Veterans Day Is Wednesday - Please Pause & Say Thank You

ChatGPT Plus/CarPro.

For many years, I have used this space to salute our veterans with words and poems that express our gratitude for their service. This year, I wanted to put those aside and talk to you myself. If you have worn the uniform of this country, there are some things I want you to hear directly from me, because I worry that we say “thank you for your service” so routinely that you may not always know how much is behind those words.

When I say them, I am thinking about the part of your life you gave to America. The years you could have spent somewhere else, doing something else, with people you loved. I am thinking about the young person who left home, perhaps frightened and trying hard not to show it, and stepped into a world where the demands were immediate and the responsibilities were enormous. Whether you volunteered or answered a draft notice, whether you made the military your career or served a single enlistment, those years belonged to your country. You don’t get them back, and we ought to appreciate what you put into them.

I make my living talking. Every week, I get behind a microphone and speak my mind, and anyone who has listened very long knows I exercise that privilege pretty freely. I can question decisions, criticize people in powerful positions, and tell you exactly what I think. That is a remarkable freedom, and I hope I never become so comfortable enjoying it that I forget the people who have stood ready to defend the country that guarantees it. You have a place in my everyday life even when I haven’t stopped to acknowledge it.

There is also a great deal about your service that I cannot know simply by shaking your hand. I don’t know what you missed at home, what you endured while you were away, or what you have carried since. Some of you enjoy telling stories about your military days, and some of you have things you have never discussed with anyone. You don’t owe the rest of us those stories. You have already given enough to deserve our respect without having to explain why.

I want to be sure the veterans who served during peacetime hear this, too. Your service counts. So does the work of those who maintained the equipment, prepared the meals, handled the supplies, treated the sick, and performed the thousands of jobs a military depends upon. You went where you were ordered and did work your country needed done. Nobody should have to pass somebody else’s test of what “real service” looks like to be included in our gratitude.

And to those who came home to indifference or outright hostility, I wish this country had done better by you. You deserved a welcome home that recognized what had been asked of you. We cannot go back and give you that moment, but we can take responsibility for how we treat you now. We can listen, keep our promises, and expect the care and benefits you earned to be delivered with competence and dignity.

Your families deserve a place in this thank-you as well. They lived with the empty chair, the changed plans, the worry, and the responsibility of keeping things going at home. Their love and sacrifice are woven into your service, and I am grateful to them.

This Veterans Day, I hope you get a phone call from someone who remembers. I hope someone asks how you are doing and has time to hear the answer. Most of all, I hope you feel appreciated by the people around you, including those of us who may struggle to find words big enough for what we want to say.

On behalf of my family and everyone at The Car Pro Show, thank you for the portion of your life you gave to this country. I love America, and I am deeply grateful to the men and women who have served her.

May God bless you and your families, watch over those serving today, and help the rest of us be worthy of the sacrifices made on our behalf.

  Commentary: DAMMIT GM! Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing

 ChatGPT Plus/CarPro.

With apologies for language. The move by GM to the Nasdaq brought back bad memories for me and makes me extremely nervous about their future, and trust me,
I want to be wrong here.

Read more → 

  U.S. Auto Market 

 GM To Pay $220M For Selling Your Data

General Motors has agreed to pay a staggering $220 million to settle allegations that it collected and sold the personal driving information of millions of its customers without their knowledge or meaningful consent. 

Read more →

  Straight Talk and Honest Answers

Car Pro Advice:
The Most Critical Test Drive Is Just Before Your Warranty Expires

Don't wait until your warranty expires to find out something is wrong with your vehicle. 

You Ask, CarPro Answers

• When Is The Best Time of the Year To Buy A New Car?
  Jerry's Answer → 

• What Are Car Rebates and Which Cars Have The Best Ones? Jerry's Answer → 

  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.

Stories you’ll find today:

• ALASKA HAS A HIGHWAY SO TOUGH, RENTAL CAR COMPANIES SAY NO THANKS
• POLICE SEIZE THE WRONG CAR, THEN THE TOW TRUCK HELPS TOTAL IT
• WHAT'S REALLY HIDING IN THE TRUNK OF A POLICE CAR?
• AVIS CHARGES CUSTOMER $4,300 FOR DRIVING 18,000 MILES IN ONE WEEK

Read more →

 Suits and Settlements

Suits & Settlements is a weekly feature highlighting recent automotive-related legal matters. Whether they impact customers and drivers, a specific automaker or have wider implications for the industry, they are important lawsuits and settlements I think you'll find as interesting as I do.

In this week’s Suits & Settlements, you’ll find the following reports:

• JEEP WRANGLER 4xe OWNERS COULD SHARE IN $5 MILLION HYBRID SETTLEMENT
• STELLANTIS ASKS APPEALS COURT TO UPHOLD DISMISSAL OF INVENTORY FRAUD LAWSUIT
• FORD TRANSIT TRAIL OWNERS MAY RECEIVE $6,000 UNDER DEFECT SETTLEMENT

Read more →

  Weekly Recalls

  
• Cadillac/Chevrolet **CRASH RISK**→
• Dodge **CRASH RISK**→ 
• Hyundai →
• Lincoln **CRASH RISK**→

  2026 Tax Code 179 Guide

2026 Tax Code Section 179, Bonus Depreciation and Car-Loan Interest Guide

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

2026 Tax Code Section 179 Guide→

 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 →

  Kim Komando Quiz and Tech Tips

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.

