What the Fed Rate cut and big China deals mean for your car life, PLUS what everyone stuck in a dead in job needs to know
My Car Guru Podcast
What the Fed Rate cut and big China deals mean for your car life, PLUS what everyone stuck in a dead in job needs to know
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Term
rare earth minerals
Rare earth minerals are special materials needed to make many electronic devices work, including parts in cars. They help create things like batteries and motors that power electric vehicles.
Term
microprocessors
Microprocessors are tiny computer parts that help control how things work in cars, like the engine and entertainment systems. They're very important for modern vehicles, especially electric ones.
Term
electric motors
Electric motors are machines that help cars move by using electricity instead of gasoline. They're important for electric cars because they make them run smoothly and efficiently.
Term
transmission flush
A transmission flush is when old fluid in your car's transmission is replaced with new fluid. It's done to keep the transmission working well and can help prevent problems later.
Term
brake system flush
A brake system flush is when the old fluid in your car's brakes is replaced with new fluid. This helps keep the brakes working safely and effectively.
Term
oil change
An oil change is when the old oil in your car's engine is removed and replaced with new oil. This is important for keeping the engine running well.
Car
Ford Expedition
The Ford Expedition is a large SUV that can carry many passengers and their belongings. It's great for families or anyone who needs a lot of space.
Car
Porsche GT3 RS
The Porsche GT3 RS is a super-fast sports car that's built for racing and performance. It's very powerful and has special features to help it go faster on the track.
Car
Ford Model T
The Model T is a famous car made by Ford that was very popular in the early 1900s. It was one of the first cars that many people could afford to buy.
LIVE
Hey folks, Lenny Lawson here, the car guru, and I've got some, I think some interesting
things to share with you today.
We're going to talk about big picture stuff as far as economics is concerned at first.
I won't stay there forever, but that's where we're going to start.
It's called macroeconomics as opposed to microeconomics.
When I'm thinking micro, I'm thinking how much money I have in the bank, how much credit
card debt a person has, you know, what is your financial situation?
Macroeconomics affect us, but not as directly.
Let me give you an example.
The Federal Reserve just lowered interest rates by a whopping 0.25 percent, or as bankers
like to say, 25 basis points.
I don't know why they say it that way, but they just, they like to be different.
So what does that do?
Well, people here, oh, interest rates dropped, man, that's going to be great.
How's that going to impact me?
Well, what the Fed does is they loan money to banks at a certain interest rate so that
the banks can turn around and loan it to big business, small business, you, me, people
that fund car loans.
So when the Fed drops their rate that they charge banks, then banks have the opportunity
to drop their rates a little bit.
And it stimulates a lot of different things.
Like I said, it's none of them are directly related.
It's all indirect, like the stock market.
It went up, I think, 450 points day before yesterday.
When I checked the last time yesterday, it was up like six or 700 points.
That's pretty good impact.
It's not just because of the Fed.
A lot of it's because of the earnings of some of the big companies.
They reported big time earnings.
So that's, that's good.
And that makes everybody feel more positive.
I mean, we're getting ready to hit a Dow Jones industrial average of 48,000.
And if you haven't been invested in the stock market, like over the last three to four years,
you've missed it.
Well, you've missed.
Well, I mean, it'll probably go down.
Well, it definitely will go down and then it'll go back up again.
But the Fed fund rate does have an impact.
And so, like the bank that let's say you decide to buy a car and you finance it at Wells Fargo,
which is a large bank.
Then because their fit barring rate dropped by 25 basis points or 0.25%,
they don't have to pay as much on deposits, you know, like in your money market account
or in your savings account.
So they drop what they pay and then they can also drop what they charge a little bit.
So what does a 0.25 interest rate drop do in the big picture?
It just changes everybody's mood.
It may not affect yours, but it does affect like, for example, my carrying cost of inventory,
my floor plan rate will automatically go down.
You know, the rate that they call the prime rate, that's what banks charge their best customers.
And it's set by the market.
And so my floor plan rate is tied to prime rate.
My mortgage on my building is not.
Now, if I were to get a new mortgage, then what's going to affect that is treasury bills.
And what people can earn on their money over the long term because mortgages are typically
long term investments for banks.
So, so that's a little macro stuff.
Here's something else macro you might hear about rare earth minerals.
So what is that?
We know what minerals are, right?
