Earl Stewart on Cars - 01.13.2024 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Mullinax Ford of West Palm Beach

Episode Date: January 13, 2024

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Ford dealer known to eliminate dealer fees, to see how much they will charge for a dealer demo 2022 Ford Explorer SUV on their showroom floor. 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, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “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 listeners. We also have Rick Kearney, an expert on how to keep your car running right. I dare you to ask a question that Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us as my son, Stu Stewart, our LinkedIn CyberSiber. 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. We're back. We're live. We're in North Palm Beach, Florida. But we're streaming all over the world. We've got folks listening in California, Canada, and even across the pond. I hope we have some new folks. We'd like to get new people on board the train.

We're trying to help you buy a car without being taken advantage of by a car dealer. Simple as that if you bought a car, and most of you have, I mean, it's a worldwide phenomenon now. Cars have always been big in America, at least since the past hundred years, since Henry Ford. But everywhere in the world now, people are buying cars. I can't speak for the rest of the world but the United States kind of a sad state of affairs

the retail techniques that have been in place for all these years and I say about 100 years that's how long we've had car dealers has been a sad exception to the way you can normally today deal

actually pretty pleasantly in most of our retail transactions Amazon has made a huge different in our lives and with artificial intelligence retailers are getting more and more wise to the fact that if you treat

your customers with courtesy and respect transparency, honesty they come back and they buy another product from you whether it's a refrigerator or a TV set or an automobile cardinals haven't figured that out yet they play games and Peyton Switch advertising, unfair

and deceptive trade practices but the end is near the Federal Trade Commission is really getting serious about this and we'll talk a lot more about that later on in the show meanwhile we can talk about the future but the important thing is today and when you want to bring your car in for service or repair or when you want to buy a car

and that could be tomorrow it could be next month the past couple of years has been a really rough road a hole for the car consumer for the car buyer, it's really been tough. Short supply, huge increase in prices. Commonly, cars are going for over-sticker price, and the service department is not much different. The car dealers realize that when life returns to normal,

the service departments, where they're going to make most of their money, and that's where they're set up. Everybody in the service department is paid on commission. and when you go into that line to get your car examined you know a safety check always the free safety check let us inspect your car

well they inspect the car and they find things to do to it question is is it something it needs to be done and the second question is the price right if you have an issue with that repair or maintenance on your car I've got Rick Kearney you've been with us on the show

for a long time he's been with me as a car dealer for a 25 years or so and he stayed on top of his trade he has stayed on top of the technology which is not easy to do you'll find very few guys or gals that have been technicians this long and have stayed on top of things some of them you know are doing business the way they did 20 years ago but if you're doing business and repair it and maintaining cars the way you did 20 years ago you don't know what you're doing Rick is extraordinary he's certified in everything that you can do in a car

and he's recertified every year at least so if you have a squeak rattler roll you can't figure out even an odor in your car you can bring a call and we are easy to reach by phone you new folks might consider writing this number down our telephone number to call is 877 960-9960 877-960-9960 you can also follow us on Facebook or our YouTube channel is simply

YouTube.com for slash Earl on cars YouTube.com for slash Earl on Cars and Rick Kearney by the way monitors the YouTube we have a you can post you can even send an audio or video file and Rick will see it right away. YouTube.com forward slash earloid cars. And as I said, Facebook.com forward slash earlone cars. The high point of this show, and I sometimes don't even mention it

because we've been doing it for about 20 years, is our undercover secret mystery shopping report where we go out and visit some dealer, usually in Florida, sometimes in Tennessee, sometimes in Pennsylvania, We've been in several states, but we focus on Florida, frankly, South Florida, because that's where the studio is. But our undercover agent, Agent Lightning, just traveled a lot, fortunately for us, and she's able to stop off at occasions that we hadn't been able to reach until we teamed up with Agent Lightning. Agent Lightning, of course, is her undercover name.

We can't reveal her true name for fear of bodily harm. car dealers don't like being exposed and they don't like their secrets being talked about over the air so when we do a mystery shopper reward after we pretend to buy her or lease a car we tell you exactly what happened we named the dealer

we named the car salespeople, the managers we tell you exactly what happened we go so far as to tell you what we think the dealer has broken the law which is not infrequent by the way The laws that we do have are not enforced, and dealers get away with bloody murder, and we talk about it.

You heard the disclosure, if you were listening to the show at the beginning, when the radio station disclaims any responsibility for the show, and they say that we're fully responsible. They mean it. You can't sue the station. You got to sue Earl on cars, sue Earl Stewart,

because this crazy guy is just telling us. and you all sorts, it's not, well, can you believe this? I use the number 20 years, that's about how long we've been on the air, and 20 years we've never been sued. Now, we've been threatened, we've been threatened a lot, and there's a couple cases where I thought we were going to get sued, but we never did. You say, why?

Well, because we tell the truth. You lawyers out there will back me up on this, the perfect defense against libel and slander. That's when you say something that you shouldn't say, which is not true about a good business or a good person, and you slander or libel them. The perfect defense, when they sue you for slander or libel, is the truth. So we like to think we have always told the truth, and we have.

There's no reason not to. I mean, they're exciting. The truth is stranger than fiction when it comes to a cardier. So that comes at the end of the show, the last half hour. We're on from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time here in South Florida. So toward the end of the show, we do our Mr. Schapper report, and we ask you to vote on it. Now, Nancy Stewart, she's my co-host. She founded the show with me two decades ago when we were a half-hour show on, I think I was a Thursday,

Thursday morning or something, little radio station. called C-Vue. Did you start off with just like weekly calls? Like you would get a call from a radio personality to discuss cars at home. And then that evolved. Oh, yeah. Well, that was even, yeah, that was before the actual show. That was the show.

That's true. They heard about our red phone. And C-V-Radio, the DJ, the host, I can't even remember the name now. But he heard about the fact that there was this crazy car deal in South Florida that had five red telephones around this dealership and if you picked up the phone it automatically rang a cell phone and he didn't believe it so one day i'm i don't remember where i was it was driving or in my office and the red phone rang and i answered the phone and they said is this earl stewart i said yes this is really earl stewart and that conversation started and after the after the conversation they called me

back and said would you mind if we called you every week was it barry o'brien that's the way it started Was it Barry O'Brien? He had a show. No, no, no, no, it wasn't Barry O'Brien. No, Barry O'Brien had a show, but he was not the person. It was a disc jockey, Nancy might remember his name a long time ago. Anyway, that's how this show evolved, and we've been doing it ever since. But anyway, Nancy Stewart, as I say my co-host, she is a female advocate, and she has built the audience from back then to 50-50 females.

Back then, it was zero females. It was like an old boys' club, and the guys, you know, dominated the show. And that's almost true today in terms of mechanics and cars. And guys who are seeing as the experts, and they're not, trust me. And the women, they just don't yak as much. And so we finally said, you're welcome here to call a bunch of your experiences. You buy half the cars. You maintain and repair half the cars.

and you represent half the population. So why don't you call more? Nancy has succeeded to get us the 50-50 female callers. And you'll see why in a minute, because I'm going to turn over the mic to her right now, and she's going to tell you a very, very special offer for first-time female callers. Thank you.

I'm back, and pardon the cough. You'll hear that periodically, this two hours. I apologize. But we have a great show ahead. And you can give us a call and be part of that show. 877-960-99-60. Or you can text us at 772-497-6530. I have $50 for the first two new lady callers this morning.

And I have a question. If you, you know, you decided you wanted to purchase a vehicle. And I was just wondering, what was the first thing that came to your mind? as far as, you know, keeping the car on the road, how much it would cost. Did you go online to, you know, just to become more informed as to what you wanted? And, you know, you learn about so many cars whenever you go online or you pick up the consumer report. So you have to narrow it down and decide whether you're going to lease, whether you're going to buy. So a lot of questions.

So this morning, ladies, share all that with us and give us a call at 877-960. And you can win yourself $50, the first two new lady callers. So stay tuned. We have a great show ahead of us. You also can take advantage of your anonymous feedback.com. And we're going to go. We're going to go straight to the phones. We have Lance who's giving us a call.

Good morning, Lance. Oh, boy. Good morning. Good morning. Oh, is it Christmas yet? I think we have about a year almost. Yeah. I guess you can say almost.

Oh, I keep reading. of electronic vehicles are just not developing the way car manufacturers want. And I just, I know you and Nancy and Rick Lack and Sue Lack and EVVs, but I just really believe that this country is too vast and too broad. and it's just no way you're going to be able to locate charging on the stations all across the country to charge. That's the challenge. That's a valid complaint. In fact, you could argue, except for Tesla, all the other manufacturers are still working on that problem, and to some extent Tesla is too.

And Lance, what we're talking about really is, I think it's inevitable that electric vehicles will predominate, in fact, they'll be the only vehicle at some point. And it'll be long after I'm gone, and it's going to be, I'd say, at least 25 years. But it's going to happen. But that gives the world a long time to figure out the real problems, just as you described. It's not going to happen unless a person can readily get a charge on their car. easy and that will happen. Rick has got a point. We started running cars in the U.S. 130, 140 years ago, and I guarantee back then it was hard

to find a gas station unless you were in New York City someplace where you had from some infrastructure. Except the fact that there were very, very few cars back then. Right, very few. It wasn't a problem. Today there's millions of cars. It's the same evolution as switching from horses, the way I see it. The infrastructure will grow. So we don't disagree with you, Lance. We think that, I think we get excited on the show. And as you say, Nancy and I drive a Tesla, and we make it sound like tomorrow everybody could be buying electric vehicles.

