Earl Stewart on Cars - 01.21.2023 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Lucid of West Palm Beach

Episode Date: January 21, 2023

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

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

And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back again. And for those of you streaming us now, I'm live. You heard my recorded introduction. The bandage on my face is nothing serious. I had a skin cancer removed. a clinic a couple days ago

and everything is fine I just don't look fine but I can wear my mask my coated mask and people can even see the bandage. Anyway thanks for joining us and especially the new folks. We

have ourselves quite an audience stretching south all the way to Miami and north all the way up to like Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce area. Drew Oldies has expanded recently and we're covering a lot more territory

but even more territory is our streaming on Facebook if you got a smartphone or a PC and you want to listen to us or watch us or do both we're at Facebook.com forward slash Earl on Cars as Facebook.com forward slash Earl on Cars

of course YouTube and that's YouTube.com ford slash row one cars. Got Rick Kearney sitting in my right. He's our technical expert in terms of cars. He's a certified diagnostic master technician. You might not know what that means, but it sounds very impressive.

But I know what it means because he's worked for me for over 25 years. And he knows everything there is to know about cars, period. If you have a question, anything about a car, your car, somebody else's car, or just something technical that eludes you from so many things. I ask Rick a question when I walked in the studio. My windshield washer is not working

and he gave me a good reason why. I didn't like the reason. He said maybe rats had chewed through the hose from my... Possibility. So now I have two problems. I got rats in my garage and my windshield washer doesn't work. But anyway, Rick Kearney will answer any of your question. and said, about your car. And he's also monitoring YouTube and Facebook.

And if that's not enough, we have an anonymous feedback line that you really should take advantage of. A lot of folks don't want to get involved. I mean, I don't say you're guilty of a crime or anything like that. But you have something to say, and you just shouldn't not be interrogated or followed up.

Too many things we do are exposed to everyone today, and the advertisers know where to advertise to you and me. And it's kind of a spooky feeling knowing that anytime you do anything, people know where you are. If you prefer to remain totally anonymous, we have something great for you. It's Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Y-O-U-R-A-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S feedback.com. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. I don't know right to Rick Kearney

along with YouTube.com for slash rolling cars and Facebook.com for slash rolling cars. So if you want to see how pretty I am and I'm definitely not pretty this morning but you can look at my wife, Nancy, she is pretty and she's sitting to my left here.

Rick, he's gonna, he's more handsome than I am but he's not a movie star, let's put that way. But we're all here, except for Stu Stewart and I should say that to our new listeners, My son, Stu, who is usually in the studio, has had some back surgery. After taking a long time to diagnose the problem, we finally diagnosed, I say we, the doctors did. And he had some surgery last week, and he's doing just fine.

So hopefully we'll have him back in the studio very shortly. He is the movie star. He is a movie star. He's handsome young man. handsome young man. So here we are to help you buy a car without being ripped off by a car dealer. Nancy gave me the telephone sign, meaning I think we have a telephone call. That's right.

Good morning, everyone. Jocked on this number real quick, and we'll get to our caller. 877-960-99-60. We're going to go to Boynton Beach, where Ed has been holding for about a minute and a half. Sorry to keep you waiting. Good morning, Ed. Good morning, Nancy. you're done today.

We're well. Thank you. A few months ago, a few weeks ago, three or four weeks ago, I called in and I was getting ready to purchase my lease on Volkswagen TIGO, and I asked for some vice, and y'all gave me very good advice, and I was pretty much ready to go when I went the dealer, and I just thought I would report back to you and let you know how it went. Oh, sounds good. We'd love to hear it.

I took it down to the Volkswagen dealer down in Delray, and, and I took it down. and I purchased it, and they, I went to an older, not an older person, but a settlement that we used in the past and kind of went through him instead of just randomly picking someone that handled this and kind of, kind of explained to him kind of what I expected out of this deal, and he said, we need to inspect the car, I think he's indicated maybe possibly for safety reasons, and I don't know if that's normal or not, but the car had no problem that I knew it had no problem. It only had 14,000 miles on it and had been serviced regularly by them. So he took it back and that didn't take about 15 minutes. He came

back and everything's fine but there's a recall and I was aware of the recall and I was just going to make a scheduled appointment at some other days to get it done but he said we're going to take care of that right now so they did that and then they sent me over to the finance man to work out how I wanted to pay for the car and that went extremely smooth. There was no catches and And actually, I had roughly figured out what I thought the buyout to be, and it was actually a few dollars, and it could have been in the taxi, but just a few dollars less than what I figured. So they didn't add anything to it, and I guess the previous problems that were had.

And that problem maybe took care of, and you helped me, why we didn't have any problem. I don't know, but it went well. Well, good. So it was overall a pleasant experience? It wasn't a very pleasant experience. And again, it just wouldn't like walk away. It didn't take long. I mean, maybe at 45 minutes an hour, I was at the dealer, which is not very long, really.

I didn't think for that. And got the update done, so that was worth a trip back. It would take me 30 minutes down there and 30 back to do that. So that was even greater on that. I do have a question for Rick, if I could ask one real quick on this car. Sure, sure. Okay. Okay.

And it's been this way since I purchased, of course, I've been in the lease. I leased in the name of purchase it. it was new and right off the bed and it's been a problem i understand with the teagons uh when you coming off of a dead start stop it kind of wants to hesitate just a little bit maybe like some older cars did back 30 35 years ago it seemed like it just it would you push it and it would kind be just a little bump as you go it's not it's not like a feeling on the transmission but i was told back back back when i leased a car back three years ago a little more three years ago that it was Maybe it was aware of it, but there was no fix for it.

I just wonder if anything's changed. I haven't asked to deal with that since then. That actually, I would definitely check with your dealership on that because quite often they'll come up with updates and reflashes to the computer. And it's amazing how many issues they can fix nowadays on these cars just by reprogramming the computer. However, that's generally got to be done at a dealer. and it's usually covered under warranty for I believe the warranty period on the computer,

which is normally like an eight year 80,000 or five year 60,000 depending on the manufacturer. But yeah, I would check with your dealership about it. Just swing in and say, hey, you know, I've been having this issue. Have they come out with an update for it? Can you please hook the scan tool up and see if the calibrations on my computer systems are all up to date? Good. I appreciate that, Rick. I'll do that. Like I said, I haven't even questioned them since then, and in three years, surely in three years, they figured it out. You'd hope, wouldn't you?

Yeah, when the 2016 Tacoma first came out the latest body style, they had so many issues with the transmissions on it that they actually had eight different update calibrations that came out in the first year. that we were doing on these trucks to finally get the transmissions to shift properly and we were literally laughing because it seemed like they were coming out like almost once a week and for a technician's point of view

that's a very easy job we walk over to the you know we pull the truck in hook up a special battery charger to keep the electric charge up on the battery plug your computer in and tell it do the reflash and we go get a cup of coffee and relax for five And it's done, and boom, you don't even get your hands dirty.

So, you know, it's a really easy thing for them to do. So they're going to be willing to jump right at it. And the problem is a lot of people don't know about these. And that's, you know, they issue these bulletins. The dealer knows. And the dealers don't do a good job of notifying their customers, nor does the manufacturer. And you'd be surprised how many outstanding service bulletins are the cars that have an issue and they're never aware of the problem.

Mm-hmm. that's interesting yeah i'll i'll certainly look into that and hopefully hopefully they can solve it uh rick you've mentioned with the with your other car that it was uh transmission is it usually transmission when something like this have always associated like the old days when used to have carburetors they got a little too much fuel and then it went through but is a situation like it's more maybe transmission oriented than it would be uh engine oriented I would say it's probably transmission related simply because the fuel injection systems now the computer controls that fuel going into the engine to such minute degrees. It's one of the reasons why we've got such great fuel economy while still keeping the power levels up on these cars is because they can control exactly how much fuel goes into each cylinder each time it actually fires.

So, I mean, you're talking hundreds of times a second, the computer's adjusting exactly how much fuel gets sprayed into that engine. So, I mean, they're incredibly precise now. Amazing. Yeah, the way I've gotten around it for mine to not be worried about too much is as long as I come off of a stop sign and just barely get it rolling for a few feet, and then it seems to be fine. But if I happen to push down on a accelerator just a little firmly, sometimes it's usually there. Anyway, I'm going to give him a call Monday, and again, reflash the computer. Is that the word I should probably use? Yes, or check the calibrations for the computers.

Okay, good. Well, I'll let another caller come in. I appreciate the time. Well, thanks for calling, Ed. This is Nancy. I just want to thank you for sharing such a happy story with us and getting us off to a great start this morning on a radio. Ed, before you go, was that Gunther Volkswagen?

Yes, sir. Well, give him a shout out. and tell them they did a good job with you and all you folks listening in the Del Rey area. If you're interested in a used car or a Volkswagen, a new Volkswagen, a Gunther did a good job for Ed. They might do a good job for you. Yeah, we just love these happy stories,

especially whenever we just come on the air. So thank you for sharing with us, Ed. Very good. Y'all have a great Saturday and the rest of the weekend. Thank you. Have a great weekend. 877-960-90-60, or you can text us at 7-7. and don't forget your anonymous feedback.com.

