How Tariffs are Affecting the Car Market

Welcome back to Switchcast Season 6. Coming near the end of this season, I'm your host

Doug Tabott here with my co-host Tyler Sanders and also Ethan Huffnagle, the International

Executive Producer. Ethan, I'm sorry, you are not and also you are never an afterthought.

You are just behind the scenes.

Switchcast is a podcast where we know what we're talking about despite evidence to the

contrary. We only talk about cars, definitely no politics unless they're somehow related

to cars, which seem to be intertwined. In fact, yet again tonight we're going to talk

about tariffs and how they are affecting the car market because it is always changing.

Let's see, what is our warm-up lap? I know what our warm-up lap is. Why am I asking questions?

I don't know. If you enjoy this podcast and you have less questions than I do, please like,

share, and subscribe. It all helps out with the algorithms and maybe somebody else might enjoy

it even more than you and they will thank you for referring to them, their new favorite podcast

and you'll become an even better friend. Oh, I love it. Unless you have too many friends

and then send it to somebody if you think they won't like it or they'll binge it so

much that they won't call you anymore. I don't know. I guess there is many hours of

switchcast at this point. There is a lot of archival evidence that could be used against

us in the future. Okay, now we'll get to our warm-up lap. First, I want to announce we are having

a special now annual Christmas live stream with the All-Star Cast, the All-Stars of the Switchcast

Cast, Monday, December 22nd at 6.30 p.m. Eastern. That'll be on YouTube and on Patreon. Speaking

of Patreon, we want to thank our patrons who pay a little bit extra of dollars to get a lot

extra of content, exclusive content behind the scenes, live interaction with us every Tuesday

that we film, bonus content, and yes, they'll be on with us for Christmas, but you can too.

The link to sign up for Patreon is patreon.com slash switchcast, or if you're dyslexic,

we can also, you can also sign up at switchcast.com.live, switchcast.live slash Patreon. Either way,

it'll get you there. Just bring your credit card. Our Patreon topic tonight is a good one.

Our producer, Ethan, came up with it. The psychology of roadside police encounters,

tips and tricks, myths, things to do, things to not do. Don't run, that's the first one,

but we've got some real ones from insiders, not police officers, sorry, not that inside.

Anyway, that should be a good discussion topic. What is fueling this podcast, Tyler?

Well, I think to start out, we've got some delicious Elmer T. Lee bourbon,

courtesy of our technical advisor, Mr. Dan Doucette.

Yes. That was very good, Dan. You're brilliant. Get the pour on, Mike.

Yes. Let's go. I need a little more. Wonderful. All right. I am drinking cheap red wine at the

moment. White wine, cheap white wine even worse. We are very different people in this moment, Doug.

Oh, it smells delicious. Oh my goodness. Let's see. In the news this week,

or social media news, oh man, post isn't available. How much of this stuff? This is a

second article we have tonight that has been pulled down. It's just too controversial.

It's too hot. Anyway, somebody converted an air-cooled Porsche 911 to EV, to a battery-powered car,

which I think is stealing the soul of that car. I'm not against all EV conversions. I think some

of them are actually really good ideas, but not an air-cooled Porsche, but the battery or the wiring

caught on fire. And I've got to go off memory here because the video has been taken down.

I think it burned for 22 hours, or maybe I'm conflating that with a different article.

So I found it on Florida scanner, the central Florida scanner Facebook group,

and I don't think they say in here, I'm just skimming. No, I am conflating it with a parody

article. That's what it was about a Tesla that burned for 22 hours. But anyway, I will say 12

units had to respond to this fire. Really? Insanity, and there's just billowing black smoke,

and there's like all these different guys getting in the rear. It's where the, I guess, EV

power, whatever caught fire happened in the rear. Yes. That's too bad. It's not saying that internal

talking too fast, internal combustion cars can't catch on fire, and they do. I mean, technically

they're powered by lots of little fires. Yes, that is also correct. And a big tank of flammable

liquid. However, I just, classic car enthusiasts and purists feel somehow justified when something

like this happened, as if the god of automobiles struck this Porsche with lightning. Especially

like an air cool, like why? Just speaking of lightning struck portions, the GT3 that got

struck by lightning, I was bidding on it on the IAAI salvage auction, and they continually didn't

get how much they wanted. So it just kept re-auctioning, and it's no longer on their site. So I don't

know where it went. Oh, yes. TBD, further GT3 TBD. Further research to be done. Do we think it went

to a YouTuber who's going to make a bombastic title? Oh my god, I've got a lightning struck GT3.

It would make a good title, and YouTubers need content. So I sent it to a few of the

big time YouTubers I know, and it wasn't, I don't know, quite salacious enough for them.