As a matter of fact, your point, I'll argue your side of this for a minute. I was amazed to find out that Hertz suddenly decided to sell 20,000 electric vehicles. A third. And they were going back, if you go back 45, 60, 90 days, they were talking about they're going to have an all electric fleet worldwide and all cars are going to be electric vehicles. And they spent a huge amount of money buying electric vehicles. And now they're selling them as fast as they bought them before and they realize they made a big mistake. So I think we all... They're taking a $275 million hit.

Yeah, yeah. I think we all tend to look at things going to happen. The timing is everything is what I'm saying, and I think your point is valid. Yeah, definitely, Lance. Everybody is thinking, where are the charging stations and we need more of them? You know, it was quite ironic. Yesterday, Earl and I went to the mall, and we're looking for a parking place, and suddenly we find one is quite short, but in front of that parking place was a charge.

station and it was the first one that I had seen to get to my point the car was being charged we parked it was being charged and we were in the mall for quite some time and the car was still being charged when we came out so it was it was really interesting Rick is there a difference between you know the charging station that I use in the garage at our home and the charging station that is out there for the public. Is it faster? Is it slower? You get high octane electricity at home. Yeah.

Because it was... I'll let me ask you this. I hear you all talk about these batteries. Are they ZD or double A batteries? They're the big ones. They are quadruple Z. Yeah, you can't pick them up. Yeah, they're huge. That's one of the problems

since they're very heavy. In fact, one of the negatives about electric vehicles is the batteries are so heavy that they tend to wear the tires out faster. That's how big those batteries are. Well, we've got snow moving in up here Monday, Duce, and I'd just like to kind of halfway start the new year off with a little quick tune, Earl.

All right. And in your honor, and we promised that in 2024, we're going to have the biggest, Earl Stewart Day is up here to keep them because I think

it's the 10th anniversary of it so it's got to be it's got to be oh I appreciate that very much thank you Lance we're going to have dogs

and cats and and airplanes and just everything we'll have more dogs than you do cats I like cats but I love dogs

so you got to separate them now yeah absolutely yeah there you go well well your car is bro down and you are too. Earl Stewart

so want to tell you what to check in and give him a call on Saturday morning. He's got good advice. He just keeps you real nice. Earl Stewart is the best bet you can see. Thank you, Lance. You're getting better every week. Thank you, Lance. We'll add that to all of your other

your other songs thank you so much to the greatest hit album see you next week have a great weekend lans um have a good win for you do too my friend enjoy it's going to be quite exciting the playoffs look at and uh i think that everyone here feels the same way about the playoffs about the playoffs? Playoffs? Are the dolphins in them? You're silly. 877960-9960.

Or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Don't forget, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. We're going to go to one of our other regular callers, and that is Roadrunner, Steve, from Boynton Beach. Good morning, Steve. Good morning. And welcome back to the show, young lady. Oh, thank you very much. Okay, I guess we talked about hers getting rid of their EVs.

We talked about that, right? Briefly, it came up. Yes, I was in Walmart when you started talking about when you went out. I'm shopping. Here's a guy with an EV. I'm in there half hour. He's still charging. Okay.

Exactly. And then the Tesla Model 3, in certain cold conditions in the United States, I guess the Permanese states, they get like 200 miles less mileage in their car in those frigid in those frigid tents. That's a lot. That's a huge difference.

But here's the big story. I'm so proud to be a graduate of the show. Okay, my friend calls me up, and he says his daughter is in a rego looking at a 2023 Jeep Uh, it's the high end one there, Jeep Cherokee, what that's the high one. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so she did a little homework, right?

So she was looking at her blue book, and they go for like in the mid 30s around there, like 35, $36,000 or something. Okay. So the guy in, I put that, at first I thought, get her out of there right now. Get her out. Right, that's. Get her out of there. Good instinct.

Right? So then the guy asked him in the regal, where did you get that price from? She goes, I've got to fill the blue book. Oh, we don't use the blue book. Right? I said, get her out of there right now. Just get her out, get her out. So they're forked in finances, right?

So the Jeep went, let's say, from $37,000 to like $46 in change. Oh, my God. So the guy tells her, well, we're going to give it the urega special treatment. Oh. That's what I'm thinking all right. Run. Like, when you go to that guy, let's say I owned that Jeep, right? And I modified it with, you know, lights, brush bar and all that stuff like that.

They wanted to turn around and say they did that and charge up for me. To get a couple different pricing on a Rigo. Oh, boy. Wow. So I talked to all. He grabbed me and says, Steve says, let's get out of here. She goes, yeah, you're right. Oh, good.

Oh, good. She didn't go through with it. Well, thanks for being a vigilante. You did a good job. Yeah, you are definitely a graduate. What a great job, Steve. If we don't learn, you get burned. Yeah.

I'm definitely saying. That's right. They're still playing the same games, even though we've got the Morgan Group owns Orygo Dodge. Yes, exactly. And you know what, Steve? You know, from the Consumer Report, Road Report, in January. Yeah, it's a January.

report. The mid-sized two-row SUV the least reliable Jeep Grand Cherokee. It has a lot of trouble spots. Yes. Because we know a guy that transport cars, he said

they're not the Jeep in the old days. He's a junk. Yeah, exactly. And we see a lot of them on the road. Yeah, my neighbor has one. Yeah. With that. But I don't know. All right, I'm glad you're back. everybody have a good new year healthy and thank you happy new year Steve

I'm putting my diploma up on the wall proudly there you dirt you earned it okay thank you the middle of honor have yourself a great weekend Steve and again thank you for being part of the show 877 960 9960 or you can text us at 772 497 6 530 yeah I think it was Lance is mentioning the cold temperatures in the Midwest causing the Tesla's to lose their charge so much. Mark Ryan, one of our YouTubers here, he says it's 7 degrees where he is in Indiana right now

with negative 20 on the wind chill. Oh, boy. That's kind of cool. Wow. Well, that wouldn't be a problem for me. If it was 7 degrees, I wouldn't even leave the house. I'm not going to worry about my car starting. Exactly.

I think we're looking at all. over the country, you know, negative. Yeah, but send in some warm thoughts to Mark. Big time. If you freeze to death on the way to your car, why should you care whether it's going to start or not? Yeah, all our YouTubers up there. Stay warm, you guys. You know, I have to share this with everyone in my dilemma of illness that I've been in.

So I go to turn, we have a fireplace, which we have really needed. Speaking of the weather, Rick. It's freezing down here. And I go to turn the fireplace off with the remote control, and I pick up the remote control, and I go to click it, and the remote control flips into the fire. Oh, boy. Did you retrieve it? And so what do you instantly want to do? You just want to jump into the fire to get the remote out, or you're hoping that the remote went somewhere where it didn't touch the fire.

So anyway, I, you know, immediately, you know, called our service person and he was on the phone and I was telling him that it had gone in. By then I had screamed for Earl. He ran out and turned the gas off. And then we got the tongs out and so on and so forth. But did it melt? The remote was unscathed. Excellent. They make, they're such good quality these days.

Yeah, exactly. It's an interesting story. Okay, Earl wants me to get back to Earl on cars. He starts to get a little nervous when I go off track, and we are going to go to Coral Springs, where we're going to talk to Stu. Good morning, Stu. How you doing?

Good morning. Good morning. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you, Stu. What can we do for you? Well, I've got to say, listening to your show every weekend. And it made me a better buyer, because I just recently bought a 2008 Toyota Solara convertible from Grico Ford and Del Rey. Oh, boy.

And those guys are fantastic. They're really good. And they had originally, they had the $9.99 deal of fee. So what the asking price of the car was with 190,000 miles on it was $3,900. I offered him $2,500, and walked out of there with tax tag and title for $4,000, just over $4,000. Good job. But before I bought the car, I said, I want to see the car up on the lip so I can inspect the bottom for any kind of rust or water damage. They were happy to do it.

It had a check engine light on. The guy pulled the code for me, which was a 456, which is an EVV. that leak. No big deal. It could be no big deal. When I got the car home and looked under the hood again, I found the hose off that goes to the air cleaner box thinking that would be the issue, but it's not, but it's not. Car runs fantastic. Looks like they did a, somebody did a ton of work for this car because it originated out of Massachusetts, in Port St. Lucie, West Palm, and their location. Yeah, you found a good one.

Yeah, 190,000 miles of rides real nice, no shake, top works perfect, windows work perfect. You know, we found a big improvement with the Grico dealerships. They used to be on our naughty list, and they've improved. I don't know if they got the message, or it's just, they just discover it's a better way to. You made it a very good point here just by the fact that you bought it. a solar. There are certain cars, a solar convertible, Toyota, solar convertible is one of them. They are very, very high demand, low supply. There are other cars out there. This car, if you take

care of it, which I'm sure you will, you'll be able to trade that in in two or three or four or five years and maybe get the same thing that you paid for it. It's amazing what a classic car, how they hold their value. It's hard to figure. out. You have to pay through those to get one in the first place, but sometimes you're better off to pay a little bit too much for a well-care for a classic car and then hold on to it. If you follow classic cars, you'll see that they actually do better than the stock market in terms of return on investment, but you're really got to know what you're doing and do what you did to check it out carefully before you buy it. But you couldn't have made

a better purchase on that, so they're. Thank you. I appreciate that. And maintenance is the key. I've been in Automotive System 13, so it's, I'm pretty strict on maintenance. Yeah, you know, as much as I can. Stu, you're an educated consumer, and we want to thank you for the compliment

of listening to the show and learning so much. One of the things that I talk about is this last thing that you just said, and that's what it costs to keep the car on the road, your maintenance, but boy, you get the award

for the, you know, an educated consumer and listening to our show. Thank you. I appreciate that. You guys are fantastic. Keep up the great work and stay healthy. Thank you. Thank you so much to have a great weekend. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-3-0.

