Toyota Sienna and show where discounts show up.
The Toyota Sienna is a family minivan. Here it’s mentioned because the hosts are comparing prices and discounts to show what deals are available right now.
The Nissan Armada is a large SUV. In this segment, the hosts say it’s priced so high that it’s not likely to sell well compared with Nissan’s more affordable models.
The Nissan Kicks is a small crossover SUV. The hosts use it as an example of a car that’s been sitting at dealers and is getting discounted, so shoppers might be able to pay less than expected.
The Nissan Sentra is a smaller, more affordable Nissan car. In this episode, it’s mentioned because some dealers are offering big discounts, which can make it easier to buy than pricier models.
A dealer “discount” is the amount the sale price is reduced compared with the listed price (often MSRP). In this segment, the hosts translate that discount into an approximate percentage off MSRP to show how meaningful the deal can be.
A CVT is a type of automatic transmission that can change “gears” smoothly instead of jumping between set gear ratios. The host is saying Nissan’s CVTs used to be a problem, but they might be better now.
The Nissan Rogue is a popular family crossover. The host uses this specific Rogue listing to show how the price you see at the dealer can be heavily influenced by discounts and incentives, not just the sticker price.
The dealer invoice price is basically the price the dealer pays to get the car from the manufacturer. The host is using it to show that the dealer often has more flexibility on price than the sticker suggests.
A dock fee is an extra charge for moving the car from where it arrives (like a port) to the dealership. The host is saying it can get added back on top of discounts, so you should check the final breakdown.
The Nissan 100 NX is a small, older Nissan car from the 1990s with a sporty look. It’s the kind of car that can be advertised with discounts and incentives because it’s not a current model. The podcast context about fees and incentives is about how the final price can differ from the advertised price.
Customer cash is money the manufacturer offers you to help lower the price you pay. The host is arguing that it’s better when the car is priced lower upfront, rather than relying on rebates that can be confusing.
Average transaction price is what cars usually end up selling for in real deals, after discounts. The host is saying manufacturers already know this from dealer sales data, so they could set prices more realistically.
“Days supply” is how many days of cars are sitting on lots compared to how fast they’re selling. If it’s low, cars are selling quickly and dealers may have less reason to discount heavily.
Synthetic oil is a higher-end type of engine oil. It’s made to work well in hot and cold weather, and the speaker is saying there may be a shortage that could make it harder or more expensive to buy.
Dealer reviews are ratings or feedback about car dealerships. In this segment, they’re used to help you find dealers that clearly explain their fees instead of adding surprises later.
Carriage.com is referenced as a website feature for “dealer reviews,” where the hosts say dealers are ranked using a transparency-focused methodology. This is presented as a tool to help shoppers choose a better dealer experience.
A “doc fee” is a paperwork charge a car dealer adds on top of the car’s price. The hosts are saying their site checks whether dealers clearly disclose these fees.
LIVE
It's noon here in Venture City, New Jersey, and our nation's capital, Washington, D.C.,
and this is Carage Live for Thursday, May 28th, with your host, me, Ray, hanging out
this condo in Venture City and Zach, hanging out this office in D.C., before he boards
a train to Philadelphia to make his way to the Jersey Shore, ladies and gentlemen.
How are you today, handsome?
Better than our audience's ears after Tuffalo Delta.