Well, because it's a GT3 with a Metzger, it's going to just keep running. Just put a new ECU in it,

it'll be fine. Probably, probably. Let's see, we love to follow up on things that we've discussed,

and recently, well, many, many times we have discussed

texting and driving. But recently specifically, we were talking about a bunch of emergency vehicles

that have gotten hit. But near our house, so we have two lane roads everywhere around our house,

and this happened like within a mile of our house a couple weeks ago, somebody allegedly,

but reportedly under the influence, crossed the center line and caused a pretty bad head on

collision. One victim was a pregnant mother, she was less than seven months pregnant, and she gave

birth to her kid the next day, which is very not good, and can lead to a lot of potential

lifelong health issues for the kid. So yeah, that's not a good time.

The comments on the Facebook post, unfortunately, we're full of people saying that people should

slow down, one person said they should stop tailgating. That definitely is what caused this

scenario. Right, and it's amazing that people just can't seem to grasp how a car would cross

the center line. One insurance claims processor in the comments even chimed in with her expertise

that the majority of her claims for these types of accidents are people swerving to avoid deer.

Now look, there are a lot of deer around where we live. I see them all because I got eyeballs out

because I don't want to get hit. I have not once seen another person have to swerve.

Especially into oncoming traffic. Yes, if anything, I would just slam on the brakes and

carry steady on because I'd rather hit a deer than a car. I think everybody would.

Come on lady, that is what they are telling you because they don't want to somehow get in trouble

for texting because texting is an offense, it's a driving offense swerving to avoid a deer isn't.

Who swerves to avoid a soft stationary object that's up on pegs for legs

and they can't sue you, the deer can't sue you in order, but who swerves to do that in order

they hit a hard object that's traveling the same speed in the opposite direction thereby

doubling the force of the impact and one that's full of people who could be injured and might sue

you. There's a reason that texting and distracted driving is not listed as the majority of the

cause of actions is because nobody will own up to it. They all lie. And everybody does it.

Every single time I see someone on the road make a maneuver or do something that I'm like,

well, that's weird or oh, or they may be inebriated or like what's going on,

it's because they're staring at their dang phone. Stop. We also want to follow up on

estate sales. We talked about whether or not estate sale auctions were a good or bad place to

buy a car. And we referenced wholesale ish repo auctions. But one transaction in particular

was sent to me by a good friend, John, and it is a 2015 911 GT3. And it was right here in Ohio,

but it was on govdeals.com, a liquidity services marketplace. It was a repo GT3.

And I wanted to see how this transaction compared to what you could buy on the open market.

And sure enough, wait a minute. I thought it sold. Last time I checked, this car had sold

for $129,000 plus fees for a 19,000 mile 15 GT3. And I was going to say, wow, that's

like pretty high money. That's not a great deal. But now it looks like it's open again.

And it closes on December 10. And it's up to $101,500 and the reserve is met.

So I, well, I guess we're going to find out. Well, nine people are viewing it right now, Doug.

Well, eight other people. Seven. Six, my mom is looking at it too.

Okay, well, that's strange because it definitely said reserve was met and it sold. So I don't know

why there's a Q&A further down the page that says the buyer defaulted. So they had to relist it.

How ironic that a buyer defaulted on a repo auction.

I'd say GovDeals is dangerous if you're just slightly, you know, lightly toasted, as Ethan

would say. You can find some real interesting things like all of the weird aircraft or like

airport vehicles, all the little like stubby trucks and like baggage carriers and weird stuff.

You can get those cheap. And if I was, if I made a lot more money and drank a lot more,

I'd probably have a fleet of random airport vehicles. I just want to drive, I want to work

at an airport for like a week just to drive the little stubby trucks. Just hang out with Mark

Spence and let you drive some stuff. National Guard equipment. Well, I guess we'll have to

our eye on that GT3, but yeah, I don't know if it'll go for a deal like we discussed, probably not.

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How tariffs are affecting the car market? I want to talk about this in two different ways.

One, new cars and two, classic cars because we definitely want to talk about imports of cars

because that is more directly affected by the tariffs because it's a one-to-one

thing. If you buy a car in Europe and you want to bring it in yourself, you pay the 15% tariff

versus with the manufacturers. Different ones are absorbing it or passing a portion of the

cost along. A lot of manufacturers only are having their costs driven up slightly because

they might manufacture the car in the US but they're paying more tariffs on a lot of the parts or

whatever combination. Looking at a few different articles here from, let's see, the Wall Street

Journal, finance.yahoo.com and NAIDA, which is the National Independent Auto Dealers Association.

We're referencing all of them there. The big takeaway is that fourth quarter sales for new

cars are going to be way down. They were already down in October. The November sales numbers are

coming out. Well, they will probably be announced right about the time that this podcast goes live,

but they're expected to be down about 8% to 9%, which is a massive, massive number. Obviously,

EVs are way down this quarter because the tax incentives ended for them. There's a big surge

in EV sales right before the incentives ended and then they just fell off the map.

Well, and I also think I might be getting ahead of myself here, but we also had a rush

to buy vehicles before these tariffs were put into place that probably reached forward and

ate up some of the demand that would have otherwise existed. And it didn't because

the numbers were very strong through the third quarter for all the manufacturers.

