The 65-page report released Tuesday ends by saying BMV investigators found dealer sales records and car titles accurately reflect the price of vehicles sold to OSU players and their families.

The BMV and Ohio State launched investigations after reports that several players and their relatives bought cars from two Columbus dealerships: Jack Maxton Chevrolet and Auto Direct. The BMV report says Auto Direct made money on all 10 sales to OSU players and families, and Jack Maxton profited on 14 of 15 sales; the only sale that lost money was for a vehicle that had been on the lot more than five months.

Investigators also did not find evidence that memorabilia or game tickets were used as compensation in any sales.

The BMV report is separate from an ongoing investigation by the NCAA. The scandal has already forced out head coach Jim Tressel and starting quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

Pryor was seen driving a 2007 Nissan 350-Z Monday — just hours after Tressel, his football coach, resigned. A public records request to the Ohio Bureau of Motor vehicles turned up little information, other than the sports car was purchased one week ago. The owner’s name and address were redacted.

The NCAA is investigating whether Pryor has violated any rules related to his cars. Pryor previously drove a late model Dodge Charger.

Three weeks ago, a former car salesman for Jack Maxton Chevrolet signed an affidavit that stated he did not give OSU athletes special deals on cars. Auto Direct owner Jason Goss signed a similar affidavit.

Pryor already is suspended for five games, along with several other teammates, of the upcoming season for exchanging and selling memorabilia including gold pants charms for tattoos and cash.

The violations are at the root of Tressel’s resignation. He is accused of lying to the NCAA about his knowledge of the players’ violations. It is unknown whether Tressel will receive a severance package or if he will have to pay the $250,000 fine imposed by the university for the violations.

“The next least-expensive diesel that I saw was almost $6,000 for a car that I think is maybe the same year as the one I’m looking at here, had less miles, but it rattled, shook and shimmied, and I could tell it hadn’t been maintained,” Lennington said.

Lennington has spent two months looking for a second car and until today she says hasn’t had much luck. There’s a shortage of cars on the market priced at less than $5,000. Lennington guesses the Cash for Clunkers program is to blame. Nearly 700,000 cars were destroyed to try to jump start the production of new ones.

“I feel sorry for anyone looking for anything $2,500 or under because now you’re looking at a real heap of poo because most of those got turned in,” Lennington said.

Many of the used cars at dealerships in Central Ohio come from the Groveport Auto Auction. Every Wednesday hundreds of dealership owners and salesmen come in search of cars for their inventory. Keith Whann is the CEO of the auction. He says two years ago the auction showed more than 3,000 cars a week, but lately that number is down to 2,000. Whann confirms the Cash for Clunkers program is one reason supply’s down, but it also has a lot to do with the production and sale of new cars.

“When you think about the fact that there are a number of millions of less transactions taking place on the new car side and traditionally roughly 60 percent of those generate a trade-in, there’s a vast number of used cars that aren’t being traded-in to dealers. And when you combine almost seven-hundred thousand cars leaving the road, there’s a real shortage of used cars,” Whann said.

College Car Company manager Mike Hinterschied watched as Lennington negotiated the sale of the Volkswagen. He says the demand for affordable cars hasn’t changed, but the supply has forced prices up. The average sale price for cars at his dealership has increased from five to $6,000 to nine to $10,000- and the higher price may not mean a better car.

“I can perceive a difference in the quality between what I can sell for under $6,000, and what I used to sell for six. I think it’s less for your dollar right now.”

Hinterschied says he expects it will be some time before the automotive industry is thriving again. This, for consumers, means fewer options and higher prices. Lennington knows. She did buy the Jetta and says it was a good deal in a tough market.

“It’s manual windows, no sunroof, it’s a stick-shift, you know, but it has air conditioning, it has heat, and it has a stereo I’m happy,” she said.

While the repo-men and women still use old-fashioned methods to find cars more and more of them are turning to technology-including social media-to locate them.

