We Say GoodBye To Kevin, Plus 2024 Ford Bronco Raptor VS 2024 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 Final Edition

September 6, 2024

Welcome to September and hopefully some cooler temps! We have an abbreviated newsletter for you today. You see, although I did the radio show live last Saturday, we took the rest of the weekend and Labor Day off instead of working on this publication like we usually do. I will tell you that although there is not as much info as normal, every article today is important. Some of our regular features are missing today, but the recall section is there for your safety. Because of the holiday, national sales numbers were delayed, we’ll have that next week.

Leading off, sad news for me and many show listeners. My Trusty Sidekick Kevin McCarthy is retiring. Tomorrow’s Car Pro Show will be his last, and I know many of you will want to wish him well before he goes. He’ll be with me for the DFW show and in the first hour of the nationally syndicated show. I expound on this below, and don't miss the wonderful Walk Down Memory Lane with Kevin that our Amy Plemons put together. There will be news from me later in the month on who will sit beside me, but in the meantime, it will be just you and me after today for a few weeks. I will have some help with the show on the air, but there is only one Trusty Sidekick.

Great news for the self-employed and business owners of any size, our 2024 Guide to Tax Code 179 is here today, along with eligible vehicles. You can write the entire amount of a new vehicle(s) OFF on THIS YEAR’S TAXES. Depending on what happens in November, this perk could go away. The Federal Trade Commission has filed complaints on three DFW dealerships, and I have the scoop below. In a surprise memo, we find out that Ford is backing away from its previous stance on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives joining some other companies that have made similar moves lately after being pressured.

DFW friends, the 32^nd annual Dallas Nationals Car Show is NEXT SATURDAY, so make plans now to come see Sam Pack’s private car collection, one of the finest in America, FOR FREE! He opens the museum just once a year to the public, and it is coming up a week from tomorrow, details below. I’ll be there doing the Car Pro Show live 9-2 and I’d LOVE to see you!

Don’t miss Kim Komando’s very useful Tips of the Week. She had a lot of really great ones this week, and as always, I encourage you to subscribe to her terrific and very useful newsletter that you’ll get seven days a week.

In advice today, I have 5 tips for you on how to shop for car insurance, a hot topic this entire year with premiums being increased for just about everyone.

I have an interesting couple of vehicles for my reviews this week, so much so that I felt I had to do a head-to-head comparison, so I have that for you. This week I have the 2024 Ford Bronco Raptor, a hard-to-get serious off-roader. Also, along the same lines, I review the 2024 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 Final Edition. These are similar, yet very different vehicles and I had a blast with both. Which would I buy? I tell you below. Our Amy Plemons brings you another great review of the 2024 Lexus NX 450h+ F Sport Handling AWD.

We have another True Story from a Former Car Dealer below. This is a series of 40 stories written by me, and we’re down to just five more after today. Today, #36 is titled: Old Glory. I tell you about my love for our country and the red, white, and blue. I found a way when I owned dealerships to mix business with my personal feelings, always a risky proposition. However, a letter and gift I received from an Air Force gentleman stationed in Iraq made me know it was the right decision.

Plus, lots of other information you will enjoy, including our videos of the week we talk about on the air all the time! If you have never been to our FAQ page, take a minute and peruse the categories, something there will interest you for sure.

You’ll find the following stories and more info as you scroll down the newsletter:

We so appreciate all of you who take this newsletter and listen to the show every week. We know that without you, there is no Car Pro Radio Show. So always let us know when we can help you. If you have not been there lately, take a look at our website, www.carpro.com, it changes all the time!

Have a terrific week. See you on the radio!

In about two weeks, my Trusty Sidekick Kevin McCarthy and I would have celebrated our 23^rd anniversary on the air together. We started in September of 2001, just a couple of weeks after the attacks of 9/11/01. At that time, it was The Car Guy Show, and of course, later became the Car Pro Show.

I knew I wanted to experiment with a radio show where people could get the truth about cars and the car business, even though I owned a chain of dealerships at the time. I didn’t have the nerve or the radio knowledge, so I reached out to DFW radio legend Kevin McCarthy. I explained what I wanted to do, told him I wouldn’t pay him, but I would give him a new car to use. He said, “I’ve got nothing else to do, I’m sitting out a non-compete” and the show was born. Neither of us knew or even had a thought that it would last 23 years, much less become nationally syndicated all over the country.

