Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 04/08/2026 Ask the Expert with Larry Dawson

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04/08/2026 Ask the Expert with Larry Dawson · WCHS Network Podcasts

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Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
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Speaker 1: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight WCHS
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Speaker 1: it's employees or WVRC Media.
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Speaker 2: And a very pleasant good morning to you. Hey, congratulations,
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Speaker 2: you've made it. Hey, it's not Monday. I'm used to
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Speaker 2: coming off of the weekend and saying you made it
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Speaker 2: through the weekend. I'm off of vacation, but I'm back.
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Speaker 2: It's Dale Cooper. I'm in the studio with Larry Dawson
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Speaker 2: this morning. Larry Dawson, he still buys cars, and he's
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Speaker 2: taking your phone calls this morning. If you want to
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Speaker 2: give us a call, three Z or A four three
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Speaker 2: four five fifty fifty eight. Three four five fifty fifty
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Speaker 2: eight eight is our number if you want to talk
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Speaker 2: to Larry Dawson this morning. Larry's with us. How are
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Speaker 2: you doing this morning, Larry.
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Speaker 3: Good morning, good morning.
0:52
Speaker 2: I appreciate you coming in on. It's still kind of
0:54
Speaker 2: a chilly day, but it's supposed to be warming up.
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Speaker 3: It was really nice yesterday. You could wear sleeves, you
1:00
Speaker 3: can wear short sleeves. You can mow the grass and
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Speaker 3: not sweat, which I did Monday, I think. But This
1:06
Speaker 3: is the when you like to bottle up. This weather
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Speaker 3: just carried it through lots of.
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Speaker 2: Months, these first like early days of spring, as it
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Speaker 2: starts getting into the HoTT this is the best, the
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Speaker 2: best possible weather there is. You know, like you get
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Speaker 2: days that maybe creep into the eighties every once in
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Speaker 2: a while, but you don't live there, you know.
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Speaker 4: I mean, that's that's a nice place to be. You know.
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Speaker 3: Last week or week before last, it uh, it got
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Speaker 3: it got kind of warm for that time. It Uh
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Speaker 3: Normally we don't see in March where you can really
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Speaker 3: feel the sun to heat sweat. And I was down
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Speaker 3: to farm mowing, and I normally mowed at my farm
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Speaker 3: with a long sleeve white shirt arm because of ticks.
1:49
Speaker 3: Oh yeah right, It's just something I've learned to do.
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Speaker 3: You you get Lyme disease like me, you all of
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Speaker 3: a sudden you start recognizing ticks. So I wear long
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Speaker 3: sleep But I know, sir, on my neckline, you know
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Speaker 3: that was exposed. Uh that evening, it was a little tender,
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Speaker 3: so there was some sun beating down on me.
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Speaker 4: Little going on right now.
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Speaker 3: You know, when you have a farmer Fraser's bob, you
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Speaker 3: gotta have.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit of that, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
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Speaker 2: that's all right, man, I tell you what it it
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Speaker 2: kind of I love this change of the seasons. But
2:21
Speaker 2: you're talking about the sun. How you can tell when
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Speaker 2: the sun angle changes. You know, it's different when even
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Speaker 2: when you're outside working in your yard in uh, you know, uh, February,
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Speaker 2: a nice day in February where it's like fifty, you're like, oh,
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Speaker 2: it's almost like a spring like day. And then you're
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Speaker 2: out there and it's like fifty something and it's uh
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Speaker 2: and it's uh April or May. It's a different sun.
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Speaker 2: It's a different angle. It warms you a little differently,
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Speaker 2: which was one of the things when I was in
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Speaker 2: South America. I was in Ecuador for a while, and
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Speaker 2: one of the things that threw me off so much
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Speaker 2: is you're an Ecuador that you're in the center point.
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Speaker 2: The sun's pretty much always a buff you and it's
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Speaker 2: really strange because, uh, you're not used to the same angle.
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Speaker 2: Shadows are so different and things like that. You wouldn't
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Speaker 2: think about that when you are from different parts of
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Speaker 2: the country. The little things that are weird when you're
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Speaker 2: somewhere else but in that quarter where that's really weird,
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Speaker 2: just the position of the sun and the way that
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Speaker 2: you're basically it's basically right above.
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Speaker 4: You the whole time that you're around the day. It's
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Speaker 4: very strange.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess you know you're right around the noon
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Speaker 3: time and stuff. Anyway, Yeah, when you go to a
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Speaker 3: different environment. I'm gonna run to Florida into this week
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Speaker 3: for ten days, and I like going to New Samurna
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Speaker 3: in April. It it may not touch Haiti, it might
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Speaker 3: touch eighty, but normally in the evenings when the sun
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Speaker 3: goes down, you get that breeze, so you can you
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Speaker 3: can throw you a couple of sweatshirts in there and
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Speaker 3: shorts and walk down flag learn be comfortable. And after
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Speaker 3: really about mid April, it's going into May, at least
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Speaker 3: in New Samurna, it's it gets warm. And I like
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Speaker 3: Florida when it's seventy something, not when it's eighty and nine.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, not what I do.
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Speaker 3: By chance? Did you read that article I sent you?
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Speaker 2: I did, Yeah, and it's very it's very strange because
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Speaker 2: I had read that same story and then Dave and
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Speaker 2: I actually talked about it on hotline. It was one
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Speaker 2: of our conversation points that we had on hotline. I
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Speaker 2: think it was just an inner out topic about somebody
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Speaker 2: negotiating your your audo deal for you. That's an interesting
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Speaker 2: it's like conci.
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Speaker 3: It's it's concierge.
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Speaker 4: It's like the inverse of what you do. Sort of.
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Speaker 3: Yes, well, I give a lot of information way free.
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Speaker 3: When that article was sent to me into the listening audience.
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Speaker 3: It was an article sent I think it was in
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Speaker 3: the It was on the apiece Whire. Some new source
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Speaker 3: picked it up, and it's about a gentleman young he's
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Speaker 3: not that all that was in the automobile business, in
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Speaker 3: the retail sales and new car dealership, and he came
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Speaker 3: up with the concept that he saw the frustration and
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Speaker 3: the consumer coming in and not being able to connect
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Speaker 3: with their salesperson and achieve their goal of buying a car.
