Ray and Zach break down CarEdge’s live “worst car dealer in America” findings using a dealer transparency index. South Atlanta Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram tops the list with a 26/100 score, driven by high dock fees, frequent add-ons, and big gaps between advertised and final prices (while still having relatively reliable quote data). They also spot a geographic pattern, with Florida and Georgia heavily represented, and discuss how the FTC is pushing for clearer, incentive-agnostic pricing. The show then pivots to used-car market data: Black Book reports fast-rising prices, especially trucks, amid tight supply—making it a seller’s market. Finally, Porsche and Audi are discussed as they seek cost-sharing ties to recover from EV pivots, plus a quick Tesla IIHS safety update.
Today on CarEdge Live, Ray and Zach discuss the latest data they collected from the Dealer Transparency Index. Tune in to learn more! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
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"Soften your focus and visualize yourself off-roading in a Tacoma! Now engage your senses. What do you hear?"
Off-roading means driving on rough or unpaved roads, like dirt trails. It’s harder than normal driving, so you want a vehicle that can handle it.
Off-roading refers to driving on unpaved or rough terrain where traction and vehicle control matter more than on-road comfort. Pickup trucks like the Toyota Tacoma are often marketed for this kind of use because they’re built to handle dirt roads and uneven surfaces.
"Soften your focus and visualize yourself off-roading in a Tacoma! Now engage your senses. What do you hear?"
The Toyota Tacoma is a pickup truck made by Toyota. It’s popular because it can handle rough roads, so it’s a common choice when people talk about off-roading.
The Toyota Tacoma is a midsize pickup truck known for off-road capability and everyday utility. In this segment it’s used as an example of a vehicle you might imagine driving while “off-roading.”
"Because you're driving the kids to a farm sanctuary in a Grand Highlander! Breathe in, breathe out, and go from dreaming it to driving it today!"
The Toyota Grand Highlander is a Toyota SUV with room for a family. In the ad, it’s the car you’d use to drive kids around.
The Toyota Grand Highlander is a larger three-row SUV in Toyota’s Highlander family, aimed at families needing more seating and space. Here it’s referenced as the vehicle for driving “the kids” to a farm sanctuary.
"today's show is brought to you by caredge.com. For those of you that are unfamiliar, back at caredge.com for the past six years. We've been providing car buying services that take care of research, dealer outreach, and even negotiation."
CarEdge is a website/service that helps you buy a car. They help you do research, contact dealers, and negotiate so you’re less likely to get a bad deal.
CarEdge (caredge.com) is presented as a service that helps consumers with the car-buying process. The segment highlights research, dealer outreach, and negotiation support—key steps that can reduce the chance of being steered into bad deals.
"We've been providing car buying services that take care of research, dealer outreach, and even negotiation."
Dealer outreach means calling or messaging dealerships to ask for quotes. It helps you compare what different dealers will actually offer you.
Dealer outreach is the process of contacting multiple dealerships to request information and pricing. In practice, it helps buyers compare offers and reduces the risk of being quoted one-sided numbers.
"But based on our dealer transparency index, we found the 10 dealers who have the lowest performance in terms of transparency. And today, we're going to break down that data, but do it live."
This is a score that tries to measure how upfront a car dealership is. The higher the score, the more clearly they explain pricing and fees; the lower the score means more confusing or misleading practices.
The dealer transparency index is a scoring system that ranks dealerships based on how clearly and honestly they present pricing and deal terms. In this episode, it’s used to identify dealers with the lowest transparency scores.
"Your worst car dealer in the United States of America right now, at the moment, based on the data that we have available to us, is South Atlanta Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram. They scored a 26 out of 100."
They’re calling out this specific dealership as having the lowest transparency score in their ranking. They say it scored 26 out of 100 based on their criteria.
This is the specific dealership named as the worst (lowest transparency score) in the United States in the episode’s ranking. The hosts cite a score of 26 out of 100 based on their methodology.
"Dealer-controlled fees above the listed price excluding taxes and title fees. Dealers with the minimal markup score highest."
Taxes and title fees are charges you have to pay to register the car. The episode is saying they’re not counting those when they judge whether the dealer is inflating the price.
Taxes and title fees are government-related costs tied to registering and titling the vehicle. The episode’s “price accuracy” metric excludes these so it can focus on dealer-controlled charges rather than unavoidable government costs.
"Dealers with the minimal markup score highest. Okay, again, this dealership sees significant markup above."
Markup is how much extra money the dealer adds on top of the price. Lower markup usually means you’re paying closer to a fair market number.