And according to the Wall Street Journal, 2025 was predicted to be a banner year,

fueled by tax cuts, and we were supposed to have an annual sales increase overall

for the third straight year. And up until the fourth quarter, we did. But it seems like the

tariff pressure finally is hitting people along with the increased prices. Manufacturers have been

bumping up their sticker prices even before the tariffs and people's average loan payments

have been going up and up and up. So essentially, we have the highest average new car price we've

seen in America for new cars and used cars, just like everything is up.

Well, so that average payment, this is a wild statistic, so I wanted to make sure I looked

it up and it was accurate. Is it $750 a month? On average, that is insanity.

That's new and used cars, correct? Because I believe new cars are above 800.

I think just might be both. I have heard over 800.

Yeah, that is new and used. You're correct.

Yeah, that's even worse. I know. I know. So we're seeing downward pressure partly due to

tariffs, partly due just to overall pricing. The surge in demand during the COVID and slightly

post-COVID era drove manufacturers to ramp up their pricing and they're not now decreasing

the pricing. It's there to stay and a lot of them are able to initially absorb the tariffs because

of their margins, but manufacturers, most manufacturers are taking a big hit in terms of

profitability, but it's not just the overseas manufacturers. Both Ford and GM are down this

quarter. General Motors did quite well this year gaining a ton of market share. Their

U.S. market share is up to 17%, which may be partly due to tariffs. So we have

an article from West Coast Shipping that's talking about the numbers of vehicles being imported

from European manufacturers and those are all down significantly year over year. So of course,

when you have less cars being imported, that opens up for American manufacturers to pick

up some of that slack. But of course, a lot of European and Japanese car makers are

manufacturing here also. Isn't it like Toyota or Honda or something that has a big plant in the

Carolinas and it's like all of those are essentially American cars if you consider where

they're built? Toyota has the majority, I want to say it's like 80% of their cars,

but it's more than 50% of their cars for the U.S. market are built in the U.S.

Yeah, that just makes business sense. If you need to sell that many vehicles,

shipping all of those from overseas is going to be a lot more difficult,

say might as well make them here. Let's see here, but let's look at the numbers of cars coming over

and that's something to that's a good takeaway as well. So from January 1st to October 31st,

2025, according to West Coast Shipping, the container data from 14 key origin countries shows over

12,000 cars imported compared with 33,000 in the same period of 2024. So you're looking at

just over one third of cars coming into the country versus a year ago. Most of that have been the

newer imports. So Korea is way, way down, Italy is way down, Italy's total volume is down roughly

22%, but Ferrari, who's been kicking butt in their financials, beating all the high-end European

car manufacturers is beating them again in terms of the number of cars coming into the U.S.

Let's see, 4,540 cars arrive from Italy in the first 10 months of 2025. It was the largest single

source of containerized car imports to the U.S. Nearly all of this volume is new Ferrari product.

Whoa, yeah, yeah. Japan fell from about 14,000 cars in 2024 to 4380 in 2025.

Subaru and Asuzu volumes shrank and more mainstream models shifted away from containers.

South Korea dropped from 4,600 to just 376 cars. China effectively disappeared from the data.

5,300 cars in 2024, mostly new GM vehicles to 96 units. So, I mean, this is what Trump wanted,

right? Yeah. He wanted cars to not be imported. He wanted manufacturing to bump up in the U.S.

Now, what surprised me is the number of collector and classic vehicles coming over

did not drop that much. It did drop some, but very small percentages and not even from every

country. Spain, Germany, they decreased from 1,200 to just over 1,000. United Kingdom,

they decreased. The Netherlands, they increased by like two. Australia, they increased, but that's

such a small thing. I think instead of 15 cars, there's 20, but I'm kidding, but it's a very,

very small blip on the graph. I personally expected the numbers on classic cars to drop

a lot more than that because you're literally paying a one-for-one amount. And the cars that

I've looked at in Europe at buying, I won't buy them anymore because I look at the tariff

and the exchange rate that combined double whammy. It used to be almost even with the euro

the dollar did. The numbers just can't make sense anymore.

So if you look at the type of folks who would be buying a car to import that is classic or

otherwise enthusiast based, those kinds of folks who would be in the position to do that anyway

are still in the position, most likely, even with the increased cost. So if it's something

that they want, if it is a specific model or a specific spec or trim or whatever,

that's the only way you can get it. So they're probably still going to do it in just stomach

the additional cost. You don't want to do that because you look at the value proposition,

but if you had more money than cents, you probably don't care. More dollars than cents.

Okay, but I would think it would still shrink. The other thing that I thought would happen

is that the market in Europe would be affected significantly for the classic cars because

the majority of their buyers or it seems like a big portion of their buyers are in the US.

Their market hasn't. Their asking prices are still very, very strong. So it's not like it's

like coming out in the wash for US buyers. They're just paying a lot more, but the cars

are still coming over. So that one baffled me. What I do think is interesting related to that

is the market in the UK seems to be down, but we don't want to import their cars.

