Trading Secrets - The Car Mom to the rescue! Kelly Stumpe reveals the secrets to buying, leasing, trading and financing your next car! The car industry unlocked!

Episode Date: July 24, 2023

This week, Jason is joined by social media personality, automotive expert and working mom of three, Kelly Stumpe aka the Car Mom! Kelly spent her entire life growing up in the dealership business and started her career off by selling BMW vehicles. After establishing early career success, Kelly began to think about ways to expand her experience to a larger audience and in 2020, she began blogging and advising everyday moms about the car buying process. She now has a new platform called The Car Mom.  Kelly gives insight to her passion for selling cars, what makes selling cars so different from other sales jobs, how car sales is different from real estate when it comes to commission, what consumers should be aware of when talking to the finance and insurance manager, and her concern over how slim used cars are going to be over the last few years. Kelly also reveals her best estimations for the minimums and maximum for different roles in a car dealership, the most surprising selling tactics, what stickers to look out for, the difference between a manufacturer’s rebate and a dealership discount, what goes into buying out a lease, and when you car takes huge depreciation hits. Which role is the toughest in a dealership?  What is an extended maintenance package?  What is the worst car buying advice she has ever heard? When is the best time to go to the dealership to buy a car? Is it best to buy new, lease new, or buy used? Kelly reveals all that and so much more in another episode you can’t afford to miss!  Host: Jason Tartick Co-Host: David Arduin Audio: Declan O’Connell Guest: Kelly Stumpe aka The Car Mom Stay connected with the Trading Secrets Podcast!  Instagram: @tradingsecretspodcast  Youtube: Trading Secrets Facebook: Join the Group All Access: Free 30-Day Trial  Trading Secrets Steals and Deals Athletic Greens:  Get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 Free Athletic Green Travel Packs with your first purchase at  drinkAG1.com/TRADINGSECRETS Whoop: To make it easier than ever to start, Trading Secrets has partnered with WHOOP to announced a new 30-day FREE trial. Go to join.whoop.com/tartick today to take advantage. Better Help:  Start today and get 10% off your first month https://betterhelp.com/tradingsecrets 

Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. I'm your host, Jason Tartick, and welcome to the pre-market trading segment. Our guest this week is one that is going to blow your mind. Her name is Kelly Stumpy. On social media, she's known as the car mom. Her family has been in the car business. for generations and generations, but she is bringing all the secrets, all the gossip, all the tricks and tips we need to know about the car industry to the consumer. The things that she

shares in this episode about the things that are happening behind the scenes to get us spending more and having our trade-ins valued at less. There is so much information in this episode you might honestly need a notepad. We talk all things cars from buying, from the makes and models that are good for families or based on what your situation is, all the way to what each person in a car dealership makes. And we actually start out with that. So the car mom is our guest. You are going to absolutely love her if you don't already know her. One thing I got to talk about, I want to make this intro short because it is a good episode. But this whole Barbie movie, I mean, this is crazy. If you've seen their marketing and how much they've spent, you know

they've put in some serious dollars into this Barbie reboot. There was a production cost of $145 million just for this movie. And then there was a massive extensive marketing campaign that literally touched all corners of entertainment. It was a wild gamble, but did it pay off? Recording this on Sunday, right before the episode dropped, and in just a couple days, the opening days, we have seen $70.5 million come in for this movie. Let's break it down by the day. Thursday's preview ticket sales topped anything that's been seen in 2023 so far over $22.2 million. On Friday, that momentum continued as they did an additional $48.2 million across 4,000 plus theaters. I read this surpassed the opening day earnings of Spider-Man

across the Spider-Verse that had around $51.8 million in June. So now the big question, question is the weekend numbers. Barbie is looking to claim the title of the biggest three-day debut in 2023. But there's one movie ahead of them. That's the Super Mario Bros movie, which they did over $146 million in three days. That was in April. So that information will come out. But I think I bring it up because we can learn a lot about what's happening here. Big dollars were spent behind marketing. Big dollars were spent behind all forms of digital marketing. And they're seeing the results. So I feel like every corner I turned, I was getting smashed in the face by the Barbie movie. I don't know if you felt that way. But if this worked, something tells me we will see this,

not just in movie releases, but in all businesses A to Z. So without further ado, I am going to get right into this episode because it is too good for me to take up any more time in the intro. We have the car mom on. Let's ring in the bell with the one and only Kelly Stumpy. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today, I am joined by social media personality, automotive expert in working mom of three, Kelly Stumpy, aka the karma. Kelly spent her entire life growing up in the dealership business and started her career off by selling BMW vehicles. I got one. We'll get into that. After establishing early career success, Kelly began to think about ways to expand her experience to a larger audience. And in 2020, she began blogging and advising everyday moms about

the car buying process. She now has the new platform called The Car Mom. If you are in the market for a car, buckle up, you're going to want to pay attention to this one. Her IG and YouTube channels have combined over 500,000 followers. Videos featuring comprehensive reviews of latest vehicles, including EVs, hybrids, SUVs, and more. We even see she has merch on. So we have so much to cover here, Kelly, from the car business. Thank you so much for being on Trading secrets. Thank you guys so much for having me. I am so excited to sit down and just kind of gossip about the auto industry with you. I think you do such a good job of making the finance content, fun, entertaining, and hopefully I can bring the car side. Yes. And that's kind of like what this is,

right? We're like gossip about what happens in the finance and business world behind the scenes. We then bring it to the forefront. So then the people out there buying and making decisions know all the good stuff behind the business. So I do think that's a perfect transition to where I want to kick this off because I'm just curious and maybe there are some people that are in the business or want to get in the business that are curious what others are making. So I'm going to play a little rapid fire game with you where I'm going to give you a title of a job that I have seen somewhere in a dealership. And I want just an estimation of what you think on the low end, all in they make on an annual basis and then the high end. And we'll just for people back home, we'll assume this is like

the Midwest somewhere. So let's start with this, car salesman, min, max, average, what do think? I would say min 30, max 200, mid-70. Okay. One follow-up I have on car salesman. Is it base salary plus a commission and is the commission greater than the base? Or how is it structured typically? Typically, it is 100% commission with a draw against commission. Wow. Okay. There you go. There's car salesman. Then there's the sales manager. That's the person the car salesman always goes to. We'll talk more about that sales manager, min, max average. Min 80, max 350, mid-2. Damn, okay.

3-50 might be a little high. There's like GM and sales managers. GM's probably up there. Sales managers probably lower. Because I have GM on here because I know. Oh, okay, okay, okay. So the next one, service tech. Okay, mid-50, max, 100, mid-80.

