Follow-Up Re: Dealer Advertising Laws

FTC Sent Warning Letters To 97 Dealer Groups

You may recall, two weeks ago today I wrote an article here giving you information on what the car dealer advertising laws were, and if you fell victim to a bait-and-switch pricing scheme, where to report it if you are in Texas or California.You can read my article here.

So, I was thrilled to learn the Federal Trade Commission is sending letters to 97 auto groups nationwide, warning them that the prices they advertise must be the total price—including all mandatory fees—that consumers will be required to pay.

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  Straight Talk and Honest Answers

CarPro Advice: What Is a Prepaid Or One-Pay Lease?

I explain what prepaid leases are, who they are best suited for and share key questions to ask before signing anything.

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   U.S. Auto Market

Top 20 Best-Selling New Vehicles In February

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Automakers Currently Offering Military & First Responder incentives 

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Fastest and Slowest Selling Used Cars

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  Legal File

Feds Sue California Over Electric Vehicle Rules

A lawsuit filed by the Trump administration seeks to block California’s aggressive vehicle emissions regulations.
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California AG Charges 14 Criminally In Sales Tax Scheme

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CarMax Settles With DOJ Over Illegally Repossessing U.S. Servicemembers' Vehicles  

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  Quick Shifts

Stories you’ll find today:

• Speed Camera Hall of Fame
• Game Show “Free” Car
• Turns Out “Wipers On, Lights On” Is Actually the Law
• Florida License Plate Frame Arrest Sparks Lawsuit

Read more→

  Weekly Recalls

• Audi **CRASH RISK**→
• GM: Buick/Cadillac/Chevy/GMC/Hummer →
• Ford (2) **CRASH RISK** →
• Jeep *CRASH RISK**→
• Kia →
• Volvo →
• 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  

  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.

ThisCar has been with us for quite some time. They are terrific buyers and make the transactions very easy. They have helped many of our listeners and I’ve had terrific feedback. They are great, too, if you need a good idea 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. ThisCar 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 →

  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 current sweepstakes in partnership with Vehicle For Good! 

The 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: 

NASA launched the Lunar Trailblazer satellite in February 2025 to map water on the moon. It separated from the rocket perfectly. Ground teams established contact. Everything looked great. Then day two arrived, and the satellite went completely dark. Forever. A review panel just obtained the report that explains what happened, and it’s almost too painful to read.

What killed NASA’s $72 million Lunar Trailblazer satellite on its second day of operation? A) A micrometeorite hit the antenna, B) The software aimed the solar panels the wrong way, C) A faulty thruster made it drift off course, or D) A security update accidentally wiped the flight computer?

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

Some Interesting Items I Found In Kim’s Daily Newsletter! 

• Women pick drivers: So Uber finally pushed its women-only matching option nationwide in the U.S. The messy part? It’s expanding while Uber’s getting sued by male drivers who claim discrimination, arguing that the feature stereotypes men as dangerous. Lyft’s in the same lawsuit soup. I’m glad the option exists, not thrilled it took thousands of assault reports and an $8.5 million verdict.

• Helicopter adjuster: Nothing says modern insurance like a flying camera deciding your house is sick. State Farm sent a California woman a letter saying her roof was leaking and needed about $20,000 in repairs or she could lose coverage. She says the roof never leaked, there’s no water damage. Nobody even inspected it in person. Insurers are using drone and satellite images with AI, and the software’s flat-out wrong sometimes.

• 3-second tech genius: Your phone finds hidden cameras. Open your camera app and slowly scan a hotel room, Airbnb or changing room. Hidden cameras with infrared lenses show up as a bright purple-white glow on your screen. Your camera sees light your eyes can’t. Or get the hidden camera detector (33% off right now) I use.

• That little gas pump symbol on your dash is smarter than you think. Next time you're in a rental car or any car glance at the fuel gauge before you pull up to the pump. See the tiny arrow next to the gas pump icon? It points left or right. That's the side your tank is on. Every car has it. Nobody tells you. So instead of doing the awkward pull-forward, pull-around, block-the-whole-station shuffle, check the dash. Three seconds. Problem solved forever. You'll never circle a gas station like a lost tourist again.

• Measure your yard, roof or driveway from space for free.Open Google Maps on your computer, right-click your house and select Measure distance. Click around the edges of your property to drop points. Google calculates the total distance as you go. Perfect before calling a fence company or landscaper so you already know the numbers. On mobile, tap and hold to drop a pin, swipe up and tap Measure distance. Satellite view. Zero cost. Should've been on the homepage.

• Big Tech's pinky promise about our electric bills: Our electricity bills have climbed 7% year-over-year since September. In areas packed with AI data centers, bills jumped as much as 267% over five years. So the White House got Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI to sign something called the "Ratepayer Protection Pledge," promising they'll build their own power sources instead of passing costs to us. Sounds great. Except the pledge is completely voluntary, has no enforcement mechanism, no timeline, and no penalties. It’s powerless.

• 1 in 3 Facebook ads is trying to rob you: Researchers analyzed 14.5 million Meta ads and found nearly 1 in 3 pointed to a scam, phishing link, or malware, generating 300 million impressions in under a month. Just 10 advertisers, traced to China and Hong Kong, were behind more than half of it. The rule is simple: never click an ad on Facebook or Instagram for a product you don't already know. Type the brand's website directly into your browser instead.

