September 10, 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 adwchs it's
employees or WVRC Media.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
It is twenty one minutes past eight o'clock.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
You're listening to ask the expert w SHS the Voice
of Charleston and welcoming in to the studio. Welcoming back
into the studio today. You hear about as much as
I am as Larry Dawson is with us this morning.
Speaker 5 (00:49):
How you doing this morning, Larry, Good morning, Good morning.
We're stepping up our music.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I like that you like that a little bit.
Speaker 6 (00:54):
Well, after two decades.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I know, I know, I it was.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I've told this story before, but I uh, it was
after moving into these studios where we actually have real
time monitors, because before I was doing everything by timing,
so I didn't actually hear the station I could just
watch what was happening, and so that's when I knew
how to come back from a commercial.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Break or whatever.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
But I very quickly got tired of our old theme
and stuff. So this was a little fresher, brighter. You know,
it makes me a little happier.
Speaker 6 (01:20):
I like it.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Thanks, that's good. That's good stuff.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Change is coming in just about all areas.
Speaker 6 (01:25):
It's you and I. We're talking about football before we.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
Came on the air. You know how that has changed.
But you have to decide somewhere in your life that
you have to step aside and let the change happen. Now,
whether it's good or bad, it doesn't matter one thing.
That my semi retirement years and I honestly I'm having
a blast. I kind of look back and go, you
(01:50):
should have did this little earlier. But with saying that,
I was determined enough to be that gratchyo guy that
was opiniated one of the it on fake book.
Speaker 6 (02:01):
And I'm just happy.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
And I enjoy what I do and what I'm doing
because it's what I used to do with no pressure
at a much smaller scale. And I know that with
my information that I've stored up over these years, It's
not opinionated.
Speaker 6 (02:20):
It's just I kind of know how.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
To bob and weave through the automobile world. And it's changed,
it's it's I won't say it's past me, but I'm
behind it.
Speaker 6 (02:31):
You know, to stay.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Current, you've got to stay current, and with technology is
moving so rapidly, and I saw that coming. I understand
my position in life, and I understand what I wanted
to do, and was step aside and let the new
generation take the automobile world over.
Speaker 6 (02:50):
And they're doing so.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
But I still wanted to play ball because the knowledge
that I had, even though they may have that keyboard
in front of them and a screen, they do not
have the worldly experience like I have had in the past.
By doing so and still retain and therefore I share
it with people that cause and ask information or they
(03:13):
want to sell a car. Yesterday and the day before,
I spent three or four or five text research a
little bit and a telephone call helping a friend of
mine in Florida that was wanting to purchase the pre
owned vehicle. Obviously not for me, because I'm not in
the car selling business. I'm in the car banking business.
Speaker 6 (03:32):
Now.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
At my speed and it seems to have worked well
with me mentally and physically allows me to get up
and do what I know best. But I'm still playing ball,
and it's been a very good eighteen months. At first,
it was a little difficult, you know, from being from
(03:55):
high gear down to medium speed. You know, I can
step out up if I want to. I don't get
myself in a position to do that. It seems like
maybe if I got to run here orun there. But
as far as going out and still buying cars and
receiving it seems to be more text today than cause
actually it's almost all text.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
But that's okay.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
It's a communication device, and I know most of the
time I'll spin it into a conversation because I think
I do better understanding your needs. Because words are just words.
You send somebody a text, it can be interpreted a
different way, and you might they might or you might misread,
(04:38):
or they might miss spell, or they might you know
sometimes as word check picks up and diverts what you're
actually trying to say or the text. And so I
found it better just call and say, hey, DLL, now
you're wanting trade, and now tell me what you're wanting
to do now do you want to sell your vehicle
(04:59):
or you got you know, do you have a different option?
And I found that that the information that I think
I passed along by at least the people tell me
by thanking me more than once say hey, I appreciate
that information. And by the way, yeah, I wanted to
sell you my car because you're right, I'm buying this
(05:20):
car out of state. And you know when you go
cross state purchases and then not that it's a bad thing,
and it does open up more and more inventory. I
tell people just slow down a little bit, and I
want to tell you a little I'm going to tell
you what happened to a friend of mine that bought
(05:41):
cross state. She bought a car out of state back
in the spring, and unfortunately it was in this hellstorm
that we experienced down in Tays Valley. I think one
of your I think Dave Allen maybe yes, as well
as everybody else. And she made an appointment to have
(06:02):
her vehicle repaired or the repair now that she bought
this car new, and the repair person that was working
in her car made comment to her that it had
been previously worked on for hell damage.
Speaker 6 (06:20):
She said, what, see, we car.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
Guys can see things that normally the public doesn't see
because that's not what they do. You know, land man
can see land, and the lawyer can see law and
the police officerly we see cars, and we know the
tall tale science. And I suggested, I said, well, why
(06:44):
don't you google that two or three days that all
of a sudden your car got delayed being sent to
you for a lot of different reasons than maybe the
real reason.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
And see what the weather conditions was in that town.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
See if there might have been a house to them,
like two or three days before they shipped you the car.
And guess what there was? No. Yeah, now here's this issue.
What do you do with the South state? Who's going
to chase that?
Speaker 6 (07:13):
Now? Maybe somebody will? I mean, was it ethical? Right?
Speaker 4 (07:18):
N I mean you might have to start it, like
the Attorney General's office at that state to even get
a start on something like that.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Get in line. Yeah, and then you come back.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
Was it told to you? You know, I mean the
obvious one of the other side? So well, remember we told.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
You right now, So there is real and could it
be buried somewhere in the paperwork that you didn't see?
Speaker 7 (07:41):
Right?
Speaker 5 (07:42):
That stack of paperwork looks like a encyclopedia.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Right, So you have like a disclosure in there somewhere
that you just signed not thinking about it.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Or it's one of those docu sites.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Yeah, there you go, right, you know.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
They just ship you, just hear you sign, and they
have now where you sign one signature. I'm gonna call
it an etch a sketchy hold it up and slide
all the paper down.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
But yeah, basically does all of them know?
Speaker 6 (08:03):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (08:03):
So I don't know. I'm not going to get involved.
I mean I have done some testimonial work in the past.
I have been asked not a lot, but and I've
thought about maybe getting in that because it was it
passed the time, produced some income and was interesting, you
know that when I was doing some work for attorneys
(08:26):
in town. But this situation, and that's what I try
to slow people down to. The lady that called me
from Florida was thinking about buying or light. So I
have the resource to look at comparative cells in history
of vehicles and I don't charge. Though it cost me,
(08:46):
I don't charge. I passed it along and I said,
this vehicle has been setting somewhere for two years and
has been only driven eighteen hundred miles. Now there's a
reason most people do not buy a car and drive
an eighteen hundred miles and put it back at for sale.
I said, I think it's been sitting in an inventory
(09:08):
of a dealer that maybe might be like Carvana. You
know that they do wild and crazy things. And I said,
you might want to go to the review column of
Carvana in read them, and I said, then make your
decision whether you want to go to the next.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
Step in purchaseing.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
There's some good blogs, but there's something that's pretty scary,
and the problem is is going across that state line.
Speaker 6 (09:34):
Yeah, and what do you do?
Speaker 5 (09:37):
And have you ever tried to call one of these
companies that's trying to sell you back after the fact,
I mean, try to cancel something that'script or a subscription
coming in your house.
Speaker 6 (09:50):
What's the same thing.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Yeah, you and I think we've talked about this before.
