Earl Stewart on Cars - 01.25.2025 - The Best of Earl on Cars with Mystery Shop of Rick Case Genesis of Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

Today’s show is a re-broadcast of one of our past Earl Stewart on Cars shows. Go to streamearloncars.com between 8am and 10am eastern time to listen to the re-broadcast. If you have a question for our auto expert team, you can text it to [phone], or online at youranonymousfeedback.com, and we’ll answer it during our next live program.

Hello, I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female listeners. We also have Rick Carney, 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 is my son, Stu Stewart, our link to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, text messaging, and our encrypted anonymous feedback service. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our mystery shopping report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting car dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. We're back. We're back to help you navigate the minefield that you have to walk through to get your car fixed these days, for that matter. a car, new or used, lease a car. And for our regular listeners here, thank you for being who you are and what you do. We have a lot, a lot of very informed people out there. The old expression, sometimes you feel like you're preaching to the choir.

We've got knowledge on the other end of this microphone out there all over the country that could do this show because there are a lot of smart people out there. there and you if you're not one of them and I don't mean whether you're smart or dumb if you're informed on automobiles or if you're informed on buying or leasing in automobile or getting a fair shake on a repair or getting the price right in your maintenance the auto industry and I'm speaking to the newbies the folks that haven't listened to the show are operating like car dealers did a hundred years ago

Now, there weren't a lot of car dealers a hundred years ago. Henry Ford was here, and, of course, you know the story there, assembly line production. He invented that, along with Model A Ford, and he got so successful, he had to get somebody to sell the cars for him. He couldn't sell them fast enough. So he began establishing dealers for the Ford, and that's how the accident happened. Everything else evolved. You all heard, you know, evolution, and you hear about progress. Well, those attributes abandoned the auto retail car salespeople and the car dealers

and were operating just like we did back 100 years ago. There's a mystery shopping report, which if you haven't listened to the show before, mystery shopping report is worth the price of admission all by itself. We go into a car dealership unsuspecting, send an undercover agent. Our current undercover agent is named secret code agent lightning and we pretend to go through the whole buying process and if you bought a car in 1960 or 1910 or if you bought one yesterday they sell you the car the same way. And this we're in South Florida and I refer to that as a wild wild west to Dodge City sometimes I say

Sodom and Gamora but it is a place where you really really you need a suit of armor and a bodyguard to go into a car dealership down here we hit one in the south part of Florida here that you're just gonna love listening to this and it proves my point about how things have not changed in a hundred years for car dealers. Now, Rick Kearney, who is, you regulars know very well, Rick is a certified diagnostic master technician. If there's a problem with a car, the odds are 99%, he will have a solution. He has a pretty good idea what it should cost, who you should see, or maybe you don't see anybody. Maybe there's a little tweak he can help you with. I can't tell you

how many people call this show, who have been able to go out in the garage and do what Rick suggested and save the trip to the car dealership service department, not to mention how much money is saved by not having to go to a car dealership service department. So we got a number. We'll give out to you regularly.

In fact, you'll probably get tired to be given the number, but Nancy Stewart, my calls, who will introduce to you just a minute. And Rick Carney and I will give these numbers out because newbies don't know. that they could call the show, live radio. Very exciting. You could call us an 877-9-60-99-60.

That's 877-9-60-99-60. Now, it's like a freeze-frame. When the call comes in, I shut up, Rick shuts up, Nancy shuts up. We listen to you because we don't want you to wait. your time is very valuable we respect that and we've got five lines coming into the radio station and sometimes they all get lit up and we have more callers getting a busy signal so we try to keep that continuity going so please write the number down if you haven't got time to call right now we're on the air until 10 a.m. Eastern standard time so this is a little

after 8 a.m. and we'll be on the air for two hours almost and call us at 877, write this number down, 877-960-99-60, 877-9-6-0. Now Nancy is just signal me, we have a phone call and I'm going to shut up. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Earl on Cars. Boy, are you going to have a great time this morning? We've got all kind of stuff to get to. And first of all, before I take that call, I'm going to remind the ladies that, you know, sometimes it seems like as if that we're in a male-dominated world as far as, you know, leasing and buying and getting your vehicle fixed. Well, this morning, I'd like you to give us a call and give us your perspective because the first two new lady callers, you win yourself $50.

$50 for the first two new lady callers and we'd love to hear from you we are going to go to lane who is calling us from Fort Myers good morning lane oh good morning I've called before I've been in search of trying to buy in 2020 24 24 forerunner limited and I found what I wanted up in Virginia. And I put a $500 hold deposit on it. And the dealership that was supposedly to get the car, the car went to another dealership. Apparently they traded it to another dealership. And they said, oh, well, that's the way it goes. But they said, we have another one coming in. Same thing. And we'll use your $500 deposit to hold that one. I said, well, I'm going between Florida and Virginia. And the next time, and this is in September, early September,

I said, next time I'm down in Virginia is late October. Can you hold it if it comes in early to late October? And when I come in, we'll sit down, do the deal, I'll pay you, or finance or whatever. And they said, absolutely no problem will do that for you. Well, the car came in early in October, or about the early October, and they called me up and sent me photographs of it. And I said, great, I'll be in on the late October. I gave him the date and everything else.