And I am going to give it back to the recovering car dealer where you can finish your... Yeah, it's kind of an exciting day-to-day. And this era, this electric vehicle era, your regular listeners know we shopped the Tesla. I say dealership, but they aren't really dealerships. Tesla, they are factory outlets. We call them dealerships just because it's easier,

and that's the parlance and the verbiage that a lot of people are used to. We shopped another electric vehicle dealership, and you'll hear that in the second hour toward the last 25% of the show. We shopped the Lucid, and I say dealership, but they're not really a dealership, as I say, in West Palm Beach.

Now, Lucid is an electric vehicle that is a competitor much smaller than Tesla. So, the regular listeners know we gave the West Palm Beach Tesla dealership some very high grades, A's and B's, as a matter of fact, about the highest scores that we've given any dealership. And stay tuned. I won't give it away. See what happened with Lucid. and they're a luxury in electric vehicle manufacturer and dealers. They sell in the high end, whereas Tesla sales both a lower price, meaning $40,000,

up to $150,000 cars. Luce was pretty much around the $70,000 to $125,000. But we shopped them. It was quite interesting, and it is further proof of the evolution. of the way cars are being sold in America. So stay tuned for that. We also want to remind you that if you can't call,

I think we've, well, I don't really think we've called about, we had a call, but we haven't to give our number out yet. 877-960-99-60. And we do have a call, so you callers keep calling at 877, 9609960 will take the next call this is this is from Gary in West Palm Beach and Mike you hold on and I'll be right with you good morning Gary good morning I'll think some of the most egregious commercials on television to me there's snake oil salesman is selling all these car warranties yeah car sheet

and all that kind of stuff. Like if you don't, if you don't take this product, your transmission will fall out before the sunset. I just wondered, I guess advertising is advertising, and they can say whatever they want, as long as they're paying for the pound. But I think these warranties are utterly worthless. Yeah. I happen to be holding the current issue of Consumer Reports. That's the February issue in my hand. And I'll quote from page 56. It's an article on how to finance a used car. But basically, Consumer Report says buying an extended warranty is usually not worth the money. Choosing a car known for reliability is a better investment. Now, I consider Consumer Reports the Bible when it comes to.

to accurate information. It's not influenced by advertisers. There's no connection between consumer report and any retailer or manufacturer. They accept nothing from the people that they judge. They exist on donations. Yeah, you're right. And these extended warranty companies

that you see on television are among the worst. They typically overcharged. by a large amount. And they typically cover, the coverage is usually very basic. Virtually a total waste of money. I don't say that you don't buy an extended warranty. There are circumstances and reasons that you can justify that. But you have to be sure that the price is fair

and you have to be sure that the coverage is broad. Typically, when you see it on the TV, when you see it online, advertise, direct mail, telephone solicitation, all this garbage that you see on extended warranties advertise is not worth the paper as written on, and it's very misleading. And to address, Gary, your other question, how do they get away with it? I don't know. I mean, if anybody were to take apart one of these commercials, what they say. and what they deliver, it's fraud, it's misleading. But somehow the regulators let this stuff go. But my advice to you and anyone listening do not even consider buying an extended warranty,

especially if it's advertised anywhere. If you want to buy an extended warranty, you can go to, you approach the dealer and try to buy a manufacturer's extended warranty, if not inspectors. the dealer's offering of an extended warranty carefully to see what it's covered and as Nancy will remind you all the time what will she remind you of

see what is not covered by the extended warning I normally say that you put me off guard there they bowl you away check out what's not covered you know and to add to what Earl is talking about

we haven't even we haven't even mentioned getting these telephone calls about warranties it's just it's ridiculous the number of calls that I get myself

I appreciate I think I mentioned I think I mentioned this before but 53 years ago I got an elite army and my base car was a 70 Plyak

tempest from new dealership down there on 2000 South 50 Is he fading out on the Jerry, we're having difficulty Your voice has faded out to where we can't hear you Is it your phone, are you on a speaker phone?

Yes, I'm on a speaker phone Okay, I hear you fine now, go ahead Yes, I just wanted to mention 53 years ago When I got out of the Army, my first call was a 70 Pontiac Tempice that I was back in Doug Stewart. And I just thought I'd heard of him. He bought a Pontiac Tempice from your Pontiac dealership down in the U.S. Well, I almost forgot about the Tempest. It's in 1970.

Yeah, right. You know, it's funny, you think back on those days, I mentioned I were talking about it earlier this morning, about we started with the longer term financing of cars and I said what the good news is today's cars are so far superior

to those that we dealt with 20, 30, 40 and you're talking 50 years ago so yeah the Tempest you know it was a good car at the time I mean everything is relative the Tempest today would be a terrible clunker that nobody would recommend you buy but

yeah Pontiac I miss the old Pontiac that's why I started the business with my father in 1968. Good talking to you. Gary, if you're still there, if you could turn down your radio, we could probably hear you

a whole lot better. All right, thank you. Okay, I think that Gary is hung up. Yeah. So thanks for the call, Gary. 877-960-99-60. You could text us at 772-497-6530. And don't forget your anonymous feedback.com.

Ladies, as usual, $50 for the first two new female callers. Give me a call. Give us a call. Hi, a question, whatever. Let your voice be heard. 877-960. Now we're going to talk with Mike. Good morning, Mike.

Hi, good morning. Sorry, I missed you last week. I was kind of tired. but I wanted to make a comment if I might. I find that the thing about, I don't know much about cars, but I know back in the old days, like when I lived here in Miami, the radios that they had in the car were made by Delcoe were excellent. You could actually tune them, and like when I would tune to 560 or 790,

I could actually tune the dios to WQAM and WFUN. And now if you want to listen to the radio, you have to have a touch screen. And it's really kind of sad, especially if you can't see what's going on. Definitely. That could be a drawback. I never thought about that. But that's a very good point. Some of these to address that issue, Mike, thanks for the heads up.

And Mike, I think the last time you and I talked, we talked about, you know, our idea of you driving the electric vehicle. And I think that Earl has something to say about that. Okay. Yeah, I think I text you on this, Mike, but I, I, the, the autonomous feature of the Tesla, I wrote a blogger to call it as a matter of fact, and we've come to realize that it is far from perfected and is driving the car because we are now authoritative. based on the driving record that Nancy and I could drive this Tesla planned. They, they, if you don't drive it carefully, they turn off the software and you lose your autonomous feature. But while we are driving it autonomously, there's a lot of issues that are safety issues that could be very difficult.

And they're difficult for us to deal with, but if you haven't ever driven one of these before, before and anticipate these issues, you could really have a problem. So I was over-optimistic about the autonomous self-driving feature of Tesla. I will say this to Tesla's credit last week, back between last week's show or this week's show, we had a major software update. When Tesla wants to change something in a car, they just do it wirelessly through the Internet. and you look at your smartphone and you hit a button and it downloads into your Tesla and makes a modification. They had a major change in the autonomous driving.

It's much, much improved, but it's still not there. We've tried it again since this software update. So I'm guessing it'll be another year or two at least before they are able to turn the switch and let anybody drive a car autonomously. It might even be longer than that, but I apologize to you because I thought we'd be there by now, and it would be kind of cool because you're seeing impaired to be able to drive from South Florida to North Palm Beach autonomously.

It would say what a boon that is, what a great thing that is, for people like you that are sight impaired, and people like me that are getting old. older, I'm 82, there's going to come a time before too much longer when I'm going to have to take another driving test. I'm not sure I'll pass it. I think I will, but if I don't, I'd like to continue to drive, and I could if the autonomous feature self-driving was safe. I hope it will be in the next year or two. I can appreciate that. A lot of the blind people are against a

especially in guide dog schools in different places. They're against the electric cars because the electric cars don't make any noise. And here in Aventura, we have a thing called Freebie, and they have electric cars, and the door opens up. And I understand that some of the people that use these cars, they're against the doors opening up, like, like they go up instead of you opening the door, something like that. And I also heard on a show called Worlder Radio with Glenn Houser,

I heard that a lot of car dealerships today are making cars, but they don't put radios in them. They don't want to put radios in them anymore. Really? Well, that's interesting. I'm surprised at that. I kind of thought that radio would be with us for a long time. I sure hope so.

And so are the owners of this station. But, you know, you've got a serious X-M? I mean, I think there's always going to be a place for radio, especially in an automobile. But, you know, they're entitled their opinion. Who knows? I know you can, you've got so many sources of audio and video today with the digital age, millions and millions of choices

I guess literally but how are you going to you're not going to watch television in a car you shouldn't and and with the radio how else are you going to get current news

I mean if something happens let's say you have an emergency situation the only way you can you can be directly contact I think as far as I know is live radio so I don't know about that well a lot of people listen to x-m satellite like my uh when when we would travel

from omaha to different places yeah he would listen to uh xm satellite and they do have new news channels on there in fact i went into so many people today i always asked them where you from or radio station do you listen to and a lot of people don't even listen to radio anymore yeah no it's it's definitely now i mean when you have that many choice, but I think radio will always be a choice. It'll be a smaller segment of the market, but especially live radio, like we are today. I mean, how are you going to do what we do today? We're streaming on Facebook, we're streaming on YouTube, and we're also on radio. So we, we, you want to cover the whole spectrum and, especially for people

like you, Mike, you get, you're not going to be able to stream us and see us, you get ears, but you can't see us. So I think you have to offer choices for everybody. Right. Okay, hey, thank you. Keep up the good work. I enjoy your show. Oh, thanks so much, Mike. If you get a chance, pick up a February issue of Consumer Report, there's a great article in there about new car features we love and some we don't, and it may interest you. Thanks again. Yeah, my girlfriend's still looking for a car. Oh, really?

