Earl Stewart on Cars - 01.19.2019 - Your Calls. Texts, and Mystery Shop of Coral Springs Honda

Episode Date: January 19, 2019

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent X visits Mystery Shop of Coral Springs Honda to purchase a Honda Civic. Earl Stewart is one of the most successful car dealers in the nation. This podcast gives you the benefit of his 40+ years as a car dealer and helps you turn the terror of buying, leasing, or servicing a car into a triumphant experience. Listen to the Earl Stewart on Cars radio program every Saturday morning live from 8am to 10 am eastern time, or online on http://www.streamearloncars.com. Call in with your questions during the live show toll free at [phone]. You can also send a text to Earl and his expert team during the live show at [phone]. We are now on Facebook Live every Saturday between 8am and 10am. Go to facebook.com/earloncars to also watch it live or to watch a replay in case you missed it. Uncover additional automotive tips and facts at http://www.earlstewartoncars.com and follow Earl's tweets @EarlonCars. Watch Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars. “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”

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart. Reach them with your questions at 877-960. Here's Earl and Nancy. Good morning, everybody. I tell you, these weeks fly by. I can't believe it's Saturday. It's Earl Stewart on Cars, and we're here on your Goldie Oldie Station. And I just want you to know, I'm not going to sing, do you?

Most of you know that by now. We kind of invaded the station as a real live radio talk show, and that's what we are. We're all about automobiles, basically about how not to get ripped off by your car dealer. I always hate that when I say that, it's kind of a crude term, but it says something succinctly and accurately. The car business has really been living in the 20th century for a long time. Retail cars exist and happen, get sold. old the way they did 50 years ago or more and you know back in the 1950s 60s 70s and 80s people were just used to it and everybody did that way all car

dealers did the same way I did I started the car business in 1968 and part of the interesting thing about this show I hope for you is that I've been there and done that and I wrote a book Confessions of Recovery car dealer. So I have that knowledge of what the car dealers are doing today because I did the same thing a long time ago. I like to think I've cleaned up my act. Of course, I'm still in recovery. As you know about an addict, you just can't let up. You have to keep on every day is a new challenge. It's so easy to take advantage of people when they buy a car. They don't have any place to run a very interesting situation with car dealers we are protected almost like

an endangered species there are 50 state franchise laws and they protect us they allow us to do some really crazy stuff and uh you can be victimized and you are big victimized most of you are some of you don't know that and i'm preaching to the choir because most of you folks out there listening i have listened to the show before and your educated consumers. Some of you, if you just tuned in, I challenge you to go back and find the buyer's order, the installment sales contract,

all the paperwork you signed when you last bought or leased a newer used car. See if you can find it. Pull it out of the drawer. And then listen to the show, and I'll mention some things like dealer fees, electronic filing fees, dealer installed addendums,

dealer installed accessories. We'll be talking about this. We'll have a mystery shopping report and kind of thumb through your paperwork that you have from the dealer you bought your last car. And you'll find out you've been victimized probably. Now, there's always exceptions. And I quote the Gallup annual poll on honesty and ethics and professions, which has been conducted every year since 1977. The last four year was 2018. and Stu, have you seen the Gallup poll for honesty and ethics for 2018? I will Google search it right now. We'll look that up. But every year, for the past 40-some odd years, car dealers have ranked last or next to last. I think maybe their best year ever was third from last for honesty and ethics among all the professions that you deal with. I haven't found it yet, but I'm going to guess with what's going on with our government. there's a chance for car dealers this time around.

Well, you might. Congressman usually are dead last, and so lobbyists are vilified by the consumers. They don't like lobbyists. They don't like congressmen. I have it. Okay. Stu says the last full poll.

This is conducted just last month, December 3rd through December 12, 2018. I'm so disappointed. Car salespeople are dead last below members of Congress. Wow. how about that now I thought that would be it just below telemarketers

oh my goodness this is real bad that's depressing yeah let's give a hand to the nurses and medical doctors at the top continue to stay at the top keep us healthy

so there you are folks that's why this show exists bankers well almost like bankers are right in the middle of the pack is that right yes a long time has passed since 2008 well you know you got Jamie Diamond

He's kind of an icon. You're kind of a banker. Well, that's true. I'm a banker. There you go. You have a redeeming quality. A lot of people, and a lot of car dealers say that Earl store on cars exists because he is using the show to advance his car dealership.

And in full transparency, I am a car dealer. And I'll continue on that line of discussion, but we do have a caller, and callers are the most important thing to the show. Buddy, I'll be right with you, Buddy, from West Palm Beach. If you want to call the show, 877-9-60-99-60, and your calls are really the white blood of the show. So, Nancy, welcome, please, Buddy to the show. Yes, welcome. I want to let all of our listeners know that they can, too, they also can text us, if that like, at 772-497.

6530. And again, that number to give us a call is 877-960. We're going to go to Buddy who's holding in West Palm Beach. Good morning, buddy. Good morning. How are you? We're well, thank you. Nice to hear from you. Based on what you just said, I'm scared to death. Yes. I have to buy a new car. Now, let me tell you what my situation is. I'm a geyser. I'm an old geyser. I'm 80 years old. Well, usually I take care of my cars and I keep my car for years. But the situation is now arising I have to buy a new car. What do I do? Do I lease

or do I buy at 80 years old? Buddy, that is not a black and white issue. And first let me tell you that when you lease a car, a lot of people don't understand that. you are obligated for the full term of the lease, 36 months, 48 months, whatever it is, you owe the leasing company 36 or 48 payments. If you say have an incident where you can't drive, you have your visually or whatever it is,

you're affected, and your doctor says you shouldn't drive a car, you're still going to be making those payments until that lease is completed or you're going to have to pay it off in advance, but you're obligated. Now, a lot of people don't understand that. And I'm 78 years old buddy, so I'm an old geezer too. And I would, I'm so far, I'm knocking on wood now, I drive. It's my favorite. I got a speeding ticket Wednesday, but maybe that means I don't drive too well.

But I'm a little, if I were you and I weren't into the, I weren't leased a car dealer, I probably would buy rather than lease for the simple fact that I might not be able to drive the car for the full term of the lease. if it's economically it's six of one half dozen the other you can study it get a good deal of a lease and study it get a good deal on a purchase also leases are a lot more complex there's a lot more ways they can get you on the average a car dealer makes probably a thousand dollars more when he leases you a car than he sells you a car and dealers today and even manufacturers push you to lease leases makes them more money and also when you lease a car, you're obligated to come back to that dealer to that manufacturer before you go

into another car. So they have that string on you. When you buy the car, your foot loose, fancy, free. You can go anywhere and buy a car again from any other manufacturer or any other dealer. But that's my recommendation, buddy, with all, just what I know about you, is go for the purchase. Let me ask you something. You see some phenomenal prices, $2.20 a month that we rent this this beautiful car. What's the fine print on that? How do they do that? Some of the prices that they quote on television for leasing.

How did they do that? Buddy, it is down payment. They have in the fine print substantial down payments. I've seen down payments. I saw a Brayman had not too long ago with a $10,000 down payment, a BNW, an expensive car like that. Typically, you're going to be looking at, least $1,000, $2,000 down payment.

And then on top of that, they add dealer fees, multiple. There'll be electronic filing fees, other non-government fees, which are simply additional profit. And Stu is looking like he's got a comment. Yeah, this is something else that we see all the time as dealers will play fast and loose with the term out-of-pocket and down payment. It's never clear in the ad. So it'll say, do-it-signing.

They might run an ad says zero-do-it-signing, and then in the fine print says, says you got to pay your first payment, your security deposit, the dealer fee, sales tax, so it's not really nothing out of pocket. So you've got to look out for that. And I just thought of another thing. You've got to look at the mileage allowance because you get a lower, a higher residual, meaning what the car is worth at the end of the least. So if you only put, let's say, 7,500 miles a year on a car or even 5,000 miles a year on a car,

they can give you a higher residual. So they limit your mileage to a low mileage so they get the car back as a very low mileage. But they don't tell you about it. Again, it's in the fine price. So they charge a 25 cents a mile for every mile over that. I've seen over-milege charges on less ease into thousands of dollars, four or five, $6,000 surprise fee when you turn the car in. I have a question.

I don't have a contract with God. God will someday take me. What happens during the lease if I dropped dead? What happens then? Your estate, your estate inherits the debt and are responsible for it. We have, unfortunately, in South Florida, there are a lot of elderly people like you and me, and we lease a lot of cars and sell a lot of cars because I am a car dealer. And oftentimes, too often, unfortunately, we have lessees that either,

can't drive because of physical impairment or they pass away. The leasing companies oftentimes will not pursue this, but they will file a claim against the estate, or if the lessee is impaired, it will be filed against him personally. There will be a claim file, but they won't take it to court, usually. But there's no guarantee, buddy. They could take it to court if they wanted to. Could I finance at 80 years old? Oh, sure.

Would you recommend financing rather than going to a portfolio and taking a big chunk of money? I think so, buddy, I don't know what you're invested in, but over the years and years and years, I've seen about an average 10% return. I'm an equity investor, and I average about 10% return. A lot of investors, electronic finance, you know, either, mutual funds or whatever, can get 6, 8%. I have a feeling you've got good credit, and I think you could probably... I do.

What's the lowest rates, too, that someone like Buddy could finance a car for today? Well, on a new car, the manufacturers are still running a lot of very low interest, like subvented programs, so 0.9%, 1.9%. What about a bank or credit union? Just a standard rate right now for good credit you're looking in the 4% range, high 3s, low 4s? I'd finance it, buddy. I'd get a 3.8 or a 4.2, and I think you're doing better than that on your investments.

So I think it's an economic positive solution to go ahead and finance. I have one final question. When you meet fellow card dealers at a reception or anything, what kind of reception do they give you? Well, I'm not going to take my shirt off. I have a Kevlar vest I always wear. Just kidding, buddy. No, it's

not courteous. It's okay. Yeah, it's very nervous. You know, I think it's a love-hate relationship. I know a lot of cardio's. They know I'm right. I think a lot of these guys are really intelligent. Right. And they don't really believe I'm a bad person.

They think of me as a traitor. And as I say, I've been doing the show for 14 years. And I have named names, I've named, I've called dealers, I won't say I call them crooks, probably have. Yes, you have. I told them they've broken the law. I've never been sued. Right.

Never been sued. Yeah, but at a, like, if we go to like a meeting or something like that and we see other guys, I got to say, I mean, there is a begrudging respect. In other words, they recognize your ability and your talent what you've done, and there's a few things. They'll say, well, you go a little bit too far on that one, or, you know, they don't like you that much. I've had car dealers, a respectable, well-known. car dealers call me and say, Earl, I wish I had the courage to do what you did. They were referring specifically to stopping charging a dealer fee.