And they said, fine, no problem. three days later they call me and they say unless you pay for it right now we're selling the car because we have to make numbers and I said what that was that that wasn't our deal I said our deal was blah blah blah blah blah so well hold on we'll call you right back they never call me right back the upshot is they sold the vehicle to someone else they just recently returned my $500 because I called them up and said just a reminder I'm coming in two days ago I called them up so I'm coming in And they said, they didn't call me back. They text me and said, my car was sold because I refused to pay for it.

And I said, what is this? And so I said, well, since you can text me, can you call me? And they said, no, we'll only talk to you over text. And I said, well, that's great. And so the reason why I'm calling, and they finally returned my money, my $500, hold on the car. But my question is, I know there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. I don't have a leg to stand on.

These guys can do whatever they want. But if I went into a local Toyota dealer here, could I get someone to go on a computer and find me a forerunner limited somewhere, 24, not the new model coming out, but the current model going out? Yes, you can, Lee. I know there's no comfort to you, but this is one of the most common problems. In fact, for the past four years with the COVID and the product, shortage, it has become a huge problem. I have the same problem in my dealership. As you know,

we're Toyota dealers, and we have that happen. When you have a short supply vehicles and high demand for vehicles, this type of thing happens. In your case, you know, the supply shortage is pretty much over. In fact, there are a lot of manufacturers and dealers that are overstocked. But you raise some very important points for the listeners and for yourself. In the state of Florida, you're in Fort Myers, so this applies to you. All deposits are refundable unless it is so specifically stated on the receipt. So that tells you potential car buyers that are going to be giving deposits to car dealers. Always get a receipt, a real receipt, not the salesman's business card or a piece of paper.

There should be a document, a printed document with your rights under the law on deposits. And if it doesn't say that this deposit is refundable, they don't even have to give the deposit back. Wow. Point number two, when you deal with a car dealer, you're typically dealing almost exclusively with a salesman. And these salespeople, first of all, some of them are just corrupt, some of them are just not. informed, they're new. The turnover of car salesman and car dealerships is huge. I mean, you talk to a car salesman today and you come back to that dealership in six months, there's a good chance he won't be working there anymore. The turnover is very high. So

when you have a commitment, such as a return deposit in the period of time that that deposit should be returned, you need to get that in writing from a sales manager. It doesn't have to be a written document that you take to a lawyer. it can be a text, it can be an email. So when someone makes a commitment to you at a car dealership on deposits or anything else, say, could you text what you just said to me? And you both got smartphones, watch them text it,

look at it on your smartphone, that's as good as a legal document. Had you had that, you would have had recourse against that dealer. Well, what I plan to do is when I get there, and I'm going there this week. I plan to go to a dealer. I'm not going to be ranting and raiding or waving my arms or anything. I'll say that, but I'm just going to go in and say, hey, listen, you did me over twice. How about you get on the computer there and find me a car?

Or at least help me find a car. And they're basically, they've washed their hands of it. Oh, we're into 25s now. We, this is very, a dealer trading, we call it, and all car dealers do it. We do it. We sell probably a third to 50% of our cars are from dealers that we swap cars with. When you look at the combinations and permutations of models of cars, even for one make, there's thousands. I mean, if you take equipment combinations and colors and models, you're talking about a typical manufacturer, Honda, or Ford,

you've probably got 3,000 different possibilities. So no car dealer has a complete inventory, but cumulatively, they do. So every car dealer punches the computer, like you say, you can ask them to do that. Here's the rub, though. You can find the car that you want at another dealership, but you have to get a commitment to get that car to your dealership, and dealers treat each other about the way we treat customers, not very well. Yeah, I find that out.

I have asked them to drop ship and they wouldn't do it. Yeah. I have an inventory control manager of my dealership. She's been with me for 20 years and she's worth her a weight and goal. Laurie, if you're listening, no, I'm not going to give you a raise. I'll pay you a lot of money already. But she's worth her a wait and goal and she has contacts with all the Toyota dealers all over the country. And her word is her bond and she deals with people back and forth.