Markup is the amount a dealer charges above a baseline price (often the listed or negotiated price). The episode says dealers with minimal markup score highest, implying the dealer is charging closer to what’s expected rather than inflating the deal.
"And then we've got the processing fee, which is a crazy dock fee for the state of Georgia at $1,295."
A processing fee is a dealer charge for doing the paperwork. It’s often added on top of the car price, so you should check the amount and ask if it’s negotiable.
A “processing fee” is a dealer charge for handling paperwork and administrative steps. Depending on the state and dealer, it can be negotiable or capped, so it’s important to ask what it covers and whether it’s required.
"Yeah, price accuracy. It's not to be had at this dealership... At least that's what our data is suggesting."
“Price accuracy” means whether the price you see is really the price you end up paying. If it’s not accurate, you may get hit with extra charges later.
“Price accuracy” here means how closely the dealer’s advertised number matches the final negotiated/transaction price. When accuracy is poor, buyers should expect surprise fees and add-ons during the quote process.
"A $1,299 dock fee and just add-ons galore... Let's take a quick peek. We've got that $1,299 dock fee on this one."
A dock fee is a charge the dealer adds for moving the car from where it arrives to the dealership. It can be fair, but it’s also a common place where dealers add cost.
A dock fee is a dealer charge tied to getting the vehicle from the port/transport system to the dealership. It’s legitimate in some form, but the amount can vary widely and may be used to inflate the final price when combined with other add-ons.
"And if I may, Dad, this is the distribution of grades. So it's only 17% of dealers get a D or an F grade."
“Grades” here refer to letter ratings (A, B, C, D, F) assigned to dealerships based on their behavior and deal practices. The segment breaks down the distribution of dealers across these grades to show how common poor practices are.
"I mean, so it's actually that, it really is that adage of a few bad apples rock the bunch. Most dealers operate pretty transparently."
This is a proverb meaning a small number of bad actors can make an entire group look bad. Here, it’s used to frame dealer grading: most dealers behave reasonably, but a minority can create a negative reputation for the industry.
"we've got 3,577 verified OTT quotes from 912 different Ford dealers, and you can start to see the distribution here."
They’re looking at Ford dealerships as a group. The point is to see how Ford dealer pricing and extra charges compare to other brands.
Ford is used here as a brand category for dealer pricing analysis. The segment compares Ford dealers’ average dock fees and how often they add add-ons in verified out-the-door quotes.
"For example, you can see mud guards or all-weathered floor liner package."
Mud guards are the little panels behind the wheels that help keep dirt and rocks from getting kicked up. They can be sold as part of a package when you buy the car.
Mud guards (also called splash guards) are protective panels that help reduce road grime and debris thrown up by tires. They’re often included in accessory or package offerings and can be used as an example of what the data is capturing.
All-weather floor liners are heavy-duty mats that protect your car’s carpet from wet and dirty weather. Dealers sometimes include them as part of an add-on package.
All-weather floor liners are molded mats designed to protect the cabin floor from water, snow, and mud. They’re commonly bundled as an accessory package and can affect how dealers present “value” versus actual pricing.
"Live update, Cybertruck just earned the IIHS top safety pick. First pick up ever for the 2025 models post-April."
Tesla’s Cybertruck is an electric pickup. Getting an IIHS Top Safety Pick means it passed tough safety tests and earned a top safety rating.
Tesla’s Cybertruck is an all-electric pickup that has been evaluated by safety organizations like the IIHS. Earning an IIHS Top Safety Pick is a major validation of its crash-test performance relative to other vehicles.
"Then another big story this morning that will turn our attention to Porsche and Audi. Definitely Volkswagen feeling some struggle here."
Audi is a German luxury car brand. The speaker is saying Audi is dealing with money problems and is adjusting its plan for electric vs gas cars.
Audi is a German automaker within the Volkswagen Group, with a lineup spanning luxury sedans, SUVs, and performance models. The segment frames Audi as part of a broader industry crisis and discusses its pivot between EV plans and combustion-engine plans.
"Then another big story this morning that will turn our attention to Porsche and Audi. Definitely Volkswagen feeling some struggle here."
Porsche is a German car brand famous for performance cars. In this segment, they’re being talked about because the company is under financial strain and changing strategy.
Porsche is a German automaker best known for performance sports cars, but it also has been heavily involved in the shift toward electric vehicles. Here, Porsche is discussed in the context of financial pressure and strategic partnerships.
"And so what they're trying to do is, well, work together as opposed to against each other and share some platforms and share some technologies"
Sharing platforms and technologies means multiple automakers use common vehicle “architectures” and engineering components to reduce development costs. The segment suggests Porsche and Audi are looking to cooperate to save money and speed up product plans.