Ladies, don't forget, you can win yourself $50 this morning, the first two new lady callers, and you can call and talk about anything you choose. 877-960-99-60. We're going to go to Howard, who is also a regular caller, and he's calling us from Jupiter. Good morning, Howard. Good morning, Nancy.

Go Steelers. Thank you so much. It's pretty exciting. Yeah, I know. Okay, my question is about breaks in the Massachusetts cylinder. I don't think Massachusetts. cylinders fail anymore and I don't know why I never heard of any of my name is saying I have a problem with my master cylinder very little there's no maintenance on them and can you

explain why they're holding up and I don't think you see too many uh cases where the master cylinder failed because somebody out there one of the designers goofed up and forgot to put in the whole point of the lifespan of it so that they could have it fail and sell more. So they goofed up and they made a good one that actually works and holds up, and everybody else went with it. Yeah, master cylinders now are incredibly reliable. They've gone the way with like drive belts. I mean, we used to put drive belts on cars 15, 20, 30,000 miles.

Now they're lasting 150,000 miles of more. Amazing. Master cylinder, you use it for the life of your car, you take it off, you put it on another car, use it for the life of that car, and probably into the third car, maybe it might start to wear out. Very rare that they fail anymore. Yeah, now, one other question, the emergency break. I have no idea if there's where it is and how it's maintained and if you have to have it replaced. Can you explain how...

I'm concerned with a Camry. What year Camry? 2017. Okay, it's 17. Yours should be the parking brake is built into the rear calipers. And basically, as the, when you apply the parking brake, it simply uses the cable to push the piston out and mechanically lock the rotor. So you're not using hydraulic pressure.

It's using actual a mechanical. force and when you release it it lets the piston go a little bit it only requires a millimeter of movement to lock the brake on on a disc brake so it's a very simple straightforward system locks it up and releases when you release it okay like 10 years before how was it was it was a different parking break 10 years before on a disc break inside the center hub you have a little miniature set of drum brakes in there and if it was a regular drum brake camry on the rear with no disc brake on the rear then you simply have a cable that would

apply the drum brakes inside normal but otherwise on the disc brake down inside the center hub you had another set of brakes actually so you actually had three sets of brakes on the car front rear and the parking brake and they decided why do that that's too complicated just make the rear brake having a parking brake to it. In my 2007 Camry, I had, when I traded it in, I had like 70,000 miles and the rear brakes never went. And there were drum brakes. And the drum never had to be taken out of cut.

Why is that? Drum brakes are very long-lasting, longevity-wise, just because of their design. The drawback to it is they're not very efficient at stopping the car. That's why with a car that has disc brakes in the front, drum in the back, the front brakes do about 70% of the stopping power of the car. And of course, when you're hitting the brakes, the weight of the car is pushing forwards onto those rear wheels.

Your rear brakes are actually lifting up a little bit. They don't get the same weight on them, so they don't need near as much power or pressure, and your drum brakes just don't wear. I remember years ago when I had drum brakes in the front, never rained. It was dangerous because the car was skid. Drum brakes in front are terrible.

And in Europe, I don't think they ever used drum brakes. Am I correct? European cars? Actually, drum brakes first came out years ago, but once they got disc, everybody started going to disc everywhere. Yeah, in Europe they were using this well before we started using them here.

Yeah. So, yeah. Okay, great information as usual. Thank you very much. You guys have a good day. Thank you, Howard. Thanks, Howard. Thanks, Howard.

877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-60. And don't forget your anonymous feedback. You can take advantage of that also. So we do have $50 for the first two new lady callers, and you can give us a call and talk about anything you'd like. Just give us a call, ladies. We need your support, and we need your support in, you know, building this platform.

877-960-99-60. We're going to go to, this morning is a morning of regular callers that we have in our camp. we're going to go to poem city and talk to john good morning nancy welcome back speaking to speaking about cars not to buy today like the jeep the federal government justice department find 1.6 billion dollar fine the cummings diesel the vehicles involved go far back as 2013 up to 2023 ram 2,500 $2,300, et cetera, et cetera, which is used in the Dodge Ram pickup trucks. It's a violation of the Clean Air Act, which was done in the past by Volkswagen.

Volkswagen was a couple of years ago. That was the largest fine. That was $14.7 billion. But this is a serious problem that Cummings is paying through the nose for and to do with the defeat the devices with the Clean Air Act. So I just want to say amount of fine $1.6 billion, and it goes back as far as 2013 under Dodge Rams. They make diesel engines for like everybody, right?

Like car manufacturers and truckers, just everybody. Yeah. It's a real lie. Rick will tell you probably. Rick will tell you Cummings, you know, General Motors and others have failed in their diesel engines in the 80s, if you remember, they converted

a gasoline engine, which was a bomb, and they had put it in the GM cars, but Cummings is successful with it, but it's the fact that they were cheating with the Clean Air Act, and that's a big blow against them. Yeah, they don't mess around.

You know, Cummings and Volkswagen are just, too, that got caught because I guarantee you, if you back over the years, ever since emission controls came into existence, there's probably a lot more cheating that never got caught. But I think

when they set examples, especially with Volkswagen, scared to hell out of everybody, and so I think they're going to be adhering. But on a broader thought, the morals of automobile manufacturers absolutely, you know, or the

immorality, the fact, how could you lie cheat and steel I think the president of Volkswagen had to resign over that it wasn't just some engineer it was dishonesty went all the way to the top of one of the biggest auto manufacturers of the world

in fact they were the biggest at one time and for them to lie and actually have executives go to jail this has happened to Hyundai a Nissan I would almost say most many auto manufacturers have had serious criminal action at the very top. I think, oh yeah, I mean, look at, we got the former CEO of Nissan on the run in Lebanon.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not, it doesn't end there. Well, yeah, it is Carlos Gone. I was trying to think of the name, yeah. And besides 14.7 billion that folks were going to pay, they had to buy back 400,000. 30,000 cars. They had a class action suit against them beside. Yeah. You know, I bet you're totally right.

The cheating goes on. It's much more broad because what makes Cummings think that they can get away with it? You have Volkswagen in the news, you know, God, they get charged billions of dollars in fines. Better not do anything. But the examples they know about are the ones that don't get caught. So they go for it. I think that Toyota is smart that they never written. To my opinion, they never offered a diesel.

Yeah, well, I think they did overseas. I think you could, I think, didn't they make, like, some trucks? Right, not in the USA. Yeah, not in the USA, no. Now, I, for a long time, I wondered before they caught Volkswagen, because of the pollution of the diesel, very few manufacturers were building diesels and selling in the United States. Meanwhile, Volkswagen sold a hell out of diesels

and take it over the market, making billions of dollars by, so somehow they're building these clean diesels. How do they do it? Well, they lie about it. They finally got them. And remember the days when diesel fuel was less priced in regular gasoline? Yeah. Yeah.

Those were good days. People would pump diesel into their fuel tank thinking, oh, boy, cheap gas. We'd made good money then. All right, guys, I'm looking forward to the shopping report. All right, son. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much, John. Have a great weekend. And speaking of the mystery shopping report, we shopped Malinex Ford.

So stay tuned for that. You know, as I look at this consumer report and see how they have really listed these least reliable models and their luxury models and things that you just take for granted that when you're going to purchase it, you've got a great car. Not true. For instance, take a look at this, pick up that January edition of the Consumer Report. You'll find a lot of information in here if you're going out to purchase anything at all, whether it be a subcompact or a mid-size, whatever. But back to the ratings, the Volkswagen Tahoe, it got a rating of 18 for reliability, and these are really... Out of 20?

Oh, out of 100. Oh, okay. I want to emphasize that. Yeah, it's 100. Yeah, so back to the Tahoe. You're looking at some serious things that are wrong with this vehicle. The transmission, we're looking at the electrical system, and so on and so forth. And then we get over to the pickup truck, the Ford F-150 hybrid.

It gets a 19 for reliability. So this is an interesting report, a road report from... So if you're considering the Tahoe or the F-150, get the F-150, it's better. It's one better. It's one more better. It's one more better on reliability. Yeah, one point better.

So anyway, let's get back to our phone calls. Give us a call toll-free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530, as I mentioned earlier in the show, $50 for the first two new lady callers. We're going to stay with the phones, and we're going to talk to Marty from Westbourne Beach. Good morning, Marty. Good morning. How are you? Well, thank you. You're better. Good. Getting better.

Good. First thing I want to say is go Buffalo Bills. I'm telling you, there's just a lot of great teams, isn't there? Yeah. And look at that. Stowe was kidding about the Miami Dolphins. I mean, the last time they were in the playoffs was a long time ago. 1999. Wow. I just wanted to say the New York governor told everybody to stay home because of the weather and watched the game on TV. and I wouldn't tell you what my grandson said was not nice to the governor.

Yeah, exactly. So he was out there at the caucus, right? Yeah, yeah. Now, we're from Rochester, and I've been through Rochester and Buffalo winters. So people are saying, you know, bad weather now. You never lived in Rochester and Buffalo either. If you were in there, we've had plenty of years.

That's why we've been in Florida for 20 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My other question is I got to ask Rick a question. Okay. Do cars ever need tune-ups anymore? Really old cars. Well, yeah. All the new cars are getting tunups all the time while you're driving.

So that's the, what used to be an original tune-up was you replace the spark plugs, you replaced the points and the condenser, and the mechanic would adjust the timing for the points and adjust the timing for the ignition and he would adjust the carburetor's mixture. Well, now, the computer is controlling the timing multiple hundred times a second. It's adjusting the timing.

