They’re promoting CarEdge as a website that helps you find a better deal on a car. The idea is that it makes the buying process easier and can help you avoid overpaying.
The speaker says Lindsay Automotive Group was involved in a big settlement with the FTC. That suggests the FTC believed their advertising or pricing practices were not fair or were misleading.
The FTC is a government agency that polices misleading business practices. Here, it’s warning dealers that they can’t advertise a “cheap” price if the real price will be higher once required fees are added.
This means the dealer has to include the mandatory charges in the price they advertise. If the fees are required, you shouldn’t have to find out later that the total is much higher.
The FTC is a government agency that helps stop unfair or misleading business practices. Here, they’re warning car dealers about how they advertise prices so customers aren’t tricked by hidden costs.
“Out-the-door price” is the final total you hand over at the dealership. It includes the car price plus the taxes and required fees, so it’s the fairest way to compare deals.
They name a specific Toyota dealership (“Burge Toyota”) as part of their examples. The bigger idea is that you should compare the final total price, not just a headline number.
“Limited data” means they don’t have enough information to be totally certain. With only one quote, it’s harder to know if the price is typical or just an unusual case.
If you only have one quote, you can’t tell if the price is fair. Getting quotes from multiple dealers helps you spot when one dealer is charging more than others.
Smart Shield Window Tint sounds like a specific tint product the dealer is adding to the car. Tint is a common add-on, so it’s worth checking that it’s real, installed, and included in the price the dealer quotes you.
A mystery shop is when someone poses as a typical customer to test how a dealership sells and prices a vehicle. It’s often used to verify whether advertised pricing and final quotes match up.
The online advertisement is the price you see on the dealer’s website or listings. The important part is whether that price truly includes the items and fees you’ll be charged.
“Low Jack” refers to an aftermarket vehicle recovery system (often branded as LoJack) that uses a hidden transmitter and tracking service to help locate a stolen vehicle. It’s typically sold as an add-on, and the important details are whether it’s installed, what the subscription/service cost is, and how long it lasts.
The idea is that dealers will have to teach their employees to follow the rules and explain the deal honestly. That helps prevent misleading add-ons or hidden charges.
Acura is the luxury brand being discussed through the speaker’s dealership history. It’s relevant because luxury brands still run holiday sales events, and the same “inventory + incentives” logic applies.
Cadillac is referenced as another brand “bucking the trend” in EV registrations. This matters because it suggests the EV market isn’t uniform—some brands may be gaining traction while others are losing it.
They’re basically saying EVs are selling because of government or financial help, not because everyone wants them yet. Without that help, sales may slow down.
The discussion is about manufacturer discounting strategies (incentives, rebates, or other price support) as a response to weak EV demand. This is a common market behavior when inventory builds or sales targets aren’t met.
The Volkswagen ID4 is an electric SUV made by Volkswagen. The host is saying you might see big discounts on it during Memorial Day, because dealers/manufacturers are trying to move EV inventory.
“Leftover EVs” refers to unsold inventory—vehicles sitting on dealer lots or in the pipeline after demand doesn’t match supply. The speaker implies dealers may need to discount aggressively to clear that inventory.
A lease program is a way to drive a car by paying a monthly amount for a few years instead of buying it outright. The host is saying dealers might use cheap monthly lease offers to move EVs.
“Losing price leaders” are advertised specials where the seller intentionally prices a vehicle below what’s profitable to generate traffic. The speaker suggests this could mean big headline discounts, but limited real savings on the most in-demand vehicles.
The hosts describe a grading system for dealers they interact with, using letter grades (A through F). This is relevant because it frames how the community evaluates dealer behavior and transaction quality, not just whether a dealer is “in business.”
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It's noon here in New Jersey and our nation's capital, Washington, D.C.,
and this is Car Edge Live for Thursday, April 16th.
I don't know about you, but my bank account is a lot lighter today.
Yes, yes.
Yesterday was tax day.
Your host today for Car Edge Live are, well, me, Ray,
here in Venter in my damn good-looking son, Zach,
hanging out in Washington, D.C., with all the policy makers.
