🚘 The Car Pro Show Wins Award! PLUS: Ford & GM's Brilliant Move! AND: Carvana Buys One of My Old Dealerships! PLUS 2025 Lincoln Aviator and 2025 Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid Test Drives

October 3, 2025

Dear Car Pro Family,

Here we are, entering October and the 4^th Quarter of the year. Santa will be here in just over 11 weeks, believe it or not. I had hoped to bring you the year-to-date sales numbers through September, but some of the automakers are really slow to report. I’ll have them next week, and we’ll really get a feel for where 2025 will end up.

In other stories below, I am proud to announce that we won some more awards for our work on the Car Pro Show! I have a list of the 30 vehicles most likely to make it to 250,000 miles. The $7,500 Federal Tax Credit that ended Tuesday lives on, for at least Ford and GM, I tell you how they did it below. Carvana, you know the up-and-down vending machine used car dealer? Well, surprise! The company bought a dealership in Dallas that I used to own.

Kim Komando has some very useful information for you today, and don’t miss Kim’s Fun Quiz, the answer is at the very bottom of this newsletter. I have a whole new batch of quirky and funny Quick Shift stories for you today, and don’t forget to go shopping in the Car Pro Merch shop, lots of good stuff there. Get caught up on the tariff news! In advice, I give you plenty of warning to get your car ready for winter now , and in my closing message at the very bottom, I reminisce about the past 24 years of being on your air waves.

In car reviews, I have the 2025 Lincoln Aviator Black Label 3-row SUV, and Amy Plemons brings you a review of the 2025 Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid Nightshade Edition.

If you have never read my True Stories from a Former Car Dealer series, may I suggest you do so. People have loved this for a lot of years now. You’ll learn more about me than you probably want to know, you’ll roar with laughter at some, and you’ll likely get a tear in your eyes on others. They are all right here, 40 of them, carefully written by yours truly.

If you haven’t perused my FAQ page, please do. There are likely multiple articles you can use, every one of them written by me.

All of our other regular features are below including the Classic Car Contest, our radio station listings, how to connect with us on Facebook and call the show to talk directly to me, and much, much, more.

We very much appreciate you being part of the newsletter family. Without you, there is no Car Pro Show. Let us know how we can help you, and if you haven’t been to our website lately, check it out at CarPro.com. It changes daily.

Have a terrific week. See you on the radio!

Annually, The Texas Auto Writers Association, of which Amy Plemons and I are both members, gives awards for the Excellence In Craft Competition. This year, when all the entries were in, I am proud to say that the Car Pro Show took first place for the Radio/Podcast category!

The submission that won the radio category was titled: Interview with Mark Truby-Ford Chief Communications Officer. This was an interview I did with Mr. Truby, after I wrote an open letter to Ford CEO Jim Farley questioning why Ford was going so heavily into electric vehicle manufacturing. If you missed that interview, you can listen to it by clicking here.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL CARPRO SHOW LISTENERS FROM
JERRY REYNOLDS, THE CAR PRO

Friends, we have been publishing the latest rules and eligible vehicles list for Tax Code 179 for over a decade. I encourage you to reach out to one of our Certified Car Pro Dealers at a CarPro approved dealership. They will help you figure out how to get the eligible vehicle you want. Note: Many automobile buyers will now be eligible to write the interest off on car loans, as a result of the “big beautiful bill” signed into law this July. The details of the rules are at the link below along with the latest on Tax Code 179.

2025 Tax Guide and List of Eligible Tax Code 179 Vehicles →

Time is running out to enter our sweepstakes to win a new 2025 Ford Maverick plus $5000 CASH! It ends next Wednesday, October 8th! Our 50% off select entries deal continues through the end of the sweepstakes!

What You Need to Know:

Sweepstakes ends end of day, Oct. 8
Get 50% off select entries
Your donation for entries is tax-deductible
Your entries support Light Up To Live Foundation! Lighting a path of hope and recovery for our military veterans!
The winner also receives $5,000 cash!

ENTER THE 2025 FORD MAVERICK SWEEPSTAKES!

From this week’s Kim Komando newsletters:

Massive data breach: 18 million records tied to Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge customers were stolen. No credit cards, but names, emails and phone numbers are now powering super-targeted phishing scams. You might get a call that sounds real, until it isn’t. Keep your guard up.

Smaller, faster, richer: The Ferrari 296 and Lamborghini Temerario run on a motor that started as a college project. Oxford grad Tim Woolmer invented YASA’s “axial-flux” motor. Lighter, 45% smaller and up to four times more power-dense than the usual stuff. YASA made just 1,000 five years ago. Next year? 25,000. Super cars are about to be more super.

Hacker hits the house: In 2023, a hacker group called Scattered Spider phished MGM’s IT desk on LinkedIn, then nuked slot machines, room keys and reservations from the inside. MGM lost over $100M refusing ransom. Caesars paid $15M. One of the hackers just turned himself in and, drumroll ... he’s a teenager! He’s facing six felony charges.