And I used to charge a dealer fee many years ago, and they're just afraid not to. That's the only way they feel like they can make a profit. Think about it, buddy. These dealer fees average in South Florida over $1,000 a car. And if you take a thousand dollar profit off of every car you sold, let's say you're selling a thousand cars a year, that's a million dollars. and to take a million dollars right off the bottom line of your financial statement would put a lot of dealers into a lost position. So it's a very scary thing, and I can see why they're afraid to do what I did.

Terrific. You're one-of-a-kind. Buddy, let me add my two cents to your original statement that you made earlier. You know, you really have to ignore all car dealers and car manufacturers' advertisements. Yes. That's the best way to go. And as far as your other comment on asking Earl about his, well, I'll call it success. There's a whole lot of people that are very jealous of his success and the steps that he has taken and the things that he has sacrificed.

And also as far as his vest that he wears, we have dead bolts on our front door now. Hey, buddy, let me give you one last thing. Write this down. Truecar.com. Yeah. T-R-U-E-C-A-R-C-A-R-com. W-W-W-W-T-R-C-C-A-R-D-com. Best way to go.

That's the best way to get a fair price on a car. And when you go to the website, they'll explain it all to you. And if you have any questions, you can call me any time. But T-R-U-E-C-A-R-D-R-C-A-R-Safest way to buy a car. Terrific. Thank you so much. I certainly appreciate it. Great call, buddy.

Thank you. Stay in touch. Bye. Give us a call to all free at 877-9-960-90-60, or you can text us at 77249-9-7-60. Remember, we do have a mystery shopping report coming up, and you're going to enjoy it. We're going to go to Tina, who is calling us from Benita Springs, and she is a regular female caller. I'm proud to say, good morning, Tina. Good morning. How are you doing?

We're great. um this is kind of like public well it is public service announcement time again you know how i love my psa's but prince phillip was in a car accident this past week yes and i do believe it was his fault 96 years old behind the wheel and this brings about an interesting issue there's a great number of elderly drivers that are on the road now i'll use my dad and another family member are almost the same age. As an example, my dad is 78, and he's an excellent driver. I always feel secure with him behind the wheel.

However, there's another family member that is her health is deteriorating. She's not doing well. And unfortunately, I had to file a paper on her. And what that paper was is the Florida DMV has a medical reporting form. It can be done anonymously. and if you know of the driver that should not be driving from health reasons or because they have dementia, by law, if you know of this, you have to file this paperwork. But the good thing is there will be no repercussions to you.

So the whole review process goes over like a 45-day period and then I think it wraps up in 60 days. but if the people that work that are the administrators of Florida DMV or medical staff, if they see that there's really an issue, they will send the driver in question a letter saying, hey, you either need to retest or you need to have a road test, or do you need to send in your medical records? Yes. And they ultimately have the power as to whether this person in question can keep their licensure if it's revoked.

Yes. We're very familiar with that law, but I know Earl can share, he can share a whole lot on that. Yeah, it's a good law, Tina, except for one thing. And the thing lacking in the law is that there's no accountability. So let's say that I didn't like your dad, and I had a grudge. Maybe he fired me, you know, something. I could send in an anonymous complaint on this law, this regulation, Florida law. that your father was incompetent and he was going to kill somebody on the road

that's all it would take uh... then he'd have to go through a series of tests he'd have to have uh... psychiatric and a medical examination hearing eyesight he'd have to take a physical driving test you'd have to take a written driving test

you can imagine the the strain the mental strain on someone you know i'm seventy eight years old uh... i haven't taken a test on a long time you know sometimes you get a little rusty and it's kind of scary to have to go in there knowing that if you fail the test you'll never be able to drive a car again and as you said your dad is an honest is a very good driver so i think that the law should say if you turn somebody in and it can be proven that you did it in a malicious manner that the person that you tried

to mess up his life can turn around and sue you uh for the act of a malicious act. How do you know so much about this? I'm kind of setting you up a little, Tina, because I went through the exact, I went through the, I reported Earl and, well, back forward on me. I don't want to carry, I don't want to take up the whole show, but I'll give you the Reader's Digest version.

I fired a young lady that worked for me, and the one day I was driving to work, and North Palm Beach officer Abramcheck pulled me over and cited me for speeding. How long did he chase you? And then about a month later, I got a letter from the state, and the state said that an anonymous someone had turned me in as being incompetent. I had to get a medical report, had to take a driver's test, and I had 30 days to complete it, or I would no longer have a driver's license.

So I gave my ticket to my assistant, the dealership and I said please pay the ticket for me and my assistant said oh I know this police officer he's married to and I won't say the name but the person you just fired so then it came to me I sued the town of North Palm Beach I asked for an apology from the police department and Abram check and a sum of money and we made it a settlement and I'm very happy I can't tell you what the settlement is but that's my story that's my story but anyway it is a good law and it is a genuine concern we've all seen people on the roads driving that shouldn't be driving cars you read about them in the newspaper on TV and you know the 82 year old person went

through the window at the 7-11 fortunately nobody was heard or maybe somebody was heard Yeah, but all kidding aside, Tina, this can be a very bad law or a very good law. And Earl gave you the short version of what happened in our lives, and let me tell you what, it was traumatic. Rick, all the more reason for autonomous cars. Because there was ill intent, but in my particular case, it's not ill intent at all. It's a genuine need. This is out of concern, not just for this dear family. member who I love to death, but it's for everybody else.

And another thing that I did, I have one of those auto locks that fits around the brake pedal or the clutch pedal, and I put that on her car with her permission. I said, well, you need to get the airbag fixed. You need to get the side view. You're fixed. Your car is parked outside. Let's secure it that way nobody else can steal it. And she thought that was a great idea.

But I have the key to the brake lock, and my sister-in-law is involved in this, too. And she has the key to the brake lock, and we reserve. of the right not to take that off. So on Monday, we're going to be going to her primary care physician because she had a medical episode last week, and we're going to talk to the primary care physician and get him to say, hey, listen, you know, you need to stop driving because she will listen to the physician. Well, your point is well taken to you.

We don't want to, we don't want to break her heart. We don't want to hurt her feelings, but this is for the safety of everybody involved. Yeah, it's tough to take a freedom machine away from some of us. And Earl talks about his age. I'll talk about mine. I'm 76 years old. Earl talked about the driving test. A few things have changed since I was 16 or he was 16 when we took our driving test.

So there's a lot of emotion involved in this. Well, Rick made a very good point. And I'll repeat it. He says, what a great time for autonomous cars. Every time Nancy and I speak before a group. And we speak for a lot of elderly people. We talk retired people. oftentimes they're thinking in the back of the people don't talk about it you're you're 65 75 85

85 you don't be talking about in your hearts you're scared to death one day they're going to take your license away and just think how amazing it's going to be when these folks can just never stop driving they just have a car that takes them where they want to go and returns them and they never have to give up that freedom machine you know as just as a kind of an alternative for today, offer them the idea that they sell the car they have now and put that money into an Uber account and at least you have the ability to use Uber to get around. I mean,

it's become so popular now and it's so very easy to use. Yeah, I understand what you're saying, Rick. But, you know, for some of us, that's really tough, you know. Yeah, it's a hard thing to do. It is. It's very difficult. And, Tina, you know, this past week, I pull my car out of the, the garage. I feel so empowered. I pop the hood. I'm refilling my windshield wiper fluid, checking

the pressure on my tires. I'm 76 years old. I feel, I mean, if my freedom machine was taken away from me, I don't know what I would do, you know, but one day maybe I'll be ready for the But you know what, Nancy, you're an intelligent, conscientious person, and if you knew that you needed to stop driving. I have a feeling that you would say, you know what, it's time. I don't think that you would be prideful and continue even though you knew better that

you shouldn't. Dean, I'm going to call you when you're 78 years old and Steve you still feel the same way. But you won't have to worry about it because you'll have an autonomous car. Trust me, a lot of people don't want to talk about, don't want to think a lot of, don't want to admit it. That's

a problem. It's just a very difficult thing to admit that you're old. And you won't realize that until you get old. I don't know whether it's getting old or not or the fact that we're the age that we came from, the error that we came from, the independence, the power, the independence, you know. I think that has a whole lot to do with it.

So, Tina, we could go on and on about this topic, but thanks for taking care of a family driver that you feel should, well, get your help. Good luck with it. And, oh, thank you. And then for everybody else, I do believe it's, this is Florida DMV's website, and I do believe the form is 72190, and it's a medical reporting form. 7190.

7190. 71190. 72190. And if, yes, if any of you out there have a family member or a friend that should not be driving for medical reasons by law, you are compelled to report them. Absolutely. And if they don't have a problem and you just hate your neighbor, please don't do it. It's a rotten, stinking thing to do. Absolutely. Unfortunately, there's no, there's no penalty. You can report anybody you want.

And please don't report me. I don't want to go through it again. There are a lot of cardio's out there going to be reporting me. I can tell it right now. Hey, Tina, thanks so much for bringing that automotive news article up last week. I really appreciate it. That was really an interesting article. You know, I'm reading about women who are turning wrenches in this dealership, selling cards, they're doing everything. So it's an amazing time, the 21st century.

Did you hear the one about the woman who was very heavily pregnant was working up until her delivery date, and she was having contractions? Oh, my. Oh, I thought that was awesome. That's one tough lady. Yeah, really. I lived that life. Hey, listen, thanks for calling. Stay in touch.

You're always welcome in an important part of the show. Thank you for inviting me. You all have a good weekend. Thank you. Thank you very much. We're going to go straight to Andy. Andy's been holding. He's calling from Jupiter.

Good morning, Andy. Having a hard time, I understand you, Andy. Are you on a remote or on some type of phone that can you maybe speak up a little clearer. I think he was speaking Spanish. Andy? About the older driver law, I had a knot in Miami

that was 85 and she was driving and she had an accident, backing accidents. And then she had another little scrape. And finally I told her I didn't want her driving

and I didn't know about the law. But what we did was that we took her driver's license away and made her sell her car it was it was a terrible thing because you know she was very independent yeah but at 85 just you know she just wasn't driving perfectly and you know she was having problems and this was your mom is going to get into a terrible terrible accident Andy I think we took her driver's license away forced her to sell a car and you know make sure that you know she had transportation you know we had family down there that was able to give her a ride whenever she needed.

