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  On The Road: Test Drives

  Bumper to Bumper:  Industry News

  Weekly Recalls

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 Incentives Guide

  Kim Komando's Quiz & Tech Tips

💡Kim’s Quiz:

Engineers put a supercomputer in every pocket, and we use it to photograph soup. Also sunsets, dogs, toddlers mid-sneeze and 19 identical selfies where one eyebrow “looked weird.”

Kodak walked, so we could sprint straight into “storage almost full” purgatory. And yes, industry analysts actually count our photos every year. Somebody had to measure our need to document a sandwich before eating it. We’re all raccoons with Wi-Fi.

Q. 📷 How many photos does humanity take per year? A) 10 billion, B) 100 billion, C) 2 trillion or D) 19 per eyebrow. Take your guess. The answer comes into frame at the end.

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

  Exclusive Approved Products & Services

In my over 20 years on the radio, I can count the number of products I have endorsed on one hand. I have had many opportunities, but after much due diligence, I usually end up saying no.

I won't recommend a product or service unless I have tried it myself and feel good about recommending it. It is the same with the car dealers on the radio show and website.

Here are companies I wholeheartedly endorse and personally use:

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  Miss the Show? Catch Our Podcast!

Catch all five hours of the Car Pro Show! All three hours of the national show are posted Saturday afternoon. The DFW podcast is posted Tuesdays on WBAP.

  The Car Pro Has Mail 

Jerry,

I wanted to follow up with you. I called Trey Russell at 5 Star Ford Carrollton and had to leave him a voice message. He called back as soon as possible and I told him you had sent me. I explained my situation on my Explorer lease and what I had been told by another Ford dealer in my hometown. After a more in depth discussion, he told me that he was going to make our lease program work exactly like Ford intended. 

So, after a couple weeks of searching for the right Explorer Platinum edition (without recalls), and in the exterior and interior colors the wife wanted, Trey called and said come pick up your new 2026 Explorer. Jerry, we have never been treated so good and made to feel so welcome in our lives at a dealership. Rocky Wall met us at the door and Trey Russell came straight over as well. They had the car ready when we got there. We simply signed the papers, probably talked more than they wanted, then drove away in our new car.

These people were absolutely amazing. We have bought new cars and pickups every three years for the last 22 years, and I have never made a deal where I didn’t get frustrated. This went flawlessly. My wife and I would like to thank you for taking care of us. And on a funny note, it turns out that Trey and I may, somewhere down the line, be related. Jerry, I would like to try and call your radio program this Saturday morning to publicly thank you for everything and to sing the praises of Trey, Rocky and everyone at 5 Star Ford in Carrollton. You recommended these fine people, and they have made themselves a customer for life.

Thanks again friend,

This was the third Toyota I obtained from Freeman Toyota. John Shelton jumped through hoops to get me the car I wanted. Darren in appraisals was great with my trade-in, and James Padilla in finance made the process smooth.

Thanks again.

Chuck G.

Just wanted to let you know that the crew at Classic Chevy took amazing care of me on getting a new Traverse. I really felt like a VIP when I walked in with my Certificate from your website.

I was nervous, but they made me feel right at home and I even got a discount and more than I expected on my trade-in Toyota.

Relax and enjoy the difference means something to these folks. I will be back even though it was a long trip for me.

Thanks for what you do Mr. Reynolds, thanks to you, this was the best buying experience by far I’ve ever had.

Message for Jerry,

Your “Things I Thought I Knew at 30” struck home with me so much. It almost paralleled my work career even though in far different careers. I survived, you survived and we both went on to enjoy life now.

Thanks for your work. As a former newspaper editor/publisher, I enjoy your writing. So many young people need to understand that failure is not always final.

Jerry M.

Jerry, I read your article on “the last time and you didn’t know it “.

During the pandemic they offered us airline pilots early retirement. A lot of guys took it. Little did they know that last routine trip they did would be the last time they landed an airplane. Something they’d been doing since a lot of them were 16 years old.

