COUNTDOWN TO NEW AUTO TARIFFS! Plus End of The Month Deals, Jerry's Auto Roundup, and All-New 2025 Nissan Armada, 2025 Lexus LX 700h and 2025 Mazda CX-90 Test Drives

A word on the tariffs that are scheduled to go into effect Tuesday: Unfortunately, all of us in the industry are trying to wrap our heads around the future of vehicle sales and prices. There is not a “one size fits all” solution here, and it will take some time to sort it all out. Car companies that build most of their vehicles outside America will have the hardest time adjusting. We do know that vehicles cannot and will not go up 25% in cost, so part of the tariffs will have to be absorbed by automakers. How much will be case by case, but prices will rise. Bear in mind, this won’t be overnight. There are many vehicles on U.S. soil for sale already that won’t be affected, but as time passes, those will be purchased, and cars made outside the United States coming in later will likely have price hikes of varying amounts. The outlook, at least for the short term, is that used vehicles could and most likely will spike in value and some people will go pre-owned to avoid the tariffs on new vehicles. I did a ton of radio & TV interviews yesterday on this topic, one of them on my home station WBAP in DFW. The link to hear it is just below. There is also a chance with President Trump that this could change by Tuesday, but he seemed serious in his announcement. My advice: Don’t panic trade, but if you think you may want something new in the foreseeable future, do something by this Monday night while the incentives and the selection are at their peak. I will bring you more insights as everything shakes out, so stay tuned here and to the radio show. Between Covid, microchip and commodity shortages, strikes, weather, and computer outages, everything has been thrown at the auto industry in the last five years. This newest challenge will be dealt with as well, and there is just no doubt, the auto industry will survive this and thrive. As always, I will be here for you as your level-headed voice of truth about the auto industry.

March 28, 2025

Dear CarPro Family,

March is OVER Monday night and so are the amazing incentives so many of you took advantage of this month. The good news is it’s not too late for you! Jump to CarPro.com, find the closest Certified CarPro dealership to you, send them an email and get your VIP Certificate. There is still time. I explain below that not only is it the end of the month, it’s the end of first quarter, it’s the end of Truck Month, and it is fiscal year-end for all the Japan-based automakers. If you are waiting for more or better reasons, there won’t be any. I’ve never in my career seen April incentives as good as March.

We’ve got tons of info for you today including the U.S. News & World Report list of best family vehicles. I tell you which tire brands are the best, based on J.D. Power. Don’t miss the funniest April Fool’s Day automotive pranks. You can watch a podcast I did all about Tesla and Elon Musk, and I have a warning about fake car subscription scams that could affect you. Scroll all the way to the bottom of this newsletter because there is a TON more that might interest you. Plus, ANOTHER edition of the Auto Industry Roundup that so many of you have told me you loved. Thank you (taking a bow).

If you are thinking about leasing, and more especially if you are in a lease now, there is an article below from LeaseEnd.com with some fascinating info that backs up everything I’ve told you on the air about leasing. Look at the vehicles with equity at the end of the lease and the huge amounts of money just lying there that you could miss. There are a lot of interesting facts there, don’t miss it.

Don’t miss Kim Komando’s Tech Tips and other useful info below, and in advice today I tell you that it is perfectly OK to buy your vehicle at one dealership, then service at a different, perhaps a closer one to you. Oh, and you can see the 3 finalists in each category for the World Car of the Year awards.

In car reviews, I had a GREAT week, and bring you two reviews of two 3-row large SUVs. I have the all-new 2025 Nissan Armada Pro-4X and it is amazing. I also had the flagship Lexus SUV, the LX 700h hybrid Overtrail, and it’s a beaut, too. Our Amy Plemons gives you a full and complete review of the gorgeous 2025 Mazda CX-90 plug-in hybrid SUV.

Check the recall section to see if you may need to take action on your vehicle. Miss a radio show? Below we tell you how to get the podcast, and if you missed a newsletter, we tell you how to find the archive page where you can see the last 10 editions. The incentives have gone up lately, but our Incentive Guide is always 100% up to date.