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Speaker 3: They just felt like it become a hassle and run around.
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Speaker 3: And it probably he is true in a lot of areas.
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Speaker 3: You know, I've gave you the advice to people, if
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Speaker 3: you make that contact with that salesperson at a local dealership,
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Speaker 3: don't give it up because that's a pretty good name
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Speaker 3: and number, having your rollodex in contact. But this young
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Speaker 3: man is now doing the negotiation for you. In other words,
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Speaker 3: you come to him, tell him what you want to do,
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Speaker 3: and he'll negotiate to deal from the A to Z
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Speaker 3: or start to the beginning, and he charges you a
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Speaker 3: flat fee of one thousand dollars. Well, that sounds like
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Speaker 3: a lot of money. But if you would listen to me,
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Speaker 3: sometimes I can give you some advice, and I give
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Speaker 3: a lot of free advice away that I am shocked
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Speaker 3: sometimes that I see people that maybe we've had that
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Speaker 3: conversation and I don't know if they've listened to everything
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Speaker 3: I said or discount of what I said, Because when
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Speaker 3: I see what they've done, I go, that's not real.
6:01
Speaker 3: I could see where this works as long as someone
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Speaker 3: will take your advice and take it all the way through.
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Speaker 3: If I had a time, which I don't, I'm not
6:10
Speaker 3: going back to work, but you could take me along
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Speaker 3: for a ride with you in a car, and I
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Speaker 3: guarantee you I'd be well worth my thousand dollars and
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Speaker 3: it probably would be that plus. And it's not tricks,
6:22
Speaker 3: it's not anything, but it's the art of negotiation and
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Speaker 3: the timing of it. But where a lot of thing
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Speaker 3: people I think gets hung up. Now. I know they
6:30
Speaker 3: do because I was a retail auto dealer for you know,
6:34
Speaker 3: a third of my life is they get on some
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Speaker 3: type of web platform and think that they become an expert,
6:43
Speaker 3: and they shoot themselves in the front. I mean, it's
6:47
Speaker 3: it's great to go to it for some knowledge, but
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Speaker 3: it does not make you an expert. Making you an
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Speaker 3: expert is doing this every day, over and over and over,
6:57
Speaker 3: and there's you know, it's like building a house. I
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Speaker 3: told you in the green room. I'm exploring the possibility
7:04
Speaker 3: and probably am going to build a new house. And
7:08
Speaker 3: I have sought information, I've read about new products. There's
7:14
Speaker 3: a world of new products out there in home. See
7:17
Speaker 3: if I built I built one twenty years ago, and
7:21
Speaker 3: I'm not going to say it's obsolete because it's a
7:23
Speaker 3: nice home. But there is so many more options to
7:26
Speaker 3: go with. But I have been talking to what I
7:29
Speaker 3: think is expert contractors and not relying on just one.
7:36
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm not really shopping them on price, I'm
7:39
Speaker 3: shopping them on relations. Can I get along with them
7:43
Speaker 3: for the next eight months to a year as they
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Speaker 3: build my probably my last home, you know it probably is,
7:50
Speaker 3: But that goes a long ways. I'm just now getting
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Speaker 3: the numbers in and that was you know, I see
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Speaker 3: people that's the first thing they want to do is
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Speaker 3: go those numbers. And I've slowed people down before and said, okay,
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Speaker 3: let's say we'd arrive at number that you like. What
8:06
Speaker 3: if you don't like the car, why go you know,
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Speaker 3: why do this? Like the car, like the person you're
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Speaker 3: dealing with, like the environment around it, because that car
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Speaker 3: probably is going to need some future service or maintenance,
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Speaker 3: you know, like all that. And it's hard to do
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Speaker 3: by getting on this phone or computer we carry around
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Speaker 3: with call phone and clicking and picking and it being
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Speaker 3: delivered to you. And it's a nightmare because I have
8:34
Speaker 3: read more blogs about car von nightmares. I mean, it's
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Speaker 3: frightening what gets delivered. And they're betting on the concept
8:43
Speaker 3: of you're going to accept it, that's all they're betting on.
8:47
Speaker 3: If you don't, okay, we'll take a back, but the
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Speaker 3: majority of people will, they'll accept it, pay for it,
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Speaker 3: and then go on a blog and complain about it.
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Speaker 3: And it's just it floors me when we have really
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Speaker 3: nice dealers in this valley, most of my know personally,
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Speaker 3: I like every one of them. You may not like
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Speaker 3: the product they're selling or the brand, but there's other
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Speaker 3: brands out there, you know. Especially I know what you've
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Speaker 3: driven because I've sold you one, and I think I
9:18
Speaker 3: know what you're partial to. And you're not a guy
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Speaker 3: that goes out and trays often not at all. And
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Speaker 3: I'm an auto dealer and neither am I. You know,
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Speaker 3: I still I've spoke about this for the last thirty
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Speaker 3: thirteen years. I've got to oh thirteen to Dollie, So yeah,
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Speaker 3: it's thirteen years old, you know. And I'm a car guy.
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Speaker 3: I like it. So I kept it. And because the
9:42
Speaker 3: only way you're going to win, if there's ever a
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Speaker 3: column a win column in an automobile world, is keep it.
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Speaker 3: If you're not being problem with it. Yes you got
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Speaker 3: to throw a little bit of money at it, and
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Speaker 3: yes you got a little maintenance and guess what, you
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Speaker 3: got to go here and wash it and wix it
9:58
Speaker 3: and take care of it and it will.
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Speaker 5: You know.
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Speaker 2: One of the things that and the article that we
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Speaker 2: were talking about, it's it's interesting. It's about a It's
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Speaker 2: about a man who has u and this is the
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Speaker 2: thing that he's basically adopted all of the things that
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Speaker 2: we used to know, yes about about broking a deal
10:14
Speaker 2: for a car, the type of thing that that basically
10:17
Speaker 2: a mom or a dad would teach their son or
10:19
Speaker 2: daughter when they would take them to buy their first car,
10:22
Speaker 2: or maybe you went with the family. We did this
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Speaker 2: a lot, went with the family to go look at cars,
10:25
Speaker 2: to to test drive him as a family. And you
10:28
Speaker 2: hear like, all you know, you might learn some tips
10:30
Speaker 2: from your dad or your mom or whatever we've forgotten.