Interesting. We'll get back to that. General manager. A lot. A lot. Why is it that the general manager makes so much? You know, it depends on how the dealership structured. So what's interesting about my family's dealership is they don't have general managers. They have sales managers and then a sales director. So if I'm thinking about like what that sales director position does, if it's a multi-roof-roftop dealership group, sometimes they'll just

have like a general manager over several of the locations. So, you know, 150, 200, maybe 350. Could it go up from there? Like, you know, like an investment banking or at some different roles like there are some big people making tens of millions. Can there be the one GM that's making like seven figures? Yeah, for sure. I think so. Because a lot of them take on a lot of responsibilities like an owner would take on. And like it is a, I mean, almost every position in a dealership has some sort of like commission structure behind it. Okay. Interesting. Anything from like a BDC agent to you know, a service advisor to a finance manager. They're all, if the dealership's doing good, everyone's doing good. The last one I want to make sure we cover F&I, finance manager. What is

that look? Min max average. They do good. They do good. A lot of the times I know finance managers make more than a sales manager. So, you know, probably I would say min 80 max. Max probably 300, mid 200. No, 150. I mean, finance manager is a tough job. When you say tough, how so? They're the last one to leave the dealership. They have to do the most paperwork, but everyone hates them. And they have... This is the gossipy stuff we're talking about. I mean, we don't hate them. No, it's a customer. Yeah, they're like, they're exhausted. And then they're like, you know, do you want to do this? And then they're the ones have to tell them they can't get approved and they have to put this much money down. So I never worked that job and I would never want to work that. Interesting. All right, guys, that's what I want to do. I want to make sure we started this one off hot. Yeah, that was fun. You got all the deals on what people are making, the min, max average. And you have an idea that for those people that are surprised by that. For those that are maybe taken it back and they are searching for other career directions. Are there any, positions within the industry that you would highly recommend. So I love selling cars. When I started selling cars, I was 22. I'd never bought a car in my life and I was at a BMW store. Like,

I shouldn't have fit. Like I was selling, you know, $100,000 cars to men three times my age and it was the most fun I ever had. Like I should not have loved it so much. It is such a fun job. So I think selling cars, if you want to get into sales, it's a really fun sales job because it's not outside sales. You're not cold call and people are coming to the dealership. At the end of the day, people are excited to buy a car and it's there's also like there's also a lot of downtime like it's not necessarily this like constant grind of like having to travel a lot like the customers are coming to you the dealerships spend a ton of money to make sure they get good leads and make sure customers are coming to you so I think like if you're into sales selling cars is such a good such a good career

there you have it guys take a shot at it if it's something you want to do you're hearing it directly from the car mom Kelly and I think that's I think that's great for them to hear that from you too, especially the upside of it. Because I don't know, it just gets such a like a sticky rep, don't you think? And I know some people in the business that are great humans, like, like amazing people that are just the best. So it's refreshing to hear from someone endorse it and show all the good in it too. And just think of like the networking opportunities. Like I was at a BMW store. I got several job offers while selling BMWs because I would talk to these bigwigs who are these owners of this company who were like, hey, if you ever get out of this

business, you know, let me know. It's just, it's such good experience. That's good stuff. We had a restaurant tour come on that said, listen, if you're looking for a side hustle, be the host or hostess. Because those people that are the big CEOs, he said, you know, one time Elon Musk came into his place. He's like, it's the hostess. They're doing it all. So your holodex, the context will be next level. So that is another reason to get into the business. But let's talk about this. You already alluded to it, but you graduate and you start selling BMWs. Now, I think about the car sales training process or the gossipy things that you guys are talking about in the think tank or the conference room before you go to the floor. What are some of the most surprising selling tactics that you learned

as you were building a car salesperson for the good and for the bag? This is a good question. So one of the things, this is so funny. One of the things my dad always taught me to do was you wanted to like humanize yourself in the business because people don't like you. And it's some people don't deserve to be liked, but you're also like you're their worst enemy. It's an uphill battle. So it was all about humanizing yourself. And you never wanted to leave your customer alone for too long because then they would have had to like Google or Kelly Blue Book and like, you know, start price shopping you or whatever. So instead, we were trained to have this binder on our desk. And in this binder, it was like a get to know me. And it was a way to like humanize yourself and like maybe highlight some

of your good reviews and your experience. So it's like, it's a little scrapbook. So I have a scrapbook of me and like me and my husband and, you know, I was into horses. So I was like riding horses. And like, I went to college and like here's all these stunning reviews. And like, here's all these stunning reviews. And I'd be like, okay, I'm going to go talk to the manager. Here's a little bit more about me if you're interested. I'm just, I'm so happy that you guys are here and you slide them your binder. And they're like, she's so wholesome. Look at this. And that was a way to keep them off their phone to humanize you. It was to show them your scrapbook. Interesting. Okay, so that's a selling tactic that you, that you loved and adopted. How about one that maybe you're like, no,

that's not for me. I'm not going to there. I think when it comes, so I think a lot of the ways where dealerships make a lot of money is on the trades. So it was all about devaluing the customer's trade. So a practice was, okay, tell the customer to come out and show you their trade, which in a way is unnecessary because like why do I need the customer to come out and show me their trade? Like nothing that they'd say is going to really, you know, affect the car's value. So what they would tell us to do is have the customer come out there with you for no

reason just to come out there and then just walk around the car and touch every denting in scratch. Just touch everything. Don't say anything. Just touch it. And I would do it. I would touch the scratch. And they'd be like, oh, yeah, you know, that was a little fender bender. It was, nothing was wrong. And then I'd touch the next thing. Oh, yeah, my son hit a mailbox with that. And what they're, you're getting them to devalue their own trade. So then when you go back to it and, you know, the numbers lower than you, then they would like, say, I know, but like, you went out there with me. Like, you told me about the time with the mailbox. Like, I got to pay to fix that. So that was a way that we would, we would devalue their trade for them. That's one I never knew

about. Now, if a car salesman says, let's go out to the car and look at it, what's the answer? How do you defend it? A lot of my car buying advice is super approachable. I don't like fearmongering. I also want to avoid any awkward situation. So I would not fight someone on it. I would go out there and I just wouldn't say anything. I promise you, they're not going to ask you. They're going to touch and customers just love to word vomit. Or like another thing is when they ask you, oh, so why are you trading out? People want to say things like, it's getting too old, it's too high a mileage, gas mileage sucks. Well, now when I appraise your trade, I'm going to say, Jason, it's getting too old. The gas mileage sucks.

Look at gas prices. This is going to be a hard car to sell. So my tip would be just don't devalue your own trade. Don't tell them things unless they ask you. And don't tell them you think the gas mileage sucks. Instead, you're like, it's been such a good car, so reliable, not a single issue. Bummed to see it go. You're going to have no problem selling it and like sell your own trade, you know?

For some reason, as you're explaining this, I feel like I'm going to have to prepare for like an interrogation. You know, you see the shows or it's like, don't say anything, plead the fifth, you didn't do anything. No, but it makes sense. Like less is more. Like you don't need to share everything. And sometimes the more you share, actually, the more it's going to devalue what you're trying to do. So I think that makes a lot of sense. And this is a perfect segue when you talk about the trade in, just about the structure. I think about when I was a banker. When we were structuring big deals, there were plenty of ways to make money off it. Ancillary services, upfront origination fees, pricing in the rate and different structures. And that's, That's how we would hurdle overall our profitability metrics so that we knew we could move forward. In the car business, what are the different areas you're trying to make sure that you're at least talking through so that the profitability for your pockets goes up? And I think as a consumer, it's good to know this stuff. So I think people are surprised to hear that most of the time a car salesman's pay is not on a percentage of the price of the vehicle, but on a percentage of the front end gross.

So it's not like real estate. Like if I sell a $100,000 car, I'm not getting a percentage of $100,000. I'm gaining a percentage on the gross of the vehicle. It's anywhere from 20 to 30% of the gross. I think another misconception is a lot of salespeople don't know what a vehicle is priced at. Why would they? Salespeople, it's a revolving door. So like in what world is the person who started two weeks ago have any control over the pricing of a vehicle?