Those are things that occur in nature, like iron and salt, things like that.
I don't know all the formulas.
That chemistry was tough for me, for my brain.
My brother did good at it.
That's why he's a doctor and I'm a car salesman.
Okay, so Ford suppliers receive China's new streamlined rare earth licenses.
So why is that a big deal?
Well, because of all this technology that we have in vehicles, in order to be able to build
micro processors and even magnets, you know, that go into all these different motors,
electric devices and stuff like that, they all require rare earth minerals in order to make
them work.
You know, we say they could come up with something that didn't require something that's rare
or something that we had to buy from China.
And then you hear about all these discoveries of these deposits in the United States and
other countries where we don't have to rely on China quite as much, which I think sounds like
a good thing.
But there was a big meeting in, where was that?
South Korea, I think President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump met in South Korea and they are
going to allow larger shipments with fewer hurdles in order to get those rare earth minerals.
And so they can just take advantage of this booming market.
Do you feel like the market's booming in your life?
I know a lot of people who don't think it is.
I read about it all the time.
I come into contact personally with a lot of folks that are struggling,
including my daughters at the grocery store.
I mean, they just say, Dad, do you realize this and realize that?
And I said, no, because your mom goes to the grocery store.
But she talks about it too.
I mean, it's tough.
Now, what are the good things that are going on?
Well, gas prices.
For one, I mean, they are incredibly low and that's got to help people.
That's good news.
Now, maybe you don't own stocks and bonds and stuff like that.
But if the market is going up, what does that do for the people who do own stocks and bonds?
Well, it makes them feel positive about the world.
And people that feel positive tend to spend money and they spend money on things
that are manufactured.
Well, hopefully they're manufactured here.
And if they are, then that benefits Americans and benefits our local economies
when people are going out and spending money.
I mean, I go to Walmart occasionally.
I try to avoid the place.
But when I go in there, especially now, it is jammed.
The parking lot at the Johnson City Mall.
Try to find a parking place.
I mean, it's tough.
You can't during a weekday, but forget about it on the weekend.
So people are spending money.
I think people waste a lot of money.
I think folks, well, I don't think I know folks could save a lot of money
if more people would listen to this broadcast or listen to the podcast
and learn how not to waste money on their vehicle, either buying it or getting it serviced.
There's just so many ways that we can throw money at things where we don't need to.
I mean, you may go to a service department and they talk to you
into getting your transmission flushed or, you know, your brake system flushed.
And, you know, you went in there to get an oil change
and your bill was going to be $89 or whatever it costs to get your oil changed where you go.
All of a sudden, it's $300.
And, you know, that was unexpected.
Did you need to buy it?
Possibly not.
You know, if you listen to this program, you'll know what you should buy
when it comes to flushes and what you shouldn't.
But the biggest losses that people take are when they buy their car to begin with.
Now, I have a person that is picking up their brand new 2026 Ford Expedition
in, well, tomorrow.
As a matter of fact, I ordered it for them and they bought the vehicle correctly, the correct way.
They bought it from somebody that they know and they trust
because they had purchased four or five vehicles from him, me.
And so it was easy.
They weren't going to overpay because I wasn't going to overcharge.
Now, if you are just an individual out there in the world and you don't have a relationship
with somebody in a car dealership, shame on you.
But if you don't, then you can get the my car guru guidebook.
And it'll tell you how to negotiate the right kind of deal.
You can hit the four targets.
And the only way to find out what they are is either to listen to one of my broadcast or
to get the my car guru guidebook.
I got an email from a lady that lives in, she's asked several questions.
She lives in New Jersey.
Can't remember the town, but she is going out tomorrow.
In fact, and she requested that I send her a copy of the my car guru guidebook
before she goes shopping.
Is that a smart thing to do?
No, that's brilliant.
I get poison ivy really badly when I touch it or get even close to it.
From weed eating, I get a little splash on my leg.
It's going to blister up by the next day.
What do I do?
Well, I don't go into the drug store and buy all that crap.
No, I call my doctor.
I said, I need a shot.
He gives me a steroid shot and it stops it dead in its tracks.
You know, sometimes you really need to know what the cure is before you get the disease.
And walking into a car dealership unprepared to buy a car is a great way to do some macro
kind of damage to your personal finances, keeping you from being able to invest wisely
into your 401k plan or just to take advantage of this booming market that we're experiencing
right now.