Anyway, I'm doing fantastic. Can't wait to hang out with my dad tonight and celebrate his 75th
birthday. It was on Monday. Can't wait to celebrate with you. Dad's going to be so much fun tonight
and this weekend. But before we get there, we need to talk about consumers who are refusing to buy
cars. And before we get the privilege of talking about that, you have to remind folks that today's
show is brought to you by CarEdge.com. For those of you that are unfamiliar, back at CarEdge.com,
me, my dad, and our incredible team for six years have been providing car search, car buying services,
research, which we just got a request from Bloomberg. So you'll see our name in Bloomberg
soon about cost of ownership data and all that fun stuff. And importantly, dealer reviews,
insurance, and warranty on dealer reviews, folks, if you're not using the dealer reviews experience,
you are missing out. We've got 6,249 A-rated car dealers. Buy from them. They have no
relationship with CarEdge. We just tell you to avoid or your mileage may vary with F-rated
dealers, for example, who do things like drum roll, please have $1,298 dock fees on 64% of
their car deals include add-ons that almost add up to $2,000. And their online advertised price
is 8.2% below what you're actually going to get on the quote when you call them. So folks, use
the free dealer review platform to inform your car shopping experience CarEdge.com
to learn more. Dad, the big story this morning comes by way of the Wall Street Journal. A journalist
named Sharon Turlep got this headline published. 1 million new car buyers are gone and they're not
coming back soon. High gas prices, rising interest rates, and stubborn inflation are keeping buyers
at home and cars on the lots. Any guesses, we'll review this together. Any guesses, Dad, because
I know you didn't get a chance to read this. Any guesses what this article is about?
The affordability crisis? The affordability crisis, man. It's finally getting some mainstream
attention. And to be clear here is drumming up quite the conversation over on the Wall Street
Journal. Almost 1,400 comments. I also have the Reddit thread pulled up for this as well,
because it's fascinating to read through some of the comments from the community over on Reddit.
But Dad, let's start here. Your thoughts on that headline. 1 million new car buyers are gone
and they're not coming back soon. My first thought is only 1 million? Only 1 million?
You know, I believe it'll be more than that. I believe that number will continue to grow.
I believe the manufacturers don't care that that number is continuing to grow.
It is part and parcel of where I think we're headed. And there will be two types of people
in this country, ultimately at some point in the future. Those who can and do own automobiles.
And then the rest of us who can and will utilize rideshare technologies and
robo-taxies and things of that nature, because they're just not affordable enough for us common
people to be able to buy a car. And I think ultimately that's where we're headed. And you
might say to me, but if we get there, well, how do these manufacturers stay in business?
Well, there'll be big-ass corporations that'll be buying the robo-taxies, the wamos, whatever it is,
they're going to need something to transport their customers in. But it won't be individuals,
like we've seen in the past, who are the ones that are actually buying the cars.
Now, it could be this type of evolution, like you're describing, which we've seen already in
past iterations. We've seen subscription service offerings for cars that have all, for the most
part, failed. I mean, we saw third-party companies try and do subscriptions. We saw OEMs try and do
subscriptions. Some of you may have never heard about this. This was maybe 15 years ago even,
where it's like subscribed to a car and you pay a monthly payment. So it could be like some
iterations or evolutions of what we've seen in the past is what I'm hearing you describe.
I will say that, let me pull back up the Wall Street Journal article. The reason I think this
is getting the attention it's getting now is because the automakers are coming out and saying
things like, oh yeah, we were wrong. And so let me read a little bit of this article to you and
our community. What did they say? They said they were wrong. Let me read. The U.S. auto industry
faces sobering new mats. Some 1 million prospective buyers have defected from the new car market
since the start of the decade and they aren't expected back soon. Until recently, auto executives,
analysts, and economists believe that the U.S. new car sales steady climb back to volumes last
seen before the pandemic closed factories and scrambled global supply chains. That's no longer
the case. GM, Ford, Toyota, and other automakers have said they are planning for sales of new cars
to shrink or stagnate this year after consumers sung by persistent inflation, rising fuel prices,
and high interest rates are balking at prices that have risen to around $50,000 on average.
I'm going to jump here, Dad, to the quote from Eric Severinson, who's Volvo's chief commercial
officer saying, quote, this is a real threat to the whole industry. It's a proof point of
something more fundamental, which is wrong in the general economy that people are not able
to buy new cars. And then I will follow that up with that, the data from Edmonds, which shows here
the share of U.S. car sales by cost. So you can see, Dad, this gray area that's $5,000 to $25,000
car sales, it has shrunk from 21% of all cars sold to 5% of all all cars sold 25 to $45,000 cars
used to be 57%. Now it's 49%. And you can see here the big shift 45 to $65,000 cars used to be 17%.
