Earl Stewart on Cars - 01.02.2021 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Grieco Ford

Episode Date: January 2, 2021

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits Grieco Ford in Delray Beach to see if she can best deal possible on a 2020 Ford F-150 pickup. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Good morning. I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female business. We also have Rick Kearney, an expert on how to keep your car running right. I dare you to ask a question. The Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us is my son, Stu Stewart, our LinkedIn, Cyberstor, our LinkedIn. space through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Periscope. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our Mystery Shopping Report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting South Florida dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. Happy New Year. Can't believe it. 2021. Boy, that was a heck of a year, wasn't that? 2020. What? You're joking, right?

Huh? Yeah, I'm just kidding. Anyway, here we are. You're hot-to-avoid being ripped off by a car dealer show in our 17th, 18th, or 19th year. I can't remember. I've been doing a long time. Start out a half an hour, and now we're up to two hours.

Welcome, one and all. Hopefully, we have a lot of new folks out there. Love to have the referrals to the show. We're unique. You've heard the recorded an introduction, and we're a team in here. we have somebody in the studio they can answer just about any question

you could ask about automobiles I think we're about 50-50 between mechanical computerized technical problems and sales problems and leasing problems I guess the one thing we have in common it's all about problems if you didn't have problems with your car

we wouldn't be here and we're so proud to be here in 2021 and we look forward to a much better year, a much better year. This thing has been trying on all of us, the COVID. The COVID-19 issue has been weighing on everybody's mind, and it weighs on your car ownership. It's had amazing impact on the auto industry, the manufacturers, wholesale, we call them, and the retail.

That's the car dealers. I'm one of them, by the way, and total transparency, you need to know. that I've been a car dealer for 50 years, I still am. So I say that because I don't want to be accused of having an infomercial. You've seen those all over. Some of them are real sneaky. You turn them on on television a lot. You may even have video clips on YouTube, and they have radio infomercials.

This is not one. We don't get paid. I don't pay somebody to do this show I do this not to sell automobiles but to help you buy automobiles from anybody you want to I am a Toyota dealer

I have a toilet dealer ship Toyota only has about 15% of the market and I say only that's a pretty big chunk but there's 85% of you out there that don't want to buy a Toyota and there's some cars out there that are better than Toyotas

some out there that are worse than Toyotas it's a competitive market that's good for you. Competition is your friend. And that's one of the things we'll focus on today probably is how you can use competition against your car dealer. I'm a good example. I'm a car dealer. I'm extremely competitive, and I have that self-awareness, and it can be good, it can be bad. You use it to your good against car dealers by getting competitive information on repair prices, on maintenance prices, leasing, lying. There's a huge swing when you buy a car.

Right now, as we speak, somewhere in the country, someone's buying a car, and they're paying probably thousands of dollars. I don't say probably, literally. People are paying thousands of dollars more than they would have to pay, were they aware. Had they done their homework, had they listened to the show, Had they heard some of your advice because your calls are one of the most important things to the show. Before I get on with my rant, I'll try to get off my rant, I want to tell you how you can call this. It's 877-960-99-60.

That's our call-in number that we've had since the get-go here. I'm going to say 20 years. I need to look it up, instead of me rambling about that. 877, okay, 960, 960. I love to have you call us because we learn from you. I'm not trying to flatter you. I mean, we also hear some things that I know, but every now and then I hear something,

I can't believe this. We benefit from your calls, and then your constructive criticism, or unconstructive, as it be, is welcome too. We have a special number for that. It's not a number. It's a website. If you want to attack me or attack Rick or Stu or Nancy,

if you want to say something that you prefer not to be public about, we have an anonymous line. Very few. I know of no other radio show that does this. Television. I don't know anybody that does this. Your anonymous Feedback.com. That's right.

you go to that website Your Anonymous Feedback.com and it comes through a CIA cleansing agency that purges your name in any reference to your identity. That's really kind of cool. And the message comes through to us so that we can hear that

and not know where it came from. And the interesting thing about Your Anonymous Feedback.com is that we get far, far more really intelligent, constructive questions, comments, criticisms, than just about any other source. I'm not sure why that is. Anyway, and we have a text line. I don't want to overwhelm you, but I want to make the point that we truly want to hear from you.

We need to hear from you. Our text number, 772, 4976530. You don't really start out with even have a text number. And as technology, I remember 20 years. I mean, that was just after the birth of the Internet. So 772-4976530 is our old-fashioned text number. 772-4976530. So please, we really implore you to take advantage of that if you're driving.

driving, of course, you can only use a telephone, use your Bluetooth, don't use hands-free, don't take any chances. But please call us and let us know what you think, or any questions especially. Let me go to my left here, and I have Nancy Stewart, my co-host, and I say that because she was an original, a part of the team many years ago. We were on a little station called Sea View Radio. It was the same studio or the same building. We're in a different room, actually, but 20 years ago, and we had a half an hour show. And we just Nancy and me, and a half an hour,

and we could get very many calls, and we did a lot of yakken because we couldn't get calls, and suddenly they started to come in, and the rest is history. She's also a female advocate. Some people don't like that. Some people don't appreciate the fact that 50% of the world are females. And they buy probably at least 50% of the product. And I think in some countries, I think the USA is one of them,

they actually have more than 50% of the wealth. So a very, very important segment of our society. And so Nancy Stewart is a strong advocate for female rights. And she is going to tell you something very interesting about females out there that may be a little timid about calling the show. Tell me about that, Nancy. First, I'll say that there was pretty accurate numbers that you just stated. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

As Earl said, I have something pretty important for the ladies this morning, and that's $50 for the first two new lady callers. Give us a call. Questions, comments, anything about your last transaction or maybe service, anything. and that is 877-960-99-60. And for the rest of you, you can text us at 772-497-6530. And don't forget, take advantage of Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer. You know, you mentioned in your opening about the increase of the price of a car

and how things have changed and loans. You know, last week I had an article and I'm not sure whether I found it or who found it, but it said that amid COVID, the average car loan

got $4,000 bigger. Yeah. It's amazing. People are really borrowing serious money out of buy cars and we've seen an increase in demand individually. It's one good advantage of being a car dealer. I see it personally, Stu and I are amazed at how many new and use vehicles are being sold on the market. Manufacturers are having record years, virtually all of them. And so that impact has gone straight through

to you and you're born a whole lot more money. The good news is the interest rates are lower today, but the impact of the COVID demand, we hypothesized that this demand is you feel safer in your car. You're not going to drive to a group meeting somewhere. You're not going to be in a public place, so where can you be but get outside the house in your car, the sanctity and safety of your car, so people are buying more cars. Very interesting phenomenon. Another reason why our show can be more helpful to us than you would think. Very good. We're here for you, ladies and gentlemen.

You make the show. So, as I said earlier, 877-9-60-960, give us a call. We're going to go out to Jersey, and we have Bill on the line. Good morning, Bill. Hi, good morning, folks. Happy New Year to all you and all the radio listeners out there. Happy New Year. Yes, a long-time listener, and I do put a lot of credence in what Earl on the show brings.

So I recently had an experience where, actually I called in before and spoke to Earl about this, but I just purchased a new Accura RDX. And the situation, I could only say it was the worst buying experience of my life. I just don't know if this particular dealer or customer service has gone out the window anymore. And my question really is, when you have a poor buying experience, what is the best way to, you know, give them feedback or write online reviews, what does Earl really think is the best way to handle this? But not just for myself, but for future people may want to work with this dealer or the particular situation. Should I call the general manager?

Should I write a letter to Accura? But it was really an unpleasant situation. It got into a screaming match with them and my wife. And I feel everything about the deal was not pleasant. And normally I would have walked away, but they had the particular car. I did my homework. I had three competitive quotes. I got the true car pricing, Costco pricing.

So I knew exactly what I wanted, where I needed to be on the price. And it really just came down to that it felt like this dealer had more business than they knew what to do with and didn't really care too much about the customer. So I don't know if, you know, obviously, Earl doesn't run a business like that, but, you know, this is reality. This is the real world. and I was quite upset, and my wife is quite upset with it, whereas it should have been a very nice experience buying almost $50,000 car.

Really, both of us lost sleep over it, the way we were treated over it. Well, Bill, that is a very important question, and I probably don't address that issue more. I try to instruct people and train people and enlighten them on how to go about buying a car car car. and so on and so forth, but no matter how carefully you are, you experience these sorts of things as you did, you and your wife. And your observation was pretty accurate in what we call

a hot car market when there's more buyers than sellers, when the inventories are low and the demand is high. That's where we are in 2020, and we will be in 2021. It's just the car dealers that doesn't need you as much because if he doesn't sell you a car, somebody's going to come in right behind you, who he will sell that car to, and he knew that Accura was one that you wanted, and they were scarce, and he just didn't care about being courteous. I mean, it defies common sense and logic, but that's the way a lot of the car dealers feel.

To answer your first year, your question is, what do you do when it happens? And you mentioned a couple of things, a general manager. in order of reverse order of priority. I'll give you the fail-safe method at the end of the list, but the first thing you should do is go to the general manager. You should talk to the guy that runs a dealership. Sometimes it's the owner. Be careful of fake titles because everybody in a car dealership

has a management title, it seems like. But you want to go to the source, the owner, the general manager, the person that really runs the store. If you could get through to him, I would say 90% of the time you can resolve an issue. That person is more understanding of the overall importance of customer satisfaction. When that fails, and it fails a lot of times, because no one wants to let people get through to the owner or to the general manager.

For a couple of reasons, first of all, they're afraid of the criticism that may be directed to them. Yeah, excuse me one thing, Earl, I did, excuse me, I did read on some of the online reviews that there is a link for the email to the owner, but then someone answered that it is not, the owner is pretty much, it's just non-existent in this dealership, and it is answered by the general manager, I don't know, over a market person, right? So your next step after that would be to the manufacturer. Now, you mentioned Icarra, they have an 800 number again. this can work, and you should try that after you fail to get through to the guy in charge. And when that fails, then you have a couple of powerful tools.

The most powerful tool you have is the Department of Motor Vehicles. Every state has a Department of Motor Vehicles. The dealers are licensed by the Department of Motor Vehicles. That means that they're really the only people that can put a dealer out of business. If a dealer commits a serious violation, the Department of Motor Vehicles, not through a judicial process, but through just the right of their position in the state government, they can cancel a dealer's license, they can suspend the license, they can find the dealer. And all this is at the discretion of the Department of Motor Vehicles. So you write a letter to them, you copy the dealership, and you're careful how you write the letter. That nine times out of ten will get you a resolution of the problem.