Yeah. Well, I'm sure she'll... My name is Violet, and she either wants a new car or a use car. Mm-hmm. I told her to call you, and I don't know... Tell her call Nancy or call me. We'll help her. Yeah, you have my number, Mike.

Yeah. Okay, thank you. Tell her to call me. Thanks, Mike. Have a great weekend. You too. Bye-bye. We're going to go straight to Howard.

He's been holding for a while. Good morning, Howard. Good morning. welcome to the show thank you very much I'm happy to talk to you I just don't want to tell you of a very pleasant experience that I had

I was driving along and I heard click click click and I looked at my dashboard I see one of my tires went down to 26 pounds so pulled over and took out my compressor

and put 10 pounds in made it 36 and uh i realized that uh you know this not a fix so then i uh took a pulled over again uh cut the wheel to the right took a look at the front tire and they saw a screw in there so then i said i had two choices uh go to a place where they're going to plug the tie and who knows how they do it they can put a plug which is not legal and the correct ways to break down the I take the tire around and plug it and patch it from the inside. So I said, no, I'm going to go to Earl Stewart. I said, I trust him, and he'll tell me the exact thing that I have to do.

So I went into non-appointment, this is Saturday, a non-appointment area, and the guy that's been there since I've been, an old fellow that said he worked for, you when you had a Pontiac place. And I think you probably know who he is. Very fine gentleman. He says, don't worry about it. Just leave the car. We'll take care of it. I gave you all my information.

And then I went to the service writer and I told the service writer that I had, and he told me you have tires for life. Don't worry about. Okay, so I was waiting and then I don't know what made me do it, but I decided to walk to the service area and I saw Rick

and I said Rick I talked to you yesterday in Earl Sewer Show so he said yeah I mean I know who you are you're Howard I said yes so I said I said could you take a look at the car he says I'm busy but I said the car's right he's very close and he looked at it and he said okay don't worry about it I'll take care of it

and he took care of it what he did is he prorated the tires and he gave me two brand new tires and a fantastic price and I just want to tell you that I was very satisfied with what happened. I got two brand new ties. They threw in a wheel line

and they gave you a very fair price. So that's my story. Well, thank you. Another happy story. Appreciate the accolades. Thanks, Rick. Rick, so you have any comments on that? Well,

I hate to make it sound wrong, but don't feel too special because that's the way we treat all our customers. Howard, I love you, man. You're a wonderful guy. And I appreciate you call in and tell him this story. But, yeah, that's one thing about our dealership. We do try to take good care of the customers because you treat a customer right. No commercials. They're going to tell 10 people about you.

No commercials. Well, I mean, for any business, any business anywhere, you treat your people right. they're going to come back and they're going to tell your friends and you're going to be a good business that way. So I appreciate it, Howard. Okay, another thing, kudos to Trey. Trey helped me out. I didn't give you my wheel lock.

And I never gave it before. You always had a master. But this time, I was told to give you the wheel lock. And I forgot where I put it. I think it was in the concert. I looked in the glove department. And Trey was looking for He finally found it

And so I just want to give Kudos to Trey that He did a nice job taking care of me Thank you, Aaron Yeah, he's one of our up-and-coming texts He is really good Thanks for sharing all the great stories with us We really appreciate it, Howard

We've gotten the show off to a great start With some happy stories Okay, very good Thank you Have a good day Thank you, have a great weekend We're going to go over to Morty. Good morning, Marty.

Welcome. Good morning. How are you? Great. Nice to hear from you. I hope you don't mind. I'm going to give you another compliment. We'll take it.

My son-in-law, excuse me, my son-in-law has a RAV-4 hybrid. And I don't know if Rick was involved with this or not, but my grandson, son was driving the car and he heard a rattle. The car was only a couple months old. So they brought it in and they had to keep the car. They kept it two or three days. They had to take the whole dashboard apart to find the rattle. Now when somebody tells me they're taking the whole dashboard apart, I figure that's the end of the car. But they found it, they fixed it, and the Rattle is gone. So usually, you know, you don't like anybody messing around, but to take the whole

dashboard apart, I can ask Rick, is that a big job, which I assume it is. Like exploratory surgery, Marty. But we, again, we have some very talented people at our shop, and it's a good thing, too, because the entire industry is hurting to find good technicians. and we've been very fortunate to get some good guys in there. You have to have a certain natural talent. You know, I love to take things apart. And I'm really good at taking things apart,

but I can't put it back together again. And I'm not making a joke here. When I was a kid, I used to drive my parents crazy. You talk about radios. You remember the old radios that sit on a table. I would take a radio, and I'd take it apart. And my dad would come home. and I'm sitting here on the floor with all these pieces,

and he says, what did you do? I said, well, I took an apartment, and I can't figure out how to put it back together. That's a story of you either have it or you don't have it, and Nancy is the mechanic around the house with me because... We put it together. We put it back together together. I got one other question.

I'm watching you on YouTube, and I didn't turn it on right in the beginning and I was wondering if Earl is trying out for a play a mask on. I was in a knife fight Marty and you should see the other guy.

I had a basil cell carcinoma removed from my face at Cleveland Clinic on Thursday so I'm taking... I know those basals or whatever they are, they're no fun. No fun.

that's for sure but I just wanted to tell you again that my son-in-law was so impressed and I told him you got to stick with Toyota so he's got he's got a my my grandson's driving the Toyota about 16 years old but my my son-in-law is driving a Tesla so wow nice smart smart people in your family yeah do you is there anybody still waiting on the phone? No. Okay, let me just tell you this, if you got a minute. I went over the Tesla dealer on West Palm and I said, well, what do you pay for a used car? Everything is done on the computer and they'll give you a price. I said, well, can you negotiate it all? They said, no. So their whole way of doing businesses is. Computerized, yeah. Yeah, it's kind of like CarMax does the same

thing, Marty. They have a software program which is extremely, extremely smart. And you can use that to your advantage of car match. Probably you could use it at Tesla too. But they are on top of the market at all time watching. The computer watches every transaction on the particular car you want to sell. So they know the current market here in West Palm or anywhere in the world. they also know their inventory of that particular car. If they're short of the car, the price would be higher. If they got too many, the price would be lower. All the other deals, including me, when you come in and want a price on a car,

basically I make a decision based on what I can buy the car from you for and then what I can either wholesale it if I don't want to retail it or if I want to retail it, how much can I buy it and still make a private? But it's, I'm pretty, all the dealers are pretty much going by the same guideline. There's a company called V Auto, V as in Victor Auto like car. V Auto is pretty much the universal digital source of data for what I use cars worth. And you go in any dealership of the United States, they check V Auto, and that will give them a range of what that vehicle is worth. You go into CarMax, you go to Tesla, they say, what is that car worth to me, not what V Auto says.

And sometimes you find an anomaly in your favor. And you could go into CarMax, and I'm betting Tesla and get maybe a thousand or two more than you could from any other dealer. On the other hand, if Tesla and CarMax decide this is, for us, is not a good buy, they'll pay you a lot less. So the way to beat that, check with the local sources and then check with Tesla or CarMax, and then you get the top price for your trade-in. Yeah, see, what I'm nervous about, I ordered my car from you from March. Now it's almost the end of January, and pretty soon I'm going to have to pay you to take my car. Because the price keeps going down every week.

Sadly, you're right. and the good news is the price of the car you ordered may come down too there's some information in the current auto news that says that the microchip shortage is just about over I mean comparison in 2021 there were 2.77

no this in 2020 3 there will be 2.77 million cars that couldn't be built worldwide because of the microchip shortage. You go back to 2021, there were almost 11 million cars. So with that advantage of more inventory, when your car comes in, Marty, it's going to be, the selling price will drop. We're not going to hold you to MSRP, which is what you paid.

That's what we charge everybody for, out the door MSRP. if the prices come down, it may come down to compensate or maybe more than compensate for the drop in value of your trade-in. All right. Well, I'm waiting. I'm waiting for a call from Jason to say that it's in or it's on the ship or what it's doing. Luckily, my car is 36,000 miles, so I might have to keep it another three years.

Well, no consolation, but there's 2,000 people that we have orders on cars for over 2,000 people that we don't have the cars for. So you're one of over 2,000 having the nightmare of a depreciating used car, and you don't know what's going to happen to the new car. My advice to anyone that has a car in order, with us is not a problem because we give you your money back anytime you want it, and we adjust the price downward if the price comes down. the price went up, which I don't think I ever would, but if it should go up, you're still locked in at the lower price. So we honor the price if you want us to honor it, and we turn you loose from the obligation if you don't want to be tied to it. Okay.