And a lot of sales managers don't want the salespeople to know because then we'd only sell cars with the highest gross. So really, you want to try to like, you know, hold the line as best you can because you know any discount, into your gross. But we don't necessarily know if there's $5,000 a markup, if it's a total stinker. We really have no idea. And then it's holding money on the trade. There's what we give them for the trade, and there's an actual cash value of the vehicle. And like you said, those numbers can be manipulated. So at the end of the day, what a salesperson gets paid on is the front end gross and the actual cash value of a car versus what we appraise the vehicle for. So those are the two areas where, you know, you try to hold. And, you know, the biggest strategy is, unfortunately,

to try to get everyone to become a payment buyer because then there's several ways to manipulate payments, which don't come out of your pocket. Things like extended term, more money down, deferred payments, even like, you know, shopping rates. That's kind of a way to hold on growth. So to the consumer, like that's why you never want to negotiate on payment. You only want to negotiate on the price of the vehicle and the trade. And from a salesperson, that's all they're going to try to get you to focus on. Okay. Now, well, the salesperson, that's, we're going to get into budgeting too, guys. We're going to talk a little bit about like how you should know what you should pay for a car and things like that. But from a salesperson's perspective, do they also make

money on the F&I or is that only going to the finance and insurance manager when they are working with you? It depends. And on our pay plan, I never got paid off of F&I. There are some who do like extended service contract spiffs. So like if your customer buys an extended service contract, you may get a hundred bucks, but typically not on like the rate markups or any sort of extended vehicle contracts or any sort of aftermarket parts, not in my experience. Okay. And while we're just going through the process, step by step, we talked about the trade-in. We're talking a little bit about the sales incentive. One of the things you talked about was the sales manager and sales person not having the actual price point of the car that they can sell at. In previous posts, I've seen you talk about desk is what I think it is. So as you're going to touch the desk is what it's called. So tell me a little bit about that and how as a consumer you can adjust what you're doing or know what to look for with that terminology. No, it's such like a song and dance. And I do hate that about the industry, but you have to understand a sales manager has so many more responsibilities than just negotiating cardials. They do the hiring. They do the pricing. They oversee the recondition. They do the marketing. They're honestly like work very hard. And typically like you're one of 13 or one of 30 salespeople. So it's not as simple as like, tell your manager to come out here and negotiate the deal. We hear that a lot too. So the process is your sales manager just wants to know how you're handling the deal throughout the process. They want to, like, know what you got, know what you're looking for.

And a lot of the times, you know, they have insight to other vehicles that may be coming in, trades that just came in that you might not know about. So, like, if you came and I was like, hey, he's looking at a BMW 5 series, you know, he wants this one online. They would be like, hey, we got several more coming in, like find out what he's looking for. You know, they also might want to know, does he have a trade? Like, we're low on trades. Like, yeah, he's trading an Audi Q3.

So you're just kind of filling them in about what's happening. When it comes to the actual pricing, the sales manager has to control the pricing. They're the ones who are praising the trade. So, yes, it's frustrating as a consumer to be like the back and forth and you don't like that. But it's actually the benefit to the consumer because what it's doing is you have someone in there fighting for you. The salesperson so badly wants to sell a car. We are 100% commission.

We so badly want to sell a car. We don't know the markup. So all we want to do is go to bat for you and put something together. So let them, you know, make it easy on them. Make it easy on your salesperson. Tell them what you want to pay, validate the offer you want to pay and let them go to bat for you. And I would say things I would look out for. is, you know, like one or two times them touching desk, normal.

More than that, that's when I interfere. I'd be like, hey, Ali, you're working so hard for me. I can see it. Can you just have your manager come out? Like, let me just plead my case to him on why I want to pay this price. If it's too dramatic, just ask to talk to the sales manager. And you will not come off as a Karen. He will do it all the time.

Okay, one to two, max, draw the line there. And then when you continue down that process, you then meet with the FNI manager. Now, you actually correct me in a previous conversation we had. there was one time that I was buying a car and I was told if I financed the car and held the finance note for 90 days, the bank would write the commission check to the dealership. And as a result to that, I could pay off my loan and I could still get a larger discount on the actual car. You said that was 30 days. So what are some other things that we should be aware of when we're talking to the finance and insurance manager? Yeah, if your new car shopping, understand the difference between

what's a dealership discount and what's a manufacturer rebate. So like Ford, they're going to throw money at the problem. Like, they will give you a $1,500 rebate. They will have a military discount. They will have a college grad discount. You can find those programs ahead of time on Ford's website. So if the finance manager tries to tell you, you know, we discounted the car $1,500 or, you know, we have this special financing rate. No, Ford has that. So I can get that at any Ford dealership. And then understand, like, what is this dealership going to do to earn my business? Like, is there an additional discount from this dealership? What about your markup? And I also think getting prequalified is super important. So if you're in the used car market, you don't have to get

pre-approved, you want too great, but instead just have a general idea of what your bank would lend you on that vehicle loan, and then make sure what the dealership presents you with isn't astronomical. And if it is, then you have the power to be like, whoa, my bank said I could get, you know, 6%. So I'm going to have to like go to my bank and come back. And then magically, I promise you, they will find you 6% if that's what your bank said. So I think really making sure that you're pre-approved ahead of time is key. And then, you know, do dealerships make money in the finance office? A hundred percent. Do they sell good products? 100 percent. I mean, these vehicles are computers. I don't know why you would buy a car that doesn't have a warranty on it. That sounds

insane. You're welcome to, you know, shop other extended service vehicle contracts. You don't have to do it at the time of purchase, but it's kind of like life insurance. Like an extended warranty is always going to be the most affordable when your car is the newest. So if it's a vehicle you plan to keep for a long time, it's not a bad idea to invest in it. Gap insurance, a must. Like you cannot be driving around cars without gap insurance, especially if you don't put a lot of money down. And a lot of, they also sell like the extended maintenance packages, which this is something that doesn't get talked about a lot, but those allow you to prepay for maintenance ahead of time, which sounds like, why would I do that? The benefit is you're able to lock in the parts and

labor rate at the current time. And we know like we're in this crazy inflation time where, you know, it might cost, you know, $60 an hour now. Hey, what is four years like from now? Like, then how much per hour is it? So that's also not a bad product. I mean, they do cost money and there is a markup. All of those things are negotiable. So if you show interest and you don't like the price, that's when I would ask for a discount. But yeah, that's a little about, about F and I. Okay, F and I. I mean, that's a lot of the process. Yeah, sorry, that was a lot. No, and it was amazing because it's so many. I mean, people could literally have their no pads out on each step of the process here. And we'll get into some more of those details. This stuff is absolutely incredible information. You had already mentioned

to inflation. You talked about price points. I saw that the average car right now is going around, I think the total amount is $45,838, May 2023, new vehicle price. But I saw that there was a massive drop from May to June in actual car prices. It was the second largest drop we've seen in history. And so I'm wondering, because of the massive spike post-pandemic, and now this big drop-off, from your vantage point, do you think that there's any potential issues within the car business, could there be an actual car collapse on the horizon if we're thinking about buying a car anytime soon? What's your takeaway from the new information that's just been released?