But it was really difficult to do that. Yes. Well, it's good you could handle it in the family instead of have to go. The legal road is far more personal, and I know your aunt must have understood it was because you loved her and were concerned for her. So it's sad, nevertheless, but you certainly did the right thing. Yeah, yeah.

I also wanted to tell you that I bought a car from your agency, back about, I guess it was about 10 years ago. And I was very satisfied with a service there with your people. It were super, super nice. Thank you. And, you know, I've recommended you to many, many people that I know because, you know, I was very happy with a deal. Well, I appreciate that.

That's referral is the best form of advertising, and it's a lot cheaper than having to buy a lot of TV or radio time. So thanks very much for the country. compliment. I've been a dealer since 1968. I'm glad you didn't come in 20 years ago. I'd have probably screwed you. But I... That's really bad.

I've known some really bad car dealers, too. So, you know. I used to be one of them. But I do my homework. Now I do my homework. I don't buy anything unless I go through and check every possibility. Well, thank you very much. You sound like an educated consumer.

a smart guy we need a lot of people are getting like that andy and it's harder and harder for these car dealers to take advantage but somehow they do the problem is there's no choice you know you got 25 dealers in your community you can keep trying a different dealer and they're all doing just about the same thing that's that's sure that's for sure yeah yeah well Andy thank you so much for calling and thanks for taking care of your aunt I'm sure she appreciate you and you're a Oh, she does. Family members. She just turned 93 and she's very happy.

Oh, God bless her. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, great call. Thank you so much. Thank you. Call again, Andy.

877-960-9960, where you can text us at 772-497-497. Now, back to the recovering car dealer. I'm going to give a text number again. We were a little lax last week, and we weren't getting them. text 772 49760650 and just as I said that I noticed we've got four texts waiting so still will handle that for me yep here's the first text we've got four on deck the first one says there is a class action lawsuit against Progressive here in South in Florida right now South versus Progressive challenging their formula and methodology for settling total losses

one facet of the suit is the fact that Progressive doesn't take the dealer fee in to consideration when settling. The suit alleges that with an average statewide dealer fee of $695 charged by the vast majority of car dealers, insurance companies are cheating customers by not factoring that into the settlement. My question is two parts. Number one, does Earl feel that this will affect dealers at all? And number two, does Earl agree that the dealer fee should be considered when settling total losses in Florida? And there's no name on that. Well, I absolutely agree. By the way, I've been contacted by an attorney

and they've asked us about our opinion on this class action suit. Our body shop manager, former member of the show fact, he's still a member, but he only comes in about once a month now. Alan Napier was also contacted

by our attorney. So I'm a little bit familiar with this. To answer your question is positively, insurance companies should take into consideration the dealer fee. And I believe that $695 is a low number. Yeah, it's got to be higher than that.

In South Florida. Even the lawyers sometimes are not fully aware of the full amount of the dealer fee. The dealer fee is a generic term. And car dealers typically don't charge that hidden fee or name that hidden fee a dealer fee. So it's become a collective name for all the fees, all by different names. The only thing these fees have in common is they are non-government fees. You don't want to pay any non-government fees.

The average sum total of non-government fees in South Florida when you're buying car is over $1,000 and some car dealerships is several thousand dollars. So you can imagine if you have an accident and progressive your insurance company and you're going to go back and buy your car from a dealer that's going to charge you a $2,000 in some total dealer fees. It's just pure wrong that progressive doesn't reimburse you. It's part of the cost. And even if there were some dealers that do charge fees and some dealers that don't,

I hate to say this, but to the best of my knowledge, and Steele would agree, and Nancy and Rick, we don't know any dealers anymore that don't charge dealer fees. It used to be CarMax didn't. They went back with the dealer fee. Mullanex used to, but they went back with the dealer fee. Car dealers have seen the evil that they're doing, and they try to stop, and then they realize they're losing money because they've gotten hooked on the dealer fee, Stu?

Mullinex Ford and Apopka. We just shop. That's got to be the only one. And it's not all Mullinx dealerships. Okay, there is one. Palm Beach Toyota stopped charging dealer fees, and they stopped for a couple of years. And then they went back,

and now they charge about $11,200 or $1,200 in dealer fees. The same thing with Southern 441 Toyota, same thing with Del Rey Toyota, same thing with Treasure. I'm more familiar with toilet dealers because I am a Toyota dealer in full disclosure. So, Progressives should do this. I think, I'm glad to see the class action suit go. I think that any time you have an accident in your car,

whether you're insured by Progressive or anybody else, you should check with your attorney. Donner and Partners used to be Gordon and Donner. Is that right, Donner and Partners? Donner and Partners, Gordon and Donner used to be, they handle a lot of our customers that have problems and they are able to go to the insurance company and recover full reimbursement for the value of their car.

Because in addition to not charge, paying them dealer fees, They don't take into consideration the depreciation factor that is just the impact of the accident. The fact that you have an accident, even when you fix the car perfectly, it means that car is worth $1,000 or more or less, several thousand dollars less. So long answer to a short text. Thanks for that progressive class action suit. It is something that I believe car dealers who have body shops, and that's something else.

Most car dealers, they don't have body shops. and so the car dealers are probably less impacted for it than the big chain body companies. Okay, the next one. This actually came in on our anonymous feedback, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. It says, I checked on my coolant the other day. This sounds like it might be a right question.

I checked on my coolant the other day. Pop the radiator cap off. Coolant is there, all radioactive green like and all. My car has a handy coolant drain hole near the, bottom corner of the radiator. I allowed for a little to escape into a glass for inspection. All is well. Again, it's very radioactive green. The car has 120,000 miles on the odometer. No overheated engine, no interior heating problems. Should I continue to ignore the 30,000 mile interval to do a coolant and radiator flush? Thought experiment. Is that thing at the

pointy end of the car, a radiator or a convector? My bald and therefore cold. cold head in the wintertime tells me it's a convector. Rick? No, Rick already answered that. I'll let him answer it again. I replied to that. Oh, this was a duck. But Rick actually did it, and I copied his reply and replied to this individual.

But that's a good question for a lot of people. Rick, repeat your answer. Well, the very first thing I want to say, any time that you're going to even touch the cooling system on a car, the radiator cap, or anything like that, make sure the car has been sitting with the engine off for at least a couple hours so that it's nice and cold because those systems can be pressurized up to almost 20 PSI and when they are hot and pressurized if you pop that cap off you have extremely hot very sticky fluid flying out of there and can cause some very serious injuries so make sure it's cold folks safety first good advice but the best

advice for coolant follow your manufacturer the factory recommended maintenance intervals for maintaining that coolant if it says to flush it every 30,000 do it every 30,000 most cars nowadays are more like 100 to 120,000 miles so you're pretty much in the safe zone there but go with what your manufacturer recommends well I learned I learned something from Rick here I've been in the business forever I thought that you could detect coolant that need to be replaced by visual and the smell

test and the visual test. Rick says, no, you can't tell. Not so much anymore. It used to be, at least they said you could. But today, the coolant can look great, smell great, but you better replace it. It still can be getting through the end of its serviceable life.

And it's a good idea to have it done. Just if it, you know, if the manufacturer calls for that time, do it then. And don't eat no definitely and make sure you dispose of any coolant properly because cats like it cats and dogs especially dogs because of the sweet flavor of it so it can be very bad for the animals very bad for the environment um as for the name of the radiator uh well we do use that term as an industry standard term just so that all mechanics and parts guys and everybody knows what you're talking

about when you ask for a radiator but technically it actually does use convection by way of air currents to remove heat from the coolant. Thank you, Rick. Very good. Great answer. Okay. Moving along here. Another one for Rick.

What is a vapor test on a car and should it cost $250? A vapor test. A vapor test. Hmm. I'm unfamiliar with that term. We need a sound effect for stumping Rick. Oh, I would say, that's a warning. If someone's charging you for a vapor test and Rick has no idea what a vapor test.

Don't do it. Don't do it. Just forget about it. Okay, this is where I step in. Excuse me. If we're looking for context, though, I'm wondering if what they might be talking about is if a car fails, has a check engine light because of an emissions problem, an emissions leak. We do what's called a smoke test or a sometimes, I guess, it could be called a vapor test, where we hook a machine up that actually pumps a harmless white chemical. smoke into that emission system so we can look and see if there

are any leaks that will show up by way of this white smoke. So that may very well be what they're talking about and about 250 would be a very reasonable price for it. Bear in mind that you would, this is not a maintenance item. This is only if your

car has a problem with its emission system and you have a leak that they can't find any other way. Let me jump in here. I post it on my personal Facebook page that's just Facebook.com for slash Earl Stu E-A-R-L-S-T-E-W

Consumer Reports article that I alluded to last week on the show and it's called Can You Trust Your Car Repair Shop? In that article, it's a great article. It tells you the best repair shops by dealer, the best repair shops by Independent, but it also has a list of what you should pay

for repairs. This has got it all. I mean, I love consumer reports. In full disclosure, I mean, we just subscribe to consumer reports. Is it not for profit? I don't do anything for them. I'm not on their board of records. They're just a really outstanding company.

Been around for a long time. Car repair shop buying guide. They have how to find a quality repair shop. Should you buy a prepaid maintenance plan for your car? How much you should pay for repair. And I just shared that on the Erlon cars Facebook page too so you go to perfect yep hurl on cars

Facebook page can you trust your car repair shop you can find out how much you should pay for every kind of a repair okay our next text is from Alice in Lake Park she says the previous caller who stated he took his mother's license away and forced her to sell her car

was out of line doesn't she still have rights Alice and Lake Park they took her license away under the law this law I think the caller just said that we took the license. That was Andy from where he said his aunt his aunt in Miami. He said they just

took her license and made her sold her car. Well, you know, that's a personal issue and I still think if something can be dealt with within the family, it's better than involving the law. This law that Tina referred to, she's passionate about that being a good law.

It's a good law if it's used with honesty and transparency. I want to know So if, and maybe I'm wrong here, and you can tell me if you disagree with me, if I see a person driving that I think is a danger to society and others on the road because of the fact that they're too old to drive a car, and I am going to tell the Department of Motor Vehicles to take their license away, why would I be afraid to be named? If, you know, I believe that anyone, if I said to Stu, and he was elderly, you're too old to drive, and I was wrong, Stu should have his right to his day in court to come back and see me and talk to me and cross-examine me and find out why I think he's, I think he shouldn't be driving. The right to face your accuser.