On our first show, on a crap station with a lousy signal, the pre-recorded announcer said: And here’s the man they call the Car Guy, Jerry Reynolds. The on-air lights came on and I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Kevin, being a pro, picked it up and took off. I joined in shortly afterward, and the rest is history as they say. I would have never attempted to start this journey without Kevin McCarthy.

So, the time has come for Kevin to hang up his microphone and those golden tones after a literal lifetime of talking on the airwaves.

Kevin’s Grandmother told him he was born talking and hasn’t stopped since, so he made a career out of it, and what a great career it has been. When he was in grade school listening to his favorite DJs in faraway big cities, while under the covers with his transistor radio way past his bedtime, Kevin’s destiny was sealed…well, almost; he wanted to be driving a new car almost every year---but climbing the ladder in the radio biz he couldn’t afford that, and none of the deejays he idolized ever talked about cars.

So, he went to Michigan State to get an education, but he was rescued from the frozen tundra by an apprentice of radio legend Gordon McLendon and he was later offered a job at one of the biggest and best radio stations in the country, KFRC in San Fran, back when San Francisco was still one of the most beautiful cities in the world. That was Kevin’s Super Bowl. After killing it there, he decided to move to Dallas and see if he could make a career here.

We now know just how successful that radio career was. In addition to his radio career, Kevin spent three years as a Sportscaster on Channel 4 TV, and yes, he was the guy who pushed longtime news anchor Clarice Tinsley in a swimming pool at a Channel 4 function. Oh well, he liked radio more anyway.

Then, in the 1990s, he spent ten years as a talk show host on KLIF with radio sports legend Norm Hitzges, talker David Gold, and Bob Ray Sanders in the KLIF lineup. That’s where he was a first ballot inductee into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame, an honor that he never lets me forget, since I keep getting snubbed, but that’s OK, one of these years. His humor and quick wit also earned Kevin five Katie Awards from the Press Club of Dallas.

I will say Kevin was ahead of his time in many ways. When he had the daily show on KLIF, sometime in the later 1990’s he started an online discussion board called Dallas Digest. People who listened to his radio show continued discussions there. Remember, this was in the very early days of the Internet, and the board was wildly successful. I found the front page of the forum online still, and by 2005 117,000 individual posts had been made at the website. It is still active today, only on facebook, but many of the original members are still there and still talking. When I reached out to Kevin about my idea for the car show on radio, it was there I was able to contact him.

It was in early 2001 that his run at KLIF came to an end, but with a really nice severance package, he was in no hurry to get another job. That’s when one of his former guests, yours truly, asked him to co-host a radio show about cars. It was a perfect marriage, I didn’t know anything about radio and despite what he thought, he didn’t know anything about cars.

As I look back on the last 23 years, I recall so many things. More Kevin-wrecked cars than I can count, including one of my demos that was totaled out. A couple of divorces he went through, one wedding on a rooftop in Downtown Dallas when it was over 100-degrees and I was his best man and he had me hold a boom box for music as I sweated through my clothes. I will always remember all the jokes about him being way older than me, way shorter, and my constant reminder to him that it would take him an hour-and-a-half to watch 60 Minutes. Nor shall I forget his support when I went through back surgery, a burst appendix, a bout with kidney cancer, and the loss of my only child, from whom Kevin bought numerous cars.

After almost 23 years together, Kevin says he will still be doing the show in one respect: that he’ll be listening to the Car Pro Show when he sleeps in on Saturday mornings, and I say good for him, well deserved.

So, we say So Long to my Trusty Sidekick, my loyal friend and on-air partner for almost two dozen years, a man to whom I owe everything for a successful second career. I had a great run in the car business, and it has been a great run in radio that would not be possible without Kevin’s initial help, his sharing of all the radio tips that made him a legend, and for being my friend.

I liken Kevin’s life and career to what famous Dallas Cowboy quarterback Don Meredith said to the person sitting next to him on an airplane that everyone thought was going to crash. When asked “what are thinking?” Dandy Don simply said: “Damn, it’s been a good ‘un”.

Enjoy your well-deserved retirement Trusty Sidekick.

Friends, we have been publishing the latest rules and eligible vehicles list for Tax Code 179 for over a decade. Many of you wait until the last minute to make your purchase. Many wait until right after Christmas, but things can happen that could cause you to miss the December 31, 2024 deadline. I encourage you to reach out to one of our Certified CarPro Friends at a CarPro approved dealership NOW. They will help you figure out how to get the eligible vehicle you want by the end of the year, or worst case, have a VIN so you can complete the paperwork by December 31, 2024.