With the information that was released, so used car vehicle prices dropped about 4%. A lot of that has to do with because manufacturers now have new vehicles. So like for forever, like you couldn't get your hands on a new car. Well, when new cars become available, used cars are going to drop in price a little bit because now let's go buy a new car, especially for like that slightly used market. new cars have more to offer. Right now, they have way better interest rates. They're brand spanking new, and they come with a warranty already. So last year, we were taking a lot of buyers from the new car market and putting them to the used car market because new vehicles weren't available. Now that new cars

are available, again, some of those people are swinging back. I don't know if I think we're totally going to have a collapse, but something I'm really worried about is how slim. And I know the numbers that you're talking about don't reflect that. But I'm very nervous about how slim use cars are going to be over the next three to five years because so few new cars got made during the pandemic. So, like, for three years, not a lot of new vehicles got sold, which means three years from now, not a lot of used vehicles are going to enter the used car market. And that is stressful. I mean, it's going to be that way for years and years to come.

Like, in 2030, there wasn't a lot of 2020s made. So all those people looking for 10-year cars, inventory is going to continue to be tight, and those cars are going to continue to be expensive. So as a consumer, though, what's the suggestion that hold your car as long? as you possibly can? Or, I mean, like, what's the takeaway as someone is thinking about possibly getting into the market to buy again? If you're between new and used, if you're between slightly used and new, I would go new.

Because new, I think, is the better deal right now. The manufacturers are putting money behind it, it has better interest rates. But for those more like budget buyers who are looking for those used vehicles, it's going to be tight. And it's going to be tight for several years. So I would open yourself up to looking even more pre-owned. Like, I always say, like, don't be scared of a car over 100,000 miles. Hello, it has 100,000 miles on it.

It's probably pretty reliable. So, I would open yourself up to, you know, your mileage limitations and try to find the deal as even like those more pre-owned vehicles. What are your thoughts on the overall idea of certified pre-owned? Like, how imperative is certified pre-owned? I love certified pre-owned vehicles. Inventory is going to be really tied on those because what was crazy about the pandemic is no one turned in their lease.

So, like, everyone kept their lease. and a certified pre-owned car, eight times out of ten, was an off-leased vehicle, right? So it was a vehicle that got turned in from a lease, then the manufacturer certified it. I think lease returns were down by like 60%. Like, it's something insane. So if you can find a certified pre-owned, I think it's a great car. And we're also seeing manufacturers actually put financing specials on their certified cars as well. So it's another way to get a used car for a lower interest rate, which you're not going to find on your typical used vehicle.

So many moving parts right now. Yeah, I read this morning. It's like so stressful. It is stressful as your buyer. but it's a good thing people have individuals like you to turn to, people that know the industry, people that can educate people in the ins and outs. I saw pre-pandemic that 30% of all new vehicle retail sales were leased vehicles. And now present day, 15% of all new vehicle retail sales are leased vehicles. So that's decreasing. It brings me to a scenario. I kind of want to ask you about

my buying process and just a few questions. So this was a 2020. I got the 2020 BMW X5. I have this. What do you guys call this in the car industry? We call that a Maroni. Okay, I got a Maroni in front of you guys. That big ass stickers. And it's laminated. I'm so proud of you for having it and having it laminated. And this is from 2020.

You can see it's like the colors changed a little bit. So this Maroni sticker when we're cruising the car a lot, is there any Fagazian here? Is there any bullshit? Is there anything to watch out for that that would be like, no, that's just a selling point. Don't worry about it. Or are these pretty straightforward? 100%. Okay. So first of all, I love that you're a BMW guy. And if you were going to come to St. Louis, I was going to pull up in the new BMW I 7. That's the car was going to bring. So you'll have to come out since you're a BMW guy. 100%. Okay. So a Moroni sticker, no, that's legit. That's from the manufacturer. Here's what you got to watch out for. Manufacture. So that'll be on the vehicles window. Dealerships like to put a littler sticker next to it that makes it look like it's from the Maroni sticker. And they're going to say like, market adjustment, $5,000. And it looks like to put a littler sticker next to it. That makes it look like it. like, and then total price, $80,000. And it all looks like it's in the same font and like it's

everything. That's from the dealership. So that little square right there, that's legit. That's from the manufacturer. That's legit. That's legit. That's the window price. Watch out for any other stickers that are next to it that look like. It's part of it or anything else on the window. That's from the dealer. That's a little BS. Okay. Keep an eye out for that. Now, when they have this, this MSRP right down here, right? This total suggested retail price for this one. So it was $72,520. What percentage do you think is a consumer we can negotiate off that MSRP retail price when we see the sticker? So every manufacturer has different markups. I think Jaguar has the highest at 17, no, Porsche has the highest at 17 or 14 percent. BMW is 6 percent markup. The dealership

has a 6 percent margin in that vehicle. So, you know, depends on the price of the vehicle and depends on what they want to do. They're not making tens and thousands of dollars off of it. Understood. You have a margin. Understand and know what that percentage is. And when you know that percentage, use it to your advantage. You know, in normal times, like two to three percent feels good. But then also remember, like, again, there's that manufacturer's rebate and then there's a dealership discount. So if BMW has a $1,000 rebate, that's not coming out of their 6%. Got it. Now, a question I have for leases, people that have leases that are coming due, or let's say they had leases coming due in the past couple of years, and they're sitting back and forth, him and honing if they should buy the

lease out or not. Walk me through that process and what someone should think about as a consumer. Okay, this is a great question. Here's what people need to know, and here's where people get into trouble is you can absolutely buy out your lease. And a lot of the times, it's a great deal. I would only recommend buying out your lease if you feel like you're going to keep the car for an additional three plus years, two, three plus years. And here's why. When you buy out your lease, you still have to pay tax title and registration fees on it. And a lot of people don't always realize that. So if you buy out your lease, so I had a lot of people like, we're like, oh my gosh, I'm going to buy it out. I'm going to resell it because look at how high these

used car prices are. And by the time they registered the vehicle, paid the sales tax on the vehicle, all their margins were gone. Okay. So keep that into consideration. The two follow-up questions I have to that are the following. If I am buying a used car, how do I know, I mean, you already said over 100,000 miles, but is there a target that you would suggest people buy within either the year or the mileage that you would suggest people stay in a strike zone. I like the average driver is 12,000 a year. So I think 12,000 miles a year on average feels good. So if it's a three-year-old car, 36,000 miles feels good.

If it's a, you know, don't let me do my math by 12s. Wow. I would kind of just pay attention to making sure like the vehicle was driven a consistent amount of time and really ask yourself like how long you want to actually keep it for because and how many miles do you drive. I get so many people tell me, Kelly, 100. thousand's too much. I'm like, well, why is it too much? How long do you want to keep the car for? I want to keep a car for five years. Okay. How many miles you drive a year? Only about 10,000.