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Speaker 4: And I have this.
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Speaker 2: I wish I was a smarter guy, because I know
10:35
Speaker 2: that there's a there's like an essay or a commentary
10:37
Speaker 2: to come from this where we're forgetting so much about
10:40
Speaker 2: and I don't mean like far a history or even
10:43
Speaker 2: twenty years ago history. I mean we're forgetting things that
10:46
Speaker 2: five or ten years ago were commonplace, as far as
10:49
Speaker 2: like interactions between people, uh communication, talking the way to
10:55
Speaker 2: discover what is real and what isn't real. Like I
10:57
Speaker 2: think we're losing that skill set. And this gentleman, what
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Speaker 2: he's done is basically he's found a way to go
11:03
Speaker 2: in and he's he's he's he's lassoing in all of
11:07
Speaker 2: the e stuff, all of the electronic stuff and turning
11:09
Speaker 2: it into an analog production. Again, he's your analog front
11:13
Speaker 2: to all of the e devices that's in front of you.
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Speaker 2: And so he's made it so you can broker with
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Speaker 2: him or he brokers for you the way that frankly
11:21
Speaker 2: most people used to kind of broker their own deals,
11:23
Speaker 2: you know, but we don't do that anymore.
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Speaker 3: Real estate agents Yeah, yeah, I mean you're not. They
11:28
Speaker 3: don't even they don't like you talking to the owner
11:31
Speaker 3: of the house. They try to keep you separate. They're
11:34
Speaker 3: the go between and they're working for both parties. You
11:38
Speaker 3: know that they receive a percentage of the mouth of
11:41
Speaker 3: the house sold, and you know they are the person
11:45
Speaker 3: that you go to to to buy a home. Not
11:49
Speaker 3: always there's for sale by owners, and you know that happens,
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Speaker 3: but I'd say the percentage is larger toward relators being
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Speaker 3: involved than one on one. You said something there. I
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Speaker 3: think I am a professional automobile buyer because it allowed
12:10
Speaker 3: me to have a career in the automobile world. Yes,
12:12
Speaker 3: I sold automobiles for living, but guess what, I had
12:15
Speaker 3: to buy them, so I had to be a better
12:17
Speaker 3: buyer than a salesperson. And you think about that. I
12:20
Speaker 3: had to be a better buyer to have better inventory,
12:24
Speaker 3: to be a salesperson, I could. What if I just
12:26
Speaker 3: went out and just bought whatever, and then you was
12:29
Speaker 3: buying bad cars with it, Well, your career as far
12:33
Speaker 3: as selling, is going to diminish. So you had to
12:36
Speaker 3: be a sharp buyer to buy inventory to sell to
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Speaker 3: the retail public. Well, I still buy cars. I generally
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Speaker 3: buy cars from the public, and I know the things
12:47
Speaker 3: to navigate through, and I try to help and steer
12:52
Speaker 3: people when they have their automobile for sale. I received
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Speaker 3: a call last Thursday or Friday from a gentleman here
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Speaker 3: in Kanall County. I'm gonna mention this Amy's professional man.
13:01
Speaker 3: He most people would know his name, and he is
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Speaker 3: helping a loved one in his family sell a car.
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Speaker 3: And he told me about it and we talked about
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Speaker 3: it a little bit. He sent me the information on
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Speaker 3: the car, and I took this weekend and reviewed it
13:16
Speaker 3: and I called him Monday, left him a message and
13:19
Speaker 3: he called me. Why I was cutting grass. I turned
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Speaker 3: the lawnmower off while I found something he did not
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Speaker 3: know about the history of that car. I said, regardless,
13:28
Speaker 3: if you're going to sell this car to me or
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Speaker 3: John Q Public, whatever you're going to do. This issue
13:34
Speaker 3: needs to be fixed. It's on carfax. I can see
13:38
Speaker 3: it was probably an era, and I probably know how
13:41
Speaker 3: this happened. But he is devating your car because it's
13:46
Speaker 3: an inconsistent mouse. He had no idea. He had no idea.
13:52
Speaker 3: I explained to him what he would have to do
13:54
Speaker 3: or someone would have to do to get this corrected.
13:56
Speaker 3: And it's not instant. Once you get corrected through the DMV,
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Speaker 3: CARFS doesn't pick it up automatically. And I said, if
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Speaker 3: you sell this car without this being corrected and you
14:07
Speaker 3: get one layer of in the woods deeper, it's not
14:10
Speaker 3: going to be able to be corrected, and the valuation
14:14
Speaker 3: this car changes. And I hope I think he well,
14:18
Speaker 3: I know he did because they could tell he's taking
14:20
Speaker 3: notes because he read them back to me. I said, Yep,
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Speaker 3: that's it, and I'm sure it's going to be done.
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Speaker 3: There's no fault of anybody. It was just a typo
14:29
Speaker 3: era in the mileage section that it came up. Basically,
14:33
Speaker 3: what happened was the males on carfights showing service records
14:38
Speaker 3: and when the vehicle got titled the last time the
14:42
Speaker 3: males was less than the service history reflects. And this
14:47
Speaker 3: is a very low mileage car, but now it's flagging
14:50
Speaker 3: inconsistent red flag. Those aren't real males, and so the
14:57
Speaker 3: valuation or in the title, you can't see that. But
15:01
Speaker 3: most people in the automobile world, we use a tool
15:04
Speaker 3: called carfax, and if that car gets traded, passed along,
15:09
Speaker 3: or if he was to sell it, or they were
15:12
Speaker 3: to sell it, and that buyer will say, six minutes
15:15
Speaker 3: down the road decided they want to trade it. That
15:18
Speaker 3: dealer is going to pull car fights and they're going
15:20
Speaker 3: to come to him, says, we have a problem, Houston. Well,
15:23
Speaker 3: the problem doesn't is not with the person that owns
15:26
Speaker 3: the car. It was the person that owned the car.
