Straight Talk and Honest Answers

CarPro Advice: Don't Panic Trade Because Of Gas Prices

As tempting as it may be, don't make a move based on fluctuating gas prices. You might regret it and here's why.

Read more → 

   U.S. Auto Market

25 Best and Worst Cars For Resale Value  

Read more→

America's Best-Selling Vehicle In Short Supply

Read more→

Honda Slamming Brakes On Electrics 

Read more→

CarMax Settles Suit In CA For $1.1 Million 

Read more→

  IIHS: 2026 Award-Winning Cars For Safety

You've heard me say on the Car Pro Show that all vehicles being built today are safe. That said, some rate higher in safety than others. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's TOP SAFETY PICK+ award and TOP SAFETY PICK awards are sought after by automakers every year. Here's who made the IIHS's list of 2026 award winners amid tougher criteria this year.

Read more→

  Quick Shifts

Stories you’ll find today:

• Vanity Plate Backfires
• Drive Yourself to Jail
• Parking Lot Politics
• Dashboard Innovation of the Year
• Pothole Pays Better Than Overtime

Read more→

  Bill Neale Art Award Winners!

Congratulations to the winners of the 2026 Bill Neale Automotive Fine Art Award for High School Students!  Our Amy Plemons chairs this award hosted by the Texas Auto Writers Association. It honors the memory and legacy of world renowned automotive artist Bill Neale who passed away in 2021. This marks the 3rd year of the award, and the 4th annual competition kicks off in the fall of 2026!

Read more →

  Weekly Recalls

• Aston Martin **CRASH RISK**→
• Chevrolet/GMC →
• Chrysler **CRASH RISK**→
• Ford **CRASH RISK**→
• Hyundai→
• Lincoln **CRASH RISK** →
• Lucid **CRASH RISK**→
• Takata Air Bags→

  Incentives Guide

Here you'll find our incentives and rebate guide which includes a link to every major manufacturer’s incentive page. Just enter your zip code to find the current incentives offered in your area. 

Current incentives By Automaker  

  Sell Or Consign Your Car For Top Dollar!

I hear from a lot of people who end up with an extra car for some reason. Sometimes it is due to a death in the family, or someone gets transferred overseas. I’ve seen many occasions where this happens. Well now, we have two ways to dispose of a vehicle.

ThisCar has been with us for quite some time. They are terrific buyers and make the transactions very easy. They have helped many of our listeners and I’ve had terrific feedback. They are great, too, if you need a good idea what your car is truly worth and as I always say, a car is only worth what someone is willing to write a check for it. ThisCar writes checks, and lots of them.

Now, if you have more time, RetailMyRide.com is now an official partner of the Car Pro Show and they take cars on consignment. You’ve heard me recommend them in the past most likely, and they have helped many of our listeners. They market the car at all the right places, they get top dollar for it, take a little off the top, and you get the rest. It’s that simple. No people coming to your house, calling or texting, no worrying about how to complete the paperwork, they do all that for you.

So, the question is: Do you want quick cash or the most cash? We’ve got you covered either way with CarPro AppraisalPro OR CarPro ConsignPro.

It all starts at CarPro.com, click SELL A CAR at the top, or click here →

  Kim Komando Quiz and Interesting Info  

Besides the Car Pro Show and our weekly newsletter, my other favorite radio show and newsletter is Kim Komando’s.  We are on many of the same radio stations across America.  She does for her listeners and newsletter subscribers exactly what I endeavor to do:  Give you useful information to keep you up to date on the latest in cars, only she does it with technology and there is nobody who does it better.  Not sure how she puts out a top-notch newsletter seven days a week, but she does.

💡Kim’s Quiz: 

You’re 23 years old. Your app is 2 years old. Mark Zuckerberg personally shows up with $3 billion in cash and says, “Name your price.” Evan Spiegel, cofounder of Snap Inc., said no. It was 2013, teenagers were fleeing Facebook, and 350 million photos a day were flying through Snapchat’s servers.

Facebook launched a Snapchat clone called Poke. It was dead within a year. Then they copied Stories. That one stuck. But Snapchat kept going anyway, built an ad business, went public and became a $130 billion company. Here’s the question that’ll make you think twice about Spiegel’s nerve.

🤑 When Snapchat turned down Facebook’s $3 billion offer, what was its total annual revenue? A) $12 million, B) $50 million, C) $100 million, D) $0. Pick a letter.

*Answer below my closing message at the very bottom of this newsletter

Some Interesting Items I Found In Kim’s Daily Newsletter! 

🚗 Your car knows things it’s never told you: Every car built after 1996 has an OBD-II port hiding under your dashboard, driver’s side, usually near your knee. Plug in an inexpensive Bluetooth OBD-II reader (9% off) and pair it with the free Car Scanner app. Suddenly you can read your own check engine codes before the mechanic does, see real-time fuel economy and clear minor warning lights yourself. That mysterious $150 diagnostic fee at the shop? Gone. Knowledge is horsepower.

3-second tech genius: The real battery killer isn’t your apps. It’s that blinding screen you’re staring at. Background apps get all the blame. Bluetooth gets blamed. Wi-Fi gets blamed. But screen brightness drains more battery than almost anything else on your phone. Turn it down a few notches, and you can get hours back every single day. Hours. On iPhone, swipe open Control Center and drag the brightness slider down. On Android, pull down Quick Settings and do the same. Your charger doesn’t have to be your emotional support cable anymore.

