SwitchCast Jan 26, 2026

The Lawsuit That Could Change How You Buy Cars

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Car

Porsche 911

The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car known for being fast and stylish. It's been around for a long time and is loved by many car enthusiasts for its unique shape and powerful engine.

Brand

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a well-known car company from Germany that makes many popular cars. They are famous for models like the Beetle and the Golf.

Concept

direct-to-consumer sales

Direct-to-consumer sales mean that companies sell their products straight to customers instead of going through stores. This can sometimes make things cheaper and easier for buyers.

Company

Rivian

Rivian is a company that makes electric trucks and SUVs. They are known for creating vehicles that are designed for outdoor adventures.

Brand

Tesla

Tesla is a car company that makes electric cars and sells them directly to customers instead of through traditional dealerships.

Concept

direct to consumer model

The direct to consumer model means that car companies sell their cars straight to people instead of using car dealerships, which is how most cars are sold.

Concept

franchise laws

Franchise laws are rules that tell car companies how they can sell their cars, usually requiring them to work with car dealerships instead of selling directly to customers.

Brand

Mercedes

Mercedes is a car brand that makes luxury vehicles. They are known for their stylish designs and advanced technology.

Term

average transaction price

The average transaction price is the average price people pay when they buy a car. It helps understand how much cars are costing over time.

Brand

Volvo

Volvo is a car company from Sweden that makes safe and reliable vehicles, including electric cars.

Concept

direct leasing

Direct leasing means you can rent a car straight from the company that makes it, instead of going to a car dealer. This can make things easier and sometimes cheaper.

Term

after sales service

After sales service is the help you get after buying a car, like fixing it when it breaks or answering questions about it.

Term

Legacy manufacturers are older car companies that have been around for a long time. They often have traditional ways of making and selling cars, which can make it hard for them to keep up with new trends like electric vehicles.

Concept

Ford Direct

Ford Direct was a program where Ford tried to sell cars directly to people instead of going through regular car dealerships.

Car

Chevrolet Corvette

The Corvette is a famous sports car made by Chevrolet. It's known for being fast and stylish, and it's a symbol of American car culture.

Car

Ferrari 250 GTO

The Ferrari 250 GTO is a very famous and expensive car that was made for racing. It's known for being one of the best cars ever made and is loved by collectors.

Term

one of one

'One of one' means that there is only one car like it in the world. This makes it very special and rare.

Term

speed limiting devices

Speed limiting devices are tools that can be added to cars to make sure they don't go over a certain speed. This can help drivers who have gotten into trouble for speeding to drive safely without losing their license.

Term

991

The 991 is a specific version of the Porsche 911 that was made from 2011 to 2019. It has updated features and a new design compared to earlier models.

Concept

electric vehicles

Electric vehicles are cars that run on electricity instead of gasoline. They have batteries that can catch fire in accidents, which makes them different from regular cars when it comes to safety.

Term

fire suppression

Fire suppression is how we put out fires. Electric cars might need special ways to handle fires because their batteries can be very dangerous if they catch fire.

Concept

hybrid vehicles

A hybrid vehicle uses both a gas engine and an electric motor to run. This helps save fuel and is better for the environment than cars that only use gas.

Company

Tremec

Tremec is a company that makes gear systems for cars, especially for sports cars that need strong and reliable transmissions to handle high speeds.

Term

manual transmission

A manual transmission is a system in cars where the driver has to change gears by hand, using a stick and a pedal. It gives the driver more control over how the car drives.

Car

Chevrolet C8

The Chevrolet C8 is the latest version of the Corvette sports car, known for its powerful engine and unique design with the engine located in the middle of the car.

Car

Ford Mustang GTD

The Ford Mustang GTD is a special version of the Mustang sports car that is built for high performance, often used in racing or track events.

Part

Tremac TR980-9080 dual clutch transmission

The Tremac TR980-9080 is a type of transmission that helps cars shift gears quickly, making them faster and more responsive.

Term

manual swap

A manual swap is when someone changes a car's automatic transmission to a manual one, which can make driving more engaging for some people.

LIVE

Welcome back to Switchcast Season 6. I'm your host, Doug Tabott, here with my co-host, Tyler

Sanders, Ethan Huffnagle, behind the Apparatus's Apparatus.

In the Command Center.

Apparati.

Is that the plural of Apparatus?

I like it. I'll have his dongles and plugs.

He's our international executive producer.

Resident dongle enthusiast.