15:29
Speaker 3: They're the only ones can contra there are the only
15:33
Speaker 3: ones that can correct it. So therefore, when you find
15:37
Speaker 3: these mistakes, and I'm sure he would not have known
15:39
Speaker 3: that if I hadn't shared that with him. You know,
15:42
Speaker 3: car faxes are about forty dollars for retail public to run.
15:46
Speaker 3: I buy them and balk and I share the information free.
15:52
Speaker 4: What was the.
15:54
Speaker 2: And I sort of remember these days, But what happened
15:56
Speaker 2: in the days when you were selling cars or buying
15:59
Speaker 2: cars before Carfax, because it's really an amazing thing that
16:02
Speaker 2: this is a private company that has inserted itself into
16:05
Speaker 2: this transaction as being basically a default need when it's
16:10
Speaker 2: not like a government requirement, it's not a finance requirement,
16:13
Speaker 2: that it's not required in any way, shape or form.
16:15
Speaker 2: But they have made it so you need and I'm
16:18
Speaker 2: not and I'm in no way showing throwing shade there.
16:21
Speaker 2: That is fantastic that they were able to figure out
16:23
Speaker 2: a way to do that. Stack your paper, you know,
16:25
Speaker 2: well done, but it's still amazing. Much like the credit industry, frankly,
16:29
Speaker 2: that just was basically birthed overnight, you know, like from
16:33
Speaker 2: private entities that have no government control or anything else.
16:36
Speaker 2: It's weird now that it to do anything with a
16:38
Speaker 2: car you have to have a car fax.
16:40
Speaker 3: I'll tell you a short story my first experience with Carfacts,
16:43
Speaker 3: and this was going back in probably the mid nineties
16:47
Speaker 3: when it was just coming on. I remember, and your
16:50
Speaker 3: big dealers were experimenting with it, the real big dealers.
16:55
Speaker 3: They were putting their toes in the sand and walking
16:58
Speaker 3: you know through it to see.
16:59
Speaker 2: They may consume so powerful at the time too, because
17:02
Speaker 2: you could get it on your own, and you go
17:03
Speaker 2: into that dealers saying I got the car fights and
17:05
Speaker 2: that's YadA, YadA, yadda, whatever it was.
17:07
Speaker 3: I bought a car from a German and I remember
17:10
Speaker 3: it well in Milton, and as I was as we
17:14
Speaker 3: was prepping the car, I started seeing things that indicated
17:19
Speaker 3: that maybe this car had been in an accident, like
17:23
Speaker 3: under the truck where the spare tyre area is. You know,
17:26
Speaker 3: you remove it to clean that, and you start seeing things.
17:29
Speaker 3: You go, this doesn't really smell, you know good. So
17:34
Speaker 3: a friend of mine was running a very large dealership
17:37
Speaker 3: and they had just signed up for car fights and
17:39
Speaker 3: I called him. I said, would you run this ven
17:41
Speaker 3: number for me? And he said, yeah, I'll do it,
17:43
Speaker 3: but he said, don't tell anybody, you know, it's like
17:46
Speaker 3: top secret. I said okay, So he ran it and
17:49
Speaker 3: uh he said, drive over behind the office there. It's
17:52
Speaker 3: called the alley. And I drove through the alley and
17:54
Speaker 3: he had it to me. He said, that car's got
17:56
Speaker 3: a reconstructed title. Well, this gentleman had bought this car,
18:00
Speaker 3: wrecked and fixed it and washed the title. Back in
18:05
Speaker 3: those days, you could do it. And he had a
18:07
Speaker 3: clear title. He didn't tell me any of that. So
18:11
Speaker 3: I called him and you know you talked about somebody
18:14
Speaker 3: trying to back up. He was trying to back up,
18:17
Speaker 3: and well it was just kind of hit and yeah,
18:19
Speaker 3: I did this. And I said, I'm bringing this car
18:23
Speaker 3: to your address, and you're going to write me a
18:25
Speaker 3: check back. I said, because this is not what you
18:28
Speaker 3: sold me. The story in the car. I remember it
18:32
Speaker 3: was a buick, I remember well. And I drove it
18:35
Speaker 3: to Milton on my roll I put on my roll
18:37
Speaker 3: bike and drove down there. And I tried to keep
18:39
Speaker 3: my emotions in tight and I did, but I was
18:43
Speaker 3: boiling over that. See, the public could do it, and
18:47
Speaker 3: they were doing to dealer. Now what if I sold
18:49
Speaker 3: a car and you just asked me a question? What
18:52
Speaker 3: did we do before car facts? That right there could
18:55
Speaker 3: have got me in trouble.
18:56
Speaker 4: I was too.
18:57
Speaker 3: I could not afford car facts at that time.
18:59
Speaker 1: I was.
19:00
Speaker 3: I mean I hadn't even been in business but probably
19:03
Speaker 3: three four or five years. Carfax was being sold to
19:06
Speaker 3: the large dealers. You know, they weren't even coming up
19:09
Speaker 3: to us. Independence. You come up to an independent in
19:12
Speaker 3: my beginning days, which my car Fax Bilts fifteen hundred
19:15
Speaker 3: dollars a month were unlimited. Well that's an employee in
19:19
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety three, four or five.
19:21
Speaker 4: You can't do that.
19:23
Speaker 3: So you know it has it become more affordable. No,
19:27
Speaker 3: it has not become more affordable. It actually it's become
19:30
Speaker 3: more expensive.
19:31
Speaker 2: It's become an enterprise class service instead of yeah. So yeah, yes, So.
19:37
Speaker 3: Monday, I know, last Friday, I came up on a
19:40
Speaker 3: car that I was I looked at I thought, you know,
19:43
Speaker 3: there's I think I'll buy this car. But I detected
19:47
Speaker 3: a little noise in the motor and it was up high.
19:51
Speaker 3: In other words, it wasn't a death rattle. It was
19:53
Speaker 3: it was toward the top part of the engine. And
19:57
Speaker 3: I'm not a mechanic and it's not car. So I
20:01
Speaker 3: drove it over to a friend of mine's service center
20:04
Speaker 3: and I said, look, I'm going to leave this car
20:05
Speaker 3: with you and I'm going to pay you listen to
20:08
Speaker 3: that noise and tell me what it is. And they
20:12
Speaker 3: called me Monday. I left it over the weekend and
20:14
Speaker 3: he said, Larry, that thing has got a timing chain.