Okay. So you're talking in five years, you're going to put 50,000 miles on a car and you're going to trade it in with 150,000 miles on it. Why is 100 too many? 150,000 mile car has so much lifeless in it. It still would get a good value from a dealership when you trade it back in. So that's really not too high a mileage. That's fascinating. Okay, let's reverse that, flip that coin a little bit. Now I have a car I'm looking to sell it. And that's actually kind of where I'm at with this BMW. I got 35,000 miles on it. It's a 2020. When people are thinking like, oh, I don't want to drive the value just right off it. Do you suggest that if people are looking to sell, they should sell it before it hits a certain year or it hits a certain mileage? Jason, that's a great question. So I think, so vehicles take

huge depreciation hits. I would say at 3060, 100,000 miles. Two other like big depreciation. appreciation hits that you might want to be aware of is, one, when does the new vehicle warranty run out? Because as someone appraising a trade, if I know the vehicle still has some new car warranty in it, I know as a sales manager, okay, if something's wrong with the car, it's still going to be covered under warranty. Additionally, depending on where you go to trade it back in, like, let's say you want to trade in the X5. Okay, when is the BMW X5 certified pre-owned warranty expire? Like, could your car still become a certified pre-owned? Because if that's the case, then they'd be willing to probably give you some more money for it. Those are things we probably

I don't typically think about, right? I think your average consumer is thinking year and mileage, but you're not thinking about the impact of that. And you're saying that has a really material impact on the actual value of the trade in. Yeah. And I mean, also look at the market. What used car prices just did dropped 4%. Wholesale prices were even worse than that.

So it's, you know, your car is my dad, and he's a salesperson. But my dad says, you know, your car is never worth as much as it's going to be today. Right. So, you know, you could make the argument. Today's the best day to trade in because tomorrow's not going worth as much. There you go. There you got three pieces of advice there. And I think that 3060 mileage perspective is like a really good bench bike for people back home too. All right. Average monthly car loan payment right now in the United States. First quarter end of 2023. For new vehicles was $716.000. For use vehicles was $526. And also, as you can imagine, you ask consumers, where do they overspend most housing and their cars? So do you have any rule of thumb as one sits back and tries to, budget for a car? Should it be a percent of your salary? Are there things to factor in that as consumers were not factoring? What is the car mom rule? Hot take. I think I want to, you have to do

what's right for you. But I want to kind of like end a little bit of the stigma around spending money on a vehicle only because these vehicles, they are, I'm not justifying their prices. They are incredibly safe. And they get safer every single year. So it's a little hard for me to say, I don't think you should spend that much money on a new car. Okay, well, I think you should get a car with blinds back. I think you should get a car with automatic emergency braking. So it's hard for me to get on this drive a clunker and pay cash and you don't need a fancy vehicle.

I'm like, yeah, you don't need the comfort features, but you need the safety features. So now what's my number? I'm a salesperson, so take it with a grain of salt. But I just think that it's okay to spend a little bit of money on a vehicle to keep you and your family safe. When you put it in perspective like that, it really opens things up. Like, you're selling me. So you definitely have the car sales in your blood.

You know, I'm like, no, I don't want to get in a wreck. I want to protect. I'll spend anything. And, you know, I would buy the safest car that you can comfortably afford. Okay. Let's not have surprise expenses. Let's make sure we have an extended warranty so we don't have like, you know, a crazy payment thing come up.

And it doesn't have to be brand new. Like as 2017, 2016, like now backup cameras were standard. Now blind spot monitoring is standard. So they're getting more features mandated to be standard. So I'm not saying it has to be new, but it has to. be newer. That is so critical. You should think through how much you're spending, right? Like, that is obviously a critical point, but also factoring in things like safety and understanding like what you said earlier, negotiating for the total price point of the car and not focusing on that

monthly payment, that might be a tool to get you a better deal. And at the end of the day, if less dollars are going out over the lifetime of owning that car, the better you are as a consumer, when you think about all the different tools and places people can go other than the car mom, social media pages, but KB and there's car gurus and there's Edmonds, I know there are some websites out there that you can actually check the individual salespersons, history and record and waiting. What are the things you must use and do your due diligence before you walk in? Which do you endorse? Well, you've got to choose your salesperson ahead of time. I mean, you cannot just be showing up to the dealership 3 p.m. on a Saturday because, like,

you will get chip and he will be outside smoking cigarettes and he will call you sweetheat. And like, that's just, that's just, and that's just what will happen. Because, so go the extra step. Go on Dealer Rater, fabulous website. You can read reviews about individual salespeople. I would look for someone with some experience, like, no offense, but you don't want the green bean. Like, let's get someone who has a little bit of maybe pull with the management team, like,

knows what they're talking about, has a ton of five-star reviews. So I'd select a great salesperson. I'd schedule an appointment. I think that's super important. And then one of my biggest car buying tips is just to realize that validation is the new negotiation. Dealerships spend thousands of dollars every month to make sure their cars are appropriately priced. You do not want to go in there and say, well, do you think you could drop the price by $2,000? Because a good salesperson is going to look at you and say, well,

where are you coming up with that? Because they're going to pull it out, because it's what the managers do. They arm us with all this paper to validate our prices. They're going to pull it out. I'm like, $2,000 less. Like, you know, I pulled the Kelly Blue Book, like we're under on Kelly Blue Book. Here's a list of the cars that are in our area. We're below. all the cars are than a 500 mile radius. So where are you getting an extra $2,000 from? And then you're going to feel silly and then that doesn't feel good. So instead, go on Kelly Blue Book, go on Edmonds. I like them all. And they all, you know, are going to, they're all basically the same. Like they all basically say the same information, but just validate a lower offer that

you want to make. So instead, they bring you the price of the car. You say, okay, great. So you've been amazing. Like, I chose to work with you because I know you're so amazing. This is a little overpriced based on my research. Here's what I've got. You know, here's the case. B, as you can see, are a little high. And there's one up the road. Here, I printed it off for you. There's one off the road. It's $1,000 less. So, like, I would rather, like, wrap this up today, do this with you. I don't want to go up the road. Can you match that price? And now the salesperson has something to take to their manager. And their manager could be like, hey, there's one up the road. Like, can we just get this? She said she'll do it today. That's another

thing people don't realize. Everyone wants to act like they're not that interested in a car. That's the worst car by my advice I've ever heard. Why would I, like, drop my pants on a car that you're not that interested in. Instead, say, I'm ready to buy a car. I want to buy a car today. I want to get this done today. What can you do? Can you do it today? Because if not, he can do it today. I'll go up the road. You got to act interested. Those are brilliant pieces of advice. And I think about those pieces of advice. And they're ones that 99.9% of people are not doing. They're doing the opposite because they're hearing the wrong advice. One thing that just resonated with me, what you said, was don't go on the Saturday afternoon. Because again, that's when everybody goes.

Is there a best time to go? I know I'd asked you in previous conversations, do you want to go towards the last day or two, three days of the month so that people are closing the books, trying to hit their numbers? Is it better on a Tuesday afternoon? Do you avoid holidays? Is there a best time to go? I've seen crazy things happen at the end of the month. I've seen crazy things happen on holiday weekend. So I don't want to say that's not a good time to buy a car. I personally, but what it is is it's a busy time to buy a car. So if you don't mind waiting four hours to get to the finance office, sure, go on the Saturday. It's not a guarantee that you're going to get a better deal, though. So I probably, it's a hard question to answer. I wouldn't go. I would go like on a Tuesday morning. I actually find

that in my experience, sometimes I think a dealership is more anxious to get the first deal out of the day than the last deal out of the day. Because every day in the car business starts over. It's like we all have anxiety, all sales people. It's so stressful. So, you know, if it's like their 10th car and, you know, they're doing good, they might not be as willing to negotiate. But like, you know, if the owner's texting them, hey, what's up? Have we sold anything yet? Have we sold anything yet and it's 12 o'clock on a Tuesday and they haven't, sometimes they might be a little bit more aggressive and your wait times are going to be less and you're going to get cream of the crop salespeople and all the banks are open. So I think a weekday morning and if you can't take the day

off work, if you have kids, don't bring the kids, get a coffee and also realize like it takes some time to buy a car. I mean, I always tell people like it takes 30 days to close on a house and no one has any patience for that it takes four hours to buy a car. It takes some time. You got to pick out the car. You got to do the car selection. They have to appraise your trade. You have to get approved. It's a, you know, a four to eight hour or a deal. What about this? I have yet to ask you about. These days, you could just swipe your thumb and boom, it's at your door the next day. I think I saw Amazon Prime Day.