Now it's 31%. 65 to $85,000 cars used to be 4%. Now it's 11%. And $85,000 or higher cars make up
the same proportion as those $5,000 and $25,000 cars used to be 1%. Now it's 5%. So your reaction,
Dad, to both the comments from those executives or that executive and the data on the screen.
I think that's great corporate speak. I really do. I say the same thing every day.
We see every manufacturer state that, yeah, there's an affordability issue.
You know, Chrysler is going to come out with two or three vehicles that are under $30,000 by 2030.
Dodge is going to come out with vehicles under $40,000 by 2030. Just using inflation suggests
to me that well by 2030, the Chrysler won't be under $30,000 and the Dodge won't be under $40,000.
We haven't seen a manufacturer announce a future vehicle launch. And at the time they announced
that there was going to be some point in the future, this new vehicle at a certain price point.
And the two most famous ones were the Ford Lightning pickup and the Tesla Cybertruck.
And both were said at the time that they would be $39,995.
Yeah. Okay. Neither one of them ever got it. You may be a pre-owned Lightning,
but none of them, no new ones were available at the price point that was mentioned when Ford said
we're going to start producing a Lightning and Tesla said we're going to start producing a Cybertruck.
Watch this movie before is what you're getting at here.
It's like we're in summer reruns 12 months a year. Okay. It doesn't matter whether it's
summer, winter, spring, or fall. We are in this rerun period where manufacturers are going to say
or have said we are going to start producing more affordable cars
three and four years from now. Well, what happened to now? Okay. Three or four years from now,
if there's a million people that are out of the market today, how big will that number be
by the time these supposed vehicles will be produced and finally shipped to dealers?
So I hear the corporate speak. I see them saying all the things that you would expect them to say.
And then I look at automotive news every morning. Go ahead, pull it up.
And let's see how much higher the average price is today than it was 30 days ago for new cars.
It's only $720 higher than it was 30 days ago. And they're only $1822 higher than they were a year ago.
So if you look at those numbers and you listen to the words that come out of these
executives' mouths, you have to come to the conclusion that the words are not matching
their actions. And so the words are pure unadulterated 100% corporate BS, in my opinion.
Now some of the data that this Wall Street Journalistic cited here is really interesting.
Historically stagnating sales led automakers to juice demand by rolling out deals and incentives
that eroded their profit margins. That isn't the case this time, particularly at America's
automaking giants GM and Ford are making solid profits selling fewer vehicles. Now I will mention
here. I think we're one of the few groups out there that reports on this. There are more
0% financing offers today than there were at the end of December last year. So just let that sink
in for a second. So I agree that the automakers are not stepping up enough to move the metal,
but they're stepping up more right now than they did at the end of last year. So they are feeling
the pinch here to a degree. But here's the problem if I may. You may. Take 0% interest
for 60 months in most cases on say a $66,000 truck. And so with tax... It's not enough here.
Let's call it $72,000. Divide $72,000 by 60 months. And exactly how much is that payment
with zero interest? Yeah. So let's put interest rate zero. We'll do down payment is zero,
whatever. We'll include the taxes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And the payment's $1,212 a month.
Yeah. So you can come out with all the 0% interest rate loans you want.
And even if you did it for 72 months, it's still not affordable. Okay. So you are not addressing
the root problem. And the root problem is that the MSRPs on most new cars
grew so dramatically over the last five or six years that there's no way to make them
affordable for the vast majority of the buying public out there. I had this conversation last
night with our dear friend Frank Lutz when I was on Ranch Auto with him last night. It's just
the chasm between those who can and those who can't has never been greater, never been wider,
never been deeper. There has never been a time in our history where so few people
can participate in things like buying a new car than today. Because the vast majority and when
I say the vast majority, 85, 86, 87% of the population can't participate. That's huge. That's
what they're doing. So yeah, you know, by the time Chrysler has their resurgence
with whatever they're going to allegedly come out with, and Dodge has theirs with whatever
they're going to come out with that's under $40,000 allegedly. Instead of a million people
that find themselves out of the market not coming back, it'll be $2 million or $3 million.