I don't like the anonymity. I don't like the immunity that you give. people under his law. So to handle it personally, as Andy did with his aunt, maybe he was unfair. But personally, I'd rather have Stu come and take my license away from me than report me anonymously. Because if he did, I'd beat the hell out of it. Oh, my guess. Yeah. Wow. Okay. We're we're heading towards that borderline for violence. I've been working out. He just took the words right out of him. He has been working out. I'm staying away from you. Okay. And, Well, the last one catches us up.

It says, this is from Leo in Boynton Beach. Leo says, what's the likelihood that other manufacturers like Toyota will be going direct to the customers with their own retail stores like Tesla, Leo and Boynton Beach? Leo, it's a great question because I love to tell people something they probably don't know about why dealers are an endangered species and protected by 50 state laws. 50 state laws and some federal laws, too.

They have lobbied themselves into immunity from extinction. And the reason that General Motors, Ford, Honda, Toyota, aren't going to be selling new cars directly for a long, long time, like Apple sells your iPhones, is because it's illegal. The dealers have made it illegal for anybody to sell a car, a new car, except for a car dealer. So they're protected by law. they can do about anything they want and you can't buy a car from anybody else except a car dealer

and this is now let's not let me explain you say well Tesla is a is the exception Tesla can only sell you a car online so you cannot buy in the state of Florida a Tesla from a Tesla dealer a new Tesla you could go into a Tesla dealer in Florida and you could go online and buy it from Tesla manufacturer online. But that's the only way you can go out. Now, eventually, the other car manufacturers might try that, but here's the problem. They have entrenched and protected not only from the state legislators, but from the manufacturers themselves.

In fact, the franchise laws were first designed to protect the dealers from the manufacturers. So if Toyota... They can't compete with the dealers. Yeah. If Toyota wanted to sell cars directly. They'd have to compete with me and all the other toilet dealers in the United States. There's 1,200 Toyota dealers all over the United States, and if Toyota starts selling cars directly, first, they'd be a huge lawsuit.

And secondly, they'd be competing with all the dealers that they've already set up and can't get rid of. Toyota cannot cancel a car dealer. I'm speaking from Florida. They can't cancel a car dealer. Car dealers have perpetual contracts. Now, if the car dealer did something ludicrous, like committed a crime, burned down a school, something crazy, then there are some exceptions. But for most of the things that go on, car dealers cannot be canceled, terminate their contracts, can't.

They are in perpetuity. Wow. Interesting. Perpetuity, I like to say that. What a scam. That's a great word. I'm telling you. Hey, listen, your anonymous feedback greatly to get in touch with us, and you are definitely

anonymous. Also, 772-497-6-5-30. You can text us, and we'd love to hear from you when we give that mystery shopping report. Excuse me, would love you to grade it. And also our toll-free number is 877-960-99-60. So there you go. The lines are open. Give us a call. We're going to go to Ken, and Ken is calling from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Wow, cold there, Ken. I'll bet. Oh, God, yeah. Yes, it is. It's very cold today. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. And I have to absolutely thank you, Earl, because I'm the firefighter paramedic that bought a new 2016 Prius, and when I received it, I couldn't switch the speedometer to metric units, which is a problem going over to Canada on the border. And you suggested that I start a class action. So I'll talk to you about that offline. But what I wanted to think, thank you for was to get an education on cars. What I did, I enrolled in a community college class for credit, four credit hours on automotive maintenance. And if anybody wants to learn about cars, the best way to do it is to take a class. And so this had, the classroom had 12 lifts,

truck lifts, and the textbook, which you can buy a first edition for about $10. My textbook was $100. Fundamentals of automotive technology. It's about 1,800 pages, covers everything. And you then can, with the knowledge, go down to the Secretary of State and at least in Michigan for $6,000, take a test, and become certified. The questions are the ASC-type questions, where TechA. This is this.

What was fascinating is when I got my car, one of the cars, it's actually the truck on the lift, you had eight instructors looking at the previous service on brakes and stuff like that, and they could see problems that you could then correct. But what was interesting is dealers and other service centers that did the work. If it was not up to par, it was pointed out. You basically had eight instructors that were clones of risk. with 20 to 30 years of experience in the college. The best thing is, classes, if you're a senior citizen, can be free in many community colleges.

So I didn't have to pay $800 tuition. And because I achieved academically in it, got invited to an Honor Society, which then gives you up to $30,000 of scholarships at some of the other universities because you're a scholar. Wow. Who would think? Yeah. So I encourage people to become an informed consumer, as you say, but take it another step further and take a class because you will see the upcoming technicians and the students that were in a Votech class in high school, they were excellent. But there are some really flaky students coming through and they're going to be changing oil and changing fluids. They don't care.

They just wanted the money. And they really didn't care about your car. Ken, let me ask you a question. Do you get the feeling that the instructors in the textbook are completely up to date with the modern technology? I'm thinking about this digital revolution, this technological thing that's happening with newer vehicles. I say on the show from time to time, if you bought your car five years ago, from a safety standpoint, it's obsolete today because there's some safety features that are really almost vital by today's standards that weren't on a 2013 car or a 2014 car?

They are up to date. In fact, because I go to engineering conferences, I actually invited one of the instructors to come to the engineering conference where they design the LiDAR and the radar systems that go into vehicles. Wow. And he was kind of surprised, and I was surprised that he didn't go there. But being in Michigan, where they make cars. Yeah, you're in the heart soul of the automotive.

Yeah. They are up to date. The textbook, surprisingly, was very up to date on the second edition. So it covered pretty much everything, and you can go online and Google the book. This is Fundamentals of Auto Technology, second edition, by Kirk Van Gelder. And you can see samples of the book, and it's extensive because you're getting, you can get a degree out of it. In fact, what was even funnier because I'm in the medical field, I was in the library and some nursing students were studying for cardiology exams, and they were asking questions about

cardiology and didn't know the answer. So I said, well, the answer is this, and they looked at me and said, well, are you in a second year of nursing? I said, no, I'm in taking auto technology. Just freak them out. Ken, you're an amazing guy. I love you. I never met you, but this Prius thing with the odometer and issue of kilometers in miles per hour,

and you're so right, and they hardballed you, they just stonewalled you, and you've got a safety issue there, and you're going to do a class accident. I can't wait to talk to you, but the world needs more smart guys like you. That's all I can say. I really appreciate that. Amazing. Well, thanks, but take, but, you know, I encourage every senior citizen, check out your community college, and you can go in there.

It's unusual. There's like 1% of the students that are over 60. but you freak out the young people when you have the knowledge that they don't have. They don't have the soft skills, like get up, come to school on time, and you have that. So people will do well. And you'll be fully informed because their program goes through, I'm taking the electrical, automotive electrical now. And it's simple.

I can do a semester basically in a week. Well, you can fill up for Rick on vacation. We'll have you able to fly you down. you can fill in for Rick on vacation. Great. So there you go. Maybe I'll do that. I got the frequent flyer miles.

No problem. It's a deal. Well, stay warm. I just wanted to let you know. Take those classes, folks. Keep fighting the good fight. And call me about that class action. I can't wait to hear.

Yeah. Thanks. Okay. Have a good day. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Have a great weekend. We're going to go to Bob, who's been holding from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Bob. Hey, Bob. Are you there? Yes, I'm here, yep. How are you doing? What can we do for you this morning?

This might be a question for Rick, I guess. The oils of today, like conventional, a blend and a synthetic, can you, and the oil filters, can you tell me the difference? I mean, what's the difference of the car today needing? Synthetic and the cars of yesterday needing just regular oil like I'm a nut with oil and the oil filter So, you know, I just changed my oil and they said I just needed synthetic and my other guy said I needed, you know, conventional So I really don't know the difference. The main thing is right now Newer cars are running. synthetic oil because they're able to run a much lighter weight oil and the tolerances in the

engine are much, much tighter. The oil gap, what we call the oil gap in like the bearings on the connecting rods and the spacing between the pistons and the cylinder walls used to be it was a little bit larger and that thicker oil was used to help fill in those gaps. now we're using much thinner oil and the materials that we're using in these engines are vastly improved so they're running a much tighter tolerance there much smaller gaps in there and it makes the engines last longer they run more efficiently they burn cleaner and of course the big disadvantage is you do have to run the synthetic oil that costs about 60 to 70% more by volume however the other side of it is you're also increasing the maintenance interval on most of these

from 5,000 miles to 10,000 miles and so it's actually a kind of a win-win situation all the way around the best advice is whatever is on the oil cap on your engine whatever your manufacturer calls for that's the best oil to run if it says to run a 10w30 well that's a fossil oil run the 10w30 and you'll be just fine. But if it says you need a 0W20 synthetic oil, definitely going to want to stick with that. And some of the newest cars out right now are running a 0W16 oil.

So pretty soon we're going to see oil that's almost as thin as water. Wow. Then why do they say that, you know, my car is like a sports car. So they're saying like a 040 or a 540 synthetic. and I have a turbo and they said that that's the best oil to run.

Is that true? I mean, I don't know. I mean, I always use pens oil and fram filter and now this Mopar stuff is coming out and that's supposed to be the best or something. I don't know. Well, who is they though? I mean, if it's the manufacturer of the car

that says this, yeah, yeah, if they say this is the oil that we recommend, you run in the engine that we designed, I would go with that because they're the engineers who built that engine, they designed it to run with that particular weight and that type of oil, and that's what they have tested over and over and over to make sure that it'll work properly in their engine. If you switch to something else... You can't go from a synthetic to a blend or even the conventional anymore. I guess you've got to, you have to use synthetic. Right. If that's what it calls for, that's what you should stick with.

Bob, let me just interject something here. It might not make any difference to you, but a lot of people, and we call it synthetic oil, it's not really synthetic oil. It's fossil oil. True. The synthetic oil is made from regular oil that they get out of the ground. They just refine it in a different manner, and it becomes a thinner oil. So I feel better now about using using quote unquote synthetic well because it's not really synthetic. The idea is someone in a chemistry lab with a bunch of test tubes was making a martini shaker full of stuff and say, I'm going to call this oil, always bothered me.

But your synthetic oil is not synthetic. As crazy as that sounds, it's real oil. The other thing that bothers me a little bit is the fact that, first of all, I totally agree with Rick, do what the manufacturer's recommendation says. But in the back of my mind, I've always had a certain wondering of whether the manufacturers were sincere in everything about having to use the new more expensive oil, the quote-unquote synthetic oil, because they did it, in my opinion, partly because they need to meet the cafe requirements, which are the national law that says the fleet of cars that you sold, Mr. General Motors, that are on the road, have to have at least. 47 miles per gallon, or we're going to find you $10,000 for every car on the road. And that's what it really is. So if you miss the federal requirements on fuel economy, you're in serious, serious troubles

of manufacture. The synthetic oil will give you a few tenths of a mile per gallon more. And when you're talking millions of dollars in survival financially because of the CAFE requirements, you're going to take every little advantage you could get. So how much do they really care for you, the owner? Is it really going to make the car last longer? Probably will, but there's a little bit of a selfish motivation in using synthetic oil. Yeah, I thought, you know, that sounds right.