Guest co-host tonight, Burt Davidson, familiar voice and or face to many of you.

He's been on a few times.

He's our resident new car industry expert.

How many dealerships are in your dealer group or how many brands?

22 franchises.

Just about every brand except Highlines.

We don't have Highlines, but everything else.

Yeah. Yeah.

All right.

So he's going to weigh in on our main topic tonight.

Let's see.

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Again, that's the only clue I'll give you.

It's a fun discussion topic though.

Let's see.

Let's do a warm up lap as always.

Need to get the jokes going, get the sarcasm in line, make sure we put our foot in our

mouth now before we get to the big topics.

But that's what the listeners like the most, I think.

Foot in your mouth?

Yeah.

Well, when Tim Neely's here anyway.

We're just at the point where we're dogging on him now and he's not even here.

Poor guy.

Can you help it?

Let's see.

Tyler, what is fueling this podcast?

I am drinking some Stag Junior tonight.

That is a batch 14 from like 2020.

And I think at some point I might hop into some Abraham Bowman.

That is 139 proof.

Just be a little nip.

Just a wee nip.

Jet fuel.

I think I could put that in my car and it would get me home.

All right.

Let's warm up with some frauds because nothing says switchcast like a fraud perpetuated by

somebody else, not us.

See, this is the foot in mouth thing, Doug.

All right.

From local12.com.

I don't know where it's local to, but anyway, it's local 12 man allegedly used wife's marked

Homeland Security vehicle to pose as a federal agent.

Whoa.

And help police respond to an emergency call that he placed himself.

Officers with Washington Township Police Department would dispatch to residents.

It was under construction at 1 56pm on December 10th after someone called 911 to report that

the house's front door was open on a house that's under construction.

That's worthy of calling 911.

The first actual officer to arrive was met with a Homeland Security police vehicle pulling

up to the residence.

Man exited the vehicle and identified himself as a Homeland Security police officer.

He allegedly attempted to assist officers in clearing the residence while armed holding

a handgun.

Why in the world would Homeland Security show up to a random residence check?

Why?

If this house was under construction, what is the purpose of this placing?

What is this whole room?

I don't know, but obviously they did some investigation and were like, you're not a

cop.

And this car belongs to your wife who is a Homeland Security cop and she was out of

state on a duty assignment.

So I guess he was bored and couldn't handle the temptation of having a police car in his

driveway.

And there was no real action.

So he decided to create some himself.

Sounds like he created some felonies for himself.

Seriously.

Yep.

She might be in trouble too.

That could jeopardize her career potentially.

Right.

They did.

They did take the car.

Seized it or whatever.

I don't know what they're going to investigate in that regard, but maybe she was not supposed

to leave her keys accessible.

I don't know.

Anyway, a less funny fraud.

This is an update.

Our first video we did for the newer format, but I guess a two-year-old episode, was the

CPR restorations Andrea Nicole Doherty, the multi-million dollar fraud through selling

at the time.

It was alleged, but yeah, she's pled guilty to selling vehicles on consignment, which

she didn't own consignment cars, but they weren't even there for sale.

They were there for restoration and or she sold them multiple times to different buyers

and or sold them and then said, well, it needs a restoration.

You can pay us for the restoration and sending them fake progress pictures in order to get

more money.

This was a massive scheme.

She pled guilty in federal court a couple of weeks ago to defrauding customers of her

former business, admitting to pocketing more in 827,000 and then agreeing to pay over 8

million in restitution, which there's an old saying, you can't get blood from Iraq.

If she was already on the skids trying to do this to prop up the business, the money's

gone.

So I don't know how she's going to repay anybody.

But I know after our video that we did, a number of my customers reached out and they're

like, yeah, she owes me $600,000 or $300,000 or she sold me a car that didn't exit like

she really, really screwed some people over is pretty crazy.

We may do a full episode update on this.

But anyway, so she will be going to jail.

And as we mentioned in our video as well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as

Brian Doherty, her father, from whom she took over the business, was tried and convicted

in 1994 for bank fraud and interstate transportation of stolen aircraft.

There's a doozy.

We want more fraud, more fraud, more fraud.

Oh, yeah, the Tri-Color founder charged with defrauding banks.

Tri-Color was a subprime lender.

Did you deal with them?

That all?

No, no, but I've heard a Tri-Color.

Yeah.