What's going on there, Zach?
I love you so much.
You know, I got a really good night's sleep last night.
Can you tell?
Yeah, I can.
It makes me so happy to see you energized and feeling good.
Today's show, folks, is brought to you by caredge.com.
Save at least, on average, $2,487 on your next car.
Let us do all the work.
You can go ahead and click through on that right there,
and you can learn a little bit more about how we are saving customers.
At this point, that's $17.1 million.
We actually need to update that average.
We're up to $2,489.
You can see more about how we're saving customers,
all sorts of time and money, back at caredge.com.
Appreciate everyone who's checked out the website,
and keep sharing your feedback, thoughts, and opinions
in the comment and the chat,
and directly with me, Zach, at caredge.com.
Go for it, Pops.
The one thing I've learned in life, okay,
especially as it relates to the automobile business,
is there's two things people never seem to have enough of,
time and money.
And if we can help them reclaim their time
while saving them, on average, $2,489 per transaction,
I think we're on to something.
I think we're on to something, too, Pops.
This morning, however, I want to have a focused conversation,
at least for a minute here, about the FTC debt.
There are still some waves being felt in the auto industry
on the other side of the FTC,
having sent out letters to 97 dealership groups
and a massive settlement with Lindsay Automotive Group.
Not sure if you saw this, Pops,
but on the homepage of Automotive News this morning,
price transparency requires staff training
in wake of FTC advertisement warning.
Dead shady car dealers are done.
The FTC is done with this.
At least it seems,
and there have been lots of conversations happening.
So let's take a trip down memory lane.
It was just a couple of weeks ago, about a month ago now.
FTC warns 97 auto dealership groups about deceptive pricing.
Ultimately, dead,
but the FTC has said to car dealers is this,
you cannot advertise a price
that does not reflect all required fees.
You must advertise prices that reflect rebates or discounts,
or excuse me, you cannot advertise a price
that reflects rebates and discounts
that are not available to all customers.
You must not advertise a price that fails to take into account
the amount of additional required down payment involved.
You must not advertise a price on the condition
that the consumer uses your dealer financing,
requiring customers to buy additional items,
not reflected in the advertised prices no longer allowed,
and advertising unavailable or non-existent vehicles.
Now, what's shocking about this,
what we're going to take some time today to do,
is we're going to review dealers who actually do this crap.
And we're going to show that this is very much active in the industry,
but let's continue the conversation from a month ago.
We're seeing more and more headlines talking about
the need to be more transparent.
This is a net good thing for the auto industry.
And for cars...
It is, and I have a question about that headline.
Yeah.
It requires staff training.
What kind of training do you need to be honest?
Okay, we're going to have honesty training, ladies and gentlemen.
I mean, what kind of staff training?
Either you advertise the vehicle at a price
that anybody can buy it for, or you don't.
It doesn't require a whole lot of training.
This is the FCC made it clear how they expect dealerships
to advertise car prices online,
said Shannon Roberts,
an executive director of the Association of Finance
and Insurance Professionals,
but dealerships need to make sure their sales staff
know to match the price when a customer calls or comes to the store.
He said, yeah, that's what they need to train their sales staff on,
is that the price that they advertise something for sale online for
is the price of the car.
That requires training.
You know, we could probably come up with a consulting business
to train the people.
We can charge dealerships like $10,000 a day to come in
and train them and say, and here's the training.
A sales staff, whatever the advertised price is,
that's the price that any customer can buy it for.
Hey, it was a pleasure meeting you all.
Hope you understand how this process works now.
It doesn't require training.
It just requires honesty and transparency.
I mean, but yeah, there's going to be trainers
after they're making an absolute fortune.
You know, teaching sales, people have to tell the truth.
So, dad, again, what the FTC is warning dealers not to do
is the first one, advertise a price that does not reflect all required fees.
You ready for this, dad? Let's spend a minute today.
Let's spend a little bit of time doing some live, you know, live experiments.
So, I'm over here, caredge.com, under dealer reviews.
I'm on ratings overview.
Here's what I want to do, dad.