Plus, lots of other information you will likely enjoy, including my video of the week which is always one of the most clicked on items in the newsletter. 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.

We so appreciate all of you who take this newsletter and listen to the show every week. We know that without you, there is no Car Pro Radio Show. So always let us know when we can help you. If you have not been there lately, take a look at our website, carpro.com, it changes all the time!

Have a terrific week. See you on the radio!

We are getting close to putting March and the first quarter of 2025 in the history books. It is the last weekend of the month and everything ends Monday, March 31st, including the best consumer incentives in years.

Here are some things to consider:

If you have a trade-in, you for sure want to take advantage of the current used car market, now is the time. After a dip in prices earlier, trade values have heated up like they always do in the spring, but as I say on the air, this market can’t last.
Incentive spending by the automakers continues to rise. In many areas of the country, it is Truck Month and the incentives for trucks and SUVs are the best of the year. Even the automakers that don’t declare Truck Month add on incentives to be competitive.
All the Japanese automakers end their fiscal year on March 31^st, including Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Mazda. They always push hard at the end of the fiscal year AND add incentives.

Follow my proven process starting here, but make a move by Monday, just click BUY A CAR or click on the link below:

Find a CarPro

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. Here is this week’s edition:

What do Billy Bob Thornton, Carrie Underwood, and the Chevy Suburban have in common? I’ll give you a second to carefully mull that over. Do you give? All three have a coveted star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Who knew? Once proclaimed “the National Car of Texas” the Suburban has a star-studded pedigree. Not only is the Suburban the only car you’ll find on the famous walk of stars, it is also the longest running auto nameplate in America. But it has star power, too! Suburban made its acting debut back in 1941 in a flick called "Nice Girl?" Maybe you did not know this, but there is a website, imcdb.org, that is a database of movie cars. According to it, Suburban has shown up on your TV or the big screen 3,658 times. It has been in 1,750 movies and has been on the TV at least once a year since 1956. Impressive. It certainly is a diverse vehicle, whether it is a Griswold-type family going on vacation, or in a scene from my favorite old show, Bones with Seely Booth screaming around a corner, Suburban is right at home. If you search for the Suburban on the aforementioned website, you’ll find 122 pages of Suburban history. Just at a glance, I saw it in Terminator, the A Team, Cars 2, and the big Chevy even starred as an ambulance in Walking Tall. Of course, you often catch the Suburban in the news almost daily. Anywhere the President goes, in America or abroad, there will be black Suburbans everywhere you turn. I grew up around Suburbans, that was my late Dad’s all-time favorite vehicle, but little did I know it was destined for stardom.

Me and Shaq love Lucid electric cars! It’s true. I was giddy when I had a Lucid to review for a week. I considered leasing one recently but was concerned about the future viability of the company with so many EV makers calling it quits. I think they’ll likely be OK, they’ve got some strong backers. Little did I know Shaquille O’Neal shared my affection for Lucid. Of course, at 7-feet 1-inch tall and 325 pounds, it’s hard for the Shaq to fit in most cars. He might even be tight in a Suburban, but I digress. So, the big man turned to West Coast Customs and had them do a major conversion on a Lucid Air, turning it from a 4-door to a 2-door so he could sit closer to the back of the car and be comfortable and stretch his legs. Much to my surprise, the outside looks awesome, so much so, I would encourage Lucid to consider making the Air in a coupe version. Of course, Shaq had to add his personal touches to the car. He had Diesel written across the front, that’s one of his nicknames. And he had center pieces for the special wheels made with the S from Superman attached, another of his nicknames. Shaq is well known for modifying vehicles to fit his overly-large frame. He has modified Hummers, Bentleys, Escalades, and since he’s moved to Texas, had a Ford F-650 done. Oh, and he butchered a couple of Ferrari convertibles, too, by cutting the tops off so the driver seat could be moved back. I always wondered what he did if it rained. Always the jokester, do a search on YouTube and watch him get into and drive the streets of New York in a Smart Car. It’s a hoot. Many of you remember the TV commercial of Shaq folding into a Buick, you can find that on YouTube as well. I’ve always had an amazing amount of respect for Mr. O’Neal as an athlete, although I always wondered if he should have played football. But now, he has my total respect as a Car Guy.