It can adjust the timing between each cylinder firing. So when cylinder number one fires, it can change the timing to adjust it for number two. Same thing for the fuel injectors, The computer is constantly adjusting the duration and timing of the spray for the fuel injectors for each individual cylinder. And it's watching the exhaust flow through the oxygen sensors, the airfield ratio sensors, and constantly adjusting itself. So as you're driving down the road, you're getting a to-up done 100 times a second. The only thing you cannot do is replace its own spark plugs.

but spark plugs now are 100 to 150,000 mile lifespan. Eridium? Erridium plugs. And so as long as you replace the plugs on time, you're literally kept in tune all the time. I like how you put that. You do get tune-ups. I'll tell you.

I must have been bad mechanics in Rochester because I used to do tune-ups and half of them, the cars would backfire, and I always had to bring them back for some kind of. kind of an adjustment. So they've definitely improved cars today. Didn't they, when they did tune-ups, the timing, it would produce a sound, and they would, depending on the, like, the gear,

they, by listening to the car, they knew if the timing was right? You could do that, but the best way was with a dwell meter that actually showed you when you were in proper time. Okay. Yeah. Very cool. All right, well, as long as Buffalo wins tomorrow, it'll be a good weekend. Sorry, Marty.

That's not going to happen. We can only hope. Hey, Marty, enjoy that game. No matter who wins, the best team wins, right? You and your grandson. Yeah, very good. All right. Have a good weekend, everybody.

Thank you. We are going to go to, I hope I'll mess up your name, Dillio, from New York. Oh, Dillio, you caught my cold. You sound like Nancy and Rick. Sorry about that. Oh, that's okay. Did I pronounce your name correctly, Delio? Okay, it's pronounced Delio, but Delio is okay.

Delio, okay. Welcome to the show. Thank you. I have a question. I have a 2019 Subaru Legacy. Mm-hmm. And back in 2021, they tell me that the breaks were going, and the replacement.

I didn't do it until 2022. Now, in 2024, I took it for inspection, and they tell me that the rear brakes the replacement again. Is that normal or there's something going on with some defection in the model? How many miles are you driving? I've got 31,000 miles on it now, and I drive per year no more than 5,000 or 6,000 miles up per year. Oh, that's low.

Hmm. That seems a little low. I'd be having a mechanic check things out because with disc brakes, if the slider pins on the caliper begin to seize up, say they get rusty or something, then one set of pads can wear out a lot faster than the others. or your pads may not release properly and that can cause it to wear faster so if you're needing brakes that quickly I would have a mechanic check him and make sure to clean everything up

I get a second opinion if you're talking to one guy I certainly will get a second opinion because as Rick says that's a very unusual thing to happen to Subaru very unusual right

that's what I say you know why shall I need within a year and a half what year is it was it a 22 a 17

Subaru okay but yeah my my friend has a 20 Subaru same car doesn't have any

break issues as far as I know yeah you got a unique case here yeah so what do you suggest again

get a second yeah I'd get a second opinion from another mechanic go online and look for you the Subaru forums and find

a local group for Subaru owners and ask them who they trust for their mechanics. Those Subaru forums. And you'll get some great recommendations that way. That's a great place to go. I just Googled Subaru bricks and Google says that

brakes on a Subaru should last 50,000 miles. So there's something really wrong with what you're being told, I think. So if you go to another technician, another mechanic and get a second opinion, you'll probably get a reverse of what the first one said. The mechanic that you spoke to most recently,

does he know it wore out that soon? And he's just recommending doing the breaks, or is he recommending there something? I take it to the dealership. Oh, the dealer? It didn't seem alarming to them that was so soon that they had to be replaced. I asked them, but they act like they don't understand it.

You know, they just need that. Yeah, it's as simple as what Earl and Rick said. Somebody else has got to look at it. Anybody also hears it, it's only, it's been two years. They know that there's a deeper problem that they've got to look at. That second opinion is really worth. It's weight and gold. That's what you need to do.

Right. Okay. Well, thank you. And give us a call. Let us know how things turned out for you. I certainly will. Thank you. We look forward to talking to you next week.

Have a great weekend. 877-960 or you can text us at 7-7-2-49-7-6-5-3-0. Ladies, please give us a call. We'd love to hear from you. First-time callers, first two, you get yourself, win yourself, $50. That's 877-960. We're going to go to John. He's a regular caller from West Palm Beach. Good morning, John. Good morning. I got a question for Rick. Got a 2003 Avalon X-A-L-S. And I'm getting ready to change the timing belt. So I thought, well, I'm going to look it up and since it's been a while since I did it. And in looking through some of the things, something came up on the Internet said things to, when should you change your timing belt? And And one of the things that it mentioned was if your car's hydroplaining during wet weather. Now, what would hydroplaining have to do with the timing belt?

This came from eliteaccura.com. I don't know why they'd be mixing those two together. That seems a lot because hydroplaining is going to be a result of your tire tread being low. Uh, maybe they're going because of the keyword belt and radial belted tires. If you're, uh, sometimes search engines can just lead you in a funny direction. Sounds like a weird AI, um, like hallucination response. Are your pants falling down? You might need to change your timing belt.

Well, this is eliteaccura.com and it says, taking noise under the hood. I understand that. Engine doesn't start. Okay. I understand that. Engine misfiring while driving. I understand that. Oil leaking from the front side where the motor is.

That's not timing belt. That's a gasket issue. And then hydroplaining while driving in wet weather. And then if the check engine light is on. And that's what they, you know, as far as, you know, it says timing belt. Timing belt needs to be replaced when these things happen. Hydroplained. I got a timing plate.

I would just move on to a different source. That's a dealer's website. Yeah. It just sounds like there's something goofy in there that their web designer put in there from a bunch of notes when they put the page. Let me read something I just googled. Oh, we're wrong. You've probably heard of hydro planning before and when it happens to be a worn out timing belt.

It's very similar to hydroplaining tires. If you're driving in the rain, water may get onto the timing belt. Oh, okay. An old belt won't be able to push the water out from behind between it and the pulleys, which will cause it to slip. Okay, so we're not talking about tires hydrop landing. We're talking about a bell on a, um, on a pulley. Yeah. Rick's, Rick's is, is stretching his face.

stretching his face to the descent that that is a stretch. It's in line there. Yeah, but the thing is you've got splash shields and the timing belt covers of rubber grommets on, gaskets that are supposed to keep the water out

and away from the belt. You shouldn't be getting any water buildup on the belt. If you got so much water getting into that belt that hydraulically it's causing the belt to slip a tooth, which once a belt moves moves a tooth, you, especially on your Avalon,

which should be the 3.3 liter engine, you're taking a chance on bending valves because that's a zero clearance engine. I think this may be a semantic misunderstanding. Yeah, I think they're, what happens is a lot of these search engines, they use keywords, and belt is a keyword, which it may look at drive belt, seat belt, timing belt belt belted tires and it will mix that sometimes it gets confused and it's pulling that up

the timing belt do hydroplane but not like a tire so it's a it's a semantic thing now my recommendation for doing your timing belt is replace the timing belt itself while you're in there inspect and be repaired be prepared to replace your water pump if you see any signs of a pink or white, like, crusty powder-looking substance anywhere near the water pump. And what I would also do is very carefully inspect the two camshaft seals and the crank shaft seal and be ready to replace those as well. What's that pink crusty stuff? That's when Toyota uses what's called super long-life coolant, and when it's, if it's leaking

and it dries out. And it dries up, it leaves behind this pink residue that gives you a great indicator. Hey, there's been a leak there. Interesting. Well, the kits that I've seen all have the gaskets for that, you know, especially the two little gaskets for the things. But I just, I just look it up in. Yeah. Yeah.

Because, you know, I had changed it at 70,000. I'm coming up on 205,000. I think, well, I'd be. better get it done and change it again, you know, before something happens. Yeah. Might be a good idea. Real good idea, John. If that timing belt moves enough teeth and the engine is running at speed, it can bend valves.

So I would definitely preventative maintenance get that timing belt done. Why have additional problems? So, John, do you have any other questions? No, that's it. I just want to say thank you to Toyota for, you know, keeping things standard most of the time. For instance, my daughter, this is her car, and she doesn't run it harder or anything like that. But she lost the gas cap at a gas station. So I went to, you pull.

Oh, I think I did tell you guys this. But anyways, there are so many Toyotas that use the same gas cap. I was able to purchase three or four of them when it took them off the cars in case she loses it again you know, and they were only $3 a piece. Interesting, wow. Like a great birthday present for her.

Yeah. Yeah, I figure she loses one. I'm sure she's going to lose some more, so. But I was able to pull one from a Camry, one from an Avalon, and one from, I think, a Corolla. Yeah. Because they're all the same gas cats, you know, amazing that's great so it was cheap to get I've just stocked up on those just in case

there you can't be too careful hey John thanks for being part of the show and being a regular and have yourself a great weekend oh you too thank you see you later have a great year thank you happy new year a 7-7-960 or you can text us at 772 4976530. Ladies, I'm waiting for two new lady callers. $50 if you give us a call this morning. You can win yourself $50 for the first two new lady callers. We have got a lot of calls backed up here. We're going to go to Frank. And before we talk to Frank, I'm going to tell Barbara and Joe Allen, please hang in there. I'll be right with you. Good morning, Frank. well good morning and obviously welcome back to the show from last week oh thank you and i got i got to give a quick feedback to that last guy with the timing belt um i believe two had a little excuse me i didn't mean to call anyway he had a little quick joke i hope some of the other listeners come off when you were talking about the belts and he

said but they're not right your shorts might fall off so um i got that um little i should say insert that you have but anyway let's go back to breaks for a minute in the old days I recall if for your brakes to adjust if you go backwards sometimes and you're back up on your brakes and they adjust that way is that technique pretty little gone nowadays that was for drum brakes because drum brakes you had a little star wheel adjuster and as you hit the brakes in reverse the system was designed to make that actually ratchet and slowly adjust outwards by way of a screw and that would decrease the space between the shoes and the

drum but disc brakes are inherently self-adjusting that's just when they as the caliper squeezes the pads out the piston moves out when it seal pulls it back it only pulls it back just a little so they're always adjusted properly with disc brakes okay well i had a feeling it was pretty old memory bank that it was back there. This is one for, I guess, for Earl and Nancy, especially for Nancy, where I didn't listen to your advice a few years ago when I bought a pickup truck with my son,

I had a co-signed for it. And now, well, the good news was when we got it, Toyota had zero interest for five years. So there's still a couple of years left on it. He wants to pay it off early or because he needs to get some dental work done. He doesn't want to have two bills. the truck and on Dennis

and I told him I said it doesn't make sense you got something that's going to be zero percent versus some Dennis that's going to get 20 percent do you have any advice or is there any if we don't get anything back if we pay off early do we?