20:16
Speaker 3: That's what you're hearing. It's a timing chain and it
20:19
Speaker 3: needs replaced and this particular vehicle. It's rather expensive. I said, okay,
20:25
Speaker 3: why I went and picked that car up and paid
20:27
Speaker 3: him for I guess going through the car or observing
20:32
Speaker 3: the car, and it was one hundred and thirty five dollars.
20:36
Speaker 3: But that one hundred and thirty five dollars that I
20:38
Speaker 3: paid saved me thousands if I had not done that
20:42
Speaker 3: and bought that car, thinking I'm going to market his
20:45
Speaker 3: car on a secondary market. Now I end up buying
20:49
Speaker 3: that car. But because I had the information, I went
20:52
Speaker 3: back to the gentleman I was buying it from and
20:54
Speaker 3: told him everything. I said. There is how much it's
20:57
Speaker 3: going to cost to fix it, this is the problem
20:59
Speaker 3: with the car, and I will make you an offer.
21:02
Speaker 3: Now that I have all this knowledge. Well, I paid
21:05
Speaker 3: for that knowledge. It's no different. You're paying this young
21:07
Speaker 3: man negotiate your car, right.
21:10
Speaker 4: I mean, he knows how to get it and he
21:11
Speaker 4: does what to do with it.
21:12
Speaker 3: And I've told people, I said, you know, if you're
21:15
Speaker 3: thinking about buying a car, and you have a mechanic
21:18
Speaker 3: you feel comfortable with, take it to them. Pay them
21:21
Speaker 3: a hundred and let them listen to it, drive it,
21:25
Speaker 3: go over it. They might save you thousands. You don't
21:29
Speaker 3: know until you spend that hundred.
21:31
Speaker 2: And let me tell you somebody who has struggled to
21:33
Speaker 2: find somebody that I trust to do this, because that
21:36
Speaker 2: is such a almost a foreign concept anymore. Yeah, Like
21:40
Speaker 2: sometimes if you just go to a garage, even a
21:41
Speaker 2: place that you drop your car off, sometimes you're like, hey,
21:44
Speaker 2: I have this car I'm thinking about buying. Can you
21:45
Speaker 2: just give the once over for me to Some people
21:47
Speaker 2: will look at you like you're an absolute alien. What
21:50
Speaker 2: what do you mean? It's like, just you know, do
21:53
Speaker 2: your thing. I mean, how do you describe what you want?
21:55
Speaker 2: You know, give it a once over, you know, see
21:57
Speaker 2: if it sounds okay. See, people think that you're asking
22:00
Speaker 2: to present a magic problem or something when it's like
22:03
Speaker 2: that used to be relatively normal. I saw one to
22:05
Speaker 2: a friend of mine about my age the other day
22:07
Speaker 2: and like you, I'm no mechanic, but in the day
22:09
Speaker 2: I used to carry around a spark plug gapper on
22:11
Speaker 2: my keychain. You know, like your car is missing a
22:14
Speaker 2: little bit, does it sound or it's like, man, that
22:15
Speaker 2: spark plug, those those plugs sound a little wrong. And
22:18
Speaker 2: see you're getting in there checking your gap measure, and
22:20
Speaker 2: I mean, it used to be we could tell when
22:23
Speaker 2: we started our cars sounded a little odd. You know,
22:26
Speaker 2: it winds a little high when it's when it's cold,
22:28
Speaker 2: but once it warms up, it sounds well like. These
22:29
Speaker 2: were all sort of things that we just kind of
22:31
Speaker 2: knew about our vehicles, and people don't know that about
22:34
Speaker 2: their cars. I mean, like very like if it starts,
22:36
Speaker 2: it starts, it's fine. And I don't know that there's
22:39
Speaker 2: necessarily anything less about that, but there's certainly a sort
22:43
Speaker 2: of an innate skill set that we don't have anymore
22:45
Speaker 2: when it comes to talking about our vehicles or in
22:47
Speaker 2: a lot of technology.
22:47
Speaker 4: Frankly, we have it.
22:49
Speaker 3: We got lazy in these in these computers. This makes
22:52
Speaker 3: it instant gratification. You just assume it's right, and they
22:55
Speaker 3: bring it in from multi states. You go to a restaurant,
22:58
Speaker 3: you have a really fine meal. What do you do
23:00
Speaker 3: You tip him? You want to look at an automobile
23:03
Speaker 3: and you've got questions about go to your local mechanic
23:05
Speaker 3: and tip him, pay him, have him listen to it.
23:09
Speaker 4: I did.
23:10
Speaker 3: It worked for me, and I'm a professional automobile buyer.
23:13
Speaker 3: Now I'm really not bad on sale. I'm just I'm
23:16
Speaker 3: the buyer, but it still works. In this particular case,
23:21
Speaker 3: the one hundred and thirty five dollars that I thought, well,
23:24
Speaker 3: it's just a little noise, I think it's okay. It
23:26
Speaker 3: was a forty six hundred dollars repair bill. Time you
23:30
Speaker 3: bought the timing chain from Infinity and all the parts
23:34
Speaker 3: and paid the labor. It hovered five thousand dollars, So
23:38
Speaker 3: that one hundred and thirty five dollars gave me the
23:40
Speaker 3: information I knew. I'm not sure the person I was
23:44
Speaker 3: buying from was aware exactly what it was, but they
23:48
Speaker 3: were aware of the noise. Yes, that was aware of
23:51
Speaker 3: the noise. And it's just things I do. Slow down,
23:54
Speaker 3: call me three or four five four five zero two eleven.
23:58
Speaker 3: I'll walk you through it. All the you know, all
24:01
Speaker 3: the time, people will call me.