I actually want to go to the map.
So, we're going to spend some time on the map today, you and me.
Let's go.
Let's go to a few different parts of the country
and let's check out how some dealers are operating in those areas.
Let's do, we'll start with a zip code that's near and dear to us.
I grew up in 85254 in Arizona,
but put some zip codes in the chat for where you want us to be this analysis next,
because again, what we're going to demonstrate today
or what we're going to test here,
oops, you still, am I still there, dad?
Yeah.
Okay, sorry, my computer is throwing a tizzy here.
Well, maybe you should take the new computer and not me.
Unfortunately, I can't click on anything.
Give me a second, dad.
I'm going to refresh you.
You know, I hate when that happens.
You can still see me?
Yeah, you are looking handsomer than ever.
All right, give me one second.
Why panic?
So, it's really kind of special.
One second, I'll be right back.
Yeah.
Oh, you're leaving us for a moment?
Yeah, I can't, my computer's not working.
Give me one second.
Well, you know, it's your computer.
Here we are, a tech company.
Okay, and a seasoned tech CEO.
And he's having computer issues, ladies and gentlemen.
What is this world coming to when tech people can't figure out this stuff?
And yet, the future from what I understand is robo cars, robo taxis,
full self-driving mode.
If we can't get computers to work all the time when we need them to,
why would we suspect that they're going to work the way we would like them to work
when they're driving our car force?
Or when that car with added driver shows up and the computer tells you,
yeah, we're going wherever it is you want to go.
Unless, of course, I freeze.
So, I don't know.
You know, the thought of all this technology scares the living crap out of me.
It just really does.
Oh, I think Zach might be back.
Okay, that was nuts.
Sorry about that.
I really, really do apologize.
They just heard me rant about technology and robo cars in full self-driving mode.
Not you ranting about technology robo cars.
Yeah, because why would we want to put all our faith in computers that can freeze right in your home?
What makes you think they aren't going to freeze in your car when you're driving your around?
So, let's come here.
I'm not going to pull up the map.
We'll just start here instead.
Here's the results of dealers that we've graded in 8-5-2-5-4.
And again, what we're going to spend our time on here today is the FTC said that letter to 97 dealership groups.
And they were really clear about the things that you cannot do.
The first and foremost one that they said, Dad, because do not advertise a price that does not reflect all required fees.
Well, one of the cool things here, if I may, one of the cool things that we've done with what we've built with the dealer reviews and dealer ratings
is it's based on out-the-door price quotes that we've received from dealerships.
So, let's come here, Dad.
Burge Toyota.
Hi.
Or you want to go surprise Ford.
Which one do you want to go to?
Oh, matters not to me.
Let's not go to a former employer of my own.
We're going to surprise Ford.
Okay, never worked there.
Limited data.
Okay, so keep this in mind first.
I get limited data.
We only have one quote from this dealership, but I'm going to scroll down, Dad.
And I'm going to look at this quote that we received from this dealership and let's zoom on in here.
We've got a selling price of $59,460.
Yeah.
We've got dealer added accessories of $4,145.
We've got total fees of $1,620.
Now, humor me for a second.
Yeah.
This was surprise Ford, right?
Yes.
That would be in surprise Arizona.
That's actually the name of a town, ladies and gentlemen.
Yes, okay.
We're doing the live experiment.
Let's go to their website.
Yeah.
Let's go to new cars.
Yeah.
We'll do an F-150, sure.
It doesn't really matter which one we're looking at.
I want to just see how they advertise their vehicles.
So this is exactly the behavior.
Yes.
Which to be clear, we track this.
It's not the majority of dealers that do this, Dad, but this is the exact...
They have advertised MSRP dealer discount price, retail customer cash price.
That's it.
Yeah.
That's all I see here.
What happens when you actually contact this dealer and get an outdoor price worksheet?
You have the selling price.
You have the dealer added accessories.
You have the total fees.
This is so fascinating, Dad.
Take out the sales tax for a second.
Yeah, of course.
So take out six grand here.
They should have been advertising this vehicle for sale at what?
