June 11, 2025 • 37 mins
Join longtime auto professional Larry Dawson as he shares decades of insight on buying, selling, and understanding the car market. Whether you’re navigating today’s used car values or thinking about your next vehicle, Larry brings a trusted, local perspective to help you make smart decisions. Now serving more as a consultant than a dealer, Larry is still your go-to expert—and remember, his trademark says it all: “We Buy Cars.” Reach Larry directly at (304) 545-0211.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:15):
The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight wcchs
it's employees or WVRC Media.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Twenty three minutes past the hour you're listening to as
the expert w SEHS, the Boys and Charleston, I'm doka
for thanks so much for tuning in on this Wednesday morning.
And it is a nice morning outside. As I was
driving into work this morning, the sun's out. You can
tell it's going to be a little bit of a
warm day out there. Nothing necessarily wrong with that. Larry
Dawson from Larry Dawson is in studio with us this morning.
(00:55):
He boughts cars and he is sitting right beside him
this morning. That means if you have any questions for Larry,
you can give us a call this morning. Three zero
four three four five fifty fifty eight three four five
fifty eight fifty eight. You can text over your questions
to three zero four nine three five five zero zero
eight Lara, How you doing this morning?
Speaker 4 (01:07):
I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine. If you are headed
towards Charleston out of Dunlol County, there is a backup
starts at cross Lanes and you'll get through it on
the other side of Institute. He caught me by the
surprise this morning, but mister Cooper texted me this morning
and had asked me a question. I was already up anyway,
(01:28):
so I just left a few minutes early, and fortunately
I did so. But if you are coming to Charleston,
there is looks like to me they're doing a bridge,
so they're swinging the left lane to the right lane
and the right lane to the media or to the burm.
So I don't know if that's very good presentation traffic report.
(01:50):
The other thing, did you see the moon last night? Oh?
Speaker 5 (01:52):
Man?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
I we went out to try to take a look,
and I think that if we would have waited a
little longer, I fell asleep.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
Unfortunately.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I think if we would have waited a little longer,
maybe it would have cleared off a little better for it,
because I heard that the people got some pretty good
views of it, but when we went out, it was
too cloudy.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
It's beautiful, and I did not, but I'm sure many
people did that. These cell phones have wonderful.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
It's amazing. I actually have a setting that's called like astrophotography,
like on my phone.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
So there was I'm sure a lot of pictures taken
and it was very, very pretty, and I think, but
just listing a little bit, I think that's not a
common occurrence. In other words, they called the strawberry Man.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Yeah, strawberry Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Speaking of strawberries, I got fresh strawberries out that's about
breakfast is out of my car, so I'll eat them
when I get back to my office.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Not to throw out an endorsement unwarranted, but just as
a strawberry lover, because I absolutely love strawberries. The South
Charleston farmers Market, I can't even remember the name of
the farmer now that does it, And I feel bad
for that, because I literally got the best strawberries I've had.
I used to pick strawberries in Michigan. They have a
bunch of strawberr farms up there and those strawberries are delicious.
(03:02):
These are the best strawberries I've had since then. They
are They were incredible. We ate two whole packages of
them this weekend. My kid ate them and my wife
ate them.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
I ate them. They were great.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Well, I bet you I visit that today because when
I leave, I hear I have a couple of stops
to pay for a couple of cars that I purchased,
and I had some paving done yesterday. Piece of real
estate I own. I've been waiting for quite some time
to have my go to contractor pave it. And you know,
(03:37):
we've talked about this for probably since I've been orn
is referrals and getting back and staying in contact. And
there's an academic I don't somebody's gonna have to set
me down and explain to me why you don't return
a text. I just don't know. It's so simple. And
(03:57):
on the other end, when you don't receive it from
what you think is someone that A you know or
B you're doing business with. I just could only imagine
the struggle that people has, and I see it because
so many people still contacts me about a question about
an automibile. I was telling Fred I said, I'm going
to do this until those questions quit coming in or
(04:20):
that need of someone helping them purchase or sell their car.
And I'm a very get back to you fella. Now
do I stay busy. I'm extremely busy though I'm really
not working. But yesterday I was handling a lot of
balls in the air. But I return my text, you know,
the other day, and it's a simple text. I mean
(04:40):
it's a simple request that mister Peyton has got a
secretary from Buffalo and I met her. Fact I call
her missus Buffalo, so we'll leave her name with that.
I mean, she's a lovely lady, been with mister Peyton
for a long time. She had a simple question dealing
with the car of a lost loved one. And you
can get on that Google or whatever you want to call.
(05:01):
But ors you could just simply call or text May
and I'm going to give you a legitimate, truthful, honest answer.
And if I can be any more informative or helpful,
I do it and it's free. I helped the gentleman
the other day. I don't know, I don't know how.
As a matter of fact, I should accounted before I
(05:22):
come on here, how many texts he and I exchanged
and how many days weeks changed to help him buy
a car here in town. And I end up buying
his car. And it resulted in two trips to Charleston,
one to look and one to buy, and probably a
week if baby two weeks worth of text helping him
(05:45):
find a car, landing on a car, hooking him up
with a salesperson at this particular dealership. And then he
started asking me about interest rates, and I really didn't
know exactly, but I've done this all my life and
I should told him. I said, you should be within
this number of percentage wise. Well I missed it by
(06:06):
point one, he tells me. And he says, you are
off by point one, not one point one. And I said,
we'll just go with it. In anyway, long story short,
he was able to buy his family a new vehicle,
and I purchased his car, allowed a store to sell
a car in his town, allowed him to sell me
(06:26):
his car because he was going to take that money
and maybe air marked for something else. Because when you
roll your car into a purchase, all your equity goes
into that car. That's not money you can spend. That's
if you sell to me you have that money, you
can I mean, you can vacate. The list goes on
(06:48):
and on and on from vacation to maybe you have
school supplies or school two issue that you don't want
to roll into that purchase. And I'm helping a guy
right now. And it started actually with a car recession
down to the marina and a lot of people calls me ld.
He said, hey, ld, walk over here, look at my truck.
And I looked at it, and he has a nice
(07:09):
truck and he said, I'm thinking about buying a new one.
I said, here, call this guy right here, he runs
his store. Call him and he did, and they weren't
able to maybe get on the same agreeable figure or
the trade in allowance. Well, the next week I kind
of asked him, I said, where's that new truck And
(07:30):
he said, well, we're a little bit off and he
he shared with me the numbers. Well I stopped in
there yesterday. Now I have no dog in this hunt
at all. And I walked in, walked up to him
and we got talking farming and brush hogs and this
and what and you know this and that, and I said, hey,
by the way, let me tell you where this gentleman's at.
(07:50):
If you can do this number, I believe you can
sell you him a truck. He looked at me, said yeah,
I can do that. I said, okay, I walked out.
I text my friend. I said, call him. You two
can get together. And and I said to the gentleman
and runs the store, I said, And by the way,
i'll buy as trade in. Let it flow through here
(08:11):
for tax credits. That you know, I'll pay more than
what you you were valuating at that and that way
it's a win win win. He said, we'll do that.
All that was free, you know, I don't I don't
charge for this and the and the nice thing about
it is, as I tell people, it's it's factual. You
(08:32):
don't have to google what I tell you, you know. In
other words, I have no other reason to be straight
up with you, try to help you in a way,
and then you know, maybe later down the road you'll
throw the dog a bone or you'll sell me a car. Now,
i'll make his story short. There was a gentleman come
in my store two weeks ago, and I kind of
(08:54):
recognized him, but I just didn't grasp it all all
at once. And because he was in there about two
months ago. He walks in, eyes actually just setting out.
I don't even know what I was doing. I was
just sitting there and he said, Larry, I want to
thank you. I said, well, okay for what he said.
(09:15):
You remember me. I come in here about two months
ago to sell you, and I believe it was his
daughter's car. Could be wife, could be granddaughter, I don't remember,
but he female was with him, and I'm thinking it
was his daughter. I was wanting to sell you the car.