"Yeah, but it's definitely a sign, Dad, that there are some struggles over there at Volkswagen. And this is a cost-cutting measure for sure."
A cost-cutting measure is an action taken to reduce expenses, often through operational changes, supplier negotiations, or shared engineering across brands. In the segment, it’s tied to increasing overlap between Audi and Porsche.
"And, you know, I think Porsche is trying to get their profit margin back up to about 10%. That's hard to do if you can't figure out ways to save money so you can get there."
Profit margin is basically how much money a company keeps after covering costs. They’re saying Porsche wants to make more profit, but it’s hard without finding ways to spend less.
Profit margin is how much profit a company makes relative to its revenue. The segment frames Porsche’s target margin as something that’s difficult to reach without cost reductions.
"between tariffs and wars and everything else, supply chain issues again, it makes it very difficult in order to find appropriate ways to be able to save money."
Supply chain issues are disruptions or delays in getting parts and materials to manufacturers. The segment ties these issues to higher costs and difficulty finding ways to save money.
"...when you consider that gas is approaching four dollars a gallon for regular, unleaded..."
They’re pointing out that gas is getting very expensive. When gas costs rise, you’d expect people to care more about fuel economy, which can affect truck prices.
This is a macroeconomic fuel-cost input that affects consumer demand and vehicle pricing. Higher fuel prices typically make fuel-efficient vehicles more attractive, which can pressure demand for low-mileage vehicles like many full-size pickups.
"...at some point, people are going to start taking gas mileage back into consideration as gas prices continue to go up."
Gas mileage means how far a car can go on a gallon of gas. When gas gets expensive, people usually care more about efficiency.
“Gas mileage” (fuel economy) is a key factor in how buyers evaluate vehicles when fuel prices change. The hosts argue that as gas gets more expensive, buyers should start valuing efficiency more, which should affect pricing.
"Unless they're thinking the banks are going to come up with specialized interest rates to help them sell these things and even longer terms in order to make them appear affordable."
Interest rates affect the cost of financing a vehicle—higher rates generally increase monthly payments and total loan cost. The hosts speculate dealers may be relying on financing structures to keep payments “affordable.”
"...specialized interest rates to help them sell these things and even longer terms in order to make them appear affordable..."
Longer terms means the loan is stretched out over more time. Your monthly payment can drop, but you may end up paying more overall.
“Longer terms” means extending the length of the auto loan (e.g., more months/years). Longer terms can lower the monthly payment, but they often increase total interest paid over the life of the loan.
"Dad, obviously, the other chart that we'd like to look at, is this one right here. So, this is showing you year over year trends since the beginning of the year, what's been going on with used car prices."
They’re talking about how much used cars cost right now compared to earlier. If prices are going up, it’s more expensive to buy used, but you can often sell for more.
The discussion is about how the market price of used vehicles changes over time. When used car prices rise, it typically makes buying used cars more expensive and increases resale values for current owners.
"and those of you thinking about selling a car, it's a seller's market. It's 100% a seller's market all of a sudden for used vehicles."
A seller’s market is when there aren’t many used cars available and lots of people want them. Because of that, sellers can charge more, and buyers usually have to pay higher prices.
A seller's market means used-car supply is tight and demand is strong, so sellers (and dealers) have more pricing power. Buyers often end up paying higher prices than they would in a balanced market.
"It's no different than back in 22 when used car wholesale prices went up 40, 50%, because there was a huge shortage of new cars."
When new cars are hard to find, people who need a car sooner have to look used. That extra demand makes used cars more expensive.
A shortage of new cars reduces supply in the overall vehicle market, pushing more buyers toward used cars. That increased demand for used inventory can raise both wholesale and retail used-car prices.
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Hi! You're listening to Meditating with Jan from Toyota.
Soften your focus and visualize yourself off-roading in a Tacoma!
Now engage your senses. What do you hear?
A donkey!
Because you're driving the kids to a farm sanctuary in a Grand Highlander!
Breathe in, breathe out, and go from dreaming it to driving it today!
Dealer inventory may vary. See your participating Toyota dealer for details.
Event ends March 31st.
Toyota, let's go places!
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Hi, this is Alex Kanstruitz.
I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast,
a longtime reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC.
And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out
how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives.
So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors
from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it.
Asking where this is all going.
They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more.
So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices,
and meetings with your colleagues, and at dinner parties,
listen to Big Technology Podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.
It's noon here in Venture City, New Jersey at San Juan, Puerto Rico.
And this is CarAge Live for Tuesday, March 24th, with your hosts, me, Ray.
Still here in Venture, and well, Zach hanging out with San Juan.