And the last tool, the heavy-duty tool, is an attorney. I put the attorneys last because it's going to cost you probably, and it's a tedious process, and it's difficult. But that's a step. General manager, and then the manufacturer, and then the Department of Motor Vehicles, and then the attorney. Okay, very good. Very good. Very good.

Well, thank you, Bill. I appreciate you going in. And that question was on the minds of thousands of people listening, I'm sure. And you have a happy New Year. And thanks for calling. Okay. We are going to go to our callers are just coming in. This is very nice. Ladies and gentlemen, that telephone number again is 877-960-99-60. And don't forget, ladies, this morning I mentioned to you,

to give us a call because we have $50 for the first two new lady callers and if you have a shopping experience or a servicing experience could give us a call and share it with us we are going to go to a first time caller she's from jupiter and her name is joyce good morning joyce hi joyce you out there did we lose joyce sounds like it hey jose If you're listening, give us a call back. 877-960-90-90-60. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Okay, folks, don't forget about Rick Kearney sitting on my right,

and I say that because he is someone that can answer any mechanical computerized question that you may have. And we've talked about COVID-affecting our lives. One of the ways that COVID affect our lives, a lot of folks just don't want to come into a car dealership to get their car fixed or service especially. And so Rick can tell you what's important and what's not important. There are services that you can delay, and probably should, if you're nervous about it. And you'll also tell you some tips about maybe you can fix it yourself.

If you're a do-it-yourselfer, I promise you, he'll give you a tip. If you're not a do-it-your-suffer, he can tell you some places that you could possibly go that would be less, what's the word, chancy, exposed, that would help you preserve your health, is what we're talking about during this COVID thing. And sometimes if you have a problem, is just not serious, so you ignore it. So Rick Kearney, he's a certified master diagnostic technician.

And if you can give them the specifics of your problem, nine times out of ten, he could give you a diagnosis right here on the radio by YouTube, by Facebook, or however you want to do it. So give Rick a call 877-9-60-9-60. He's monitoring by the, well, YouTube. He's our official YouTube monitor, so you want to go YouTube.com forward slash Earl on Cars.

Here we are, and you can post the question to Rick on YouTube. We've got Stu Stewart, who is our cyber expert. He's our dispatcher of our undercover spy that goes out every week to visit a car dealership somewhere in America, actually Florida, and mainly South Florida. We do have some remote mystery shops occasionally because we have a team of vigilantes now. It's Earlsvigilantes.com who can report in about experiences they have in different parts of the country. So we do encompass the globe, especially Florida and the USA,

still was at another mystery shopping report and he's also monitoring turns out mainly our anonymous feedback line because we get so many but he also monitor our text

so what have we got going we got a text before we get to Stu let me tell you what folks this guy wears a lot of hats mm-hmm Stu thank you very much

you're welcome I mean a whole lot of hats I don't even know where he keeps them all I think he may have rented a storage unit. So, with that said, we're going to go to Joyce, who's back from Jupiter. Good morning, Joyce, and Joyce is a first time caller. Good morning. Good morning.

How are you, Joyce? I'm doing just fine. I'm just interested in your show. It's great. Oh, thank you so much. You won yourself $50. So thank you for the compliment. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. We pay $50 for every compliment, so... Bring them on. I'll keep going. How much time you got?

Just two hours. Well, thanks for the compliment, Joyce. You're welcome. You're welcome. Do you have a question for us? I'm always interested in, excuse me? I said, do you have any questions for us? I think we can answer to me.

I do. I wanted to know what you think of Carvana. They have a commercial just in our face all the time. You know, Carvana, you know, sidestepping the car dealer. Yeah, there is quite a few of them, I'll tell you that.

Yes, there are not just Carvona, that's an example. Carvona is unique. We'll be looking back on Carvana in 10 years saying they were the first or one of the first to understand

that people will buy a used car online and that you are able to have a satisfactorily, purportedly, I have no reason to suspect otherwise. We've shopped Carvana. Some ourselves. And I think they're a legitimate outfit. They're certainly on the New York Stock Exchange. They did a big IPO not too long ago. They're very well financed. They advertise a lot. And they're pioneers. They're losing a lot of money. And they're doing that largely because of their growth and they're advertising. But they should become becoming close to profitability. I know all the stockholders hope that will be the case.

But they tapped on something that a lot of people were afraid to look at and recognize that you can, in fact, if you hang up your shingle and say, we sell cars online, people will come to your computer website and buy a car menu. They kind of glossed over with their car dispenser, you know, the large 20-story or whatever it is, a car dispenser. The giant vending machine, which is pretty cool. You've got to get them. Yeah. But it's worth trying. I say this about Carvana or anyone else that's in the car business. Get a price from Carvana and then shop and compare it.

Competition is your best friend. So go to your local car dealer, independent use car dealer. Remember, Carvana does not sell new cars, only use cars. So if you're buying to use cars, get comparison prices from two or three other used car sellers, be online or otherwise. and then go with the best one. But get that used car checked out by an independent mechanic, the single most important thing you must do.

Have your mechanic check the car out, any used car you buy, whether it's from Carvana or CarMax or your local dealer, have your, not their mechanic, not the one they recommend, but the one that you recommend, the one that you know. If you don't know one, check around, check Google ratings, check other things for a good certified technician that could give you the summed up on that car you want to buy. And, Joyce, let me add this to the mix

if it wasn't difficult enough to purchase a vehicle today, but you can make it a whole lot easier. You can even get a lower price by going to the Internet. It's a great place to go. And, you know, for those of us that are born and raised before this digital revolution, I'll call it, There are more of us that really feel a little bit nervous about going online and purchasing a vehicle. But I'll tell you what, you do your homework and apply certain techniques, meaning, you know, what you want, what you need.

And all of those details are extremely important. And I promise you, you'll get one heck of a deal. Oh, great. Thank you for that. You're welcome, Joyce. Is there any other questions? No, that's been the top of my priority. I can't buy new right now, but I like all the competition use up to my advantage. I like that. I'm going to have to keep that in the back of my motto for when I'm going out there. Yes, yes. Well, the advantage of not being ready right now

is that you have a lot of time to put into, you know, all the information, and there sure is a lot of it out there and remember knowledge is power joyce thank you so much for calling um you you may not realize this but uh you're a big part of helping me to build this platform for ladies and i'll tell you what we're doing a heck of a job and uh it's a new day there are more ladies calling now than ever before so i hope to hear from you again and spread the word and enjoy your fifty Oh, thank you so much. All right. Look forward to talking and listening to your show again.

Thank you. Okay. We are going to go to Stu, and he put on one of his hats. You were talking about hats, yeah, and I thought that was a great segue, and folks, we didn't plan this, but speaking about hats, Earl's smiling over there behind his mask, I can see it in his eyes. We have hats for our vigilante team, and I messed up. I was supposed to bring him in, we were going to wear them today, but I didn't. didn't take them home so we'll have to show you on our heads we'll model them for you next

week but John is that clear so that is the embroidered patch on the hats that all of Earl's vigilantes we take a look at that yeah we don't have to get one out to our current vigilantes we do yeah we it was a sample size but I think we still ordered 20 or 30 of them okay and so that will cover all of us and the vigilantes out there you hear it the hats are in the mail there it is folks when you see them you're going to want to become a vigilante just for the hat. Amazing. You'll be proud to wear that hat.

And so that would be just one more hat that I wear. Even though I'm not a vigilante, but I guess we kind of are. All of us here in the studio are the original vigilantes. But we got the hats for it, so we'll make it official for you guys. So you can look forward to that next week, folks. Yeah, that's right. We do have a lot of text and anonymous feedback coming in, and I want to start with Amarie, because it was waiting for me

when I sat down this morning. Oh, good morning, Annery. Good morning and happy New Year. Amory says, good morning. I've heard that this pandemic has adversely affected this country's manufacturing capabilities. Everything from infected employees being jammed together in meat packing plants to delays and getting parts and other materials for our manufacturing facilities. And general, people just don't or can't work efficiently when they are sick or the workers next to them are sick. That being said, I'm sure that people are doing the best they can with what they've got. This pandemic is messing up everybody's daily lives. I was wondering, since you have a dealership and do mystery shopping investigations,

have you noticed any decline in the quality in any of the vehicles made since the pandemic started? It's a great question. Has your mystery shopper noticed anything amiss that would be readily apparent like the fit and finish of vehicles not being what they used to be? Have any technical service bulletins been issued for any problems arising from this pandemic? and what impacts has the vehicle manufacturers encountered that may affect their customers. Thanks. Amory, you think more deeply about the car business than I do. I mean, I wonder about these things, but you wonder about the most interesting things.

Rick is probably the guy to address this as far as things that he's most like on the mechanical and the fit and finish. Excuse me, everybody. Amory, you and I, we are going to have our own share. show. How do you like that? Because I wondered about the same thing. I mean, being able to get parts and everything in between and what they're using in service, Rick, to substitute for something you just can't get. Now on to Rick. Well, the first impacts we saw was we're just on production, and that was back in the spring when they actually shut down the production all across the country. And that was when we first got the pandemic. So the first thing we saw was like

it was very difficult to get a car and inventories. got really, really light. We're always seeing issues, all manufacturers do. I don't know any that we can pin to the pandemic, but Rick might know. It would be near impossible to pin to the pandemic, especially since a lot of issues on cars don't show up for several years until the cars have had time to break in or something. But I don't think we've really seen a big change in the quality on the cars. I think the quality has been there.

Supply of parts has had a minor impact. A small impact here and there on some things, but not enough that has really given us a big dent in the problem. Nothing that I would call, oh, this is a bad issue. It's just minor little things here and there, and so we compensate. We work around it. As far as the mechanics go, one of the things is, Everyone is wearing a mask in the shop, which unfortunately, you're in a kind of hot environment and it's a heavy physical job most of the time. What do you complain about? We have an air condition service department.

Oh, yeah, but even in there, with the doors opening and closing all the time, and certain areas could be a little warmer. It could be a lot worse. Oh, it could be a whole lot worse. But with wearing the mask, it does slow us down a little bit, especially the older text. like myself, we have to take certain things in the company, you know, in a consideration. So it does slow down the work process just a little bit, but we're also a lot more conscious about such things as wearing gloves a lot more often, keeping the cars a lot cleaner where we can. You're really, really just going all out to make sure that we're trying to protect

the customer. It adds a little to the process. Almost to an overkill point, but I would rather go overkill on protecting the customer, protecting ourselves at this point. So, Rick, are you saying that the impact that was made on parts and everything else in the beginning when this pandemic hit, it no longer exists right now? You can get things easily that you need. Yeah, we can get the parts and supplies. I don't see any issues going on there anymore.