They did over $5 billion in revenue in 24 hours. What is your take of buying online versus in person when it comes to selecting a car? I think you should buy a car in person. It's too expensive of an item to not verify that it works for you. Also, I mean, just me personally, like I always think you'll have a better experience. and get a better deal at a local family-owned dealership. So, like, these third-party use car giants, they're not for me. I love it.

Money Mafia. Kelly is dropping absolute gold gems into your lap right now. And I love the candor. I love the no-b-s-ass attitude. I know. My dad cannot listen to this episode. My dad's not going to be happy. Oh, my God.

We're not going to let dad listen to this one. But I just think even the perspective when you do your car reviews, guys, when you go follow her on YouTube and subscribe on Instagram, you're going to see these car reviews. I think that is just so appreciated for people, especially like the Money Mafia, that listen to everything you're saying. I know they will kill me if I don't ask you the basic 101 question. And that is the number one question I got when I said, what should I ask the car mom? Do I buy new? Do I lease new or do I buy used? It is now July 2023. How would you answer that?

Excellent question. I've never said buy new, ever. I would always say lease new by used. I would buy new. I think buying a new car right now, manufacturers are putting the rebates behind them. They have incredible warranties. And make sure you factor that into the cost. Like a brand new Kia comes with a five-year 60,000 mile warranty. Okay, go price that out in the F&I office. Like, that's a big value ad. And they have great interest rates.

I was at a dealership the other day. They were doing 3.9%. I mean, you're not touching that anywhere else. And there's inventory. Like, you know, what's fun about the new car market is it's like, you can finally get the color combination you want again. there's no use car factory. So like if you're really specific on trim level, and especially in today's market, like, you're not getting like a white on tan Ford Expedition with 40,000 miles. Because like, again, there's no use car factory. They just can't spit that out. And no lease returns came. So we're not going to see those slightly pre-owned vehicles in surplus for a very long time. So I think by new leasing, I think it's going to be coming back soon. I mean, leases only work when manufacturers want them to work because they have to control what the numbers look like. And they had not wanted leases to work because they had not wanted leases to work because they, They wanted to instead sell cars at the highest trim level because there was no vehicles to buy.

So leases are coming back. Are they still the deal they once were? No. But a big benefit of leasing is that you can get out of a car every three years. So I give my audience specifically who are families and growing families to consider leasing. Benefit of leasing is you can lease it and then you can hand the keys back to the dealership and say, your problem. I'm not dealing with this.

So I would say new is kind of where the deals are right now. But obviously I feel like, you know, that isn't in the budget for everybody. So use cars, it's going to be tough. I would say my advice would be, if you find something, act on it. Like, don't think that, you know, if you stumble across your dream unicorn car, I would probably move pretty quickly. I think that's a great breakdown advantages and disadvantages of both, but also with what you would endorse if you could afford it,

definitely, definitely go new. I think one thing you alluded to, too, is families that are growing and just starting to think about babies and toddlers and making sure that they have the right vehicle to set their family out for success. I've seen you do a ton of reviews on your channels, which manufacturers are the safest and accommodating best for families that are in that growing mode right now? I think that it's not necessarily one manufacturer, but more just really understanding what it takes to have a car seat and what it takes to make a vehicle family friendly.

So looking at things like the car seat hardware, does it have the tether anchors for a car seat? Is there a way to access the third or with a car seat? What does the trunk space look like? And as far as safest goes, you know, I really like IHS. They do a very good job of doing really thorough crash ratings. I feel like you have to be so careful right now because I have seen so much AI generated crashes happening and then like being like, look how bad the Ford Bronco did. I'm like, that is from a video game.

Like an air bag didn't even go off. Like you guys don't think that's real right, but people keep sending it to me. So just like a PSA, IHS and NHTSA, like those are the only crash ratings that we need to be paying attention to. like don't want any AI-generated one come across your desk and scare you. So I love I-AHS. They do a great job. And then I really think just like prioritizing that crash prevention technology on the purchase of your next car,

I mean, it's so important. I think that technology is saving lives. I hope it's standard and across all vehicles soon. I think we'll have a lot safer vehicles on the road. So I would prioritize that. And this is coming from someone who's done. I mean, how many reviews have you done at this point of different cars? I think I have about 150 YouTube tours.

but my benefit and my privilege is that I have access to six used car lots. And now I have the manufacturer send me cars. You've also created such an empire, which I find so fascinating. And you've done it through a business that your family's been in since 1957, I think I've read. I mean, is it fair to say that this empire your building outpacing what it would have been if you stayed in a sales or sales manager, general manager role? Yeah. We always make the joke that like my grandpa and his brother started to use car lot.

my dad and his brother grew up to a multi-sore franchise, and me and my sister started a blog. And it's just, it sounds, you know, maybe not like, maybe not like the empire that it is, but we're super proud of it. And I really just feel like we're shaking things up. I think also you're shaking things up in a male-dominated industry, which is now slowly transitioning based on your insight and inspiration. I saw in 2022, you hosted your first ever auto show, specifically for families and women called the Car Mom Auto Show. This event is happening again this year in September. It's so iconic and you can get tickets over at our website.

It is an auto show for families and moms. And it's so unique because we just wanted to create an atmosphere where people could come compare all of the cars. Like as a mom, the last thing I have is several free afternoons to go test drive and look at vehicles. I'm just going to have all the cars here. I'm going to invite anyone who wants to come. We put car seats in all of the vehicles so you can get an idea of like how car seats fit. And we have a ton of activities for the kids. So it's like a family-friendly event.

We'll have face painting. We have the fire trucks, a bubble bus, Disney princesses are coming. It's going to be iconic. And we'll have like 35 to 40 of the hottest family cars. Love what you're doing. Love how you're changing the scope. It's so much different than that guy. Like, if you still, oh, it's got to be huge.

Like, I dealt with a lot of, like, sexism. And it wasn't always easy. But, like, because of that, I know, like, the gripes that women have with the car buying process. And I'm, like, wanting to change it. I love it. It is awesome. You guys are kicking ass, taking names, growing by the second. It is fun to watch it and all the insight that you just offered us,

this insight that will save us thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars amongst the money mafia. Thousands and not only just that, but the overall experience, driving a better product, feeling safer. I like the idea. Keep that car cleanser. There is nothing better than when you get into a fresh, fresh clean car. But we got to end with this. We got to end with the trading secret.