How are you today, handsome?
I'm doing great.
Beautiful, sunny weather.
I can see the ocean outside my window.
It is awesome, Dad.
Thanks everyone for tuning in and joining us.
Today we're going to be talking about the worst car dealer in America.
Wow, did we do an interesting job with that video that went out last week
and we're going to spend some time on it.
And also talk about the FTC and the work they're doing
to try and clean up the auto industry.
Excuse me, before we do, Dad, we need to remind everyone
that today's show is brought to you by caredge.com.
For those of you that are unfamiliar, back at caredge.com for the past six years.
I do it for six years, man.
We've been providing car buying services that take care of research,
dealer outreach, and even negotiation.
The important thing, folks, is we learn what matters.
Do you contact car dealers, compare real offers,
and help you get the best deal without the stress?
We have helped over 800,000 people since 2019.
That is incredible.
And again, we have a promotion going on right now.
$200 off our car buying service, 20% off caredge.
Pro, take a peek.
Learn some more back at caredge.com.
Go for it, Dad.
I need to ask you a question.
So today on LinkedIn, I see that I should congratulate Zach Shefska as CEO and co-founder
of Car Edge for his six-year anniversary.
And well, being the other co-founder,
I wonder why I only am at a five-year anniversary,
but you, you were at a six-year anniversary.
How the hell does that work?
Sounds like you need to update your LinkedIn, Dad.
All right, let's jump into today's show, Pops.
Just the other day, this was on Saturday.
We didn't launch the video.
It was called, we found the worst car dealer in America.
And we documented the 10 worst.
We have all sorts of disclaimers in there,
because we're not regulators.
We're not the end-all, be-all here.
But based on our dealer transparency index,
we found the 10 dealers who have the lowest performance in terms of transparency.
And today, we're going to break down that data, but do it live.
So this comes from our dealer ratings and dealer reviews platform,
which again, dealer transparency index is what we're also calling it.
You can come onto this page, caredge.com slash dealer dash ratings.
And I'm going to go here, Dad, dealers.
And then I'm going to do, I'm just going to search all dealers.
We're going to toggle to F, and we are going to sort by lowest score.
Here are your dealers, Dad, that based on our methodology have the lowest score.
So we won't even make this a long drawn-out process.
Your worst car dealer in the United States of America right now,
at the moment, based on the data that we have available to us,
is South Atlanta Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram.
They scored a 26 out of 100.
So let's talk about this, Dad.
What is the methodology here?
How does a dealership end up scoring a 26 out of 100?
And we'll come here to the transparency score breakdown.
So we're measuring these dealerships on three, excuse me, four criteria.
How transparent are they with their fees?
How many add-ons do they have?
How accurate is their price that they advertised online?
And what is the quality of their data?
So let's break all these down, Dad.
We're looking at objectively, based on car edges data,
the worst, in terms of transparency, dealership in the United States of America.
What does this mean?
Why are they seeing such a bad score?
Well, let me guess.
They're not nearly as transparent as others, that their advertised price doesn't include
all the fees and add-ons that the dealer then requires.
Is that what it is, Zach?
Yes, we'll come here, Dad.
We're measuring dock fee fairness.
Dealers charging at or below $499 will score highest.
They'll do well here.
Fees above $1,500 score lowest.
Well, this dealership's dock fee, Dad, is $1,295.
So they're scoring poorly for fee transparency, add-on behavior.
Let's look at this.
How often is the dealer adding extra products onto dealers?
Deals, excuse me, dealers who rarely push add-ons or keep them minimal score highest.
Well, high would be $100.
They're scoring 10.
Price accuracy, Dad measures.
Dealer-controlled fees above the listed price excluding taxes and title fees.
Dealers with the minimal markup score highest.
Okay, again, this dealership sees significant markup above.
You can see here, when they do their add-ons, they end up being 13.6%
more expensive than their advertised price.
And the data quality, how complete their pricing data is in our records.
More complete data equals more reliable scores.
That's the saving grace for this dealership, Dad.
They have very reliable data.
Wait, so if I'm reading that correctly, they're being very honest.
Once they present you with the outdoor price, which is about 13.6%
above the advertised price, they're being very honest in their data that they're providing
at that particular point in time, but not beforehand.
Correct, correct, correct, correct.
Yes.
This particular dealer, Dad, this is exactly why they end up being the number one or lowest
scoring, again, 26 out of 100.
They're adding on add-ons and all the interactions we've had with them, which
be clear, there's only three verified quotes, so we need more data.
But this is not a good start for how a dealership should be operating.
And then you can obviously come down here and view the actual information.
So we'll take a quick peek here.