Exactly. I'm going to have to interrupt everybody. And does Anne-Marie have another continuing? She can text us if we didn't cover everything, but I think we answered it. Okay, thanks, Anne-Marie. We're going to go to John, who has been patiently holding, and he's a regular caller from Palm City. Happy New Year, John.

Happy New Year to everyone. I want to thank Earl and Nancy for not only being there, but I can't remember when they missed the show. It goes probably back to when you went to a convention in California. I don't remember, but you're there each and every week to educate us on the automobile field. And I got two questions for Rick, and it's concerning batteries. I'm looking and I'm seeing the battery on my one car. It's going on stamped on it four years in February.

And I know I have AAA, I have the insurance company call 800 number, but I want to replace it automatically before there's any problems. Is that usually the life in South Florida, three and a half to four years of a car battery today? Four years in South Florida, it's starting to get up there in age. What I'd recommend really is stop in at one of the local auto parts stores and just ask them to do a battery test on it. They have some very small machines that are extremely accurate in determining how much lifespan your battery has left. left, and most of the time they'll do it for free. Okay, but I want to ask you also, I'm not still for doing things myself, and I'd like to

upload the consumer reports to get the best battery for that particular car, but when I take it out, all the computers have to reset. Is there any instrument or anything that I can either borrow or buy that stops the computers from being reset, that I don't have to worry about it? They repaint, you know, the clock and everything continues. What do you recommend on that? Yes, they do make, you can probably find these on Amazon or just about anywhere. It's a simple little battery backup device that plugs into the cigarette lighter,

and you'll need to, for your particular model of car, you'll need to find out whether you need to have the key on or not. And basically, what it does is it keeps the memory alive while you disconnect the battery, swap it over, and reconnect your new battery. And it will keep all the power, everything powered, and for the few minutes that it takes, and it will keep that memory alive so you won't lose any of it. Okay, my mechanic calls me squeaky clean.

The terminals on mine, I regularly inspect them, and I buy a spray in the auto store. It's like a coating. You could do it yourself probably with Vaseline. Absolutely. But I want to ask you, in the auto store, I also saw that they make a, felt washer that goes underneath the positive. One is green, one is red. Would you recommend

something like that to stop the corrosion forming on the battery terminals? Those things cost pennies, really, in the true cost of the world. I can't really tell you that they help, but they sure can't hurt. Okay. That's what I want to know. I figured they're cheap enough, and it's very soft so it's easy to install and it's easy to put because it's a red for positive and a green for negative yeah but the point that I want to take people is people think it's battery failure that's number one I think it's a terminal failure here in South Florida especially with the dampness and the weather that they should watch the battery terminals very carefully that no corrosion forms absolutely well thank you guys

and thank you for being here. Oh, you're welcome. You're welcome, John. You know, a whole lot of thank you is to Earl, who's here every single Saturday morning, and I'll tell you what, he's filled with so much knowledge. It's just amazing, and it's all free. And you, the listeners, are an important part of the show,

and if you want to take in and absorb all of the information he has for you, well, you can just tune in. every Saturday morning we enjoy your company. Give us a call tool free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. You know, I wonder if John was watching Jay Leno's garage show yesterday with Elon Musk. Yeah, I don't know. That was really an interesting show.

Rick, did you miss it? Unfortunately, I was tied up the whole day yesterday. Yeah, it was amazing. I realized, didn't realize that there's a race car driver who's blind. Yeah, amazing. Okay, back to Stu.

Yeah. Okay, we got a text from Bobby B. in the villages. I'm guessing that factory recommendations for all change intervals is the bare minimum, not ideal interval. Wouldn't my engine be healthier and perform better if I change my oil three times per year or even four times?

That's a Rick question. No. No, with the new. synthetic oils once a year is all you really need and 10,000 miles I understand the thinking I mean they're saying like okay

if we put a whole lot of recommendation you know for a lot of intervals people wouldn't do it so that's the bare minimum but I think they got it pretty wired down pretty dry you can brush your teeth 25 times a day too you'd have really really healthy teeth but your gums might be messed up

the only thing I'll say is if you've got an older car a much older car with 100 say 175 200,000 miles on it and it's starting to use a little bit of oil you know and it's a much older vehicle at that point yeah maybe change you a little more often okay but even then i would consider switching to conventional oil and change it more often that way for less expense okay all right next one uh no name on it it says i love your show and i've been looking forward to the next time

i will buy a car so i can put your advice to use well that time is now i think assuming you can confirm now is the best time of year to buy a new car. I've gotten three prices from three Toyota dealers in the last two weeks. It was a struggle to get an out-the-door price from two of the three, but I did it. My question is, what do I do if or when they try to change the terms when I actually show up to deal? Well, I think that should be, again, decided in writing so you don't waste your time, and I'm not sure how far away you went, but you don't want to drive 30 or 40 or 50 miles find out if they change their mind and they might so the best thing to do is when you pick the dealer that gave you the best out-the-door price confirm that in writing

and you want to answer to your confirmation so let's say the price i'll use round numbers is twenty thousand dollars and you got that's your lowest price so you go online you email the salesperson and you say i'd like to make an appointment to come and see of the same afternoon at 2 o'clock. I have a check for $20,000. This is your out-the-door price on such-and-such and specify the vehicle that you agreed upon. And I'll be there at such-and-such and such a time. I'm going to hand you the check. I'm going to get in the car and I'm going to drive home. Are there any issues that you perceive or may I do as I described? And then you have something that's a legal document. Not a lawyer would say it's not legal, but a judge

would use that as probable cause for deceit and deception if they didn't honor it. And I would suggest that you do that before you make the long drive. Okay. All right, the next one. This is from anonymous feedback. And it's from, well, he gave his name, so that's okay. Alan is no longer anonymous. But he says, really enjoy the car buying advice.

Plan on buying a Toyota, Camry, or Avalon, once the virus is under control. Question. I'm keeping my old Nissan Ultima, no trade. I'll use Chase Bank to finance the car for a three-year loan, 10% down payment. So no trade, no dealer financing. Will I be able to avoid the hard sell in the F&I office? No. It depends on where you go. Yeah, you know, you can avoid a hard sell anywhere if you have the fortitude and the personality to be able to do so. It takes an aggressive, secure, I don't know what the word is, commanding personality. And then you don't have anything to worry about. Unfortunately, most of us aren't like that.

And car dealers are very smart. And the salespeople are very well trained in a successful dealership. They're experts at what they do. And the finance department, the finance managers, they often call themselves business managers, are extremely talented and that's what they do day in, day out. A lot of hours too. Car business, retail

car dealers are open seven days a week. So you're remember, you're walking in there, you're an amateur, and you're dealing with a professional. And the pressure might not be so obvious. So it's not easy to avoid deception. Alan, that's one of the things that finance managers are trained to.

They're called cash conversions. In your mind, you're not paying cash, but to the dealership you are because you'll be showing up with a check or a draft. from the bank and they're trained to overcome that and try to convince you to go with their financing which you know it's worth hearing it out because but you but you still might be subjected to some pressure there solution to your problem is this it's your best out the door price on financing terms and interest rate and payment from your bank and your credit union if you can and use that and then that way there's no conversation this is the deal

You're not going to buy anything else in finance. You're not going to buy any of the products they offer you. You just want them to finance it. Can they match that payment in terms and interest rate? If so, let them do it. But if they can't, go to your bank or your credit union. You take control of it by getting competitive bids. I know I'm redundant.

I know I say this all the time. Competition is your friend. Is your friend when you get a trade-in allowance on your trade-in? When you price on your new car and on your financing, competition will win the war with the car dealer. Okay, that's a great segue for me using the word friend. Remember, ladies and gentlemen, you're not there to make friends. Definitely not.

You are there to purchase a car, and remember, they are there to sell you a car. There is no friendship here, so keep that in mind. Now back to Stu. Alan has a follow-up to his question. He says, also, I know that. the dealer is entitled to a profit to stay in business, but what is reasonable and fair? In Georgia, the tag entitle fee is about $38, and sales tax is 6.6%. Most dealers are adding a $599 dealer fee.

You're overthinking it. Yeah. And the dealer is entitled to make a profit. It isn't how much he's entitled to make. A dealer, see, that's a nice thing about being a car dealer. I understand both sides of the equation. A car dealer is entitled to make as much money as he possibly can if he operates his dealership honestly and ethically.

And Apple makes a huge amount of money. Apple sells an amazing product. And Apple charges a lot of money for their products. But you get value for your money and you get treated with courtesy of respect, transparency. So a car dealers are entitled. I don't complain when a car dealer sells a car and makes a lot of money if he does it honestly and ethically. And there is something to be said for buyer beware. See, I'm wearing my dealer head now. You should be educated and you should be prepared

when you go into buying a car, just like when you buy an Apple computer. You should check with Dell. you should check with all the other competition out there for Apple and buy where you feel most comfortable and you have the best product. You can really intimidate the salesperson, the F&I people with all that knowledge whenever you walk in and guess what, folks, you're in control. Ladies and gentlemen, give us a call.

Toll free at 877-960-9960. Now back to Stu. Do any of your YouTube fans have any questions right now for us? I do have one right now. Helen Laskies is Happy New Year. This is Helen from Malabar. What happens when a dealership advertises a promotion on their homepage and then fails to honor it? They advertised a free year of maintenance on the purchase of a new Honda, which I fulfilled.

I purchased. They said I was not entitled to it because I got another promotion on a flyer I received in the mail. a few weeks earlier a $350 loyalty check. The dealer was very condescending when I pointed out that there was no wording about stacking two promotions. What recourse do I have? Well, I would go, the way I talked to Bill earlier in the show, I would go to the general manager of the dealership,

the owner, the person in charge. That didn't work. I would report that dealer to the manufacturer, assuming he's a new car dealer. He's a new car dealer. And if that didn't work, I would go to step number three, which is the Department of Motor Vehicles. If, in fact, there is an offer in writing on their website or wherever,

and even on the fine print, there's no disclosure that exclusive of all other offers. See, that's a typical fine print. They make six different great offers, and they all sound like they're cumulately even together. But if you look at the fine print, they typically say, this offers exclusive of all other offers. If that was not in the fine print, that was not said, then you have a great case with the Department of Motor Vehicles, and that'll be free.