It's a normally Americans wouldn't want to import those cars if we could get a left-hand drive

version. We're talking about overall or classic cars because you know Jaguars in the UK.

I was talking about classic cars though, and I specifically have been exposed to some of this

when I was looking for GT3s. They're significantly cheaper over there, and it seemed a lot of

things are, but you were buying right-hand drive potentially driven in climate bad weather cars

that like just, I don't know the market. It's a smaller market than for left-hand drive cars

that Americans would want to import more. The exchange rate also went way in their favor just

in the last six months. So I think that may be affecting it the most. But back to new cars,

talking about how unaffordable they are. We're talking about payments, talking about the increased

MSRP and the slump in sales. Now a lot of articles attribute it to the tariffs,

and Congress actually, there's a Senate committee meeting to hold a hearing on automobile

affordability because they're seeing this crisis of sales slumping, new cars not selling as much,

and of course, well not of course, Ted Cruz, a Republican called this hearing,

pedal to the policy, the views of the American auto industry on the upcoming surface transportation,

reauthorization, lots of big words. Anyway, executives for four car makers, General Motors,

Stellantis, Tesla, and Ford have been invited to serve as complainants. I mean witnesses,

the executives are not going to go there to complain about how their sales down and say

that the government has to fix it. That never, ever happened. That's not a thing. No, it's

definitely a thing. They're going to lobby the government to do something about it to,

I don't know, give incentives or something. But I have a problem with this.

The biggest problem is the concept of, hey, I'm from the government, I'm here to help.

I think this is not a government problem. This is a people problem. People choose to buy cars

that are way too expensive. People choose to do 18 year payments. People choose to do a 10%,

15% interest rate. Okay, maybe they don't have an option because they're a credit score or whatever.

But automobiles are still affordable. You can buy a $10,000 used car, Dave Ramsey.

You can put off your purchase like nobody forced people to go out and pay over sticker for Broncos

in 2021. People just had this fervor of, oh my gosh, I can't get it. So I'm going to pay too much.

And the manufacturers and the dealers all got freaking rich off of that

enthusiasm. And now they're complaining to the government, oh, people can't afford cars because

their payments are too high and they're upside down in them and sticker prices are too high.

Okay, well, we reap what we sow both from a manufacturer perspective and from a consumer

perspective. So it bothers me that the government is trying to fix this problem

when this is really just a private market thing and it's really a consumer responsibility thing.

The manufacturers can't raise a sticker price if we're not paying it. Supply and demand works.

So if consumers just say, no, we can't afford it, we're not going to buy it,

and prices will go down. Well, and it seems, this might be me actually putting on a thin tinfoil hat,

that in the scenarios I've paid attention to, so if there's something I'm missing,

please let us know in the comments so I can get educated. I'm not trying to be an expert.

The government likes to get involved in cars when people aren't buying new cars.

We talk a lot about laws at the state level and the federal level that really benefit

buying new cars and are really focused on new cars for our car-focused society.

I wonder if Bernie Marino is in this committee, Mr. New Cardiola turned U.S. Senator.

I think they don't want used cars that are better on your pocketbook, that are better

on the environment, that are better, yada, yada, yada, to be the solution.

Because it's to the point where I was looking up some articles while you were

kind of talking through some stuff, and it seems that the Senate Democrats and Republicans,

per an article on Axios, are bringing up vehicle safety requirements as the reason

that cars are so expensive for features like automatic braking and lane keep assist. Those

are the things making cars expensive, they say. And I don't know if that's true or not,

actually. I have no idea. No, no, no. Sorry. I'm scrolling down this article. There's this

heartwarming story of Mr. Zudo, a 35-year-old from Idaho who needed a new car after his older

Acura was totaled in an accident, which I'm sure he got an insurance claim for the amount of that

vehicle so he could have bought another older Acura with that exact dollar amount, but he didn't.

He and his wife have a newer Tesla but wanted a reliable and reasonably spacious second car

that could hold up on long road trips. And the Tesla, blah, blah, blah. She's a doctor. He stays

home, but he followed with DRED, the news reports about ever climbing vehicle prices and he

approached the car buying process ready to do battle, blah, blah, blah. You didn't need to buy

a new car. You can't complain about it. You have another newer expensive car.

Nobody feels badly for you. I don't anyway. No, I don't. Truthfully, and I'm not the market for

this and that's fine, I don't understand unless you plan to spec a car or literally run it into

the ground over like multiple, like probably 20 years why you would buy a new car. You know, even

when we were getting a car for my fiance, I was trying to, that's what she is. It's a newer car.

We got a CPO. There were reasons that we wanted to make sure it had a warranty and yada, yada,

yada, because I don't have cars with warranties. We saved almost 10 grand off of the price of

a new car. So yes, it wasn't as frugal as buying a cheaper 10 or 15 year old used car,

but there's also you don't have to buy a new car even if you want a newer car.