📺 Before you pay for a TV repair or buy a new one, try this. Unplug your TV completely from the wall. Use the actual power cord. Wait a full 60 seconds. Then hold the power button on the TV itself, not the remote, for 30 seconds while it's still unplugged. Then plug it back in. This forces a full capacitor drain and hard reset that the on-screen restart option never actually does. It fixes frozen screens, dead pixels, audio sync issues, and apps that stopped loading. TV repair technicians call it a “hard discharge.” You’re welcome.

Restart your router once a month: Most people treat their router like furniture. Never touched, never restarted. But routers slow down, accumulate junk connections, and get stuck running outdated memory. Unplug it for 30 seconds, plug it back in. That's it. Speeds improve, dropped connections disappear, and it clears out any unauthorized devices that snuck onto your network. Done.

🖨️ Your printer ink isn't low. Your printer is lying to you: Manufacturers program cartridges to show "empty" when they still have 20-40% ink left. Before you spend $40 on new cartridges, tape over the sensor window on the bottom of the cartridge with a small strip of dark tape. Printer thinks it's full. Keeps printing. You're welcome.

Giving voices back: I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose the ability to talk. ElevenLabs’ free program called 1 Million Voices helps people with permanent speech loss from ALS, cancer and other conditions rebuild voices from short clips like voicemails and old videos. They’re super accurate. One woman even got her North London accent back. For once, AI isn’t replacing a person. It’s giving one back.

   Check Out Our Newsletter Archive Page!

Go to the Newsletter Archive →

  Classic Car Contest: Win An AutoHeatShield!

  Exclusive Approved Products & Services

  Get Your Car Pro Show T-Shirts, Hats and Mugs

  Subscribe to the free DFW Newsletter 

  Miss the Show? Catch Our Podcast!

  Searching For A New Or Used Vehicle? 

  You Have 5 Hours To Call The Show! 

  Where to Find Us 

  Jerry's Must-Watch Video of the Week! 

  Todd's Video of the Week! 

  True Stories From A Former Car Dealer

This is #7 in a series of 40 stories written by me about occurrences from my days in the car business. Each story had a lasting impression on me for some reason or another. Some because they were funny, some because they were sad, and some were just strange. But whatever the case, over the next 34 weeks, we’ll feature one of them, in order for you to enjoy.

Today’s story is titled: Celebs. I was lucky to meet some very famous and future famous people in my life and experience some amazing things. But one person I met by chance made a real impression on me at the time, and I will promise you, you’ll know exactly who it is.

You can read #7 here: #7: Celebs→

  Closing Message From Jerry

The Faces Fade,
The Moments Don't 

I’ve met a lot of famous people over the years.

That wasn’t by design—it just came with the job. Back in my dealership days, especially when I was serving on Ford’s National Dealer Council, there were trips and events where celebrities were part of the experience. You’d find yourself at dinners, concerts, or receptions, shaking hands with people you’d seen on TV your whole life.

I’ve spent time around folks like Reba McEntire, Barry Manilow, Carly Simon, Olivia Newton John, and Tony Bennett. I handed LeAnn Rimes the keys to her first car at age 15. I spent considerable time talking to Donald Trump at his Mar-A-Lago home in Florida, not knowing he’d be President someday. I had dinner with Jerry Jones at his house. Most incredibly talented, all very professional, and almost every one of them exactly who you hoped they’d be.

And yes, it was exciting.

For a little while.

But if you read my True Story #7 in this week’s newsletter, you’ll see what really stayed with me—and it wasn’t the celebrities.

It was everything else.

Flying on the Concorde and realizing you were part of something most people would never experience. Sitting atop the World Trade Center for dinner, with no idea how much that moment would mean later. Walking through events that felt routine at the time but now carry a weight you couldn’t have understood back then.

And then there was the guy in the hotel room.

Nobody knew his name. No spotlight. No guarantees. Just a long-haired musician trying to make it, offering to write jingles for my dealership in exchange for a truck—just hoping for a chance.

That’s the moment I remember.

Because here’s what time teaches you: the famous faces fade.

The real moments don’t.

The quick handshakes, the introductions, the “nice to meet yous”—they all run together after a while. But the conversations, the risks, the people who are still climbing… those stay with you.

Because at the end of the day, we’re all doing the same thing.

Trying to build something.
Trying to take care of our families.
Trying to catch a break.

Fame doesn’t change that.

Time just reveals it.

It’s not the famous faces you remember.

It’s the moments that remind you we’re all just people… trying to get somewhere.

And if you’re paying attention, those are the moments that matter most—because they’re the ones that stay with you long after everything else fades away.

Straight Talk and Honest Answers — always.

 💡Kim Komando Answer:

The answer: D) $0. Not a dollar. Not a cent. Spiegel turned down $3 billion in cash for an app with zero revenue, built by a team of about 30 people. Wall Street thought he’d completely lost his mind. His own investors were sweating.

Four years later, Snap Inc. went public on the New York Stock Exchange at a $24 billion valuation. Spiegel became a billionaire at 26. Snap peaked at $130 billion in 2021. Today, it’s worth around $8 billion. Still more than Zuckerberg offered. But a long, painful fall from the top. The ad business never quite clicked. TikTok ate their lunch. And the stock has dropped nearly 52% in the last year alone.