Filed chapter seven bankruptcy in September, owing lenders in excess of $900 million,

according to the NIADA, as a result of the alleged fraudulent schemes, including double

pledging collateral and manipulating assets and collection information.

How in the world?

What bank is so dumb?

Or I don't know, Bert, help me out here.

How do you double pledge collateral to two different banks on a car?

You're like, you got to have some real imaginary document creation going on.

I would think for sure, because I mean, it's been 900 million.

I mean, a bank just doesn't loan you hundreds of millions of dollars.

And you would think unless they do some massive vetting.

So this is, this will be interesting to see the details of this, because that's,

I mean, that's a lot.

I mean, that's, that's a lot of money.

They also manipulated loan data to make delinquent accounts appear current.

Oh, yeah.

What would that gain you?

Like just the health of your company?

Well, they might have been selling the paper, you know, they might have been selling

the loans to another bank, you know, to package them up.

And so they manipulated the data to see, you know, we collect 95% of our payments

on time or something.

Gotcha. Yeah.

So, yeah, big story to unpack there.

But there's, there's our fraud trifecta wrapped up with tricolor.

Whoa. Yeah.

Did you plan that?

No, I didn't.

Nice.

That was off the cuff.

That's all I got.

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All right, our main topic today, something I've kind of had on the docket

for a while, but a recent article made me more interested in it.

There's an article from AutoNews.com, Automotive News is the publication.

Scout Motors win in Colorado sets a dangerous precedent for dealers nationwide.

Their words, not mine.

So Colorado approved a dealer license for Scout Motors, the manufacturer.

And Scout Motors essentially is Volkswagen.

So Colorado gave Scout Motors a loophole, which is a dealer license for the

manufacturer to sell direct to consumers.

This has been a contentious topic for a while.

Florida, as much as I probably would have preferred that the Republican Party have,

I always want to call him Jeb Bush, always.

What is DeSantis, Ron DeSantis, as the presidential candidate over Mr.

Orangeface, as everyone loves to call him, he signed a law into effect that banned

dealers, I'm sorry, manufacturers from selling direct to consumers.

He upheld the franchise laws there for car dealers.

Now, likely because the car dealers there are some of his big constituents,

big lobbyists, as is the case with the Ohio Auto Dealers Association.

They have a big impact on how the laws are written here.

So I fundamentally disagree with that.

Ohio has some interesting laws.

Back in August of 2025, Rivian filed a lawsuit against the Ohio Bureau of Motor

Vehicles in an effort to force the state to lift its ban on direct to consumer

vehicle sales.

Tesla is allowed to.

Tesla has an exemption in Ohio, but I think it's only for Tesla.

So all the other EV manufacturers or other manufacturers who want to go to this

direct to consumer model are SOL in Ohio.

So every state is kind of making their own rules here and their own laws.

And this is definitely uncharted territory.

Now, I know where I stand on this because I don't have a franchise at stake.

I'm an independent car dealer.

So this these rules, these laws affect me zero.

But I also, for as much as I dog on Carvana for their allegedly sketchy accounting

practices, I believe in that business model and the car dealers and salesmen who are,

you know, saying, oh, no, people always need car salesmen to help them in their

car buying journey.

I think is ridiculously short sighted thinking.

And it is indicative of how so many car dealers are stuck in the past.

So I think this is the way of the future.

So sorry for the franchise car dealers.

But Bert, you work for a 22 franchise group.

What is your take on this?

Because obviously this potentially affects you guys a lot more.

And I'm curious to hear your perspective on it.

Well, you know, yeah, I'm certainly on the other side of the coin.

I think that, you know, franchise laws have existed for a long, long time in this

country since after World War Two.

And it's there to protect the dealer from the factory, the factory from going wild

and authorizing dealerships on every corner, because there's some significant

investments that dealers have to make in order to become a franchisee.

They have to make significant investments in buildings and they have to.

It's not something that's optional.

You know, the factory has discussions with you.

They call it image compliance and they do image compliance reviews every year.

And and what they tell you to do, you got to do.

And the factory being the factory changes that up, you know, with Mercedes.

It was it was legendary with Mercedes.

They were all blue and then they woke up one morning and decided to go black.

And so, you know, and if you built this brand new facility, when blue,

you had to paint it black the next year, you were out of luck.

So that's one.

Number two is is as cars get more expensive, the average transaction price

of new cars over $50,000, the cost of carrying inventory is a tremendous

burden to a new car dealer, a tremendous burden.