Also, I listened to an old podcast of yours when you mentioned that I think Mercedes has a switch that when you push it prepares the car for the car wash. My Airbus has a similar switch which prepares the airplane for a water landing by closing all the holes in the airplane used for AC, pressurization,etc.

I’m not sure if Sully used it. Judging by the way the airplane stayed afloat in the Hudson, I bet he did.

  On The Air: Station Listings

  Searching for a New or Used Vehicle?

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.

  You Have 5 Hours To Call The Show!

You have 5 hours to call the show!  From 9AM- 2PM Central, 7AM-Noon Pacific, and 10AM to 3PM 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!

  Jerry's Must-Watch Video of the Week! 

In this one-minutes video, I can’t imagine how much trouble this guy is in with his wife. Looks like she went a little too far forward and dropped the front wheels off the edge of the pavement leaving her SUV dangling. Hubby mistakenly thought he could solve the problem, but in hindsight, should have called a wrecker for the big SUV instead. He learned an expensive lesson.

  Todd's Video of the Week! 

5 Roundabout Accidents.

Roundabouts are supposed to keep traffic moving, but these drivers had other plans! Watch the top 5 fast fails as cars misjudge turns, lose control, and turn a simple trip around the circle into a crash-filled disaster.

  True Stories From A Former Car Dealer 

This is #27 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 12 weeks, we’ll feature one of them, in order for you to enjoy.

Today, I tell you about how I got elected to the Ford National Dealer Council, was then elected to be Chairman of the group, and then became the first Ford Dealer in history to serve back-to-back. I give you details on how Ford Motor Company purchased and failed at owning dealerships, and the ongoing battles I had with then Ford CEO Jac Nasser.

You can read #27 here: Auto Collections→

Click here for the True Stories library →

  Closing Message From Jerry Reynolds

 What If I'd Said No?

 I've been thinking lately about how much of a life can turn on a very small decision.

We tend to remember the big moments: the day we got married, the birth of a child, buying the house, getting the promotion, starting the business, retiring from the job. Those are the milestones we put on the calendar and remember years later. But when I look back over my own life, I realize some of the decisions that changed everything didn't feel particularly monumental when I made them.

Sometimes, somebody simply asked me a question and I said yes.

What if I hadn't?

My entire career started because, as a kid, I went to work at a Ford dealership after school. I certainly didn't walk through those doors thinking I was beginning a career that would consume most of my life. I was a kid doing the kinds of jobs kids did around dealerships back then, installing mirrors and hubcaps, washing cars, cleaning service bays, and doing whatever else somebody told me needed doing. I was grateful for the $2 per hour wage I earned.

What if I'd hated it? What if I'd decided there had to be an easier way to make a living and never gone back?

I have no idea.

Years later, after working my way up through the business, I became the youngest Buick dealer in America at 29. I was convinced I was on my way, and then that dealership failed. A few years later, after some additional hard knocks personally and professionally, I found myself needing a job.

I'd already been a dealer. I'd been a general manager. I had held the titles and sat in the offices that told everybody I had made it, but none of that was paying the bills. I went to see a friend who was running Lone Star Cadillac in Dallas and asked for a job selling cars.

Think about that decision for a minute.

Pride could very easily have made me say no. I could have convinced myself that going back to the sales floor was beneath me after I'd owned a dealership. I could have worried about what people would think when they saw the former dealer standing by the front door waiting for an "up." I could have waited for another management position that I thought better suited my résumé.

Instead, I swallowed my pride and sold cars.

That yes changed my life.

I enjoyed Lone Star Cadillac and thought I might stay there a long time, but then another opportunity came along. A man had bought a struggling Ford dealership in Garland, TX and some people who had worked for me previously were now working for him. They told him he needed to talk to me.

He did.

In fact, he talked to me several times because I kept saying no.