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  Jerry's Must-Watch Video of the Week! 

  Todd's Video of the Week! 

  True Stories From A Former Car Dealer

This is #5 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 35 weeks, we’ll feature one of them, in order for you to enjoy.

Today’s story is titled: Dateline NBC. By and large, I was a calm, cool, and collected dealership owner and not much really rattled me. But walking in on a Monday morning and finding out Dateline NBC had an undercover shopper in your dealership doesn’t start your day off very well. Oh, and not just one-they sent FOUR people in with hidden cameras.
I’m pretty sure I aged about 10 years that day.

You can read #5 here:

True Stories #5: Dateline NBC→

  Closing Message From Jerry

Trust Is The Whole Ballgame

After all these years in and around the car business, I can tell you something that has never changed: trust is still the whole ballgame.

Cars have changed. Dealerships have changed. Advertising has changed. Technology has changed. Prices have definitely changed. But when someone walks into a dealership, clicks on a website, or answers an ad, they’re still asking the same question people were asking decades ago:

Can I trust these people?

A lot of the stories in this week’s newsletter circle back to that same idea.

The FTC is warning dealers about advertising prices that don’t include mandatory fees. California authorities are cracking down on people who allegedly tried to avoid sales taxes on exotic cars. CarMax is paying up after the government said servicemembers’ rights were violated. Used cars are sitting longer on dealer lots. New car prices keep creeping higher.

In other words, people are trying harder than ever to figure out where the real deal is and where the smoke and mirrors begin.

That’s because buying a car is never just about the car.

It’s about whether the price you saw is actually the price you’ll pay. It’s about whether someone explains things clearly or hopes you won’t ask questions. It’s about whether the fine print is there to inform you or quietly trap you.

I learned just how serious all of that can be one Monday morning back in October of 2003 (See True Story #5, above).

I walked into my office and saw a fax sitting on my desk with the NBC peacock at the top. The subject line read “Dateline NBC – Undercover Investigation.”

That will wake you up faster than coffee.

The letter explained that two days earlier, on a busy Saturday, Dateline NBC had sent four different undercover shoppers into my dealership wearing hidden cameras as part of a national investigation into car dealer sales practices.

Now keep in mind, that Saturday had been a zoo. We sold more than 80 vehicles that day. Salespeople were running around, customers were everywhere, and nobody had the slightest idea that a national news crew was secretly filming what was happening.

For the next few weeks, I waited for that show to air and wondered what those cameras might have caught.

When the episode finally aired, several dealerships across the country were absolutely hammered. Some salespeople were caught doing things that made the entire industry look terrible.

They showed a few seconds of footage from my lot—but they never identified the dealership and never showed anyone from my store doing anything wrong.

In other words, they tried their best to catch us doing something—and couldn’t.

That experience reinforced something I had believed long before that fax ever came through the machine.

If you run your business the right way, you sleep better at night.

You don’t have to worry about reporters walking through the door. You don’t have to worry about investigators asking questions. And you definitely don’t have to worry about hidden cameras.

I’ve always believed that people will forgive a lot of things. They’ll forgive a delay. They’ll forgive a mistake. They’ll even forgive a deal that didn’t go perfectly.

What they usually won’t forgive is feeling like someone tried to put one over on them.

That’s why the best dealers are not the ones with the loudest ads, the biggest balloons, or the flashiest weekend sales events.

The best dealers are the ones who tell the truth, explain things clearly, and treat people with respect.

That may not sound revolutionary, but you’d be surprised how powerful it is.

Every week I get emails from listeners and readers who tell me they had a great experience at one of our CarPro Certified Dealers. A salesperson took extra time to explain something. A manager stepped in to help an elderly customer. Someone slowed down long enough to make sure a buyer really understood the deal.

Those things matter.

Selling a car isn’t just moving inventory. Sometimes it’s helping a young family buy their first safe vehicle. Sometimes it’s helping someone who has been taken advantage of somewhere else. Sometimes it’s helping someone who is going through a tough time and just needs one thing to go right.

That’s why trust still matters.

Back when I owned dealerships, I knew there was something even better than making a sale that day: earning a customer who would come back again and again—and send their friends.

That kind of reputation isn’t built in a weekend sale.

It’s built one customer at a time.

So, as you read through this week’s stories, remember this: the truth still matters, the fine print still matters, and how you treat people still matters most of all.

Because in the car business—and in life—the best strategy is a simple one:

Run your business like the cameras are always rolling.

Straight Talk and Honest Answers — always.

 💡Kim Komando Answer:

B). The software aimed the solar panels the wrong way. Not slightly off. Not a few degrees. Exactly backward. The software that was supposed to point Lunar Trailblazer’s solar panels toward the sun instead pointed them 180 degrees in the opposite direction.

The satellite immediately entered a cold, low-power state with no attitude control, and ground teams never heard from it again. It was completely preventable. A proper end-to-end solar panel test before launch “should have caught the error in the flight code that could have then been corrected before launch,” according to the review panel’s report.