You can save so much money. Yes, and that's what a lot of these articles say. Used car sales are

up. Used cars are booming and we're experiencing that as well. People are buying used cars.

But no, oh my gosh, the new car dealers aren't making enough money even though they

friggin took advantage of everybody the last few years with COVID and I'm blaming COVID,

but that's what they all blame. So it's just an easy target. You can't just have a down year and

be okay with a down year. No, we need to have a congressional hearing on how to fix this.

I'm pretty sure there is a lot of many other things that I would prefer that those

dear public servants focus on. I don't think this is it. Yep. Speaking of negotiating,

because you typically negotiate when you buy a new car, you get some real

expert negotiators often if you're selling anything that dealers see it all the time,

especially on Facebook Marketplace. And our shrew negotiator segment likes to highlight,

dare I say, make fun of those people who are extra special in their negotiations. This one

is from a friend and past guest and fellow sleazy used car dealer. And he got this message from

somebody who is trying to negotiate the price down. They first asked if the car would still be

there in the spring to which Kent responded, no, I don't think so. And then the would be buyer said,

we get that all the time. You told me a long time ago when I was thinking I wanted a 944

before I got I thought better of myself, you had one. And I was like, well, if it's still here

in the spring, I might buy it. You're like, are you going to pay me for storage? And it was such

a perfect response. I loved it. So then he goes, this is special. I don't know about spending

over 10k on a car though, because then the IRS gets involved. And I know you won't take 10k.

So and plus it's going to cost me, I probably have to drive there and I'd have to drive two vehicles

back plus the weather is getting bad. Maybe it's still be available in the spring.

I would have to see the car in person and test drive it first see. I'd ask if you could ship it

to me so I could see it and test drive it and decide then then I do 12. But I don't want to

sound ridiculous again. Too late. You sound ridiculous for a 10 to $12,000 car. Well, apparently

the IRS doesn't get involved if you ship the car to him and he pays 12. I don't understand where

that is. This like the, you know, the, oh, the government doesn't know if you take out, you

know, $4,999 in your bank account, but they know if you, but it's only cash. It's just this $10,000

thing. People think that you can't carry $10,000 across state lines. You can't write a check for

more than 10,000, all this crazy stuff I've heard. And it's not true. To be fair, when I've

have worked with you guys, the lovely folks at switch cars, including yourself, I didn't realize

I could write a personal check for the amounts of money that I've like written for cars. That just

seems insane to me, but it works. I don't know. It's what the check is for. That's what the check is for.

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to mention you found them on Switchcast. It's been too long since we've covered a scam,

and our friend John Sabo sent us one this week that was a dealer that was a fake dealer

that was using other dealer's pictures, and the address came back to some

nothing in Arizona. It was just a rundown building. I was like, wow, that's pretty low-hanging fruit.

We'll cover that one, but it was just like every other fake dealer site scam I've seen before.

I think they get creative or something. Well, they did. They did. This is the best one I found.

This one popped up on Facebook yesterday, I believe on the Wholesale Car Club website,

a guy said, this site is fake. I know because they stole the photos of my car from my bring-a-trailer

auction. Oh, so we know it's a fake spoiler alert. This is a scam, but let's start from the beginning

and go through our process to determine whether or not it's a scam. This is a good one.

GEDbrokerage.com, as in I got my GED because I couldn't graduate regularly.

So, first thing, I checked the website and I ran the Who Is. The website has a phone number

listed there. They have an address, 185 Parkwood Drive, Spartanburg, South Carolina 29301,

contact at GEDbrokerage.com, not like GEDbrokerage at Yahoo or whatever.

Yeah, hours of operation, a nice, fairly nice website.

Honestly, this website feels not terribly scammy.

Yeah, kind of like almost up to par of SEMDEC designing one.

So, I checked the Who Is. The domain registration comes back to the address listed on the website.

It does. It's not a private registration. Okay, good start. I plugged in the LLC

in South Carolina, expecting to find absolutely nothing. Well, no, GEDbrokerage LLC comes back

as a valid company that was registered in 2015 with a certificate of good standing.

Rhonda Anderson is the registered agent and the address is the same as what's on the website.

So, so far, so good. However, when you look a little further, GEDbrokerage is a transport broker

registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Now, I want to back up. What is

GEDbrokerage? GEDbrokerage, if you go to that website, if you haven't already, it is a bring a

trailer knockoff. It's not your typical dealer cars for sale site. It is an auction website

where they have repo auctions for high end and classic cars, equipment, heavy equipment, RVs

and boats. And I guess not all repossessions on there, but that's one of the things they highlight,

maybe for the SEO. Okay, so GEDbrokerage is LLC is registered as a transport broker.

Also at that address, Get Er Done Transport LLC was registered there under a Matt Anderson.

Remember Rhonda Anderson is the registered agent for the GEDbrokerage. That company,

the Get Er Done Transport LLC was dissolved in 2015, hence came GED, much shorter, went from

transporting to brokering, became more efficient, even with the use of letters in the name.