Who wouldn’t love to have a new Cadillac Escalade-V? You know the one, I’ve reviewed it several times. 682 horses, well over $160,000 on the sticker and hot, 23” wheels. Well, apparently the allure of this Caddy was too much to resist for some car thieves in Warren, Michigan. The big SUVs were sitting in a General Motors parking lot to be shipped to dealerships. Wouldn’t you think they’d have pretty elaborate security at such a place as this? I would have, too, but apparently that is not the case. So, how do I know security is lax at this place? General Motors said that between 7 and out were stolen by a 24-year old dude called Deon Brooks and some buddies. But whoa! Between 7 and 10? REALLY? You aren’t sure? Does nobody count them on a daily basis? Are there guards, gates, surveillance video? Where were the keys? Let me guess: In the cupholders, perhaps? Sounds like the group of merry men had a pretty easy time absconding with 1.5 million dollars of Cadillacs that stick out like a sore thumb. Seems Mr. Brooks was duplicating VIN numbers and changing them out, reselling the vehicles out of state for big bucks. My guess: on facebook marketplace to people who thought nothing about getting a high six-figure SUV for likely pennies on the dollar. My favorite part? The authorities seized several printers, retagging equipment, fraudulent Secretary of State documents, methamphetamine, jewelry, and a Chrysler Pacifica. So, when Mr. Brooks isn’t riding in a stolen Caddy, his personal car is a Chrysler minivan? And here I was thinking he had really good taste. Bond was set at 2 million dollars and it would seem he didn’t steal enough Escalades to raise that kind of cash, he’s still in the pokey. Our enterprising young man was already out on bond from stealing another car from a dealership. Hey GM, have you done anything to tighten security around that joint? I generally think thieves are really stupid, but our felonious youngster was smart enough not to steal the electric version of the Escalade. The guy knows what’s selling and what isn’t. Wonder if he listens to the Car Pro Show?

Maybe it IS time for self-driving cars after all. We sure aren’t doing a good job by ourselves. In spite of all the amazing safety technology that cars have these days, traffic deaths are going up, not down. Oh sure, there are more cars on the road as our population increases, but traffic is also worse, and it makes driving fast harder than ever before. Try to wrap your brain around this fact: In 2023, the last full-year the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported stats, 112 people were killed every day. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. 112 funerals to be planned, Moms and Dads, brothers & sisters, children, infants, the elderly-nobody is exempt on the road. While cars get more and more safety features every single year, deaths on U.S. roads are up 21% in the last 15 years. Wouldn’t you have thought that number would be going down, not up? Look at all the advances in cars since 2010 and how much they’ve changed. We know from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that automatic emergency braking has cut rear end collisions by 50%, and as I have pointed out many times, very few of these systems bring you to a full stop. What about advancements in air bags, blind spot monitoring, all kind of sensors, pedestrian warnings, speed warnings, etc.? Would the number of deaths be even higher without all the safety equipment required on cars today? One would have to think they would. I have my own theory that you may or may not agree with. I think the culprit is our unending need to look at our cell phones. Things in front of you, even at slow speeds, can change quickly in that instance you glance at a text message or search for your favorite song on Spotify. Maybe I’m wrong, but if cell phones are not the main reason, they damned sure contribute to the problem. Not many people want or care about self-driving cars, and a good number of people trusting Tesla’s Auto Pilot system have died. So, maybe it is time to get serious about self-driving cars. Or maybe we should just put our cell phones down when we’re driving.

That’s it for this week. Car Pro, over and out.

lease-buyout-shutterstock-Olivier Le Moal

If you are leasing, and especially if you are coming up on the end of a lease, this report by LeaseEnd.com is a must read. I’ve been surprising people for years by telling them to check for equity at the end of their lease instead of just walking away. We saw people with massive equity at the end of leases during Covid and the chip shortage, but even I was surprised at how much equity some people have still today. This makes my case for people leasing unless they are high mileage drivers. I encourage you to go through the entire study, but here are a few highlights:

Longtime DFW broadcaster and media star Nicole Osei has started a new podcast series and asked me if I would do a segment with her, and I was happy to do so. She was curious about the goings-on at Tesla, and what effect Elon Musk serving as a Senior Advisor for President Trump is having on sales, stock prices, recent recalls and more.