Listen to daddy is the advice you're absolutely right yeah absolutely right for you okay I'll be up I mean the amount of interest you have to pay today I think on a used car he'd be looking at maybe 12, 15%.

I mean, new cars are pushing 10%, so the interest rates are crazy, and he's got a 0% locked in. He'd be crazy to trade that thing in. Just throw it. Well, that's good. What I'm going to do is have him listen to this show when we get it off the show.

There you go. Why miss with perfection? You know, that's what I say. One real quick flashbacks. several years ago, and I know that you've met millions, well, not millions, but hundreds of thousands of people, I'm sure, over your years. I recall the very first time we met in person, and I'm going to reflect on that with you in just a moment. And I have a metal detecting business, and I also got a roof done, some insulation in my roof, this solar stuff that really did help with two solar heat extractors on the roof.

and the dealer wanted me to give a testimony on the air so I was down in the radio station many years ago probably 13 years ago maybe even longer and it was from this 7.30 to 8 o'clock slot and so as I'm getting off I notice you guys in the waiting room to go on the air and I decided to pull practical joke with you guys because I had a federal marshal badge and I went over to rural and opened my badge

and said we're taking you off the air for defamation of character Earl handled it very nicely He said You know, he said I was preparing for this My lawyer He said this is probably going to happen But one person

Kind of got a little more Excitable Than Earl But anyway Do you remember that particular instance I can't I can't believe I don't I have to be honest with you

I don't But good Lord What a great joke that was I could have had a heart attack You should be careful Well you respond Very calmly You knew it was coming

It's like you put your hands out And said Take me to jail Frank, how many times that we met you, Frank? Didn't we meet you right here? Yeah, right here right out in the parking lot. You were bringing bagels over. That's right.

That's right. Yeah, to big dollar rents. So, Frank, who got excitable in that moment? Well, as a bunch, I hate to say it, Nancy basically said, you spent on the gun. And he came after you. Well, so you got to remember, I wasn't too far from, I was a, I was just begun to be a recovered card dealer. So just a few months or maybe a few years prior to that incident, I had been a low-level conniving criminal card dealer. So we're trained, we criminals are trained not to panic when they see a badge because they, you have to be very calm and then look for your opportunity to escape.

So it was just my criminal reaction there. Exactly. If you had given them a few more minutes, you would never see them again. No, no. You did handle it very well. Like you just knew, hey, what the heck. I'm glad that Nancy was there. No, it was a lively match with Nancy.

And also, when they talked about, you know, your pricing and stuff like that, when I got that truck from my son, we went through the Costco. So the price there, and I figured, well, you know, I've talked to you on the air on one year, a little, what do you call it, not bounty hunters, you know what I'm talking about. Vigilandia. And so we're there in the dealership, and we're nailing everything out. And I saw it, there's any chance we get a few more dollars off you? Absolutely not. This is the price. And so you're very firm. I was a little, you know, hurt going to, I thought I was your friend. And I go, well, it doesn't matter if your friend, family, or not, you're going to pay the price. and that's a price

and I really I admire your honor and stuff like that so you really do tell the people full of time anyway let me let you get to other customers and you have a good day all right thank you for it's great

that we have so many seasoned callers you know that I've listened to the show for so long and that story with the badge that sounds familiar but I'm with you I don't remember it like exactly

but it just sounds like something that happens to you. And I try to control myself. Oh, yeah. I really do. It doesn't matter if they got a badge. Not good at it, but at any rate, our number here is 877-960-9960,

and you can text us also at 772-497-6530. We're going to get to our next caller, and Barbara is giving us a call from West Palm Beach. She's called before. and has continued to stay in touch with us. Good morning, Barbara. Good morning. How are you guys doing?

Oh, great. How are you doing? Good. I'm just getting some gas in my 2010 Toyota Camry, and that's what I want to call about. Okay. I noticed Friday it was yesterday. I was driving to work, and I'm like, man, my lights are so dim, and it was. I found out my headlight on the driver's side was out.

And I don't know, since it's a 2010 and it's older, I've heard newer cars, you need to get, like, the whole assembly changed out. Is that true for my car? Yes. I wish Rick was here to give you some more details, but generally speaking, I don't think that you can just replace a bulb anymore. It's part of, like, a whole headlight assembly. Yeah, the whole kit you have to purchase.

Again, not knowing because Rick's not here, one thing, I would guess it's entirely possible it could be a fuse or a connection and before you automatically replace the entire headlight assembly I would get an honest opinion from a technician because it'd be easy to sell you a new

headlap assembly but it probably is the headlap assembly but it might not be yours is a 2010 though you did say it's a 2010 Rick you're here in the nick of time you might have a bulb you might have a bulb you might have a bulb it's a

2010. I'm Googling because Rick was up. He's back. 2010 Corolla. Can they replace the bulb and headlights? I'm sorry. It's a Camry. Oh, either or. I've owned Cobbors before, but this one is a Camry. She wants to know if she can replace a part or she has to replace the whole set and purchase a kit. A 2010 Camry, the headlight? Yeah.

Should be just a bulb. A, you lucked out. A halogen. I lucked out. Yeah. Okay. Good. Because my bright work, I put my bright lights, you know, the front headlamps, and they're fine on both. And I'm wondering, too, since I don't remember ever having them change, is the other one going to go out pretty soon since they're... Actually, not likely. With headlights, it just seems like any more, they're kind of random. It's not like when one goes, the others are going to go quickly. Yeah, you'd be totally safe just putting one in. Okay, sounds good.

Wow, a happy answer. Thanks for the call, Barbara. Rick to the rescue. Barb, thanks so much for staying in touch with us and being part of the female audience. And have yourself a great weekend. You too. Bye-bye now. Thank you.

It was nice talking to you. We're going to go to Joe Ellen that I have to say has been extremely patient. She's calling us from Fort Lauderdale. Good morning, Joe Allen. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome. I called before regarding my 2015 Nissan Ultima with the transmission.

And so, you know, I'm getting rid of the car because it's going to cost like $7,000 to fix. Oh, okay. So I have somebody looking for a car, and he just gave me a 2003 Accura RSX with a 145,000 miles on it and he says it's good, clean I haven't seen it in person and just wondering if that's, I thought that was a lot of miles

for, you know, and they're asking $5,500 for it. No. Not today. It just doesn't, Rick? That's, the 2003 Accu-R-6 is a Honda product, which Honda basically it's not accurate.

Yeah, but Accura is the upper level of Honda. That's their luxury brand. And it's like Toyota and Lexus. And 150,000 miles on that car is like a Chevrolet with 20,000 miles. I mean, that car's got probably another 200,000 miles left in it, you know, if you take care of it, maintain it properly. You just want to be sure to take it to an independent mechanic and have him go over it with a fine tooth comb. Absolutely. You might have to pay $200, but before you spend the $5,000, spend the $200, have your technician,

not the person that's selling in the car, go over it and check it out carefully. And what will probably happen is there'll be a few things that he'll point out, and then you can go back to the seller and say, we got a deal, but I want you to take care of this for me first. On the other hand, he might even find something serious, but as Rick said, it's a good product and as long as you get the stamp of approval from your mechanic you'll have to pay for it. It's well

worth the investment. Well, what would you consider a mechanic inspection? I mean, putting it on a scanner and and, but it has to be more than that, of course. Yeah, they

should put it up on it. Well, first thing is you take it for a test drive and feel for any issues there. Make sure everything's working. All the windows, all the door locks. Make sure you've got all the warning lights are operational and then nothing's staying on. They should also put it up on a lift and inspect the engine, transmission, look for any leaks. Make sure you don't have a lot of rust under there.

They should be looking at your tires, the brakes, the drive belts. Make sure that everything's in good shape. And be sure the mechanic is ASE certified. He'll have a badge probably on the shirt. or at least they'll have the credentials and they have to be go redone every year, right? Every five years.

Every five years. So ASC certified and he should be certified in what, Rick, what particular? He should be a master mechanic. Master mechanic. ASE certified master mechanic. There are a lot of them out there, but there's also more of them that aren't.

So get yourself at ASE certified master mechanic, pay him $200, have them to check the car out. You get the seal of approval. You got a real good buy there. Yep. Okay. All right. Thank you so much.