Marty, we appreciate. Well, you're very good. I just wanted to give you that another compliment for the day. Thank you. We'll take it. Marty, we appreciate your patience, that's for sure. And give us a call again. All right. Have a good weekend, and I hope you heal up fast because I don't know you're supposed for any plays or anything.

We have a few things coming up, as a matter of fact, now that you mention that. All right. But he'll be all healed up by then. Thanks, Morty. We'll talk to you soon. All right. Have a good weekend. You're welcome.

Hey, 77-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Don't forget that option. And I have a question for the audience. Earl and I, as everyone knows, has a Tesla. Okay, so recently we were unable to activate the windshield wiper fluid. We were trying to clean the windows in the, you know, the wiper fluid just didn't come out.

So I decided to pop the hood and fill up the, the container. What's it called, Rick? The reservoir. The reservoir. And I really filled it up to the max, and I figured that would, you know, take care of the situation. It's a fairly new car. And so we got back into the car, and it still doesn't work.

So when I came into the studio this morning, I asked Rick if there's a possibility that, I mean, I already knew the answer, if there was a possibility that I may have, you know, just filled it a bit too much. She said, no, absolutely not. So anybody out there who has had that problem, give us a call, 877-960-960, and tell us how you remedied that problem. We are going to stay with the phones, and we've got Victoria calling us from Wellington, and she has called before.

Good morning, Victoria. Welcome back. Good morning. How are you? We're all great. The reason I'm calling back is I'm still pursuing my legal action against 441 Nissan, and I still can't find an attorney who will take the case. So I'm thinking maybe somebody out there in the audience might either be an attorney or know an attorney

who has done car dealership legal work who could call you or text you with the fellow woman's name so that I could get started. Well, this is a good place to ask for it. There's a lot of people listening. We have a whole lot of listeners right now. Yeah, Victoria, the problem, as you know, is lawyers, attorneys work on commission. And they choose cases that they can make at least a fair commission in their eyes. And it's, it isn't a matter of the, the, what is the word, the importance or the, to you, the, you know, the plaintiff, how seriously and egregiously you've been taken advantage of isn't in the equation for the attorneys.

And I, you know, they, I have mixed emotions about that. I wish there were attorneys out there that would take cases based on the need of the plaintiff. But it's all about commission. And if you have a claim that is reasonably likely to be won, it would say better than a 50-50 chance, hence for a substantial amount of money, then there'll be a lot of attorneys knocking at your door. If you have a claim that's not such as lucrative to the attorney, they don't want, they can't, they're, I sell cars, attorney sells time, and they don't have the time to sell for a lower price.

And it, it sounds cruel, but that's just the way it is. Well, actually, I have all the proof. I used to be an auditor back in the day. I have all my proof, including letters from their lawyers, where they, inadvertently gave me more proof and I'm actually willing to pay by the hour in not a commission and I still haven't been able to find anybody well that's that's okay and then the question would be how much they charge and what I was going to say is a good attorney today $500 an hour is not a lot of money and sometimes you're talking $1,000 an hour so

it's still more lucrative when they can do something like a class action when we're talking millions of dollars and even if they charge by the hour they're looking for that percentage of the reward if they win. Well actually I've already

because of Napleton lawsuit where they lost $10 million from the Federal Trade Commission I've actually already filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and the Florida Trade Commission. But, again, they don't get people's money back. They just fine the bad people. But like I said, I have all of my proof,

and I would think that I'm not the only person at this particular dealership who has had this problem. So if that's a mini-class action suit, I would think that it is. Well, the only thing you can do is be, you know, you're certainly persistent, and I think sooner or later you'll find an attorney that will work with you. And, you know, it's everything like attorneys are just like car dealers. I mean, there's good ones and there's bad ones. You're probably sometimes better off not having an attorney than getting a bad attorney. So your problem is finding a good attorney that thinks that there's a financial,

benefit for him taking your case so when you can when you can convince the attorney of that you'll find an attorney before that there's not going to be much help i'm afraid i know some good attorneys uh that uh you know i i wouldn't call to take a you know a case because of the fact it would be costing him money to take the case so uh they're in business to make money and i respect that well like i said if anybody out there is an attorney or or knows one, if they would just text you or call you with the information so you could get it on to me. I'm exploring other avenues now with some colleges and some universities, and I'm, like you said, I'm persistent, and I'm going to find somebody. Well, I'd love to.

You have to do the right thing. I'd love to do that for you, Victoria. And any attorney out there, and I know there's some attorneys listing, or if you know an attorney, I'll give them our number, 877, 960, 960, If you're an attorney listening now, we'd love to have you call. And even though you don't want to take the case, let's talk about the situation with Victoria. She was absolutely treated so wrongly by a local dealer, Napleton. And the problem is... No, 441 Nissan, not Napleton.

I'm sorry, I keep saying Napleton because he's the evil dealer. This was Terry Taylor. Right. Well, yeah, Terry Taylor. Southern, yeah, 441 Nissan. And she treated very, very badly, and she'd like to be able to actually make the point that she's right and he's wrong, the dealer's wrong,

and it isn't about the money with her, and so she'd be willing to pay more than what you might expect. So if you're an attorney, please give us a call. 877, 960, 960, even if you tell us why you can't do it, or maybe you know another attorney who would do it. We want to find an attorney for Victoria. She was wrong. She needs to, she gets satisfaction, she deserves satisfaction, and I know the dealer, the dealer

is a bad dealer, and I know he's taking advantage of not just only Victoria, but a lot of other people. So give us a call. 877-960-99-60. And if you don't want to call, give us a text, 772-497-65-30. That's 772-497-6530. Thank you, Erlin Nancy. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome, Victoria. Stay in touch with us.

I will. I have to take Frank's call from Jupiter Farms, but Francis, please hang on, and we will be right with you. Good morning, Frank. Hey, good morning, guys. Always the pleasure. Say hi. Well, hello.

Welcome to the show. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I know first time caller, I get $10. Okay. I'm cheesy. Anyway, during the drive, listening to you, I already got to the car wash, but I got a moment. Real quick for Rick, I got a 2012 Mercedes, and the little light was. saying, you know, services coming up for an 89, an 89, alpha-9.

Does that mean anything to you? Was that like an oil change possibly? Never heard of that one. I'm guessing that's some sort of Mercedes-specific thing. Let me try to pull it up, Captain Google. See what I can find for you real quick. What model was it? An E-350.

A-350 Mercedes. 12, 2012. 2012. Yeah, Google is our best friend, and they have answers for almost everything. My only problem is remembering to check with Google, but rarely don't they have an answer? Okay, it basically just says that service A9 is just a basic maintenance service from Mercedes-Benz, And it apparently is once a year or every 10,000 miles, so it basically be an oil change and a tire rotation. Okay, no problem.

I had a feeling something like that, and I'm not trying to rag on you guys. I was lucky enough, fortunate enough, to have you guys do the oil change, which is substantially more reasonable than Mercedes. And possibly, possibly, because there's only 3,000 miles ago, he didn't do a reset button to put it back in sync. That's okay. We'll figure it out. Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Ragged. You bring up a very good point there. For all you luxury car owners, if there is a everyday car, for example, a Cadillac and Chevrolet, Lexus and Toyota, and if there is a lower-priced car, the service departments are always much, everything is lower. Oil changes, tire rotations, and especially repairs. So if you have an Accura, go to a Honda dealer.

If you have a Lexus, go to a Toyota dealer, and you'll find 20, 30, 50%, and more savings in the service department. And the technicians are trained because the cars are virtually the same. You know, the skin may be different, but what's under the skin, what's under the metal, the engine transmission, and all the electronics are very similar. Alexis and a Toyota are almost the same car. Same thing with, you know, the Cadillac and the Chevrolet. Exactly. Well, thank you guys, as always. Actually, in respect to that, a very good friend of mine,

Anne-Marie was always bringing her Lexus in to see Randy because you guys did so much more. So, very true statement. You guys have a big one. Thank you, Frank. Give us a call again. Nice to say. Oh, I'll tell you, I find that out to be very, very true.

I thought whenever I drove a Cadillac a million years ago, that's where I had to go to Schoolie. Anybody heard of Schoolie? They're gone. Anyway, as I said, I found out the hard way. Don't have to go to Schoolie and tell you're firstborn. So, you know, I took my car somewhere else, and it was very reasonable. Okay, we are going to go to Frances, who's been holding from Pompano Beach. She is a first-time caller.

Welcome to the show, Frances. Hey, good morning. How are you today? Well, thank you. You won yourself $50 as a first-time female caller. And if you have the time to stay on with Jeremy, you can give me your contact information, everything necessary for me to mail you a check, or you can send your information to our text number, whichever you desire. 772-4976530 is our text number that we repeat throughout the show. Okay, great.

All right. Well, thanks. That makes my morning. Very nice. What could we do for you? Well, I have a 2018 Lincoln Continental, and it has tire sensors on it. So the other morning, when it was cold, I went out, and they all seemed to register low because my husband said it's cold, and that's why.