“What’s the address of that one on North Champion? Is it out back? It’s out back, right? Okay we’re in route.”

Owner of Asend Recovery E.C. Canterbury pulls up to the 2006 Ford 500 parked on the side of the house within minutes. His spotters got full cooperation from the owner who pulled the car out of the garage. In less than 20 seconds Canterbury connects the car and is on his way back to the lot.

Soon after Canterbury heads to a Southeast Columbus location for a Chevy van.

“That’s our vehicle so we’re going to circle the block.” Canterbury says.

Within 30 seconds, the van is hooked up and towed around the corner. The vehicle moves sideways so Canterbury pulls over and readjusts the van.

“You can be in and out 20 seconds. Like I said if it wasn’t for the fact the wheel was cocked you saw how fast we got in and pulled out you’re gone in that amount of time a matter of seconds.” Canterbury says.

Canterbury goes on to say when owners don’t cooperate it can take up to a year or longer to capture some vehicles. That’s where technology can help. Some repo-companies are finding success by using Facebook and Myspace.

“We’ve gone on there and typed with them and told them who we are hey you know we need to talk in regard to your agreement with this finance company. So you were really up front with them. Right, we don’t try, we’re not trying to be deceptive.” Canterbury says.

They also do internet searches. Denise Trago traces cars for Mid-Ohio Recovery Services using a keyboard and mouse.

“For example this has a 2006 court record. It’s probably not going to be very close for us, but we can at least see if the address is close to around what we’re looking for.” Trago says.

Owner of Mid-Ohio Recovery, Paul Schafhausen says there are many other web search engines he uses to track down vehicles.

“People search, classmates dot com, Franklin county records and Ohio Secretary of State have been our big ones.” Shafhausen explains.

Yet, despite all the technology repo companies says it often still comes down to low tech drive-bys and stake-outs to retrieve repos.

Near the top of the American Electric Power building in downtown Columbus, Director of Distribution Engineering Services, Larry Dickerman, calculates the fuel demand of a plug-in electric hybrid vehicle.

“We’re looking at something that has the demand roughly of two refrigerators.” Says Dickerman.

That’s much less than the cost of gasoline. While the development and sale of more electric cars could be a financial boon for consumers. It would also help A-E-P and other electric utilities financially. Dickerman says frequent charging of the vehicles will boost demand for its product. And, if most consumers charge their cars while they sleep then A-E-P can more readily meet that demand without having to build more expensive power plants.

“For the most part, these vehicles can charge during the night when people generally aren’t using them and that is our off-peak period so it could work together very nicely for us and the owner of the vehicle.” Dickerman says with a range of 40 miles per battery charge electric vehicles could reduce gasoline use by as much as 30 percent. Across town, at the Ohio Petroleum Council on East Broad Street, Spokesman Terry Fleming is less sanguine about electric cars.

“And I don’t mean to be flip about this but its like a golf cart. You’ve got a giant battery operating your automobile.”

Fleming says demand for gasoline and diesel will be hurt a lot more by the economy and the price of crude oil than it is by electric cars coming on line. Nevertheless, Fleming says the petroleum industry has studied the possible effects of alternative fuels.

“Our industry has spent, I think, in the last three years eight billion dollars on alternative fuels, looking at where we will be in the future. What is the best viable alternative to fossil fuels and just not close right now on any of the alternatives we’re looking at, including electric. ” Says Fleming.

Still, the competition for future auto-fuel market share will intensify according to Ohio University Professor Chemical Engineering Kevin Crist. Crist says concerns about air pollution, global warming, and energy security will play a role in development of future fuel markets. He says the competition between electric and gasoline is instructive.

“Because they’re trade-offs here. One is you don’t have the emissions with the automobiles because they’re running electric and they’re highly efficient. But you are producing more at-the-point sources where you’re producing electricity and you need to study that to see what the net effect is gonna be.”

Crist says those studies will take years.