And we sit here and talk to he said, a matter
of fact, we talked for about an hour, and you
said to me, you can probably take this car from
(09:37):
one end to the valley to the next. Because I
see you're going to do this, and you're going to
try to sell this car. I doubt you'll find more
than a five hundred dollars variation in offers. You might,
but probably not. And he said you are wrong in
that area. He said, you are the heist, right. He
said you were the heist. He said the guy down
(09:58):
the road and he pointed, unwell, I mention name the
dealer or the other in a Nitro was three thousand
dollars less than you, he says, And you took your
time and you spent an hour with us, he said.
Now I've done something else with a vehicle. He said.
I did not sell to a dealer here in the valley.
But he said, you took your time, and you shared,
(10:19):
and you sit in there and you talked and gave
me a lot of suggestions, he says, And I want
to thank you. I was blown away and I said, well,
thank you for coming.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Telling me, because at this point, this is highly unusual anyway,
because people almost never revisit some even when you get
good service, people very rarely revisit that as an effort
on their own part, you know, if they saw you
down the street and I'm like, oh, hey, you really
helped me out that one time. But to make it
a concentrated effort, you never see that.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
And this man told me, he said, Larry, I've been
by here twice, so.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
He wanted to make sure he see you.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
And I just was really taken back by He was
very sincere. Evidently I asked some information long to him,
allowed him to do what he was doing. It did
not happen here in the valley. He did shop that
car from one end to the other. He had a
negative equity. I understand his position. He was wanting to
lessen that negative equity the best he could because he
(11:15):
was going to have to supply the difference. You know,
I can understand that. And once again, I think it
was his daughter. So let's say it was you have
a daughter. Sure, you know as a father helping a
daughter or a father helping a loved one and so,
and you are going to be the one that ultimately
pays the difference, and so you do want the best.
And the three thousand dollars valuation was on the extreme.
(11:39):
But he did share with me that I was the
highest offer. And I rarely am one will sit there
and make an offer. I sit there and what I
do is talk, and because the last thing I want
to do is offend somebody. I bought a lady's car.
I don't know two months ago that I believe I
told this story. She was a ninety plus your years old.
(12:00):
Her son called me delicate situation, mom's aging. I had
a mother and age. I had to go through that
and I was able to buy the car. But as
he and I were sharing information, I said, look, I'm
just not going to make you an offer because you
might have a number in your head, and the last
thing I want to do is count your money. And
(12:21):
I will never count anybody's money. And what I'm saying is,
I'm not going to evaluate what you own. If you
want to share with me the proximity of what you're
looking for. If we are close, then we're going to
talk and I'm going to I'm going to try to
do what I can do to help you. But if
you got on that mister Google Internet, let me see
what my car's worth, and went to that far left column,
(12:43):
the extra clean column, and you zero in on that number,
and forget about all the rest, We're probably not I'm
probably not going to build buy your car, and I
doubt anyone else can be the person that buys your car.
You know, it's like the real estate. You look at
houses in your you live in Kenoss City, I believe
you look in Winfield area. We could probably find very
(13:05):
comparable square footage brick homes, vital side homes, two story homes,
and there's going to be a different evaluation because it's location, location, location, Well,
automobiles are region and what works in one area doesn't
work in other areas, and it is just an all
a guessing game, you know. It's it's no different from
(13:25):
taking your vehicle and putting out here on the fakebook
world and getting all the craziness that you're going to
go through. If you want to go through that, you
might if all the stars and moons lined up, you
might get that far left column number. But that's a
long shot, Dell.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
One thing that I read here recently that I kind
of put my memory banks to share the next time
we had to show, We'll take a break in night.
If you want to call in, you're more looking to
give it to call three zero four three four five
fifty to fifty eight. Three zero four three four five
fifty fifty to our number. You can give us a
call this morning if you want to talk to Larry
Dawson from my we By Cars. We By Cars four
three four five fifteen to fifty eight is our number
this morning, and you can give us a call. But
(14:05):
there was this the story that was shared that I
read about. I had no way to vet it, but
I thought that it was that it was close to
what we talk about a lot where I thought to
share it would be instructive to people because you never
know the situation you're in. And you've mentioned on this
program many times about sort of the rolling the dice
that you have when you when you put something like
(14:26):
on Facebook or something like that you're trying to sell
your car, and then somebody contacts you they want to.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
Sell your car. You don't really know who you're talking to.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
You know, maybe you trust the Facebook account, you know,
or the Instagram whatever it is. Maybe you trust that account,
but you don't really know who you're talking to. There
was a story that was shared a from a I
don't know a young lady, but a lady who was
looking to sell a car that she had and she
decided to go through I think it was Instagram to
put pictures of her car on there and then try
(14:54):
to sell it. And she got some responses and things
like that, and then she got an account that was
super aggressive responding to hers like I love that car.
It's like when my sister had or something, and I
really want to get it. I can't remember. There was
some story attached to it where this person not only
bid the highest, but they were also like really interested
in getting the car and was really easy to work
(15:15):
with to set up a date to you know, exchange
paperwork or whatever it might be. Anyway, long the long
not to get into details because they don't matter. What
ends up happening is when she shows up to do
this whole thing with the car or whatever. It was
an X that she had fled from who had catfished
her by creating an alternative account on Instagram because he
wasn't able to find her for years, and this was
(15:35):
the way that he caught her into a parking lot
and now nothing happened to her. Of course, I guess
I don't know what happened to resolve the situation, but
it scared the Jesus out of her, and it made
me think. I was like, man, that is exactly the
type of story that Larry cautions against all the time,
because you don't know who's on the other end of
that internet chat, you know. I mean, maybe it's the
person that you think it is, and they'll do the
transaction the way it should be, and maybe things will
(15:57):
go find I'm sure that's happened who knows how many
times in the history of transactions. But what I just
mentioned that happens too, And there's only one way that
you can keep that from happening has to do business
with people you know.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Well, yes, that is true, and one thing about it,
and I pride myself on this. If you text me
or you call me and I'm not in a position
to take that, I promise you that I'll get myself
in position if nothing else, to text you back or
(16:28):
call you back and say, look, I'm kind of covered
up here. Could I have an hour or two, but
I will respond, and I do. Once again, I don't
understand not respond, especially in business or friendship. You text
me this morning, I don't know. Was it five forty
five six o'clock? I mean, how long was it until
I responded?
Speaker 3 (16:47):
In fifteen twenty minutes something like that, maybe not even that.
I put my phone down knowing that you would respond
way before I needed to know the answer.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
That's how I was taught and I don't stray from that.
And you want to get I bought a farm implement
last week to addition to my implements at the farm.
And it is people's knows that I have a farm
that I work. Really are that long story short. I
(17:16):
went into a store, a big store, a great big
store that sells farm implements. I come out of there
with nothing but a price. I got no information. I
didn't know anything about a gearbox. I knew nothing. I
knew a price. So I went to my office. But
(17:37):
I'm going to give a shout out to Darren Griffith
at Tractor Pros right off the Saint Auban's accident. I
kind of know Darren, but I really don't know Darren
that well. I called Dre and I said, Darren Larry Dawson. Yes,
they took my call. I said, I'm looking at a
farm implement of brushaw I gave him a number. He said,
drive over. He said, pull up to the door. He said,
(18:00):
we'll get on my golf cart and i'll show it
to you. Well, it's not that far, so I did.
I received more information about brush hogs in fifteen minutes
that I had no idea. I mean, he showed me
the model, the gearbox, the blade, on and on. I
(18:22):
bought it. I never even asked the price until the end.
I wanted information, So when he gave me a price,
it was a better price than the store that I
had just left. But all I got out of that
other store was a price I got to walk through.
I mean, I got all the information, and so I
simply said, I said, when can you have this ready?