If you've got something like that, you can get a car. car commitment and get it quickly but in most cases it's a sales manager or a salesman trying to get the car so chances are you'd be there for two days listening to that salesman try to get the car and then when he got the car you couldn't be sure he did get the car but this is an Achilles heels of car dealerships because of the fact they can't possibly give exactly what a car buyer wants he had they have to get it from another dealer that's a that's a a whole new ball game. Let me ask a question, and this is not a good question for, well, could I call your

dealership and ask them to find me the car? Well, sure. You know, I would, I would, you give me a specific description. I'll text Laura, my new car inventory control manager, and I'll have an answer that day. Most dealers, well, in South Florida, most dealers do have a person like that. In a lot of car dealerships, I'm in the West Coast, I'm not that familiar with, but they don't. The managers, the sales managers do it. But the higher volume dealers all have a new car inventory.

That's all she does is work the phones and the computer. And she has established a rapport with her counterparts at dealerships all over the country. So she'll call Tommy and Paducah, Kentucky, and Tommy and Laura know each other, and they trust each other. other, and that's the way business gets done on locating cars. Well, I appreciate the information. I'll be calling your dealership next week. Okay, great, Lee. Thank you very much.

Asking to talk to Lori, was her name? Laura. Laura. Laura, okay. And maybe we can make it happen finally. Good luck, Lane. You're in good hands with Laura. Okay, thank you.

Give us a call. Let us know how it turned out for you. Our number here is 877-960-9960, and you can also take advantage of our text number, and that's 772-4976530. I want to also mention that we are on Zoom, and if you have a question and you want to join via Zoom, you can do so at 926-589-0586. Jonathan, our producers, right here to take your name and your location information and to put you right up on the screen, and we'll be talking live.

Be really excited. Give us a call. We're going to go to Howard, and Howard is calling us from Jupiter, a regular caller we haven't heard from for a while. Good morning. Good morning. I hope you all doing well. Good. I know you're strapped the time.

So, Rick, a question. I have a quarter of oil in my car, and I plan to use it, but it's like over five years old. It's still good, or should I throw it out? No, it's fine. Okay, that's the answer to that question. How long will, is there a shelf life? There really isn't a shelf life on oil. I mean, it's just, there's nothing going to really go bad on it.

Been on the ground for 10,000 years. I guess you can hang out in the can for a while. Right. The only thing I would be nervous about is carrying oil or other fluids like that in your car is the possibility of the bouncing around that might flip over, break open, get spilled, and make a big mess in your car. Is the can of oil stamped for an expiration date? No.

No. No expiration dates on oil. The can would probably expire before the oil. Yeah, plastic bottles is more likely to actually get brittle and break. and, like I say, it'll make a big mess in your car. No, it's not a can. It's a plastic. Right, but that plastic over time can get brittle

or just bouncing around the seams might break. Okay, I got that. I have a question for you. The GR 86, a new sports car coming out, going for over $30,000? Is it on sale now, or do you have to wait for that? I'm pretty sure the GR-86 is out. That's actually based on the old Scion 86 that they were making for a little while.

But, yeah, that vehicle should be available now. Okay, a friend of mine wants it, but I told him to go to dealership and see if you can sit in it, because it's very low. Is that correct? Yes, that one is. Let's just say it's probably for younger people, or at least people that are very physically fit to climb in and out of some of those, similar to like the new Toyota Supra. You've got to be physically fit to get in and out of those things. This guy's 90 years old, so I don't think it's for him.

He'll want to go test it first. But you have them, so he could go test. They're very short supply, and when a new vehicle comes out, no matter what it is, they're overpriced. Because people like your friend, it's an emotional, I've got to have one, I've got to have one. You want to be the first one on the block to have one of these new models, and you pay for that privilege. If he wanted to wait six months, he could probably save a couple thousand dollars, but it is a low supply high to make. I don't think he wants to wait six months because he may not make it six months. You never know.

I hate to say that, but it's a fact. Okay. So how much you, I know it's going to be like $32,000, $33,000. Is that the ballpark figure? Well, it depends on the dealer. You know, we, I honest, my son, Stu is in North Carolina right now. He won't be with us. I would ask him the question because he's on the job.

day-to-day but with my dealership we draw the line at MSRP other dealers don't draw a line at all and when the new super came out for example we sold the new super at MSRP we probably be doing the same thing with G86 I can't confirm that because I'm not active day-to-day we adjust our prices on a monthly basis but the super we sold at MSRP dealers were charging up to 10,000 $20,000, $30,000 over a sticker for the I've got to have one crowd that wants to be the first on their block. Okay, thank you very much. Have a good day and very informative today.

Thanks, Howard. We all appreciate your following the show so closely. You're one of our most important callers. 877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-60. We're going to go back to the phones where... Bob is holding from Lake Park. Good morning, Bob. Good morning.

