Norm Reeves’ El Attrache and Freeman’s Cole Accuse Vandergriff Honda of Deceptive Business Practice
2023 August 5

Many are the occasion where ancient radio host Wallace teases that he knows who the bad dealers are, but then demurs on telling the audience who they are. Lacking the same verbal dexterity, a novice Wheels host attempted to pull the same stunt and revealed more than was likely intended.

Wheels with David El Attrache and John Ingram
KLIF 570 AM – July 29, 2023 8:51AM

David El Attrache
“Thanks Don. I'm David El Attrache.”

John Ingram
“Well, when I was at John Eagle Honda, I had a suspicion that up north was taking our traffic away from us. And so, we came in and did an analysis and found out that that was not correct.”

Ed Wallace
“Ok. What bothered you… and it bothers everybody… is when you have a dealership that their primary way to get people to come in the door is to lowball them.

We had a Volkswagen dealership in Dallas Fort Worth that literally everything online was 8000 off. How do you discount a car that has $883 markup in it by eight grand?

John Ingram
“You lie.“

Ed Wallace
“Again. How do you do it? Because you're gonna have to show an $8000 discount.”

Jeff Cole
“Well, obviously you mark it up to mark it down.”

Ed Wallace
“Yeah. Say that again, Jeff, a little bit louder.”

Jeff Cole
“You mark it up to mark it down.”

Ed Wallace
“So, have you ever heard of somebody who sells mass market cars jumping their prices eight grand over window sticker to mark it down?”

Jeff Cole
“Yes.”

Ed Wallace
“I didn’t hear that.”

Jeff Cole
“Yes!”

Ed Wallace
“Ok.”

David El Attrache
“So he… he's even the dealer of the people off of 20 that… there's a dealership, another Honda store, down the road that… uh… that does that kind of thing.”

Jeff Cole
“Yes, they do.”

Ed Wallace
“Again.”

Jeff Cole
“Yes, they do.”

[Some extraneous interjections omitted for readability.]

In the above conversation, Wheels host and Norm Reeves Honda North Richland Hills General Manager David El Attrache accuses a competitor of “lowballing”. Freeman Honda Sales Manager Jeff Cole immediately affirms El Attrache’s accusation. Twice.

Merriam-Webster defines lowballing as “to give (a customer) a deceptively low price or cost estimate”. Or, put another way, the customer is given a low price over the phone/web which will not be honored when the customer comes on site to purchase. It is an unethical, deceptive business practice.

Wallace often asserts that there are unethical car dealerships in the Dallas / Fort Worth market. But unless the offender is already defunct or in the news, Wallace avoids naming a local car dealership that he considers a bad actor. That is what makes this latest accusation so remarkable. The accused is described in a manner that allows for easy identification. And the host who provided that description is David El Attrache.

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There is only one dealership is located down the road from Freeman Honda, off of Interstate 20. And given that, Vandergriff Honda stands accused of a deceptive business practice by the KLIF 570 AM Wheels radio show.

KLIF’s sister Cumulus station WBAP 820 airs the CarPro show. The website for the CarPro radio show promotes Vandergriff Honda as a “CarPro Dealer”. The contact, also known as a “CarPro Friend”, is Wesley Kammer.

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Supposedly, CarPro host Jerry Reynolds vets these dealerships. Perhaps his “CarPro friend” steers his listeners away from the alleged lowballing of Vandergriff Honda. Or, perhaps the Wheels’ crew lied about Vandergriff. The only thing of which one can be certain is that there should be uncomfortable encounters in the hallways of the building shared by KLIF and WBAP. Reynolds might want to confront El Attrache regarding this impugning of one of Reynolds’ CarPro dealers.