(18:44):
Because they have to put gear on the gearbox and
you just can't you and I just can't pick it up.
I mean it's going to be attached to a tractor
to put on a loading, whether you're going to be
an attractor or a trailer, whatever you're going to bring.
And he said this afternoon. Well, by that time the
next day it was at my farm, attached to Mi
Caboda and I was brush hogging. And it started with
(19:08):
simply just asking. I didn't ask the price. I wanted
some information. I got price at one place. So you
think that price is almighty, well take that price. Not
having information, it was valuable. I mean I learned so
much about a brush hog.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
You know what's kind of weird about that too. And
this memory comes from the Lord. It must be twenty
years ago now. But the owner of a business that
I used to manage had a hard time buying a
car one and he was extraordinarily wealthy, very very wealthy.
But he didn't act like it, or dressed like it
or anything else. In fact, I think he tried to
buy the car and he was wearing what he had
(19:46):
just dressed a deer down in he was covered in
blood and everything, you know, but he wanted a Porsche
of all things. But because he wasn't priced conscious when
he started talking to the people at the deal like
he just walked in one day, trust like, you know,
like a guy that just came from a deer so whatever.
But you know, he wasn't asking about how much does
this car costs? He was asking a bunch of other
questions about it, and nobody took him seriously. Nobody took
(20:08):
him seriously at the dealership. He like went to person
to person to person like talking to him about it,
and they just saw this guy, kind of messy looking
guy with like probably deer guts all over him or
mud or whatever.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
They're like, man, what is this crazy guy doing?
Speaker 3 (20:19):
He ended up walking across the street and buying I
forget what it was, a Jaguar or something I think
instead cash that day because he just wanted to buy
a car. And somebody lost out on that cell because
they just wentn't give him the time of day because
he didn't look the part and he wasn't price curious.
He wanted to know more about like the features of
the vehicle.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
You never know what a conversation, a return of a text,
a return of a phone call can lead you to.
And it is just once again, Carvey Payton's secretary. She
asked me in the information. It was very important to her.
I answered it, and maybe six weeks from now, six
(20:59):
years from now, somebody say they want it. She said, hey,
how about Larry Dawson, because I will respond. I will
get back to you. And that's probably where I get
most my leads is from frustration, because I do not
advertise there's no there's no there's Larry Dawson in Larry
Dawson's reputation. But I could do come on the show
(21:19):
and try to spread the word. I'm at three oh
four five four five o two eleven. I have had
that number since nineteen eighty nine, so it's a pretty
easy number if you have a question. I was driving
to Snowshoe and Jerry Waters. It calls in here quite often.
He called me and I had just an ounce of
(21:40):
signal and I realized it was Jerry. I pulled over
the side road because I knew before I got to
Craigsville I was going to drop the call. He had
a question about a title he was selling a motorcycle.
I pulled over and took my time and I said,
Jerry this, you know, I shared the information that I
had knowledge of about his situation, and back in the
(22:00):
car and kept on going. Well, I mean, I was
helping someone and once again I my services are free,
and in this day and time, it's hard to get
somebody's attention free.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
The one thing that you that you've really illustrated and
people could take a lot of, uh take a lot
away from this is the bread crumbs that you have
or let's i could call them more seeds that you
planned during your your your decades in business. You talk
about how your referrals or these these contacts are your
best referrals.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
Are the people that you.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Just have conversations with that remember you later, that come
back with you later. That is a I mean, obviously
it's a successful style of doing business. It's this way
the business always used to be done, and and and
you're kind of a holdout on that type of thing.
But think about even somebody that works very hard, like
somebody in the what we call the gig economy these days,
like say you're working as a.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
Driver for Uber and you delivery groceries.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Or something along those lines there there if if they're
if these businesses were were at the point where you
could trust where you could sow those seeds, Like if
you were a really good Uber driver or a really
good personal grocery shop or something like that, I could
conceivably see where that might work out in the future
for you, where you could plant those seeds, and you know,
people would be, hey, that this person does a great
job with this. The problem is is those businesses are
(23:15):
so transactional and so impersonal that nobody does it like that.
It's all a very generic you know, hey, George is
bringing your groceries. They like there's no contact involved with it.
A lot of the time you can opt out of
contact and you're like, hey, I don't want contact at all.
Just leave the stuff on my step and we're good.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
I mean, if I was the person doing the delivery,
driving and the different things like that, I would not
want that at all. I would want to talk to
the person, shake their hand. Hey, I made sure that
I put the eggs in this bag for you, so
they stay called, you know whatever, Like you want to
provide the service to maybe get that service down the
line and get better tips, so on and so forth.
Nobody thinks like that now. It's all very transactional in nature.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Well, all businesses was built from day one successful business
that's been around for decades and decades, which is a
WHS West Virginia Radio, the race, the family. The businesses
start with a foundation, and if you build your fan
(24:11):
foundation on sand, you're not gonna make it. You might
make it for a while, but you're not gonna make
it for the long haul.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
It's a great conversation we're having, as we do every
time that Larry Dawson is in studio, second Wednesday of
every month. Larry Dawson we buy cars. He buy cars,
not me. Larry Dawson's buys cars. If you have questions
for Larry and give us a call this morning. Three
zerre a four three four five fifty fifty eight. Three
zer a four three four five fifty fifty eight. You
can text thre es are four nine three five five
zero zero eight. When you take one break, We'll take
one break and be backward after this. You're listening to
Ask the Expert with Larry Dawson on five eight wchs
(24:39):
the Voice of Charleston.
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Speaker 8 (25:40):
According to Feeding America, over seven million seniors nationwide were
food insecure in twenty twenty two. West Virginia is no different.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Hi.
Speaker 8 (25:48):
I'm Jason, President and CEO of Union Mission Ministries. For
one hundred and thirteen years, Union Mission has focused on
helping people in need. Right now, our senior citizens need
our help. That is why Union is partnering with local
senior living facilities to get food delivered directly to those
in need. Will you help us reach more seniors? Visit
Union Mission dot com to learn more.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
You're listening to the Voice of Charleston five ed w
c HS. I'm del Cooper. Thanks for tuning in on
this Wednesday morning. Editor. At least this studio doesn't have
any windows, but when we came in this morning, it
looked like it was going to be a pretty nice date.
So hopefully that's going to maintain my gosh. Yeah, no,
wind doesn't here, No one doesn't here. It's a nice studio,
but there's no windows.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
I'm a mushroom. You know you just said something's right
and that you you said that we are talking off
the air about a relationship and business that I have
had and kind of sort of ended yesterday because of
non response and a new business did the job I
needed to die. Now, I won't bore the listening audience
(26:56):
with what that was. But Dell just said, you know
it the end of a relationship, and I didn't end it.
It ended a non response, but a new one got
started by me simply walking across the street with it
to a company that did exactly what I was trying
to get done and didn't know me from Adam. I said,
(27:17):
could you walk over and look at this and maybe
maybe why you guys are in this area? I could
have this paving done. They did never asked them a price.
I said, this is how I'd like to do it,
and by the way, how much is this We sat
and talked. Now out of courtesy, I called bout go
to that has done this work and basically got blown off.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
That's really something else, somebody that you've done business with
time and time and his father, Yeah, that's really something else.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
So the end of probably my relationship is the beginning
of another relationship because they were eager for new business.
This one assumed they had it and just kept kicking
me down the road.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
There is something strange that's happened, and I don't know
if it's because everybody got an attitude during COVID or
I don't know what the deal is with it. But
but there's something with entrepreneurs, with small business owners and
large ones. To believe me, the big places are terrible.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Now.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
There is no such thing as customer service anymore. It's
all it's all like a it's all like a Russian
nesting doll. Another level, another level. Never you never talked
to a natural person anymore. But even with smaller businesses,
which in which I love, don't get me wrong, But
in the past you could always assume that sort of
level of community, pride in providing service and things like that.