Not $59,460.
It would have been advertised at $65,000.
This is exactly what the FTC is cracking down on right now.
Do we have...
Here's a question for you.
And this will indicate exactly how much preparation goes into one of these shows before we do it.
Do we have a recent price quote from any of these dealers?
And by recent, I mean in the past few days that we can look at the price quote and then
see if that vehicle is still in stock and then see how it was advertised.
Yeah.
That showed a 40-some $100 in dealer accessories.
Do we have the ability to pull up how that had been advertised?
Yeah.
Let's look at this one, Dad.
I just pulled up from another dealership here.
This is from...
Bear with me for a second.
This is from Hornkea.
So we're still in Arizona.
You're still in Arizona here.
This quote's from April 3rd.
Okay.
So we will click through to the dealer's website.
So let's find this vehicle.
And the reason we're going to do this vehicle is because as you can see here, I'll jump back to it.
We've got Smart Shield Window Tint.
What is nothing promised or expected?
That's a little crazy.
Well, the good news is that nothing promised or expected is free.
Okay.
So we're not going to give you anything that was promised or expected.
That's crazy.
Or if we do, we're not going to charge you for it.
Yeah.
What a weird line item to show up.
That's crazy, right?
Like, that's actually crazy.
So this is a Kia Niro.
I'm guessing the stock number is 260784.
So let's find it over here.
260...
What was it?
784.
Right here.
Okay.
Okay.
So let's again compare.
This is what the dealer has this exact vehicle advertised for on their website.
Yes.
This is Hornkea in Gilbert, Arizona.
Yes.
$2,229,765 MSRP.
They're offering a $717 discount and then a $1,500 manufacturer rebate,
taking the price down to $27,548.
Yes.
The price of the car.
Yes.
Again, we mystery shop this dealership back at caredge.com.
This is under dealer reviews.
And then we got the out the door price quote from this dealership.
And we've got a Hornkea price of $27,548.
Look at that.
It had the $1,500 rebate and the $717 Hornkea discount.
Yeah.
And so what is so obvious here is what the FTC is cracking down on is exactly what shows
up below the price, which is smart shield was not included on the online advertisement
for $900.
Window tint was not included in the online advertisement for $900.
VTR was not included in the online advertisement for $400.
Floor mats was not included in the online advertisement for $299.
And processing in dock fee was not included in the online advertisement for $900.
Which is what the FTC says has to be included if those are going to be items that are added.
The letters the FTC sent to auto dealers cite several examples of illegal pricing practices
in the auto industry, including advertising a price does not reflect all required fees.
Did we just prove it?
What, that there are dealers out there that don't play fair?
Let's go to another part of the country, Dad.
I was unfortunately, obviously, my internet crapped out on me.
So I wasn't here.
Can we get some other zip codes that people want to go to?
We've got here from General Marshall, 78681.
Give me a second here.
Well, hopefully your computer doesn't freeze again.
Just saying.
I agree.
Hopefully my computer doesn't freeze again.
So let's pull this up on the screen.
What was that 78681?
68681, I thought it was, but I could be wrong.
88681?
I thought.
But I have a limited attention span.
Okay.
So here we go.
We've got 616 dealers near Round Rock, Texas.
Dad, I'm going to sort by lowest score.
Okay.
So we've got a lot of them.
I mean, actually not that many, right?
There's only one, two, three, four, five F dealers and five D dealers.
Most dealers, to be clear, some of the C dealers and whatnot are also adding add-ons.
Yes.
We don't have that many that are Ds and Fs.
So this should make buying a car significantly easier for car shoppers out there.
Let's go to, let's go to Key of North Austin.
Not that we're picking on Key of today.
They only add add-ons 36% of the time.
So that seems process.
Wow.
And let's come down here, dad.
No add-ons on these more recent deals.
So that's actually, that's like, that's good news.
Yes.
Let's check out this deal that they did back here on Ikea Nero.
Yeah, you can see it right there.
Tint, perma plate, low jack.
There's the accessories.
This is the exact type of behavior that the FTC is saying is illegal and they're cracking down on.