Click here for our 2024 Guide →

Disclaimer: While every effort was made to make sure this list is accurate, Car Pro Radio Network, CarPro and its affiliates are not responsible for errors or omissions.

Always consult with your tax professional.

SPECIAL THANKS TO CPAs BILL & SUSAN CATON FOR THEIR HELP DECIPHERING THIS COMPLICATED TAX CODE.

LAST CHANCE!

The CarPro.com Vehicle for Good Sweepstakes is nearing the finish line! And right now the “Porsche With A Purpose” campaign is offering the best deal yet: For just $45, you get 5,000 chances to win! Every entry helps fight homelessness, and you could drive off in a 2024 Porsche 718 Cayman (MSRP $124,000) or choose $70,000 in cash! This promotion ends September 12th! Plus, all entries are tax deductible!

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Besides the Car Pro Show and our weekly newsletter, my other favorite radio show and newsletter is Kim Komando’s. We are on many of the same radio stations across America. She does for her listeners and newsletter subscribers exactly what I endeavor to do: Give you useful information to keep you up to date on the latest in cars, only she does it with technology and there is nobody who does it better. Not sure how she puts out a top-notch newsletter seven days a week, but she does.

Here are some various tips & information I picked up from Kim’s newsletter this week I hope you find as useful as I did:

No bars: When your cell service is wonky, switch your phone to Airplane mode, wait a few seconds, then change it back. This will reconnect you to the nearest cell tower. Sweet!
$300 a year for Google Maps access in a new Chevy Silverado. It’s now built into the infotainment system through Chevy’s Connected Vehicle Plan, priced at $24.99 a month. To make matters more annoying, reviewers say it doesn’t even work well.
Amazon’s secret 25% discount: Send your old tech to Amazon through its Trade-in Program and get a gift card for the value. They’ll take just about anything, but if you trade in Amazon gear like a Kindle, eero router system or Fire TV Stick, you get 25% off a new qualifying device. Nice.
Chris in Tennessee left his job as a Ford mechanic to answer questions online on JustAnswer. Now he makes $170,500 a year and is building a second home!
The award for “Best Font for Saving Printer Ink” goes to … Times New Roman! When it comes to ink, you’ll get almost 30% more pages printed with it over Arial. The smaller, the better; use a font size of 10 points or lower if you can read it.

A few years ago, I started writing a series of True Stories From A Former Car Dealer. Over 40 weeks, I wrote about experiences I had from my days as a dealership owner. Some will make you laugh, others will make you cry. The reaction was beyond my wildest expectations.

For our new subscribers, and for those of you who may have missed one or perhaps simply forgot the details, we’ll bring these to you in the order they were written.

In this episode, I tell you a lot about me, what I stand for, my unashamed love for America and our flag, and how I used my largest dealership to get that message to the masses. Being a true patriot was not inexpensive, but the rewards for me personally were worth every penny. You’ll read writings I shared with the public, there are press articles written on this, a wonderful letter and keepsake I got from an Air Force Captain stationed in Iraq that is still a treasure to me, and how my late Son followed right along in my footsteps, once again making me a proud Dad.

Please take a moment to read this article as we get ready to remember the 23^rd anniversary of the darkest day in American history, 9/11.

Read True Stories #36 →

If you are searching for a particular new or used vehicle, we can help you! The best news is, if you use CarPro to search, when you find the car of your dreams it will be at a CarPro approved dealership.

Best of all, it’s simple to use. Choose new, used, or certified. You can select the make and model, or find a price range you are looking at. Choose the number of miles you are willing to travel and enter your zip code.

From there, you can look through all your matches, knowing you are shopping at a dealership I have handpicked that adheres to the high standards I require.

Start your search on the front page of CarPro.com. If you don't find the car of your dreams, check back regularly.

You have 5 hours to call the show! From 9AM- 2PM Central, 7AM-Noon Pacific, and 10 AM to 3 PM Eastern, the phone numbers are:

DFW Show: 9 AM to 11 AM Central, 1 (800) 288-9227
National Show: 11 AM to 2 PM Central, 1 (800) 926-7777

Add the numbers to your cell phone; you never know when you are going to need straight talk and honest answers about everything automotive.

So, what is the CarPro Radio Show?

Confused about the car buying process? Worried you won’t get a fair deal? Wondering about which vehicle is best for you? Then tune in to the Car Pro Radio Show every week where Jerry Reynolds and Kevin McCarthy will guide you through the car-buying process with confidence.

No matter where you listen to the show or which station you listen to, you have five hours to call in and ask your questions. We take calls every Saturday from 9 AM-2 PM Central time, 7 AM to Noon Pacific. The phone number is different the first two hours, then changes, so keep that in mind.