Because nobody is addressing the issue now. If I may, Dad. You may.
From Dan, thank you for this, Dan. The bottom line is that automakers are perfectly happy selling
less cars but making enough profit per car to keep the lights on. I come back to the article here,
Ivan Drury from Edmunds was quoted, quote, I don't want to say automakers are okay with this level
of sales, but they kind of are. It's not like back in the day when they'd be hacking away
at the price to lift sales. That's because selling big trucks and SUVs that dominate those
automakers lineups is more lucrative than selling larger volumes of cheaper cars. You go on to
read this article, Dad, and what's especially interesting is this here. Automakers face a
balancing act. They stress the need for more affordable options, yet right now their business
is fine without them. General Motors, GM, for instance, is spending billions to upgrade their
factories that make lucrative pickups, SUVs and V8 engines. At the same time, the automaker just
pumped $600 million into a South Korean unit that builds its lowest-cost US models that are in
hot demand in short supply. GM has said that even with tariffs, those models for compact SUVs that
sell for less than $30,000 make money. Yet introducing new cheap models isn't part of GM's plan,
a spokesperson said. The company is, quote, very comfortable with its portfolio as it stands today,
noting that developing a new vehicle is costly and money the company should spend only if a
model will add value over time. Just more data there to help corroborate what you're describing,
or in the case of Dan, what he's describing as well. You can make more selling fewer,
and so that's the direction they're all going. Any other conversations they have
regarding affordability is just lip service. It is really nothing more than that. It is
to be able to generate a headline, whether it be an automotive news or the Wall Street Journal
or Bloomberg, you know, Stellantis' resurgence is going to be based on where we're going to come
out with so many models that are under $30,000 or under $40,000. That's just an illusion.
We're going to have all that for you by 2050, ladies and gentlemen.
But that's why I think it's important for us to report on this reporting, because it's in a big
publication, it's in Wall Street Journal, and it is customers refusing to buy cars,
and they've quantified it. It's not that they're refusing to buy them. They can't afford to buy
them. If they could afford it, they would, but they can't. And to blame it on high interest rates
or high gas prices, no, it's high prices for the vehicles. The wage earners wages have not
kept up with inflation, especially the inflated selling prices of new vehicles in this country.
That's the issue. It's not that they can't or they won't. They just can't do it. They can't afford
it. So if they can't afford it, what are they going to do? They're going to rent a car when
they need one. They're going to use an Uber or Lyft, whatever. But people are making choices.
And the choice today is, well, I need food and I need shelter. And I'm finding it difficult to
afford those two items. So why should I then invest in a losing proposition like an automobile
and have the high cost of insurance and the high cost of fuel eat further away at my budget?
People are choosing not to because they just can't afford to.
Now, Dad, one of the most interesting things in this article is this chart that shows you
US light vehicle sales volume over time. Now, all the way on the left, you can't see it.
We're covering it up is 2016. Now, when we've gone back and we've actually compared sales
even from like the 70s and 80s, and especially when you look at it relative to population growth,
car sales in the United States have been flat to down over any time horizon you look at,
whether it be a couple of decades or in this case, the past 10 years or so.
And so this shows you the car market has changed materially and it's still massive.
We're talking 16 million cars are going to be sold, but it's been stagnant for a long time.
And I think that's very much so a reflection of prices. And obviously, Dad, to your point,
people find alternative ways to get from point A to point B.
Interesting time to be in our business, if I'm being honest, we've built a whole business around
helping people buy cars, research in cars, etc. And it feels like it's a stagnating market,
still massive, but stagnating market because these automakers have made it unapproachable in many
ways. Well, it is a stagnating market and it has been. And they're perfectly content with that.
I mean, what does that tell you? We watched over the last five years, MSRP skyrocket.
Why? Well, first it was because there was a chip shortage. Okay. And if you could,
if there's only so many chips available when there was that shortage, the manufacturers had to make
a decision, are we going to utilize those chips in our low profit margin, less expensive vehicles?