But the front right one was extremely low. It was like 20, 22 pounds. So he filled it up, and as much as he could to whatever the gauge was. And off I went, and it still seems to register that. So I'm thinking it's a defective sensor is the first question. And do I really need to replace it? because I'm told you've got to take tires off and all sorts of things. The first thing I would do is check to make sure that you don't have a leak in that tire.

We did. Yeah, as long as the tire's in good shape, if you can put up with the annoyance of that light being on, it's not actually a requirement. I mean, we had cars for almost 100 years with no tire pressure sensors, and the only reason that they actually started using tire pressure monitoring systems like that is when run-flat tires came out because the government said, well, if you're going to use these run-flat tires that you can't tell if the tires is getting low, then you've got to have some sort of system to determine if the air pressure's

gotten low. I didn't know that. That's really. Yeah, and so that was one of the innovations that they had to come out with. and since then they've become very good with those sensors but like you say they can be expensive and it takes a little bit of time to replace them so it's up to you is if you're happy with just using a simple tire gauge and checking your tire pressures once a month or even stopping in at your local dealership or independent shop like our shop will test your tire pressures for free

most places will do that and if you're okay with that and you can ignore the light go with it that's what I think I'm going to do because just I mean I can tell by looking at it if it gets low even though it's kind of a low profile tire but you can still kind of feel it

when it drives if it's a little low well that's what I'm going to do and I really appreciate this first time I've kind of listened to you guys So I really appreciate your expertise on this, and you have a great morning. Thank you, Francis. All this free information is great, isn't it? Absolutely.

We're glad that you gave us a call. Thanks for helping us build this platform here for the ladies, and we'll get that check out to you. I will get that check out to you if you get the contact information to me. Have a wonderful weekend. You too, thanks so much You're welcome We're going to go to John In Stewart

Good morning, John Welcome Welcome to the show John Yes, good morning I called several times before I listened to the show I love the show And so I love so much

So in September I ordered an Islander hybrid And so we've been waiting And so we were driving by We were just down there My wife was at treasures or some kind of stuff down there. And so, they said, hey, there's the place.

We went in there. We were going to see where it was on the list. And so it was like on a Thursday night who wasn't pretty many people there. And so we asked for Bruce, who was our guy. And they said, well, he's no longer here. And I said, oh, man, okay. So she said, well, I'll get you Matt, the sales management. So Matt came out there and said, oh, yeah, yeah, that's what happened.

So anyway, he goes through the whole thing. He said, can you see where we were at? And he showed us exactly where we were. what car was and he was just really i mean he's really you could tell he's really wanting to help us feel comfortable about what we've already done and i really appreciated that so matt did a great job so it's still yeah i'm thinking i don't know i don't know if i want a hybrid or not now so i took and i went to treasured coast toilet here which i told you about before they did a they were really good people the ones that i dealt with the shane guy and so i think

agent light and he went there you said you're going to evaluate him again so she went there and she bought a car because she needed one or something but anyway so i go there and he has a hybrid but it's just a base model but you know it's still a hybrid so we drove that and it was okay and then we drove the uh the excel e or whatever it was it was just a gas engine and so i'm thinking now that i'm going to get so we called back a mat and he's going to change your order and i'm just going to get a uh My wife wants the limited of a hybrid. So I don't drive that much. So I think that's it. Would Rick or Earl or somebody agree with that evaluation or not? Well, you have to ask yourself the question. How many miles do you put a year on your car? Probably 2,000 at the most, maybe not even that much.

Because I don't really drive anywhere just around Stewart and stuff. Once a year we go up to Daytona for the race, That's like 165 miles long now, so not like a big deal. Well, that's important because at 2,000 miles a year, you're going to have to drive that car a long, long time to pay for that $2,000, you know, for what it's going to cost you for a hybrid over a regular car. Rick? My thought on that one, and I hope you won't take this the wrong way,

but I would add up how much you've got to pay for insurance for that. year and how much it would cost to operate the car for fuel or oil changes on the like for that year and I would use that money and just get ubers to drive that 2,000 miles a year I wouldn't buy the car but Rick Serious than I am too I you know you'd put half your money in the bank and yeah and let us sit there grow in interest you wouldn't even need it there's a lot of that going on you know and then when it comes time that you want to do your trip to Daytona go rent yourself some car of whatever you might feel like driving uh like hurts there's a lot of

electric cars in their rental you could get some quick little toy and you know rent it for a week to do that and a lot of options still financially you'd come out ahead of the game the car sitting in the driveway longer than it's on the road exactly john have you ever used uber oh i use it all My wife's a flight attendant, so she'll take, she has to go down to West Palm Beach. And so she'll, she'll take the Uber sometimes or use some other things. They're amazing. I mean, they're an amazing company. You just call them, they're right there.

They'll be there at 405, they'll be there at 405, and they just get in the car and go. Yeah, I mean, you get a lot of Uber drives for $2,000. And I think that, I think a lot of people own cars today, I think, are psychology. I guess it's good for me when I'm wearing my car dealer hat that you people feel that way. But you want to see that car in your driveway and your garage. It just feels good. It's like, you know, you feel good. I got my car there.

And I remember I had an uncle, Uncle Charlie years ago. Oh, Uncle Charlie. And all he, you know, he couldn't drive. They took his license away. And he had a Cadillac, old old Cadillac. And he kept in the driveway. The tires were flat. and all he wanted to sit in his rocking chair

look out the window he wanted to see his Cadillac out there and he felt good, couldn't drive it so it's a psychological thing I think the younger people they're going to say what do I need a car in my driveway for why do I need a driveway I mean I'll put in a

pickleball court pickleball court that's what I'm trying to think of right Jonathan I planned a victory garden Here I'm a car deal I'm talking myself right out of business That's what I'm saying you I think you talked me out of buying a car

We just saved you a lot of money You did Yeah like $44,000 or something Well John Yeah give us a call Let us know what you decided Have a great weekend Yeah sir

Thank you How about ma'am 877 960 9960 or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Your anonymous feedback, I know we've got plenty of that to read later, but we're going to stay with the phones, and we're going to talk to Dot, who's calling us from West Palm Beach.

Good morning, Dot. Good morning, Nancy. Have we talked to you before, Doc? Yeah, you did. May back, you were on the air in the afternoon. Oh, my goodness. Well, welcome back. Circa, 2015, when things were rough for us.

Yes. I got to say hi to Rick. He's my brother-in-law. Ah, Rick. He's so sweet, so knowledgeable. Oh, he is. He's amazing. He's a great guy.

Very smart. I want to keep up the theme of Good News, Earl's Stories. Uh-huh. Back in 2015, I was really, ended and my Mazda tribute was totaled. Money was very tight. It was a 2004.

I reached out to Earl Stewart, Toyota, and I ended up with I wanted my next car to be a RAP 4 at the time. And I found it 2004, the same

year, car wrapped four, and I loved everything about it except the aftermarket alarm. That's a story and a half. And I would still be driving that car today. You guys got me into it. You know, things were really tight at that point. That was the best I could do.

I was very happy. I enjoyed my dinner as a new Earl Stewart customer. That was very entertaining. and I love a lot, then I would still be driving that car today, except again, I was rear-ended in May of last year, no, the year before. Yeah, because I'm about to make car payment 20. So I'm on my way to, Earl Stewart, to look at another car to replace my, beloved Rav

listening to Earl telling people if you don't need a car don't buy one and I'm going thanks Earl I'm going We got people like you I was able

with my credit union and the car I found another I'm in a 2015 Ramp 4 now I don't like the color but I knew I couldn't be picky

and I got a car payment I could manage. And I was very happy with both transactions. I love Earl Stewart, Toyota. I won't buy a car anywhere else. Boy, we've got a lot of happy stories today. We have got some great stories. One of the things about the last accident, I hope it's my last.

the price the insurance company gave me the money the insurance company gave me for totaling out the car was only $700 less than I paid for the car almost six years earlier interesting that's a strange market and the benefit is you that's great at that point in time yes. So I just wanted to keep the theme up. You've gotten other callers this morning that have happy stories with

you guys, and I just want to follow that theme. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. It's one of the happiest shows we've ever had. Exactly. Thanks, Dot. Thank you, Dot. You're quite jovial for everything that you've gone through. And we have...

I have been through some life things that have taught me that my perspective can change everything. Isn't that the truth? Well, Dot, thanks so much. When my last car was totaled, the woman whose brakes had failed, was very upset and very apologetic, and I told her, you're okay, your boys are okay, I'm okay,

the cars can be fixed or replaced. In the scheme of life, this is an inconvenience, and her jaw dropped. Isn't that the truth? You just stop and think about that for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it was nice talking to you, Dot. Thanks so much.

Keep up the good work. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend. We've got a lot of calls. We're going to go to Mark. No, we're going to go to John in West Palm Beach, and Mark will be right with you. Good morning, John. Hey, good morning.