I'm convinced there is no customer service there. It's all
just chasing your telling until you give up. I don't
think there is any customers.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
If you're chasing price, that's what you're going to get,
you know. I am no longer the retail dealer in
Nitro Stevens Is and they operate different from the way
I did, and that's okay. We all have different ways.
I gave this analogy a couple months ago to a
friend of mine that was been out of the car
(10:20):
buying experience probably for the last well previous COVID, and
he called me said, man, he said, this going out
and buying cars today has changed. I said, well, it's changed.
I said, it's changed a lot. I said, it's kind
of like going to Myrtle Beach. I would say that
(10:40):
West Virginians probably go to west Or to Myrtle Beach
more than any other destination.
Speaker 6 (10:46):
Probably.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
I'm gone, I'm going to safely say that, and I'm
going to tell you that if you lined up ten
people goes to Myrtle Beach frequently, they're going to give
you about eight different routes.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Oh yeah, sure, yeah, and they'll argue that, right yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Well, if you do this, and then you can shave
off fifteen minutes there, and you avoid this place, and
this place is busy at three thirty, so you don't
want to go through there.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Yeah, but the destination doesn't change. You're still going to
Marble Beach. It's like going out and buying in that car.
There's eighteen different ways you can go by. The results
is you're going to own a car. The difficulty is
which path are you going to take? And I try
to tell people take the path of least resistance. If
(11:27):
you go to the dealership and you least get to
meet someone and kind of get to know their name,
and you know where their brick and water is, and
you know where their service department is, and if you
lay around there long enough, you'll probably.
Speaker 6 (11:40):
Get to meet the desk guy or.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
The sales manager or whatever term they use that politely
ask for their number. Also, politely ask for their cell
phone number. If that person doesn't want to give it
to you, you might want to choose a different direction
of be a female, be male, It doesn't matter. But
(12:04):
if you can get a contact, and then you can
slow it down a little bit and you get to
see the automobile. So what if it's a couple hundred
dollars more, do you know what that information you just
got in case there's a problem that's worth I mean tremendous.
Speaker 6 (12:21):
Amount of money. So that's what my advice is to people.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
I said, you'd really need to go fourteen states away
to get that vehicle, because I believe and listen, it's
a really really odd vehicle. And when I say odd,
there's really no scarcity in new inventory that I'm aware of.
There might be in an exotic line.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
I don't deal with exotic. I'm a kind of a
normal well I won't say normal. I'm kind of a
cookie cutter guy that you know. Everything that I had
dealt with all the years I was in business was
not way right, way left. It was kind of a
normal car. You bought a vehicle from you or down.
You saw what my inventory was, Well, that's my customer base.
(13:05):
So those are the now the people's calling me that
wants to sell their call.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
The one thing that really strikes me about what you
continue to do now that that and I was trying
to think of this. I think at another time we
were actually talking, and it reminds me of when you
have a like, say, before COVID, there was a small
little restaurant over next to your house that they didn't
advertise that they did pick up. But if you called him,
(13:30):
you've been going there long enough you could call him
and say, hey, I want to come over and pick
up whatever your favorite dinner is or whatever. They pack
it up for you and get it and every time
you got it was one hundred percent right, yes, perfect
every single time because they did it on a small scale.
They did it for you because your favor or a
regular or whatever it might be. They didn't advertise it
a lot, but if you went there a lot, they
would package it up for you and get it taken
care of whatever.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
It might be.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Completely perfect. COVID rose along, and you know, people to
stay in business had to incorporate doing more takeout and
different things like that. Perfect but nothing wrong with it.
It's the business plan that has to go. You have
to follow it along with it. So the same little
and pop place it's always done, or it hasn't really
done a lot of pickup orders now has to start
doing it as basically their main kind of business. Right,
(14:09):
So what happens when you start incorporating, so it's no
longer you're just picking up the phone and you're talking
to somebody that your neighbor that you know, and you're
doing the deal for them. You're getting it through all
these different apps. You're getting all these different things through
all these different apps. Suddenly you got people driving to
come pick it up, to take it to different places
and stuff like that. The service quality decreases and there's
nothing you can do about it. The volume gets higher,
(14:30):
the specialization of people request so no longer is it
somebody that has the same dinner that they ordered every
single time that you know how to do. Suddenly you
got to hold the cheese on this, you got to
put let us on this. It's on and on and
on and on and on and in. Your hit rate
gets much less, you know, the customer satisfaction rate gets
much less. And that's what happens when, like in your case,
(14:50):
when you start going over state lines, you have paperwork
that doesn't really work. These companies that we talk about
that people love the apps for and stuff like that,
it might work just fine. If you have the mo
basic transaction on the face of the planet, it might work.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
I don't know, I've never used them before, but maybe
it's okay. I don't know if it's the most basic
thing that ever happened. But the moment that there's anything
that requires any sort of attention, you're lost. You have
no way to contact anybody, You have no way to
do anything, and then whatever momentum that you had just
evaporates because there's nothing left, you have nothing to base
it off of. And that's a real unfortunate place to
sit at as a as a consumer, as a customer,
(15:26):
as a client, whoever you might be. And that's where
we all are right now. I mean we are kind
of living in that place.
Speaker 6 (15:32):
You're right. Do we have a phone call.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Let's go ahead and go to a phone call. See
if a caller you are an autocusta.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
We put your right on there. What's your first name?
Speaker 7 (15:41):
This is Judge Douglas, and I have a question there
from mister Dawson, if I may, of.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Course, Judge go ahead, gentlemen, Yes, sir.
Speaker 7 (15:47):
I had a questions. I've listened to everything you were
saying about the Alla state. I guess bonafidees dealing with
a car, but I recently was wondering whenever I was
looking at you know, I have a pension for Jaguars, yes,
but I was wondering, how reliable in your opinion if
(16:09):
you want to adventure one, is carfax or services akin
to that accurate? Or how much would you like on
what's regard to accident notations and or mileage. Well, if
you want to venture one.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
The mileage is normally connected with the last service that
was performed or in a vehicle. And what happens, Judge,
is and I've seen it throughout my career. Someone's busy,
someone takes a call, someone is writing another ticket, and
(16:45):
they transpost two figures and all of a sudden, your
vehicle goes to miles unknown.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
So what I share with.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
People, if you do any work where the malage is
written down, get a copy of that because in your case,
and when I say your case in ownership, you may
have to go back to prove that your maleage is correct.
So they only report what is giving to them and
(17:12):
they write into glossary. It doesn't say anything about being
factual now second of all, or the accident report. Let's
just say what I am seeing now. And this I
actually talked to my insurance agent because he's my friend
and he's going to see it more than I am.
It might be get it may very well have been litigated.
(17:33):
But when we had that helstorm around April the fifteenth
down in Day's Valley area, there was a lot of
damage done to vehicles. A lot of vehicles was repaired.
Carfax did not pick that up happening on April the fifteenth.
In other words, you have a vehicle that received ten
(17:54):
thousand dollars with a hell damage and got repaired or
made the twenty second, it may not hit Carfax until
July or August. And you've traded your car in and
they ran a Carfax and unless you share that information
with them, it is not on Carfax. Then you buy
the vehicle and you go to trade it two years
(18:15):
later and it comes up that has had moderate to
severe damage.