And they have to carry that because the factory has certain stocking level

objectives that they want you to have throughout the year.

And they tie that to money.

They tie that to you getting better cars.

So like if you're if you decide, you know, you're not going to order cars

because you have too many cars.

Well, then when the next, you know, hot car comes out there, guess what?

You're it's not going to be first at your dealership.

You know, you're going to be the 30th guy to get it.

And and then they also the dealers bear the burden of the bad choices

that manufacturers make.

Stellanus most recently over the last three or four years.

And certainly the Volkswagen dealers.

I mean, you know, Volkswagen is only the North American market is only 10 percent

of Volkswagen's market and they treat it as such.

They they really have contempt, I think, sometimes for the for the North American

market and some of the products they give us versus some of the products

that they have overseas and in their their way I have contempt for the North

American market. Right. Right. Right. Exactly.

And give us more wagons.

Why don't people want them?

Right. Right. And why do we hate diesels?

Yeah. And and and sort of the dumbing down of some of the products

that they've given the North American market, one of the jet when they

switched the solid axle and the jet is back.

I think it was 1213 years ago.

So it's you can't compare franchise dealers to other to pizza huts

or other other industries because of the significant costs associated

with with being a dealer.

So they should be protected by these franchise laws.

However, Scout has some legal precedent here and really what what

they're going to probably turn to.

And I haven't read all the cases is what Saturn did with with General Motors.

You know, just because you were a General Motors dealer when Saturn came

out in and you know, when they announced the plan in 88 89, it was a

significant departure from the other General Motors brands and they were

going to do it in a different way and they selected specific dealers

based on their criteria to get Saturn stores.

And so there is some legal precedence probably for Scout when it comes

to denying Volkswagen dealers the ability to sell these vehicles, how

they're going to fare, I guess, depend state by state and and you know,

in dealing with with the states and how how, you know, I hate to say this,

how corrupt the states are, you know, with with in terms of the lobbying

and the donations that go on with NADA and some of the other lobbying arms.

So we'll see.

So you listed a few what I read is kind of like downsides to being a dealer

in terms of the carrying expense and the investment and expense and stuff like that.

But if you offload those to the manufacturer, like is there, I guess, one,

how does that fit into newer companies like Rivian who just who

that they don't have an established dealer network that they're quote unquote

screwing over because nobody's made any investment and they want the laws

to adapt to the new marketplace.

And, you know, is there a path forward to where and again, I kind of look

at a lot of these car dealers and you know, the stuff that we see post

on the internet is not from the best and the brightest of the CEOs and all

that because, you know, you're in operations, you know, better than the

post on Facebook groups about your your dealer complaints.

Right.

But with that said, you know, I think there's validity to the fact

that people want a better, more progressive experience like buying from

Carvana, like buying from Amazon, whatever.

And they're tired of the old dealer business model, but the dealers are

digging their heels in, or at least that's a perspective of no, no, no,

it has to be this way because it's always been this way.

Is there a happy medium to where we can allow the Rivians and the Tesla's

to operate the way they want to in a free market and not force them to have

traditional dealers, but where the dealers can also say, hey, the way we've

been doing things this whole time isn't the way of the future.

And, you know, I don't know, I just feel like it's an opportunity for

dealers to reevaluate the model and say, what is next?

How do we do this better?

How do we compete with Carvana instead of just thumbing our nose at them and

saying, well, nobody's going to buy a car online?

Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with you.

I mean, first of all, we're our own worst enemy.

We've treated consumers terrible for a long, long time.

And, you know, there wouldn't be this desire for consumers to want to buy

direct if we're taking care of business.

I also think that if there's no established dealer network, then the

Rivians should be allowed to because there's no established dealer network

that you're screwing over.

So it's not like, you know, there's no harm, no foul there, certainly.

And I also think that that manufacturers and dealers need to get creative.

Back in 2017, when I was associated with Volvo, and I don't know if this is

the case now, but Volvo came out with a with their with their poll stars and

some of the other electric models where you leased it directly from the

manufacturer, they delivered the car to the dealer and the dealer handled

delivery and then after sales, which would be service.

And the dealer got a little bit of money, you know, for delivering the car.

And and with with new car margins shrinking the way they are, the money

you make on new cars isn't that significant.

Anyway, that's kind of what I was going to say, right?

Like I worked at a new car dealer for a little bit, very little bit.

And yeah, everybody complains about the margins.

Right. The last three years, nobody did or 2020 or 2024.