Thanks for your patience. you're welcome uh you're welcome um i have a question about dealerships um we purchased two uh vehicles or vehicle yeah two vehicles um from broward motorsports and uh they you know they asked us about the um the tax and title uh and he said i told them how much does it cost that you know for the tax and titles if they do it and they were vague about it they said well no more than 250 and we're talking about two scooters, and the reason why I'm calling is, do dealerships, are they required to post what they charge for titling vehicles for the customer? Because when I went to go pick up the license plate, they charged me $70 for each vehicle, plus another 10 for a service fee,

and the cashier would not let me see the paperwork until I paid. And I just felt that that was deceptive. If I would have known how much they were going to charge, because they wouldn't tell me when I bought the vehicles, I would have went to DMV myself and saved $140, actually $160. Exactly. So is that something that they're required to, because I felt like I didn't get to make an educated guess

on spending my money. Yeah, that's not right. There's only a couple bucks. Yeah. John, the only thing that is legitimate to the advertised price, quoted price that you were given on the car to add are government fees,

and that includes tag and registration. Now, that's paid to the state of Florida. You also have the sales tax. But what virtually every dealer in Florida, in fact, in the United States, add extra fees and disguise them as fees like they call them doc fees. They call them tag agency fees, notary fees, electronic filing fees. They can call it anything they want, and they always put fee on it.

So you think you're paying for your tag and registration and things of this nature. There is no fee that you should have to pay beyond the advertised price other than the Florida sales tax, if you're buying the car of Florida, of course, and the registration and license plate, which would be the Florida paid to the state of Florida, too. The test, when you look at your paperwork, if they charge you sales tax on anything they called a fee, then it's bogus, it's profit. to the dealer. Anything you were changed sales tax on is profit to the dealer. The only thing you're not charged sales tax on when you buy a car is the government fees. And those are license plate and sales tax. So you have to kind of, they won't tell you. And to be fair, sometimes the salespeople don't even know that. You know, they think when they charge you an electronic filing fee, they think that's going to the state of Florida. Electronic

filing fees go to the dealer to his bank account to his pocket they make a profit by calling these pieces and segments of the profit fees and then you're tricked into thinking you're not really paying them price or or profit on the car okay so dmv gave me a telephone number because i called bm v to ask them uh you know uh about this practice because like i said i didn't get the opportunity to make an educated decision. And so she gave me a telephone number for a dealership grievances or whatever. Like I said, on the tag and title, there was the dealer's fee, which was 70, and then a service fee of 10. They're both bogus.

All the rest was legit, except for both two feet. which was $80. And like I said, and I bought two scooters, the new vehicles, and cash, I paid cash for them. I could have went to DMV myself and registered them. But they, you know, they made it sound like, you know, why should I be inconvenienced? We'll do it for a couple bucks. Well, to me, a couple bucks is not $160. Yeah.

To be a couple bucks is like $20. If you really want to get the horse's mouth on this, you can call the Florida Department. motor vehicles and you can tell them the car you're buying and you can tell them the uh you know they're going to ask you uh if you're transferring your tag or getting a new tag and they'll want to know the price you're paying uh and they can tell you what your sales tax and your license fees are everything else is bogus it's hidden fees they're taking advantage of you all right okay very good and then my one last question um we have a 1997 uh i think you're going to have to google this we have a 1997 high lux surf and then it's the model is uh oh i forgot what

hrrr x but it's a 1997 high lux surf and i want to know is that comparable to the forerunners or the Highlanders. How'd you get that in the U.S.? Bought it? It goes along with our salsier. You know, basically what you've got is a Tacoma with the cap top on it. The High Lux is actually Toyota's version of the Tacoma

for the rest of the world. They're available in a lot of other markets with an incredible four-cylinder turbo diesel that gets fantastic mileage. And if Toyota could ever get them here in the U.S. market, they'd own the truck market forever. But unfortunately, the government's playing games. But, yeah, basically, it's a Toyota pick up the Tacoma's the equivalent model. Okay, very good. It's four-wheel drive, very clean.

It's only got 110,000 kilometers. Ah, it's a baby. We're glad we're glad to, you know, we were able to help you out this morning, John, and we want to thank you for calling. As soon as we get it registered, I'll swing by and run it through the, I want to get an estimate on it. I want to get an estimate on it. There you go.

All right. Good idea. Thanks, John. Have a great weekend. We're going to go straight to Mark and ask Roadrunner to hold on. And thanks to everyone for your patient. We're going to talk to Mark in Palm Beach Gardens. Good morning, Mark.

Good morning to each and every one of you. It's nice to hear from you, Mark. What's that? Nice to hear from you. Yeah, it's been a while. I tuned in a little late today. So my first question is, how is our little stew doing? How is his back going?

Any idea when he'll be back to? Earl can give you an update. I'm hoping next Saturday. As I said, the surgery was successful. He had a herniated disc, and he's doing fine. So I'm thinking he'll be back to work and back to the radio show by next Saturday. But I don't know that. I'm guessing.

Yeah, great. If you happen to remember, tell him I said hello. I will. I get a question for Rick. My latest car is 2015 in Camry. And I'm wondering, you know, we've got next to the driver's seat. you have the trunk release. And on the, you know, the key fob, there's a place to open the trunk.

I was very surprised, unless I'm an idiot, I can't find any place on the trunk where you can open the trunk manually or with a key. Am I correct? There's no manual way of getting into the trunk? Same as they've done with, like, the passenger side door. there's no more keyhole there the only way to open that trunk is either with the remote the inside release or if you were inside the trunk you'll see that little yellow handle which is the emergency release from inside you can go through the

back seat and pull that yeah yeah I couldn't believe that it just astonished me I know you're not in the design and engineering of it that you're on this service back end of the business I just very much caught that as a surprise. I couldn't believe that. Yeah, no, they... You know the old saying it is what it is. Yeah.

But Nancy, I just want to let you know, I remember Schooley. I work for them for a short period of time. And I also remembering help setting up for the new car owner slash clinic dinner. Uh-huh. So time has flown by, hasn't it? Oh, gosh, has it ever?

That's amazing. time marches on I know you have other callers so thank you you all have a blessed weekend and I'll talk to you soon and I'm looking forward to the take care of yourself Mark

God bless and have a great weekend give us a call again we're going to talk to Roadrunner Steve good morning Roadrunner Steve Good morning everybody there he is just the sound of your voice

Lights up our studio. Did you see the open wheel race car driven by autonomous that sped around the track at 160 or 180 miles per hour? I did not. Anybody in the studio? No? I read about it. Sounds awesome. Yeah, they're having an autonomous races.

I was wishing I would have saw it. Yeah. Okay, the other thing is, I've got an article in AARP. if you make a certain amount of money and buy your Tesla, you're not going to get a tax credit. If you buy a cheaper Volvo electric, you'll get a tax credit. It all depends on how much money you make. You're making.

Yeah. Oh, I didn't realize that. I thought so. He didn't even on. Yeah. I thought you get a tax credit on every electric vehicle you buy. Yeah, the tax credits are very confusing to the manual. manufacturers, the dealers, and, of course, the buyers.

But I do know it's for domestic-produced electric vehicles, so that's one of the reasons why the Tesla is getting a shot on the arm, and all the American electric vehicles are getting a shot in the arm, because if you build the EV overseas, then you don't get the tax credit. True. The other thing was that lady who called up this morning about her tire pressure in her car on Lincoln? Yeah, on her Lincoln. On some cars, they don't show you all four ties.

It's just as low tire pressure. Now you've got to go around the whole car, putting there in your tires, to figure out which one it is. Yeah, isn't that the truth? You're right. I forget about that, yeah. They evolved now. I think the current models all show, all the four.

But the toilet did that when they first came out, I think. No. It wasn't until about two or three years ago that they finally came out with it showing where the tire was located on the car. Yeah, and there's a nice write-up in the Consumer Report, Steve, and it tells about some of the newer features that we love, and some we don't. But one of those features is the fact that you can tell

which one of your tires need air. Yeah, because my friend was going around to the front tire, and plus you've got to keep the key in the car, because this way you know when the tire is, filled up, it would go off. You wear that key around your neck and you're outside the car, that thing will stay on. You can put 200

pounds of pressure in each tie and it will stay on. Interesting. Yes, okay, everybody, have a good day and a good weekend. Oh, Roadrunners, great hearing from you. We all love talking to you. Have a wonderful weekend. I think

it's time for us to switch over to Rick and get some of the texts and you're anonymous feedback we have Facebook we got a whole list of stuff to get to well we're going to start right off with Anne-Marie's she says good morning good morning Ann Marie BMW and other manufacturers are ramping up

subscription services on their new cars and in parentheses says do you want remote start and cool or heat your car or comfortable temperature before you get in the car? Would you like parking assist? Heated seats. In the past, features like those were permanently built into the car. In the future, actually starting a couple of a year ago or now,

some manufacturers will require that you buy a subscription to access features like these and more. Bottom line, customers buy a car with bells and whistles only to find out they can't use those bells and whistles unless they pay for a monthly subscription for those features. Reportedly, this trend is very unpopular with consumers. Gee, I wonder why. Does Toyota offer any subscription services on any of their new cars?