Okay, I'll take my first break.
I'll be back here in just a minute.
Okay, I am back.
I got a shock to the mental system this morning.
I was talking to one of my service advisors and he has a cousin that lives in Florida
and he's 21 years old and he was just telling me the car that he just bought.
It's a brand new 2025 Porsche GT3 RS.
Now that may not mean much to you, but he paid $400,000 for it.
I said, did he inherit some money or what was the deal?
I said, no, he's an influencer.
I said, what's that?
He said, well, he's on TikTok and he's on Instagram and he's making millions in social media
and on YouTube as well.
And he said, Lenny, he just paid for a house in cash.
He has a massive center console boat that he can pull up right behind his house.
It's paid for and he talked about all the other stuff.
21 years old and I looked him up.
He's a handsome young man and he does these crazy videos with like hip hop music behind it.
And it's just, it's not my taste, but apparently when you have hundreds of thousands of followers,
then you get paid for advertising dollars.
And it's not like he's not working because he is working.
He's just filming, making all these little videos and showing off his cars and his boats
and his houses and all that stuff.
And people just think that's really cool.
And it's funny that he's making millions off of it while his followers, people that are watching
and wasting all that time watching those things aren't making anything.
And they're working in a dead end job and wondering why they don't have any money.
You just have to be creative.
You have to put yourself out there.
A good example is a gentleman who's buying a vehicle for me is picking up tomorrow.
And, you know, he had a regular everyday job that really didn't pay that good.
And so he got a part-time job working for a totally different company in an unrelated field.
But he saw the potential in that business and that if he stuck it out, that someday
he could buy it or open his own version of it.
And that's exactly what he did.
He stayed there long enough, worked really hard, ended up having an opportunity to buy that business.
And now he's making double, well, way more than double, in this new business that he makes in
his other job.
And it's a part-time job.
So I guess my point here is that a lot of people who think they're at the end of the road,
they're at a dead end.
They're stuck in a job or a career or an industry that just isn't working for them.
And they just give up.
They think that they're destined to be there forever.
But you're not.
Around 1982, sometime around there, my dad and I went to lunch at the Cislin Steakhouse in
Greenville, Tennessee.
And as we're going through the line, I heard somebody yelling at us from the background.
And this little short guy came running up towards the front and he had,
I mean, he looked like a butcher, which is exactly what he did.
I said, what do you do?
And he said, I'm a meat cutter.
And I said, well, you do a really good job.
And he said, I don't want to do this anymore.
I mean, he said that right out in front of everybody.
You think I could sell cars?
It's pretty bold.
And I said, well, possibly.
I was kind of doubtful, though.
But that was my problem, not his problem.
And so the next day he came in, he was cleaned up and casual clothes.
Still probably, but he's probably, I don't know, back then, maybe five, six,
200 pounds.
He was heavy for somebody five, six, but he was young and energetic.
And he said, I want to sell cars.
I think I can sell a lot of cars.
And we, we talked and I just, I'd hired him based on his enthusiasm.
On his third month, he was the salesperson of the month for the next 42 months in a row.
He was the salesperson of the month.
I remember when he got his first paycheck, he came to the dealership.
Back then we gave salespeople demos to drive and he pulled up and he said, come on here.
I want to show you something.
And so he popped open his trunk and there was a brand new Pioneer sound system.
I can't remember what else was back there, but there were several other items that he had purchased.
Oh yeah.
In the back seat, he had a bunch of new clothes.
I mean, this, this kid grew up poor.
He grew up on a little side street in Greenville, Tennessee.
That was not a very nice residential section and he had never had anything like that.
Definitely nothing new.
All his clothes were hand-me-downs or came from, you know, Goodwill someplace like that.
But he had made it and it was just a pleasure to watch it.
And he got married and at some point he was offered an opportunity to get into the trucking industry.
And so he went to work selling, I guess, freight, you know, to all different types of companies
for a small trucking company.
You know what he does now?
He's the national sales manager for old Dominion truck lines.
Big, big company and he's over all sales.
And he has, I think, three cabins in Gatlinburg.
He has a really, really nice house in Florida.
He travels all the time.
Every game day that they have for ESPN, you know, with all those guys, he's on a first name basis
with all of them.
He goes to all the game days.