We would love to help you in any way possible! Keep in mind, we don’t take mechanical questions, but everything else is great!

The Car Pro Radio Show is heard every weekend all over the United States, and every weekend we deliver straight talk and honest answers about everything automotive. We would greatly appreciate it if you would take a moment and tell a friend about the show.

This week we welcome WSAR 1480 AM/95.9 FM in Fall River, MA. WSAR is the number one AM radio station on the South Coast. With its studios and transmitter in Somerset, Massachusetts, it broadcasts on 1480 kHz. Its transmitter power output is 5,000 watts (unlimited hours) using two towers. They are the home of the Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, The Boston Celtics and local sports action. The Car Pro Show will air LIVE Saturdays from Noon to 3PM ET.

new-markets-canva-pro-jan-11

We've also recently welcomed these new markets:

KXRA Newstalk Radio Alexandria, MN:

Sunday 3-6pm (replay) and 9pm to Midnight CST (replay) on 1490 AM/100.3 FM/105.7 FM.
KTLR 890 AM/103.7 FM Oklahoma City: Sunday 4-5pm CT (replay)
The Mountain WSYY 1240 AM/ 102.5 FM Millinocket, ME:

Saturday 9AM- 12PM PT
KUFO: Portland, Oregon: Saturday 9AM- 12PM PT
Nevada Talk Network - THE Rural News Source: KELY 1230am/98.5fm, Ely; KPVM-TV 25.7, Pahrump, KAVB 98.7 FM, Hawthorne, KPKK 101.1 FM, Amargosa Valley, NV, KDJJ 94.1 FM, Fernley-Fallon all three hours live 9AM- 12PM PT
KFIR 720 AM, Sweet Home, Oregon: Sunday 4PM - 7PM PT (replay)
KBAR 1230 AM, Burley, Idaho: Saturday 6PM – 9PM MT (replay)
KACT 1360 AM, Andrews, Texas: Saturdays 7PM – 10PM CT (replay)
WDOC 1310 AM, Prestonsburg, Kentucky: Time TBD
KLXX 1270 AM, Bismarck, North Dakota: Sunday 10PM – Midnight CT (replay)

Most of our listeners tell us that they never thought they would look forward to a show about cars. You may have friends or relatives who feel the same way in the cities below, please make them aware.

Here are the DFW markets the show airs in, times, and stations, and don't forget you can now listen to WBAP on the FM dial at 93.3 FM!

Dallas, TX: WBAP 820 AM/93.3 FM/99.5 HD 2, Saturday 9am to 11am Central
Dallas, TX: KRLD 1080 AM, Saturday 2pm to 4pm Central (replay)
Granbury, TX: KPIR 1420 AM, Saturday 11am to 2pm Central

WBAP DFW Podcast Here →
FOR ALL OTHER MARKETS, CLICK HERE→

We Say So Long To My Trusty Sidekick, Kevin McCarthy

VIDEO: A Walk Down Memory Lane

Watch our special goodbye video as we wish Kevin a much-deserved, happy retirement! We'll miss you Kevin!

Click Here to Watch the Video →

Straight Talk And Honest Answers

Read More →

Our 2024 Tax Code 179 Guide Is Here!

Win A Porsche Exclusive Offer! 3,000 Entries for $25!

On The Road: Test Drives

One week with two off-road beasts! Jerry reviews each one, plus compares them!

Click for Jerry's head-to-head comparision→

Read Review→

Read Review→

Bumper to Bumper

FTC Files Complaint On Three DFW Dealers

Read more→

Ford Backing Off DEI Initiatives

Read more→

On The Road: Bonus Test Drive!

This 304-horsepower plug-hybrid delivers on city streets and beyond!

Read the review →

Weekly Recalls

Check Out Our Newsletter Archive Page!

True Stories From A Former Car Dealer

Our Factory Incentive Guide

Miss the Show? Catch Our Podcast!

Sell Your Car Through GiveMeTheVin!

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Exclusive Approved Products & Services

FAQ: Research Your Questions Before You Shop

Our FAQ page offers answers to questions CarPro Show host Jerry Reynolds is asked most frequently.

Visit our FAQ Page →

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Classic Car Contest: Win An AutoHeatShield!

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CarPro Guide To Online Car Buying

Buying a vehicle online has never been easier.Our step-by-step guide will help you buy a car from the comfort of your living room, starting with selecting your CarPro Friend.

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Closing Message From Jerry Reynolds