They'll get a letter from the Department of Motor Vehicles, and you'll never see a dealer snap to attention and do the right thing faster than that. If, for some reason, that doesn't work, it's a slam dunk with a lawyer. You'll have to get a lawyer that will do it on contingency. Take 40% and sue them for damage. and so on so forth but I think if you go to the general manager it's a simple

question you have to disclose your offers in fine print even fine print technically is a violation of the Federal Trade Commission rules but I don't want to get into a law school thing here simple thing is go to a general manager that will probably get the deal done have you been watching the practice is that Is that it, Rick? You got any more over there? We're caught up right now. Okay, great. We'll go with anonymous feedback.

Good morning, Earl. And this is a question for Rick. Have you heard about Toyota having bad spark plugs? I've heard through various garages that fake Denzo spark plugs have made their way to Toyota dealership parts departments. Oh, I have not heard of this, and nor have I experienced anything of it. I didn't understand the behind your mask there with a phrase. Denzo, maybe, because the manufacturer? I'll go right back to it.

Parts? Parts? Parts, yes. Parts departments. Having bad parts departments? Yeah, he says he's looking online. He says he's heard about fake Denzo spark plugs making their way into Toyota parts departments. Like they're out in the market and maybe parts departments are buying these bad,

these counterfeit plugs. Well, it happens. I mean, parts, fake sounds like a bad thing. But if it's not an original equipment manufactured part by Toyota, it can still be a quality part. And I'm sure there are parts departments

in Toyota dealerships and all other dealerships that stock parts because they can buy them cheaper elsewhere. Oil filters might be an example. And they find a quality oil filter and they will sell it to you maybe for less, maybe not. If they don't sell it for less, they're buying it for less, and they're making more money on it. But just because a part is quote-unquote fake

doesn't make it a bad part. especially in collusion parts, you have to be careful because they probably haven't been tested if they're not an original equipment part, but oil filters, spark plugs. I mean, there are a lot of parts out there that are quality that aren't made by the manufacturer. Correct. Okay, we are going to go to another caller who would like to remain anonymous, and she is from West Palm Beach. um good morning um hey rick this is the lady who had the prius that used only you to service her car

could you repeat that yeah is rick is rick there yeah he is yeah we're all here yeah okay um so i recently bought um a Toyota carola from your dealership and rick used to service my prius he was the only person whoever touched my beige Prius. Oh, this is Marily. Yeah, hey. Okay, so I'm calling because I want to compliment everybody. Rick's been servicing my car for the last five years, and he is absolutely excellent. And when my car died, and I had to buy me, Carola, your dealership was the only one I was going to come to.

and Gianti was my salesperson, and he was excellent. And I never got pressured by the finance guy. I walked in with a voucher, and I told him I had it. I got a great trade in, and the experience was just terrific. So I just wanted to say that and to say thank you to everybody. Oh, thank you. That was really nice. I'm sure.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Thanks so much for the call. You are welcome. and Rick, when my carola needs servicing, I'll see you again. Oh, thank you. Well, happy New Year, and I'm sorry, Rick blew your anonymity.

Keep on listening and spread the word. We love the lady callers. Okay, great. Thank you. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. 877-960-9960. I'm sorry, I forgot.

She requested in a name, and I'm like, why are you hitting Rick? Rick, I almost got knocked over the answer. All right. Let's go back to some real anonymous people. Hey, I didn't hear. I don't remember what her name was. Okay. This is really good. I think this came up probably because we talk about, if you're looking at a used car, if possible, bring that used car that you're considering buying to your mechanic or somebody that you know, somebody that you trust. But the question says, when you get a mechanical inspection, it doesn't have to be your mechanic if it's too far away. just go to a mechanic near the dealer that you're buying from, but just don't go to the one that the dealer suggests.

Very wise. Now, what I'm not clear on and you might be able to enter is, I don't know if you can get a free inspection or even an inexpensive one, but it shouldn't be too much money, but if you know somebody they might. If you get a free inspection, they're trying to sell you something. Free inspections, and all the dealers do this, by the way, you know, come in for a compliment rate, 25-point inspection. Well, it's complimentary because they're trying to find something.

to Zillia and they get paid on commission and you give a hungry mechanic that's paid on commission 25 minutes to look at 25 things on your car he's going to find 20 things that need fixed so what you should do is pay for it that way you're you're being fair with him and he's being fair with you hopefully and you say look I don't mind paying you $125 but I want a thorough check of my car and if there's anything that requires adjustment or fixed before I buy it, please tell me. And that way it's a deal to deal. And that you would consider them for any repairs that he did.

Exactly. Don't promise, but say you'd consider. Okay, more anonymous feedback. Rather than getting hosed from a buy here, pay here used car dealer, save up some money and buy a car in Facebook marketplace, and then take it to a mechanic for an inspection, those buy here pay here dealers are not up to snuff. Settle for a Krola or a Yaris, and don't go fancy.

Well, I respectfully disagree with the well-intended comment, and I can understand, I know a lot of people are like that, that feel like you should not. There are people out there that are in conditions that they cannot save the money, and they're living hand-to-mouth, and especially today during COVID, a lot of unemployed people, and buy-here, pay-here dealers have a bad reputation. I used to be a buy-heer, pay-heer dealer. And I guess I did have a bad reputation. But you can still be an honest fair buy-here-pay-here-dealer. And what they will do for you, if you are in a situation where you're literally living hand-to-mouth, you're having trouble buying food,

you have trouble buying groceries, and you need a car because you can't get to work without a car, where are you going to go? Who are you going to call? You go to buy here, pay here. And you make a weekly payment, usually, and you don't have to have good credit. Yes, they charge you too much money, and they charge you an extremely high interest rate. But where would you be without it, without the car? You might be homeless. You might be hungry. So buy here, pay here dealers do serve their purpose in life and there are good ones

I'll name you one that I know of particularly beach cars in Palm Beach County. They've been around for a long time. They're honest and they do charge a high interest and they do charge a lot of money for the car. And if you don't make your payments, they'll come and get your car. But

that's a you could call it a necessary evil and some people can't save money so I didn't want to go on and on. Yeah, there's a place for them. All right, we got more. We got a whole bunch of them. I could take up the rest of the show with these.

Why do some car dealers offer things like free oil changes, window tent, and paint protection? If they're giving away, doesn't it cost them money? I find it difficult to believe that they really are giving that stuff away, and I'm assuming the customer is paying for it somehow. Nothing is free. Of course. Your observations, right. The things that they talk about are typically overvalued in their,

And hopefully in yours eyes, window tent has a higher perceived value than what it actually cost the customer and nitrogen and tires. All the things that you see that are sometimes given away free have a high perceived value. Like Zurich Shield. Yeah. Zerick Shield in our Mr. Shopping report. Don't forget steak knives. By having something that they say is free, it sounds like you're getting something good. and it's not as valuable as you think it is.

Pinstripe is one of those. Good point. Exactly. Pinstripes I see on these addemums for like $100, $200. I can tell you, it literally, if you do the materials is negligible. It's a roll of tape, and they might pay a technician maybe $10 to put it on. So it's a $10 value, maybe an $11 value that you charge $200. Back in the day, what was the cost of a gold package?

how much money was made on that that was amazing an amazing time you just brought back a memory that actually was kind of a labor intensive thing they did like this electrophoresis process where they actually applied gold to these to the emblems but i can't really charge a lot of money for it and your instincts are right probably a lot more a huge markup from what it actually cost the dealer to put on okay hey let me take a minute and i'll bring up that topic that we spoke about earlier and that's Earl's vigilantes. I don't know whether you saw the logo that Stu showed all of us this morning, but gosh, this thing is getting huge. And we're going to have the logos, the t-shirts, we're going to have the hats, and you too can sign up for Earl's

Vigilantes to simply go to, excuse me, www.orghersvigilantes.com. And if you consider yourself any type of a, well, car person, or you want to, you know, help out your community by signing up. We would love to hear from you. And you don't have to consider yourself what I call an auto expert, but just a little bit of knowledge will help. So go there and sign up, Earlsvigilantes.com. Come on, ladies. I want to hear from you, too.

So get up there. You'll have a hat. you have a t-shirt, it'll be a whole lot of fun. Nancy, can you make an appeal for some female vigilantes? I realize we have about a dozen vigilantes all across the country, and they're all guys. We need some women helping out with this. Did you hear what Stu just said? Did you hear what I just said?

Well, they're not going to listen to me. They'll listen to you. Ladies, ladies, ladies, come on. I know you know a whole lot about cars than we once did. Well, I'll use myself for an example back in the days, back in the 50s. you know and we're i think we're i think we're well for a lack of another word we're experts and you can really help out your community and you can help us so many ladies and you can get yourself a t-shirt a hat pop pop pop up it'll be a whole lot of fun so sign up earls vigilantes

dot com all right this is the text this is from christin and detona beach I was just listening to the last caller, and you mentioned that everyone in a car dealership calls themselves a manager. This is hilarious. Last time I bought a new car, I went through the Internet Department and was supposedly buying from the, quote, unquote, internet manager. But every time I ask for something, like a small reduction in payment and complementary carpet mats, the quote, unquote, internet manager had to keep checking with, quote, unquote, my manager. And that's from Christa. Like, yeah, if you're the manager, you know, you don't have any authority. A lot of times, Kristen, the dealers don't realize that's happening.

And they tend to assign titles that sound good in our service department. The person that greets you in the service department is a service salesperson. But they call themselves assistant service managers. So in my dealership, we have, what, 14, 12, assistant service managers. Well, we don't call them that there. Well, but they call themselves that. And, you know, they think I don't know it, but they do it anyway. And so everybody is in the handspan.

You're going to go back. Everybody's a vice president. And you see the guy with a uniform sweep on the floor? He's vice president on the maintenance. That's a really good point. And also, whenever you're buying a car and you're trying to negotiate a price and so on and so forth,

hold on. I have to go talk to the manager. Dda-da-da-da-da. So it's not easy. One thing you might do is try the organization chart. If you can get that, if you can go online, you can go about us on the website. You have to do some research because it's awfully hard to find the real boss.

And another reason for that, not to beat a dead horse here, but the employees don't always want you to talk to their boss. And if there's little hanky-panky going on, and they're kind of stretching the truth a little bit, and the boss wouldn't like that, they're going to be the boss. So it's a challenge, especially at cardio ships, to find out the real boss. One great thing that I recommend when you go into any car dealership,

before you start doing anything, ask about the organization. Who's your boss? You ask the salesman. And I'd like to meet your boss. You know, if he's going to say he's the boss, everybody's got a boss, right? So you meet the boss. Now you can talk to that, and you can say, who do you report to?