You're very welcome. You know, Joelle, and I have to thank you for, you know, trusting us, like so many of our callers that call in. And we certainly, you know, appreciate you calling and asking such important questions. And it's so, what an investment. I mean, $200, I mean, this is a good investment, you know, for a vehicle that you're, Going to have for a long time. Yes, Rick. Joe Ellen, if you really want to make sure that mechanic's going to look your car over real well

and really do a good job of it, bring you a box of chocolate chip cookies, you know, homemade chocolate chip cookies as well, and I guarantee he's going to – and he will tear that thing apart to make sure it's right for you. Just because you like chocolate, picture cookies. It could be oatmeal raisin. I'm not a baker, but I'll keep that in mind. One last thing I would say, I appreciate the $50 that you said,

me, but you know what? I think that if you reduce it even down to 25 or 35, 50 is a lot of money, I think. So just my input. Oh, thank you so much, Joelle, and I appreciate that. All right. Okay. So, let's just stay in, stay and give us a follow-up call. Let us know how the, you know, that investment. Will you send us $15 back? No, no, I already, okay. No, but I said that, I said, you know what, it's really, I think $25 people would even be interested in making a call. I love listening to your program, and I've told my friends all about it. I'm not sure if they get up that early, but. Well, we appreciate that, Jo Allen, and, again, you know, give us a follow-up call on your situation, and have yourself a great weekend.

Okay, you as well. Okay. Yeah. We're going to take some time and take a look at some texts and get to Rick. I thought we had more phone calls. I thought everybody was just waiting for you to come back. Like we had no calls last week. No, we had calls. But not like today. Yeah, they're waiting for you. You're the star. Oh, thank you. We were dealing with technical problems last week without Jonathan. Speaking of Jonathan, Jonathan, as you can tell everyone listening, that Jonathan is, is back and he's irreplaceable.

He is a digital, digital expert, the VIP of digital operations. Digital cowboy. Yeah, there he is. He's a wild cowboy. Thank you for all you do, Jonathan. Everyone here, you know, we're all back and it seems like as if that all of the pieces of the puzzle have connected and we're whole again. So, at any rate, thank you all for your dedication and listening to the show. So we'll get to the text and we'll get to YouTube's whenever Stu is finished up.

Yeah, with Amory kicked it off with a good morning. Confession, I could be accused of being an automotive leadite because I have a fondness for manual transmissions, cars with knobs and dials for the radio and AC and levers, and levers for directional signals and windshield wipers. and steering wheels. You don't even have a steering wheel. I also like seatbelts, properly working airbags and then they're like brakes.

Oh, I hate seatbelts. You do? Oh, yeah. Well, I got used to. They're hard to put on and take off. Once they're on, I'm flying with that. Remember the ones that used to automatically come over, like some of the old domestic cars?

Yeah. I think being a big guy, but I am to read to all the dials and buttons and everything. I'm on board with that. Let's get it back. Yeah, she says, but things, Things and times are changing. Every year auto manufacturers

create new technologies and accessories for their vehicles. In your opinion, what are the best new safety features on the latest vehicles that Luddites like me are most likely to appreciate? Thank you.

P.S., I hope Nancy is feeling better. You know, first I thought it was an easy question, but it's not. It's not what are your favorite safety features because I got my favorite safety feature. I don't think a Luddite would like, and that's the lane trace assist that keeps, it's almost like an automatic driving. The way, but the warning when you're changing.

Right, so I'm getting to remind somebody who doesn't like technology in general, what's something that they can buy into. And I think, I think the mirror warning things like you're talking about. Because that's, I mean, first of all, if you're right spot monitor. The blind spot monitor, that's right. That's a proper, the right name form or BSM. And the automatic stop. What did we do without that? I think it's the things you don't have to think about.

Those are ones I would tell him, right? Exactly. Things just happen automatically in the background and helps keep you safe. Things you don't have to push or figure out. What's that, Rick? The other function of the blind spot monitors, the rear cross-traffic alert. Yeah.

So if you're in a parking spot and you put it in reverse to back up, if a car is coming up the lane, it'll beep and light up to let you know what cars coming there. And you couldn't see it if you look for it. You couldn't know. They come out of the blind spot. You're at Costco. were Publix and these crazy people are running up and down the aisle.

Well, you're in between a couple of vans. People and cars. And you can't see. That falls in the category. How does it know? Because there's no like the sensor sticking out in the parking lot. It just has a very. Magic.

It's magic. No, the sensors in the rear of the car has a very broad view of this sonar or radar, whatever it's doing, which we should probably know what it's, Rick knows what it's doing. But it's doing something. But it's really cool. And it can save damaging your car, hitting a pedestrian. We know it's doing something good. Yeah, Emily, if you're listening, if you take a test drive and a car with the features we're talking about and have them demonstrated to you, you will have to buy the car.

I guarantee you it will save you from an accident one day. It will save you. Backup camera. They're standard now. We take that for granted. But the backup camera used to be. I used to rave about that, but now it's good, but it's not nearly. as good as some of the other features.

My Tesla has got so many safety features that I have to tell you I take it for granted. So I allow my automatic braking and warnings and things like that to happen and I relax

my own vigilance when I'm driving, which is probably a bad thing to do, but that's how good they are. Exactly. The extension to that, they now have, what known as bird's eye view where the cameras all around your car can actually show you a very accurate picture of your car from above and you'll be able to see everything on the ground around you. Honestly.

It's like watching the red zone on Sunday when we're watching football. If you look at my Tesla, you'll be amazed at what it shows you. I mean, I actually have too many ways on the Tesla to find out if someone is passing me or coming up behind me. I have several cameras as a redundancy in terms of I never used my rear view mirror and practically never used my side view beers anymore. It took me a while to relax and give in to that system on the Tesla because you just, you know, you feel like as if you're in your comfort zone

when you're looking through the rear view mirror and, you know, you're not depending upon all of these features that the Tesla has, but they are great features and they really keep you safe. So Anne-Marie, thank you. All right. Next, let's go over to anonymous feedback because there's a few came in and I got to log in because it logged me out. Let's see.

The first one, I just purchased a Buick with an $8,000 discount from MSRP. This didn't stop them from having an addendum sticker. around the car when I got there. $8,000 off MSRP and $12.50 rebate made me made up for the $899 dealer fee in my mind. I hate the games. And they headed the head on the head.

Well stated. I mean, it's lying and cheating and bait and switch advertising. You used the verbiage. The texture used the verbiage. They were selling it below MSRP. Well, they weren't selling it

That was the whole point. That's why this Federal Trade Commission regulation kicking in in July is going to be a wonderful thing. And your column was a great thing that you wrote for this past week. Well, let's go through the. Yeah, I have a question. There was a text that came in, and it's a good question. I was trying to answer it because we were so busy with the phones. So a question, this is from Bob.

And he wants to know with the battery recall on the Rav 4, what happens if you need a new battery before the fix? And the battery call came out a couple of months ago. It could be loose. So in a hard turn, the battery could shift and potentially arc and cause a fire. His question is, what if you need a new battery before then, not from the recall, but say your battery dies? And I said, I assume you could put a new battery in it.

It would just be loose like that. You still need a fix because the clamp is the issue. something what's the deal Rick you can actually tighten it down securely as long as the battery is the proper size right you want to make sure that it's a group 35 battery he's on the list so Bob is on the list he's got the small top or the improperly fitting better right and they're they're replacing all because a lot of manufacturers make batteries they make the cases sometimes different sizes is some of these smaller manufacturer companies for some

reason they just make them a little different. The main thing you want to be sure of is that when the battery is in and that clamp is in place that the battery is not able to move. That clamp should be able to tighten down on 99% of the batteries to get tight enough to hold it. And the reason it's only 99 is why they've come out actually with the second part of that campaign where Toyota's going to replace the actual tray that the battery sits on and that clamp assembly and redesign it to make it to fit 100% of the batteries, nice and secure, and they cannot move so you don't short. So if Bob leaves his keys in the car, whatever lights on,

and his battery drains, he can still get a replacement battery before the clamp assembly. So don't worry about it, Bob. Just make sure that it's the proper size battery and that when it's installed, that clamp is nice and tight. Okay, there you go. More incognito. I've just bought a Ford Fusion.

from Seattle to live in Alaska and it has a recall on the power steering and I bought it two years ago. What are my options at this point? Get it fixed. They don't expire. So you can take it to a Ford dealership in Alaska and they will fix it for free and yeah, it should be pretty easy. That's the way it works. I would contact the dealership first and ask them about the availability of parts. And if the parts are going to be a long time coming, ask them what the dealer will do or what the dealer, the manufacturer will do to help you with transportation. To arrange transportation for you if that vehicle is unsafe to drive. Yeah. Great or nice.

Another anonymous feedback. I wonder how dealers will disclose their add-on fees with this new FTC legislation. Will it be in microtype at the bottom of the contract hidden from Easy View by the consumer? That's the current way they do it. How will the FTC enforce this legislation? They aren't doing a very good job enforcing current FTC regulations. Thanks, Earl, for another informative video. That must come through it for YouTube.

I was going to segue into my column, and if we're running short of time here, so this week's column is demand your congressperson, make known their support. And, of course, that's a sport on the combating. auto retail scams, cars, C-A-R-S, combating auto-retail scams. Make sure you're Congress. Now, I feel almost like I'm joking because people are, there's an apathy, and this is my point in my column. We complain a lot about what politicians do, but it's very difficult to get people to contact their representatives and their senators and Congress or their state senators and representatives, we sit there and complain all day long,

but we don't get proactive. The only way this Federal Trade Commission regulation, it's gone through the process, it's going into effect July 30th of this year, the only way it will not go into effect is if the Congress and the Senate stop it. Now, they're already on that bandwagon, and there's already organization for the Congress, U.S. Congress, to stop the FTC regulations based on the, call it, there's loopholes of stopping things. It's not, the regulations will exist, but they will be. Well, the regulations, yeah, the law is already there, and they're making the regulations based on the law. If Congress makes a new law that carves out car dealers, they can do that as long as it gets passes and gets signed by whoever the president's going to.

