Straight Talk and Honest Answers 

For decades, one of the most common pieces of car-buying advice went something like this: never buy the first year of a new model. Here I explain why that old-age car buying wisdom in many cases no longer makes sense.

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  U.S. Auto Market Insights

GM To Write-Off $6 Billon In Electric Car Scale Down

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20% Of Q4 New-Vehicle Buyers Are Making $1000+ Car Payments

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Surprise! Stellantis Kills ALL Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles

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CA Governor Proposes New EV Rebate Program 

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  Houston: The Auto Show Is This Month!

  Quick Shifts

Stories you’ll find today:

• Waymo Solves Self-Driving, Still Needs a Doorman
• 156 mph, No Lights, No Common Sense
• Fresh Smell, Funky Laws: Air Fresheners Can Get You a Ticket
• Tesla Innovates, Trademark Office Waits

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  Weekly Recalls

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  • Chevrolet **CRASH RISK**→
  • Nissan   **CRASH RISK**→
    
  • Subaru→
    
  • Volvo "FIRE RISK WARNING/PARK OUTSIDE"→
   
• Takata Air Bag Recall → 

  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  

  Enter To Win A 2026 Corvette Or $40K Cash!

Imagine winning a brand-new 2026 Corvette—or choosing $40,000 cash instead. Now is your chance in our new sweepstakes in partnership with Vehicle For Good! 

Our latest giveaway supports Hope Local, a nonprofit dedicated to walking alongside foster and adoptive families so children can experience stability, belonging, and hope. When you enter, you’re not just entering to win—you’re helping kids move one step closer to home.

  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: 

Texting has a wild origin story. It was practically built on spare parts. Your sweet “lol ok” hitches a ride on network leftovers, the same signaling data that keeps your phone connected to the tower. Phone companies used to charge for texts like they were delivering artisanal, handcrafted emojis. We’re talking real money for something that costs them, well, you tell me. 

Quiz Question: How much does it cost carriers to send a single text? A) A few micro-pennies, B) 2 cents, C) 10 cents or D) 18 cents. Take a guess, the answer drops at the end. 

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

Interesting items I found in this week’s Kim Komando newsletter:

• Need help but can’t speak? Text 911 from your phone. Send your address first, then say whether you need police, medical or fire services. You can also add details about what’s going on. Visit text911.info to see if it’s available where you live.
  
  
• Lollipop Star is an $8-to-$10, single-use candy that plays music through your teeth, using bone-conduction tech. Yep, bite down, and vibrations travel through your jaw straight to your inner ear, no Bluetooth, no earbuds, no dignity.
  
  
•  Doctor/patient privacy: OpenAI is rolling out ChatGPT Health, where you can feed ChatGPT your data for personalized advice. I get the pitch: A chatbot reading your labs and saying, “Here’s how to tweak your macros” sounds futuristic. But hold up, can you control your data? Delete it? Block it from being used for training later, or sold? It’s a step toward personalized care, but I’m not throwing my entire health file into a bot. 

• Scam alert: Hackers are faking the infamous Windows blue screen of death to trick you into installing malware. It starts with a phishing email (often pretending to be Booking⁠.com), leads to a fake CAPTCHA, then a phony BSOD. The kicker? The hackers tell you to fix it by pasting code into your Run box. Don’t. That installs spyware that gives attackers remote access to your PC. No thanks. Close the browser, restart your computer and run a malware scan in case. 

• Easy ticket trap: While you grumble about radar guns, states including California are rolling out speed cameras. These enforce limits without cops, using lasers and plate recognition to automatically send violations. Early programs are starting, and highway versions will focus on construction areas. Arizona, Maryland and New York already use similar tech. People have complained about false or overactive enforcement, so expect debate, not peace. About 24 U.S. states, plus D.C., allow some form of speed camera use.
  

• Brick by brick: You know those classic 2x4 Lego bricks you played around with as a kid and with your kids? Now, each brick is secretly a computer. At CES 2026, Lego announced Smart Bricks, wirelessly charged, packed with sensors, lights, sound and Bluetooth brains. Starting March 1, Lego Star Wars sets will hum, light up, react to movement and know which ship won the race. No camera. No AI. The only downside? When you step on one barefoot at 2 a.m., it’ll light up and play a victory sound while you hop around crying.  