But, you know, now it's getting back to normal.

It's going into hold back, selling cars at invoice, rebates, whatever.

So if you're saying, well, we got to put ten million dollars

into the dealership branding every, you know, 10, 15 years.

We got to hold all this inventory floor plan cost risks.

And our new car margins aren't that good.

We make money on used cars and service.

Well, all of that could change.

And so if if the dealers looked at it and said, oh, OK, well,

if the manufacturer sells direct and we're just point of sale centers,

we don't have to carry inventory.

We don't have to spend all the money on the building.

We can still make money on the service and on the trade ins and the used cars.

Like I feel like that would be a win win for everybody,

but the dealers aren't seeing it that way.

They're just going, oh, if we let Rivian do this, if we change the laws,

we're just going to close like manufacturers are going to run wild.

They're going to price gouge people and all this stuff.

And I'm like, well, the dealers are price gouging.

Well, and I've that's the one thing that I've always kind of wondered in all of this

is the the the feeling that it's all going to disappear.

Like cars still need to get delivered and serviced.

And like that doesn't disappear.

The job, not all the jobs and stuff, they don't evaporate.

So like I'm wondering why that's the thought process.

But I don't know.

I'm not the one whose job is like being threatened.

Well, the one thing manufacturers like to talk out of both sides of their mouths.

It's it can be an abusive relationship at certain times.

And if you went to the manufacturers, I think when the rubber hit the road

and the manufacturers had a choice, maybe to go consumer direct,

the marketing guys would remind them that when they build stinker products,

they know their stinker products.

Now they have a bunch of stinker products that they built

and they have to build X amount in order to get their ROI.

What do they do?

They go to the dealers, they dangle carrots in front of the dealers

and say, hey, Doug, you sell a hundred of these, we're going to give you two hundred

thousand dollars.

And then the dealers since time and memorial have always come through

for the manufacturers and sold their stinky products.

You know, there's there's there's there's never any dealers sitting there

with with hundreds of three year old cars on new cars that they couldn't sell.

They always managed to sell every new car.

And I think that that the manufacturers sometimes talk out of both sides of their

mouths, legacy manufacturers.

Now, Rivian and Tesla want to do direct sales.

That's fine.

But the legacy manufacturers would never survive, never survive

if they went to a direct to consumer model, because they build too many bad

products and they don't know how to sell those products and dealers do.

The problem is, like EVs, they wouldn't realize that they made a mistake

until they had totally shot themselves in the foot to the tune of multiple

billions of dollars, screwed over all their dealers and then gone, we don't

know how to do this, you all come back now.

Right. Well, and and there's a little bit of precedent for it.

In the nineties, Ford did something called Ford Direct, where they

they they started buying up a limited number of metro area dealerships

and started to run them their selves.

And besides the dealers losing their minds and suing them, which they could

have maybe got through, they found out that selling cars was hard.

And and and, you know, it required, especially again, stinker products.

You know, it's easy to sell the hot models, but it's not so hard to move the tough stuff.

Yeah, that's what I've been thinking of, too, is, you know, the the manufacturers

kind of get the best of this because they just get to sell swaths of product

and immediately get the money from all the dealers.

And then they like, it's kind of like, OK, we've got our money.

Like you guys deal with it and they get paid instantly.

The minute they generate that invoice, they don't need that money.

It's taken out. Yeah.

It's like they don't need to actually impress the consumer.

Like they do, in a sense, because it's their brand.

Yeah. But like they just get to sell it immediately.

Yeah. And they sell to an audience that can't say no.

Yeah. It's always yes.

So they they definitely get something in return from it.

Yeah. Yeah, I just I don't know why everyone's so threatened by this

law or absence of a lot, right, the freedom, because like you said,

there is value there for everybody in the chain. Right.

So I don't know why dealers don't look at this and go,

yeah, who cares of what they want to do?

Like that just makes us define our competitive edge.

Yeah, I don't like it when the free market, which would be the dealers,

try to then like make it a less free market in order to

improve their competitive edge through legislation.

That's what I don't like about Ohio's rules.

In particular, I've ranted about this a million times.

There's sales tax credit if you trade in a vehicle on a new car, but not a used car.

Let me tell you a law written by the frigging new car lobbyists,

because it benefits them.

It gets more sales to the new car dealers as opposed to the pretty old car.

It makes me say, yeah, that is an unfair law.