24:02
Speaker 2: Let's go into this, let's take our break. If you
24:04
Speaker 2: want to call Larry, you're welcome to do that on
24:06
Speaker 2: our phone line this morning. Three zero four three four
24:08
Speaker 2: five fifty eight fifty eight three four five fifty eight
24:10
Speaker 2: fifty You can also text over any questions or comments
24:12
Speaker 2: that you have about anything we're talking about, or if
24:14
Speaker 2: you have a situation with a vehicle that you'd like
24:16
Speaker 2: Larry's expertise wing. You're welcome to give us a text
24:19
Speaker 2: as well. Three zero four nine three five five zero
24:21
Speaker 2: zero eight three zero four nine three five five zero
24:24
Speaker 2: zero eight.
24:25
Speaker 4: Let's do this.
24:25
Speaker 2: Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this.
24:27
Speaker 2: You're listening to ask the expert. Larry Dawson is here
24:29
Speaker 2: and he's still passed cars. You're listening to five awchs
24:33
Speaker 2: the Voice of Charleston.
24:34
Speaker 5: Tomorrow some of us will wake up and it will
24:36
Speaker 5: be our last day on this earth. It will be
24:38
Speaker 5: unexpected and without warning. Each year, two hundred and fifty
24:41
Speaker 5: thousand people will die for medical malpractice, the third leading
24:45
Speaker 5: cause of death in America. Forty three thousand will die
24:48
Speaker 5: in a car or truck crash. I'm John Morgan of
24:51
Speaker 5: Morgan and Morgan and we represent many of these families.
24:55
Speaker 5: It's awful. Unfortunately, many times some of these family members
24:58
Speaker 5: are not speaking and forget to say I'm sorry or goodbye.
25:02
Speaker 5: If you're at odds with a loved one, listen closely,
25:05
Speaker 5: pick up the phone, call them, say you're sorry. I
25:08
Speaker 5: promise a huge burden will be lifted from your heart
25:11
Speaker 5: and your soul will be renewed. Even if you're not
25:14
Speaker 5: wrong in your own mind. It doesn't matter. Death is
25:17
Speaker 5: bad enough. Death without closure and love will follow you
25:20
Speaker 5: the rest of your days. Trust me on this. Morgan
25:24
Speaker 5: and Morgan.
25:24
Speaker 4: Office, two twenty two Capitol Street, Charleston. Cases will be
25:27
Speaker 4: handled by West Virginia licensed attorneys. The attorney in this
25:30
Speaker 4: ad is not licensed in West Virginia. Morgan and Morgan
25:32
Speaker 4: for the People dot.
25:33
Speaker 2: Com thirteen minutes to the top of the hour you're
25:45
Speaker 2: listening to ask the expert WCHS.
25:47
Speaker 4: The Voice of Charleston.
25:48
Speaker 2: Larry Dawson is in the studio with us this morning,
25:50
Speaker 2: taking your phone calls at three zero four three four
25:52
Speaker 2: five fifty eight fifty eight your texts at three zero
25:53
Speaker 2: four nine three five five zero zero eight. Tien has
25:55
Speaker 2: called in this morning and he has a question for Larry.
25:58
Speaker 2: Tim you're on the air, Go ahead, good mon.
26:01
Speaker 6: Hey, good morning, Larry. Hey, quick question, well, actually two questions.
26:04
Speaker 6: So life was involved in a minor accident that required
26:10
Speaker 6: a reskin of the passenger side door, replacement of the
26:15
Speaker 6: right front fender, and then obviously a respray of the
26:19
Speaker 6: front end of the car. So when I looked the
26:24
Speaker 6: car was not reported because I was curious the car
26:28
Speaker 6: did not report as an accident under carfax that I
26:31
Speaker 6: could see showed no accident. So that that made me
26:36
Speaker 6: think that the car dealership, which we're you know, I'm
26:39
Speaker 6: not going to name, but the car dealership didn't report
26:42
Speaker 6: the vehicle was under an accident when they did it
26:44
Speaker 6: because it was an insurance that the insurance obviously of
26:47
Speaker 6: the other driver paid for it. So we had the
26:50
Speaker 6: car for about another four or five months, you know,
26:52
Speaker 6: no issues with the car, but we went to trade
26:54
Speaker 6: the car in. Well, when I went to trade the
26:57
Speaker 6: car in, they could see that the car been in
27:00
Speaker 6: an accident under a carfax. So how how is that
27:04
Speaker 6: and how what what is it that I could qualify
27:08
Speaker 6: for diminished value on the car. It might be a
27:11
Speaker 6: little too late for that now because I called, and
27:14
Speaker 6: of course the insurance company gave me the run around,
27:16
Speaker 6: but there was a discernible difference of about twenty between
27:20
Speaker 6: trade in, yes, before the accident and after the accident.
27:24
Speaker 6: So I'll go ahead and let you answer those questions
27:26
Speaker 6: and I'll get off the air.
27:26
Speaker 3: Okay, thank you, thank you for calling. For first of all,
27:30
Speaker 3: carfax retries information from insurance companies. You know, police reports
27:38
Speaker 3: and body shops, but not everybody reports too. They buy
27:43
Speaker 3: this information. Example, if you running a body shop and
27:50
Speaker 3: you're in you do not sell your information or or
27:55
Speaker 3: your work, then Carfax has no knowledge of it. If
28:00
Speaker 3: the city of Dunbar does in the city of Winfield
28:03
Speaker 3: does not, then Carfax does not have the police report
28:07
Speaker 3: of an accident. So it's not an eye in the sky.
28:10
Speaker 3: It's not instant. And even this information when it is
28:14
Speaker 3: sold and they gathered up, it's not instant. In other words,
28:18
Speaker 3: it does not get printed.
28:19
Speaker 4: That day.
28:21
Speaker 3: When I was in the retail business, I had a
28:23
Speaker 3: conversation with my insurance agent a couple of days ago.
28:28
Speaker 3: He calls me for some advice. I was telling him.
28:30
Speaker 3: When I was in retail business, I would detect paint
28:36
Speaker 3: work and go back, and this is how I would
28:38
Speaker 3: explain it to someone either trying to sell me a car,
28:41
Speaker 3: or maybe it's a vehicle that I've done. Maybe I
28:43
Speaker 3: bought a car that they backed up and hit the
28:46
Speaker 3: mailbox and then of the quarter panel, the gentleman that
28:51
Speaker 3: you did my body work. It did not get reported.