Speaker 7 (18:20):
Okay, Well one other thing I was worried. Yeah, I
hadn't thought about the hill damage. But one thing I
was trying to think about those cars that along the
coastal areas the hurricanes account and I've got to thinking, well,
that's on car facts. That's not really an accident. It's
you know, it's apparel, it's natural causes.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
Well, it's apparel. And during my years have experienced remember
Hurricane Katrina, I traded, I traded for a car. I
remember shortly thereafter when I say shortly thereafter, within a year,
and I'd never seen this on Carfax. Carfax out of
abundance of caution. Any car that was registered in that county,
(18:59):
what a county it was around in Louisiana and maybe
multiple counties that it would state that this vehicle was
in that county at the time of Hurricane Katrina. Now
it did not say it was involved in Hurricane Katrina.
But I love abundance of costume. That's what they were
putting on it. I remember the car because I did
(19:23):
more research. I thought, I have never seen this, Jim.
I've seen a lot of things that happens after the
fact that gets printed. Some of it's factual, some of
us not. But to go out and try to disprove
or prove it, it is sometimes a challenge because I've
came up on vehicles back in my buying days when
(19:45):
I was buying a lot of vehicles that I knew
it wasn't correct. Here's an example. I remember it comes
to me that we bought a vehicle that had air
bag deployment on the vehicle. I researched by found the
consumer and asked him, I SA, you know this car
that's telling me is that they said it wasn't my car,
it was the other car. Had a car had the
(20:06):
air bag employment. I had to go find a deputy
sheriff in that county. And this doesn't happen like within
a minute. I mean, this takes days and hours, you know,
of the day to do this to get a police report,
and he mistakenly put it on the wrong car. Car
Fax picks up six months later it's showing your car
with airbaged deployment. Your car did not have an air
(20:27):
bag deployment, but it's based upon information they received and
you have to gather up the proper information, send it
to car Facts with your narrative to get them to
take that off. And this doesn't happen overnight.
Speaker 7 (20:43):
Wow, I guess in one of the lessons is buy
a home by at home now minimize the.
Speaker 6 (20:48):
Chance you are correct. You are correct.
Speaker 7 (20:51):
Thank you so much. I always appreciate your depth of knowledge.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
We'll see you soon, Jim, thank you.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Appreciate Judge, thank you very much. Your phone call these
a phone line open for you three zero four three
four five fifty to fifty eight threes or a four
three four five fifty eight fifty eight if you'd like
to get on the line. Here, let's go ahead and
do this. We'll take our break. When we come back,
we can take your phone calls or answer more questions
more from Larry Dawson. When we come back, you're listening
to ask the expert. Larry Dawson is here this morning.
You can give us a call three zero four three
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(21:16):
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Speaker 4 (23:04):
You're listening to ask the expert of you shs the
voice of Charles and there Dawson and Studio with this
this morning. Take your phone calls. Anything to do with
the used car of business. Larry Dawson can help you out.
He still buys cars and he can help you out
with that. Gives a call. Three zero four three four
five fifty eight fifty eight. Three zero four three four
five fifty eight fifty eight. We've talked about this before.
In fact, I think you did a whole show when
at once. But the thing that still strikes me, and
I think you more or less taught me about this
(23:25):
one in Carvana or not carvanah, but Carfax. The crazy
thing about that is they've made themselves. This is a
private entity, a private company that has made itself an
intricate part of a vehicle transactions, and they are held
harmless from absolute everything. You cannot hold them responsible for anything.
The information's wrong, it's their fault. What you didn't get
(23:48):
it in time, it's their fault. It's something else, it's
somebody else's fault. Like it's the perfect business. It's seriously his.
Speaker 5 (23:54):
And it's not mandatory, right regulated.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It's not, but it sort of is because everybody expects it.
Speaker 7 (23:59):
Now.
Speaker 5 (23:59):
I mean in my business when I had the dealership.
We ran a car fax when we purchased a car,
and we kept the car fax, and then when we
sold a car, because of what we had experienced, we
would do an update that day before you left.
Speaker 6 (24:18):
And because it's time stamped.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
So let's just say I bought a car thirty days ago,
car fax was clean. We do our prep work and
once you have to be careful of if they don't
run a car fax right then there timestamped, something could
happen and pop up on thirty days. So you could
buy it on the premise that everything on the car
fax was good and that day it is. But when
(24:45):
you purchased the car, you want to get an updated one.
Have the dealer say I want one, not the one
in your file cabinet that's been laying there for two months.
I want one done right now, because that brings you
up to the other now if something happens after that.
In fact, it's the luck of the draw. I was
telling Dale off the air. Kim drives a twenty three
(25:10):
x three fifty. She was taking the grandkids home. I
don't know a year or two ago, a lady pulled
out in front of it. Was a thirty five mile
in our christ It wasn't devastating, but it cracked the headlights,
the hood, the grill, and the bottom face on the Lexus.
No fault of Kim's you know. Kevin and Dillispie built
(25:31):
did the repair work. Kevin, I think it's a magician.
He did a wonderful job. And it was almost insight
of Kevin's store. So we took it over and Kevin
repaired it and got it back well, just for curiosity.
A month or two later, I ran a car fights
from the Lexus. Moderate to severe damage was reported. Dropped
(25:52):
the valuation of that car that I owned ten thousand dollars. Wow,
because the word moderates severe. It was about twelve thousand
dollars worth of damage. Excellent job. Thirty five hundred apiece headlights,
so seven thousand of it was.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Headlight just a material.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
Yes, So the labor wasn't that much. I mean Kevin
popped two headlights and a grill and a hood orn
and spread the hood, so it was it was taking
off and replacing, but was replacing with valuable or ell
with expensive parts.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
That's that's the I just like those stories.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
They're so frustrating.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
I argued the point the State Farm, which was the
insurance from the other side, it was relentless and wouldn't
call me back, and I would call, I would call,
I would call and trying to.
Speaker 6 (26:42):
Lessen my loss.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
And it finally got to the point they won because
they wore me down. And you know, I did not
sell like she still has it, so I didn't.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
I did not take a.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Ten thousand dollars monetary hit as far as dollars and dollars,
but evaluation of the car. Now, over time that evaluations dropped.
I venture to say, I haven't done it. But if
I was to go out and scan that do a
market report, it's probably around five thousand, because with the
aging of the car, the severity of the drop in
(27:17):
valuation will drop. I tell people, I said, diminished value
is only if you go sell the car tomorrow, then yes,
you're probably going to get diminished value. But if you're
planning to keep the car, it's just the number on
a sheet. But now where I was arguing to point,
I was at the time a selling automobile dealer with inventory.
(27:37):
This was inventory. Yes I was allowing Kim to drive it,
but normally what I have done in the past in
my demos and Kim's demo was one year and then
flip them out.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
We need a color. You've called in. You're on with
Larry Dawson. What's your first name?
Speaker 10 (27:54):
Hi, guys, Jerry here, Jerry, Hello, Jerry. Well, I've told
this story before, but I want to add something to it.
Sometime around two thousand and three, I wanted a car
that could not be found in this area. Well, I
found a used one in Georgia. I used the car fax.
(28:15):
He it was clean. Drove all the way down there,
drove the car, and the steering seemed a little weird
to me, So I asked the dealer. Now, this was
a big dealer new cars and used cars, and he
told me that this was one of the new models,
that the faster you went, the more the steering tightened up. Well,
(28:41):
since this was somewhat of an exotic little car, I
believed me. I come home. I drive the car for
a couple of months, and that steering wasn't right. I
knew it wasn't right, So I took it to a
local shop here to have the front end the line
and take a look at it. They told me that
(29:04):
that front end had moved back about six inches in
a serious wreck. Now this is after I had checked Carfax,
which was clean on that car. Yes, all right, So
I went back like you did. I went back and
checked the Carfax again. Now there it is serious front
(29:25):
end damage on this car. So I called Carfax and
I talked to them about it, and they said, well,
you've got to read the fine print. At that time,
it said something about you know, we're not responsible for
the first thirty days or something like that. In other words,
that serious wreck had not been turned into Carfax until
(29:48):
after they sold that car. Now they knew that car
was wrecked, but they lied to me about it being wrecked.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
Well, it's the light time between the report in other words,
is there's not an in the sky that when the
accident happened and the accident repair was done, it was
the delay from the repair shop to Carfax, and then
it takes Carfax a period of time to report it.