I mean, you know, they say that you have to use this oil. If you use any other kind of oil, you won't be covered under the manufacturer guarantee. Who's a manufacturer, Bob? It's a Fiat. Oh, boy, you're in trouble. I knew that was coming. You've been talking about Fiat's, and I really, all my other cars that I've had have been really bad. I mean, this car I had for two years already, and nothing's bad.

I mean, it's just really, really a lot of fun to drive, actually. Well, they are. I used to drive a spider. I was a Fiat dealer, as you probably know. Well, back in the old days, when they first came out, they were really bad. The Alpha-Romeo's and the spiders, they were bad. Bob, I got news for you. They're still bad.

I just opened your consumer reports. Well, I hope mine isn't. I mean, I had some Nissan 280 and 300 ZX, and they were so bad, you know. And even Lincoln's and Cadillacs, I mean, they were bad, you know. But this one, for two years, I haven't had a problem. But I do have a problem, you know, like I said, I'm a nut with oil. I've always kept it up. And, you know, does the synthetic mean, I know you're saying that it's thinner,

does that mean that you can use a slick 50 or a duralube also with that? I mean, because that's almost like a synthetic oil, really. Yeah, yeah. Slick 50 and duralube, they were all the rage quite a few years back. you don't really hear about them quite as much anymore. I've always used them. I mean, I love Derb a little. Yeah, I figure it can't hurt, but I wouldn't be bragging about it to the Fiat dealer

if you have a warranty issue with your engine. Because if they were to find that out, they may use that as a way to say, well, at least that's one we don't have to fix. Yeah, that's right. No, you're right. And Fiat dealers might not be around much longer because the sales are plumbed. and it's a pretty bad condition. So you might want to find an alternative. Well, next year, Toyota Super.

In a parking lot, I saw, I don't know what it was, but it was a beautiful, I think it might have been the Toyota Supras. They really, really look good. I wish I looked at it a little closer, but it was at night and stuff. But, I mean, that looks like a real nice car. It's a beautiful car. I drive by a place, and I like to come here. And look at that, you know.

They're pretty expensive. We don't know what the price is yet. We don't have pricing yet, but I think it's March, which is a couple of months or less. Well, while I... Coming out in March? Yes. Yeah, well, yeah, they're, they built the vehicle. Now, we just haven't got to the dealers yet, so we'll have, hopefully I'll have them in March.

It's a niche car, and they'll be expensive, and they won't build a lot of them, and the dealers will charge you way too much for it. They typically take a low supply, a popular high-demand car, mark up the MSRP, thousands of dollars. So the dealers love these cars. Oh, yeah, get ready for a circus. When a hot car comes out, we've seen dealers hold auctions in the showroom running up the price of a brand-new car. Yeah, exactly, yeah. New car, new Toyota, and I think it was King, is that King Toyota?

Well, I remember a couple of things. I think when they had those Hellcats, this was the, you know, the dollars, they would do that. And then also, this is really strange because it was an inexpensive car. Going back like 15 years ago when these Sions first came out and they had that Boxy XB, which was kind of a really quirky looking car, they came out with a special edition color. It was called Hot Lava. It was this orange color. And everybody wanted this car.

Yep. And these cars, there are $14,000, you know, $15,000 cars. And they're oxing them off in the show them. They're getting up to $30,000 for a brand new car. Unbelievable. Double the MSRP. Yeah. Well, and now what?

What's the other, the new super hot challenger? Was it the demon or the, what do they call it? I don't know. The thing that everybody in the parts department is drilling over. Yeah, well, they had the Hellcat, and then they came out with this next one. It's like the biggest, most super powerful challenger ever. And those are huge prices.

It's unethical to mark a car up over MSRP, but a lot of car dealers are doing it. Waba, thanks for a great call, and good luck with the Fiat. Okay, Sam, yeah, thank you very much. Take care. Thank you, Bob. Give us a call, toll-free at 877-960-9960, where you can text us at 772-497-6530.

And don't forget your anonymous feedback. You can take advantage of that also. You know, to what Bob was talking about, I just read in the USA Today, Money's section about these dead cars that are finding, shall we say, a new life. and there's not much advertising involved in these cars because, you know, they're so, what is it, they have such a reputation like the Bronco. We all know where I'm going with that.

So anyway, we have a caller, and I'm sure that he read the article about these cars. John, welcome to the show. Good morning to everyone. I'm sorry I don't hear anything on the radio yet about the biggest news in the automobile industry, Volkswagen announcing a brand new plant for electric cars in Tennessee. This is unbelievable, but Volkswagen intends to spend $50 billion in the next five years just on electric cars. They're also going to build a new electric microbus.

And everybody remembers, I call them the hippie buses of the 70s and 80s, how successful it was. So all I can say to Tesla is look out, stand aside with Tesla because Volkswagen is not only coming, but they're coming on heavy. And this is good news because it tells you the enthusiasm and the future of electric cars. And here it will be made right in Tennessee, and Volkswagen's behind it. So it's not a small kid on the block, and this will be a great car. Maybe that's why Elon Musk just laid off 6,000 employees. That's shocked everybody.

A lot of these employees had worked overtime and made a lot of sacrifices to keep him going. They were really bought into the whole Tesla thing, and he just fired 6,000 of them. Too bad. Not only that, in China, he reduced the Tesla by $3,000, and for the United States, he reduced the car by $2,000. So a few of the owners of Tesla's are quite angry because when they bought it last year, it was $2,000 for their model higher, and he's saying because it's the federal tax,

you know, the allowance of $7,500, and he's claiming that's the reason why he reduced them for $2,000. Also, the rumor was when he wanted to go private, there was something going on then with Volkswagen. It was only a rumor that he was going to combine something with Volkswagen, and they were going to put some kind of deal together on electric cars. That was only rumor. I wouldn't be so fast to say that Tesla is going to be the leader.

It will be Volkswagen in the electric car industry. Well, John, you've got to remember that Volkswagen is not pure white. There's a little darkness there, too. They've still got this diesel thing facing them. And I just saw a full-page ad in some newspaper the other day. I'm not sure whether it was a class action or just an advertising thing to let people know that there's hundreds of thousands of Volkswagen's all over the country sitting parked that have diesel engines

that are spitting out a lot of pollution that violate the federal law, emission laws, and everybody's wondering what's going to happen to all those vehicles. I have a feeling they're not going to dump them in the Atlantic Ocean, and we think that a lot of these cars are probably going to be sold. But Volkswagen has these cars now. They also have a couple of their executives. I think even their CEO went to jail.

They actually had some serious crimes, not just the United States, but also in Germany. So, you know, I guess you could be immoral and also a great engineer, and I guess that's what we have here with Volkswagen. Sure. They're immoral, but they're also great engineers. Yeah, they have an interesting history. Well, there was a picture in Post last year, in New York Post, of thousands and thousands of Volkswagen that the dealers had lined up in a storage area,

and they were the same reason for that scandal that they had. So, I mean, I'm still anti-Volkswagon for what they did to the American public. I think it was 100% wrong, and the fines weren't even good enough for them, and even resignation of the CEO. Yeah, it's an electric car. I mean, five years from now, they could be heroes. You don't get mad at me if I buy a microbus electric one. Microbus, yeah.

Well, thanks. Well, they're certainly successful with that particular model. I did not know about the plant in Tennessee, so I must have missed that, but thanks for the information. That's good news for Tennessee. Yes, very good news. $50 billion, wow. $50 billion in the next five years.

Unbelievable. Fantastic. They're here to stay for sure. Anybody that's skeptical about electric cars, this is the future car. Money talks. That's what's going on, yeah. John always informs us. Thank you so much, John.

Okay, have a good day. You too. Our mystery shop is coming up from Coral Springs Honda. You want to stay tuned for that, and we would love to hear or we'd love for you to text us with your vote on that mystery shop at 772-4976530, or you can give us a call at 877-960-9960. back to the recovering car dealer

the text and comments and questions are piling up so go to the first one this is from Jim he says what is your thought on the new cars that shut off when stopping at a red light and start when you let off the break I'm sure it's for the EPA but my thoughts are

are you going to pay more to replace the starter than the money you saved by the car shutting off well Rick answered the mechanical question yeah they tried that on the Highlander and from what I have been able to find out these are being looked at as

even Toyota's starting to say what were we doing what were we thinking yeah I've had some complaints they actually have to have a second starter motor on the vehicle that is dedicated just to this what they call start stop technology and it doesn't work well

is that the same thing that you see on the hybrid because the hybrids will do something similar where it cuts off and starts up again. It is similar, but I'll hit the hybrid in just a quick second. Basically what this system does is, and the way they're set up is it's the car, when you come to a stop, it shuts the engine off, and then when you step on the accelerator, it restarts the engine, and away it goes. But it has this special starter motor that actually has a service interval for when it has to be replaced. Oh, okay.

And the battery even now has, where before it was simply when batteries failed, you replaced it. Now the batteries actually have a service life when you're recommended to replace the battery as well because of this new technology. They're extremely expensive. They really don't save that much in the way of fuel and they're not working like they should. It seemed like a great idea of paper. A great idea, but one more thing to break. The complaints I got was that it was a little unsettling. if you're not used to driving a hybrid,

the car goes silent, and then there's a shutter and a little hesitation when the light turns green, and some people just didn't like that. Now, on our hybrid system, however, the gasoline engine is actually bolted up to the electric motors, and it doesn't have an actual starter motor. The electric motors that drive the car,

the one simply reverses itself into a motor to start the gasoline engine, and then becomes a generator to produce electricity. So it's a very different system. It doesn't have that same shock effect of the way it needs to be operated to start up. And the gasoline engine only runs when it needs to. Versus this one where the gasoline engine has to run to drive the car. And so it's a very different system.

Yeah, I imagine with the hybrid people kind of know that they're getting into a different feel or something that's different. Yes. And you quickly become used to that very quickly. Jim, I think we answered your question. Yes, we did. Yep. Okay, next question.

This is from Paul and Palm Beach Gardens, quick ones. We've got a bunch. I think we have eight to go through here. So is synthetic oil okay to use on a classic car that's 40 years old? It is, but follow the original change interval that you were going with. Still stick with what the manufacturer recommended, which on most older cars was every 3,000 miles. It's okay, but you don't have to. Right.