I'm going to try something. I haven't even discussed this with anybody yet, but this came to, I've been thinking about it. And Stu, I talked last week about putting something on our website. So to help mobilize Erlon Carr's audience and anybody that knows about this issue, what I will do for the Florida. representatives in U.S. Congress, the Florida Senators, that's for Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, and for the 28 Congresspeople in the U.S. Congress from Florida, I'm going to offer to donate to their favorite charity. If you are a member of the Congress, I will donate $500 to your favorite charity if you're a Florida, U.S. representative. If you will clearly state your position, I'm not saying, I'm not trying to bribe you with the $500.

I want you to, in writing, clearly state your position of supporting the FTC Cars Act or not supporting it. I mean clear. I don't mean you're thinking about it. I'll support it if you do this because that's another way to slow walk legislation. I want to know if the Florida U.S. Congress the senators and the representatives will support

or will not support if you don't want to support it that's okay but don't keep quiet about it don't do it in the smoke field room don't do it behind the scenes you let the voting public know that you will not

support the CARES Act I will denote donate $500 to your favorite charity and if you donate the money to Big Dog Ranch I'll make it a thousand now I have an even And that's for the representatives.

For the senators, for Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, I'll give $2,000 to Big Dog Ranch and $1,000 to your favorite charity. All you have to do is state in writing that you will support or will not support, as written, the Federal Trade Commission, Cars Act. And that's combating auto retail scams. Now, if you sit on your hands until July, with that offer on the table, you're screwing charity.

Because all we ask is transparency. Say, I will not support it. And you say that in writing, clearly, I will donate $1,000 if you're a senator, and $500 to your favorite charity. And if it'll go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue, I'll double it and get $2,000 for the Senate. and I'll make $1,000 for the congressional representatives. There you go. Very compelling. I think so.

And we'll put that on our website and we'll talk about it. And you folks that have heard this now, and if anybody knows Marco Rubio or Rick Scott or any of your district representatives in the U.S. Congress, send them an email. Say, hey, your favorite charity. Yeah. Hey, Lois Frankel and Brian Mast, come on.

Yeah. You're listening right now. We know you are. They'll be real interesting to see what happens, right? Very interesting. Silence is the weapon of the politician. They pretend like they don't hear us and they only respond with this pressure. Here's some real pressure because we got you either way.

If you keep quiet, you will be known as the Senate or the congressman that refuse to say what position they took on a a policy no reason we can't ask you to support a policy or be against a policy that's on your conscience but to deny a charity a generous contribution because you're going to keep your mouth shut because you're afraid to tell the truth that's going to cost you a re-election in my opinion all right the campaign begins all right is it time is it time for the mr shrapin report it is time Rick oh i'm all called caught up, I think. Okay, Rick.

What do you have? Well, I'll see. We'll go back a little bit here. Donovan says, a little late today, but to Nancy's question earlier about charging at the mall, she used a level 2 charger. That's about the same as what a home AC power at 32 to 48 amps, so not very fast. The fast chargers that everyone wants charge in DC power at a much higher output. at a much higher output, hundreds of amps at a much higher voltage to charge in minutes.

And let's see. Why do you have to plug them up to, a 240? Yeah, 240 volts. But it's converting it to DC for your home charger. But also, I think he means the superchargers are charging DC current instead of charging AC. Yeah. And therefore, it charges much quicker. Yeah.

Who was it? That's from Donovan. Oh, Donovan. Yeah. I love Donovan. He always has such great information for us. Thank you, Donovan. I did not know that.

And he says that he had to make an airport run yesterday. Port St. Lucie to Miami and back in his Polestar, 256-mile round trip, and he charged for only six minutes in the middle of it as he was at the airport. Is that right? So that's Polestar apparently got a pretty decent vehicle there. Can't ask for anything more. Problem being that financially, they're hanging by a thread. Yeah.

And then also he and Cliff's picks were also having a bit of a discussion back and forth about the Hertz cars being up for sale, saying there are apparently quite a few Tesla Model 3s being sold for... Now, Donovan says he saw him for $16,000. Cliff said he was seeing $21,000. so the 16,000 ones may have sold out, but apparently they're still for sale. They sell directly on their website. Hertz is selling 20,000 EVs directly, and I have a feeling that prices are going to be quite low

because electric vehicle use car prices are very depressed right now. So I see Hertz going bankrupt again. I believe Hertz is about ready to throw the towel. They've already been bankrupt once they came back. They made this really stupid idea. that they're going to be an entire electric vehicle fleet. Now they're going to have to dump 20,000 EVs very quickly. So if you want an EV used vehicle, go on the Hertz website and see what the price is.

Check out that compared to the competitive prices around. But you can get a hell of a deal on a EV today. I used EV today. Errol, was that the Wall Street Journal? Was that the article we were reading this morning that I had given you on Hertz? It is? Wall Street Journal. Yeah, they're mentioning Tesla Model 3, 21, so two years old,

with around 20,000 miles for $21,000, which I think is probably what about half the price of a new three. Well, we don't know what the current market is. We could get that number, but we'll see. It probably is a good price because they're not messing around. They just need to, they need cash. Yeah, they want to dump. Right.

Trouble, yeah. And then, of course, for the average buyer, you're only real upshot there. You still have to put a home charger in. But even then, might be worth considering for anyone that's looking. Absolutely. Okay.

Do you have anything else over there? That's got us pretty well caught up here. Okay. We are going to go to the mystery shopper report, and I will let you know that you can vote by texting us at 772. 4976530, we did a mystery shop at Molonex Ford, and Asian Lightning was out there using her magic again.

I'm assuming that's the Mullinx Ford here in Palm Beach County. It is North Palm Beach. Yeah, North Palm Beach. Okay, well, Moldnix Ford is your regular listeners now is one of the good guys, and they actually pioneered the one prime, price. They, many years ago, before we did, which is, they were the only ones that I know. So our dealership, I think, started what, how many years ago did we go to one price?

2012, 12 years ago. Yeah. So, Mulnack's beat us on that. I'll read this in the first person, is if I were Agent Lightning, who did the shop. I arrived just after dark It was greeted by the front customer receptionist Is anyone expecting you this evening? She asked, no. I haven't been in touch

with anyone. I reply, but I wouldn't love more information on this car right here on the showroom floor. I was referring to a new 2020 You got to laugh. A new 2022. Ford Explorer. I mean, in case you haven't checked your

calendar, this is 2024, and they're calling this a new car. The new 2022, Ford Explorer, with an MSRP of $48,335 on the shore floor. But it was discounted to $41,900. There was a disclaimer written on the windshield of white grease pen explaining that the price was predicated on a rebate for financing with Ford Motor Credit. So we'll find out about that later. There was also a sheet of paper taped to the window indicating that the vehicle had been damaged and repaired. Florida law requires that a new car

with greater than 1% of the MSRP damage repair has to be disclosed up front to the customer. The amount of the damage. So 1% of MSRP would... When we've had to do it, like we put the repair order with the on the windshield that shows exactly what happened to the car and it's been a while

we've had to do that so that would have meant that the cost of the repair was greater than $483 because that's 1% of the MSRP. He said it was a hood and a windshield. The reception said I'm not sure if it's available

but I'll call sales but they'll come and help you That's a strange statement because it's on the showroom floor. Or with a stick, right? Maybe she doesn't know if there's a deal working on it. But it's been there for two years. Just today, after two years, two people came in on the same. She's a receptionist, so let's not pick on her.

Maybe it's her first day of the job. A few minutes later, a salesman came out and introduced himself as Jake. Your son's not working at any. He is not. I double-checked the last name. It's Shaw, not Stewart. The car is available to confirm. It's a 2022 model used in-house so you can get a really good deal on it.

And it's still under manufacturer's warranty. Are you thinking about trade? Part of it. Some of it. Are you thinking about trading anything in this evening? I'm considered trading in my Rav 4 hybrid, but I'm still undecided. I told him I meant to try to get an appraisal on Agent Lightning's cars. I have an estimate.

Oh, good, good. I couldn't get into V Auto last night because it's stupid password things, but I sent the information to Josh, and he gave me a figure. Do you have it here with you today? I'm referring to the RAP-4 hybrid that Asia Lightning drives. Jake acquired. Yes, I said. He suggested taking my keys to appraise the R-F-4 as they were very busy at the moment.

I agree, it handed my keys. Who was the loan through, he asked. It's already paid off. that's great it'll make your loan even smaller he said a few minutes later Jake returned with his sales manager informed me about a camera recall

and another issue for which they couldn't get parts bear of mind this is 2020 they still can't get parts okay well maybe the recall is more recent yeah when it was 22

yeah it could be I mean one of the reasons why the current model cars they're diverting the parts to manufacturer of the new car and that's the reason you can't get the parts to repair a car which is but this is just you can't get the parts period with your because they're not building any 2022

is in that point the warranty is this I don't understand either the warranty is only good for 36,000 miles or until June 2025 now isn't the rule the car warranty time

starts to expire when you deliver the car to retail buyer? Data first use. Data to first use. So if they register it as a demo, he said it was used in-house. So we didn't get the details, but if it was registered as a demo. I didn't think about that. They registered it as a demonstrator. Okay. reported it as a demo. My guess is they didn't, but. Right. He could be wrong about the warranty, but it goes on the date of first use, whether a customer takes delivery or it's put in the service. But it only has a little over 5,000 miles on it. He had to be some paperwork with all the information and went back to his office.

Sales manager says, since you're not sure what you want to do with your car, he'll work it up both ways. I said, thanks, and sat and waited for about 20 minutes, but Jake kept the company. He said that the car wouldn't qualify for any special financing, but it sure to me that I wouldn't find a 2022 fully loaded Ford Explorer with a better price tag, which should compensate for any financing.

a new explorer may offer. The manager returned and he reviewed two options on his worksheed for me. The first one was with my hybrid rev for as a trade-ed. The second option was with finance. The top line was MSRP, 48,335. They showed a $5,435 discount and a selling price at 42,900. I pointed out that the special price was supposed to be, $41,900, and he says, oh my, it does.

