Dear Scotty,
My name is Anthony Zingale. I have been an auto enthusiast since 2009 at the tender age of six. It started when my parents walked me around the block for some exercise and it just so happened that my neighbor, who is a diesel mechanic at Broward County Transit, was doing a major repair on his wife's 2001 Audi TT. I went up and asked him some technical details and specifications on the vehicle and it just so happened that the information he provided just stuck with me.
Over the years, I have dug deeper into the auto industry, both generally and mechanically. I attended my first auto show in Miami in November 2010, which is really what gave me my jump start into the automotive industry. In February 2016, I met Jay Leno, car collector and former host of The Late Show, and the late Rick Case, original owner of Rick Case Automotive Group, at the 2016 Boca Raton Concourse d'Elegance. In both August 2016 and October 2017, I had the pleasure to go to Consumer Reports' auto test center in Colchester, Connecticut and personally meet the engineers that do the instrumented road tests and the journalists that write automotive-related content and the road tests for the magazine. I was also aired on episode 100 on the podcast "Talking Cars with Consumer Reports" asking about fuel economy advancements and discussing the history of the Toyota Prius. I also got a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on at the facility on a day-to-day basis (though I already knew most of that stuff since 2013). These visits to Consumer Reports' auto test facility are what inspired me to want to become an auto engineer for the magazine.
In addition to influences from my diesel mechanic neighbor, it was you Scotty that really got me more mechanically inclined than ever. Since 2017, I have learned a lot of things from you, including bad designs on certain vehicles that I never even knew about. This wealth of knowledge that you provide to the world had really expanded my knowledge base on which vehicles are good, which vehicles are bad, and which vehicles are in between.
I am also financially inclined in the automotive industry as well. A lot of my friends, family, and even educators that know me very well always come to me first when they have an automotive-related question, whether it is a future purchase/lease, mechanical problem, or anything in between. For example, I saved my parents $5,000 on their Toyota Prius when they bought it brand-new in January 2015. Another example is when I saved a friend of my father's $4,800 on a used 2013 Dodge Durango V8 back in August 2018. So I have saved a lot of people a lot of money. And in the end, not a single one has regretted their purchase using my services.
In conclusion, I am proud of this opportunity to become a moderator for scottykilmer.com and the fact that I will be working with one of the most honest mechanics in the industry. I am very much looking forward to become a moderator very soon.
Sincerely,
Anthony Zingale