(28:41):
Something happened within the last eight years or something. There's
been this switch where customers have become adversaries. Right where
did this come from? Where your customer is your adversary?
Is it the review culture online? Or what is it?
Speaker 5 (28:54):
Why?
Speaker 4 (28:55):
What? I refuse to participate? Yes, yes, I'm still a
person at community. My language may and my words and
pronunciation may not be exactly proper. I wasn't an English scholar,
but I can get out to you what I need
to say, and I got ears that really most people
tell me, he said, bile, he can hear, and so
(29:17):
I can understand what you're telling me. Let me tell
you something. When you start texting, that can be perceived
in the wrong way. Oh yes, And if you blow
a text off and you don't answer, that gets received
a whole lot worse. So it's a whole lot better
is to if you need a talk, it's texting, because
this is how I do it. Could you please call me?
(29:38):
Can you take a call? Because at the time you
may not be able to take a call, and I
do that a lot if I need to speak to someone,
I said, could you take a call? First of all,
I'm being Curtis, and I'm asking if they can put
time to the sides that we can communicate and they
know the subject, because you know, I am who I am.
But you are right, and I saw it coming like
(29:58):
a freight train because I head relationships. I have been
a small business person. I started that store in eighty
seven and a semi retired in twenty three. I'm doing
this as a hobby. As I told Fred, I'm kind
of a nonprofit. I just don't want to go backwards.
You know, I'm just hanging out. I didn't want to
go home. I didn't want to expire, So I'm gonna
(30:19):
take it as serious as I did January fifteenth, nineteen
eighty seven, as they opened up. I mean, if if
you need something addressed and if I can help you,
I'm going to try to do so. And I expect
it the other way around, because I give it. Now.
If I was one sighted and I didn't give, if
(30:39):
I blew people off, then I could understand getting it back.
But unless than my cell phone's down or bottom of
the Canal river, you know, and I can't read the
text which Mike Wewndall put out there the other day.
Mike's a great guy. He's lou Wendell s. He dropped
his phone in the river, and he had he went
on Facebook and said, hey, I dropped my phone in
(31:00):
the river, so all yousally have tried to contact me.
I'm in the bottom of the canal. Oh my goodness,
wise move. You know. I'm not saying that never happened
to me, because it happened to me one time. You know,
I'm a boater. I live on the Canal River and
phones do.
Speaker 5 (31:15):
And gravity take some happen, things fall down.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
These phones can survive a lot more than the old phone.
Them old ones was just I mean, it was.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
Yeah, if you got it out of the water quick enough,
you could priace save it.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Yeah, but the canal is big river. But that's just
how I built it, and I expected on the return
because I give it, and i'll I'll be the last
man on this side of the fence, because that's just
the way that it's. It's in. It's in me. It's
(31:45):
it's a communication skill and it might be the only
skill I have. So I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna
keep it sharp. And I just do not know any
other way of doing it that other than you know,
communicating by talking, and you know you do text normally
starts out that way. It's just beyond me. How people
(32:05):
gets from that keyboard to sell their merchandise and going
to have people to come to their house gathering information
that is going to be put in some type of
web based memory system that could be hacked, and the
take is going to have their social security numbers. It's
going to have so much information they're very, very vulnerable.
(32:26):
I went to the old system when when the Stevens
bought my store, they bought the computer systems. All I'm
back to manual man Yell's. We used to call it
a piece of paper and a pencil. It goes in
a locked file cabinet. It's for me and my eyes only.
Unlessen somebody throws a brick through the window, grabs the file,
gab it and drags it out of there and wants
(32:47):
to go through all those files. You're not going to
get to me.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Well, you know, the great thing is you're in a
position where you can run your business exactly the way
you want to. And so you're able to do that
exactly the way you want to and to have everything
when print out. I mean that has to be empowered. Frankly,
I mean it allows you to create that environment exactly
the way you want to and you don't have to
deal with the shenanigans if you don't want to.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
When I'm talking one on one with someone, they know
that there is no one behind the curtain. You know,
this is this is the value. I drove way out Milton,
out some road. Met a guy that I bought a
truck from. I guess two or three years ago. I
kind of remember him, maybe barely. He had another truck
(33:28):
for sale. We sit here and talk for a long time,
and we got within five hundred dollars. I said, well,
look I'm trying to be fair with you, but this
is this, this is my valuation the vehicle, and if
you want to sell, you have my cell phone number.
Call me. I'll come back out roll by check, we'll
get the vehicle. Never heard from him. Now he may
(33:48):
got his other five hundred dollars, and good for him.
I understand that I bought it. If I run into
him to mark Abella's almost say hey, how you been
and talk to him. I'm not mad. But we communicated.
We didn't we leave each other, and we didn't ghost
each other. We sit there and talked, and I gave
him a suggestion. I said, if you want my offer,
(34:09):
just call me. Well, evidently he he may a not
sold it. Matter of fact, I asked the person referred
him to me if he sold it, and he said,
I don't think so. So I don't know. But I'm
not mad. I'm not upset. I mean, this is part
of doing business. Because there was a good conversation and
it was a sharing evaluations. It just wasn't the same,
(34:31):
and that happens, but you can't it's going back to
the old tractor implement. It was more than a price.
It was a service. And when when Darren took his
time attractor pros. That is the last set off I
want to give. They did a wonderful job, did everything
and was so informative, so informative because I learned things
(34:53):
about brush hogs that I thought I knew that I
didn't know. And there's these things called slip clutches. The
old ones I had bolts, and if you hit a stump,
it sheared that pin that bolt, and so you had
to go get a new bolt. Well, they got these
slip clutches in them. Now that keeps you from Hampton
climb off your tractor. Go get a bolt, a sheer
bolt or sheer pin, whatever you're gonna call it. I mean,
(35:14):
I didn't know that. I was old school, right, so
you know, but now I'm no expert. I only heard
what he said and I tried to retain most of it,
but it was uh and it wasn't. Once again, it
wasn't the selling factor of it as the information. The
sale came after, you know, I just said how much
is it? And an hour or later I took dare
in a check and a day later my younger brother
(35:36):
brought the trailer and picked it up. And I'm brushogging.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
It really is something when you go that extra step
and when you're able to do that and you've really
carved out to this ability for you to be able
to to help people as you see fit and also
to fit situations that you know that that are resolvable,
you know, because some situations just aren't resolvable. And when
you're employed the way Larry Dawson's Auto seals were some
of those, you have to go through a process before
you could arrive to the conclusion that it's unresolvable, and
(36:04):
you know you have to do what you have to do,
but it might spin your wheel a little bit. You
can now be just like, hey man, that's unresolvable. You
don't have to go through that process, which is kind
of nice.
Speaker 4 (36:11):
That's true. And when I get to an impass I'll
simply politely walk away and said, what we're We're not
going to be able to get together. I'm not going
to ghost you. You know, I'm not gonna tell you
something then never get back or you never take your call.
But it's your evaluation, my evaluation. We are too far apart,
right and I'm not saying you're wrong. Maybe I'm wrong.
(36:32):
Let me just take for argument sake, I am wrong.
See if you can go get that. But if by
chance you find that maybe you are too far, you
can come back. The door's never closed, you know, it's
just for right now, we're not going to continue on.
Speaker 5 (36:47):
Yeah, that's good information.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
As always with Larry Dawson from larr Dawson's autos were
from We Buy Cars.
Speaker 5 (36:51):
Larry Dawston from We Buy Cars is.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
A be wrapping up the conversation right now and Larry
will be back here on the second Wednesday of July.