May I have another little trick, and I know I'm going on here, but you get a cell number, a cell number of the salesperson, a cell number of his boss, and get as many cell numbers as you can. Because if you've got the cell phone number, they know that they can't hide from you. You're going to get through them sooner or later. Get the cell phone number of as many managers

and the dealership as you can. Yeah, do it when things are good before things go south when they're not afraid to give it out. Don't give them my number now. Get them before they start lying. They walk in, they say, welcome into ABC Ford. You say, do you have your cell phone number, please? Well, I'll tell you how many people I've...

That's your boss. How many people I've talked to? And I said, do you have their cell number? Do you know their name? They're going to ask you for your cell number. I mean, that is gold. If I'm in a business and someone refuses to give me their cell phone number, why would I give them my cell phone number?

So there you go. Yeah. That's what I said to these crazy callers that call us at night. Okay, we are going to go to Boynton Beach. McDonald's, they're not going to give you their cell phone there. We're going to go. Quit giving up mine. Oh, maybe they would.

I'm going to try it. Next time I go to McDonald's, I'm going to say, here's my phone phone. I want to walk her and give me your cell phone. No, no, no, no, no. No, you say, here's my cell phone number, and may I have yours. Oh, damn it. I want to go to guns. They're going to call the police on you.

I'll be there. Rick's leaving. I haven't a Burger King, remember that? Oh, I was traumatized. We're getting in weeds here. Hey, we've got to go to Steve, who's holding, and Frank, please hold on. Steve's calling us from Pointe Beach. Good morning, Steve.

Good morning. This is Roadrunner, Steve. Hey, everybody. How are you doing, Steve? Good. I got two questions. This one is about Carvanna, whatever you want to call it. Carvana.

I mean, why would people? buy there, put a chip in a machine and buy a car. That's like buying a candy bar. You never know what you're going to get. Well, that's a good point. A serious answer, it's more for show. That's not the way they really sell cars. They spend

a lot of money on that because they had a lot of money on an IPO. And I think there's only one of them. And they use that in all their images and logos and marketing. But that's not the way you really buy a car from Carvana. Do you get to take it for a test driver?

anything like that? Yes, they will take it to your home. You can go online and you can consummate the transaction. They'll bring the car to your home and then you get to test drive it and they will appraise your car at your home, take the car back, you write them a check and it's a relatively honest online experience. But yeah, you better test drive the car and you also better take that car to your mechanic and have them check it out before you buy it. True. Now, My friend is going to buy a new car, and I'm telling him, you don't have to pay dealers fees. You don't have to pay all these fees. He's telling me you have to pay him.

Can you go to the list? Is your friend a dealer? I know you say it 100 times what? I should not pay at a dealer. Steve, you don't really care if you pay a dealer fee as long as the total price out the door is competitive. So rather than play the dealer fee game and demand that the price be taken off of the for the dealer fee be taken off the price of the car. Just say, listen, give me your best price, include any fee you want. You can include a fee for getting a haircut. I don't care what fee.

Some of the car for a dollar. Yeah, I don't care what you put in there. Give me your bottom line out-the-door price because I'm going next door to your competition, and I'm going to show him your price. And if they have a better price, I'm going to buy from him. So knock yourself out, put your fees in there. I just want an out-the-door price. And that's better than arguing about the dealer fee. He'll have an answer. He'll say, all the dealers charge dealer fees, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then you're in an argument. Just get the out-the-door price and shop it with this competition. I don't look at it as an argument.

I look at it as in negotiation. Well, if you like to negotiate, that's fine. Some people do. That's old-fashioned. I mean, I don't want to insult you because I'm old-fashioned. No, I'm so old to be insulted. But if you love to negotiate, then knock yourself out. You can argue with them.

and it's just going to take you a lot longer to get a good price. And I believe you will get a good price, Steve, because you sound to me like you have a very commanding, aggressive personality, and you're the type of guy that can negotiate a good price. That's from being a New Yorker. You know, we negotiate everything. I hear you. I know.

I've been to New York. I know what you're talking about. We can't be right of a fish in a fish store. We might use you for a mystery shopper. I want to. You might, we'll give you a local dealership and we'll ask you to torture them. No, I would have to bring my blood pressure machine because I would just watch it go up. With all the lies, they would tell me, watch their nose grow.

Oh, boy. But I only bought one new car to my light on, and it was a 1996 Dodge Neon. What a pizza junk it was. I was about to say, I'm sorry about that. I got rid of it within a year. The car would stop and shut off at a redlight. All the gauges would go down. I had to start it up.

But I should have owned better. When I got the call home, the headlights didn't work. They had to go back to the dealer, and they had to install the fuse. Use car is a much better value, Steve. You're a smart guy. Don't buy a new car. Buy a late model used car. Get a checkout by a mechanic, and you're saving yourself a couple grand.

That's why I listen to car talk radio. Listen and learn. There you go. Even if it's a little... Oh, by the way, I had my roadrunner out last week when it was nice and cold out. Uh-huh. That cold air got under that hood.

It added another 25 horsepower to the car. I could hardly wait to get to that green light and just take off. Sounds like that old song, Mabelene. Do you remember that? Yeah, but I'm just glad there was no cops around. Cold air making my engine. Go good.

There's something like that. Yeah. Yeah, I was the red bullet on 441. Look at. Okay, everybody, have a happy and safe New Year. You too, Steve. Thank you. Same to you, Steve.

Thanks so much for entertaining us. Okay, we are going to go to Frank, who is in Jupiter Farms, a regular caller. Good morning, Frank. Good morning. Happy New Year to you guys. Happy New Year. I got a couple things, so I'm trying. I'll get one out of the way.

real quick. I'm into spring house clean, which obviously is winter, but that's all right. It's springtime hair compared up north. I got dozens. No, I got hundreds of car magazines.

Car and driver, road and track, hot rod, automobile. Is there anywhere that anyone might want them or anything for like your or your mechanic break room or something? Any of that helped you guys for anything? Rick, what do you think? Truth be told,

Most places I can think of, World Magazine, it's really hard to say. I wouldn't know of any place to tell you that would really be wanting to take a bunch of them. Maybe some of the trade schools or tech schools. That's a good idea. A lot of the students there, yeah, that's some of the things that try to help get them more interested in the idea of it. Good thing. Yeah, I hate to put it in the way. they're in really decent shape.

I mean, you're going to read so much. And, you know, for you, it's only $8 a year. And I go, yeah, it's a great deal. But like you said one time, the bargain's on the bargain if you need it. When you were getting like 10 magazines a month, there's just no way to read them. Having said that, the other place I used to take them to were like some of the places of the tire shops and Midas. But now most people don't want to leave anything out there because of the COVA thing. Yeah, I was just going to say that, Frank.

I noticed the other day I was in an office. that always had magazines everywhere, the office is cleared out because of the pandemic. We've done the same thing. What Rick suggested, you know, that it might be a good idea. Yeah, I'm looking to that. On a second, one of my friends was looking for a car, and he's found a 2008 charger, I believe, something that they used in one of the police things or municipalities.

He's got 265. $5,000 miles, and they're trying to sell it for $6,000. And I said, why go that money away? That car is probably worn out. Yes, I know they can go up to $200,000, but $265. And the guy doesn't go on his price, and he said, well, I put a new alternator in or something. I go, oh, you know. So here's my question for you guys, and I guess I could have called your dealership.

Do you still have a 0% financing on the new car, on the new trucks? He's looking at the tundra. Toyota has a bunch of different finance specials, and 0% is one of them. I got to check on the tundra. I don't think it's on the tundra. But usually it's, you know, this time of year they have a pretty low interest rate. It might be 1.9 or 2.9%. I can check for listening to the show.

I'll send you a text so I can look it up if it is on the tundra so you can let your buddy know. Yeah, I told him to go see you guys. Obviously to Costco, he is a veteran, a disabled veteran. Okay. He's just an advantage of cars so much. I said, you got to go see Earl's school. I mean, I'm not trying to make an infomercial for you guys. You're making Earl nervous.

I don't know. It's just that thing. Frank, you said something earlier about it, 250,000 miles on a 2005 vehicle. That's not a lot of mileage for a 2005 vehicle. That's 15 years old. And if the car had been maintained carefully and you get a good check on an independent mechanic,

it could be a good buy. Well, he said it was ex-police car, didn't you say? Yeah, it's not like one of those type of deals. Oh, yeah. I would run from it. Well, I would disagree with Rick on that because police cars and rental cars used to be considered bad buys.

And that's before cars got better. And police cars now are well-maintained. They probably had their owners' recommended maintenance done more religiously than those owned by retail people. and it's the rare police car that's driven at 180 miles an hour

in a chase somewhere that's a myth if you're picturing Starsky and Hutch then maybe back off I mean it's probably car's probably been a Dunkin' Donuts more than it has North Palm Beach police do you know

police cars taxis rental cars Earl's Lexus are actually are actually good by cop car over his Lexus matter of fact I recommend those type of vehicles oftentimes over by an individual retail buyer.

The average individual retail buyer of a used car is less responsible in maintenance than commercial cars are because the commercial car has got an investment in that and they want to make those cars last longer and longer. We have a rental car company in our dealership and we take really good car of those vehicles, really good care because we want them to last because it's commercial incentive to us. Real quick, Frank, let your buddy know that they do have 2.9% up to 60 months. Okay. And I told me to go to Costco because that way he doesn't worry about, you know, arguing.

Like, not that you guys do that anyway, but. Costco's a lot of good. Well, you made me think about one quick little corny joke I used to see in the old days when you're going about the cops being the donut shops. It was a bumper sticker that said, bad cop, no donut. well thank you you guys have a great day i'll send me away his name's burn but he'll mention my name i'm sure happy new year frank thanks thanks i hope i didn't offend a lot of police went out there i was worried about that i'm i thank you for tuning in frank i love dunkin donuts there's nothing wrong with

heaven if if there wasn't any like health or weight restrictions i would eat donuts all the time too let me tell you what you can't even get into duncan donuts up in jupiter just north of us ladies I'm right here and I'm waiting for you to give me a call I have $50 for you please give me a call did you have a shopping experience

service experience or would you just like to call and comment on the show 877 960 9960 let's have you too we got a little backup here Rico West is asking

I'm interested in a new Highlander Do Toyota dealers have a corporate long-term test-slash rental program available? No. I've never heard of such a thing, actually. No. Okay, and G. Kui is George from Orlando. He says, I'm looking at a used rev four. My local dealer would only allow the mechanic I hired to inspect the vehicle for 20 minutes

and was not allowed to put it on a lift. The mechanic said he couldn't possibly inspect it, correct. directly in only 20 minutes and not on a lift. You must stand 20 feet back from the vehicle when you inspect it. But he still charged me. I'm angry. What does Earl think? I didn't understand what you.