And like Rick says, but change it more often than they recommend for the sense of this. Yep, yep. Okay, so now we have, this is a regular texture. This is Anne-Marie. She says, good morning, speaking of oil. Do you have any suggestions on how to remove really old oil stain from a concrete driveway? I've tried Dawn, Tide, OxyClean, and good old-fashioned elbow grease at various times, but the stain remains. I know if the oil is fresh, you can stop it up with kitty litter, but what can be done if it's

It's an old stain besides parking a car over the stain thing. Dynamite will do it. Boy, I'll tell you what, Ian Marie. A hammer or a pickax. I've been there. I have definitely, I understand what you're talking about. Muriatic acid. Ah, available at your local swimming pool supply store.

I love it when Rick has a slightly smug look way when he knows he's got the answer to something. I've used it many times. And it diluted with some water, test it on a small area first. Because trust me, it's going to leave that concrete very, very, very. Very clean. Okay, so you're saying that, like myself or even amnory, it's safe for us to pick that up. Stop right in your local pool supply store, pour some into some water, and just work it in with the scrub brush. No gloves necessary.

Wear gloves and make sure that you got a little bit of breeze going for you that day. What if you have a color. What if you have a color on the concrete? We'll take the color out too. It may. It may. So test it on a small area that's not really visible first. I think that, yeah, Nancy, you're talking about tarot.

caught at, you know, those pavered driveways, yeah. Yes. If you've got those, test somewhere away off to the side first. What about pressure cleaning? What a pressure cleaner get it out? Quite often it can, but if it's soaked down into the concrete, it may not be able to get past the surface. I don't forget about it.

Oil and water. Brute force. Maybe a really hot pressure cleaner. I don't think they make a good soap. I used a jackhammer on my driveway. There you go. I was thinking pickax. Okay, this is a, okay, interesting question.

Good morning. How is Earl going to select his buyers for the new limited supply Supra? This is from Everett. Well, that's a great question. The same way we did on the limited supply Prius, when they were only building one a month or supplying one a month, what we do is we take refundable deposits. It'll be probably $500 refundable deposit, refundable for any reason. We do that just to be sure you're serious. sometimes when you have a high-demand low-supply car people will get on the list

get in line just so they can broker the car they really don't want it for themselves but they're unlikely to want to lay money out of pocket for that possible contingency and then that's the way we do it as soon as the car comes in you take delivery of the car we deliver it we don't mark the cars up over MSRP because we think it's immoral and all the other dealers do mark it up over MSRP and therefore we sell cars faster and then the manufacturers allocate their cars based on what they call turn and earn so if one dealer is selling at a higher pace rate than the other dealers they get more cars so many years ago I'm bragging now but I admit it unashamedly

we went from a teeny winnie dealer in Lake Park to one of the largest Prius dealers in the world we were number one time one time we were number four largest Prius dealer in the world. Yeah. And we went from one Prius a month up to... And that was just outside of California. Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say California.

We were selling like 50, 60, 70 Priuses a month. Uh-huh. And that was a... Nancy wants to know, what about her super? You don't get one on me. I'm sorry. Are you serious? I used to drive one.

I'm in line. What about a paintball battle royale? We put them all in a field with paintball gear. and the last one standing gets to buy the car. That would get some attention. Okay. Okay, the next one is from Steve in New Jersey. He says, I went to Toyota and Lexus Online and build a Highlander in Lexus LS.

It surprised me that both had a $1,025 delivery processing handling charge noted. What is this? And does the manufacturer or dealer receive this? That sounds like a delivery fee for the manufacturer. That's a manufacturer. Yeah, that's illegal. You pay it from the dealer. whether you buy it at the dealership or you buy it online the car you're buying online from lexas

online and and the dealer online are dealers and the freight is a legitimate price that the manufacturers all put in their in their prices don't pay twice uh car dealers are double-dipping so if you see a charge on your buyer's order as you saw online don't pay it that's baked into your price the dealer has it baked into his invoice and it's also baked in to the MSRP so they will differentiate it online but the dealer will should not have it on the paperwork the vehicle buyers order it should not be um okay and jumping over to facebook we have a few comments and questions here uh jeff says i don't disagree that the license should have been taken away um my grandmother picked me up when i was in elementary school and she turned and went on the wrong side of the road it was at

that point she decided to stop driving for her safety and others so she made that decision herself uh this is a comment from jared just about that um evaporative or that vapor test we were talking about he just suggested maybe he means fuel evaporative emission smoke test could that be something that was that was what we had mentioned yep okay and let's see here okay uh there's a bunch in here i'm sorry i know there's one more tell you what once you continue i'll find the next uh question Let me talk about something very important, and I did want to get to it before the end of the show. It has to do with a class action suit that I'm going to be consulting on, and it has to do with the dealer fees. We're looking right now, and we're starting on our own cars, for witnesses to purchases of vehicles in Florida or anywhere.

We're looking hopefully from a larger dealer. Witnesses that know of an incident where someone purchased a vehicle, a new vehicle or a used vehicle, that violated the Florida Deceptive Unfair Trade Practices Act. They call it FDUpta, FD-U-P-T-A, Florida Deceptive Unfair Trade Practices Act. The particular portion of the law is 501.976, and it's paragraph, 16 through 18 basically to take away the legalese to make it simple do you are you a witness to someone that charged a deceptive regulatory fee that would be something that you thought was a regulatory fee but it wasn't electronic filing fee tag agency fee e-filing

fee documentary fee car dealers call these deceptive fees something that you think is something fair. There's a government fee. So if you're a witness and you know of a person that did this, we'd love to have you contact the show. Contact me or Stu or Rick or Nancy personally. Contact anybody.

We'd like to have some witnesses on that because it's class actions who will be proceeding. Now, the other thing is, is this dealer just simply charging more than the advertised price? If someone advertised online, billboard, TV, any kind of media, a price, and you went in and bought the car at that price, and you paid anything additional besides government fees, that is a violation of the

Florida Deceptive Unfair Trade Practices Act, 501.976, paragraph 16 through 18. If you know of this. If you know of them. So if you're a witness to either of those two cases, they charge you a fee that was made up, pretend fee made you think it was a government fee on top of the advertised price and you saw that and you're a witness let us know or you just were charged more you don't know why the car was 14,900 you went in you ended up paying 15,900 and that didn't result from the tax and tag government fees that resulted from well I don't know why it happened it was a more than the actual

advertised price yeah so if you've seen anything like that email that information to to us. The best is probably Earl at Earleoncars.com. Earl at Earleoncars.com. Or you can call or you can text. Just getting a hold of us. It's very important. Okay. Did you find that text too? No, I think we're caught up. I think. Oh, we are caught up. Okay.

Let me go a little further on the dealer fee thing. We are witnesses to a lot of this because virtually every mystery shopping report that we have conducted. virtually every one, I have a violation of FDUPTA, Florida's Sceptive Unfair Trade Practices Act. And it typically has to do with bait and switch. They advertise a price, and you can't buy the car at that price. You have to buy the car for more money. And this is against the law. And virtually every car dealer in Florida, and really the whole United States is doing this.

So the only way to stop it is to get the attention of the district. dealers. The way you get the attention of a dealer or any immoral, unethical business is through class actions. Class actions are, you're able to right or wrong and punish the perpetrator without money out of pocket. Now, by the way, the Florida Septive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, the person who is sued and loses the prevailing party, wins the attorney's fees back from the defeated party. So the car dealers will pay the attorney's fees. So it costs the plaintiffs nothing.

And the attorney's fees are awarded to the attorneys. The full amount of the recovery, which could be in the millions or maybe billions of dollars, would be divided up among all the class participants, the class of people, which in this case, frankly, will be a huge number of people. And so the actually amount of recovery, when you divide it up, will be very small. The argument against class actions has always been the attorneys get all the money. Well, the attorneys do get a lot of money, but they don't take it from the class. They don't take it from the people that are suing on behalf of.

They take it from the perpetrator. I just want to let you know. We did have a caller who said that they would like, wants to be a witness for the class action lawsuit. He did hang up his name was Steve. So Steve, if you're listening, please call back, or if you'd rather you can email Earle at Earle at Earleoncars.com, but it'd be great to hear from you.

So if you want to call back and let us know what you saw, we would really appreciate it. Boy, I'll tell you, what a great incentive, you know, that the buyer is going to get his money back, and he was taking advantage of. 877-960 or you can text us it's 772-4976530

and we have a mystery shopping report coming up and that is from Coral Springs Honda and I think that the recovering car dealer is ready to share that with our audience and remember you too can rate that mystery shop 772-4976530

row. I see Rudy Brighton, so we may have a caller here. Well, I think Steve is... Oh, okay, very good. Steve's getting back on the line. That's great. Okay, Steve, appreciate to call back. Mystery Shopping Report of Coral Springs Honda. Now, in full disclosure, I know the owner of Coral Springs Honda, and he is one of the Page family group, a fine automotive family Kenny Page

owns Coral Spring Honda Kenneth Is he related to Bill? Brothers. Really? Brothers, yeah. And Bill Jr. Okay, we do have a caller

So before we get into the mystery shopping report. Okay, we're going to go to Dennis who's holding. He's calling from Palm City. Hi, Dennis. Good morning. Good morning.

Good morning. A couple of comments, the oil stain, home depot sells a product the name escapes me right now but uh it's a white material that you put on and uh it eats down through the concrete and uh and you just brush it off and it actually removes the stain a couple of people where i live have used it um great and then uh on the uh the insurance uh with the fees uh we have a fleet of vehicles we we roll them about every seven months before they get to 60,000 miles so we can get a good trade in on them.

And my last trade, Carfax came back with vehicle accident and structural damage, and the dealer said he can't sell the car. He can't put it on the lot. So I'm going to go back to the insurance company later this week and see if I can get them to cover that loss. Absolutely. Because Carfax, it's a great tool, but I had no idea that it was going to show up on my trade-in. Exactly. Yeah, that's, remember, Donner and Partners, used to be Gordon and Donner, but Donner and Partners, I'm not sure if they have a Palm City branch, they're located in North Palm Beach, and they do a great job.