Speaker 5 (36:59):
Which will be next my Larry, thank you so much
for your time this morning. Appreciate it. As always.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Dave Allen with five eighty Lives up next with a
special show about the passing of Doug scaff You want
to tune in for that.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
That's coming up next on five ADWC. Just the Voice
of Charles
Unlock your dream property with Meek's Realty Group, where Rich
the realtor makes real estate dreams a reality, whether it's
residential or commercial. We've got Charleston to Huntington covered. Your
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Realty Group. Contact us at Meeks dot us.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight wcchs
it's employees or WVRC Media.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Twenty three minutes past the hour you're listening to as
the expert w SEHS, the Boys and Charleston, I'm doka
for thanks so much for tuning in on this Wednesday morning.
And it is a nice morning outside. As I was
driving into work this morning, the sun's out. You can
tell it's going to be a little bit of a
warm day out there. Nothing necessarily wrong with that. Larry
Dawson from Larry Dawson is in studio with us this morning.
(00:55):
He boughts cars and he is sitting right beside him
this morning. That means if you have any questions for Larry,
you can give us a call this morning. Three zero
four three four five fifty fifty eight three four five
fifty eight fifty eight. You can text over your questions
to three zero four nine three five five zero zero
eight Lara, How you doing this morning?
Speaker 4 (01:07):
I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine. If you are headed
towards Charleston out of Dunlol County, there is a backup
starts at cross Lanes and you'll get through it on
the other side of Institute. He caught me by the
surprise this morning, but mister Cooper texted me this morning
and had asked me a question. I was already up anyway,
(01:28):
so I just left a few minutes early, and fortunately
I did so. But if you are coming to Charleston,
there is looks like to me they're doing a bridge,
so they're swinging the left lane to the right lane
and the right lane to the media or to the burm.
So I don't know if that's very good presentation traffic report.
(01:50):
The other thing, did you see the moon last night? Oh?
Speaker 5 (01:52):
Man?
Speaker 3 (01:53):
I we went out to try to take a look,
and I think that if we would have waited a
little longer, I fell asleep.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
Unfortunately.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
I think if we would have waited a little longer,
maybe it would have cleared off a little better for it,
because I heard that the people got some pretty good
views of it, but when we went out, it was
too cloudy.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
It's beautiful, and I did not, but I'm sure many
people did that. These cell phones have wonderful.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
It's amazing. I actually have a setting that's called like astrophotography,
like on my phone.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
So there was I'm sure a lot of pictures taken
and it was very, very pretty, and I think, but
just listing a little bit, I think that's not a
common occurrence. In other words, they called the strawberry Man.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Yeah, strawberry Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Speaking of strawberries, I got fresh strawberries out that's about
breakfast is out of my car, so I'll eat them
when I get back to my office.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Not to throw out an endorsement unwarranted, but just as
a strawberry lover, because I absolutely love strawberries. The South
Charleston farmers Market, I can't even remember the name of
the farmer now that does it, And I feel bad
for that, because I literally got the best strawberries I've had.
I used to pick strawberries in Michigan. They have a
bunch of strawberr farms up there and those strawberries are delicious.
(03:02):
These are the best strawberries I've had since then. They
are They were incredible. We ate two whole packages of
them this weekend. My kid ate them and my wife
ate them.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
I ate them. They were great.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Well, I bet you I visit that today because when
I leave, I hear I have a couple of stops
to pay for a couple of cars that I purchased,
and I had some paving done yesterday. Piece of real
estate I own. I've been waiting for quite some time
to have my go to contractor pave it. And you know,
(03:37):
we've talked about this for probably since I've been orn
is referrals and getting back and staying in contact. And
there's an academic I don't somebody's gonna have to set
me down and explain to me why you don't return
a text. I just don't know. It's so simple. And
(03:57):
on the other end, when you don't receive it from
what you think is someone that A you know or
B you're doing business with. I just could only imagine
the struggle that people has, and I see it because
so many people still contacts me about a question about
an automibile. I was telling Fred I said, I'm going
to do this until those questions quit coming in or
(04:20):
that need of someone helping them purchase or sell their car.
And I'm a very get back to you fella. Now
do I stay busy. I'm extremely busy though I'm really
not working. But yesterday I was handling a lot of
balls in the air. But I return my text, you know,
the other day, and it's a simple text. I mean
(04:40):
it's a simple request that mister Peyton has got a
secretary from Buffalo and I met her. Fact I call
her missus Buffalo, so we'll leave her name with that.
I mean, she's a lovely lady, been with mister Peyton
for a long time. She had a simple question dealing
with the car of a lost loved one. And you
can get on that Google or whatever you want to call.
(05:01):
But ors you could just simply call or text May
and I'm going to give you a legitimate, truthful, honest answer.
And if I can be any more informative or helpful,
I do it and it's free. I helped the gentleman
the other day. I don't know, I don't know how.
As a matter of fact, I should accounted before I
(05:22):
come on here, how many texts he and I exchanged
and how many days weeks changed to help him buy
a car here in town. And I end up buying
his car. And it resulted in two trips to Charleston,
one to look and one to buy, and probably a
week if baby two weeks worth of text helping him
(05:45):
find a car, landing on a car, hooking him up
with a salesperson at this particular dealership. And then he
started asking me about interest rates, and I really didn't
know exactly, but I've done this all my life and
I should told him. I said, you should be within
this number of percentage wise. Well I missed it by
(06:06):
point one, he tells me. And he says, you are
off by point one, not one point one. And I said,
we'll just go with it. In anyway, long story short,
he was able to buy his family a new vehicle,
and I purchased his car, allowed a store to sell
a car in his town, allowed him to sell me
(06:26):
his car because he was going to take that money
and maybe air marked for something else. Because when you
roll your car into a purchase, all your equity goes
into that car. That's not money you can spend. That's
if you sell to me you have that money, you
can I mean, you can vacate. The list goes on
(06:48):
and on and on from vacation to maybe you have
school supplies or school two issue that you don't want
to roll into that purchase. And I'm helping a guy
right now. And it started actually with a car recession
down to the marina and a lot of people calls me ld.
He said, hey, ld, walk over here, look at my truck.
And I looked at it, and he has a nice
(07:09):
truck and he said, I'm thinking about buying a new one.
I said, here, call this guy right here, he runs
his store. Call him and he did, and they weren't
able to maybe get on the same agreeable figure or
the trade in allowance. Well, the next week I kind
of asked him, I said, where's that new truck And
(07:30):
he said, well, we're a little bit off and he
he shared with me the numbers. Well I stopped in
there yesterday. Now I have no dog in this hunt
at all. And I walked in, walked up to him
and we got talking farming and brush hogs and this
and what and you know this and that, and I said, hey,
by the way, let me tell you where this gentleman's at.
(07:50):
If you can do this number, I believe you can
sell you him a truck. He looked at me, said yeah,
I can do that. I said, okay, I walked out.
I text my friend. I said, call him. You two
can get together. And and I said to the gentleman
and runs the store, I said, And by the way,
i'll buy as trade in. Let it flow through here
(08:11):
for tax credits. That you know, I'll pay more than
what you you were valuating at that and that way
it's a win win win. He said, we'll do that.
All that was free, you know, I don't I don't
charge for this and the and the nice thing about
it is, as I tell people, it's it's factual. You
(08:32):
don't have to google what I tell you, you know. In
other words, I have no other reason to be straight
up with you, try to help you in a way,
and then you know, maybe later down the road you'll
throw the dog a bone or you'll sell me a car. Now,
i'll make his story short. There was a gentleman come
in my store two weeks ago, and I kind of
(08:54):
recognized him, but I just didn't grasp it all all
at once. And because he was in there about two
months ago. He walks in, eyes actually just setting out.
I don't even know what I was doing. I was
just sitting there and he said, Larry, I want to
thank you. I said, well, okay for what he said.
(09:15):
You remember me. I come in here about two months
ago to sell you, and I believe it was his
daughter's car. Could be wife, could be granddaughter, I don't remember,
but he female was with him, and I'm thinking it
was his daughter. I was wanting to sell you the car.