He wouldn't allow who to look at it. The dealer would not allow the independent mechanic to put the car up on a lift and would only allow him 20 minutes to look over the car. I'm assuming they came to the dealership. They must have brought them to the dealership. Oh, I understand not letting another mechanic that doesn't work there. a lift right right but 20 minutes he should give them some more time for sure okay again I'm still good so he so the customer the text or the commenter says they

brought in a mechanic to the dealership to look at the used car that the route four they're gonna buy oh and the dealer said he's got 20 minutes to look at the car and he can't use a little simple answer don't buy the car leave to you know you just say that's ridiculous I'm out of here yeah yeah and I've got RM says when would be the next best time to buy a new vehicle looking to purchase a 21 Highlander. The end of the month is always, yeah. Well, the end of the month varies

when you get to this time of year because it's the end of the year and still was looting the fact that Toyota ends their month on January the 4th, but that doesn't mean that Chrysler, Chevrolet, or the other ones they're using that same day. Use the end of the month, calendar month. You pretty much miss the end of the year.

Certainly you don't have time to do it. work between now I have seen just doing the research the mystery shopping there is like most of them are going through the fourth like even like Greco Ford all their incentives so I think it's when it ends on a week and it might be coming it's too late to do your research and due diligence between now and the fourth today's the second so I would say January 31st is a good time the month end is a counter intuitively good time to buy a car because of the incentives to the dealers the salespeople the sales managers and it's a good time

do your research, get the best price on January 15th and hold that best price in your pocket. At the risk, I'm not going to say the word Toyota, I'm just going to say there are additional things that are happening at the end of the year. I've seen it on all the manufacturer sites that does get

there's going to be incentives but there probably won't be as big. You're going to have to rely on dealer motivation to sell it at a lower cost as opposed to getting that so play that up on the last day of the month. If you go to January 31st, play up the In fact, in January, they might well have a hard time hitting their quota. And so you might be that one sale that puts them over.

So use that to your advantage. And the last one I have here is Negan 1 says, hi, Earl, I have a question. Why is every month truck month? All the brands I see commercials for truck month. It's the hottest thing on the market. Trucks are hot. People are buying trucks for a lot of reasons, psychologically mainly. there's not, trucks are not used for what trucks are built to do.

Trucks are, you know, make you feel good. You're right, higher, you feel macho, whatever it may be. Good visibility, there are a lot of reasons. Cheap fuel, cheap gas. So, I know you want to buy trucks. Also, trucks are the most profitable vehicle. Ford has the number one selling vehicle in the world. That's the F-150, and they make more money on the trucks.

The bigger the truck, the nastier of the truck, the more money they make on the truck. So if you have a truck that's selling for $85 or $90,000, and a lot of them do today, you're looking at a huge percentage profit to the manufacturer and to the dealer. You go down to a little car or subcompact, the dealer's profit might be $1,000. You go to a big, fat truck, the dealer's profit could be $25,000. dollars so everybody wants you to buy the truck that will make them the most money okay i have a vehicle that will make it i have a question for you men there's four of them in here folks and um are there more women on the road driving trucks sure i would say so um i can say that our like

just speaking from our dealership that we have a majority of female customers slightly and we are selling a majority of uh trucks but that also includes SUVs as well so they put See, people, SUV is not a truck. SUV is an SUV. A truck is a truck, but there's the industry parlance. It comps them all together. So you have vans, SUVs, trucks. So pickup trucks.

Let's call them pickup trucks. Sure. Not a lot of women buy drive pickup trucks. Mainly men drive pickup trucks. But women like the SUVs. They like them because they ride higher. webinar shorter. Ladies, my point

is that I have $50 here for one more female caller. And did you hear the word majority being used? Yes, you are a majority, not a minority. You are a big part of the auto industry.

And for these car dealers, not to recognize that, that is financial disaster. Give us a call tool free at 877, 960 9960 back to Stu okay we got a question sounds like it's a Rick question

how good is the cabin air filter we have in our cars is it a hepa filter can it filter out COVID 99% of them are just a kind of cotton paper mesh I would say it's unlikely

no they cannot hamper they cannot filter out COVID they cannot can you got a hepa filter in a cabin air filter? I've never seen a HEPA filter for a car. Activated charcoal, yes, that helps reduce odors, but never a hepa filter

and nothing that would actually filter COVID. Okay. Here's a text, no name on it. It says, why do dealers limit the number of coupons you can use for service? I brought three coupons in to the dealership for service, and the advisor said I can only use one. I asked to speak to the manager,

he was very nice, and he let me use both. Why limit the coupons to one in the first place? Well, they do it because they can get away with it, and if they put it in a fine print, it's legal, not really, according to the Federal Trade Commission, but nevertheless, they do it. Coupons are a way to get you in the door, and when you see a coupon, you come in with a coupon, and you only get the coupon, they're very unhappy with you because they want to sell you a bunch of other stuff. So coupons are a way to get you in the door. And let me back up again on the filters, the cabin filters, because everybody is COVID-will-aware these days. When you're in an automobile, if you can have your fresh air on, that's the protection you want against COVID. If you're in a car with several people, and they're not wearing masks, which usually people don't wear their mask in the car, you want to have your fresh air coming in, not recirculating your old air.

So the cabin filter is not going to help you much in that area, but you do want to have the fresh air coming from outside. Very good. Rick, how often should that filter be changed in the cabin? Most manufacturers that I've seen recommend every 30,000 miles. Okay, thank you. And, of course, if you live out in the acreage where you're on dusty, dirty roads, or if you're a heavy smoker, consider doing it a little bit more frequently. Thank you.

Anonymous feedback. Why do car salesmen never stay at one car dealership for more than a few months? I actually encountered the same salesperson at two different dealerships while searching for my current vehicle. That's kind of unusual. He could write a book on that answer, but you have people that come to work because they need the job and they don't realize how unethical and deceptive many car dealers are, and it finally gets to them. They have to greet customers, and they're told that they have an average. on television, online, wherever, and they're promising a price on a car that they will not honor. And they tell, imagine you come to work for a dealer A because you need a job.

You used to be an insurance or real estate. Now you want to go to work for a car dealership because you need the job. And the first thing the sales manager tells you, we're advertising a Chevrolet, whatever, for $1,000 less than we can sell it for. So here's what you've got to do. to sell them the nitrogen and the tires you got to sell them the paint ceiling you've got to add this dealer fee how long would you want to work for that dealership so a lot of the turnover is due to the fact that the average salesperson has got higher morals integrity and ethics

than the salesperson than the sales manager that hired him another reason is it's a lot of uh it's it's hard work to be a salesperson even if you're honest car dealerships are up in seven days a week. The hours are grueling. You have to deal with the public, many, many people, and it's tough. It's a tough job. So it's when you find a car dealership that has low turnover and a lot of salespeople have been there a long time, it says a lot for that car dealership, the way he treats his own people and his honesty and his integrity and things like that. It's a rough place to work. I feel guilty oftentimes when we do mystery shopping reports, Because we encounter salespeople to get a lot of the blame for the bad report, but in fact, they're kind of trapped.

They need the job, they need the income, and they're following orders, and they're carrying out the directives of the dealership. Yeah, we see it week after a week. I mean, especially the newer guys are pretty uncomfortable. That phenomenon has a lot to do with our dealership, because that's how I felt when I started selling cars. and it was a very uncomfortable thing to kind of be have to explain some of the stuff that went on All right Nancy's got a caller

Yeah I do I do I do I do I'm really excited Virginia Good morning From North Palm Beach Welcome to the show Oh hi how you doing

Oh great Great Thank you for calling You just won yourself $50 What can we do for you Hey, that's a lot of groceries. Hey, that's good. Hey, now listen, I got a question for y'all.

I was in there recently, Earl Stewart for the first time to get. I have a Toyota 2014 Tundra, and it's a four-wheel drive, and I bought it used, and I bought it just a year ago. I had brought it in, and they did a good job on rotating the tires and stuff, but they told me I had a swelling in my lugged. nuts. And they said it would not, I would have to get them done either there for 200 and something smackers, or I would just have to go and, you know, get a different type of rent to get them off because if I had flat, they wouldn't be able to get them off. Can you tell me what's a good idea to do for these lug nuts without having to pay 200? And then also where do I get a off-market turn-by-turn navigation because the 2014's I guess didn't have it on there.

For the navigation thing, I would stick with your phone. Just go right with the Apple Maps on your phone or Google Maps, and you'll actually find a lot better service right there. You can even get Unis that will let you plug into the radio so the announcements will come through your speakers to make a lot. it easier to hear them, but I would go through that. For the lug nuts, now that's Toyota and Honda also has this issue and I think Ford. They're taking the lug nut and they're putting a pretty chrome cover over the lug nuts, so they look nice and pretty. The problem is after they've

been used for several years and been removed and reinstalled for doing tire rotations, that chrome cover on there starts to loosen up and it swells and the lug wrench that is supposed to fit on them doesn't fit anymore. Now you've actually got several recourses. Factory lug nuts, yeah, they're expensive. They're five to seven dollars each and on a four runner you've got six lug nuts per wheel. So you can see where that money adds up pretty quickly. What you can do is look online for lug nuts at a low run. lower price and just simply get a replacement set of lug nuts and the next time you go in, if they're doing a tire rotation, there should be no extra labor charge.

Just say, hey, throw away those old lug nuts and put these new ones on, please. Okay, that's a great idea. Go to Amazon. That's a great idea. Also, could I ask one real quick more question. It's the same thing about the turn-by-turn. I don't use fancy phones. I can't stand them.

They're too stressful for me. So, anyway, I was just wondering for somebody that doesn't have a regular fancy flip phone with any navigation. I would then go with a Garmin. Garmin or Tom Ton, but Garmin is one of the best navigation systems that I've ever seen. Yeah. And if you look on Amazon or on eBay, you might even be able to find a lightly used one that is still an excellent condition. You know, Virginia, whenever I bought my garment, I just found so much comfort and convenience.