Or since we have fewer vehicles that we can afford to build,
are we going to put them in our higher profit margin, highest priced vehicles? Well, we know
what direction they went. I do, though, Dad. I want to shine a light on where I think at least
there's a little bit of good news in the auto industry. I want to try this at least. And then
we're going to come to the chat. Not every vehicle is insanely expensive. I'm going to the car search
and I'm going to pick on a brand here that we use to talk about more, but actually even look at
this Honda prices. You're cross shopping a Sienna and an Odyssey right now. Look at that.
The dealers advertising $2,500 off MSRP, $44,000 MSRP might sound high, but when you
go compare it to the $53,000, $54,000 MSRP of a Sienna, the Toyota option, like there are,
just even on this first page here, it's interesting to see prices in the 40s and discounts off of
listed price. But the brand that I'm thinking of, Dad, right now is Nissan. Yes. Yeah. I mean,
to be clear here, this is an abomination. An $83,000 Nissan Armada is not what's going to move
the metal at a Nissan dealership. But if you're looking for affordable transportation, it is
out there. These are Sentras and kicks. Look at this kick, Dad, for a second. Think about this. So
this is where I think the bright spot is for car shoppers. This kicks right here. Yes. This
dealers had it for 229 days. They already have it advertised for a $2,500 discount on a $30,000
car. Last time I checked, that's 8, 9% off MSRP. You go threatened to buy this thing,
you might be able to get 10, 11, 12% off of MSRP. So there are some brands out there. And yes,
To be clear here, Nissan is on a split course because this first page of results shows it very
quickly. You've got a kicks for 27, 288. You've got a Sentra for 25, 593. And you've got a Nissan
Armada for $82,000. But at least there are some options out there. Vehicles that are sitting for
a long time, dealers who are advertising aggressive prices, if you need mobility today and you've
refused to buy a car because it's too expensive. Yeah. And here you go. Igor Sane actually shoot
for 13 to 15% off MSRP. Great. Great. Like there are opportunities out there. So that's my one
little caveat of good news. Yeah. And absolutely, people are going to say, but the problem with
that is, well, you ended up with a Nissan. And there was a time when Nissan built a really quality
car. And I believe for the most part, they probably do today. And I really don't know
how much difficulty they're still having with their CVT transmissions today.
You know, maybe they had some real issues with them 10 years ago. But perhaps they've actually
addressed that. And they're better transmissions today than they were then. What brand is making
somewhat of a comeback, but struggled mightily. And that was Nissan. If I may, Dad, if I may,
just one more example here. Yes. This is at that same dealership, a Nissan Rogue.
They've had it only 27 days. It costs $34,750. The dealer's invoice price on this is $33,347.
They are advertising it at $4,500 off MSRP. You go to the dealer's website.
This is great. This is great disclosure, by the way. Yes.
Dealer discount, $1,500. Nissan, the manufacturer incentivizing it $3,500. Then they add back their
Dock fee in the title. I mean, this is... What happens? Let me ask this question.
This is huge. If you're in the market, go buy that Rogue.
I'm not saying it's not huge, but pull that example back up again.
Of course. What happens if, if this is just an if, if instead of Nissan offering $3,500
customer cash, they reduced the damn MSRP by $3,500 and actually priced the vehicle
where they expect to sell the vehicle. You've heard me say this a number of times.
Manufacturers collect data from their dealers. They get a financial statement every month
as to what the dealer did, sold, how many of each model, what the transaction
price is. They know what the average transaction price it takes to move every one of their models.
So, knowing that, what if you priced your vehicles at the average transaction price
as opposed to inflating it by $3,500. Another brand that did this really well like that
was Ram. My goodness gracious. It was like, it was like when Joseph A. Bank was a thing with,
you know, the club and, and everything, you know, you buy two sport coats, you get one free.
Well, imagine being the schmuck that showed up on the day they didn't have that sale.