In particular, she asked me about the following: Tesla sales have been plummeting, there have been protests and incidents of vandalism at dealerships in response to CEO Elon Musk's growing unpopularity amid the DOGE cuts. Can the company survive Musk?

I told her exactly what I thought and there were no holds barred. Join us for this podcast, and feel free to follow Nicole on her YouTube page, and other social media platforms, discussing hot topics and current events.

Click here to watch on YouTube→

Besides the Car Pro Show and our weekly newsletter, my other favorite radio show and newsletter is Kim Komando’s. We're 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.

Here are some items I found this week that I think might be of interest:

“Granny Guns”: That’s what fans call 68-year-old weight lifting star Marlene Flowers. After a scare hospitalized her 10 years ago, she changed her life, and her son started sharing her workouts on TikTok. Now, over 2 million followers watch her flex her big biceps. Love her. It’s never too late to feel strong and confident.
PC’s screen gone dark? Before you hold down the power button, hit Windows + Ctr + Shift + B. This tells your computer, “Hey, the display is messed up. Can you fix it?” In nerd-speak, it refreshes or resets your graphics drive.
Need to sign a document on your Mac? Open a PDF in Preview, click the Markup icon (a little pencil), and select Sign. You can sign using your trackpad, your mouse or even hold up a piece of paper to your Mac’s camera. Easy peasy!
Thieves’ loco motives: I never thought of this crime. Gangs hitting railroads jumped 40%, costing over $100 million. Around $4 million of that comes from the BNSF railroad in California. They’re using bolt cutters to break into shipping containers to steal electronics, sneakers and toys.
Every Tesla owner doxed: Hackers created a website (now taken down) that shows a map of Tesla owners’ names, addresses, phone numbers and emails in the U.S. Why? They’re protesting Elon Musk. The site says it doesn’t endorse or condemn vandalism, but the cursor symbol is literally a Molotov cocktail. If you want your info removed, you have to prove you sold your car.

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.

Best of all, it’s 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:

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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.

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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!

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Listen to the WBAP Podcast (up every Tuesday)→

The End of the Month, Q1 and Truck Month!

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. Here is this week’s edition:

Straight Talk and Honest Answers

CarPro Advice: Buying From One Dealership, Servicing At Another

Must-Read! Which Cars Have Most Equity At Lease-End?

Highboy For Heroes Sweepstakes!

I Did A Podcast About Tesla And Elon Musk

On The Road: Test Drives

All-New 2025 Nissan Armada Pro-4X

A redesign so great, it's turned Jerry into an Armada fan!

First-Ever 2025 Lexus LX 700h Overtrail

An exceptional SUV to be sure. but Hey, Lexus, where's the panoramic sunroof?

2025 Mazda CX-90 PHEV Premium Plus

A beautiful SUV with a wonderful interior and fantastic driving dynamics.

U.S. News & World Report Best Cars For Families

Bumper to Bumper: Industry News

Funniest Automotive April Fools Pranks

Goodyear Tops 2025 J.D. Power Tire Satisfaction Study

New Dodge Charger Virtual Experience and Bludicrous Blue

Look Out For Fake Car Subscription Scams

2025 World Car Of The Year Finalists

Check Out The All-New 2025 VW Tiguan

Weekly Recalls

Our Incentive Guide

Kim Komando's Tech Tips and Useful Info

Check Out Our Newsletter Archive Page!

Classic Car Contest: Win An AutoHeatShield!

Jerry's Must-See Video Of The Week!

Exclusive Approved Products & Services

It's Here! The CarPro Merchandise Shop!

Subscribe to the free DFW Newsletter

Miss the Show? Catch Our 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

Closing Message From Jerry Reynolds

CarPro Advice:
Buying From One Dealership, Servicing At Another