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The Brief . A man is accused of arson after a Cybertruck was burned in a fire at a Tesla dealership near Sossaman Road and Southern Avenue. . The suspect was identified as 35-year-old Ian Moses. . No one was hurt in the fire.

A 26-year-old Trump hater with “She/They” pronouns has been charged with felony criminal damage to property and misdemeanor criminal trespass after allegedly vandalizing a newly built Tesla sales, service, and delivery center with graffiti targeting Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and supporting “trans rights.” The Daily Herald reports that Erin L. White, a resident of the Chicago suburb of Buffalo Grove, was arrested on charges of vandalizing the newly-built Tesla dealership located in the same town. The incident occurred on Friday, and White is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday. According to reports, the graffiti on the building’s showroom glass...

A 24-year-old man from Fort Collins, Colorado, has been arrested on suspicion of arson and other charges related to a fire at a Tesla dealership in Loveland, following the earlier arrest of a man who claims to be a woman in the case. The Denver Post reports that Cooper Jo Frederick, 24, of Fort Collins, Colorado, was arrested on Thursday in connection with a February 27 fire at the Tesla dealership located in Loveland. Frederick faces five felony charges, including arson, possession of explosives or incendiary devices, using explosives during a felony, criminal mischief, and attempt to commit a felony,...

A disgruntled Utah man smashed his car into the storefront of a dealership he had bought it from earlier that day after he was allegedly denied a refund when he discovered his new ride had mechanical issues. Michael Lee Murray, 35, bought a used Subaru Outback from the Tim Dahle Mazda Southtowne car dealership in Sandy, a city in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, for $4,000 on Monday morning, according to Fox 13 News. However, Murray alleged that he was sold a “lemon” — a vehicle whose manufacturing issues jeopardize the driver’s safety — soon after he snagged the...

Mercedes-Benz is considering selling its branches in Germany. it’s about everyone [car dealership] and self-owned workshops, the company said on Friday upon request. The review is open-ended and step-by-step. “The Mercedes-Benz Group is ready for discussions with potential buyers of its branches.” Only experienced companies will be considered as buyers. “We do not plan to sell to pure financial investors and closing locations is not part of the review.” Furthermore, there are no plans to distribute all branches as one package. There are 80 companies with a total of 8,000 employees. “Physical business is and will remain a central pillar...

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are “piling up on dealer lots” as American consumers continue buying traditional gas-powered cars at faster rates, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the Journal, despite major investments from the federal government and automakers into EVs, Americans are not warming to President Joe Biden’s green energy agenda the way the administration and the industry had predicted. The Journal reports: As a result, electric cars and trucks are piling up on dealer lots, causing auto companies to reassess their investment plans. It takes a dealership around three weeks longer to sell an EV than a gasoline vehicle,...

A car dealership has closed its doors for good, citing unprecedented changes in the used car sales industry as the motivating factor behind the decision. Off Lease Only, the Florida-based dealership chain, has filed for bankruptcy and fired all its employees.A message on the company's website explains that management is winding down operations and thanked customers for their years of patronage. Many former employees told local Fox affiliate WOFL that they received notice of their termination directly after a large company meeting on Wednesday. The company boasted five locations across Florida, with over 500 vehicles available. Some frustrated customers were...

My husband and I went to our local Toyota dealership here in Southern Maryland - one of the largest Toyota dealerships on the East Coast - looking for a new 2022 Camry. We've owned several Camry's since 2000 and I've owned Toyota vehicles since 1980. My husband just comes along with me. He knows that I'm capable of detecting bullsh*t and cockamamie stories from sales staff, so he just sits back and listens. (He's trained me well, I must admit!) We arrived a few minutes before the dealership opened, so we took a drive in the lots in the back...

Hello FReepers. Looking for any advice on negotiating the best price for a new car. (I'm getting a 2021 Honda CRV-EX, no options). I've put together an email (see following) that I will send to the local Honda dealers. Asking for any suggestions or wording to make it the most effective. Thanks in advance.

After what my wife had to endure Monday in a Fort Worth Mitsubishi dealership, I thought it might be wise to reinforce the notion that pond scum still exists in the new car buying market. Thank God I was only a phone call away. To make a long story short, they started by offering her dirt for her trade, which I already prepared her for. (NADA trade-in value is one thing, but they weren't even in the ball park.) They next tried to sell her the car for over a thousand dollars ABOVE what they were offering it on their...

