Founder @Motosaic | 200+ cars delivered with $1M+ saved
Charlotte, NC
Joined August 2023
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Picked up a lot of new followers recently, so it's probably worth reintroducing myself.
I grew up in New Jersey, went to Wake Forest, and moved to Charlotte in 2009. Still here.
I spent about twelve years in financial services consulting, including a stretch at Ernst & Young where I reached a partnership-level position. The work was complicated and I was good at it.
We worked on problems that were on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.
From there I went to Wells Fargo, and by any outside measure I had the kind of career people describe as safe.
Somewhere in there I also got accepted to the FBI. I'd spent years deliberately building the profile you need to even be considered. Then I turned it down. The consulting career was moving too well to walk away from.
Then in early 2023, Wells Fargo let me go as part of a larger displacement. It had nothing to do with performance, and that's what made it land the way it did. It made me feel vulnerable, and no longer untouchable.
So I did what you're supposed to do.
I interviewed, and within a few weeks I had two strong options in front of me. A role at Silicon Valley Bank, and a leadership position at Ford overseeing customer strategy for electric vehicles.
The day my SVB welcome package arrived, the bank collapsed.
Ford went into a hiring freeze around the same time. Both doors closed at once.
It was at that point I decided to go out on my own, so that nobody else was dictating my future.
What I had was a severance package and a small YouTube channel called The Driveway, about 300 subscribers, where I'd been working through what buying a car should actually look like for someone with a demanding job and no time to spend on it.
That channel became Motosaic, which is what I run today.
I work for the buyer and never the dealer.
Executives, physicians, attorneys, business owners.
People who are very good at their own jobs and have no interest in spending a Saturday in a showroom.
Honestly it's the same work I did for twelve years.
Understand what the problem actually is, run a real process, get the person to the right outcome. The subject matter just changed.
And here we are now, three years later.
Airports ruthlessly and unapologetically expose every individual who hasn’t proactively exposed themselves to cardiovascular activity on a regular basis.
It’s incredibly apparent who will and who won’t make their connections.
Reply with three things:
Your budget, how many people ride with you, and what you carry most.
I'll tell you the first car I'd look at.
Just spent months finding a minivan for a client. He wanted a white Sienna with the ottoman seats and the entertainment package.
Simple enough, right?
We found one right away.
It arrived a day late. Then the dealer found body damage on the sliding door.
We waited a couple more days. Toyota ended up totaling the van. It couldn't be sold, even as salvage.
Nobody had another one with his spec.
Toyota doesn't show buyers where new cars are headed, but dealers can see and trade inventory with each other. So I called my contact at the dealership.
Georgia had one that might match. Florida had one coming in. The Florida van was close but not exact.
I kept looking until it matched. It took months.
The van that finally arrived matched every item on his list.
A normal buyer would have heard "You're out of luck. Here's what we have coming in."
Deliveries hit snags far more often than most buyers realize. When one does, you can chase it yourself, or have someone who already knows the dealers do it for you.
If you're after a car with a spec that's hard to find, send it to me.
I know the dealers who can track it down.
Always take the “moving sidewalk” even when it’s not moving - you’ll pass all the slow pokes cruising in the left lane.
Follow me for more travel tips.
Also, is “moving sidewalk” the official name?
A few unpopular opinions after years of buying cars for executives:
1) A one or two year old used car isn't always the smart play. New-car incentives and lower rates can close the gap, and you give up warranty and history.
2) You don't need to hold a car for 10 years. Priced and financed correctly, there are smart exits well before that.
3) Leasing gets a bad reputation it hasn't earned. When you know what the base residual value and money factor are for a particular car, you can make informed decisions. The problem is when you approach leasing uninformed.
4) Most buyers negotiate the price of the car and accept the first interest rate they're offered. Shop the rate first.
5) A dealer's "$3,000 off" is often a manufacturer rebate the dealer gets reimbursed for.