And this is the type of stuff that shady dealers will have to update how they're operating or else they're going to end up in serious trouble.
And they'll have to, they'll have to train their staff on how to tell the truth.
Oh my.
And let me, let me say one thing.
If, if, if you have spent any number of years at a dealership where you have perfected the ability to not tell the truth.
Okay.
Which is exactly what this is.
Yes.
And, and suddenly you're going to be required to tell the truth.
That really might require some form of training because they really might not have any idea how to do that.
Okay.
Um, you know, if you, if you've been at a dealership for 10 years and, and the whole process is, is based on something other than the truth.
And you have participated in that process for 10 years.
And suddenly you said, well, you got to tell the people the truth.
I don't have to do that.
Okay.
I, you know, I would think it would be, it might be difficult for some salespeople to suddenly, you know, retrain their brain.
To, to deal with, well, the truth.
I, I think you're on to something, dad.
And I want to demonstrate again, this is, you know, I don't, I don't want the FTC to call me.
I really don't like, there's a lot of phone calls I want to receive in my life from the Federal Trade Commission is not one of them.
But this is free, accessible information on the internet.
So they can use it.
Just go use it.
And dad, I want to show it here again, because this is the letter they're sending out to the auto industry.
This is the letter they're sending out to the public.
All you have to do here is, is come to the compare page.
It's not that hard to find a transparent and a non-transparent dealer.
Here's a Toyota dealer.
Here's a Toyota dealer.
Are they transparent about fees?
Yeah, they are.
Are they adding add-ons?
Unfortunately, this dealer is.
Are they marking cars up?
Unfortunately, they are.
Are they providing quality data?
No, they're not.
And so all you got to do is come here.
Yeah.
And you can see, you know, here's the analysis.
This dealer often adds $6,124 in add-ons.
Like, who do you, who do you want to?
Yeah, recommendation.
This is a pretty easy one.
But the FTC dealers, the whole industry, this is, this is, this is the wake-up call for shady dealers.
That's just like, it ain't going to work anymore.
Well, I don't want to just say it's a wake-up call for shady dealers.
Of course, you know, legitimately, it's a wake-up call for FTC investigators.
They don't have to go all that far.
They don't have to, they don't have to get out of their damn chair to be able to conduct investigations.
They just need to, I hate to say it, they just need to, you know, log on to caredge.com
slash dealers.
I think that's how you get there.
Yeah.
And they'd be able to look and they'd be able to see and they would have access to the actual out-the-door quotes that we received.
So, you know, if you, if you want, if we want to cut down on government costs, you don't even have to get on an airplane to fly anywhere.
Okay?
We'll save you the airfare.
Just, just go onto your computer and do your work.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is, this is a whole new form of dodge that, that, that, that Elon Musk didn't think of.
Yeah.
Here's a way to save some government dollars.
Doge, doge.
But, yeah.
We know what you're getting at.
Anyway, that article in automotive news inspired me.
That's morning down.
Let's answer David's question here and then we'll move on to another story that's worth covering today.
Do you think there will be good Memorial Day car deals, car deals or trucks by Ford or other companies?
Dad, I think Memorial Day will end up being a big sales opportunity because we see these new cars sitting and not selling.
What do you think?
Yeah.
Well, you know, historically speaking, Memorial Day usually is a pretty strong sales weekend.
Not only for cars, but for purveyors of hot dogs and hamburgers because it seems as if, if you're, if you're at a dealership and you're going to have a sale that weekend, it is required that you provide customers that come in with the, with hot dogs and hamburgers and cold drinks.
So, yeah, historically, that's a good weekend for sales.
You know, I remember years and years and years ago, back in the late 90s when I was at the Scottsdale Acura before we went to Acura and North Scottsdale before we moved.
And I suggested that we run a special, a sale on Memorial Day weekend and I was told by the general manager and the used car manager, well, that's never worked in the past.
Okay, well, that doesn't mean it won't work in the future if you don't, if you don't provide a good reason for people to come in.
And so we provided a good reason for people to come in and we were, you know, relatively small, accurate store at that time.