FAISALABAD, Pakistan — The father of Imran Awan — an IT aide to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz who investigators concluded made “unauthorized access” to House servers — transferred a USB drive to a Pakistani senator and former head of a Pakistani intelligence agency, the father’s ex-business partner, Rashid Minhas, alleged. Minhas told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Imran Awan’s father, Haji Ashraf Awan, was giving data to Pakistani official Rehman Malik, and that Imran bragged he had the power to “change the U.S. president.” Asked for how he knew this, he said that on one occasion in 2008 when...

The president of Priority Chevrolet apologized Wednesday for the arrest of a customer in June whom the dealership mistakenly undercharged for an SUV and who resisted the company's efforts to get him to sign a new, costlier contract. Dennis Ellmer said he's heard from Chesapeake police that one of his managers told an officer that Danny Sawyer of Chesapeake had stolen a 2012 Chevrolet Traverse. "I owe Mr. Sawyer a big apology," said Ellmer, who manages the entire Priority Auto Group - which includes 11 dealerships in Virginia and North Carolina. He said his staff erred when they sold the...

Drug Enforcement Administration agents have raided an Oklahoma car dealership that the government suspects may be one of about 30 such businesses in the U.S. involved in funding the terrorist group Hezbollah. DEA agents say the car lot of Ace Auto Leasing in Tulsa is part of a huge network that is selling cars and drugs -- and then using the money to support terrorism against the U.S., myfoxphoenix.com reports. During Friday's raid, agents could be seen carryout out filing cabinets and other items. They also questioned employees and took inventory. "They're making big time money and it's going right...

We expect our politicians – particularly governors and presidents – to focus a good deal of attention on job creation (the wrong philosophy may cause their efforts to fail, but at least they’re expected to try). A continuous increase in employment opportunities is obviously critical for both the individual and the economy at large, not to mention the fact that the difference between employment and unemployment is soon to be a key driver in each voter’s level of satisfaction on Election Day. So it has been surprising to see, over the past two years, how much the Obama administration, instead...

Everything you need to know about the nightmare of government-controlled businesses can be found in a damning new inspector general's report on Dealergate. The independent review of how and why the Obama administration forced Chrysler and General Motors to oversee mass closures of car dealerships across the country reveals grisly incompetence, fatal bureaucratic hubris and Big Labor cronyism. No wonder you won't hear much about the report's in-depth details in the so-called mainstream media. Under the guise of "saving" the American auto industry through a bipartisan, taxpayer-funded bailout now topping $80 billion, President Obama's know-nothing bureaucrats pushed the car companies...

As many as 100,000 Americans who lost their jobs, or will soon, because of GM and Chrysler dealership closings can thank Barack Obama and his "mandate for shared sacrifice," according to a top Obama official. In a scathing report on the federal auto industry bailout, Special Inspector General Neil M. Barofsky notes that the Obama administration rejected initial automaker plans which would have required relatively minimal dealership closings, insisting instead on far more drastic cuts -- as many as two thousand dealerships between the two corporations. (snip) And Barofsky's report even questions whether the closures would lead to any real...

Lawmakers Chide Automakers Over Dealership Cuts GM Issues State-by-State Closings List By Dan Eggen and Kendra Marr Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, June 13, 2009 Out of the 1,323 General Motors dealers targeted for elimination, the most will come from Pennsylvania. Ninety dealerships will be forced to wind down in the state. Pennsylvania is followed by Ohio with 79, Illinois with 66, California with 65 and New York with 60. GM, which has declined to name individual dealers, released the state-by-state list for the first time yesterday to a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. And lawmakers vented their frustration, demanding...

A LETTER FROM A DODGE DEALER By Neal Boortz @ May 20, 2009 8:24 AM Permalink | A listener pointed me to this letter from a Dodge dealer down in Florida. Thought you may enjoy ....=============================================================================================================== My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business. We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are...

An estimated 137,332 people could find out by the end of the week that they will lose their jobs when General Motors Corp. announces which 2,641 dealerships will close by year's end. While that won't be good news, it may at least offer an end to the endless speculation that has dealers comparing notes to try to figure out what comes next and how GM officials will be making their choices. "We haven't heard anything at all here, and we may be one of the dealerships being canceled," said Bob Arnold, owner of Arnold Pontiac in Houston, Pa., which also...

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. — Three Scottsbluff auto dealership executives are expected to be under arrest by this morning after they packed up their belongings, loaded 81 new vehicles onto trucks and left town. Scottsbluff police, with help from federal authorities, tracked the trio across the southwestern United States on Wednesday as many of the vehicles were sold at auctions. Felony theft charges were filed in Scotts Bluff County Court on Wednesday against Legacy Auto Sales owner Allen Patch and two of his senior managers: comptroller Rachel Fait, 37, and general manager Rick Covello, 53. Detectives located Patch, 52, at his attorney's...