That is you gaining a competitive edge through legislation,

through influence, and I'm like, just be better. Right.

Open it up and be better.

Right. And it doesn't really hurt you.

PA has tax credit both ways. Yeah.

And it's it's it's a great benefit for the consumer.

It encourages them to trade out of cars, but you're right.

That legacy law, if I could change that, I would change it tomorrow.

It's a ridiculous law.

Yeah. And you wouldn't notice any different.

You probably get more cars on trade anyway, and then you could sell.

You sell more used cars. That's right.

Because there's no new car dealers.

The old model of new car dealers, just wholesaling stuff out.

It doesn't happen anymore.

You all keep your inventory because the internet exists

and you want the margins. Right.

And nobody thinks for it.

Nobody buy nobody buys newer used based off that.

It's it's based off affordability.

So yeah. Yeah. All right.

Good talk. Good talk.

All right. Corvette curmudgeon.

Bert, you were down at Meekum this week

and saw a lot of a lot, a lot of cars there going through auction.

You said some crazy numbers on some cars and then the 50s cars

like we all knew was happening and it's going to continue to happen

are tanking in value.

But you saw one extra special Corvette.

Tell us about that one.

I mean, you know, I went down there to see Bianco Speciale,

which is the white 250 GTO,

but I stumbled upon a car that was even rarer than that

because they built 36 GTOs, right?

Or 32, 33 or 36, depending on how you look at it.

OK. But this was the ultimate in the Corvette one of one minus rare.

It was a 1982 Chevrolet Corvette. Hold on. Can't be.

No, that's not rare.

Well, he says that this is the only one that is black

with gray leather interior with less than 10,000 original miles.

And he was so proud of it.

He put it in three inch lettering across the windshield.

But not just that it is.

He's not even that confident.

He said, believe to be, right?

Believe. Yes. Very, very precise legal jargon there.

So you can it's the allegedly believed is very similar to the

Corvette faith. Yeah. The Church of Corvette.

Well, you know, he's trying to get those extra few dollars on a Wednesday afternoon

or whenever that car is selling. That's right. Yeah.

Not prime time. Right. Right.

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We've got two conflicting articles, both referencing Arizona and speeding laws this week.

Both of them are laws that have been proposed by representatives in the house

for the state of Arizona, and it is quite interesting.

Obviously, lots of things get proposed. Everybody wants to please their constituents

and see what I'm doing for you, and neither of these laws may come to anything,

but I think they are worth talking about.

So the first one from carscoops.com, and thanks to our Patreon listener Larry for the submission,

Arizona's plan for serial speeders is an ankle bracelet for your car.

The bill is proposed to give drivers the option of installing speed limiting devices

in their cars instead of losing their licenses.

So if you have multiple convictions for excessive speeding, similar to, I guess,

DUIs, when you drive drunk too much, you get nothing.

Party plates, I guess, in Ohio, but speeding is so much more dangerous

than drunk driving that they're going to say, wow, you can either lose your license

or we'll put this device in your car to use GPS tech, and it will keep them from being able

to exceed the speed limit, thereby causing lots of traffic jams.

It's the geriatric mod in your car.

Does it also turn on the left turn signal constantly?

Apparently Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia have already

actually enacted similar laws.

I didn't even know this was a thing.

No surprise with those states.

Yeah, this is crazy.

Can you imagine the money that went into developing this and now then rolling it out?

That money probably could have been better spent to do literally anything else.

No, because the man behind the bill is Representative Nguyen, who says he will

introduce the bill when the state legislature starts up again in January.

The company behind the man behind the bill is two companies, Smart Start and Life Safer.

Nguyen has been working with two representatives, four companies,

who produce these speed limiter devices.

There's some profit here to be made for these companies,

similar to the red light cameras and the speed cameras that we have everywhere.

If you get a fine in the mail, which I never do because I drive the speed limit,

you notice you're mailing your check, which I don't do either.

Because you don't get them in the mail, of course.

Right. But if I did, I wouldn't mail the check.

You're mailing it to like Georgia, somewhere totally out of state, out of state company.

Now, people can debate the constitutionality of that.

People have challenged some of them one, challenged some of the laws.

We're not going to get into that.

But the long and short of it is it's a profit sharing program with the municipality and the company.

Now, I do not want to allege any wrongdoing or lining of pockets,

but listen, they're politicians. We all know what lobbyists do.

We all know that if politicians' lips are moving, no.

How do you know a politician's lying?