Every time we have a customer that is wronged by the insurance company, we send them to Gordon and Partners. I don't get a kickback, by the way. I don't take anything. I'm not advertising for them at all. They're competent, and there's no fee to you, Dennis, if they do take your case, they go after the insurance company, and their fee is paid by them, and then you get your, I've never known them to lose a case. They always get the money, so that's something, I'm glad you spotted that, and it underlines the importance of getting your diminished value from your insurance company. Yep, great, and I love your show. Thank you so much. Thank you, Dennis.

thank you thanks okay now we're back on the mystery shopping report and we're talking about the fact that i do know the owner of coral springs Honda and i just didn't want you to think that we're going to tell it like it is anyway and we will uh name names and if they're right they're right if they're wrong they're wrong okay this uh mystery shop was a special one because it's agent x's final the report. Yep. I'm sorry to report that Agent X has moved to Kansas. Yep.

Pursuing new opportunities in life and love. That's right. He's on the road right now. Yeah, I'm starting to tear up. Here. Yeah. Thank you. As I read this report, Agent X is driving west just outside a little rock, Arkansas.

By the time. He said you weren't going to say. I won't do that. I hope he has his radio on and can hear me because I wanted to say how great I am for his years of service and his contribution to the mission of rural store on cars. Agent X conducted hundreds of investigations over the years I'm covering some of the biggest scams and exceptions perpetrated by car dealers all over Florida. He was fearless, crafty with a talent for navigating the high-pressure world of car sales.

Agent X was our point man and our Takata crusade and his actions almost or even literally. involved him risking his life. Certainly, physical assault, whether he would have died, I don't know. Well, I was thinking about the airbags, the ones that were... Well, I didn't even think about the airbags. I think that's a priority. So we can say literally, you're absolutely right.

Shrapnel. Road in the cars with defective airbags. Explosions. Almost every week when we went through this, it was every week. He played a role in saving others' lives. Earl Stearned Cards has other mystery shopping agents to deploy, but maybe a while.

I hope it's never that we will find another legend like Agent X. So Agent X, if you're listening, thank you, my friend. Godspeed. Viacondias. Viacondias. We have a new Agent X applying. Yeah, there we go. Don't say the name.

Don't say that it was. Asian X. Well, the final mission for Agent X took him to Coral Springs Honda, high-volume Honda dealer in Coral Springs between Deerfield and Sunrise. We sent him down to check out a 2005 Honda Civic. They posted online per sale. It was under recall for a no-fix. Parts aren't available.

Cannot fix this car. No fix on the passenger side, Takata Airbag Recall. The price was just $4,990. $49.99. Everybody wants a car under $5,000. Interestingly enough, that's the car that every dealer wants to have on his website because everybody thinks that

used cars are less expensive than they really are. Everybody wants a car, and I hear this so many times. Friends, anybody I see, hey, you've got a nice used car for under $5,000. The answer is, no. There are no nice used cars for under $5,000. We have used

cars. That's so nice. We don't have, yes, exactly. So that was the ad car. I called and had spoke to Thia. Thia identified herself as the internet sales manager. I asked her

about the 2005 Civic. She said it was a fresh unit, a fresh car, and it was currently going through their inspection process. However, she said it was for sale and I could come and take a look at it. We set an appointment for me to visit at 1 o'clock at the afternoon. I was en route

When I received a call from Thea, and she said she was sorry and reported that the Civic failed their mechanical inspection test, and she'd not be able to sell it to me. That's refreshing. I asked her why it failed the inspection. She pressed and pressed her on why. They listed it for sale on the website in the first place when they didn't know if it was roadworthy. She apologized. This comes up later in the report. said I should speak with the used car manager who could explain the specifics as to why this car was advertised and then withdrawn from sale.

She quickly pivoted to other possibilities she'd identified for me, other cars. She said she had a 2007 Civic and at 2009, Thea conceded they would cost a little more and asked if I was still interested. I said I was. Thea sounded relieved, of course, told me to ask for her when she arrived and she'd set me up with one of her. salespeople. I found the dealership easily. Park entered and asked for Thea. I didn't wait long before she came out to greet me with a smile. She introduced me to Ricky, who already knew what vehicles to show me. Ricky led me outside. The 2009 and 2000 civics were parked next to each other. The window sticker on the 2007 showed a price of 6,900. The 2009 was 8,800. Both prices were

considered higher, considerably higher, than the 2005 Civic, naturally. But they were newer, and both cars looked to be in decent shape. I told Ricky I like the 2009 better was a coop, and the dark gray paint looked flawless. We opened the car, inspected it together. I asked him if it had passed inspection, he said it had. I asked him if there were any safety issues, and he said, no. First of the three questions. They wouldn't have passed inspection if there were.

and he found he said well that's sounds good i asked if it had been in an accident rickie said the carfax was clean and he uh he could look it up now as he asked me about that in the car we use this term clean carfax a lot it's it's an automotive term and i think you need to press beyond does it have a clean car fax we're guilty and i pulled the transparency i am a car dealer we once allegedly told the customer right we don't know for sure we did but i could i can see where we would we said the car had a clean carfax when in fact it had been in a slight accident carfax will differentiate between serious accidents and not so serious accidents so any kind of a any kind of an accident that requires an insurance repair a scratched fender would be up on a carfax report and we might think that a

scratch fender that had been painted is a clean car fax. There's nothing wrong with the car. It just had a fender scratched. But you heard our earlier call from the customer from Palm City saying that diminished value. When a car has been in any kind of an accident,

it has diminished value. Once it's on the record. And the other thing is, like you said, there's not a standard term for what does clean car fax mean? On our mystery shops, we've had dealers say it's got a clean car fax. They're talking about there's no branded title or accident yet there are multiple dangerous recalls on it exactly so it's a it's a dangerous term to

pay attention to deception we test drove the car discovered some issues on the ride there was a strong jolt when he ac cycled and the windshield wipers appeared to have etched an arc in the windshield i asked rickie about these he said he believed they could do something about both but he'd need to confirm with his used car manager now remember we're talking about a older car in 2009 i mean nine years old, and it's being offered for sale relatively and expensively. Back at Carl Springs Honda, Ricky, oops, yeah, back at Carl Springs Honda, Ricky showed to be the Carfax report. It was clean.

We're going to have to wipe that term out of our vocabulary, both as a dealership and there's a automotive show, because it's too general. It's not a good term. A safe Carfax, a perfect Carfax. I don't like clean Carfax. There were no indications for accidents or recalls. I brought up the 2005 Civic that had originally brought me in. I wanted to know why I was no longer for sale.

He said it failed the safety inspection. I wanted to know specifically what the problem was. He called the used car manager Steve, who came out to the desk to meet us. And as I name these names, it reminds me of my introduction. We tell the truth. We name names. We name dealerships. we've never been sued in 14 years

just knocked on wood folks never been sued because truth transparency honesty is a complete perfect defense against libel and slander we have never lied on the Mr. Shopping Report I lost my place

where am I oh he called the use car manager Steve who came out to the desk to meet us exactly and he said said, I asked him why they put it online. No, he said there was some structural damage. Oh, okay.

He said there was a, here I pointed to me. He said there was some structural damage. And it had an airbag recall. Sorry, folks. Yeah, it had an airbag recall with no fix. It was an easy decision to wholesale the car. And that's good. Kudos to Paige Honda in Coconut Creek.

Kudos because you almost never see this. We've maybe seen it twice in all of the. reports so in that sense they care about the safety of their customers and that's a real plus i asked why they put it online before they knew was safe or not and steve said they needed to list things quickly to stay competitive and soon the cars will check it out but if they don't check it out they take them off the web of the site right away i confirmed this that car was not online for sale ah i was the same day the very that same very that day so i was going to say that And they love cars under $5,000, and every car dealer, when they get a car that looks like it's okay, they put that on there before they park the car.

I mean, they want online and everywhere else advertise cars cheap, and under $10,000, too. $10,000, $5,000, under $5,000 is a diamond. Generates a lot of phone calls, a lot of traffic. Yeah, every dealer has a section on their website, cars under $10,000. And people flock in, and then when they see the car, if they don't buy it, and next thing you know, they pay $27,000 for a used car. Especially this time of year with tax returns coming in, or tax refunds. So be prepared, folks.

The cheap cars often aren't something you want to buy, and you've got to be real careful. But if you find a good one, hey, more power to you. He moved the conversation back to... You missed a little bit there. I asked him if they had a used car with an airbag recall. Okay. But no other problems. would they consider it safe?

He said they consider it safe only if they could fix it before selling it. I believe that. That's good. Yeah. Good for them. He moved the conversation back to the 2009 we just driven. Asked how I wanted to pay for it. I said I was using Velocity Credit Union. I thought I screwed up when Ricky looked puzzled and asked how they were financing an 11-year-old car.

That's the reason we liked Agent X. He's fast. Yeah, it's very fast. He figured he'd been caught. I was really impressed with this. Yeah, I mean, the average mystery shopper would have had palpitations, felt faint, possibly run. Because he thought he'd been busted. It's a collapse.

And as Agent X, I said, I thought quickly and replied confidently that it was a signature loan through the loss of a family member on my wife's up. And I still don't know what that means. Is that legit? You're a banker. What is that? It smokes me. You know, if he had said to me, I would have not only, okay. Yeah, good.

Let's continue. And it's just the genius. of Agent X. Ricky said he was sorry for our loss. That's what it was. It was completely subterfuge. And Asian X probably teared up. It was misdirection.

That's what it was. Exactly. And mentioning loss of a family, automatically, who's going to want to go there and challenge that? Sounds good to me. Let's move on. Priceless.

We're going to miss it. I'm going to miss a big time. I wasn't sure if what happened next was an honest mistake or theater. Steve said the price was $6,800, then paused to say, oops I missed up he said the price was really 8,800 but since he told me 6,800 he would honor the mistake I'm thinking theater I think what happened it was the two-tier pricing that we've seen this before they'll have an internet price for 6,800 why because internet

people shop they don't come in they can't do the game playing they can't throw your car keys on the roof you know they can't you know they can't keep you there online shopping has to have a low price. So they have two tier. They have a good low price online, and then they have the lot price. So if you walk in the lot, they can always come down.

They got you there. They can chase you out to your car when you're going home, but online. So word of the wise, always shop online, keep that price in mind. Take a screenshot of the price, have it in your pocket. And when they say, I'm sorry,

it's $8,800, you say, no, this is the online price. And all dealers, virtually all dealers, have two-tier pricing. The Internet price is the best price. I do that in Best Buy all the time. Do you? You walk up to the cash register with an object. They say, well, the price is, and I pull out my phone and say, no, it isn't.