The address itself comes back to a mobile home at the end of a dirt road. Now, it is possible,

but not plausible, that a bring a trailer competitor would be based there. However,

the property is much more consistent with the transport broker as, well, you can't spell broker

without broke. Let's see, according to property records, it last sold for $3,500 in 2023, which

is less than the opening bid of nearly all the cars on there. However, the current owner is

still listed as Matt E. Anderson, the one who formed the LLC there in 2010. So we've got a

little bit of conflicting information there. Regardless, all of this, other than it being

a location that's not highly likely for a operation of this size, everything kind of checks out.

So let's review the site. Well, not kind of checks out, it's a transport brokerage. So

not everything checks out. I don't want to get ahead of you, but I'm seeing some weird stuff

right now. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. I'm so locked in. So there's lots of cars, tractors, etc. for sale.

It's a nicely designed site. They even have car facts reports for the listings. So that's definitely

a step up from other scammers. There's lots of guarantees on the website, including, quote,

trusted partners like Chase Bank and B of A. They have some incredible promises,

like six month warranties included with all the purchases, free delivery within 500 miles,

a return policy with a full refund, everything that you would never get from a real auction

company. And therein is one of the red flags, because if it's too good to be true, if they're

speaking of making people feel secure, did you get the pop up on their website that says,

yes, you go look at like Google the reviews or like whatever. I did. Did you go look at those?

I did. This is insane. And so it is, it redirects you to Google with a specific search string. So

there's no like company for GED brokerage with reviews. And you get a bunch of websites that

all have a very consistent naming style. Yes. That are allegedly forum posts from 2023. Yes.

And it doesn't feel real. I went to the internet archive and it doesn't exist.

It doesn't exist. Uh-huh. You would think the internet archive has to have something if there

was a forum post in 2023, that domain must have something that's been crawled. And I've checked

like two and they don't exist. So I thought, I thought that those forums, because they have

actual users with the number of posts and how long they've been members and stuff, I was like,

okay, well, maybe this is such a high level scam that they created forums and created users and had

AI posts and stuff like that. No, there's no, they're all dead links on the floor. So the page

that you pull up is the only page you can see everything else you click on. It just gives you

a pound sign in the URL. It doesn't go anywhere. Like all of the names are in like three parts.

It's the something club, the something circle, the something posse, like the a description,

and then a grouping of some kind. Right. Also, if you read the posts on those forums, they're all

people typing in perfect English with great punctuation and grammar. And I'm like, nobody

does that. And a lot of them have like numbered points. But they're all, it's all SEO friendly.

It keeps on referencing GED brokerage. They all look the same. It's crazy how fake it looks.

But if you do a quick glance, you're just like, Oh my gosh, all these people are sharing their

wonderful experiences with GED brokerage. So if you search the who is domain name for any of them,

you ready for this? They come back to Reykjavik, Iceland,

not just to any address, but to the phallic cafe. Oh, whoa.

Housed within the phallological museum. What? Yes. Do you know why it's called that?

Why is it called that? It's literally known as the penis museum.

This is like Penn Island, or is it like a real thing? No, it's a real thing. They didn't build it,

though. They erected it. All right, Doug, I'm going to search this on your on your internet.

I'm dead serious. So if you search the address in Google, though, for the registrant for these

domain names of the forums that are claiming reviews of GED brokerage, it comes back with

the most interesting article titled some of the web's sketchiest sites share an address in Iceland.

A Reykjavik building that houses a penis museum and an H&M is also the virtual home to an array

of perpetrators of identity theft, ransomware, and disinformation. Another article, this in

the People's Gazette of Nigeria, which is heavy irony that they're covering a place known to house

scammers. Nigeria, come on. Thordor Thordeson, the museum's chief operating officer, expressed

bewilderment at the building's links to nefarious activity online. He says, we are a penis museum,

yes, he said, but we are a serious penis museum. Does that mean they're just really impressive?

There's no silly penises here.

Okay, back to GED. I am also noticing that, and this isn't something that would be like a good

way to determine a scam, but all of these fake websites have an SSL certificate that was generated

on like the same day. Which is so bizarre, because I was like, how did they get certs?

These are all showing up with a little lock on your browser that says like, this is legit and

this is verified, and they've all been generated at like the same time. Yes, all of their listings

as well. This is an old trick. They're stolen from other auction sites. So for those of you

watching online, we'll put up a couple samples, but they just stole the photos from cars and bids,

from bring a trailer and just recreated the listings on their sites. But they have actual

countdown, actual bids. So you might think like, okay, what's the harm in just bidding?

Well, their links for their social medias would go to the site, but not actually to an account.