And we sit here and talk to he said, a matter
of fact, we talked for about an hour, and you
said to me, you can probably take this car from
(09:37):
one end to the valley to the next. Because I
see you're going to do this, and you're going to
try to sell this car. I doubt you'll find more
than a five hundred dollars variation in offers. You might,
but probably not. And he said you are wrong in
that area. He said, you are the heist, right. He
said you were the heist. He said the guy down
(09:58):
the road and he pointed, unwell, I mention name the
dealer or the other in a Nitro was three thousand
dollars less than you, he says, And you took your
time and you spent an hour with us, he said.
Now I've done something else with a vehicle. He said.
I did not sell to a dealer here in the valley.
But he said, you took your time, and you shared,
(10:19):
and you sit in there and you talked and gave
me a lot of suggestions, he says, And I want
to thank you. I was blown away and I said, well,
thank you for coming.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Telling me, because at this point, this is highly unusual anyway,
because people almost never revisit some even when you get
good service, people very rarely revisit that as an effort
on their own part, you know, if they saw you
down the street and I'm like, oh, hey, you really
helped me out that one time. But to make it
a concentrated effort, you never see that.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
And this man told me, he said, Larry, I've been
by here twice, so.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
He wanted to make sure he see you.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
And I just was really taken back by He was
very sincere. Evidently I asked some information long to him,
allowed him to do what he was doing. It did
not happen here in the valley. He did shop that
car from one end to the other. He had a
negative equity. I understand his position. He was wanting to
lessen that negative equity the best he could because he
(11:15):
was going to have to supply the difference. You know,
I can understand that. And once again, I think it
was his daughter. So let's say it was you have
a daughter. Sure, you know as a father helping a
daughter or a father helping a loved one and so,
and you are going to be the one that ultimately
pays the difference, and so you do want the best.
And the three thousand dollars valuation was on the extreme.
(11:39):
But he did share with me that I was the
highest offer. And I rarely am one will sit there
and make an offer. I sit there and what I
do is talk, and because the last thing I want
to do is offend somebody. I bought a lady's car.
I don't know two months ago that I believe I
told this story. She was a ninety plus your years old.
(12:00):
Her son called me delicate situation, mom's aging. I had
a mother and age. I had to go through that
and I was able to buy the car. But as
he and I were sharing information, I said, look, I'm
just not going to make you an offer because you
might have a number in your head, and the last
thing I want to do is count your money. And
(12:21):
I will never count anybody's money. And what I'm saying is,
I'm not going to evaluate what you own. If you
want to share with me the proximity of what you're
looking for. If we are close, then we're going to
talk and I'm going to I'm going to try to
do what I can do to help you. But if
you got on that mister Google Internet, let me see
what my car's worth, and went to that far left column,
(12:43):
the extra clean column, and you zero in on that number,
and forget about all the rest, We're probably not I'm
probably not going to build buy your car, and I
doubt anyone else can be the person that buys your car.
You know, it's like the real estate. You look at
houses in your you live in Kenoss City, I believe
you look in Winfield area. We could probably find very
(13:05):
comparable square footage brick homes, vital side homes, two story homes,
and there's going to be a different evaluation because it's location, location, location, Well,
automobiles are region and what works in one area doesn't
work in other areas, and it is just an all
a guessing game, you know. It's it's no different from
(13:25):
taking your vehicle and putting out here on the fakebook
world and getting all the craziness that you're going to
go through. If you want to go through that, you
might if all the stars and moons lined up, you
might get that far left column number. But that's a
long shot, Dell.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
One thing that I read here recently that I kind
of put my memory banks to share the next time
we had to show, We'll take a break in night.
If you want to call in, you're more looking to
give it to call three zero four three four five
fifty to fifty eight. Three zero four three four five
fifty fifty to our number. You can give us a
call this morning if you want to talk to Larry
Dawson from my we By Cars. We By Cars four
three four five fifteen to fifty eight is our number
this morning, and you can give us a call. But
(14:05):
there was this the story that was shared that I
read about. I had no way to vet it, but
I thought that it was that it was close to
what we talk about a lot where I thought to
share it would be instructive to people because you never
know the situation you're in. And you've mentioned on this
program many times about sort of the rolling the dice
that you have when you when you put something like
(14:26):
on Facebook or something like that you're trying to sell
your car, and then somebody contacts you they want to.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
Sell your car. You don't really know who you're talking to.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
You know, maybe you trust the Facebook account, you know,
or the Instagram whatever it is. Maybe you trust that account,
but you don't really know who you're talking to. There
was a story that was shared a from a I
don't know a young lady, but a lady who was
looking to sell a car that she had and she
decided to go through I think it was Instagram to
put pictures of her car on there and then try
(14:54):
to sell it. And she got some responses and things
like that, and then she got an account that was
super aggressive responding to hers like I love that car.
It's like when my sister had or something, and I
really want to get it. I can't remember. There was
some story attached to it where this person not only
bid the highest, but they were also like really interested
in getting the car and was really easy to work
(15:15):
with to set up a date to you know, exchange
paperwork or whatever it might be. Anyway, long the long
not to get into details because they don't matter. What
ends up happening is when she shows up to do
this whole thing with the car or whatever. It was
an X that she had fled from who had catfished
her by creating an alternative account on Instagram because he
wasn't able to find her for years, and this was
(15:35):
the way that he caught her into a parking lot
and now nothing happened to her. Of course, I guess
I don't know what happened to resolve the situation, but
it scared the Jesus out of her, and it made
me think. I was like, man, that is exactly the
type of story that Larry cautions against all the time,
because you don't know who's on the other end of
that internet chat, you know. I mean, maybe it's the
person that you think it is, and they'll do the
transaction the way it should be, and maybe things will
(15:57):
go find I'm sure that's happened who knows how many
times in the history of transactions. But what I just
mentioned that happens too, And there's only one way that
you can keep that from happening has to do business
with people you know.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Well, yes, that is true, and one thing about it,
and I pride myself on this. If you text me
or you call me and I'm not in a position
to take that, I promise you that I'll get myself
in position if nothing else, to text you back or
(16:28):
call you back and say, look, I'm kind of covered
up here. Could I have an hour or two, but
I will respond, and I do. Once again, I don't
understand not respond, especially in business or friendship. You text
me this morning, I don't know. Was it five forty
five six o'clock? I mean, how long was it until
I responded?
Speaker 3 (16:47):
In fifteen twenty minutes something like that, maybe not even that.
I put my phone down knowing that you would respond
way before I needed to know the answer.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
That's how I was taught and I don't stray from that.
And you want to get I bought a farm implement
last week to addition to my implements at the farm.
And it is people's knows that I have a farm
that I work. Really are that long story short. I
(17:16):
went into a store, a big store, a great big
store that sells farm implements. I come out of there
with nothing but a price. I got no information. I
didn't know anything about a gearbox. I knew nothing. I
knew a price. So I went to my office. But
(17:37):
I'm going to give a shout out to Darren Griffith
at Tractor Pros right off the Saint Auban's accident. I
kind of know Darren, but I really don't know Darren
that well. I called Dre and I said, Darren Larry Dawson. Yes,
they took my call. I said, I'm looking at a
farm implement of brushaw I gave him a number. He said,
drive over. He said, pull up to the door. He said,
(18:00):
we'll get on my golf cart and i'll show it
to you. Well, it's not that far, so I did.
I received more information about brush hogs in fifteen minutes
that I had no idea. I mean, he showed me
the model, the gearbox, the blade, on and on. I
(18:22):
bought it. I never even asked the price until the end.
I wanted information, So when he gave me a price,
it was a better price than the store that I
had just left. But all I got out of that
other store was a price I got to walk through.
I mean, I got all the information, and so I
simply said, I said, when can you have this ready?
(18:44):
Because they have to put gear on the gearbox and
you just can't you and I just can't pick it up.
I mean it's going to be attached to a tractor
to put on a loading, whether you're going to be
an attractor or a trailer, whatever you're going to bring.