And, and I think if I remember correctly, we did 27 or 29 car deals for Memorial Day weekend and our competitor did single digits.
So, yeah, if, if you offer the right offer, but you can have a big, and I think, you know, we know inventory stacking up a little bit.
We know sales are slower this year than what people dealerships had wanted.
So I would think Memorial Day weekend will be a big sale weekend.
All right, the other story I wanted to cover today, dad, February EV registrations plunge dragging share below 5% with Toyota Cadillac bucking the trend.
So we had another month of new data come through and dad, you can see here new electric vehicle registrations fell 37% in February from a year prior.
So, yeah, the EV revolution seems to have been a fully, I don't know, stone walled at this point.
It does not seem to be growing in any way shape or form.
Well, it's certainly not growing at the, at the speed in which all these manufacturers had hoped many, many years ago when they committed billions upon billions of dollars towards EVs.
But then the landscape has changed the, the fact that the federal tax credits are gone and things of that nature, which have negatively impacted sales.
So if, if there's those with those lack of incentives, we're seeing what the real market is for, for people who still want to buy EVs.
Now, I haven't read this article.
So I'm assuming that, that Toyota EV registrations and Cadillac EV registrations actually went up.
Yes, they did.
I'm guessing.
Dad, Toyota's went up significantly, 77%.
But it's interesting because you can see right there the average incentive per vehicle sold, $12,626.
Which is about four times what the average is for a non-EV.
Because I, I think the, the average incentive was somewhere around 32 to $3,400 for the industry.
And it's worth noting though that the C-H-R is all electric now and is one of the slowest selling vehicles in America right now.
It's just come out.
Well, it's just come out.
We'll see if it picks up in sales.
But I mean, if you told me I could get $12,000 off at Toyota, I'd be like, oh, that sounds kind of interesting, but it's in the electric power chain.
So it's really just another damning moment, I think, in the electric revolution and really demonstrates how small of a market it will ultimately be for the time being.
Maybe not in perpetuity, but for the time being.
When nobody stops subsidizing it, sales weren't there.
Well, obviously when, when the government stops subsidizing it.
Now, when you look at some of the type of discounts that the manufacturers are trying to apply, that indicates one of two things.
Either they, they had more profit built in on the wholesale side of things on the manufacturing side of things in their EVs than anybody thought.
Or they are willing to absorb a huge loss in order to keep the EV market going to some degree until I would think the hope is eventually that it'll pick up on its own.
We shall see what happens.
But yeah, the fact that EV registrations are doing that, that's, that's not a, not a real huge surprise to me because there's just no government push.
Back to the Memorial Day question, bet you some of the deals you'll see on Volkswagen ID4s from Memorial Day will blow your mind away.
We'll be like, holy cow, I could get $15,000 off of Volkswagen ID4.
They've got to find ways to sell those leftover EVs.
Yeah, or maybe they'll offer $159 a month lease programs.
I think you're absolutely going to see that. I unequivocally believe that it's going to be the case.
Yeah, I mean, but here's, here's the real problem when you say that.
Oh.
You know, because the question before was, do you think there'll be some really good sales for Memorial Day?
Well, are they really good bargains if they're vehicles nobody really wanted anyway?
Are the popular vehicles or the vehicles that the buyers tend to gravitate towards?
Are those going to have the same type of savings available Memorial Day?
I don't, you know, I mean, obviously you, you know, when I had a golf store, the idea to advertising was,
well, you need to have a price leader every week.
You know, something you're either losing a little money on or you're making very little money on,
but it's priced so low that it brings people in and then your hope is that they buy that loser.
And then they also buy some products that you're making money on.
Are we just going to see these losing price leaders as the advertised specials and that there's no real savings on the vehicles that people want?
My suspicion is that we'll see both.
Yeah, I think you're onto something there.
Dad, let's continue here in the chat.
We just had a very thoughtful contribution.
Thank you.
Hey, Crispy, thank you so much for this.
Thank you, Space and Carriage AI for saving me 25% off the MSRP on a Hyundai Ioniq 5 SE,
three year 10,000 miles per year lease.