Eventually, he offered me a sales manager position and I finally said yes. The dealership was dead last in Dallas-Fort Worth Ford sales when I arrived in the summer of 1990, and I knew I was walking into a challenge. A little more than two years later, we passed the longtime No. 1 Ford dealer in DFW. Eventually we became No. 1 in Texas, and years later, for one month in 2002, we even outsold Galpin Ford in California and became the No. 1 Ford dealership in America.

What if I'd kept saying no?

That question fascinates me because the decision didn't just affect my career. Think about all the people who entered my life because I eventually accepted that job. Employees who became lifelong friends. Customers I would never have met. Opportunities that could never have existed. Experiences that shaped the way I thought about business, leadership, customer service, and people.

Change that one answer and you change thousands of things that came afterward.

Then there's radio.

When I first started doing radio, I certainly wasn't sitting there thinking, "This will be my next 25-year career." I was a car dealer who knew the automobile business and had an opportunity to talk about it. I enjoyed helping people, the show grew, and somewhere along the way radio stopped being something I did and became an enormous part of who I am.

Imagine if I'd said no to that.

No Car Pro Show. No Saturday mornings talking with people across America. No listeners calling because they're scared about buying a car or facing a repair they don't understand. No newsletter like this one. No opportunity to take everything the automobile business taught me and use it to help people I will probably never meet. Where would Kevin McCarthy have ended up? Todd? Amy? The rest of the staff? Who knows?

There are literally millions of people today who can hear my voice on radio stations across the country. That sentence still sounds strange to me when I stop and think about it. Yet all of it traces backward through a series of decisions, opportunities, failures, relationships, and conversations that could have gone another way if I'd simply said no.

That's what makes me wonder about all the other decisions we make without realizing their importance.

Maybe somebody once invited you to dinner and sitting across the table was the person you eventually married. Maybe a friend mentioned a job opening you almost didn't pursue. Maybe you moved to a city where you knew nobody, took a chance on a business, went on the blind date, hired the person whose résumé wasn't perfect, or answered a phone call you almost let go to voicemail.

At the time, it was just another day. Years later, you realize it changed everything.

Of course, saying yes isn't always the right answer. I've said yes to things I wish I'd declined and no to things I probably should have accepted. Experience teaches you that every opportunity isn't a good opportunity, and age hopefully gives you enough judgment to recognize the difference.

But I've also learned that fear can disguise itself as good judgment.

"I'm comfortable where I am."

"I'm too old to start over."

"What if I fail?"

"What will people think?"

Those all sound like perfectly reasonable arguments until you realize they're sometimes just different ways of saying you're afraid.

If I could go back and talk to the younger Jerry at some of those crossroads, I don't think I'd tell him which decisions to make. Knowing the outcome would take something important away from the journey. I might simply tell him not to let pride or fear make the decision for him.

The Buick dealership failed, and that failure ultimately put me back on a showroom floor. Going back to the showroom eventually helped put me in Garland. Garland helped create opportunities I could never have imagined, and decades in the car business gave me the knowledge and stories that eventually found their way onto the radio.

One door didn't necessarily open another. Sometimes one door slammed shut so hard that it pushed me toward the next one.

Looking back, I'm grateful for many of the things I said yes to, but I'm also grateful life didn't always accept no for an answer the first time.

Somewhere today, somebody is going to offer you an opportunity that doesn't look particularly important. You may not recognize it as a fork in the road because most forks in the road don't come with signs telling us where they lead.

Maybe you'll say no.

Maybe you'll say yes.

You won't know for years whether it mattered.

That's the amazing part.

I can look backward today and connect the dots pretty easily. At the time, there were no dots. There were just decisions.

And every once in a while I find myself wondering:

What if I had said no?

I'm awfully glad I didn't.

Straight Talk and Honest Answers — always.

💡 Kim Komando's Quiz Answer:

C) Nearly 2 trillion photos a year. And a total of 12 of yours are in focus. (Kidding. Sort of.) The real problem: They’re all “somewhere,” and somewhere is a full phone and a cloud bill.