And you're right, Jerry, that it happens every day.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
But that could happen by accident for people in good faith,
but also for people that outbreak and bad faith.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
You could weaponize that.
Speaker 6 (30:26):
Yes, yeah, there is, Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 10 (30:29):
All I can say, is carfax is a tool to
be used that period? Thank you?
Speaker 5 (30:38):
Yes, well, you know on the flip side, I mean
what Jerry's exactly right. I have bought cars that had
let's say, not the best car fax, but I knew
the story, or I had the repair bill, or I
had the repair bill such as hell damage. I bought
a GMC something something here of a couple of months ago.
(30:59):
I've never seen this done. It was in the healthstorm,
the April fifteenth helstorm. The gentleman, instead of having it
done paintless or dentless repair, replaced every panel on the
vehicle at a local dealership. The bill was sixteen fouls dollars.
I saw it, and then he traded it and it
(31:21):
hadn't hit Carfax yet, and then it hit Carfax. But
I researched found the gentleman explained my position. I said,
could I get a copy of that? Because it said
severe on the carfax. This was a sixteen thousand miles truck,
a very nice truck, but the words severe was on that.
(31:42):
Now you're looking at vehicle it says severe. You don't
know the story. I did more research on it and
I found it. But once again, I have time on
my side. That's why I think I'm doing such a
good job buying cars. And so many people comes to
me is that this isn't a job. This is a passion.
You know. I just have something to do. It allows
(32:03):
me to get up and have a reason to motivate.
And then at two o'clock in the afternoon, I go
to farm. But that's what I do.
Speaker 6 (32:11):
And and so.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
People are relying. They'll call me and I said, well,
let's slow down.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Let me hear.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
Well, they'll tax they text and I call them. I said,
can you take a call. Let's have a conversation, because
I want all the story, not your side. But it's
like the lady in Florida, I said, just call me.
Let's walk through this together. And I did research them
two vehicles for her. And I was with her boyfriend
(32:37):
feel on say, last night in a board meeting, and
I suspect she probably bought I find out I'm going
Florida for a birthday to the end of October.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
But she didn't know.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
I mean, I shared information. She had no idea, and
I said, well, let's look at this way. Her husband
or excuse me, or boyfriend's in the real estate business,
and trust me, I lean on him for information because
we're friends. Free and from I said, hey, what do
you think about this? But they come to me for
their automobiles, and I've also helped him sell I don't know.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
Two or three four cars.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
He just brought up to me and he said, hey,
can you sell this for me? And I said sure,
And we make it, We dispose, we make them go away.
Well where I think I do, where I see at.
I'm not for everybody, but I do a lot of
house calls. I do a lot of situations where it
gets real personal. Somebody's getting illed, somebody's passed, we've had
(33:30):
maybe a divorce in the family. They just don't want
to put all that out there. They want They don't
want to carve on a truck showing up the house
loading up Grandpa's car. They don't want it sitting on
the front line across the street tomorrow with a big
sign on it.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
You know.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
They just want private closure. They'll call I go to
the house. Mom's not doing well, day is not doing well.
We've lost, we've lost, you know, And I just go there.
They know me and they feel very comfortable. Actually, I
saved a text. I saved a text from gentlemen just
to show people. I don't put his name on it,
(34:07):
but I just kind of barely know him. But I
went to his mother's house. She moved here. She's ninish,
was not going to drive carbon sitting drive away for
a year. It was time I went through that. I
had a mother ninety four. I had to go through that.
I understand that that is very difficult. When you go
do that, the son or the daughter really doesn't want
(34:30):
to do that. So, you know, I think I have
the experience to go in and sit down and make
things as calm as can be. Yes, there's tears, and
trust me, I've seen tears. But it was time for
it to go away. You know, it's it's never easy.
It was not easy with my mother. It was not
easy with my father. My father died of glio of blastoma,
(34:51):
which is a brain cancer. He was not allowed to drive.
That was a difficult position, you know, your father, I
mean the man of the house. You say you can't drive,
no long That was a that was a battle but
we handled that. But it also taught me there was
a need out there. And and and I have passion
and if I if you call me, you're gonna you're
(35:11):
gonna figure that out real soon. Call me, then call
someone else and you'll call me back. Now, if you
type and text, you don't know my passion. You don't
even know my personality. So that's why I flip it
to a call and say, okay, Dale, tell me what's
going with mom. Your mother lives in Beaumont. I've learned
that with you. You know, one day you may call me.
Hope it never comes, but one day it may, and
(35:34):
that one on one goes a lot longer.
Speaker 6 (35:37):
And then let me tell you what else it does.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
It gives you repetitive business that because that's where I
have worked, and that's what I've always done.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Well, you deal with somewhere with dignity, and that word
travels and if they want to handle another situation with dignity,
and it goes on and on and on.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Yeah, I've long down Sleepy Hollow. I've belonged down there
since in ninety one. I've seen people that they get
a ill and pass away. I've had collaps down there,
but I get to call. I was over guy's house,
I don't know, a couple of years ago dear friend
lost his daughter. You know, he wanted to right and
(36:15):
he knew that I would come down, that would happen,
and he wouldn't see it down the street.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Well, I never even thought about something like that. That's
such an unfortunate situation to think of, But that's definitely
something that I mean, obviously, if you have a loved
one that you lose, you probably don't want to deal
with that now.
Speaker 6 (36:31):
You don't want to and you don't want to see
the car.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
Yeah right you and man, I can't even imagine a
situation where it's your child. I mean, you know, I mean,
it's not the first thing you think of in that
type of situation, but certainly something that could lead to
some emotional distress.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
And so that's a.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Way to handle that with a lot of dignity and
respect and not have to worry about it as much.
I think that's a great idea. I never even thought
of that before. Larry Dawson has been our guest this morning,
and these hours, these are forty minutes, go pretty quick.
When Larry's in here, I took a couple of phone call.
Appreciate that you can get ahold of Larry. Hisphone number
three zer a four five four five zero two one
one three zero four five four five zero two one.
Larry's back here once a month now and comes back
(37:08):
in and talks about the industry quite a bit. Appreciate
your time as always. We have yeah conversation, no.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
No problem at all. That's Larry Dawson.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
And here he buys cars, Larry Dawson's bus cars and
he's in here every month right here on five ADWCHS.
You can catch the podcast at WHS network dot com
slash expert if you want to see any of our
previous podcasts, including today's. In about an hour or so,
Dave Allan is up next. Follow about talk Line. I'll
be back this afternoon at three or six on Hotline
with Dave Weekly. Have a great day everyone listening to
five adw CHS. We are the voice of Charleston. Find
(37:43):
MEDWHS AM at six point five that's in Charleston.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
One oh four point five Cross Lane on WVRC Media Station.
Speaker 6 (37:51):
We're proud to live you too.