28:54
Speaker 3: If I would tell people, if I know it. I'm
28:57
Speaker 3: going to show you I kept the seats and would
29:01
Speaker 3: let people have their seats where I repaired it. But
29:04
Speaker 3: if an insurance company repairs that, they don't always and
29:08
Speaker 3: not all insurance companies report to Carfax. Now when you're
29:11
Speaker 3: diminished value question, Kim, my fiance that drives a car
29:17
Speaker 3: that I own, was in a wreck about three years ago.
29:23
Speaker 3: It's Alexis ARX three point fifty. Lady pulled out in
29:26
Speaker 3: front of her. They hit, knocked the tail lights out,
29:30
Speaker 3: grill out, bottom violence thirteen fourteen thousand dollars worth of damage.
29:34
Speaker 3: The headlights was seven thousand of that Carfax flagged that
29:40
Speaker 3: as moderate damage. The valuation of that car that I
29:45
Speaker 3: owned fell ten thousand dollars. I went to mister Peyton
29:52
Speaker 3: and he said, Larry. I actually went to Tom and
29:54
Speaker 3: talked to Tom. He said, they changed the long West Virginia.
29:58
Speaker 3: Unlessen it says frame or structural, there's nowhere you can go. Wow.
30:04
Speaker 3: I took the hit, so somewhere along the wall of
30:07
Speaker 3: the land in stayed West Virginia. Insurance companies made a deal.
30:11
Speaker 3: If it does not say frame or structural, you're not going.
30:14
Speaker 2: To get diminished fact some lobby group did their job.
30:16
Speaker 2: There you go, some lobby group did a good job.
30:18
Speaker 2: We have a caller that's on the line. Go ahead,
30:20
Speaker 2: what's your first name?
30:20
Speaker 4: Caller?
30:21
Speaker 7: Hi, guys, Jerry here, Hey, Jerry. Hey. I've told this
30:24
Speaker 7: story before, but about fifteen or so years ago, I
30:28
Speaker 7: was online shopping for a particular kind of car that
30:32
Speaker 7: was not available in this area. It was in Georgia.
30:36
Speaker 7: I checked the car facts. It was clean. I bought
30:40
Speaker 7: the car. I brought it home. There was something wonky
30:43
Speaker 7: about the steering, so I took it to a shop
30:47
Speaker 7: to have the front end of line. They told me
30:50
Speaker 7: that the whole front end was moved back six inches
30:54
Speaker 7: and that explained that. Well, the dealer, and this was
30:59
Speaker 7: a used, a big use car dealer told me that, well,
31:03
Speaker 7: this is a new kind of steering that they put
31:07
Speaker 7: on these cars. The faster you go, the tighter it gets. Well,
31:12
Speaker 7: he knew that car had been in a serious accident,
31:16
Speaker 7: so he lied to me about that car. When I
31:20
Speaker 7: discovered that, I went back to Carfax. I complained about
31:25
Speaker 7: that and they said, well, you have to read the
31:28
Speaker 7: fine print. When I read the fine print, it said,
31:32
Speaker 7: and this is a long time ago. Side I don't
31:34
Speaker 7: know what it says today, but it said something about
31:39
Speaker 7: we're not responsible for the first thirty or sixty days
31:44
Speaker 7: of a report because we might get them in late
31:47
Speaker 7: or whatever the case was.
31:49
Speaker 3: Jerry. In the glossary, they are held harmless virtually everything right,
31:55
Speaker 3: and they are held harmless for all airs and missions,
31:58
Speaker 3: miss misrepresentation. And I have come on this show many times.
32:03
Speaker 3: I said, if you're going to read a Carfax, read
32:05
Speaker 3: glossary first, and then tell me how factual that is.
32:08
Speaker 3: And what are you going to do about it? And
32:11
Speaker 3: you're right, Jerry, there's nothing. And what we did when
32:15
Speaker 3: I was in business, and because of the timestamp now
32:19
Speaker 3: is you could have an accident in July and buy
32:21
Speaker 3: the car in December and it's not hit, and then
32:24
Speaker 3: in January it hits. I would sit the consumer down
32:27
Speaker 3: and we would run another Carfax, not from the day
32:30
Speaker 3: I bought it, from the day we sold it, matter
32:33
Speaker 3: of fact, as we sold it because it had a
32:36
Speaker 3: timestamp on it and had sized said this is the
32:39
Speaker 3: knowledge we know right now. I cannot predict the future.
32:42
Speaker 3: And you're right, Jerry, is it's I mean, Carfax has
32:46
Speaker 3: done a good job at getting people drink the kool aid,
32:49
Speaker 3: but it's not one hundred percent accurate.
32:52
Speaker 7: Well, another interesting thing the gentlemen just brought up was
32:56
Speaker 7: diminished value. Yes, my car was hit five times within
33:02
Speaker 7: probably a fourteen month period while it was parked, and
33:10
Speaker 7: half of the insurance companies who paid for the repairs
33:14
Speaker 7: would give me the diminished value while the others would not.
33:20
Speaker 7: So I guess that all depends on whatever insurance company
33:24
Speaker 7: you're dealing with. And that's all. Thank you.
33:27
Speaker 3: Yes, I think that ship has selled insurance companies. If
33:30
Speaker 3: it does not, I mean I have a lot of
33:32
Speaker 3: respect for the patents, and I have a lot of
33:34
Speaker 3: respect for Tom Payton. And I had a car that
33:36
Speaker 3: had ten thousand dollars of a diminished value. I could run.
33:39
Speaker 3: You know, I knew the valuation because that word said moderate.
33:44
Speaker 3: Well to me, it wasn't moderate because I replaced the
33:47
Speaker 3: two headlights, the front grille, the hood, and the violence
33:51
Speaker 3: blow it was. This happened two years ago. It's a
33:55
Speaker 3: twenty three Lexis FX Sport and I think the retail
34:01
Speaker 3: I believe it was around thirteen thousand dollars. But once again,
34:04
Speaker 3: those headlines are thirty five hundred dollars apiece. And so
34:08
Speaker 3: I argue, I said, the word moderate is devaluing this
34:12
Speaker 3: car that I own. He said, if it does not
34:14
Speaker 3: say structural or frame, there's nothing we can do.