And he said this afternoon. Well, by that time the
next day it was at my farm, attached to Mi
Caboda and I was brush hogging. And it started with
(19:08):
simply just asking. I didn't ask the price. I wanted
some information. I got price at one place. So you
think that price is almighty, well take that price. Not
having information, it was valuable. I mean I learned so
much about a brush hog.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
You know what's kind of weird about that too. And
this memory comes from the Lord. It must be twenty
years ago now. But the owner of a business that
I used to manage had a hard time buying a
car one and he was extraordinarily wealthy, very very wealthy.
But he didn't act like it, or dressed like it
or anything else. In fact, I think he tried to
buy the car and he was wearing what he had
(19:46):
just dressed a deer down in he was covered in
blood and everything, you know, but he wanted a Porsche
of all things. But because he wasn't priced conscious when
he started talking to the people at the deal like
he just walked in one day, trust like, you know,
like a guy that just came from a deer so whatever.
But you know, he wasn't asking about how much does
this car costs? He was asking a bunch of other
questions about it, and nobody took him seriously. Nobody took
(20:08):
him seriously at the dealership. He like went to person
to person to person like talking to him about it,
and they just saw this guy, kind of messy looking
guy with like probably deer guts all over him or
mud or whatever.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
They're like, man, what is this crazy guy doing?
Speaker 3 (20:19):
He ended up walking across the street and buying I
forget what it was, a Jaguar or something I think
instead cash that day because he just wanted to buy
a car. And somebody lost out on that cell because
they just wentn't give him the time of day because
he didn't look the part and he wasn't price curious.
He wanted to know more about like the features of
the vehicle.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
You never know what a conversation, a return of a text,
a return of a phone call can lead you to.
And it is just once again, Carvey Payton's secretary. She
asked me in the information. It was very important to her.
I answered it, and maybe six weeks from now, six
(20:59):
years from now, somebody say they want it. She said, hey,
how about Larry Dawson, because I will respond. I will
get back to you. And that's probably where I get
most my leads is from frustration, because I do not
advertise there's no there's no there's Larry Dawson in Larry
Dawson's reputation. But I could do come on the show
(21:19):
and try to spread the word. I'm at three oh
four five four five o two eleven. I have had
that number since nineteen eighty nine, so it's a pretty
easy number if you have a question. I was driving
to Snowshoe and Jerry Waters. It calls in here quite often.
He called me and I had just an ounce of
(21:40):
signal and I realized it was Jerry. I pulled over
the side road because I knew before I got to
Craigsville I was going to drop the call. He had
a question about a title he was selling a motorcycle.
I pulled over and took my time and I said,
Jerry this, you know, I shared the information that I
had knowledge of about his situation, and back in the
(22:00):
car and kept on going. Well, I mean, I was
helping someone and once again I my services are free,
and in this day and time, it's hard to get
somebody's attention free.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
The one thing that you that you've really illustrated and
people could take a lot of, uh take a lot
away from this is the bread crumbs that you have
or let's i could call them more seeds that you
planned during your your your decades in business. You talk
about how your referrals or these these contacts are your
best referrals.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
Are the people that you.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Just have conversations with that remember you later, that come
back with you later. That is a I mean, obviously
it's a successful style of doing business. It's this way
the business always used to be done, and and and
you're kind of a holdout on that type of thing.
But think about even somebody that works very hard, like
somebody in the what we call the gig economy these days,
like say you're working as a.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
Driver for Uber and you delivery groceries.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Or something along those lines there there if if they're
if these businesses were were at the point where you
could trust where you could sow those seeds, Like if
you were a really good Uber driver or a really
good personal grocery shop or something like that, I could
conceivably see where that might work out in the future
for you, where you could plant those seeds, and you know,
people would be, hey, that this person does a great
job with this. The problem is is those businesses are
(23:15):
so transactional and so impersonal that nobody does it like that.
It's all a very generic you know, hey, George is
bringing your groceries. They like there's no contact involved with it.
A lot of the time you can opt out of
contact and you're like, hey, I don't want contact at all.
Just leave the stuff on my step and we're good.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
I mean, if I was the person doing the delivery,
driving and the different things like that, I would not
want that at all. I would want to talk to
the person, shake their hand. Hey, I made sure that
I put the eggs in this bag for you, so
they stay called, you know whatever, Like you want to
provide the service to maybe get that service down the
line and get better tips, so on and so forth.
Nobody thinks like that now. It's all very transactional in nature.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Well, all businesses was built from day one successful business
that's been around for decades and decades, which is a
WHS West Virginia Radio, the race, the family. The businesses
start with a foundation, and if you build your fan
(24:11):
foundation on sand, you're not gonna make it. You might
make it for a while, but you're not gonna make
it for the long haul.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
It's a great conversation we're having, as we do every
time that Larry Dawson is in studio, second Wednesday of
every month. Larry Dawson we buy cars. He buy cars,
not me. Larry Dawson's buys cars. If you have questions
for Larry and give us a call this morning. Three
zerre a four three four five fifty fifty eight. Three
zer a four three four five fifty fifty eight. You
can text thre es are four nine three five five
zero zero eight. When you take one break, We'll take
one break and be backward after this. You're listening to
Ask the Expert with Larry Dawson on five eight wchs
(24:39):
the Voice of Charleston.
Speaker 6 (24:41):
They say roads are made for journeys, not destinations, and
now that I'm retired, I make a point to journey
as much as I can. But when night driving became
a challenge, my son and I decided it was time
for a doctor's visit to insure my safety behind the wheel.
I was worried, but instead of restrictions, we discuss solutions
to make sure I can continue on my journeys.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
Aging can alter how we drive.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Take charge of your safety and independence by evaluating your
driving skills regularly.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
Learn more at staysafewe dot com.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
This message is brought to you by the West Virginia
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Speaker 4 (25:48):
Hi.
Speaker 8 (25:48):
I'm Jason, President and CEO of Union Mission Ministries. For
one hundred and thirteen years, Union Mission has focused on
helping people in need. Right now, our senior citizens need
our help. That is why Union is partnering with local
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Speaker 3 (26:18):
You're listening to the Voice of Charleston five ed w
c HS. I'm del Cooper. Thanks for tuning in on
this Wednesday morning. Editor. At least this studio doesn't have
any windows, but when we came in this morning, it
looked like it was going to be a pretty nice date.
So hopefully that's going to maintain my gosh. Yeah, no,
wind doesn't here, No one doesn't here. It's a nice studio,
but there's no windows.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
I'm a mushroom. You know you just said something's right
and that you you said that we are talking off
the air about a relationship and business that I have
had and kind of sort of ended yesterday because of
non response and a new business did the job I
needed to die. Now, I won't bore the listening audience
(26:56):
with what that was. But Dell just said, you know
it the end of a relationship, and I didn't end it.
It ended a non response, but a new one got
started by me simply walking across the street with it
to a company that did exactly what I was trying
to get done and didn't know me from Adam. I said,
(27:17):
could you walk over and look at this and maybe
maybe why you guys are in this area? I could
have this paving done. They did never asked them a price.
I said, this is how I'd like to do it,
and by the way, how much is this We sat
and talked. Now out of courtesy, I called bout go
to that has done this work and basically got blown off.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
That's really something else, somebody that you've done business with
time and time and his father, Yeah, that's really something else.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
So the end of probably my relationship is the beginning
of another relationship because they were eager for new business.
This one assumed they had it and just kept kicking
me down the road.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
There is something strange that's happened, and I don't know
if it's because everybody got an attitude during COVID or
I don't know what the deal is with it. But
but there's something with entrepreneurs, with small business owners and
large ones. To believe me, the big places are terrible.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Now.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
There is no such thing as customer service anymore. It's
all it's all like a it's all like a Russian
nesting doll. Another level, another level. Never you never talked
to a natural person anymore. But even with smaller businesses,
which in which I love, don't get me wrong, But
in the past you could always assume that sort of
level of community, pride in providing service and things like that.