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 adwchs it's
employees or WVRC Media.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
It is twenty one minutes past eight o'clock.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
You're listening to ask the expert w SHS the Voice
of Charleston and welcoming in to the studio. Welcoming back
into the studio today. You hear about as much as
I am as Larry Dawson is with us this morning.
Speaker 5 (00:49):
How you doing this morning, Larry, Good morning, Good morning.
We're stepping up our music.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I like that you like that a little bit.
Speaker 6 (00:54):
Well, after two decades.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I know, I know, I it was.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I've told this story before, but I uh, it was
after moving into these studios where we actually have real
time monitors, because before I was doing everything by timing,
so I didn't actually hear the station I could just
watch what was happening, and so that's when I knew
how to come back from a commercial.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Break or whatever.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
But I very quickly got tired of our old theme
and stuff. So this was a little fresher, brighter. You know,
it makes me a little happier.
Speaker 6 (01:20):
I like it.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Thanks, that's good. That's good stuff.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Change is coming in just about all areas.
Speaker 6 (01:25):
It's you and I. We're talking about football before we.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
Came on the air. You know how that has changed.
But you have to decide somewhere in your life that
you have to step aside and let the change happen. Now,
whether it's good or bad, it doesn't matter one thing.
That my semi retirement years and I honestly I'm having
a blast. I kind of look back and go, you
(01:50):
should have did this little earlier. But with saying that,
I was determined enough to be that gratchyo guy that
was opiniated one of the it on fake book.
Speaker 6 (02:01):
And I'm just happy.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
And I enjoy what I do and what I'm doing
because it's what I used to do with no pressure
at a much smaller scale. And I know that with
my information that I've stored up over these years, It's
not opinionated.
Speaker 6 (02:20):
It's just I kind of know how.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
To bob and weave through the automobile world. And it's changed,
it's it's I won't say it's past me, but I'm
behind it.
Speaker 6 (02:31):
You know, to stay.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Current, you've got to stay current, and with technology is
moving so rapidly, and I saw that coming. I understand
my position in life, and I understand what I wanted
to do, and was step aside and let the new
generation take the automobile world over.
Speaker 6 (02:50):
And they're doing so.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
But I still wanted to play ball because the knowledge
that I had, even though they may have that keyboard
in front of them and a screen, they do not
have the worldly experience like I have had in the past.
By doing so and still retain and therefore I share
it with people that cause and ask information or they
(03:13):
want to sell a car. Yesterday and the day before,
I spent three or four or five text research a
little bit and a telephone call helping a friend of
mine in Florida that was wanting to purchase the pre
owned vehicle. Obviously not for me, because I'm not in
the car selling business. I'm in the car banking business.
Speaker 6 (03:32):
Now.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
At my speed and it seems to have worked well
with me mentally and physically allows me to get up
and do what I know best. But I'm still playing ball,
and it's been a very good eighteen months. At first,
it was a little difficult, you know, from being from
(03:55):
high gear down to medium speed. You know, I can
step out up if I want to. I don't get
myself in a position to do that. It seems like
maybe if I got to run here orun there. But
as far as going out and still buying cars and
receiving it seems to be more text today than cause
actually it's almost all text.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
But that's okay.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
It's a communication device, and I know most of the
time I'll spin it into a conversation because I think
I do better understanding your needs. Because words are just words.
You send somebody a text, it can be interpreted a
different way, and you might they might or you might misread,
(04:38):
or they might miss spell, or they might you know
sometimes as word check picks up and diverts what you're
actually trying to say or the text. And so I
found it better just call and say, hey, DLL, now
you're wanting trade, and now tell me what you're wanting
to do now do you want to sell your vehicle
(04:59):
or you got you know, do you have a different option?
And I found that that the information that I think
I passed along by at least the people tell me
by thanking me more than once say hey, I appreciate
that information. And by the way, yeah, I wanted to
sell you my car because you're right, I'm buying this
(05:20):
car out of state. And you know when you go
cross state purchases and then not that it's a bad thing,
and it does open up more and more inventory. I
tell people just slow down a little bit, and I
want to tell you a little I'm going to tell
you what happened to a friend of mine that bought
(05:41):
cross state. She bought a car out of state back
in the spring, and unfortunately it was in this hellstorm
that we experienced down in Tays Valley. I think one
of your I think Dave Allen maybe yes, as well
as everybody else. And she made an appointment to have
(06:02):
her vehicle repaired or the repair now that she bought
this car new, and the repair person that was working
in her car made comment to her that it had
been previously worked on for hell damage.
Speaker 6 (06:20):
She said, what, see, we car.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
Guys can see things that normally the public doesn't see
because that's not what they do. You know, land man
can see land, and the lawyer can see law and
the police officerly we see cars, and we know the
tall tale science. And I suggested, I said, well, why
(06:44):
don't you google that two or three days that all
of a sudden your car got delayed being sent to
you for a lot of different reasons than maybe the
real reason.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
And see what the weather conditions was in that town.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
See if there might have been a house to them,
like two or three days before they shipped you the car.
And guess what there was? No. Yeah, now here's this issue.
What do you do with the South state? Who's going
to chase that?
Speaker 6 (07:13):
Now? Maybe somebody will? I mean, was it ethical? Right?
Speaker 4 (07:18):
N I mean you might have to start it, like
the Attorney General's office at that state to even get
a start on something like that.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
Get in line. Yeah, and then you come back.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
Was it told to you? You know, I mean the
obvious one of the other side? So well, remember we told.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
You right now, So there is real and could it
be buried somewhere in the paperwork that you didn't see?
Speaker 7 (07:41):
Right?
Speaker 5 (07:42):
That stack of paperwork looks like a encyclopedia.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Right, So you have like a disclosure in there somewhere
that you just signed not thinking about it.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Or it's one of those docu sites.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Yeah, there you go, right, you know.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
They just ship you, just hear you sign, and they
have now where you sign one signature. I'm gonna call
it an etch a sketchy hold it up and slide
all the paper down.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
But yeah, basically does all of them know?
Speaker 6 (08:03):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (08:03):
So I don't know. I'm not going to get involved.
I mean I have done some testimonial work in the past.
I have been asked not a lot, but and I've
thought about maybe getting in that because it was it
passed the time, produced some income and was interesting, you
know that when I was doing some work for attorneys
(08:26):
in town. But this situation, and that's what I try
to slow people down to. The lady that called me
from Florida was thinking about buying or light. So I
have the resource to look at comparative cells in history
of vehicles and I don't charge. Though it cost me,
(08:46):
I don't charge. I passed it along and I said,
this vehicle has been setting somewhere for two years and
has been only driven eighteen hundred miles. Now there's a
reason most people do not buy a car and drive
an eighteen hundred miles and put it back at for sale.
I said, I think it's been sitting in an inventory
(09:08):
of a dealer that maybe might be like Carvana. You
know that they do wild and crazy things. And I said,
you might want to go to the review column of
Carvana in read them, and I said, then make your
decision whether you want to go to the next.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
Step in purchaseing.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
There's some good blogs, but there's something that's pretty scary,
and the problem is is going across that state line.
Speaker 6 (09:34):
Yeah, and what do you do?
Speaker 5 (09:37):
And have you ever tried to call one of these
companies that's trying to sell you back after the fact,
I mean, try to cancel something that'script or a subscription
coming in your house.
Speaker 6 (09:50):
What's the same thing.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Yeah, you and I think we've talked about this before.
I'm convinced there is no customer service there. It's all
just chasing your telling until you give up. I don't
think there is any customers.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
If you're chasing price, that's what you're going to get,
you know. I am no longer the retail dealer in
Nitro Stevens Is and they operate different from the way
I did, and that's okay. We all have different ways.