I will use the $8,000 in positive equity in my 2023 Toyota RAV4 Prime to make payments on the lease.
I think they call that arbitrage.
I think they do.
Nicely done, young man.
And here's, or young woman, and here's what I'm most proud of in that is that you didn't ask to have the equity in your 2023 RAV4 applied to lowering your payment on the new lease.
You took that money and you're putting it in the bank and you're drawing it out as you need it on your lease payments.
Very, very smart.
For those of you that are unfamiliar, Space is the man.
So really grateful to see that.
Space runs our community forum.
We are nowhere without his efforts over there.
Come to CarEdge.com.
Under Research, click on Community Forum and that'll take you right over to CarEdge.com Community.
So please, please, please spend some time over there and learn more about all the ways that our community can help you through the car buying process.
We had another comment come through earlier in the show from Dan.
I asked this question because Bernie Moreno said the FTC letter was addressing just 5% of new vehicle dealers indicating that 95% of dealers are handling transactions today.
Okay.
And I want to pull up.
We grade all the dealers that we interact with.
And to Bernie Moreno's point, most dealers get an A grade.
Some get a B grade, some get a C grade, and very few, 12% get D and F grades.
So I thought to say that these practices are not happening out there.
We saw it already before.
Some C rated dealers, because they're transparent about fees, but ultimately add add-on products instead.
They can get a decent grade, but still behave in a way that would be deemed illegal by the FTC.
But very few, very few, 7% and 5% respectively are getting D and F grades.
So I do have hope that if it's a few bad apples that are re-enrotting the bunch, but it is pretty pervasive, these illegal pricing practices, thus the reason the FTC is having to step in.
Well, and the sad reality is that all these car sites, auto search sites, dealers figured out a long, long time ago, if you want the customer to click on your vehicle,
you have to have the lowest or one of the lowest prices.
They were raised to the bottom.
Yes, and so the way to do that was to show a cheap price and not reflect all the fees or all the incentives that you might not qualify for.
And so I think when it comes to that, there are more dealers that are doing things that they shouldn't do than 5% or 12%.
Because it's the only way you can compete in the internet world like that, and that's the excuse dealers use.
Well, it's the only way we can compete.
So I just think that there's plenty of room out there for dealers to do things more transparently.
Of course.
The way the FTC would hope that dealers would want to do it.
Hi, folks.
No show tomorrow.
We're back on Monday with more car days.
Do you know why there's no show tomorrow?
Because one of us will be rock climbing.
Okay.
And I just, you know, I don't have any calluses on my hands, but I've decided that tomorrow is the day I'm going to start trying to develop.
Yeah.
Sorry, y'all.
I'd love to do the show, but my dad's going to be.
Yeah, but I decided I'm going rock climbing tomorrow, folks.
So I hope you understand.
Now, if I come back on Monday with a giant bandage on my head and cuts on my hands, you'll understand.
But yeah, you know, I'm sorry, but this is just something I have to attempt.
And tomorrow is the day.
So we'll be here on Monday for those of you in New England.
Yes, Boston Marathon on Monday.
So enjoy your day indulging in that.
We'll be back though, 12 p.m. Eastern on Monday.
We look forward to spending time with you then and everyone enjoy the weekend.
Dad, have a great weekend, everybody.
And we'll see you here Monday at noon Eastern.
Sure.
About this episode
Ray and Zach dig into the FTC’s crackdown on deceptive auto pricing, including letters to 97 dealership groups and a major settlement. They argue “price transparency” really means advertising the true out-the-door cost—no hidden fees, unavailable rebates, or add-ons like tint, floor mats, and processing charges. Using CarEdge dealer-review data, they “mystery shop” examples from Arizona and Texas to show how online advertised prices can differ from quoted totals. The discussion also covers Memorial Day deal expectations and a sharp drop in EV registrations, with Toyota/Cadillac bucking the trend via heavy incentives.
Today on CarEdge Live, Ray and Zach discuss the latest news from the FTC. Tune in to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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