Oh, their lips are moving.

Right. Like car salesmen. Yeah.

So, you know, it's, there's money to be made here.

Did you say it was in Arizona?

Arizona.

Barry Goldwater is rolling in his grave.

Hopefully, the libertarian don't tread on me, arm of the legislature strikes this down.

This guy is a Republican. This is a Republican representative.

Really?

Yes. And Arizona is already known for incredibly strict speeding law.

It is a very difficult state to go through on the cannonball.

They will throw you in jail for like 30 over.

Here's the crazy thing. Another Republican representative,

Nick Cupper, this one, according to Hagerty.com,

has introduced an act called RAPID, the goal of which is to get rid of the speed limit

on some rural stretches of Arizona.

I like this guy. Let's go.

Let's ignore the other one.

These two laws, it's the reasonable, imprudent Interstate Driving Act,

which is a throwback, of course, to the state of Montana,

which used to have an official daytime speed limit as reasonable, imprudent,

or 55 at night, which to me is a wide, it's a big difference.

With today's headlights, I feel like you could have a higher speed limit at night

because there's no traffic. But anyway, I digress.

Cupper explains this proposes to give motorists the power, I would say,

the freedom to decide what is and isn't a safe speed in some parts of the state.

Can't we just do that everywhere and educate our drivers properly?

Cupper explains that the idea isn't to turn Arizona roads into a free-for-all.

The speed limit would only be lifted or removed in the more remote parts of the state,

which is 90% of it, for non-commercial vehicles and during daylight hours.

So exactly like the Montana rule 40 years ago.

Well, Nick, and I don't know if it's in the middle of nowhere

and there's nobody else around you. Why does it matter if you choose to go a little bit faster?

And honestly, the making the decision I like because there are some roads that are local to us

that have like a 35 mile an hour speed limit that I don't actually like going 35 on because the roads

are piles of garbage and it's like there's a ton of people around and it's residential.

So I back it off a little bit like I'm not going 20, but it's like I'm not, you know,

doing the like 35 or five over like I'm just taking it easy because that's what feels right

in that scenario. I love this quote. Most drivers can tell the difference between a crowded city

freeway and a wide open stretch of rural interstates. But not all. Trust me.

Who are the drivers that can't? Can we just take them off the road?

Oh, most.

Doug, you've been on highways around us. You know, there are some that can't.

This is true. Oh my gosh.

Copper did note that a study performed in Montana while the state had no daytime speed limit shows

accidents and deaths went down even as the average speed increased

and that seatbelt use and driver behavior are more important than speed.

My mic wasn't in a stand. I would drop it.

We've been we've been preaching that for a long time. There's some sense in some

governing group in some states. So it's out there, Doug. We just needed to come this way.

It's out there. It's out there. There's hope. It's going to take forever. They want to do a pilot

program on one section of interstate for one year and then do studies and who knows.

Anyway, although Casey Putch has promised that if well, he promised to me anyway,

that if I voted for him, he I would like his Ohio Autobahn policy or whatever that he's going to

try to introduce or whatever. I said, well, I don't vote for people. Well, sometimes I do if I

don't know their character, but I was like, that's that's not my concern with you, Casey.

You just leave it at that. Yeah. This isn't student council where you're like,

I'll get you a soda machine if you vote for me. He's the gentleman that's challenging the vague,

right? Yes. Okay. Gentlemen is okay. That's that's a word. That's a word. He is dapper.

That's for sure. Foppish. I learned I learned a word this week because I've been catching up on

my classic literature. Foppish is a word that perfectly describes Casey Putch in one word.

Is that like F-A-U-P? F-O-P-P. Foppish. Love it. Anyway, that brings us to the props and flops

brought to you by Switchcars. And Switchcars is the enthusiast dealership where we buy and

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But we do have a repeat offender coming in. It is a beautiful 2014 Porsche 911 C2S cab seven speed

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flop of the week EVs have been banned from Orlando Speed World Dragway. Why? Why? Well,

Tesla guys might say that it's because the Corvettes are tired of losing.

Oh, yeah. But it is for safety, according to this press release. Is it because they burn forever?

Yeah, pretty much. That's right. That's it. They've been banned for the following risks.

And they made this decision after reviewing safety protocols put out by the manufacturers and,

you know, various departments and stuff. The battery may release toxic and flammable gas

after a collision. First responders may not be able to confirm that the car is off.