I gave this analogy a couple months ago to a
friend of mine that was been out of the car
(10:20):
buying experience probably for the last well previous COVID, and
he called me said, man, he said, this going out
and buying cars today has changed. I said, well, it's changed.
I said, it's changed a lot. I said, it's kind
of like going to Myrtle Beach. I would say that
(10:40):
West Virginians probably go to west Or to Myrtle Beach
more than any other destination.
Speaker 6 (10:46):
Probably.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
I'm gone, I'm going to safely say that, and I'm
going to tell you that if you lined up ten
people goes to Myrtle Beach frequently, they're going to give
you about eight different routes.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Oh yeah, sure, yeah, and they'll argue that, right yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Well, if you do this, and then you can shave
off fifteen minutes there, and you avoid this place, and
this place is busy at three thirty, so you don't
want to go through there.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Yeah, but the destination doesn't change. You're still going to
Marble Beach. It's like going out and buying in that car.
There's eighteen different ways you can go by. The results
is you're going to own a car. The difficulty is
which path are you going to take? And I try
to tell people take the path of least resistance. If
(11:27):
you go to the dealership and you least get to
meet someone and kind of get to know their name,
and you know where their brick and water is, and
you know where their service department is, and if you
lay around there long enough, you'll probably.
Speaker 6 (11:40):
Get to meet the desk guy or.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
The sales manager or whatever term they use that politely
ask for their number. Also, politely ask for their cell
phone number. If that person doesn't want to give it
to you, you might want to choose a different direction
of be a female, be male, It doesn't matter. But
(12:04):
if you can get a contact, and then you can
slow it down a little bit and you get to
see the automobile. So what if it's a couple hundred
dollars more, do you know what that information you just
got in case there's a problem that's worth I mean tremendous.
Speaker 6 (12:21):
Amount of money. So that's what my advice is to people.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
I said, you'd really need to go fourteen states away
to get that vehicle, because I believe and listen, it's
a really really odd vehicle. And when I say odd,
there's really no scarcity in new inventory that I'm aware of.
There might be in an exotic line.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
I don't deal with exotic. I'm a kind of a
normal well I won't say normal. I'm kind of a
cookie cutter guy that you know. Everything that I had
dealt with all the years I was in business was
not way right, way left. It was kind of a
normal car. You bought a vehicle from you or down.
You saw what my inventory was, Well, that's my customer base.
(13:05):
So those are the now the people's calling me that
wants to sell their call.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
The one thing that really strikes me about what you
continue to do now that that and I was trying
to think of this. I think at another time we
were actually talking, and it reminds me of when you
have a like, say, before COVID, there was a small
little restaurant over next to your house that they didn't
advertise that they did pick up. But if you called him,
(13:30):
you've been going there long enough you could call him
and say, hey, I want to come over and pick
up whatever your favorite dinner is or whatever. They pack
it up for you and get it and every time
you got it was one hundred percent right, yes, perfect
every single time because they did it on a small scale.
They did it for you because your favor or a
regular or whatever it might be. They didn't advertise it
a lot, but if you went there a lot, they
would package it up for you and get it taken
care of whatever.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
It might be.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Completely perfect. COVID rose along, and you know, people to
stay in business had to incorporate doing more takeout and
different things like that. Perfect but nothing wrong with it.
It's the business plan that has to go. You have
to follow it along with it. So the same little
and pop place it's always done, or it hasn't really
done a lot of pickup orders now has to start
doing it as basically their main kind of business. Right,
(14:09):
So what happens when you start incorporating, so it's no
longer you're just picking up the phone and you're talking
to somebody that your neighbor that you know, and you're
doing the deal for them. You're getting it through all
these different apps. You're getting all these different things through
all these different apps. Suddenly you got people driving to
come pick it up, to take it to different places
and stuff like that. The service quality decreases and there's
nothing you can do about it. The volume gets higher,
(14:30):
the specialization of people request so no longer is it
somebody that has the same dinner that they ordered every
single time that you know how to do. Suddenly you
got to hold the cheese on this, you got to
put let us on this. It's on and on and
on and on and on and in. Your hit rate
gets much less, you know, the customer satisfaction rate gets
much less. And that's what happens when, like in your case,
(14:50):
when you start going over state lines, you have paperwork
that doesn't really work. These companies that we talk about
that people love the apps for and stuff like that,
it might work just fine. If you have the mo
basic transaction on the face of the planet, it might work.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
I don't know, I've never used them before, but maybe
it's okay. I don't know if it's the most basic
thing that ever happened. But the moment that there's anything
that requires any sort of attention, you're lost. You have
no way to contact anybody, You have no way to
do anything, and then whatever momentum that you had just
evaporates because there's nothing left, you have nothing to base
it off of. And that's a real unfortunate place to
sit at as a as a consumer, as a customer,
(15:26):
as a client, whoever you might be. And that's where
we all are right now. I mean we are kind
of living in that place.
Speaker 6 (15:32):
You're right. Do we have a phone call.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Let's go ahead and go to a phone call. See
if a caller you are an autocusta.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
We put your right on there. What's your first name?
Speaker 7 (15:41):
This is Judge Douglas, and I have a question there
from mister Dawson, if I may, of.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Course, Judge go ahead, gentlemen, Yes, sir.
Speaker 7 (15:47):
I had a questions. I've listened to everything you were
saying about the Alla state. I guess bonafidees dealing with
a car, but I recently was wondering whenever I was
looking at you know, I have a pension for Jaguars, yes,
but I was wondering, how reliable in your opinion if
(16:09):
you want to adventure one, is carfax or services akin
to that accurate? Or how much would you like on
what's regard to accident notations and or mileage. Well, if
you want to venture one.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
The mileage is normally connected with the last service that
was performed or in a vehicle. And what happens, Judge,
is and I've seen it throughout my career. Someone's busy,
someone takes a call, someone is writing another ticket, and
(16:45):
they transpost two figures and all of a sudden, your
vehicle goes to miles unknown.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
So what I share with.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
People, if you do any work where the malage is
written down, get a copy of that because in your case,
and when I say your case in ownership, you may
have to go back to prove that your maleage is correct.
So they only report what is giving to them and
(17:12):
they write into glossary. It doesn't say anything about being
factual now second of all, or the accident report. Let's
just say what I am seeing now. And this I
actually talked to my insurance agent because he's my friend
and he's going to see it more than I am.
It might be get it may very well have been litigated.
(17:33):
But when we had that helstorm around April the fifteenth
down in Day's Valley area, there was a lot of
damage done to vehicles. A lot of vehicles was repaired.
Carfax did not pick that up happening on April the fifteenth.
In other words, you have a vehicle that received ten
(17:54):
thousand dollars with a hell damage and got repaired or
made the twenty second, it may not hit Carfax until
July or August. And you've traded your car in and
they ran a Carfax and unless you share that information
with them, it is not on Carfax. Then you buy
the vehicle and you go to trade it two years
(18:15):
later and it comes up that has had moderate to
severe damage.
Speaker 7 (18:20):
Okay, Well one other thing I was worried. Yeah, I
hadn't thought about the hill damage. But one thing I
was trying to think about those cars that along the
coastal areas the hurricanes account and I've got to thinking, well,
that's on car facts. That's not really an accident. It's
you know, it's apparel, it's natural causes.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
Well, it's apparel. And during my years have experienced remember
Hurricane Katrina, I traded, I traded for a car. I
remember shortly thereafter when I say shortly thereafter, within a year,
and I'd never seen this on Carfax. Carfax out of
abundance of caution. Any car that was registered in that county,
(18:59):
what a county it was around in Louisiana and maybe
multiple counties that it would state that this vehicle was
in that county at the time of Hurricane Katrina. Now
it did not say it was involved in Hurricane Katrina.