It is really a people-friendly. People-friendly. I can't talk enough about the Garmin. Rick and Nancy speak to truth. Consumer Reports recommends the Garmin New V-Cam. It's the highest recommended one and the currentization of Consumer Reports. It's got an 81 score, and it's $300. It's well worth it, trust me.

So, okay, I was wondering if it would be worth it just to go to a junkyard or something and see if they've got an old turn-by-turn that I could have installed. Mm-hmm. Well, how long are you going to be using your garment? Is it like an investment? Well, I need it because I'm like wrong way Feldman, and if I, if there's a neighborhood you don't want to invest in, I'm there because I'm always lost. So I just can't help it.

I just get lost. And so that's why with my navigation system I had on my Silverado, I was always, always getting to my destination. But this way, oh, my God, I'm lost bad. So I appreciate all of you. I know I'm taking up an awful lot of your time. Oh, no. You're an important caller.

Well, the other option was new vehicle, new vehicle, and I've already been to Earl Stewart about those, too, just to get a turn-backer. I turned, so I think that's a little excessive, wouldn't you? Well, Virginia, I have to add to your, well, statement about expensive cars. Consumer Report is a fantastic place to go, and it is just amazing the amount of money that you can save yourself, whether you purchase a new car or a used car. Consumer Report, and just lately, I'm going to say not only January, December, I think, and November, they talk about the cost of cars in which you can afford

cars that are like $15,000 and under so on and so forth. So, you know, take a look at that. That'll help you out tremendously. Okay. Well, listen, I appreciate you all for taking the time, and I appreciate the extra $50. That's a lot of groceries. I appreciate that to Earl Stewart. Yeah, that's a lot of cabbage.

Hey, listen, Virginia. It sure is. Thank you. Thanks for calling and spread the word. I will. Thanks so much for answering my lug nut questions, too. Yes. They're very important to your tires. Okay, thank you. Bye-bye.

All right. Anonymous feedback. Has your dealership fared well during the coronavirus pandemic? Did you ever have to close, like back last spring? Have you had it spread at your dealership? Funny you should ask that question. We're having a record profit year, and right after the corona hit, we thought we were going out of business.

It was a scary time for us. We lost a lot of money the first month, and we had cash flow analysis made to see how much longer we could survive, and we were really getting ready to tighten down the hatches. made a decision not to lay anybody off and maintain everybody the employment. And we were prepared for a rocky ride. And suddenly this strange thing happened. People started buying cars. Everybody was surprised. And we went from going out of business to having a record year in profits. That was weird. It was weird. Good weird. Good word. Oh, good word for us. Unexpected.

All right, let's do a lightning round because I know we're getting up to the mystery shopping report time. This is a more anonymous feedback. When you see car dealers advertise customer testimonials, are those really customers or are the actors? Both. If you look at the fine threat, I saw one last night where they actually use the word actor,

but typically they're actual customers. And the problem with customer testimonials is everybody wants to be famous, right? Everybody wants to be on TV. So you could probably go up to a customer that really wasn't all that excited about your dealership, but say, how'd you like to be on TV? Will you do a testimonial for us? You're probably going to say, sure. What do you want me to say?

You're not going to say anything. And if you did, you think it's going to make the final cut? So, testimonials, you know, we've used testimonials, and I always wonder when I see my customer doing a testimonial for me is, what is that, is that testicle record to tell me the truth? I don't know. I hope he is. Can you picture the outtakes? I hate buying cars from Dealer B. He rips me off every time I go in there.

My rule of thumb, I've said it before, I'll say it again. ignore all car dealer advertising. And that applies to most other advertising, too. You know, it's frightening? The doctors that are actors. He's probably a dog-catcher. I'll say this, I'll make a lot of lawyers, man. The lawyer advertising today is absolutely revolting.

And where is the Florida Ethics Board on lawyers? The Bar Association. Why do you allow these lawyers to do what they're doing out there? It makes, you're making car dealers look good. Maybe, maybe I should be glad you're out there. You're making car dealers look good. That's how bad you are. That's right.

More anonymous feedback. Here's a good one. Regarding the Costco program, you say Costco makes their affiliated dealers sell to you at the lowest price he'll sell the car to anybody. How can I verify that the price I get really is lower than anybody else who bought the same car? Well, you have to rely on Costco's, word. Costco, in my opinion, is right up there with the most honorable, honest, ethical stores I know. And they do check the prices regularly, and they come into the dealership

and audit the prices, and they audit the transactions. So Costco does know if that car dealer is honoring their contract. And if they don't, then they cancel the dealer. So we know Costco very well, and they're true to their word. Happy New Year's everyone. This is anonymous feedback. With the extra pressure from turbos and direct fuel injectors are the four-cylinder engine blocks reinforced or are they prone to failure from new technology? Rick?

Haven't seen any failures yet, although we do not have turbos on the Toyotas yet. Super-go-old ones. Those will be coming, but I think the engineers are pretty good about making sure those blocks are going to hold up. Okay. Okay. Here's an interesting question. Is it possible to add sound lamination to all the unlaminated windows to decrease outside noise? I'm not sure I understand the question. I didn't know there was such a thing as sound lamination. I didn't know. That's reason it confused me.

It sounds like Colonel Google. Let's get Colonel Google on the phone. Well, I know there is for body panels. You can get noise eliminator that they'll put inside the body panels on the floor of the car. Probably, yeah. But I've never heard of it for the glass. I have, Nancy and I have Hurricane Glass in our doors and windows on our home, and it's amazingly good soundproofing.

Mine will be installed in January 23rd. I cannot wait for the quiet. Car lamination for sound? I don't know. We'll have to Google that. Here's anonymous feedback from my son, Jake. I don't know if it really is it, but it's from Jake who identified. My son is actually going back up to college today. Happy New Year's

folks. What happened to the driver's door armrest on the new Highlander? It seems to be sculpted out of the door panel and way too low and far to lean on. Why is design taking over function? Jake, maybe you're just too big. Maybe Jake's too big, yeah. All right, this is a really good topical question.

Are there new Toyota's coming from the factory with the faulty fuel pumps, or has it been solved already? I don't know. We know that we're having a parts difficulty getting the parts. I don't know if they're producing them with the fixed. You like to think that it's been solved. They just haven't caught up. with the production, I would hate to think

it was something like Takata Airbag where they're putting in a defective tank out of airbag with another only to recall them down the lower, yeah. But I think they have fixed the problem. You haven't heard anything different at you, Rick. Toyota's kind of holding off on

getting the campaign out for the last few rounds of vehicles. Because of production. But yeah, it's just they're trying to make sure that they've got enough pumps in stock so that when they make the announcement, okay, Your cars are now ready to come in and get these pumps replaced. They can have them in our hands ready to go.

But, no, we've had no real problems getting hold of them. Now, the question was, have they solved the problem? At the factory? Yes. They've redesigned the fuel bomb, so if they fixed it, they just haven't made them fast enough. Right. Now, the last anonymous feedback will make you feel a whole lot better, Earl.

Earl, I am a 30-year law enforcement veteran. Regarding your donut comment, I also absolutely love donuts, but I am partial to Krispy Kreme, stereotypes be damned. There you go. There's only one thing I love more than a cop, and that's a cop with a sense of humor. So that is, I love the cops, and I think... Which do you love more? I wouldn't be a cop on a bet, because I haven't got the courage to do what you guys do.

I'm with this guy. Crispy cream, way better than Dunkin Donuts. Oh, absolutely, yeah. The best, the best. We're all caught up, and we're ready to go. Okay, folks, I think that we are ready for our... our mystery shopping report, and this is our mystery shopping report from Agricro Ford. Take it away.

Okay, conventionalism says family-owned car dealerships are a thing in the past, having been subtly taken over by large public and privately owned corporations. There's some truth to this, but dynastic family-owned dealerships still exist and continue to impact the car buying and service business in unexpected ways. On one-hand, family-owned dealerships are sometimes viewed as trusted members of the community. They always play that angle up on their advertising. A safer haven for consumers than corporate behemoths like Penske and Asbury. On the other hand, family-owned car dealerships can also represent some of the oldest and least savory of old school car biz tactics.

Of all the family-owned dealerships, two names repeatedly come in our weekly mystery shops, Napleton, and Gricko. These family owned, they each own about 10 dealerships in Florida, and they have a bunch more elsewhere. Both groups were transplants from out of state, the Great Coast, New Jersey, and Napolitans come from Illinois. In fact, Napleton goes back to the thing I remember this about Napleton, he started, his father started business in 1934, I believe. Just before my grandpa did. Yeah, before his grandson, my father. So that's a long time. They've been around a long time.

Neither a dealer group performed well in our mystery shopping reports. The larger group, Napleton, is better known, and has struggled with a reputation and some very public, very public legal issues due to our liberal grading policy on this show. Two Naplesland locations and joy spots on our recommended deal of this. And I said that Nancy in the cars were drove over,

I said I would have said necessary grading policy. We don't like... I'm against it. I've turned against our grading policy. We don't like to have to pass dealerships that do things bad, leave. But we have to, because you have to have a place to buy a car. And literally, we would have no recommended dealers if we adhere to the law. So we have to grade the way we do.

We did talk about changing it to maybe just posting the grade and not saying recommended or not. So we could rank them by A to F. I think we have to be a little more open-minded. We should do that. But I give you that assignment to do that. If you would please do that, I'd appreciate it. A lesser-known group, Greco, is it Greco?

I can never remember. I think they say Greco. Greco is a subject of our investigation this week. The Greco Automotive Group, not as big as Napleton's, but their impact on South Florida consumers is just as substantial. Like Napleton, two of the Greco Steel Chips are on our recommended list. Two Naples and two Grecoe. We chose Greco Ford in Delaware Beach as this week's target.

It's been nearly three years since Greco Ford failed our deconted test and wound up on the do not recommend list. This time around Agent Lightning went in. It's our female shopper for those who are new to the show. We went in to find out how the Greco's were behaving. The mission was simple, try to buy a new Ford, tell us all about it, and that's what she did. you know go in laissez-faire she's a very bright gal and she has a I won't say aggressive but she's she's self-confident and she's able to carry off that sort of a task and observe at the same time we also dare to try this is a

I'll explain this in a second dare to try to get a salesman the trunk of a car we'll see how that went that used to be an old trick in the car business back in the day where to show control trainers would actually come in and have a real live customer put in the trunk of a car to demonstrate how you can control customers. It's a sad statement on the way cars were sold and to some extent today are still sold. Okay, here's the report. I arrived at Greco Ford as if I were the female shopper, US1 in Delray Beach. I found a beautiful brand new facility with a tiny parking lot.