If so, which ones? Thank you. The only ones that I'm aware of are like the Sirius XM Radio is a subscription service. On the N-Tune, I believe if you want to use certain features, the higher-level features of having your phone connected to the radio and over-the-air features for your entertainment system, there is a subscription service available. And the only other one I know of is the direct connect system where you have the SOS button that you can push after a certain number of years, that becomes a subscription. you want to keep that going. Now the cool part is all of those features, except the XM Serious Radio, you can find alternative no-cost connections through your cell phone anyways through an app for your phone. So there's a way around all of that. But to me, that's crazy. Things like the heated seat, it's already built into the car and you paid for it when you bought

the car. But if you don't pay them each year, they're going to turn it. it off. You know, I just got a notice on my Avalon on the, on my map feature. And I would never have thought I was going to get a, you know, a notice from them. And they said I needed to update that. So that meant that I would have to pay a membership. Why would I use that? I have my 14.

I have my cell phone that I use the GPS on. And so. Better off with Google Maps or Apple Maps anyways because it shows you real-time traffic while you're driving. So better off. So you look into that and do your homework. Okay. This one coming from Cindy, she says, good morning. While researching a new car purchase in Alabama, I've noticed many dealerships advertise a complimentary, no-cost, non-factory, lifetime.

power train limited warranty with a new car purchase. What's to catch? Thank you, Cindy. A lifetime power train warranty is valueless. There's no value whatsoever. In fact, a lot of times these dealers don't even buy it. They just give it. The power train is, to make it simple, is only on the lubricated parts of your car. And of course, the condition of the power train warranty is that you have your car lubricated according to the factory recommended owner's manual schedule. Any car that you buy that you adhere to, the oil changes and the lubrication on that car for as long as you own it, you're not going to have any power train problems.

And so therefore, the warranty is worth nothing. If you don't adhere to the owner's manual, the warranty is void. because they won't cover it. They'll check to see if you did all the owner's maintenance. And if you didn't do all the owner's maintenance, you have nothing. So a lot of people in Florida are doing the same thing, not just Alabama. And usually they're not even nice enough to say power train warranty. They'll just say free lifetime warranty on the car,

which is, again, is an egregious violation of the Federal Trade Commission. When you say warranty, you have to say what they're already covers and what the warranty does not cover. Nobody does it. So free lifetime warranty worth zero. Okay. And this one came in anonymous. There's an excellent automotive attorney on YouTube called Whitney Law LLC.

It's W-H-I-T-N-E-Y-W-L-L-C. He's not in Florida. The firm is in Tulson, Maryland, but he's amazing at Automotive Dealer, L-E-Y-E-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-L-C. and might be a good starting point. So, Victoria, check out YouTube for Whitney Law LLC. Yeah, we'll check it out too. And we're like Victoria, I have, I know lawyers. I mean, I've been in business in this area for a long time.

I know a lot of lawyers. I know too many lawyers. And I call lawyers on behalf of callers to the show and other people that contact me. And it's the same thing. you know, what's in it for me. It sounds cruel, but a lawyer's a businessman. I mean, sure, he's got a degree and he's got a title after his name and all that,

but he still earns money with his time, and if he can't make money, he's not going to do the job. Another one, Anonymous. What happens if I don't like any of the cars on your lot, Earl? Can I order one from you? Sure. Oh, yeah. Over 2,000 people have done that.

And the sad fact, during this whole pandemic thing and the supply shortage and the crazy, crazy high prices, the dealers that had the most cars on their lot were the ones that were raising the prices as high as they had to where they would make supply and demand equal. So when the microchip shortage hit, if you had a Honda Accord that you wanted to say,

If you sold it at sticker, it would last when you lot at 25 seconds because everybody in the shortage, it was a huge demand for a little supply. So the Honda dealers raised the price, 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 10,000, depending on the availability, and then they would have cars with a lot. So Charlie would walk in and say, I'm not going to pay $10,000, that's too much. he leave, and then Jane would walk in and say, I'll pay $10,000. So that's the cars on the... If a dealer has a lot of cars on a lot today, he's charging a lot of money, and usually more than MSRP. Another anonymous here, on our way to ES Toyota to pick up our new Tacoma, really

appreciate the service we get, but we're wondering, when will we see the Tundra Hybrid? Well, it's already out there. however they're in short supply you're going to have to order it and you might be waiting a while for it okay Alan Jensen Beach says in your opinion

do you think there will ever be a good time to buy a new car without all the added fees I think that time's coming we have a mystery shopping report coming up very shortly and you'll hear about it then we had one last week at the Tesla dealer in West Palm Beach.

And we are seeing an evolution, which is almost a revolution in the way cars are sold. When cars are sold directly by the manufacturers like Tesla and Lucid do, and when the manufacturers have more control, you'll see a lot more cars sold at the advertised price. All right. and this one from Bob, he says, good morning.

I have a 2017 Sienna and would like to know. It has auto climate control. If left on all the time, does it strain the starting of the van? And the answer to that is no. The computer system in your car will actually turn off the climate control until your car is started and the engine is running for a few seconds to make sure everything's up to snuff before it will reactivate that. climate control, so you're perfectly safe just to leave it on all the time. And he also asked, you're a little concerned we had so many phone calls. This text might not get on the air

today, but we got to you. He says, is it possible to email Rick with a mechanical question? And absolutely, my email address for anything work-related or mechanical related is R-I-C-K-R-I-C-K-Rick-K at E-S-T-T-O-O-O-O-O-T-O-O-com. And that's my email that I have for work. And I usually check those at least once or twice, sometimes three times a day. Just bear with me if it takes me a day or two to get back to you. Because usually I'm up to my elbows in grease,

but that's how you get hold of me. And I do. believe that has us yep that's got us caught up on the text messages and we didn't have an interesting question here on the YouTube I in the question about the there was it here ah on the tax break for the electric vehicles our buddy Donovan came in and he says the car type doesn't matter if you make over a $150,000 a year, single, or 300,000 as a married couple, you don't get the tax credit if you're over those levels. The car itself has to cost less than $55,000 for a sedan or less than $80,000 for an SUV.

So less than $55,000, I think that would cut out only, it would leave you only the opportunity for the model three on the Tesla because I know the S and the wire both more expensive and the X being the SUV I think it starts in about 80 so by the time you even got near it you'd be out on the tax credit

for Tesla and any of it has to be manufactured in the USA to qualify yeah let me ask you this where you have 941 on the clock do we have time to get

the rest of Well, why don't we do the mystery shopper report, and then we'll get to the rest of the, we got way behind on YouTube, I know. We have the mystery shop report coming from Lucid West Palm Beach. That's where we found Agent Lightning this week. It's a very interesting, it's a very interesting mystery shop. And please be part of the voting process. Send us your votes at 772-497-6530. That's 770.

249-76530. Now, back to the recovering car dealer. So our mystery shop, as Nancy said, is lucid in West Palm Beach. Now, many of you are saying, what is a lucid? And a lot of people just don't know what a lucid is. Well, it's a pretty high-tech, very high-quality, relatively speaking, electric vehicle. There's only 26 dealers nationwide, so they're very small compared to Tesla. And we have, in South Florida, we have a Lucid dealer in Miami.

We have one, as I said, in West Palm Beach. They don't call themselves dealers. They don't call themselves dealerships. They call it, they call their location a studio. So we mystery shopped at Lucid Studio in West Palm Beach. I'll speak of the first persons in if I were Agent Lightning, are very, very qualified, very sharp undercover agent. I was greeted by a salesperson named Sam.

She asked me if I'd ever been there before. I said no. She asked how much I knew about the Lucid brand. I told her I was comparing it to the Tesla S. And that's for you who don't know the Tesla model line. That's the high end of the Tesla model line. It starts around 40 or 50,000 goes up to 150,000. So Tesla really covers the whole spectrum when it comes to price range.

She gave me a thorough overview of the car that they had in the showroom. And we've got some pictures here. I won't take the time to show it to you now, but it is actually a beautiful showroom. Here, if you're familiar with the West Palm Beach area, this is in Rosemary Square, which is in City Place, more or less downtown West Palm Beach. Beautiful showroom. According to Sam, the Lucid Air Grand Touring trim level is more luxurious. than a Tesla. And that's what they're going to compare this with the Lucid Air Grand, G-R-A-N-D-Turring trim,

is more luxurious than a Tesla. That's her take. The car comes with a $1,200 wall unit cost or can use a regular 220 lines. So that's interesting. You can just plug it into a two. Most homes have two-20 lines, like a stove or something like that. Your dryer. Yeah, a garage. Plug it in. It also has the largest front trunk. They call my front trunk on my Tesla a frunk, F-R-U-N-K. On the market, it is automatic.

It has an 819 horsepower, and you go from 0 to 60 in three seconds. Well, my Tesla plan will go 060 and 1.9, so my plant is faster. The person recommended a touchless car wash for the car. I'd recommend that for all cars The car also comes with a Dream Drive Pro This is a cool name for Autonomous Dream Drive Pro, which is autonomous driving feature However, it is currently not in use

until it is legalized by the federal government Now it's interesting that Elon Musk and Tesla have taken the interesting approach to make the autonomous software available. In fact, pre-install it in some cars and not activate it until you qualify. So Tesla says, we know how you're driving. We have a camera in the cockpit.