Okay. And the same concept applied to Ram where, you know, normally there was like $10,000
customer cash from the manufacturer just lower the price to what the average transaction prices
are. Quit with this nonsense of creating this false sense of a deal.
I hear you, dad. And that is one of the most affordable options out there right now. And
the market conditions actually suggest that this is very competitive. I mean,
maybe you can get more off from the dealer. To be clear, I would encourage anyone who reaches
out to them to negotiate. But in this area, there's only a 73 days supply. There are 342 for sale
within 100 miles, 210 of sold in the last 45 days. So these cars are turning over, whether you
like the fact that that MSRP is what it is, but then they're doing the discounts or not.
And if I may, dad, this is why I love so much about what we built a car edge. On this vehicle
detail page, you can look at the car buying cheat sheets. You can go to deal school from right here,
access the information. Here's how you're going to negotiate with your salesperson. Here's how
you're going to negotiate the best auto loan rate with the finance officer. Use the information we
equip you with there to have a successful negotiation. And to me, it's just a counter
anecdote to what we've read about and talked about all day, which is car market stagnant,
car market screwed, customers are refusing to buy. There are some options out there,
and I think it's worth pulling up from. Go ahead. From Lego Joe. Thank you, Lego Joe.
We really do appreciate it. Car prices don't just hit buyers and sellers. They ripple through ride,
share, food delivery, taxis, rental cars, and insurance. When transportation costs rise,
everything that moves gets braced here. I think that's spot on. Absolutely. Absolutely. I was
having a conversation with our dear friend Frank. Let's last night talking about synthetic oil
and how there is projected to be a shortage of synthetic oil come July that could last well
into 2027. So he's already seen a 30% increase in the price of his oil products that he needs
for his repair shops. That means that when somebody brings their vehicle in for service,
the cost of servicing that vehicle has gone up because the cost of the parts and lubricants
required has gone up. So yes, it just ripples through the economy and makes it harder and harder
and harder for people. Yeah, really well said from Lego Joe. From Matthew, good to see you, Matthew.
There's a 2018 Nissan Centra Stick Shift on Turro available this weekend at the Jersey Shore. $200
time for Zach's big adventure. Let's get some content. I'll bring a GoPro with me. We'll see
what happens. Yeah, my girlfriend could teach me how to drive stick this weekend. That could be a fun
thing. My girlfriend and my dad yelling at me as I blow the clutch on a 2018 Nissan Centra.
That, I mean, what sounds more fun than that? Do you want that for your 75th birthday? Would
that make you happy, dad? Oh my, blowing somebody else's clutch? Sure. You're awesome, Matthew.
Thanks for that. And also, we appreciate this. Don't worry, Pops. Cheap used EVs are coming.
You see that POS Ferrari just released. Wait for the depreciation on that. Find piece of Italian
electrics. You know what I couldn't get over? The fact that a guy from Chicago, the Pope,
is there helping to promote that electric Ferrari. And I'm just thinking to myself,
did he do that just for an Italian beef sandwich? I mean, come on. What do you have to pay the Pope
to endorse your $600,000 electric Rucke?
What do you get, the Pope that has everything to begin with?
That's so crazy. Yes. One more thing I want to pull up here is also from Lego Joe earlier in the
show, I used the dealer reviews. Help me choose an A-rated dealer instead of an F-rated dealer
down the road. Again, folks, this is like, I think one of the best things in addition to the community
and other stuff we've worked on, carriage.com slash dealers or just go to carriage.com,
then up here on dealer reviews, click on any of these. We rank dealers. You can read the methodology
actually. We'll pull it up right here. Here's what we do. We rank dealers based on how transparent
they are with their fees. So we compare them to either their local doc fee or if we don't have
their address, we compare it to the national doc fee. We look at their add-on behavior. So how
often are they adding add-ons, things like paint protection, theft deterrent, et cetera. We look
at how much they mark up their prices as compared to their online advertised price and we back out
sales tax in that calculation. We look at the quality of their data. Did they just do a line
item that says fees or do they explain what those fees are? We grade every dealer we interact with
on a scale from A to F and then we make that information accessible to you back at caredge.com
slash dealers. You can search by brand. You can search for dealers. You can use the map. You
can compare dealers side by side. So please use this as part of your research process. It is free
and I think it is one of the most rich data sets out there to help inform where you should actually
do business and quite frankly dealerships that need to clean up their act. You know who else
could utilize that? The dealers. Yeah, of course. Of No, we get
dealers reaching out to us every day. Hey, how do I improve my grade? Let me explain to you
our methodology and I pay to improve my grade? No. Very simple. You know, if we would accept
money from them to improve their grade, we could be a billion-dollar company.
