Each week I bring you the top stories in the auto industry along with my commentary or sometimes amusing thoughts about the craziness that goes on in the world of cars.  Here is this week’s edition:

More on my video of the week below:  A customer who was upset with the appraisal on his Subaru rammed the front doors of a CarMax in Inglewood, CA, then turned around in the showroom and drove through the doors on the back side of the dealership as you’ll be able to see from my Video of the Week today.  Apparently he didn’t like either the offer to purchase his Subaru, or he was upset with the amount they were giving him as a trade-in, that is unclear.  What is clear is 25-year-old Andrew Arroyo is in a heap of trouble.  One CarMax employee was taken to the hospital in critical condition, although word is the injuries were not life threatening.  Six other employees and one customer were injured in the vehicular attack.  Arroyo couldn’t even turn himself in properly, he did it at the LAPD Police Academy.  Hopefully one of the rookies in training got to practice putting the silver bracelets on the man.  Arroyo has had the bracelets on before it turns out, after being charged with a DUI last year.  I assume once the episode was over, the appraisal on the Subaru was lowered, but of course ‘ol Andrew won’t need a car where he’s going anyway.

Another week, more electric vehicle drama:  It is increasingly difficult to keep up with all the EV news flowing our way.  What is clear is there is a lot of effort being put into a segment that only represents 8% of the total market in America.  We know now that 50% of EV buyers actually lease them, that is one of the articles today in this newsletter.  You also know from that article that I am one of them.  I leased a new BMW i5 electric earlier this week.  You can see it in the aforementioned article.  We’ve learned that Elon Musk is having a rough week.  Not only is Tesla stock having a horrible week, down almost 50% since December, people are boycotting his products and protesting in front of Tesla dealerships.  Some people’s Teslas are being vandalized and new Teslas are being set on fire at dealerships.  Some individuals are selling their Teslas because of the harassment they are enduring.  While Elon is trying to slash government waste through DOGE, he is also going to court to try to collect his 56 Billion Dollar pay package, which probably has gotten more difficult with the events of late.  And if the outlook for EVs wasn’t bleak enough, President Trump is planning to cut the $7,500 Federal Credit in place now, throw out the EPA fuel economy guidelines that could not be met by automakers anyway, and redirecting money that was going to build EV chargers across America.  The picture for the future of EVs is not rosy in the least, which is why I always tell you to lease if you want to go electric.  That way, you don’t care what the used EV prices are in the future, it’s not your problem.  See?  I do listen to my own advice!

His name is Ivan Espinosa, and he is going to have his hands full:  Maybe he read this column a couple of weeks ago and decided he wanted to be the CEO of a car company so he could get fired and get the golden parachute deal all the fired auto CEOs receive.  That is one of my aspirations as I told you.  You see, Mr. Espinosa is the new CEO at Nissan, where he inherits a host of issues, the most serious of which is a lack of operating capital. I have had a lot of listeners ask me if Nissan was going to make it.  Yes, they will, trust me on this.  As I’ve pointed out before, it only takes one big hit vehicle to revive a car company and the all-new Nissan Murano I reviewed a couple of weeks ago will likely be the one to do it.  They have a new Pathfinder that I reviewed for today’s newsletter.  I also think Nissan is establishing itself as the value leader in America.  The Nissan Kicks is an outstanding small SUV that starts at just over $21,000.  Nissan actually has six models that you can buy for under $30,000, which is a rarity these days.  The one thing insiders say about Mr. Espinosa is he has unlimited energy.  Who does that sound like?  Sounds just like Carlos Ghosn who was ousted and imprisoned by Nissan and authorities.  He was a workaholic, and that is what it takes with any car company CEO and especially taking this job at Nissan.  The big question is can Mr. Espinosa, often referred to as a Car Guy, revive the merger with Honda, and does he even want to? Even if he tries to, it is doubtful it would be successful.  As I pointed out a few weeks ago, I’m not sure Honda really gains enough to take the risk.  The ace in the hole for Nissan?  They are too big to fail.  The Japanese government is very protective of the Japan-based automakers and will find a way to bail them out if the situation becomes dire.  It is not unlike our government bailing out General Motors and Chrysler 16 years ago (yes, it’s been that long).  I would like to wish Ivan Espinosa good luck, but worst case:  good severance.

I’ve warned you about scams on Craigslist & Facebook Market place, but even really smart people get duped, too:  It is true, people get ripped off likely every single day by people who are looking to sell cars on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and often CarGurus.  Some of the crooks are really good at what they do.  Nobody is exempt from these scammers.  If this has happened to you, don’t feel bad.  Let me introduce you to Michael Mente.  Michael is a Los Angeles millionaire and the CEO of Revolve (www.Revolve.com), a popular fashion retailer who just had to have a Mercedes AMG One a few years ago.  The car is a crazy-fast F1-type car that has a gas engine AND 4 electric engines as well.  It puts out 1,000-horses.  So, Mr. Mente shelled out 5.4 MILLION dollars to a French car dealer named Jean-Pierre M.R. Clement.  Sounds like a pretty cool name, heh? Turns out, it was a fake name.  Homeland Security notified Mr. Mente that good ‘ol Jean-Pierre was actually Traveon Rogers of, you guessed it, Texas.  Mr. Mente was convinced that everything was rosy because a Colorado Attorney named Scott Oliver represented Jean-Pierre, Traveon, or whatever his name was, and he had a very convincing story of becoming a billionaire by being an early investor in Snapchat and starting his own private equity firm.  Problem is, the Benz AMG One was already sold out when Mr. Mente forked over the money.  Apparently, the Colorado Attorney was duped also, but said “Rogers was quite a character. Clearly he was able to convince people and get them to pay money and defraud people out of a lot of money."  That may be the understatement of the year. Fear not my gullible friends, Traveon/Jean-Pierre is currently serving a 7-year sentence for outsmarting another rich person by impersonating an Aston Martin representative.  If you’ve been ripped-off by a scammer trying to buy or sell a car, don’t feel bad.  It happens to even “brilliant” rich folks.

And so it goes!