We have cameras all around the car. We know if your hands are on the wheel. If you drive carefully, we will allow you to turn on the autonomous software. But you can't, they're more lenient with the, with the lucid. They say that, they're not as lenient. They say you have to wait until they legalize it, which could be a long time. And you might pay a lot of money for that software and not be able to use it for a long time. This car, the Lucid Air Grand Turing, trim level, also has a LiDAR system that Tesla does not

have which relies on LIDAR instead of cameras now LIDAR is sonar and laser so you have radar it's laser radar actually laser radar so there's an argument in the scientific community that says that LIDAR is better than cameras and Elon Monska Tesla has taken that approach but they're also going to be adding LIDAR So I think what we'll see for ultimate safety will be a combination of LiDR and cameras. I will say this on my Tesla. They just had another software upgrade, and it is so cool to be watching the screen in front of me because I have the camera view and the sensor view of everything.

And so I look up off the windshield, I see the real world. I look down at this maybe 6 by 14-inch screen in front of me, and I see little icons of dogs and cars and traffic lights and even traffic pilots, you have a little orange cones that sit in the street. It's amazing when it picks up. So it's like a science fiction movie in front of me. I look out the window and you see the real thing. Very interesting. There are 13 external and one internal LIDAR sensors on the Lucid.

And this feature is pre-installed in the top of the line model but is also available as a $10,000 upgrade. So if you pay $10,000 for the upgrade, you're going to wait a long time before you can use it. And if you buy the top of the line, you've already bought it and you can't use it. So the choice can be yours.

Okay, and for you that just tuned in, we're mystery shopping in the Lucid EV dealership at West Palm Beach. Both the Turing and Grand Turing models are available for test drives. Car has tempered glass with ceramic coating and a glass canopy of standard in the Grand Turing model or available as a $4,500 upgrade in the mid-grade model. The screen can be put away while driving. The car's cabin camera can recognize, I love this, the car's cabin camera can recognize up to five facial recognition profiles.

So if I had that, when Nancy gets to the car, it would know what was Nancy driving, and I got it, and I know me driving. If Rick were on there, we've got to have five drivers, and the car would recognize you. So it's such your steering wheel, your seat, your air conditioning preferences, anything you want to set for personal preference, would automatically. automatically be noticed by facial recognition. You also get two key cards, two key fobs, and an app on your smartphone. The key fobs will recognize and set the car when approaching it can also hold up to five pictures per profile for sunglasses and hats. Wow.

And your face mask. Yeah, yeah. The high-end model also includes massage chairs. Well, everybody's got that, right? You wouldn't want to get out of it. Well, Toyota's got massage chairs, right? No. I think so.

We've got a lumbar adjustment, but not a massage chair built in. What have I ridden in? Oh, Lexus. My Lexus had a massage chair. Lexus might have, yeah? Yeah. Lusick uses a universal charging network, unlike Tesla's proprietary charger. The car can charge on the Electrify America network.

Haven't heard about that, I'm sure a lot of people have. Comes with a promotional offer of free charges. The Grand Turing model, top of the line, Lucid, can charge up to 300 miles in 20 minutes. That's pretty good. While other miles, I think Tesla could do the same thing, 80%, I think, at 20 minutes for Tesla. While other models can charge up to 300 miles per 30 to 35 minutes.

This depends on the car's kilowatt charging capabilities. The car will only accept kilowatt hours it is capable of handling. The car could connect to Alexa Voice, but not Apple or Google CarPlay yet. However, it will have over-the-air updates when it becomes available. Tesla has that. There's a $1,500 delivery fee from Arizona to the home or service center in Riviera Beach. When it comes to service, Sam said 80% of repairs are done through mobile service in the driveway. That's interesting.

Remember, this is a luxury car so they can afford to do. stuff like that. The Lucidair has a base model called the Pure which costs 87,400 a base model for 87 grand. That tells you you're talking luxury car. The Turing

model starts at 107,400 with no upgrades and the grand Turing model starts at 139,000 and can be fully loaded for 154,000. That'll give you the autonomous features I guess. The deposit for the base model is only 300 bucks.

You're buying a $154,000 car, you get them $300. Okay. While the midterm and touring models, oh no, the midterm have higher, that'll cost your $1,000 deposit to buy the $154,000 car. The delivery time for the pure model is six months or longer, while the mid or top of the line models have delivery time of three to four months. Luce is producing cars based on the cars,

Based on the car parts they have available, there are no dealer fees. Salesperson was unable to provide me with a final bill to take a picture of, but she did have some inventory available and offered to help me build and order a car when I was ready. She mentioned that she doesn't work on commission. She showed me a picture of a customer bill for a Turing trim level, which was fully loaded, excluding an upgrade. The total cost was 136,136,7.89, including taxes and fees. The base model of the turret model is 107,400, and no additional upgrades.

The customer in the example did not upgrade to a 21-inch wheel is what had resulted in a decrease in mileage and not be suitable for other weather conditions. The salesperson mentioned that they do not work on commission, I mentioned that twice. I think that's so unusual. I mentioned twice. I would not be able to order from her directly, but my name would be tied to her in the system.

She offered me to help me build an order a car when I was ready, but she would not make anything from the sale. She really hammered that, which is important. I mean, she doesn't care what you pay for it. She gets a salary, and she just tried there to sell the product, not sell the price.

She was very knowledgeable and not pushy and I found her to be Listen to this folks For you regular listeners They'll listen to this show for a while With Agent Lightning You never heard this before Agent Lightning says

I found her to be The nicest salesperson I've encountered so far And that's a lot of salespeople Agent Lightning Was very impressed with Sam I presume that stands for Samantha

And we're going to be looking for your votes. And that's the mystery shopping report. The second electric vehicle dealer, we shopped Tesla about three weeks ago, I think, and this week, Lucid in West Palm Beach. So you could text us or Facebook us or let us know how do you grade that on the scale of A to F. We grade it on the curve. And so we're not looking for perfection. We're looking for the best of the existing dealers. And last week or two weeks ago, whatever it was,

the Tesla dealer got the highest grades we've ever seen. So get those grades in and we'll give them a grade and either put them on the recommended list or the do not buy list. Any scores so far? We're looking for them right now.

Let's see, here we go. All right, we've got Johnny Z. Fraudley. Says, sounds like A to me, Tim Gilliland in Yuma. He's out in Yuma right now, which, as a matter of fact, according to Negan 1, that's right in the area where Lucid is made in Arizona. And Tim says, that's an A. Rocky Blocketele. A is for awesome.

Omega Rojo, A. Mark Ryan with an A. Let's see here. Joseph Kelleher, A. Mark from St. Louis. Grade C, kind of confusing sales presentation. All right. Negan 1.

Unfortunately, I know a lot of people working at the factory. They have a lot of issues in parts supply and employee treatment isn't good. No vote. Interesting. That's staining from the vote. We got nothing coming in on Facebook right now. Here we have Tom Steckle. This easily deserves an A.

hope this can make its way to other dealers. Las Caretas 31A. Brian Sedlatko, A for Samantha. And ah, here we go with them coming in on the text. Mark and Palm Beach Gardens, nice review B plus plus plus. I think that equals an A, doesn't it? Bob from Maryland, A for Lucid and Sam. Jonathan and Wellington, this pains me, but I must give this dealership an A.

You know I'm no pushover. Well, one of the things I'm curious about, though, is Lucid like Tesla? Are they a dealership, or would that be considered a factory outlet store? It's a factory outlet store. The dealership is just, it's a misnomer. They're not, there's nobody, there's no middleman. Lucid is selling you the car directly, and they have, that's the reason they call. call it a studio instead of a dealership.

So they have service centers and studios, which are display areas. Yeah. John Strine says, A, I guess if you're charging that kind of money for a car, the sales experience should be exceptional. True. And yes, obviously, Lucid is very much a luxury car brand, and they're going for the higher market. Yeah, I sure are.

But I, myself, I would say, yeah, that's an A for. for me. I mean, that's, you know, that just is a great experience from what I can see. Yeah, I agree, Rick. I really like the fact that they call it a studio. I give Sam an A. I give Agent Lightning N.A. And it definitely was a great report from Lucid of West Palm Beach. I give it an A. All make it unanimous. I give them an A, too. On the comment about Lusid, they're not financially shaky right now. They are well-financed. I don't know about the way they treat their employees.

There was a comment on Facebook or YouTube from Degan 1. Yeah. And that's a shame. But we're grading them on how they retail the car. If anybody from Lucid is listening, treat your employees right. It's not, you know, they'll come back and bite you if you don't do that. According to some reports about Lucid, They compare it to the Tesla, and they say that it's superior in efficiency, and it's faster

charging, and that's what gives lucid air an easy win over Tesla. The vehicle gets some high-quality grades, but it is so small, and they're taking a dangerous approach by starting with luxury and then moving down to the low-price spread. Tesla went the other way. I think Tesla took the right way, so I think we're about ready to wrap it up. Absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Thank you for joining us here at Earl Stewart on cars. We'll be back right here next week at 8 a.m.

Have a great weekend. We'll see you then. Thank you.