But I love abundance of costume. That's what they were
putting on it. I remember the car because I did
(19:23):
more research. I thought, I have never seen this, Jim.
I've seen a lot of things that happens after the
fact that gets printed. Some of it's factual, some of
us not. But to go out and try to disprove
or prove it, it is sometimes a challenge because I've
came up on vehicles back in my buying days when
(19:45):
I was buying a lot of vehicles that I knew
it wasn't correct. Here's an example. I remember it comes
to me that we bought a vehicle that had air
bag deployment on the vehicle. I researched by found the
consumer and asked him, I SA, you know this car
that's telling me is that they said it wasn't my car,
it was the other car. Had a car had the
(20:06):
air bag employment. I had to go find a deputy
sheriff in that county. And this doesn't happen like within
a minute. I mean, this takes days and hours, you know,
of the day to do this to get a police report,
and he mistakenly put it on the wrong car. Car
Fax picks up six months later it's showing your car
with airbaged deployment. Your car did not have an air
(20:27):
bag deployment, but it's based upon information they received and
you have to gather up the proper information, send it
to car Facts with your narrative to get them to
take that off. And this doesn't happen overnight.
Speaker 7 (20:43):
Wow, I guess in one of the lessons is buy
a home by at home now minimize the.
Speaker 6 (20:48):
Chance you are correct. You are correct.
Speaker 7 (20:51):
Thank you so much. I always appreciate your depth of knowledge.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
We'll see you soon, Jim, thank you.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Appreciate Judge, thank you very much. Your phone call these
a phone line open for you three zero four three
four five fifty to fifty eight threes or a four
three four five fifty eight fifty eight if you'd like
to get on the line. Here, let's go ahead and
do this. We'll take our break. When we come back,
we can take your phone calls or answer more questions
more from Larry Dawson. When we come back, you're listening
to ask the expert. Larry Dawson is here this morning.
You can give us a call three zero four three
four five fifty eight fifty eight three four five fifty
eight fifty eight. You can text three zero four non
(21:16):
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and be backward after this. You're listening to as the
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Speaker 4 (23:04):
You're listening to ask the expert of you shs the
voice of Charles and there Dawson and Studio with this
this morning. Take your phone calls. Anything to do with
the used car of business. Larry Dawson can help you out.
He still buys cars and he can help you out
with that. Gives a call. Three zero four three four
five fifty eight fifty eight. Three zero four three four
five fifty eight fifty eight. We've talked about this before.
In fact, I think you did a whole show when
at once. But the thing that still strikes me, and
I think you more or less taught me about this
(23:25):
one in Carvana or not carvanah, but Carfax. The crazy
thing about that is they've made themselves. This is a
private entity, a private company that has made itself an
intricate part of a vehicle transactions, and they are held
harmless from absolute everything. You cannot hold them responsible for anything.
The information's wrong, it's their fault. What you didn't get
(23:48):
it in time, it's their fault. It's something else, it's
somebody else's fault. Like it's the perfect business. It's seriously his.
Speaker 5 (23:54):
And it's not mandatory, right regulated.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It's not, but it sort of is because everybody expects it.
Speaker 7 (23:59):
Now.
Speaker 5 (23:59):
I mean in my business when I had the dealership.
We ran a car fax when we purchased a car,
and we kept the car fax, and then when we
sold a car, because of what we had experienced, we
would do an update that day before you left.
Speaker 6 (24:18):
And because it's time stamped.
Speaker 5 (24:20):
So let's just say I bought a car thirty days ago,
car fax was clean. We do our prep work and
once you have to be careful of if they don't
run a car fax right then there timestamped, something could
happen and pop up on thirty days. So you could
buy it on the premise that everything on the car
fax was good and that day it is. But when
(24:45):
you purchased the car, you want to get an updated one.
Have the dealer say I want one, not the one
in your file cabinet that's been laying there for two months.
I want one done right now, because that brings you
up to the other now if something happens after that.
In fact, it's the luck of the draw. I was
telling Dale off the air. Kim drives a twenty three
(25:10):
x three fifty. She was taking the grandkids home. I
don't know a year or two ago, a lady pulled
out in front of it. Was a thirty five mile
in our christ It wasn't devastating, but it cracked the headlights,
the hood, the grill, and the bottom face on the Lexus.
No fault of Kim's you know. Kevin and Dillispie built
(25:31):
did the repair work. Kevin, I think it's a magician.
He did a wonderful job. And it was almost insight
of Kevin's store. So we took it over and Kevin
repaired it and got it back well, just for curiosity.
A month or two later, I ran a car fights
from the Lexus. Moderate to severe damage was reported. Dropped
(25:52):
the valuation of that car that I owned ten thousand dollars. Wow,
because the word moderates severe. It was about twelve thousand
dollars worth of damage. Excellent job. Thirty five hundred apiece headlights,
so seven thousand of it was.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Headlight just a material.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
Yes, So the labor wasn't that much. I mean Kevin
popped two headlights and a grill and a hood orn
and spread the hood, so it was it was taking
off and replacing, but was replacing with valuable or ell
with expensive parts.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
That's that's the I just like those stories.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
They're so frustrating.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
I argued the point the State Farm, which was the
insurance from the other side, it was relentless and wouldn't
call me back, and I would call, I would call,
I would call and trying to.
Speaker 6 (26:42):
Lessen my loss.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
And it finally got to the point they won because
they wore me down. And you know, I did not
sell like she still has it, so I didn't.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
I did not take a.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
Ten thousand dollars monetary hit as far as dollars and dollars,
but evaluation of the car. Now, over time that evaluations dropped.
I venture to say, I haven't done it. But if
I was to go out and scan that do a
market report, it's probably around five thousand, because with the
aging of the car, the severity of the drop in
(27:17):
valuation will drop. I tell people, I said, diminished value
is only if you go sell the car tomorrow, then yes,
you're probably going to get diminished value. But if you're
planning to keep the car, it's just the number on
a sheet. But now where I was arguing to point,
I was at the time a selling automobile dealer with inventory.
(27:37):
This was inventory. Yes I was allowing Kim to drive it,
but normally what I have done in the past in
my demos and Kim's demo was one year and then
flip them out.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
We need a color. You've called in. You're on with
Larry Dawson. What's your first name?
Speaker 10 (27:54):
Hi, guys, Jerry here, Jerry, Hello, Jerry. Well, I've told
this story before, but I want to add something to it.
Sometime around two thousand and three, I wanted a car
that could not be found in this area. Well, I
found a used one in Georgia. I used the car fax.