Let's jump into it.
Yeah, you can see they're adding, this is exactly it.
This is on a 2022 Ram 1500.
They're adding $3,195 in the South Atlanta advantage.
And then we've got the processing fee, which is a crazy dock fee for the state of Georgia at $1,295.
Yes, okay.
So one begins to wonder, at least I do, I'm not real good with geography,
but is the North Atlanta fee more than the South Atlanta or the East or the West Atlanta?
It is the perfect example as to why people hate trying to deal with car dealers.
And the sad reality for this particular dealership is, well, they're the ones
that provided us with the information.
They're the ones that provided the quote.
And so for them to say, well, if we shouldn't publish that information...
No one has said that.
No one has said that.
I don't think they ever were, if they ever were.
I'll put words in their mouth.
Okay.
But my point is it's information that they've provided because it's their print.
It's a copy of their worksheet.
So let's keep going here, Pops.
We've got from Seabroo.
What's the worst state to buy a car?
Is it Florida?
So here we go.
Let's go back to our list and we pull back up on the screen here.
This is where things become really interesting.
So I'm going to go back.
I'm going to go back.
I'm going to go back.
You can start to see a pattern here when you look at the data.
Dad, we've got Nissan of Cape Coral coming in at 29.2.
We've got Honda of the Avenues, which I'm sorry, Cape Corals and Cape Coral,
Florida, Honda of the Avenues in Jacksonville, Florida.
We've got Brandon Hyundai in Tampa, Florida.
We've got Toyota of North Miami.
So you can start to see some patterns here, Dad.
We've got dealerships in the South.
You've got Florida and Georgia very well represented here.
And if we click in the Nissan of Cape Coral, let's go ahead and look here.
Yeah, price accuracy.
It's not to be had at this dealership.
At least that's what our data is suggesting.
There's a 16.1% difference between what they advertise
and what you're ultimately going to pay at this particular dealership.
A $1,299 dock fee and just add-ons galore,
which again, we can come down here and let's view some of these quotes.
Let's take a quick peek.
We've got that $1,299 dock fee on this one.
Let's go back really quick.
I think we've got some add-ons on this 2024 RAV4.
Let's take a peek here.
We've got the big dock fee again.
Let's see.
Let's do another one that can you tell your ride.
So it's just an example, Dad.
Yeah, you can see the recon and certification.
And another thing that the FTC has been going after is this thing right here.
Must finance with Nissan.
So the pricing actually changing depending on how you purchase the vehicle.
So this is some pretty heavy stuff for these dealerships to be operating in this way.
And yeah, it definitely does seem geographic in nature.
Yeah, my guess is though that you'll, I mean,
perhaps some states are worse than others, but I'll just guess in here.
I'm spit-bomb because I haven't really looked that deeply into it.
But I'm guessing you're going to find dealers with an F grade
in every state in the union.
I don't think that would be a, I think it would be an anomaly if you didn't.
But the point is, is that there are certain ways that the FTC would like you to advertise.
The rules suggest that you advertise it, that the advertised price is the price
that anybody can walk in the dealership and buy it for,
regardless of whether or not they pay cash or they finance it.
And it can't represent incentives from the manufacturer
that not everyone would qualify for.
So it has to be, if there are incentives,
it has to be the base incentives that everyone could qualify for.
And so when dealers play games like this,
these are the dealers that give the good dealers,
and there are good dealers out there.
They just seem almost impossible to find,
but with our grading system, we make it easier to find them.
And if I may, Dad, this is the distribution of grades.
So it's only 17% of dealers get a D or an F grade.
Okay, so that means, what does that mean?
That means 83% are a C or better.
I mean, so it's actually that,
it really is that adage of a few bad apples rock the bunch.
Most dealers operate pretty transparently.
It's 17% of them that just really are miserable,
and then obviously 21% of them that are not great,
19% of them that are pretty good, but could be better,
and 43% of them that are really trying to be transparent.
Yes, but if I may, not to put a knock on our dealer transparency index,
there is a, you can be 100% transparent, but not necessarily fair,
if that makes any sense at all.
And so there could be some dealers out there
that will score an A because they're transparent
in the information that they share with you.
They are not necessarily fair about some of the pricing
on some of the fees in the avalanche,
but they are 100% transparent in showing you that stuff up front.
So ultimately, it is, I think, a good thing that we're developing the data,
legitimate data to support these type of grades.
And I think, well, there's about 40,000 new
and used car dealerships out there, and we've,
I don't know, it's close to 10,000 that we've been in touch with.