Don’t let old gadgets collect dust: Amazon will happily take your old tablets, phones and smart speakers. Tell them the condition, and you get a gift card in return. Sweetener? Trade in Amazon gear like a Ring Camera and score 20% off a new device. Hoarding problem solved.

Car seat cushion (25% off): Memory foam turns your stiff car seat into a first-class throne.

Prime time penalty: Amazon just agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle FTC claims it tricked millions into unwanted Prime memberships and made cancellations nearly impossible. $1.5B will go to 35 million customers, $1B to the FTC. Amazon admits no wrongdoing, but it now has to make canceling easier. If you had Prime between June 23, 2019, and June 23, 2025, you may qualify for a refund. Some will be automatic, others through an FTC claims portal (coming soon on ftc.gov).

Photo Credit: Mecum Auctions, Inc.

We have had a lot of fun with our classic car contest on the Car Pro Show Facebook page. We post the photo of a classic vehicle every Saturday morning and invite people to guess the year, make, and model. The prize: an AutoHeatShield. Official contest rules →

This 1970 Dodge Coronet 500 Convertible will cross the block at Mecum Dallas/Fort Worth 2025 on Saturday November 1st!

Our Facebook winner this week, and winner of an AutoHeatShield, is:

graphics CarPro-Oct-02-2025-08-37-20-4571-PM

CarPro listeners receive a 10% AutoHeatShield discount with the code "CarPro10".
Visit AutoHeatShield here →

If you are searching for a particular new or used vehicle, we can help you! The best news is, if you use CarPro to search, when you find the car of your dreams it will be at a CarPro approved dealership.

Our search feature is simple to use. Choose new, used, or certified. You can select the make and model, or find a price range you are looking at. Choose the number of miles you are willing to travel and enter your zip code. From there, you can look through all your matches, knowing you are shopping at a dealership I have handpicked that adheres to the high standards I require.

Start your search on the front page of CarPro.com. If you don't find the car of your dreams, check back regularly.

have 5 hours to call the show! From 9AM- 2PM Central, 7AM-Noon Pacific, and 10 AM to 3 PM Eastern, the phone numbers are:

DFW Show: 9 AM to 11 AM Central,
- 1 (800) 288-9227
National Show: 11 AM to 2 PM Central,
- 1 (800) 926-7777

Add the numbers to your cell phone; you never know when you are going to need straight talk and honest answers about everything automotive.

So, what is the CarPro Radio Show?

Confused about the car buying process? Worried you won’t get a fair deal? Wondering about which vehicle is best for you? Then tune in to the CarPro Radio Show every week where Jerry Reynolds and Todd Chambless will guide you through the car-buying process with confidence.

No matter where you listen to the show or which station you listen to, you have five hours to call in and ask your questions. We take calls every Saturday from 9 AM-2 PM Central time, 7 AM to Noon Pacific. The phone number is different the first two hours, then changes, so keep that in mind.

We would love to help you in any way possible! Keep in mind, we don’t take mechanical questions, but everything else is great!

The Car Pro Radio Show is heard every weekend all over the United States, and every weekend we deliver straight talk and honest answers about everything automotive. We would greatly appreciate it if you would take a moment and tell a friend about the show.

Most of our listeners tell us that they never thought they would look forward to a show about cars. You may have friends or relatives who feel the same way in the cities below, please make them aware.

Here are the DFW markets the show airs in, times, and stations, and don't forget you can now listen to WBAP on the FM dial at 93.3 FM!

Dallas, TX: WBAP 820 AM/93.3 FM/99.5 HD 2, Saturday 9am to 11am Central
Dallas, TX:
➡️ NEW!!! KRLD 1080 AM, Saturday 1pm to 2pm Central Dallas Show Airs LIVE
KRLD 1080 AM, Saturday 2pm to 4pm Central - Pre-recorded National Show
Granbury, TX: KPIR 1420 AM, Saturday 11am to 2pm Central
Listen to the WBAP Podcast (up every Tuesday)→

Screen Shot 2025-10-02 at 12.33.43 PM I feel blessed to have had two successful careers as I look back on my life. I am one to always look ahead, not back, but when the realization hits you that you’ve turned more pages on your calendar than the number of pages that remain, you tend to do such things. This past weekend marked my 24^th anniversary of being on the air every weekend.

I let this anniversary pass quietly. There was no article in last week’s newsletter. Todd and I talked about it briefly, but it was more in the context of his first anniversary on the show after Kevin retired. 25 years is a true milestone, especially in radio, but 24? Meh. It just didn’t seem like a big deal to be honest.

Being inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in less than 30 days ranks near the top of my proudest moments. We found out this week that the Car Pro Show was again honored as the Best Radio Show in Texas by the Texas Auto Writer’s Association (TAWA). This award means a lot to me because it is judged by an independent third party not affiliated with TAWA and has nothing to do with popularity.