6) Invoice price matters less than most websites suggest. On a high-demand car like the Lexus GX, demand keeps the price at or above MSRP regardless of what the invoice says.
7) Driving one car tells you very little. Drive two or three on the same day and the right one becomes clear fast.
8) The car you call me about is probably not the car you'll buy. Over 70% of my clients end up in a different one.
9) Spec sheets are overrated. Cargo volume won't tell you whether the floor is flat for your wet art canvases and dog crates, and roof height won't tell you whether a booster seat fits.
10) Past 500 horsepower, most of the extra shows up in bragging rights.
11) Buying a car shouldn't take 13 hours. Cox puts the average at 13 hours and 13 minutes. My clients spend about 3.
12) Most of my clients want their weekends back more than they want a few hundred dollars off.
13) Staying loyal to one brand limits your options. I owned 20+ cars, including a Tesla, and I drive a Rivian now.
14) Dealers like working with me because my clients are informed. When they say yes, they say it with confidence and conviction, so the process moves quickly and everyone trusts each other.
15) AI is the same as a car magazine that's been around for decades. A top-ten SUV list is easy to find. Knowing which one fits you, and getting the transaction done right, takes someone who has done it before.
What's something you believe about cars that most people disagree with? Which one of these do you feel I am wrong about?
Everything I'd tell a friend before they bought a car, in one ten-minute read:
go.motosaic.com
AAA puts the average cost of owning a new car at $11,577 a year, based on 15,000 miles.
Over five years, that's about $57,900, and it includes depreciation, insurance, fuel, maintenance, financing, and registration.
The sticker price is one line in that total.
You have to take one of these on a 3,000-mile family road trip.
1. Lexus TX
2. Tesla Model Y
3. BMW X5
4. BMW 7 Series
5. Land Rover Defender 110
6. Jeep Wagoneer
7. Cadillac Escalade
8. Mercedes GLS
Which one are you picking?
I wrote up what happens when you buy a car, from inside the dealership, plus what a few of my clients were about to get wrong before they called me.
Free here: go.motosaic.com
Overrated:
Buying the exact trim you saw online.
Underrated:
Test driving one trim level down and noticing you can't tell the difference once you're driving it.
5 numbers to write down before your first dealership visit:
- Miles per year
- Years you'll keep the car
- Your all-in monthly budget
- Everything you need to carry
- How many people ride with you
Hot take:
If your third row never carries people, a two-row SUV with a bigger cargo floor may fit your life better.
I wrote up what happens when you buy a car, from inside the dealership, plus what a few of my clients were about to get wrong before they called me.
Free here: go.motosaic.com
Car-buying jargon, translated:
- Residual value (lease): what the car should be worth at lease end
- Out-the-door price: everything you pay, taxes and fees included
- Money factor (lease): the interest rate as a decimal. Multiply by 2,400 for a rough APR
Looking like my predictions are coming true… EVs are the right platform for many buyers, they just need to not look like spaceships…
For anyone buying a new car:
AAA puts average annual insurance for a new car at $1,694.
Rates change by model, so get a quote on the exact car before you sign.
Quick tip for your future car (can save you $1,000+):
Never negotiate the monthly payment.
Negotiate the out-the-door price instead (the number that includes taxes, fees, everything).
The payment is just math a dealer can stretch to hide where the real number landed.
If you're buying a car, I'm begging you:
• Stop hyperfixating on the price
• Stop test driving one car at a time
• Stop spending 13+ hours on one purchase
If you want to find your perfect car...
Follow this exact blueprint:
I wrote up what happens when you buy a car, from inside the dealership, plus what a few of my clients were about to get wrong before they called me.
Free here: go.motosaic.com
Where the average new car's $11,577 a year goes, per AAA's 2025 study:
- Depreciation: $4,334
- Fuel: $1,950
- Insurance: $1,694
- Maintenance and tires: $1,656
- Finance charges: $1,131
- Registration and taxes: $813
The sticker price is only the start of that list.