I found a spot near the service department made my way to the new car. showroom. Once inside I was approached by three different people. Interesting, aggressive. I continued, I guess, ignoring the salespeople as they approached me. I went to the front desk because I prefer to establish little control by asking a receptionist to call a salesperson for me. I think everybody should do that, by the way. I think he should go to the receptionist and have a salesperson assigned. And for that, because when you get it, the one who runs up to you is the most, aggressive salesperson, it's probably not going to be the best experience. Both the fact, you're not necessarily on record. If you're on record, if you go to the

receptions, you are in the computer. The receptions will see to it that your information is logged, probably. And then you have a little bit of a record, so you're less likely to have a rogue salesperson that denies everything you said he did to you. You don't want the crazy one that gets you at the car door. I observe, watch out for the one that looks crazy. I observe mask wearing by all

employees. Okay, there's a kudos. There's a plus for Gritko. Maria was a reception, and she called for a salesperson. Gabe answered the call. He induced himself, and I gave him my cover story. I was there to take advantage of the year in savings and surprised my husband with a new Ford F-150 pickup truck. Gabe said, I was in luck, but he still had some in stock, and I just checked earlier. There were 43, which is, to me, more than some. They'd like to give you an idea of... Puffery.

You know, urgency. We only have a few. That's what they want you to believe. He led me to a desk, and we went through the question and answer session. I've gone accustomed to that, including a series of questions to determine what rebates, discounts, that I qualify for. Then he entered all of my vital statistics into the computer. I described the truck. I wanted for my husband.

A 4xLT crew cab, preferably gray. Gabe quickly found a 2020 model in stock with an MSRP of $56,230. Now we're going to talk about MSRP a little later, but as an aside, always know the MSRP of the car you buy. And you have to be careful is if the true MSRP, not the dealer MSRP, dealer list or whatever they were called, not the market price, the MSRP, very important. After we finished, Gabe led me to the third floor of their parking garage where the F-150s were kept. Along the way, he showed off the high-tech features of his parking garage, like electronic doors, fingerprint readers, they came with a recent model.

We found the truck and gave asked me to wait while they got the keys. Refreshingly, he was back in less than two minutes, but I still wasn't sure why he didn't get the keys before he went up there. They found the car, the truck before they went up there. Maybe you forgot. I think he forgot, yeah. So what? Gabe took his time, maybe he had to go to the bathroom. You don't know.

Gabe took his time demonstrating all the features, and he said they had this truck advertised online for 42, 688, and then he would do his best to get me as close to that price as possible. Which I think is a funny thing. I mean, only in the car business. I mean, if you went into public and the guy, you know, just put the stuff on the shelf, you say, where's the rib-eye? Where are the rib-eye stakes? He says, well, the rib-eye stakes are in the back on the right, and they're $12 a pound. I'll try, I'll try to get you

that as close to that price at the cashier as we can. I mean, in any other retail, the prices, the price is the price of the car dealership, you heard of it. Hey, we're advertising this for $42.6088. Let me see what I could do. We'll try to get it close to that price when we really sell it to you. Anyway. Although the MSRP was listed on, did I just do that? Yeah. Although the MSRP was listed on, did I just do that? Yeah. Although the MSRP was listed online was 56-230, the MSRP on the Moroni label was 54-480. I could see there were manufacturing discount packages that lowered it from 56 to, from 56,230. But, Grico, list the higher figure on the website. And this is really interesting. It is. Because manufacturers do that, but it's the bottom line as the MSRP.

They'll show a higher one in the manufacturers of these packages. So they chose, I don't even know how their system allows them to do that. I don't think the law probably addressed it. It should. But, I mean, the MSRP should be sacrosanct. It is. It is. It is.

It is. It should be the true suggested retail by the manufacturer. And if the manufacturer is going to modify the suggested retail, it should become the MSRP. Yeah, it is, I think, but Greco choose to use a higher line before discount. No, I'm talking about the Monroney label law. It's on the Monroe label. How would the monorony label on a car that's been in stock for six months reflect the fact? It came that way.

It's a discount package. They use that to inflate them on a lease. Okay, well, we're getting into a technical. We'll do that. But the MSRP was 54, 480. Yeah. And they tried to say it was higher. I declined a test driver.

I explained that my husband was a Ford man, and the only truck he would drive is an F-150. He'd own six of them. It's probably true. We went back to the desk and Gabe asked for my driver's license. Then he left, presumably, to speak with the manager to get the figures together. This time, he was gone for much longer, 15 minutes. I played on my phone and waited. God bless the smartphone, right?

You could kill time real quickly on your smartphone. Shame you have to. Very few retail places that would happen. But it happens a lot in the car business, 15, 20 minutes, half an hour, leave you along. I don't know why. He returned with a worksheet, jumped into reviewing what he was asking me to pay. The top line was inflated pre-manufactured discount package MSRP. We called it market value-selling price. 56-230. Then I was showing $8,050 in total savings, and this is all smoke and mirrors. To the adjusted price of $48,140, he added $249 for Zurich Shield, and a lot of guys.

people use Zurich Shield, and I'll tell you why people use Zurich Shield, because the dealer can buy this crap for pennies on the dollar and slap it on the car and charge you $249, and they probably pay $10 for it. So a lot of dealers are jumping on it. It sounds pretty good. I like the name, too, Zurich. Zurich, Switzerland, Conservative, Honest. Staple. Stapleck. Stubbillard. Zurich Shield. Yeah. Right.

Really sounds good. Which, in fact, it sounds better than polyglyco, doesn't it? It sure does. Yeah. I meant to say Toyota Guard for that. To adjust the price of $48,100. Okay, we just did that. Oh yeah, Zurich Shield, I call it rusted dust.

That's the old saying for that kind of nonsense. $139 in taxable fees. That's another name for dealer fees. And then here's the real dealer fee that they don't refer to is taxable. to his taxable fee, $999 for dealer dock. And then we got $3309 in sales tax, that's legit, hopefully, and $719 in non-tax fees. Out the door price, $53,59599.

I told Gabe I was interested in Zyrgyld, I wasn't interested in Zurchield, but he insisted that it was an enormous value here in Sunny and Salty, South Florida. There he is. sales pitch. He said that we would need it. In any case, whether you need a notch, we ain't going to take it off. You really need this. And even if you don't need it, we're not going to take it off as on every car. Okay. SLP, dealers do this all the time. I asked about

the non-tax fees of $718. Gabe said that was for the Department of Motor Vehicle, D&B. I asked by the dealer dot fee and explained it was standard and all dealers didn't charge it. insane BS that you hear. Everybody doesn't. I don't know. I brought off the red hang tag that said crash front bumper. Did I mention that before? I think I skipped that. And when they were looking at the car in the third-story parking lot,

laying on the seat was a hangar. They take it down and it said two thousand crash front bumper. and it was lying there that there was a what was it discount $1,000? It said, well, yeah, no, it was huge. It says was, the inflated the MSRP even more. It's 57, 729. Oh, that's right.

And this is crash front bumper, and it was save $11,000. Yeah. I explained the lower price by telling me if I had a trade, I'd be entitled to an additional $2,000 a centi. And, of course, that's a big joke because all they do is lower the value of your trade on appraisal.

by $2,000, and they say, now I'm going to give you $2,000 of the price of the car. Don't ever fall for that one. I asked why I couldn't get the lower, get the lower all-line advertised price, and he said if I had qualified for all the rebates, I would get that price. But I didn't qualify. For one, I didn't have a trade. Another $2,500 required that I financed with Ford credit. I asked if anyone ever qualifies for all the rebates, and he said he had won.

One customer, one time, who qualified for all the rebates. So again, BS nonsense, standard operating procedure, unfortunately. I said I need to think things over and stood up to leave. Abe was walking me through the show, and I remembered my second mission to get him in the trunk of a car, and she got him in the trunk of the car, and that's really cute. And she said she had a bed with her girlfriend. girlfriend that he couldn't get the salesperson to get in the trunk of the car. Which shows she has the horridthal and the courage to do stuff like that.

You ask somebody to do something, you look at them in your eye, you can control a lot. And salespeople are all very good at that. In this case, here, he was the control E. And Age of Lightning was a control over. Okay. This is the tamest Greco shop to date. Aside for playing the unobtainable rebate game, the inflated MSRP, and the hidden fees, it reminds me. Of Lincoln.

Other than, Ms. Lincoln, how'd you enjoy the play? Aside from them as Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play? Anyway, the whole thing was... I tried to get a price from Truecar, and I could not feel. not find the configuration. It was very funky. I couldn't get the find out the prices any good. We ran a Carfax. There was no accident on the Carfax and just for our listeners. New cars can have bad Carfax

reports. In this case, it was fine. Yeah. Here's a red tag that fell down. That was in the back of the thing there. That's suspicious too. Why would they have it in there? And he says that was really the trade and rebate, which is not a good cover story. It doesn't make sense. Anyway, that's it. I mean, we can vote. And you heard it all. He didn't hear a whole lot that was really new. Greco Ford, Delray Beach. Okay, so we had grades coming in. Jonathan and Wellington says he gave him an F. But that came, he said that right when you started their point, he says, as soon as he heard Greco. He gave him an F. Bob, who is one of our vigilantes,

gives him an F. Mark gives them an F. I'm not going to. I know I'm being a little bit harsher. I'm giving them a D. And it's not because they did so many bad things, but they have so many bad things built into their process, like the inflated MSRP and Zurich and all that. So I'm going to be tougher this year. New Year's resolution. There you go. Okay. Rick, you want to go? I've got Tim Gilliland with a D and Mark Smith with a D. and myself, I'll give them a D-minus, maybe use them as one, you know, get their bottom-line price, and use that at some other dealership to get a better price, but I'd be scared of them. This is an easy one. I give them an F.

Okay, nice. This is an easy one. I give them an F. We've got two more that came in. Martha gives them a D, and Linda, this is very charitable, Linda, a D-minus. Okay. I'm going to, I was going to give an F. I'm going to give him a D because Stu has promised that he will start grading these things by grades. And I think we need to do that. Because we're seeing enough Cs and even Bs, and we should just have one list of recommended. So we're going to pass them, but we're going to give them a D, and they should be at the bottom of the list. and they squeaked by.

Grickle, you squeak by, we're coming back again. Clean up your act. Absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for tuning in to Earl and Cars. We will be right back here next week. Stay safe. Have a wonderful weekend. Thank you.

Thank you.