So we've got a long way to go to score the other 30,000,
but so far, the first 10,000 that we've been able to get quotes from,
legitimate quotes, printouts from the dealers,
so far you can see the distribution as to how the vast majority of the dealers
are trying to provide you with good information.
Whether or not the information is fair is another story,
but it's at least good information so that you can make a more informed
and intelligent decision as opposed to that lower percentage of dealers
that are out there just trying to well screw you.
Hi, you're listening to Meditating with Jan from Toyota.
Soften your focus and visualize yourself off-roading in a Tacoma.
Now engage your senses. What do you hear?
A donkey, because you're driving the kids to a farm sanctuary in a Grand Highlander.
Breathe in, breathe out, and go from dreaming it to driving it today.
Dealer inventory may vary.
See your participating Toyota dealer for details.
Event ends March 31st.
Toyota, let's go places.
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Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz.
I'm the host of Big Technology podcast,
a longtime reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC.
And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out
how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives.
So, each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors
from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it.
Asking where this is all going, they come from places like Nvidia,
Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more.
So, if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices,
and meetings with your colleagues, and at dinner parties,
listen to Big Technology podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
All right. So, there's your worst car dealer in America,
and there's some of the methodology behind it
and a little bit of insight into some of the state-by-state things that we see.
Let's also talk about this by brand for a moment, Dad.
So, if you go to Carage.com slash dealers,
you can go into reports and click on brand report cards.
And I just want to show you here, Dad,
we aggregate this information also, obviously, by brand.
So, for example, here, I'll click on forward, and you can see,
we've got 3,577 verified OTT quotes from 912 different Ford dealers,
and you can start to see the distribution here.
The average dock fee at a Ford dealer is $441.
54% do not add add-ons.
However, the 46% who do, it's typically $1,277.
You can start to compare that too.
Let's compare it to Chevrolet here.
Let me pull Chevrolet up.
So, here's Chevrolet, Dad.
We've got 668 dealers that have been vetted.
Lower dock fees, exact same percentage,
or slightly lower percentage on add-ons, 52%.
We have add-ons, $1,267 in add-ons when present.
And then you can scroll down here,
and you can actually see what those add-ons are.
So, really good information to help frame the best and worst
here in the United States of America
when it comes to not only specific dealers,
but brands and how they price their inventory.
Could you do Toyota?
We can do Toyota.
And the only reason I ask is, as we know,
Toyota has the lowest day supply of vehicles,
new vehicles in the country.
So, typically that could lend itself to dealers forcing
or trying to force add-ons.
Now, I want to comment here with Toyota.
They send their data over with the V-spec format.
So, I actually don't want to spend a ton of time
on Toyota debt because I'm not as competent,
but it's going to produce things that are super reliable.
For example, you can see mud guards
or all-weathered floor liner package.
So, still this is in beta and some work to be done,
but I want to just comment.
There is some continued work on the data efficacy here.
So, Toyota is an example,
but obviously Ford, Chevrolet, and others here
that you can click around with and play with.
What about Jeep?
You want to take a peek at Jeep?
Sure, please.
Please.
We've got 47% no add-ons.
The add-ons go up a little bit.
$1904.
Dock fee a little bit higher as well.
Interesting stuff.
Great distribution.
A little more leaning towards that soon.
Great. Anyway, all right.
So, there we go, folks.
That's your worst car dealer in America.
Let's switch gears here, Deb.
We've got a comment from Mark in the chat.
Thanks for this.
Thank you, Mark.
Thank you.
Live update, Cybertruck just earned the IIHS top safety pick.
First pick up ever for the 2025 models post-April.
That death trap stateless tank now smokes crash tests
versus rivals haters' names, memes, excuse me, officially expired.
So, some good news for Tesla.
Yes, yes. Wonderful.
The only problem is that they're not selling all that well,
but other than that, it is the safest big-ass pick-up truck out there.
Still not selling great,
but getting to something that helps us a little bit.
That is good news.
That's kudos to Tesla for that.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, we appreciate the contribution, Mark.
And thanks for making us aware of that.
Then another big story this morning
that will turn our attention to Porsche and Audi.
Definitely Volkswagen feeling some struggle here.
Whenever I see crisis in an automotive news headline,
I've got to put my attention on it.
So, Porsche Audi CEO's close ranks as crisis forces deeper ties.
What's going on over at Volkswagen with Porsche and Audi?
I don't know. Maybe one day they'll merge and become Porsche.
What's going on is neither one of them is making money the way they had been.
And both have found themselves in a position
where they bet very, very heavily towards full battery electric vehicles.
And now both are trying to pivot back to combustion engine vehicles.
And, well, that takes money.
That takes a lot of money when you reverse field like that.
And both of them are a little short of money.