I recommend you subscribe to Kim’s daily newsletter. I learn something new every single day, and it’s free!  Subscribe here →

 
💡  Kim's Quiz

Oh, Google Maps, our glowing rectangle oracle that decides whether you take the highway or spend 17 minutes behind a school bus.

This is wild. An artist created a fake traffic jam on a completely empty street. No cars or crash. Just him, walking slowly, pulling a wagon.

Q. How does Google Maps determine there’s a traffic jam? A) Cameras on every highway, B) How fast phones are crawling down the road, C) Satellites snapping photos of the roads every few seconds or D) It counts the honks? Make your guess.

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

Tech Tips & Interesting Finds From This Week’s Komando Newsletters

This week: Amazon Is Hiring For The Holidays →

  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.

GiveMeTheVin has been with us for quite some time. In fact, GiveMeTheVin founder John Clay Wolfe and I have been friends for over 30 years. His team is made up of terrific buyers who make the transactions very easy. They have helped many of our listeners and I’ve had terrific feedback. They're great, too, if you need a good idea of 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. GiveMeTheVin 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 →

   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! 

 The Car Pro Show Now Airs In 180 Markets!

  Jerry's Must-Watch Video of the Week! 

  Todd's Video of the Week! 

 True Stories From A Former Car Dealer #37

  Closing Message From Jerry

When Did Everybody Get So Angry?

I've been wondering about something lately, and the more I think about it, the more it bothers me. When did everybody get so angry? I don't mean the kind of anger that comes from something truly terrible happening in your life, or the frustration we all experience when somebody treats us unfairly. I'm talking about the everyday anger that seems to be everywhere now, the kind that can turn a minor inconvenience into a shouting match, a simple disagreement into a personal attack, or an ordinary trip to the grocery store into an experience that leaves you wondering what in the world is wrong with people.

Maybe it's because I'm getting older, although I hate using that as an explanation for anything. I've spent most of my adult life dealing with the public in one way or another, first as a police officer, then for decades in the automobile business, and now for 25 years behind a radio microphone. I've encountered more than my share of angry people, and I can assure you that anger is nothing new. I've had people scream at me, threaten me, accuse me of things I didn't do and occasionally use language that would have embarrassed a sailor. I've also been on the other side of a few arguments myself, and I'm certainly not going to pretend that I've always handled every disagreement with the patience of a saint.

But something feels different today.

It seems as though people are walking around with a very short fuse, just waiting for somebody to give them a reason to light it. Somebody takes too long at a traffic light, and the driver behind them acts as though a personal insult has been committed. A restaurant gets an order wrong, and instead of politely asking for it to be corrected, somebody decides the entire dining room needs to hear about it. A flight gets delayed, and an airline employee who had absolutely nothing to do with the weather becomes the target of somebody's frustration. Even a simple difference of opinion can turn ugly in a matter of seconds, especially when the conversation takes place on social media.

I see it on the roads all the time, and frankly, that's where it concerns me the most. I've watched drivers become absolutely furious because somebody changed lanes in front of them, didn't accelerate quickly enough when a light turned green, or committed some other minor offense that probably cost them three seconds. Suddenly they're riding somebody's bumper, blowing the horn, making gestures that don't require any interpretation, or trying to get even by cutting the other driver off. I've spent enough time around law enforcement to know that confrontations can escalate in a hurry, and I can't imagine anything much more foolish than risking your life or somebody else's because a stranger didn't drive the way you thought they should.

I used to see a different version of that same behavior in car dealerships. A customer would arrive angry about something that had happened, and sometimes they had every reason to be upset. Maybe we'd made a mistake, failed to communicate properly or simply hadn't lived up to what the customer reasonably expected. I always wanted to know about those situations because if something was wrong, we needed to fix it. But occasionally someone would walk through the door already determined that the only acceptable outcome involved a confrontation, and it didn't matter how calmly we tried to discuss the problem.

One thing I learned over the years was that anger often has very little to do with the person standing in front of you. Somebody might be upset about a car repair, but the real pressure could be coming from financial problems, trouble at work, a sick family member or something else you knew absolutely nothing about. The person who gets the full force of that frustration may simply be the unfortunate individual who happens to be there when everything finally boils over. Understanding that doesn't excuse abusive behavior, but it can help explain why a seemingly small problem sometimes produces such an enormous reaction.

I learned something else during my years in business, and it took me longer than it should have. You don't have to match somebody's anger to resolve a disagreement. In fact, doing so usually makes everything worse. When somebody is already upset, raising your voice rarely convinces them you're right. It simply gives them permission to raise theirs a little higher, and before long, two grown adults are having a shouting contest that neither one is likely to win. Sometimes the most effective thing you can do is listen, let the other person finish, and then calmly explain what you can or cannot do to help.