Doors may not unlock from the outside after a collision. If a driver is unconscious after the

incident, there is a chance that the chassis is live and removing the driver would put

responder at risk. The car may not roll with the power disconnected and the towing the car

with our current equipment would be impossible. Electric vehicles require specific fire suppression

systems such as water baths. So no EVs at Orlando Speed World Dragway. If I owned a drag strip,

I wouldn't have them either for that very reason. I own them no longer, but I own a storage facility

and I wouldn't allow full EVs in there. So they will still allow hybrids because it's much smaller

battery and other things like you can confirm the vehicles off, you can still move it like

there's a whole bunch of other things that you can do with hybrids you can't do with full EVs.

Our prop of the week, our prop of the week, sorry, GMauthority.com is the source Tremac

already installed its manual transmission in a C8 Corvette. Whoa, yeah. Yep, yep, yep. Nice.

Yes, they have not only developed a six-speed manual transactional

for the platform, Sean Connery reporting here, but have already bolted it into a Corvette.

So this is not speculation, this happened. Brad Dennis, a senior sales engineer said,

I know we've taken this and mounted it in our own C8 just to make sure everything clears

and everything fits. It fits, it's feasible. This does not signal an imminent factory option from

Chevrolet, a chasm exists between a transmission that bolts in and a fully functional software

integrated vehicle ready for production. Just ask Tavaresh about that.

Ah, yes. So their goal is to provide an aftermarket setup for this to be done.

And the potential extends beyond the Corvette because the Ford Mustang GTD also uses Tremac's

TR980-9080 dual clutch transmission. So logically, according to GMauthority,

that could also take Tremac's six-speed manual. I don't know who would manual swap a half million

dollar Mustang, but hey. If I had the money, I would. Yeah. Yeah. Well, if I had the money,

I wouldn't buy a Mustang. Okay, well, also that. But I don't, I mean, you know, maybe that one would

be weird because it'd be slower on track and that's specifically such a track focus thing

like the GT3RS, but it would be cool to have it in a stick. Yes, I agree. It'd be cool just to

have. If I had enough money so that I had enough extra money to spend half a million dollars on

a Mustang GTD, I would manual swap it. If I, if I, if I. But a mid-cycle production

manual transmission on a C8 would be great to boost C8 sales. Sure. Because three,

four years is when they start to get a little stale, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I love it

because I think the CA is such a good car already. It is. Yeah. Ugly, but it's a good car. And

yeah, that would make it that much better.

The Sheffield brand was recently revived by Jake Turkbus, an owner of an original Sheffield

All Sport Diver he received from his parents in 1970 when he was just 11, beginning his

love of watches. As an adult, Jay used his extensive expertise in product development

and marketing to revive the brand that started it all. He set out to develop watches with a

high level of quality and specification at a value price. His first effort and a successful one

on July of 2023 was the debut of the Sheffield All Sport Diver one. It had the kind of build

and movement that much more expensive watches use and his debut price of $108 was equivalent to the

$13 his parents paid in 1970. Since that debut, Sheffield has expanded to a wider range of

automatics and chronos, many designed around vintage Sheffield dials of the 60s. The Sheffield

well of clever and unique design remains his inspiration as well as maintaining the goal

of high quality, very affordable range of automatic and quartz watches. Sheffield watches value on

merit, not just price. I love mine. So get yours at Sheffield watches.com and be sure to mention

you found them on Switchcast. Thank you for joining us for Switchcast with Doug Tabott and

Tyler Sanders produced by Ethan Huffnagle. Switchcast is an automotive entertainment and opinion show

and nothing we say should be taken very seriously. We do not give tax, investment,

legal, emotional or professional advice and the only licenses we hold are driver's licenses.

The opinions expressed on this show are exclusively held by the people pontificating at that moment

and do not reflect the values of our producers or sponsors. Our theme music is provided by 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.

0:00

46:47

The Lawsuit That Could Change How You Buy Cars

Porsche 911

Volkswagen

direct-to-consumer sales

Rivian

Tesla

direct to consumer model

franchise laws

Mercedes

average transaction price

Volvo

direct leasing

after sales service

legacy manufacturers

Ford Direct

Chevrolet Corvette

Ferrari 250 GTO

one of one

speed limiting devices

991

electric vehicles

fire suppression

hybrid vehicles

Tremec

manual transmission

Chevrolet C8

Ford Mustang GTD

Tremac TR980-9080 dual clutch transmission

manual swap

About this episode

Original notes