Tom Borgerding WOSU News

The lobby group SUV Owners of America fears that if the senate bill is enacted large sport utility vehicles and some pick up trucks will be jeopardized since they’re unable to meet the higher fuel standards.

Spokesman Barry McCahill said his group wants congress to allow different fuel standards for SUV’s and pick up trucks than for passenger cars.

“The reality is if you want pickup trucks that can tow a boat or an SUV that can tow a boat to the lake on the weekend or take a camper camping you have to have workability and that’s why cars and pickups and SUVs are different vehicles,” he said.

In newspaper ads, McCahill’s group urges drivers to lobby members of the House of Representatives for separate fuel standards for cars and light trucks. 12th district Congressman Pat Tiberi said as the house considers several proposals the stakes are high for both SUV drivers and the companies that make them.

“You could argue that Chrysler would have to stop producing some of their truck vehicles and one of those lines could end up being the Jeep line which has been a successful line. And more importantly from an economic development tool, is once you lose those jobs, those good-paying jobs are gone,” he said.

Tiberi says the House will take up the legislation later this month.

Richard Solove bought his first classic car nearly 40 years ago. It was a 1931 Rolls Royce Phantom, and getting the car was a dream he never thought he’d indulge.

“When I was a little boy, my father worked in a factory here in Columbus,” he said. “I lived just a half a block from Children’s Hospital. I saw Packards and Rolls Royces and LaSalles and different big classic cars, never dreamt I’d be able to afford them.”

But Solove later began a successful career as a real estate developer. He worked 80 hour weeks, and even now, at 82 years old, he’s not retired.

So it turns out he has been able to afford the cars he glimpsed in his youth. And in February, he completed his magnum opus. It took nine years, and a lot of persistence and persuasion. But he succeeded in assembling the world’s only complete series of Rolls Royce Silver Ghosts, one for each year they were made between 1907 and 1915.

California auction house owner David Gooding says the Silver Ghost model is the epitome of elegance.

“It was just absolutely undoubtedly the finest car of its era,” Gooding said. “It was superior in quality, it was also one of the most expensive cars you could buy. But in performance quality, versatility, and quietness it outperformed all of its contemporaries.”

Solove traveled the world to find the cars, which he restored to immaculate condition. Some have beveled glass windows or silver plated fixtures, others were owned by Indian kings.

But Solove didn’t complete the unique collection just to admire it. Even before he bought the ninth and last car, he knew he would donate all of them to OSU’s James Cancer Hospital to fund research.

“Now I’ll see it all go to an outstanding cause because my personal goal in life is to see cancer eradicated,” Solove said. “And that takes a lot of money. Everybody has been, is, or will be, affected by cancer.”

Solove himself is among those affected. As a young man, he watched his father suffer from cancer, and became friends with the late Dr. Arthur James of the OSU cancer hospital during the treatments. Solove has since served on the board of the James Hospital and made other donations but the cars are the largest.

In fact, they are the single largest donation in automotive history, and are expected to bring in 10 million dollars or more at the auction. Dr. Dave Schuller, Executive Director of the James Hospital, says the donation is worth more than its face value.

“He’s not just donating dollars from these spectacular cars, but giving us an opportunity to elevate our national and international stature with all this exposure,” Schuller said.

Solove also hopes that others, seeing his gesture, will be inspired to donate.

“I hope that it’s contagious,” he said. “I got a letter from a woman in St. Petersburg, she wrote and told me she was so inspired by what I’m doing that they’re making a very substantial gift to cancer research at St. Jude’s.”

Whether money goes to the James or elsewhere, Solove says he’s pleased it will make a difference to research that could ultimately be available everywhere.

The cars will be auctioned in Pebble Beach, California, on August 19. The proceeds are not earmarked for work on a specific cancer, but will go in the hospital’s general research fund.

Elsa Youngsteadt WOSU News

Now, safety activists are pushing for a state law that would require older children to sit in special booster seats. Statehouse correspondent Bill Cohen reports.