Correct. And if you click the Facebook one, it goes to try to like, you're making a Facebook

post about GED brokerage. Yes. So what's their angle, right? If they're scamming,

how are they scamming? Because most scam dealers are trying to either get people to give them

deposits or the full amount using people's fear against them of missing out on a, oh,

this might be too good to be true, but it's such a great deal. And giving people that sense of urgency

to the point that they ignore their usual red flags. And we've covered this in the past of

people actually doing this going, well, it felt wrong, but this one, however, Tyler, you can

weigh in on this because you're the internet expert, Ethan as well. I think the angle here,

given the article about identity theft and ransomware from, you know, people at this

penis museum here, I think this site is stealing people's information because in order to register

for an account, you must download the bidder agreement and put your personal information

on it, including your driver's license number, sign it and send back the bidder agreement in

addition to entering an email address and password that you want to use for their site. And how many

people reuse their passwords for everything? Oh, everybody, I don't. Well, okay, you work for,

but a lot of people do. So I think that's the angle. And even like being on the site, having it open,

I'm like, they're probably stealing my information right now. That's why I did download, I didn't

download, I printed to PDF their bidder agreement. That was it. I hope you didn't like open that.

There could be some malware. Yeah, full legal name, residential address, city, state, zip code,

primary phone, email address, driver's license, number, state of issue, and expiration. Like

everything. Yeah, except your social security number, signature date, but then they have your

signature. They want you to like scan it back to them, not a DocuSign digital signature.

I know. Genius. Now, I was going to call them because they have a phone number and people say

like somebody answered it. But I don't think it's going to be fun messing with them. And

I don't know if I want to mess with somebody trying to steal my identity because they might be doing

voice cloning. Yeah, or then they've got your number and then you say your name and then they've

got like you could like fish yourself, social engineer yourself. Right. So I think we're going

to do one of the lower level scammers that's just trying to steal your money and we're going to call

them and mess with them. Oh man, this is you know, the less advanced Russian scammers as opposed to

the Icelandic the penis scam. You know, if I had more time, I could have written some incredible

jokes that go with that. But you know, man, I am so glad that I came into this without any

background knowledge because just unfolding as you're like is watching this unfold in front of

my eyes as you're talking was amazing. What a diabolical. Yeah, really, really. Well, if you

got any good, good puns, you can leave them in the comments. I'm not going to make them. We're

going to go to our ever popular plate to sample game. Stay safe out there, people. Watch your

information. If it seems too good to be true, it is and definitely so in this case. And I'm

closing the tab real quick now because you know, I don't know, maybe they're listening.

Yeah, I got some of my cookies, but that's all they're getting. He did get some of my cookies

should have used a VPN. Anyway, plate to sample is a game brought to us by soul and spine. If you

are crooked, they will set you straight. Yeah, your car needs an alignment. You may not know it

or feel it because it still drives straight, but your tires are getting worn unevenly. That's kind

of how your body works as well, at least according to Dr. Hoover. And you may not realize that you're

out of alignment, but your body is compensating for things that it doesn't know it's compensating for

and then wearing other things. So it's worth it to go see Dr. Hoover at soul and spine to make sure

you're all straight. Plate to sample is a game where we name off a vanity plate read off a vanity

plate that's actually on a car. And the other person has to guess the stereotype, see if they can

determine what kind of car it is based on what the driver is trying to say about themselves

or their car. Ever popular, we get so many submissions. We are thankful for them all. We

can't keep up with them all. We try to pick the best ones. And here are the ones from this week.

Tyler, do you want to start? Let's go. All right. So I've got earn Zvay,

which if read a different way says you're in Zvay.

A Porsche. No. Is it a German car? Yes. That likes to drive fast in the left lane. Yes. That seems like

Audi S4 energy to me. Very close. Very close. That is BMW M3 energy, V46 energy actually.

Apparently. Did they do it backwards? So if they have the front plate on supposedly,

you can see it in your rear view mirror. All right, we're going to start out with this one,

which I spotted myself. The number four, the word fish, four fish.

Four fish. What kind of name is related to like fish food? Is that four fish? I mean,

it could be a bass boat. I mean, I get is this like a truck, some like Ford truck that tows a boat?

Nope. Is it like, I don't know what this sounds like a guy who probably drives a Lincoln. Nope.

It's a Porsche 718 Boxster S. Why don't I know? I don't get it. The only thing like four, it has

four cylinders. Four. I don't get it. I don't get it. That's so weird. But I knew you wouldn't

either. And that's why I used it. All right. I'm going to need to get a bit more rude with

my selections here because this next one's a layup, but I like it. Showdown. Ford Taurus S.H.O.

Yes. It's like the first gen, I think. Yeah. So they're good. It's like, it's a good one.

But is that a 1991 S.H.O. Plus? I don't with the lightweight hood. I don't know what that means.

Well, I mean, I know what it means, but I don't want to tell mirrors and lower body cladding and

a little bulge in the hood. And it's not a metal hood. And, you know, if you're an S.H.O.

nerd, that's the one you got to have. I only have a photo of most of the butt of this car.