(28:41):
Something happened within the last eight years or something. There's
been this switch where customers have become adversaries. Right where
did this come from? Where your customer is your adversary?
Is it the review culture online? Or what is it?
Speaker 5 (28:54):
Why?
Speaker 4 (28:55):
What? I refuse to participate? Yes, yes, I'm still a
person at community. My language may and my words and
pronunciation may not be exactly proper. I wasn't an English scholar,
but I can get out to you what I need
to say, and I got ears that really most people
tell me, he said, bile, he can hear, and so
(29:17):
I can understand what you're telling me. Let me tell
you something. When you start texting, that can be perceived
in the wrong way. Oh yes, And if you blow
a text off and you don't answer, that gets received
a whole lot worse. So it's a whole lot better
is to if you need a talk, it's texting, because
this is how I do it. Could you please call me?
(29:38):
Can you take a call? Because at the time you
may not be able to take a call, and I
do that a lot if I need to speak to someone,
I said, could you take a call? First of all,
I'm being Curtis, and I'm asking if they can put
time to the sides that we can communicate and they
know the subject, because you know, I am who I am.
But you are right, and I saw it coming like
(29:58):
a freight train because I head relationships. I have been
a small business person. I started that store in eighty
seven and a semi retired in twenty three. I'm doing
this as a hobby. As I told Fred, I'm kind
of a nonprofit. I just don't want to go backwards.
You know, I'm just hanging out. I didn't want to
go home. I didn't want to expire, So I'm gonna
(30:19):
take it as serious as I did January fifteenth, nineteen
eighty seven, as they opened up. I mean, if if
you need something addressed and if I can help you,
I'm going to try to do so. And I expect
it the other way around, because I give it. Now.
If I was one sighted and I didn't give, if
(30:39):
I blew people off, then I could understand getting it back.
But unless than my cell phone's down or bottom of
the Canal river, you know, and I can't read the
text which Mike Wewndall put out there the other day.
Mike's a great guy. He's lou Wendell s. He dropped
his phone in the river, and he had he went
on Facebook and said, hey, I dropped my phone in
(31:00):
the river, so all yousally have tried to contact me.
I'm in the bottom of the canal. Oh my goodness,
wise move. You know. I'm not saying that never happened
to me, because it happened to me one time. You know,
I'm a boater. I live on the Canal River and
phones do.
Speaker 5 (31:15):
And gravity take some happen, things fall down.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
These phones can survive a lot more than the old phone.
Them old ones was just I mean, it was.
Speaker 5 (31:22):
Yeah, if you got it out of the water quick enough,
you could priace save it.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Yeah, but the canal is big river. But that's just
how I built it, and I expected on the return
because I give it, and i'll I'll be the last
man on this side of the fence, because that's just
the way that it's. It's in. It's in me. It's
(31:45):
it's a communication skill and it might be the only
skill I have. So I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna
keep it sharp. And I just do not know any
other way of doing it that other than you know,
communicating by talking, and you know you do text normally
starts out that way. It's just beyond me. How people
(32:05):
gets from that keyboard to sell their merchandise and going
to have people to come to their house gathering information
that is going to be put in some type of
web based memory system that could be hacked, and the
take is going to have their social security numbers. It's
going to have so much information they're very, very vulnerable.
(32:26):
I went to the old system when when the Stevens
bought my store, they bought the computer systems. All I'm
back to manual man Yell's. We used to call it
a piece of paper and a pencil. It goes in
a locked file cabinet. It's for me and my eyes only.
Unlessen somebody throws a brick through the window, grabs the file,
gab it and drags it out of there and wants
(32:47):
to go through all those files. You're not going to
get to me.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Well, you know, the great thing is you're in a
position where you can run your business exactly the way
you want to. And so you're able to do that
exactly the way you want to and to have everything
when print out. I mean that has to be empowered. Frankly,
I mean it allows you to create that environment exactly
the way you want to and you don't have to
deal with the shenanigans if you don't want to.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
When I'm talking one on one with someone, they know
that there is no one behind the curtain. You know,
this is this is the value. I drove way out Milton,
out some road. Met a guy that I bought a
truck from. I guess two or three years ago. I
kind of remember him, maybe barely. He had another truck
(33:28):
for sale. We sit here and talk for a long time,
and we got within five hundred dollars. I said, well,
look I'm trying to be fair with you, but this
is this, this is my valuation the vehicle, and if
you want to sell, you have my cell phone number.
Call me. I'll come back out roll by check, we'll
get the vehicle. Never heard from him. Now he may
(33:48):
got his other five hundred dollars, and good for him.
I understand that I bought it. If I run into
him to mark Abella's almost say hey, how you been
and talk to him. I'm not mad. But we communicated.
We didn't we leave each other, and we didn't ghost
each other. We sit there and talked, and I gave
him a suggestion. I said, if you want my offer,
(34:09):
just call me. Well, evidently he he may a not
sold it. Matter of fact, I asked the person referred
him to me if he sold it, and he said,
I don't think so. So I don't know. But I'm
not mad. I'm not upset. I mean, this is part
of doing business. Because there was a good conversation and
it was a sharing evaluations. It just wasn't the same,
(34:31):
and that happens, but you can't it's going back to
the old tractor implement. It was more than a price.
It was a service. And when when Darren took his
time attractor pros. That is the last set off I
want to give. They did a wonderful job, did everything
and was so informative, so informative because I learned things
(34:53):
about brush hogs that I thought I knew that I
didn't know. And there's these things called slip clutches. The
old ones I had bolts, and if you hit a stump,
it sheared that pin that bolt, and so you had
to go get a new bolt. Well, they got these
slip clutches in them. Now that keeps you from Hampton
climb off your tractor. Go get a bolt, a sheer
bolt or sheer pin, whatever you're gonna call it. I mean,
(35:14):
I didn't know that. I was old school, right, so
you know, but now I'm no expert. I only heard
what he said and I tried to retain most of it,
but it was uh and it wasn't. Once again, it
wasn't the selling factor of it as the information. The
sale came after, you know, I just said how much
is it? And an hour or later I took dare
in a check and a day later my younger brother
(35:36):
brought the trailer and picked it up. And I'm brushogging.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
It really is something when you go that extra step
and when you're able to do that and you've really
carved out to this ability for you to be able
to to help people as you see fit and also
to fit situations that you know that that are resolvable,
you know, because some situations just aren't resolvable. And when
you're employed the way Larry Dawson's Auto seals were some
of those, you have to go through a process before
you could arrive to the conclusion that it's unresolvable, and
(36:04):
you know you have to do what you have to do,
but it might spin your wheel a little bit. You
can now be just like, hey man, that's unresolvable. You
don't have to go through that process, which is kind
of nice.
Speaker 4 (36:11):
That's true. And when I get to an impass I'll
simply politely walk away and said, what we're We're not
going to be able to get together. I'm not going
to ghost you. You know, I'm not gonna tell you
something then never get back or you never take your call.
But it's your evaluation, my evaluation. We are too far apart,
right and I'm not saying you're wrong. Maybe I'm wrong.
(36:32):
Let me just take for argument sake, I am wrong.
See if you can go get that. But if by
chance you find that maybe you are too far, you
can come back. The door's never closed, you know, it's
just for right now, we're not going to continue on.
Speaker 5 (36:47):
Yeah, that's good information.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
As always with Larry Dawson from larr Dawson's autos were
from We Buy Cars.
Speaker 5 (36:51):
Larry Dawston from We Buy Cars is.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
A be wrapping up the conversation right now and Larry
will be back here on the second Wednesday of July.
Speaker 5 (36:59):
Which will be next my Larry, thank you so much
for your time this morning. Appreciate it. As always.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Dave Allen with five eighty Lives up next with a
special show about the passing of Doug scaff You want
to tune in for that.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
That's coming up next on five ADWC. Just the Voice
of Charles
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