And so what they're trying to do is, well, work together as opposed to against each other
and share some platforms and share some technologies
that the customer would never know that those technologies or platforms are shared
as a way to alleviate costs and build margins back up again.
And the fact that they both worked, both CEOs, the Porsche CEO and the Audi CEO,
both worked together at one time, I believe, at Porsche.
So it's very difficult, typically, at a corporate level
to get large corporations to play in the same sandbox with another and play well together.
And so these two gentlemen who were running Porsche and Audi have realized
it is in both of their best interests if they can figure out a way to do that.
You know, Porsche almost lost money last year,
which would have been the first time in their history.
We know Audi is struggling.
We know they're struggling here in the United States as well.
Both are struggling in China.
So this could be a way that through cooperation and sharing,
we'll allow both companies to get out of their dull germs
and pave the way forward to where they can both be profitable again.
And hopefully we can see some exciting vehicles from both of them again in the future.
Yeah, but it's definitely a sign, Dad,
that there are some struggles over there at Volkswagen.
And this is a cost-cutting measure for sure.
Oh, yes.
It's going to be more and more overlap between Audi and Porsche.
Well, yeah, absolutely it is.
I mean, it's, you know, one day you wake up and you look at the bank account
and you look at the cash flow numbers and you go,
we continue down this path, cash flow becomes negative instead of positive.
And so we really can't afford to continue doing that.
And at least both of these gentlemen have realized that.
And they're attempting as difficult as it may be.
To try and bring alignment between both of them so that they can share these technologies.
They can share platforms.
They, the developmental costs for both companies will go down because of this.
And, you know, I think Porsche is trying to get their profit margin back up to about 10%.
That's hard to do if you can't figure out ways to save money so you can get there.
And it's especially hard to do in the world today where between tariffs and wars and everything else,
supply chain issues again, it makes it very difficult in order to find
appropriate ways to be able to save money.
And this could be a way that is beneficial for both of them.
Yeah, and it could mean for customers you're buying a rebadged Audi as a Porsche,
or maybe the better way to look at it would be on buying a rebadged Porsche as an Audi.
I think customers would be happy if it was that direction.
Yes, or you're buying, as I would say, a Porsche.
A Porsche.
Now let's turn our attention to the used car market for a couple minutes here.
We'll spend more time on this tomorrow, but it's really important that we talk about it today.
The latest data from Blackbook, Dad, let's just show the high level here.
Car prices, truck prices, they are skyrocketing over on the used car market.
I will tell you when I first looked at this, especially on the truck side of things.
Okay, I nearly pooped myself.
Okay, it is the speed at which these values are moving upward.
We are so far past historical norms, and I don't see how this bodes well for anybody.
Explain what we're seeing on the screen, Dad.
What are these numbers mean?
Why should I care?
Well, historically, I think that was on the far right was 2017 to 2019.
Okay, historically, in the market, we saw about a one-tenth of one percent decline in values in
this week, and this year, we saw a six-tenths of a percent increase.
That's a big-ass swing, okay, and it's a big swing from last week.
It's four-tenths of a percent increase from last week for the total market.
We can see on the truck and SUV segment, it swung this week to almost seven-tenths of a point,
and when you look at where it had been for the same time period in 2017 to 2019,
where it was almost a two-tenths of a point decline, we're looking at almost nine-tenths
of a point difference in value appreciation, so what we're seeing here is vehicles appreciating
faster, sooner than they had been in the past, and when you go to the truck segment,
that's the segment that just shocked the hell out of me, because you'll see the one that increased
the most, okay, which makes no sense to me at all when you consider that gas is approaching
four dollars a gallon for regular, unleaded on a national basis, that the full-size pickup trucks
that get terrible gas mileage, the dealers were bidding them up higher this past week
than the same time six and seven years ago, and it just, that one doesn't make sense to me,
because at some point, people are going to start taking gas mileage back into consideration
as gas prices continue to go up. That is shocking to see truck prices increase like that.
That really, really is. Why amidst gas prices continue to go up, would full-size pickup trucks
increase in value? Used cars typically depreciate. Why would they increase in value?
That one makes absolutely no sense to me. I mean, I would have expected that with what was going
on gas price-wise, last week we would have seen full-size pickup trucks, and when we're talking
full-size pickup trucks, this is, I believe, two to six-year-old vehicles that we're looking at on
this chart. I would have expected those to decrease in value, not increase in value.
So, I'm telling you, I looked at that. What do these dealers know that the rest of us don't?
Why would they bid those prices up so quickly when, well, I think gas prices are rising faster than
that? So, unless they're thinking the banks are going to come up with specialized interest
rates to help them sell these things and even longer terms in order to make them appear affordable,
to me, that's an astounding statistic to look at.