Let me go fix that. That sounds like a real... Yeah, it sounds like legit. He sent returned a few minutes later, apologize, and explained it the online prices are always changing. He handed me the updated sheets. The price has been corrected, $41,900. The only thing's added were sales tax and $311.11 in tax.

title fees. I mean, that's something you don't see today. Well, you see it down the street. You just don't see it. And Molinex, that's the reason we have on our recommended list is they don't have junk fees. We can't recommend them higher. Yeah. In matter of fact, they dropped that little thing that remember the, and you had contacted the brothers. Yeah. They had a TV dealer fee and they took that right, because they didn't realize apparently that it technically was. Yeah. The second work trade included my trade, which they valued in $26,000, but like the first had those junk fees. Now, Stu has an estimate on what that... Okay, I'm going to give a disclaimer.

I wanted to book it out myself, and I had a hard time. I couldn't log into the site, so I texted the information on Agent Lightning's Raffour to my brother. He booked out real quick, and there's a difference between an appraisal and booking something out. He thinks it's worth about $31,000. Okay. But that's without looking at it, and that's without, you know, and we're also a Toyota dealership, and we sell, we use RAV-4s like crazy, and maybe they're a little less excited about it.

So the same thing applies when you're trading your car and you always shop and curb other price with at least three other sources. Today is easier than ever before in the history of automobile retail to get a price when you trade it. You could go to We Buy Anycar.com, you could go to CarMax, the best way to get another penny because they use car lot of the manufacturer

of the vehicle that you trade again. So if you're driving a Honda, you take it to a Honda dealer-use car department, say I will sell my car, but in a few hours you can get half a dozen good firm prices on your trade and that's what you need to do. In this case here, we think they're a little light on the

$26,000. We think it could be worth $30. $31. 31. 31. What do you think? He asked, salesman, I asked me. I'm surprised at the price for my cars, only 26,000. I said, he had a sheet and explained that they compared to others available. What he did is he had a V-A-A-O sheet that showed retail prices, and so I think he might have been explaining that, well, if we gave you that much, they're being sold retail for that much on V-A-A-O that he saw. And I didn't say. see the date range or what it was or some things to consider, but you might have a point. Yeah, and I give Bolandex,

they're honest people. I mean, that's the reason we have them on our highly recommended list, actually. Gold Star. Yeah. I said, my car is in perfect condition. I just need four new tires. Jake responded by saying, if you have a number of mine, please tell me, I have a little

room to work with you. I'd love to earn your business. I told him I was just thinking, I was thinking about it, just send my husband call, I took the call, then told Jake I had to hurry. I thanked him and said, I'd let him know what I decided. So there you have it.

It's a recommended. We go back even on the good dealers because sometimes good dealers become bad dealers. Less frequently, bad dealers become good dealers, but we still go back on both those. So we try to keep our Mr. Shopping

report evaluations and recommended list. versus unrecognon, unrecognited, fairly fresh and current. And if you go to Erloncars.com and we shopped a car in your area, I would start there. I would stay away from anybody of the do-not-buy list. You have to have a terrible grade. You have to have an F, and when you get an F, that means you are a thieving son of a gun. Lawbreaker. Yeah, lawbreaker.

If you get an F from us. And we are the kind of, you know what, that's one thing. We have years of, we have built up this capital of, you know, we don't give bad grades easily. On the do not buy list, the dealer should be in jail. That's how bad there. So definitely don't buy a car from the do not buy this. Go to the recommended list and then be real careful and try to find one with a higher score. You know, we have people on the recommended list with as low as D.

You know, it's one away from F, so I steer clear the D's unless I absolutely had to go over there. There's not a lot of alternatives if we have a D dealer up there. And we do agree on the, if you're thinking about the vote, we hope you're going to text us now. If you're going to vote, please remember we agreed on the curve. Nancy explained that at the beginning. of the industry shopping report. And a curve means, you know, there are no perfect dealers, and there are no, you know, there's no zero dealers there.

So the average dealer is a C. And if A dealers are like Ken's teeth, few and far between, and F dealers are rare too. I mean, we don't have very many Fs. Nope. You can vote at 772-4976530, and you could also take advantage of YouTube with Rick. Oh, I can't wait for Rick's grades to come in.

I got two already. I think we're all in alignment. I have Frank, refreshing shopping report, gives him an A. And Bob and Maryland gives A for Molinex Ford, and I'm giving them a solid A as well. I can't think of anything wrong that happened. Maybe some confusion over the, you know, like with the old age of the car. Yeah, it's sloppy.

A 2022 on the showroom floor I mean I guess actually That's what we do with the car We couldn't sell Maybe not for two years Not two years But I mean

A new car will make a trip To the used car auction If it doesn't go It doesn't reflect on their transparency It's just on there The experience that she Was so much better than When she told me she was at Mullinax Ford

I just felt a sense of relief Because I feel guilty sometimes send an agent lightning into battle. So she had an easy shop, and they get an A for me. Okay, we've got Joseph Kelleher. C, grade would have been higher had they given a bigger discount on the two-year-old vehicle. Starting a little hard here.

Let's see, here we go. Okay, Johnny Z. Freidly, Mullenax, with a quote around the A in Mullenax, is A okay. God, I love these. Brian Siddlatko, no junk fees, thumbs up. However, the trade-in value was a bit too low. B-plus.

Tim Gilliland, A. Tom Steckle, he retracted his message. And that's all, oh, I'm frozen, that's what happened. Let's refresh that page. It is cold. There we go. Mark Ryan, A. Cliff's Picks.

I'll go with a B-plus. Mark Smith, I give me a. Tom Steckle, a Mullenax Ford, no dealer fees. Always bring your online appraisals with you. And if you're going to include your car in a trade-in. So A from Tom Steckle. Myself, trade-in was a little low, but I'm still going to give them the A-minus.

Like Earl says, nobody's really perfect. But I think Mullinax comes as clear. closes you can get. I agree. You do. And Earl, what is your vote? I'm going to give them an A. Give them a A. Yeah. Okay. Well, they would have gotten an A from me, but I just didn't like the idea that they were going to steal that trade. So for that, I give them a B.

Okay. That's good. You know, and that's, like, the only bad thing, if Agent Lightning had come in and gotten a couple of other appraisals, it would have. gone perfectly. She might have led with that. But, you know, appraisal, you know, to boil it down is just a informed opinion. And you take it to different appraisers and that opinion, you'll see the difference of opinions there. Yeah, definitely. I just Google Malnix Ford. I didn't realize this, but there are Ford, Mallnick's four dealerships in Alabama and Washington. And there's, I know there's one or two others once in a popka for Florida.

So you folks in Alabama and Washington you're looking to buy a Ford find Mullinix they're one of the best dealers we've ever shopped. Yeah definitely and you know this here is proof

right here that whenever I talk about doing your homework this is part of your homework whenever you have a trade in to be prepared whenever you go into a dealership. So everybody is learning from everything

that we're doing right here and all of, you know, our advice. Earl, would you like to talk about the... Yeah, let me pitch my offer to the U.S. Congress, and this is the Florida, U.S. Congress. We'll see if we

can expand this. But we're talking about the combating auto retail scam of I say legislation, it's already in effect the rules for Federal Trade Commission cars combating auto retail scam takes effect July 30th

of this year and it will if enforced, and I underline enforced, it will make car buying a pleasant experience after 100 years in America. Very important. The Federal Trade Commission really had the courage to put this thing down. Now, of course, the politicians will be attacking it. How do we stop the politicians from pulling the teeth out of the Federal Trade Commission's Cars Act?

We get them to go on record, and what I am going to do at Erlon Cars to get things started for the Florida representatives and the U.S. Congress, the Senate and the representatives, the senators, I'll tell you the senators, they're Rick Scott, Senator Rick Scott, used to be Florida's governor, and Marco Rubio, who was in the U.S. Senate now for Florida, if they will go on the record saying that they support or do not support. I'm not going to tell them how to vote. Support or do not.

Go on the record. You will clearly support or do not support the Cars Act by the Federal Trade Commission. I'll give $2,000 to your favorite charity, not to your campaign, and not to you personally, to your favorite charity. If, I'm sorry, it's $1,000 to your favorite charity, $2,000 to Big Dog Rescue, because that's our favorite charity. So if you're a senator, we'll give $2,000 to Big Dog Grads Rescue, $1,000 to your favorite charity.

If you're a representative, we have 28 representatives to Florida. That's the congressional delegation from Florida. Congressional, the U.S. congressional delegation from Florida. If they do it, it's $500 to your favorite charity, $1,000 to Big Dog, grant rescue state that you support or do not support clearly unequivocably the federal trade commission combating auto retail scams regulations and we hope you support it we hope you support it but just don't remain silent don't stonewall don't pretend like you don't know this is happening because you're going to have to go on

record or you're going to cost your favorite charity a thousand dollars or two thousand dollars And our favorite here. You heard it right here, folks. You heard how passionate the recovering car dealer feels about this. And it is an amazing, it's going to be an amazing change. So let the games begin. Mark Ryan's asking any word on your book. Stop it, Mark.

Which one is this one? I'm on Mark Ryan. It's very close. We'll get back with you. Very close. We'll get back with you. Ladies and gentlemen, have a wonderful weekend. Jonathan, thank you for the great backdrop.

Happy Martin Luther King Day and to the teams that made it to the plate-offs. Congratulations. And I do have to say congratulations to the Steelers. And have a wonderful weekend enjoying all of these amazing teams, talented teams. Go Steelers. Go Steelers. Goose, guys. No shit.