Okay. Well, I'd be able to tell. Oh, sure. Okay. For you, Massachusetts plate classy. This one's

submitted to us by Chase Macintosh. Thank you, Chase. Oh, yeah. Classy. Classy, classy, classy.

Um, this is somebody that thinks they're classy. This is a Nissan Murano. No,

Ethan chicken is head over there. I just realized you. That was a perfect.

I'm just going to save you. It's a Porsche Cayenne. Well, that's, that still works.

Face black. That's what I, that's what I thought. Next up for you, Doug. Yoke. Y-O-L-K. Yoke.

A Koenigsegg. No. Do you see what I did there?

Oh, egg Yoke Koenigsegg there. The egg train of thought is in the right. Is it a car shaped

like an egg, like a Hyundai accent and a hatchback? No, parts of the car are shaped like an egg.

I mean, every rear view mirror on the planet is shaped like an egg. So that doesn't help me.

This is a yellow 996. Yeah. Yellow 996 turbo. Honestly, I was thinking of the mirrors on that

because they're most shaped. I was not, then I got to like the egg. What do they call egg yolks?

Fried eggs. Fried eggs. No, the runny eggs are the, the like early ones, the fried eggs or the

like turbo, bad, whatever. All right. Yeah. SHO plus level of nerd them there. Okay. Indiana plate

goes to 11. Is this a like drag racing car or a muscle car of some kind? Like a challenger or

charger goes to 11. Oh, this is, is this a reference to the spinal tap, which is an amp that goes to

11. So it's an EV. It's a Tesla. Nope. Nice train of thought there. I think there is,

I'm not sure why, but I think maybe why. So it is a singer. Okay. Porsche 911 reimagined by singer.

Goes to 11. So singer was, Rob was a singer in, don't remember the band. But anyway, the creator

of the singer automobiles was a lead singer in a band. So maybe it's like, oh, he was in a band,

goes to 11. But I think it's more just the nature of the raucous nature of a four-liter singer

Porsche. Like the car just embodies going to 11. Cause that's kind of what the phrase means.

Now, I think it should have been on a Tut Hill 911 K because that car does go to 11 literally.

If like the one person that probably has a Tut Hill 911 in the US, that is the plate you need.

Please, please do. But I still appreciate it. Give it to me. I'll get that plate.

For you, Doug, I have WYD TNN, which I can only assume means what are you doing tonight? I don't

know what the extra N is for. Oh, I thought it was like wide Tennessee in. It might be,

but I like what are you doing tonight with what this car is?

Nissan Altima. No, it's not a Murano either, Ethan.

This is a BMW four series. So it's like a playboy kind of like, you know,

it's a fancy finance man. Yeah. All right. Well, along that same type of energy,

you 18 yet. Oh, yikes. I don't know if I even want to touch this. Yikes.

You know what? No, I don't. Nope. Not gonna touch it. Not gonna. Nope. Okay. I'm out.

It's a Corvette C five. Oh, of course it is with a license plate frame. Don't

so bad. It's good, but it's not good. So awful. Don't laugh. Your daughter might be in here. Oh

my God, not in a C five, bro. Jesus, Pete's definitely C four energy.

Oh God. All right, we're gonna eject out of this real quick. Mick Queen.

Is that lightning McQueen or Steve McQueen? Is it a

Mustang bullet? No, it is not.

I don't know then. It is a brand new Ford lightning. F 150 lighting like the Queen

and the less good lighting. I get it. Look, I had to get it out of that was good. That was good

obscure or more like Carter to kind of like. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's been saved like that.

Wordplay. All right. Last one for you from Ken Smallwood. I be fartin.

Oh, this is a Yukon Denali.

No. Dang it. Amazingly, not that far off. Really? I thought you would have gone for

like a Honda Civic with a fart can exhaust or something like that. I was trying to imagine

what I see in the Taco Bell drive through when I come drive home from podcast late night.

Taco Bell is the kind of people that be put in. I mean, you can see this in late night Taco Bell.

Yeah. What is it? It's a Chevy Traverse. Oh, 100%. Yeah. Yeah. I went too fancy.

That's what I at least I think that you seem so sure of yourself for not getting that right.

I was it was it was close. I'm so happy with how with the stuff you've been given to me tonight.

I'm okay with that. There were no clues for that. You did get on the right track.

Is that it? Do you have one more for me? That was fine. All right. Well, thank you,

Dr. Hoover, soul and spine for the ever popular plate to sample game and thank you all for

submitting your fantastic plates. Switch cars is the enthusiast dealership where we buy,

sell and consign only cars that we like ourselves. Check out our handpicked inventory online at

switchcars.com and mentioned switchcast for special pricing. You can find more information

online at switchcars.com or come visit our showroom in a beautiful twinsburg Ohio where you

can experience the switch cars difference. Thank you for joining us for switchcast with

Emily and Ivory. You can stream their full album on Spotify or SoundCloud. If you like this show,

you can stream it in its entirety on your favorite audio podcast platform. Check out

switchcast.live for more info.

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