So it's a trading secret. People can't Google. they can't find a textbook, they can only learn from the one and only. Kelly Stumpy, the car mom, what can you leave us with from a trading secret perspective? Well, it's not necessarily auto-related instead it's more like social media related, I guess. Everyone talks about like reinvesting like money back into the business. But I think it's so important to reinvest your time and provide so much free, valuable content to build an audience. Like there is so much I do on the car mom that doesn't make a dime. So much like content ideas that we do, so much filming that we do that costs me

a ton of money to produce the videos or do this. But if you don't invest in the content, and if you don't make content that I say one of the four E, so it either has to engage, educate, empower, or entertain. Every piece of content has to do one of those bonus points if it can do more than one, extra bonus points if it can do all four. And I think if you create good content and don't worry about making the money and just build, build, build value. When you have something to sell, it's the easiest thing to do. When you're doing all that, you're building that community. And I know how stronger community is because they have all reached out over and over and over.

When I said you are coming on, I mean, you have a sticky community. And that community go with you wherever you go, whatever you do, because you've built the credibility and they trust you. So I love that. I think it's a great trading secret. Kelly and the Car Mom channels, where can they find everything you have going on and where can they reach out to you? Sure. So you can find us over on Instagram at The Carmom. And then our website is The Carmom official, but this is good. So I just bought Thecarmom.com. Someone had it. Someone had it. They charged me way too much money for it. How much? $3,500. Okay. That's all right. Okay. Maybe it wasn't that too much money. I mean, it's expensive, but it's not like they like crushed it. It was like a whole thing because I tried to get it. And then one day just showed up on GoDaddy. And so I had to buy it. So it's mine now, which is good. The Carmarum. official.com, soon to be thecarmom.com. And then our podcast is called The Carpool. And that's a podcast I host with my sister. And we spill the hot tea going on in the auto industry. So you can

check us out over there. I love it. Well, Kelly, thank you so much for being on this episode of Trading Secrets. This was another one that people are going to have to have a no pad out because they're going to have a whole book to write to take into their next car buying process. And we appreciate having you on this episode of Trading Secrets. Thanks so much. Ding, ding. We are closing in the bell to the car mom, Kelly Stumpy episode. And David, I am super energized here because I am currently in Lauderdale at the W, looking into the ocean, just had a beautiful sushi lunch over at Takata. I'm feeling good. I feel energized. I'm ready to go. How are you doing over there, David Ardoin? I'm a little hangary, but I'm ready to get into this. I'm ready to get into this

recap because boy, oh boy, was that a hurricane of information? That's the way I would like to categorize it, a hurricane of information. David, it was another episode where literally it could have been a book. And that's what I love. I love these episodes where we get like cool guys like Grunk and Mack Lamore and Girl with No Job On, but I also love these episodes where we get the experts in. And they give us so much information within their niche that I have a book to take away. And I'll stop right there and say, give us five stars.

Let us know what your biggest takeaway was in this episode. And remember, every single week, the following week, we give something away from the influencer Closet to the Money Mafia. So you leave a review today. And then next week, we will be giving one person at random who leaves a review something from the influencer closet. So make sure you do that. David, I'm sure you had some questions, though, because it got a little technical at times. Well, first thing I got to say, sometimes with our guests, you got to get the popcorn out and sometimes you got to get the notepad out. This was definitely a notepad episode. And before I get into my questions, I got a question for you. How the hell? You must be the only person in America

that keeps their moroni when you bought your car and just have it on hand. Tell me what you're doing keeping your moroni, you freak. Just a purebred donkey. Is that not the most like Jason Tardick thing ever to keep his moroni from his car that he got over like about four years ago? Four years ago in September it still have the thing. Whipped it out and I was like, there's no way that's real. And it is. It's real.

It's laminated. It's her moroni. It's like one of your prize possessions. I love it. And for the record, when I said it was colored, I don't think I explained that properly. it was discolored, right? So the Moroni is just a natural white tint. Mine was like yellow from discoloration in time. So I got it. It's there. It's got dust on it. It's ready to go. And no one knew. And they was called the Moroni. So that's, if there's any takeaway, now you learn

something new. But I'm going to try and get you to learn some more things new because voice of the viewer's got some questions. And I think if I don't know what some of these things she said meant, I think you can help me out. You're ready for these? Ready for it. Shoot. All right. She said that a Carl salesperson works on 100% commission with a draw against commission. I know what 100% commission is. I don't know what a draw against commission means. Can you explain that one for me? Yeah. So how it will work is let's say you go in as a car salesman and they decide that your draw is going to be, let's call it, $40,000. I remember one job I got David just out at Geneseo when I graduated was for Sun Life Financial and it was a wholesale insurance

role. And in that role, we had a draw. I forgot what the draw was. I want to say it was like 50 grand but essentially what it means is you are paid a base salary of 50 grand but when you earn your commission based on sales it is reduced from the amount that you have already been paid based on your base salary so if i have a base salary of let's call it 60 grand and i'm earning 5k every single month suppose i do a deal in which my commission should have been 3k instead of them giving me 3k on top of that 5k they take that 3K away from the base, if that makes sense. So that's how it works. That's interesting. It's almost like a retainer to making sure that you get it. And then if you supersede the commissions of the draw against commission, that's when you start making the money. Correct? Exactly. Like even with this podcast,

which if you guys have not listened to the Jason Tells All episode, every single episode at the end of the year, I disclose all my financials for the most part, what legally I can. And I tell you about where we make money. So at the end of this year, I'll tell you what the number is, but we have a minimum guarantee for this podcast. And as we do ads and earn dollars for those ads, we reduce the minimum amount of guarantee. So until we keep doing ads that hits that minimum guarantee, then we'll make money on top of the guarantee.

So that's kind of like a draw. But does that make sense? Am I explaining it okay? I mean, perfect sense. I think we hit that one three different ways. Brought a little retainer in there, brought a little podcast in there, brought a little draw against commission in there.

I love it. Next question I have that I know. I'm doing wrong about. She said, you can't be driving around in a car without gap insurance. I'm pretty positive. I don't have gap insurance. So enlighten me on what gap insurance is. Okay, so first of all, it's an optional coverage. You don't have to have it. It's not required to have it. But just whenever you think of these things, try and think of the name and then back into it. So gap. There's a gap. What is that gap? The gap is when the loan amount is more than the vehicle is worth, right? So imagine you have a loan amount out there. The balance of your car payment is 15,

but the value of your car is only seven. That's a problem. You got an $8,000 gap. So imagine that you get in a car accident and that car is totaled. They'll give you $7,000. Your car is total, David, it's gone. It's worth $7,000 here, $7,000.

Well, David would say, what the hell? I still owe $15,000. And so gap insurance will cover the difference if your loan amount is worth more than the car value. This comes big when you have a car that's depreciating an accelerated pace. This comes big into play when your credit is not as good. And as a result of that, you have a very high interest rate on your loan, so your loan is

creating more interest and your loan becomes much greater than the value of car. So just think if the loan becomes greater than your current value, gap insurance is the play. And it is endorsed by the one and only the car mom. Wow, that actually is very informational. And I don't think it applies to me, but I think it could apply to someone out there. Hopefully it does. Last question I got, you always hear the term certified pre-own. makes a car certified to be a pre-owned instead of just a pre-owned used car that you see on a lot?