Yeah, it really, really is. Dad, obviously, the other chart that we'd like to look at,
that black book push out, is this one right here. So, this is showing you year over year
trends since the beginning of the year, what's been going on with used car prices.
This is bad news for anyone who's thinking about buying a used car anytime soon, but it's good news
for those of you who are thinking about selling a used car because it just means the value keeps
going up. Yes, and you look at that and it's like, my God, the increases since the beginning of the
year are dramatic compared, and the green line was last year. So, it is so significantly higher at
this particular point in time compared to the same point in time a year ago. That, to me,
is a fascinating number. And then when you scroll down a little further, you'll find that, well,
maybe one of the reasons for this is, well, guess what? There's a short day supply.
Okay, and that's the real issue. So, if you don't have enough used cars to begin with,
and we don't. So, all of a sudden, we're seeing prices, and it's not all of a sudden because
this has been going on since the beginning of the year, we're seeing prices get jacked up,
this year than last year, and I don't see anything looking at these statistics that would
indicate that it would change anytime soon. Yeah, man, this is absolutely crazy data from Blackbook,
and I think indicates that, yeah, this is going to be a trend that we see for the foreseeable
future, and it's not going to go away. This is spring selling season to a tee, but it seems to
be even more highly volatile than years have passed. So, I think for those of you out there
that are thinking about buying a used car, be patient, but also be mindful of this data,
and those of you thinking about selling a car, it's a seller's market. It's 100% a seller's
market all of a sudden for used vehicles. Yeah, so if you find yourself in the market where you
need a used car, you're going to have to work extra hard to be able to find a good value.
You just are. It's unfortunate, and you can pretty much rest assured right now that you're
pretty much going to overpay. Dealers are, and so they're going to expect you as a customer too,
and with a lower day supply, a 39-day supply, that puts the pressure squarely on the consumer,
and because the dealer wants to turn them in 60 days, and they're turning them in two-thirds
that time. So, you're going to be hard pressed to pressure the dealer to do something. They're
looking at it and going, there's not enough cars out there, and I'm holding on to this until I get
the number I want. I appreciate this comment from Dan. Please define overpay, because that's the
thing that the market dictates the price. You actually are not overpaying. You're paying with
the markets willing to pay at the moment, which is considerably more than what it had been, say,
15 weeks ago. Yeah, but I think that's a really, really, really good point. I actually don't like
us saying you're overpaying or you're underpaying. You're paying market conditions, and the market
conditions have changed. Yes. I remember having conversations with customers and they go,
you're charging too much. I go, we don't determine what we charge. The market determines what we
charge. It's whatever the market's willing to pay, and if the market's willing to pay the prices
that it's willing to pay today, which are considerably higher than what they had been,
that's what the market conditions are at the moment. It's no different than back in 22 when
used car wholesale prices went up 40, 50%, because there was a huge shortage of new cars.
If you wanted a car, you pretty much had to buy a used car. The market suggested that the market
was willing to pay what the dealers were asking. Yes, you're not overpaying. You're paying exactly
what it is that the market supports at the moment. Exactly. Exactly. All right, folks,
again, a friendly reminder. Today's show is brought to you by caredge.com. My dad six years ago now
with our incredible team have built out all sorts of products and services to help you save money
when you buy a car or sell a car or insure a car, all the fun things. Again, we provide a car buying
service where we'll do dealer outreach and even negotiation, learn what matters to you, contact
dealers, compare real offers and help you get the best deal. We encourage everyone to check out the
website caredge.com, the dealer reviews and ratings that we talked about earlier. All you got to do
is click on where is it? Research right there and then dealer ratings. Let me scroll back up.
Dealer ratings right there. That'll take you to that website. And for those of you that are
interested, we do have a beta out there, caredge.com slash beta. We've got a new car search that we've
been working on. Encourage folks to check that out and share their feedback with us in the comments
and in the chat. Dad, let's call it a show. It's a beautiful day here in San Juan, so I'm going to get
the heck outside for a little bit and then get back to work later on today. I encourage you to
have a good afternoon as well, and let's do it all again tomorrow. Well, lucky for me. It's also a
beautiful day here at the Jersey Shore, a little on the chilly side, of course, but it's sunny.
I have a prescription to pick up at CBS. Perhaps I'll walk over there.
Enjoy, Dad. All right, folks. We'll see you back here tomorrow.
Thank you, everybody, for being here. Have fun this afternoon, young man.
Hi, you're listening to Meditating with Jan from Toyota. Soften your focus and visualize
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