That doesn't mean you have to agree with them, and it certainly doesn't mean allowing somebody to mistreat you or your employees. I never believed that being a customer gave someone the right to abuse the people working for me, and I still don't. There is a difference between making a legitimate complaint and treating another human being as though they are beneath you. You can insist on being treated fairly without humiliating somebody, and you can stand your ground without turning every disagreement into a battle.

I wonder how much social media has contributed to the problem. There was a time when somebody could say something foolish, a few people would hear it, and by the next morning everybody had moved on. Today, a person can have a bad moment, pull out a phone and broadcast it to thousands of strangers before they've even had time to reconsider what they're saying. Worse yet, there seems to be an audience waiting to encourage the confrontation, take sides and turn an ordinary disagreement into something much bigger than it ever needed to be.

And then there are the people who seem to spend their days looking for something to be offended by. I don't know how they find the time, because between preparing the radio show, writing this newsletter and reviewing new vehicles, I have trouble keeping up with things that actually require my attention. Yet there are people who apparently have enough spare time to argue with complete strangers about subjects that will have absolutely no effect on their lives. I sometimes wonder whether they'd be nearly as aggressive if they were sitting across a table from the person they're attacking instead of hiding behind a keyboard.

Of course, I don't want to make it sound as though the world has suddenly become a terrible place filled with terrible people. I still encounter kindness every day, and I believe the overwhelming majority of people are decent, hardworking folks who simply want to take care of their families and live their lives. I hear from wonderful listeners every week, meet people who go out of their way to help strangers and see countless examples of generosity that never make the news. The problem is that anger tends to be louder than kindness, and in today's world, the loudest people often get the most attention.

Maybe that's part of what has changed. We have more ways than ever to communicate, but I sometimes wonder whether we're getting worse at actually talking to one another. We can send a message halfway around the world in a second, yet we struggle to have a civil conversation with somebody standing three feet away. We can share our opinions with thousands of people instantly, but we don't always seem interested in listening to anyone who disagrees with us. Somewhere along the way, it feels as though we've started confusing being loud with being right.

I also think we've become a little too comfortable assuming the worst about other people. Somebody makes a mistake, and we immediately decide they must be incompetent. Somebody disagrees with us, and we assume they must be ignorant. Somebody inconveniences us, and we take it personally, even though the person responsible may not have given us a second thought. We rarely stop to consider that the other person might be having a difficult day, might have misunderstood something or might simply see the world differently than we do.

I've certainly been guilty of some of those things myself. Looking back over my dealership years, I can remember times when I got angry about something that seemed terribly important at the moment, only to realize later that it wasn't nearly as big a deal as I'd made it. I had high expectations, and I still believe there's nothing wrong with that, but I've learned that the way you handle a problem can sometimes have a much greater impact than the problem itself. People may eventually forget what the disagreement was about, but they'll remember how you made them feel while it was happening.

Here's something else I've come to appreciate as I've gotten older: You can be absolutely right about something and still be completely wrong in the way you treat another person. Being right doesn't give you permission to be cruel, and winning an argument doesn't necessarily mean you've accomplished anything worthwhile. Sometimes all you've done is damage a relationship, embarrass somebody or make an already unpleasant situation worse.

I don't have a magic solution for all the anger in the world, and I certainly don't expect everybody to suddenly become patient and understanding just because I wrote a few paragraphs about it. There will always be rude drivers, difficult customers, unreasonable people and situations that test our patience. There will also be legitimate reasons to get angry, and I wouldn't suggest that people should remain silent when they see dishonesty, injustice or somebody being mistreated. Anger can be useful when it motivates us to correct something that's genuinely wrong.

But I do think we could all benefit from being a little more selective about what deserves that kind of emotion. Not every inconvenience is an insult, not every mistake is intentional, and not every disagreement requires a winner and a loser. Sometimes the person who cuts you off in traffic is simply a bad driver, the restaurant server who forgot your order is overwhelmed, and the stranger who disagrees with you isn't necessarily a bad person.

The next time somebody does something that irritates me, I'm going to try to remember that I have a choice about how I respond. I can make the situation worse, or I can decide that whatever happened isn't worth ruining my day over. I won't always succeed, and anybody who knows me well can probably tell you that I still have a pretty good temper when something really gets under my skin, but at least I'm trying to get better at recognizing when it's worth using.

After all, most of us have enough real problems in our lives without turning every minor inconvenience into another one.

And if somebody disagrees with what I've written here, that's perfectly fine with me. You're entitled to your opinion, just as I'm entitled to mine, and we can probably both go on having a pretty good day without convincing the other person to change their mind.

Wouldn't it be nice if more people remembered that?

Straight Talk and Honest Answers — always.

💡Kim's Quiz Answer

B) It tracks how fast phones are moving on the road. Yep, when lots of phones with location turned on crawl along the same road, Google paints it red. (The data is anonymous, Google says.)

In 2020, artist Simon Weckert loaded 99 secondhand phones into a wagon, all running Google Maps, and strolled down the street. Google saw 99 “cars” barely moving and flagged a jam.