Here's your website. I didn't know that about Best Buy. All the time. Fantastic. Here he comes again. We talked about the AC, the air conditioning jolt when the car was running, and the etched wind seal, meaning, you know, scratched. his possession was his position was different point Ricky told me on the test drive he said the car was being sold as is and that the low price took the AC problem into consideration and believe me folks a 2000 you know a nine-year-old car is probably going to be sold as is and you need to look at the window sticker because the law says that has to be on the window sticker of a used car as is and the rules and but it's a little bit of the window sticker because the law says that has to be on the window sticker of a used car that has is and the rules and but it's

it's negotiating. I mean, you can negotiate because it says it is, but they want to sell the car, you go for it. I said, I thought the windshield scratch was a safety issue, and you're absolutely right. And that would be an argument in court. And Steve said that the state of Florida repaired broken windshields free.

Now think about this. What the state of Florida will do require the, if you have comprehensive insurance and you have zero deductible comprehensive insurance, they will require your insurance company to fix a broken windshield.

Right, with no deduction. So there's some smoke there. Yeah, no deductions. No deduction. So the state of the law does not require people or anybody to fix their windshield for free. Was this a mistake?

We don't know. I think he misunderstood how that works. Yeah. I didn't get into it with him over that statement, but I countered that windshield was technically, wasn't technically broken. Now, as John from Palm City,

would say, you better sit down for this. Steve then suggested, and I'm not kidding, that after I buy it, I could throw a small rock at the windshield to crack it. How about a ball peen hammer? Then I could get it replaced. Now, I've also heard, and we've heard on mystery shops, you ought to take that car out and park it by the side of the road

and leave the keys on it. Or drive it into a canal. Or drive it into a canal. So you're going to hear some outrageous things. things on these mysteries and of course you can't accuse him of anything illegal because if you say anything i was just kidding about that i'm glad that you didn't think i really meant that i'm glad he said that he throw the rock after he buys it otherwise agent x could have just popped a rocket right there on this spot it would work too and then all you

got to do is lie to your insurance company oh boy i said i wasn't sure if i wanted to buy it i said the as-is thing made me feel uneasy and you should feel uneasy uh rickiecki He happily said that they had a great extent of warranty available for the car and ran off for Vadim, V-A-D-I-N, or perhaps V-A-D-I-N. V-A-N-A-N-V-A-N-V-A-V-M. V-A-N-A-V-M-A-V-M. V-A-M-V-A-V-N-V-A-V-N-E-F-E-O-E-E-FUURUREL, I could get a five-year, one of the bumper-eusical, immoral. prolific, widespread sins of the automotive industry. Bumper-to-bumper warranties. There's no such thing that's a bumper-to-bumper warranty.

Even from the manufacturer. The manufacturer's warnings are not bumper-to-bomper. Because, my old schick joke, the tires are between the two bumpers, aren't they? And if the tires are between the bumpers, they should be covered under a bumper-to-bumper warranty. Manufacturers do not cover the tires. All warranties are exclusionary. going to be components and systems that are all sorts of things and we always say that when someone's to sell you a warranty or when you buy a car that's got a free warranty read the warranty

but the first thing you should read is what it's not covered and for law and i believe almost all state laws maybe federal law probably the moss magnuson warranty act requires the exclusions to be listed on all warranties read what is included it'll save you a lot of time because you see some good stuff covered, like the motor and the transmission and the drive shaft and the rear axle, all those things that don't ever break

and they don't tell you about the navigation system and the air conditioning and the entertainment system. And the entertainment system and on and on and on. You know, excuse me, Consumer Report did a great job on warranties. Yes. Something to read. Yeah. I told

them that I wanted the car and I wanted the warranty too. Adam and jumped up and said he'd get the paperwork ready and Ricky said he'd get the car and clean and clean up. They were all visibly disappointed when I said I had to speak with my wife. Buzzkill.

Before signing him. Oh boy. Steve said he could only hold the car for a $500 deposit. I said I would have to ask my wife for that and he said he couldn't hold the car. If I could clear it with my wife and called him with a

credit card number he would hold it. He said, did he do that the credit card number but couldn't promise the car wouldn't sell meantime another aside i hope you have time anytime you leave a deposit with a dealer read the receipt that you're going to be getting the receipt must say refundable if you don't if you get a receipt and give them the money that says does not say refundable they can keep your deposit also credit cards are a great idea why because you can call the card company and you can tell the card company don't pay them and you can contest it and usually the credit card

companies are on your side especially with the card dealer so if you have to leave a deposit put it on your credit card I asked for a buyer's order so he said that was no problem surprise number two first prize being the fact that they were so honest about the tecali airbag and the fact that they will offer a buyer's order you'll find most car dealers will not give you a buyer's order we had one not too long ago that got very passionate about it wouldn't even let our mystery shopper take a picture of the buyer's order he returned a few minutes later with the buyer's order the price was 6,800 plus 2,500 for the warranty plus a $799 dealer fee and a

$499 tag agency fee now if you heard me earlier talking about about the class action suit one of the one of the criteria for the FDUpta violation was the fact that they charge a deceptive regulatory fee okay now a deceptive regulatory fee is a tag agency fee because the tag agency fee if they use a tag agency is only about you know far less than 449 dollars they're marking up a fee possibly and they may not even have an outside that agency and this is a deceptive regulatory fee so what we have here is a violation of fidupta 501.96 floor deceptive unfair treat practices act paragraph 16 through 18 this is a

violation and we're looking for witnesses to this type of violation we're not asking for victims we can't do that because we can't solicit people that are that are plaintiffs in the class action that's against law but we can ask for witnesses and we're looking for witnesses to anyone that had this type of thing happened meanwhile back at the mystery shopping report we cannot know whether Carl Springs Honda wholesale the 2005 civic because the Takata recall but I suppose that we should take them at their word and Stu did say that they did remove it it was removed like within hours of Agent X

first calling it so that's good that's a plus overall Agent X was treated pretty well by everyone at the dealership with the exception of how Steve handled the mechanical and windshield issue so there we have it as usual a mystery shopping report with some good with some bad and maybe a little ugly maybe a little ugly and we also have to remind our listeners and our watchers Facebook YouTube that there are no perfect card dealers I mean there's no perfect human beings right there's no perfect card deals especially they're all tainted especially in Florida so we don't grade on an absolute basis we grade on the curve we have to have car dealers that we can recommend

recommend somebody to. Otherwise, we'd say nobody in Florida can ever buy a car again. Well, we can't do that. So we have a recommended car dealer list and a do not buy from this car dealer list. Keep that in mind when you score on a failing grade all the way up to an A. So let's start with our call-in scores. Yeah, we have tech scores coming in. We have an anonymous B. Jeff gives him a C-plus. Marco gives him a D. I think that's Glenn, gives them a B, Mary, B minus, May, C minus, and Ed gives them an A minus. So they're doing better than we usually see. Those are good scores. Which of the staff here would like to go first? I'll go first. I think I'm going to give them a C, the dealer fee thing.

There was some sketchy actions there, but overall it was better than. most of the shops that we've seen yes i agree mrs sunrise aka nancy yes i agree with stew i give them a sea my eyes tear up as i look at the gallop pole and where we were and that members of congress were last and here we are at the very bottom of the list it saddens me sense me and before what is your what is your score a C I'm sorry Rick we've got one online score of a C

here as well and I'm I'm going to go with a C well actually I'm going to call it a B minus because I think they went with the usual rather visible pitfalls with the dealer fee in that the same ones that we've been warning so many folks about but I think they did very well with the Takata airbag situation

it's complex I I'm torn clearly a passing score for me. I feel like I don't want to be accused of partisan because I do know Kenny Page. I like Ken used to be the president of the Florida Automobile Dealers Association. And he and I were both on the board of directors together. Stu and I went down the Colorado River with his brother.

And niece and nephew. Yes. And so I don't want to be considered as partisan. I'm going to give them a C-plus. what they did with the Takata is so good that some of the other stuff is just kind of throw into the average category and I'm going to give them a plus

because I love Ken and you go ahead I've actually just heard from Agent X's his handler is Secret Communique we have a setup where we're getting this bounced around through Tor onion networks to make sure that he's kept totally secret Agent X gave a C

and he also says that he feels a little heartbroken, too, having to leave us. Well, if you tear up, Agent X, I want you to pull over the side because I want you driving. When you cry, when you're driving, it's dangerous. He asks if we're okay with it, he would like to do a mystery shop in Kansas. Wow. Yeah. Oh, thank you. So you are listening, Agent X.

Yes, we would welcome that because it takes a little pressure off me to find another investigation. And I think we'll find. find I think the car dealers in Kansas on general are more honest moral you know the Midwest kind of a thing we'll find out we're going to find well I know some guys in Kansas yeah hey we can ask Larry Wins the moderator yeah that we know about some car dealers we can shop there yeah you hear that agent X get to it we need we need one for next Saturday hey agent X I'd just like to let you know that you will be missed yeah and gosh what's what's up with Kansas I've know four people just this past two weeks that have

gone to Kansas? Well, it's because of global warming and the seas are rising. Exactly. And you want to be as far in as you can get. They want ocean front property. Exactly. I don't know. I was watching that Kansas City Chiefs game and they were shoveling some snow.

Oh yeah, it snows a lot there. And I warned any of that about the snow. Let me say something on a serious note here because Nancy made me think about it as she looked at the Gallup poll on honesty and ethics and professions. the most recent Gallup poll that ranked car dealers dead last out of all the professions in terms of dishonesty and lack of integrity.

It's a terrible thing. Now I joke, I laugh about it a lot, had a caller say, what did my car dealer friend say? You know, on a serious note, it embarrasses me that I'm a car dealer. And I've been a car dealer all my life, almost, 50 years, I've been a car dealer, and when I'm out and when we're out traveling, Nancy and we're just on vacation and we'd be talking to people in a group, people who didn't know who I was, I was ashamed to tell them I was a car dealer. And I'm ashamed now to tell people I'm a car dealer.

And I don't want that to be my legacy. And I think a lot of what we do on this show, and Nancy and Rick and Stu and I, and all we do with the blogs and so on and so forth is to try to raise the, uh, um, the, um, the, um, honesty, ethics of all the car dealers, and it just embarrasses me. I mean, why should I be a, it's like saying I'm an ex-con. I tell people I'm a card dealer. Card dealer. I'd rather say, I'd dealt blackjack.

I would, because, you know, and they never say anything to you. They look at you as a car dealer. Yeah, I worked down at the hard time. Yeah, I remember us being in Vegas, and they targeted me because of him, but we won't go there. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us here at Earl Stewart on Cars. And a big thank you to Jonathan and Rudy, who helps us weekend and week out. Thank you so much and have a wonderful weekend, and we'll see you right back here, 8 a.m. Let's go.