Very sure. But I think we would instantly lose all credibility and trust.
DealerRader.com dad, you know, I mean, we've watched that movie before too.
I did get a phone call from a dear friend of ours yesterday who left the Maryland area and is
helping to run a store in Florida and he said to me, he said, well, how do we become part of
your dealer network? I said, go to our website, scroll down to the bottom and on the bottom,
it says, dealers, click on that link and we'll get you there. Yeah, 100%. You know what the
qualification is to be a part of it? Having a grade. Pretty simple stuff. Anyway, folks, use
those resources. Super proud of what me and my dad and our team have built. Huge thanks to that
journalist over at the Wall Street Trail for covering such an important topic. Hopefully,
we're helping to shape the conversation around how important this is as well.
And as you all already know, we'll be side by side tomorrow for my dad's condo in
Benton, New Jersey. So please tune in for another episode of Car Edge Live then.
Pops, I've got a train to catch this afternoon. I'm going to go eat some lunch. And if I may,
I'm wearing my dad's old jersey. It actually, here, I'll show you.
Says Razzle in the back. Yes. So you know. Okay. That was given to me by a gentleman by the
name of Joe Hipple. Joe Hipple was the leading salesperson at Sun Pontiac at the time when I
was the sales manager there. And Joe was from the East Coast as well. And we were cardinal
seasoned ticket holders together. And we used to go to the Cardinals games. I remember, and the
store was open on Sunday. So we always had to make sure we're off. And then there was one Sunday,
I wasn't sure I was going to be off. And then the general manager fired me that morning. And so
I was able to make it to the game without any, any, what? You're funny, man. You're so funny.
Well, you know, you have to take the good with the bad. You try and find the good and everything.
Hey, I get to go to the game where otherwise I wouldn't have been able to.
Igor wants to know, will we do a Saturday night jump? Maybe. That could be really fun. I don't
know. Let's see. Let's see. We've got dinner plans though. We do have dinner plans Saturday night.
Let's see. And if I may, it is, it is a family weekend. Oh, yeah. We're going to be with your
granddaughter. Yeah, probably not this weekend. Okay. Yeah. So, we'll be fun though. I've been
kind of itching to go live on a Saturday night again. I am not ruling that out. I mean, we used
to do it every Saturday night. It gave me something to do on Saturday nights, you know. So, yeah,
but not this weekend. We got the whole family together. We're not going to interrupt family
time for business time. You're right. All right. Okay. All right. We're back tomorrow. Can't wait.
Dad, enjoy the afternoon. It's beautiful out. Folks, we'll see you then. Yes. I think I have to go
food shopping or something for all you kids coming down. I'm going to be hungry. And any request,
I heard you wanted the Chabani plain yogurt. Are we good? Anything else?
See you tomorrow, folks. Just let me know.
About this episode
Rising costs are reshaping car buying: “High gas prices, rising interest rates, and stubborn inflation are keeping buyers at home and cars on the lots.” Hosts connect the demand drop to sticker prices outpacing wages—“the MSRPs on most new cars grew so dramatically over the last five or six years.” They argue automakers can tolerate weaker volumes and profits, while pricing/availability promises (like “Neither one of them ever got it”) haven’t matched reality. With affordability squeezed, people turn to rentals and rideshare, and the show pivots to how CarEdge grades dealers on fee transparency.
Today on CarEdge Live, Ray and Zach discuss the latest from WSJ. Tune in to learn more! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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