He's always at some sporting event, send me pictures and stuff like that.
He's done really well.
And he was a meat cutter at the Sizzlin Steakhouse in Greenville, Tennessee.
I'll tell you one more and then I'll be quiet.
I hired this young man.
He was 20, I think he was 22.
And he was driving a forklift truck at a warehouse here in Tennessee or here in Greenville, Tennessee.
And so I said, well, why are you driving a forklift truck?
And he said, well, because I just haven't found what I want to do.
I think he was thinking about going to work for a bank.
And I said, you don't want to work in a bank.
That's boring.
I said, how about the car business?
He said, oh, I can't sell cars.
I said, I didn't say you had to sell cars.
See, I saw some potential in this young man.
And so I hired him.
We worked together for, let's see, I'm going to say 10 years.
I sent him to the NADA dealer Academy.
I spent a lot of money on him and invested a lot of time in him.
And we became great friends and still are great friends today.
He is the CEO of a very large and fast growing dealer group.
They own 50 dealerships.
I think they just bought 13 more.
And I said, did you have anything to do with those 13?
He said, yeah, I was right in the middle of it.
But he's over 50 new car dealerships, not just one 50.
So I guess what I want to do is encourage anybody that's young that might be listening
to this or somebody that knows some young people that maybe need to listen to this,
who are struggling in what they think is a dead-end job.
It's only a dead-end job if you make it that way.
If you set your sights on it, if it's an industry that you're interested in,
you could end up owning the business.
You just have to make the right connections and learn what you need to learn.
You know, there's so many people that say, when we get an MBA, why?
What's that going to do for you?
To me, you're just kicking the can down the road.
You're not helping yourself.
You need to either decide, are you an entrepreneur?
Are you somebody that wants to start a viable business?
Then you better look it online and you better look at how AI is going to impact that.
Because if you go into a business without knowing whether AI is going to impact that business,
you may find yourself unemployed in five years because you're replaced by a computer
or a computer program.
Have to think about those kind of things.
I mean, I know of electricians who, they started out pulling wire and they ended up
owning the company.
I know a guy who's a plumber.
He started off as a plumber.
He learned how to do that from his dad, building houses.
Now he owns a gigantic plumbing company, but they also do a lot of different types of construction.
I mean, most big things start small and they usually start with an idea,
but you got to build it in your head first and you have to be smart about it.
You have to think about what is the market for this thing that I'm getting ready to do
and then am I capable with my smarts or am I going to need other people to help me move this
to where it needs to be?
I recognized a long time ago that I have certain strengths, but I've got some glaring weaknesses
and so I have to hire people to work for me that can make up for my weaknesses.
And what happens is if I spend too much time on those weaknesses knowing they're going to continue
to be weaknesses, then I don't take advantage of my strengths.
And my strengths are what lead me to greater successes in the future.
Okay, so I need somebody to rain me back in.
That's that, that's that person.
I've got her working for me right now.
Well, I've got two hers, my daughter's.
Okay, I'll be back in just one minute.
I've always said that one of the best ways to get further in life is to ask the right question.
You know, because our life direction many times is based on the quality of the questions
that we ask and who we ask those questions of.
Some reporters were interviewing Henry Ford and they asked him this question.
Why don't you ask the public what they want when it comes to choice
in Model T colors and in body styles?
And he responded by saying, if I had always asked people what they thought and what they wanted,
then they probably would have said, we need faster horses.
And you know, I think he did pretty good.
You mean the company founded in 1908 is still going pretty strong today.
Well, thanks for listening to this edition of My Car Guru.
If you want to copy the My Car Guru guidebook, send me your email to 423-552-2020,
that's my cell phone, where you can send me an email to LennyLawson2020 at gmail.com.
I'll see you on the next edition of My Car Guru.
About this episode
Economic shifts like the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut and new deals in rare earth minerals from China are explored, highlighting their indirect effects on car financing and the automotive market. Lenny Lawson discusses the importance of being financially savvy when purchasing vehicles and shares inspiring stories of individuals who turned dead-end jobs into successful careers. The episode emphasizes the need for preparation and knowledge in the car buying process, as well as the potential for personal growth and entrepreneurship in challenging economic times.
Original notes
Email Lennie at [email protected]
My Car Guru Podcast
My Car Guru...Lennie Lawson
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21:44