34:18
Speaker 4: That's really wild.
34:19
Speaker 3: So that tells me just exactly what you said. A
34:22
Speaker 3: lobbyist did their job in the state of West Virginia
34:26
Speaker 3: representing these insurance companies. I mean, just because the words
34:29
Speaker 3: structure or frame doesn't mean the car cannot. I mean,
34:32
Speaker 3: in my opinion, be diminished value. But and that was
34:37
Speaker 3: my lesson learning that because prior to that, I have
34:42
Speaker 3: worked for attorneys and written my valuations, and I've seen
34:47
Speaker 3: people seek diminished value, and I've seen people get it.
34:51
Speaker 3: Actually I've done it for mister Peyton. But somewhere that
34:55
Speaker 3: law got changed. And when that law got changed, it
34:59
Speaker 3: changed the whole atmosphere of the menish value.
35:02
Speaker 2: So what that means is, if I understand correctly, if
35:04
Speaker 2: you have a vehicle that maybe should be evaluated at
35:07
Speaker 2: a lesser replacement cost for your insurance purposes, it's not
35:10
Speaker 2: being and you're still insuring it as a vehicle that's
35:13
Speaker 2: in what we would consider maybe better shape than what
35:16
Speaker 2: it actually is.
35:18
Speaker 3: Well, this would be a question I would have propose
35:21
Speaker 3: to a lobbyist, and let's just take my car because
35:24
Speaker 3: I had to own it. Is let's say, unfortunately that
35:28
Speaker 3: there's another accident, it's totaled. Are you going to ding
35:32
Speaker 3: me because of a diminished value word called moderate damage?
35:39
Speaker 3: But you wouldn't pay me for it? I mean, think
35:42
Speaker 3: about it. I mean it's not that expensive car. I
35:47
Speaker 3: mean in its day it was. It's a three year
35:50
Speaker 3: old car. It's probably got a valuation of thirty five
35:53
Speaker 3: thousand is right now at the time, it's probably fiftieth
35:56
Speaker 3: you know somewhere in that vicinity. Will you take a
35:58
Speaker 3: ten thousand dollars hit? Now it's on paper and no,
36:01
Speaker 3: I didn't go sell, and yes, she's still driving it.
36:05
Speaker 3: But if I was John Q Public and trying to
36:07
Speaker 3: trade that car, oh, I know what would happen. And
36:10
Speaker 3: then if once again, if she was to wreck it
36:13
Speaker 3: and it was to be totaled and they come in
36:14
Speaker 3: to do the evaluation and pay me for it, and
36:16
Speaker 3: they said, well, we say it's got a moderate car.
36:18
Speaker 3: Fights your car's not worth as much as one that
36:21
Speaker 3: doesn't have the word moderate on it. Yes, but you
36:23
Speaker 3: didn't pay me for that word right, Yeah, think about it. Yeah,
36:27
Speaker 3: I mean it's some lobby has got that through there,
36:31
Speaker 3: and whoever's listening to me out there, you might want
36:34
Speaker 3: to check because for forty dollars you can get a
36:38
Speaker 3: car fax RAN. You know, you can go on the
36:41
Speaker 3: computer and plug in your ven number and credit card
36:44
Speaker 3: and you'll have it. You'll have what it says on it.
36:47
Speaker 3: And if you don't know, you don't know.
36:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean what can you do? Right?
36:51
Speaker 2: And then people take that as and talking about car fights,
36:55
Speaker 2: you know, I don't. I'm basically ambivalent, you know. I
36:59
Speaker 2: mean I think that some circumstances you've brought up, it is.
37:03
Speaker 2: It can be beneficial when it reports factual information and
37:06
Speaker 2: it protects you, Like you mentioned, you had a situation
37:08
Speaker 2: earlier where it could have protected you. Maybe in that situation,
37:11
Speaker 2: that's great. But when the information is not guaranteed to
37:14
Speaker 2: be factual and you have all these other and you
37:15
Speaker 2: don't know the difference between terms, you know, the terms
37:19
Speaker 2: from like one state, like West Virginia has a different
37:22
Speaker 2: terminology for a type of loss to another state. I mean,
37:25
Speaker 2: these things are get lost in translation a little bit.
37:28
Speaker 3: Well, Jerry went across state lines and That's why I
37:31
Speaker 3: tell people I said, you know, deal with that local
37:33
Speaker 3: dealer somebody. You know. The wild wild West of the
37:37
Speaker 3: car business around here is Kentucky. You go down to
37:40
Speaker 3: Kentucky and buy a car, good luck, and it's like
37:43
Speaker 3: justify because I mean, you own it. It doesn't matter
37:46
Speaker 3: what you bought. They might tell you something, but Kentucky's
37:49
Speaker 3: the wild wild West.
37:51
Speaker 2: That's Larry Dawston. You want to give out your phone
37:52
Speaker 2: number for folks to give you.
37:53
Speaker 3: A call three oh four five four fives zero two eleven.
37:56
Speaker 2: Five four five zero two one one five four five
37:58
Speaker 2: zero two one one for Larry Dawson. He's still buys
38:01
Speaker 2: cars and he's back here once a month on five
38:02
Speaker 2: ADW CHS, The Voice of Charleston. Larry, Well, see you
38:05
Speaker 2: next time. Thanks so much for your time, Thank you
38:06
Speaker 2: for ving. Have a great day everyone listening to the station.
38:09
Speaker 2: Dave Island's up next with five eight Live and he'll
38:12
Speaker 2: be back this afternoon with Amanda Baron on midday. This afternoon,
38:16
Speaker 2: I'll be back with Dave weekly at three h six
38:18
Speaker 2: on Hotline. Have a gret day everyone. On five ADW CHS.
38:21
Speaker 2: We are the voice of Charleston. Fight ad WHSA. I'm
38:27
Speaker 2: Gonty six point five. Then Charnleston one O four point
38:29
Speaker 2: five Truss Lane dot WVRC Media Station. We're proud to
38:34
Speaker 2: live here too,