I was blessed in the car business, too. Being elected by my peers to become the Ford National Dealer Council Chairman was an honor I shall never forget. About all that tops that is being the first one to have the dealer group ask me to do it again, as the first back-to-back Chairman. I outsold every Ford dealership in Texas for over a decade, and that was no easy feat. And ONE TIME, yes once, I was the #1 volume Ford dealership in America. It was March of 2002, a date I’ll never forget.

Winning awards from Ford for customer satisfaction was always my #1 priority. This was more important to me than the volume awards. My thinking was that anybody could sell a lot of cars, but to do so AND make your customers happy, that was a feat, and we won them all, repeatedly. Still, I never took that for granted. I knew we had to perform every single day to make our customers want to come back to us, many driving great distances. Any employee that didn’t buy in to complete customer satisfaction was counseled, then terminated if they didn’t do things right.

I chronicled many of my proudest moments in my True Stories from a Former Car Dealer series. Now, as I look back on the wins and losses, the victories have remained vibrant, and the defeats have faded away for the most part. My greatest defeat was failing in my very first dealership at the young age of 29. Yet, I am thankful for that experience. It made me a better man, and it damned sure made me a better car dealer. The truth is, I think it’s made me better at this radio gig. You see, once you fail, you never want to do that again.

24 years behind the mic have elapsed. Roughly 1,250 shows just counting one per week, not two-I can’t even do that math. So, what’s left? I’m a radio hall-of-famer or will be soon. Financially, I could easily retire altogether or just go to my lake house and run to the radio station I own if I get bored. But I continue to go in every Saturday morning and when Mr. Announcer says “and here’s the man they call the Car Pro, Jerry Reynolds” I welcome you and thank you for joining us. I owe you that because I know you have a choice. In fact, you have more choices than ever before, yet we have our little get together for 5 hours.

Why do I keep doing it? It’s simple, really. To try to help people, which is my passion. I had a listener tell me in the last week that I was a “national treasure”. That impacted me, not sure why-but it did. Is there a higher compliment? I don’t think so. A younger listener told me I “rock” this week. That brought a big smile. The people who tell me they had their first great car buying experience or that my advice was “right on” keeps the red light over my mic coming on. The children of people I helped 10, 15, 20 years ago listening to the show and using my process is incredibly gratifying. And maybe the happiest moments are the lady callers, who trust me enough to ask my opinion. In particular, the hundreds of widows I’ve helped who face car buying for the first time alone. They will always get whatever time is needed to make sure they are comfortable and confident going into a car dealership.

The good Lord willing, we’ll have a celebration in a year. While 24 was more of a so what, 25 will be a really big deal. I never saw this coming, it started as more of a hobby and just a way to help people. But thanks to you, it grew into something much bigger than I ever imagined-and for that, I say a heartfelt THANK YOU.

The Car Pro Show Racks Up More Awards!

U.S. Auto Market

Tariff Talk: This Week's Top Headlines

Read more→

Carvana Buys One Of My Old Dealerships

Read more→

California Will Not Replace $7,500 EV Rebates

Brilliant! Ford, GM Find Workaround for $7,500 EV Lease Rebate

Straight Talk and Honest Answers

CarPro Advice: Prepping Your Car For Winter

On The Road: Test Drives

2025 Lincoln Aviator Black Label

Read Jerry's review →

2025 Toyota Corolla Cross Nightshade

Read Amy's review →

Quick Shifts

Each week I bring you the top stories in the auto industry along with my commentary or sometimes amusing thoughts about the craziness that goes on in the world of cars.

Bumper to Bumper: Industry News

Top 30 Vehicles Most Likely To Make It To 250K Miles

Toyota models make up the top five.

Honda Scraps Acura ZDX After Just One Year

Wards Autos 10 Best Engines For 2025

AAA Study: Almost All Drivers Have Road Rage

J.D. Power 2025 Brand Loyalty Study Results

Weekly Recalls

What's New For Tax Code 179 and More!

IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL CARPRO SHOW LISTENERS FROM JERRY REYNOLDS, THE CAR PRO

2025 Tax Guide and List of Eligible Tax Code 179 Vehicles →

Our Incentives Guide

2025 Ford Maverick Sweepstakes Ends Oct. 8!

Kim Komando's Quiz and Other Info

Check Out Our Newsletter Archive Page!

Classic Car Contest: Win An AutoHeatShield!

Exclusive Approved Products & Services

It's Here! The CarPro Merchandise Shop!

Subscribe to the free DFW Newsletter

Miss the Show? Catch Our Podcast!

Click here for the WBAP DFW podcast →

Searching For A New Or Used Vehicle?

FAQ: Research Your Questions Before You Shop

You Have 5 Hours To Call The Show!

Where to Find Us

My Must-See Video Of The Week!

Todd's Video of the Week!

Closing Message From Jerry Reynolds

Top 30 Vehicles Most Likely To
Make It To 250K Miles

IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL CARPRO SHOW LISTENERS FROM
JERRY REYNOLDS, THE CAR PRO