• Oops, I did it again: Can you guess why TransUnion is back in the headlines? Yep, another data breach. A new class action says a July 2025 hack exposed names, birthdays and Social Security numbers of 4.4 million people, because of a sloppy third-party app. Remember, this is one of the big four companies deciding whether you get a loan, and they lost the keys. Make sure you have ID theft protection.

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  Jerry's Closing Message

The Car Business Never Stops Teaching You 

One of the great myths about experience is that at some point, you’ve seen it all. I can tell you from firsthand experience that isn’t how it works — not in the car business, and not in life. If anything, the longer you do this, the more you realize how much there still is to learn.

I’ve been around cars and car people for a long time. I’ve sold them, managed and owned many dealerships, sat across the desk from nervous buyers, frustrated customers, excited first-timers, and folks who just wanted something dependable to get them through the next chapter of life. I’ve watched technology change the business more times than I can count. And yet, even now, I learn something new almost every week.

Sometimes it comes from the industry itself. Automakers change strategies, roll out new technology, walk back decisions they were sure about just a year earlier. EVs come to mind.  What was once considered risky becomes routine. What was once the future gets quietly phased out. If you’re paying attention, the lesson is usually the same: certainty is temporary, and humility matters.

Other times, the lessons come from consumers. A listener will call with a situation I haven’t heard before — or at least not quite like that. I had one just last week-a listener with a totaled SUV and the insurance company says he never changed his policy to his new car.  A buyer will ask a question that stops me for a second and makes me think, “That’s a fair point.” Those moments remind me that good advice isn’t about having a script. It’s about listening and often what spurs me to write an advice column.

I learned early on that the car business has a way of exposing who you really are. It shows you how you handle pressure, how you treat people when a deal gets complicated, and whether you’re willing to say no when saying yes would be easier and more profitable. Those lessons don’t come from training manuals. They come from real people sitting across from you, trusting you to do the right thing.  It comes from the heart.

Even mistakes have something to teach you if you’re honest enough to look at them. I’ve made my share over the years. Everyone who’s been in this business long enough has. The important part isn’t pretending they didn’t happen — it’s learning why they happened and making sure you don’t repeat them. Experience isn’t about being flawless. It’s about being better next time.

What’s interesting is how often the same lessons show up in new forms. Technology changes, but human nature doesn’t. People still want clarity. They still want fairness. They still want to feel like someone is on their side, especially when they’re making one of the biggest purchases of their lives. No amount of software or online convenience replaces that.

That’s one of the reasons I’ve never bought into the idea that advice becomes obsolete just because the industry evolves. The details change, sure. The principles don’t. Transparency still matters. Preparation still matters. And trust still takes time to earn and only seconds to lose.

I’m also reminded, week after week, that learning isn’t something you age out of. The moment you think you’ve got it all figured out is usually the moment you stop paying attention. The best dealers I’ve known were the ones who stayed curious. The best salespeople were the ones who kept asking questions. And the best advice was almost always shaped by experience mixed with a willingness to keep learning.

That’s what keeps this work meaningful for me. I don’t do it because I think I have all the answers. I do it because I’ve seen enough to recognize patterns, avoid common traps, and help people make smarter decisions — while still understanding that every situation is a little different.

The car business never stops teaching you if you’re willing to be a student. It teaches patience. It teaches empathy. It teaches you that doing the right thing may not always be the fastest or easiest path, but it’s almost always the one that lasts.

And maybe that’s the real lesson after all. Whether you’re buying a car, selling one, or just trying to make sense of a noisy world, the goal isn’t to know everything. It’s to stay open, stay honest, and keep learning — because the moment you stop, you fall behind.

I’ll keep listening, keep learning, and keep doing my best to pass along what experience has taught me so far. And I appreciate the trust you place in me every time you read, listen, or reach out — because that, too, is a lesson worth remembering, and for me-it’s the most important one.

Straight Talk and Honest Answers — always.

💡Kim Komando Answer:

A) $0.000003. That’s three-millionths of a cent, not a typo. SMS messages are basically digital stowaways, catching a free ride on bandwidth already being used to keep your phone near a cell tower. 

So that begs the question: Why were we paying $0.10 to $0.20 per message back in the day? Because carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc.) knew we would. If texting were priced like gasoline, you’d be paying $120,000 a gallon.