[zachshefska]

Great point (I’m the Zach Shefska referenced in the article), and have been working in this space to advocate for consumers. Two things:

1) new FTC proposed rules (which are open for public comment!) would ban the practice of “surprise” add-ons at the dealership.

2) a lot of folks that contribute to markups (and other crowdsourced initiatives) go all the way to getting a buyers order and then report those add-ons when they show up then.

If you’re interested in the FTC rules, read here: https://joinyaa.com/guides/ftc-dealer-rules/

[jonahhorowitz]

The FTC (or congress) should mandate this for everything. The price for something should be the final, out the door price. It's amazing to travel in the UK and buy something at the supermarket. If it says ￡1, then that's the cost at the register.

Right now in the US, there's resort fees, booking fees, regulatory compliance fees, and on and on that all get added during checkout. It's so deceptive.

[nataz]

Hey, cool to see you post on HN. I started following you and your dad on YouTube during the pandemic.

It's been fascinating how you've (very intentionally) built your online following. Between social media vectors, the website, forums, paid tier access, pricing tools, and now insurance, you have quite the operation.

Other folks on HN should take notes on what you've accomplished so far.

[zachshefska]

Thank you for the kind words. We have so much more work to do! Trying to innovate in this industry is TOUGH. All of the incumbent business models are predicated on information asymmetry. We're having fun changing the way things work and sliding the scale in the consumers favor.

[thfuran]

Why should the rules only apply to cars?

[TreyGuy]

Thanks Zach!