It's a used car. So when you hear certified pre-owned, you'll see like CPO out there. And guys, the only reason I know like anything about cars is my best friend growing up. His whole family was into car dealerships. His family-owned dealerships. All I heard, I have family dinner with them three nights out of the week. And all I knew was the car lingo. So like this is the little I do know that's still retained with me. But CPO is like where you'll see it. certified pre-owned car. It still means it's a used car. The only difference is it goes through this pretty thorough, crazy inspection so that it is actually backed up. The certified pre-owned classification means that it is backed by the manufacturer or the dealer. And I'm pretty certain

each CPU will have its own customized things attached to it. But if they say it's CPO, that means the manufacturer or the dealer is behind it, and they're usually behind it for an extended period of time. So it extends the warranty. So imagine you get a new car and you get your, let's just say it's a five-year warranty. I believe with CPO, it's been stamped for approval by dealer or manufacturer. You'll get X amount a year warranty as good as if it was a new car. And that's why it adds so much value if your car that you're trading in, which still is under warranty or be considered a CPO. Love it. I am learning. I am writing notes on your notes on top of my notes. So we're making progress here. I got to tell you something that I didn't know. Now that I know the

things that you told me, I'm going to take some takeaways that I had. You can sprinkle some in there. Jay, we both own 2020 cars. Yours, I believe, did you finance? I leased mine, but I feel like owning a 2020. You're kind of in a little bit of a power position. Yeah, so I leased my 2020. I talked to the accountant. There was over 6,000 pounds. I wrote the whole thing off per month, whatever they did their magic. I'm not a tax guy. But then when the lease came due, the value of it was so much greater because of the supply and demand that I bought it. And what's interesting, David, is when I bought it, that was the first time interest rates were going up like crazy. Interest rates were like they wanted to, I don't know, six and a half or seven percent for my car. I'm like, what?

This just happened. So I'm in an unfortunate savings position enough that I could pay cash, but I paid cash for the damn thing just because I was like, I can't do 7%. Now, it's almost a year later since I did that, I didn't realize 7% is here to stay. That's the new norm. At that time, I was like, oh, I'll buy cash. And if I want to refinance, I will. Well, no, I haven't because, you know, you can't refinance for much less than that. I got to figure out what I'm going to do.

I got a year left on my 2020 lease. I'm in a four-year lease. She said, you know, if you want to buy it out, you got to pay the tax, the title, and fees after the fact. So you better have it for three plus years. I don't know if I'm going to have it for three plus years. She talked about the big depreciation hits at 30K, 60K and 100K miles. Here's what I wish, Jason. I wish just like there's a Kelly Blue Book out there.

You could see the price of your vehicle. I wish there was a formula that said, hey, I am married with one kid and one kid on the way. I have a 20-20. Here's my lease. Here's my terms. Here's what I'm paying for it. Boom. What should I do?

Like a car genie. Like you put a formula in there and it tells you what I, you should buy this thing out. You should keep it for X amount of miles. and you can sell before it depreciates. Here's how much you could get for it based off the current market. Boom. That's what I'm talking about. I know.

You do need that technology. I'm sure it exists, especially through AI. But if you don't, you just need like a really close friend in the market that gives you the scoop. And for me growing up, that was Jay Christopher. Just go give him a call and just be like,

yo, what's up? He'll, like, spit it out. Get your inputs out and he'll just be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got you. Back in the day, he gave me his login to his, like, to the auction. So they can go to auction.

They buy a car from auction. They resell it. So I bought the car through a dealership with his login. It was an Accura. I bought it on auction. I think it was around like 19 grand. I got my wisdom teeth out. Someone stole that car. So I was in the house for like three days. The whole car got stolen. It was downtown Rochester. They found it on the street somewhere like a week later. Scraped, dude. There was nothing. The best part about it. I'll never forget this is Taylor. Gehagen and Jesse Gehagen, they gave me an unbelievable professional tennis racket because Jesse's a pro tennis player. These guys who took the car, David, took literally everything. They took my notepads, but they left this like $600 racket still in there. And the insurance policy, you talk about gap insurance, they covered me. I got like 23. I got more than I paid for the vehicle back from insurance. I remember seeing pictures of that. I feel like they were taking door knobs and like side panels and like headlights like that thing was like gonzo you made me think of something it's the two espressoes i had after that meal today i'm going to go in the facebook group i'm

going to post photos of it right now so go to facebook guys go to trading secrets group and i'm going to post photos of the acro that got stripped you could check it out there david what else you got the last thing i got is just this takeaway i'm going to take into the next time i go for fact I didn't know that you could choose your salesperson ahead of time that there was like a review database. So she said, avoid getting Chip who's smoking cigarettes in the parking lot before you roll up. So I thought that that was pretty cool. I'm definitely going to take advantage of that. I like it. My biggest takeaway was 30, 60 and 100,000 miles. At that point, that is when your car is depreciating the most. So it's maybe time to think about turning it in. David, it's that time that we do a giveaway for the one,

the only the money mafia. All you got to do to enter every week. Give us five stars. Let us know your biggest takeaway or a guest that you think that we should have. And then what we do is we read the recaps the next week. We pick one person at random and that person wins something for my influencer closet. My influencer closet or where products are sent. There's everything valued from $2 to $2,000 in there and I pick one thing at random. I've been traveling for a little bit here. I'll be back home August 1st. So I know I have like three or four packages that are going out August 1st. So if you're waiting on your package because you won, it's coming. Here is the winner. Kirsta J. Kirsta Kay, always a knowledgeable and easy listen. I've always loved learning, talking money, and I feel like I've learned so much from Jason and his guests, especially in topics I've wondered about, but didn't take the time to do research. One of my favorite parts, though, is usually when the curious Canadian comes on and him and Jason talk and all answer questions that I had. Like most recently, what is a good retirement fund to invest in? I appreciate it all. I learn on the variety of topics with new perspective each week. This podcast definitely gets me fired up. Thanks, Jason and crew. And thank you.

you, Kirsta, just email us your address. Trading Secrets at jason Tarduk.com. And everyone out there, if you've given us five stars before, do it again. You'll be entered to win something. We appreciate it. Remember to help us grow. You got to tell your friends, family, and share things on Instagram, tag us. We will repost it. David, anything else before we get going. No, that's all. You look, sun-kissed in that Florida weather. We'll keep doing our part. Listeners at home, you keep pumping those reviews up. They're awesome. They're great. You know, Jay Sprinckland and the little influencer cause of gifts in there. We love it all.

You know what? I entered this recap hangary, and I think I left fulfilled. I love that because we have a lot more to give you, David. And I'm going to tease next week with this. We go from niche individuals like the car mom and Rameet and the FBI negotiator. And then we go to reality TV stars, celebrities alike. David, hot topic. You watching The Bachelor?

You watching The Golden Bachelor? Where are we at with that? We're not. We haven't. We're not. We haven't. All right. Well, we do have the Golden Bachelor coming. Mr. 7-year-old Jerry can't wait for that. And next week, we pretty much have every reality TV show covered. We have Bachelor in Paradise. We have Bachelorette. We have Lovess Blime. All-Shores. Why? Because we've got Blake Horsman and his better half. Gianina G-Baby coming on. The couple is on. And I will tell you this. I'm going to tease it with this, David. that we've ever had on this show, I don't think we got more numbers. We got more access to the vault than we got with Blake and Gianina next week. And it's going to be a two-part series. That's how good it is. So, David, you got anything you want to leave us with before we go?

Not also. You're really bad with names. I'm surprised you're nailing this one with G out there. So it's impressive. Gianina, G-baby Chartreuse. Just wait. That will be explained next week. Thank you for tuning into another episode of Trayek Secrets, one you couldn't afford to miss. David, I might have to do espresso before every recap.