(28:15):
He it was clean. Drove all the way down there,
drove the car, and the steering seemed a little weird
to me, So I asked the dealer. Now, this was
a big dealer new cars and used cars, and he
told me that this was one of the new models,
that the faster you went, the more the steering tightened up. Well,
(28:41):
since this was somewhat of an exotic little car, I
believed me. I come home. I drive the car for
a couple of months, and that steering wasn't right. I
knew it wasn't right, So I took it to a
local shop here to have the front end the line
and take a look at it. They told me that
(29:04):
that front end had moved back about six inches in
a serious wreck. Now this is after I had checked Carfax,
which was clean on that car. Yes, all right, So
I went back like you did. I went back and
checked the Carfax again. Now there it is serious front
(29:25):
end damage on this car. So I called Carfax and
I talked to them about it, and they said, well,
you've got to read the fine print. At that time,
it said something about you know, we're not responsible for
the first thirty days or something like that. In other words,
that serious wreck had not been turned into Carfax until
(29:48):
after they sold that car. Now they knew that car
was wrecked, but they lied to me about it being wrecked.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
Well, it's the light time between the report in other words,
is there's not an in the sky that when the
accident happened and the accident repair was done, it was
the delay from the repair shop to Carfax, and then
it takes Carfax a period of time to report it.
And you're right, Jerry, that it happens every day.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
But that could happen by accident for people in good faith,
but also for people that outbreak and bad faith.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
You could weaponize that.
Speaker 6 (30:26):
Yes, yeah, there is, Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 10 (30:29):
All I can say, is carfax is a tool to
be used that period? Thank you?
Speaker 5 (30:38):
Yes, well, you know on the flip side, I mean
what Jerry's exactly right. I have bought cars that had
let's say, not the best car fax, but I knew
the story, or I had the repair bill, or I
had the repair bill such as hell damage. I bought
a GMC something something here of a couple of months ago.
(30:59):
I've never seen this done. It was in the healthstorm,
the April fifteenth helstorm. The gentleman, instead of having it
done paintless or dentless repair, replaced every panel on the
vehicle at a local dealership. The bill was sixteen fouls dollars.
I saw it, and then he traded it and it
(31:21):
hadn't hit Carfax yet, and then it hit Carfax. But
I researched found the gentleman explained my position. I said,
could I get a copy of that? Because it said
severe on the carfax. This was a sixteen thousand miles truck,
a very nice truck, but the words severe was on that.
(31:42):
Now you're looking at vehicle it says severe. You don't
know the story. I did more research on it and
I found it. But once again, I have time on
my side. That's why I think I'm doing such a
good job buying cars. And so many people comes to
me is that this isn't a job. This is a passion.
You know. I just have something to do. It allows
(32:03):
me to get up and have a reason to motivate.
And then at two o'clock in the afternoon, I go
to farm. But that's what I do.
Speaker 6 (32:11):
And and so.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
People are relying. They'll call me and I said, well,
let's slow down.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Let me hear.
Speaker 5 (32:16):
Well, they'll tax they text and I call them. I said,
can you take a call. Let's have a conversation, because
I want all the story, not your side. But it's
like the lady in Florida, I said, just call me.
Let's walk through this together. And I did research them
two vehicles for her. And I was with her boyfriend
(32:37):
feel on say, last night in a board meeting, and
I suspect she probably bought I find out I'm going
Florida for a birthday to the end of October.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
But she didn't know.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
I mean, I shared information. She had no idea, and
I said, well, let's look at this way. Her husband
or excuse me, or boyfriend's in the real estate business,
and trust me, I lean on him for information because
we're friends. Free and from I said, hey, what do
you think about this? But they come to me for
their automobiles, and I've also helped him sell I don't know.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
Two or three four cars.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
He just brought up to me and he said, hey,
can you sell this for me? And I said sure,
And we make it, We dispose, we make them go away.
Well where I think I do, where I see at.
I'm not for everybody, but I do a lot of
house calls. I do a lot of situations where it
gets real personal. Somebody's getting illed, somebody's passed, we've had
(33:30):
maybe a divorce in the family. They just don't want
to put all that out there. They want They don't
want to carve on a truck showing up the house
loading up Grandpa's car. They don't want it sitting on
the front line across the street tomorrow with a big
sign on it.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
You know.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
They just want private closure. They'll call I go to
the house. Mom's not doing well, day is not doing well.
We've lost, we've lost, you know, And I just go there.
They know me and they feel very comfortable. Actually, I
saved a text. I saved a text from gentlemen just
to show people. I don't put his name on it,
(34:07):
but I just kind of barely know him. But I
went to his mother's house. She moved here. She's ninish,
was not going to drive carbon sitting drive away for
a year. It was time I went through that. I
had a mother ninety four. I had to go through that.
I understand that that is very difficult. When you go
do that, the son or the daughter really doesn't want
(34:30):
to do that. So, you know, I think I have
the experience to go in and sit down and make
things as calm as can be. Yes, there's tears, and
trust me, I've seen tears. But it was time for
it to go away. You know, it's it's never easy.
It was not easy with my mother. It was not
easy with my father. My father died of glio of blastoma,
(34:51):
which is a brain cancer. He was not allowed to drive.
That was a difficult position, you know, your father, I
mean the man of the house. You say you can't drive,
no long That was a that was a battle but
we handled that. But it also taught me there was
a need out there. And and and I have passion
and if I if you call me, you're gonna you're
(35:11):
gonna figure that out real soon. Call me, then call
someone else and you'll call me back. Now, if you
type and text, you don't know my passion. You don't
even know my personality. So that's why I flip it
to a call and say, okay, Dale, tell me what's
going with mom. Your mother lives in Beaumont. I've learned
that with you. You know, one day you may call me.
Hope it never comes, but one day it may, and
(35:34):
that one on one goes a lot longer.
Speaker 6 (35:37):
And then let me tell you what else it does.
Speaker 5 (35:39):
It gives you repetitive business that because that's where I
have worked, and that's what I've always done.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Well, you deal with somewhere with dignity, and that word
travels and if they want to handle another situation with dignity,
and it goes on and on and on.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Yeah, I've long down Sleepy Hollow. I've belonged down there
since in ninety one. I've seen people that they get
a ill and pass away. I've had collaps down there,
but I get to call. I was over guy's house,
I don't know, a couple of years ago dear friend
lost his daughter. You know, he wanted to right and
(36:15):
he knew that I would come down, that would happen,
and he wouldn't see it down the street.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
Well, I never even thought about something like that. That's
such an unfortunate situation to think of, But that's definitely
something that I mean, obviously, if you have a loved
one that you lose, you probably don't want to deal
with that now.
Speaker 6 (36:31):
You don't want to and you don't want to see
the car.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
Yeah right you and man, I can't even imagine a
situation where it's your child. I mean, you know, I mean,
it's not the first thing you think of in that
type of situation, but certainly something that could lead to
some emotional distress.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
And so that's a.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Way to handle that with a lot of dignity and
respect and not have to worry about it as much.
I think that's a great idea. I never even thought
of that before. Larry Dawson has been our guest this morning,
and these hours, these are forty minutes, go pretty quick.
When Larry's in here, I took a couple of phone call.
Appreciate that you can get ahold of Larry. Hisphone number
three zer a four five four five zero two one
one three zero four five four five zero two one.
Larry's back here once a month now and comes back
(37:08):
in and talks about the industry quite a bit. Appreciate
your time as always. We have yeah conversation, no.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
No problem at all. That's Larry Dawson.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
And here he buys cars, Larry Dawson's bus cars and
he's in here every month right here on five ADWCHS.
You can catch the podcast at WHS network dot com
slash expert if you want to see any of our
previous podcasts, including today's. In about an hour or so,
Dave Allan is up next. Follow about talk Line. I'll
be back this afternoon at three or six on Hotline
with Dave Weekly. Have a great day everyone listening to
five adw CHS. We are the voice of Charleston. Find
(37:43):
MEDWHS AM at six point five that's in Charleston.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
One oh four point five Cross Lane on WVRC Media Station.
Speaker 6 (37:51):
We're proud to live you too.
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