Good morning. How's everybody today? Great. I'd like to correct you on something, which is inaccurate that you've been putting out there for a couple weeks. This theory of yours that all deal is will trade cause. It's just not true. and I don't think you should be telling people that so that's not the reality of the situation

and I've had an experience where I found a car and I've been looking for about a year I found them down south and Griego at Fort Lauderdale had it and I went over to Molinux and asked them if they could get the car who would deal with trade and they kind of just led me on for three days

with all kinds of, you know, running me around in a circle. So then I called the sales... I had a friend of mine as a salesman down at the Del Rey Grieco. I said to him, why don't want to drive all the way to Fort Lauderdale because I'm up north here in Lake Park. Can you, you know, can I do the deal with you, bring the car up to your other deal?

dealership and del Rey and they couldn't even do that he said that they weren't trading with now this is the same owner he's got two locations they both sell the same car they're their four dealers and they wouldn't even bring the car up to del Rey for me to do the deal well Bob you're right I was wrong a hundred percent of car dealers don't always trade cars I would say 99 percent to It's very, very unusual. To maximize your profitability and your volume, you almost have to trade cars. If a dealer chooses not to do that for whatever reason,

he's an independent businessman. He can refuse to trade a car with another dealer. And, of course, the other dealers would also refuse to trade cars with him because he wouldn't trade one. To then, they won't trade one back to him. A quick story about that incident, when I first became an honest car dealer, and I stopped charging dealer fees and dealer install accessories and became a critic of the dealers that did do that. The dealers, all the Toyota dealers, got together and said, we're not going to trade cars with Earl Stewart Toyota anymore. and I as I say over half the cars I sell I rely on dealer trades so I was in a hell

of a predicament of the dealers were boycotting me long story short I called an attorney and he referred me to a antitrust attorney in New York and a trust attorney says that's an illegal boycott it's punishable by a large fines and even jail time and I said, would you do me a favor and write a letter to Southeast Toyota explaining that to them so they can explain

that's the distributor that we work under that the other car dealers has better trade with Earl Stewart or they're going to go to jail or be fine. So that's how I know all about dealer trading. I've been there and done that. Well, they were telling me, you know, originally over Monach,

I had answered this question previously, and they said that they wouldn't definitely they never they've never dealer traded in their own market number one. So they wouldn't trade with Alpaccair or Wayne anybody in their market. That's just stupid that they do that.

Don't that's good reason. I mean everybody's entitled to run the business the way they want to run the business. I mean, you know, it is what it is. But then they said because of COVID they weren't trading with anybody, you know, COVID because there's a lack of supply costs. I can understand that.

And I told them, I said, you know, COVID is over, and I said, this car is not in your market. It's down in Fort Lauderdale, it's outside of your area. And they just ran me around a circle. By the time I got the numbers from the salesman down at Fort Lauderdale, I was looking at them over, and I went to call him the next day, the call was sold. Yeah. So, you know.

Well, there's no cure for stupidity, so what they're doing, it was just stupid. And the cost of business, they're losing. dozens and dozens of sales because of that policy. Bob, thanks very much for the call. Okay. Have a great day, everyone. You too. Thanks for calling.

Give us a call, toll free at 877-960. We're going to go back to the phones and talk to Warren. He's calling us from Royal Palm Beach. Good morning, Warren. Good morning. How are you all doing? We're great. A silly question for you.

What is the best vehicle in your opinions under $40,000. First thing I do would be to grab my consumer reports, but I think we, you know, the fact of the October issue of consumer reports does have that listed. You know, if you asked me that and I didn't want to check consumer reports, the cars that come to mind would be Honda, you know, Ford, Toyota, Lexus, and then, you know, you have to look pretty hard to get a Lexus under $40,000, but a late bottle of use.

Rick? Toyota Corolla. Yeah. That there. Toyota Corolla is one of the lowest maintenance, most dependable, most reliable, and when you look around and you see them on the road, you'll see 30-year-old corollas still driving around. Or you can just go to consumer reports, CR.org, and you can go to the local library. They have free access online to consumer reports, and you go to consumer reports and say, what's the best car under $40,000?

It'll show you half a dozen cars or more and tell you why it's the best car. It's a great idea that everyone should do is find out the best and the worst cars. You positively don't want to buy one of the worst cars, and you'll have a selection, a wide selection among the best cars. That way you can make an intelligent choice. The September issue has a whole lot of information in it. October has a little bit. September Warren, I think this is the edition that you're looking for. They really have a great selection, and they have an interesting road test report. so I'd say consumer report, September edition.

Yeah, I've done quite a bit of research, and that's why I called and asked about your personal opinion, because I've researched just so much my head is spinning. Yeah, there's a lot of sources out there, but consumer reports just head and shoulders about the rest of Edmonds, Kelly Bluebook, Cars.com, there's a lot of sources out there, but the one impeccable source. And the recent consumer reports,

not only have they been around a long time, but they're the only source of information that isn't in bed with the car dealers or the car manufacturers. All the other names you heard me mention I have a relationship, a very positive relationship with the dealers and with the manufacturers.

And if you're making money from somebody, it's hopeful, hard to say something bad about one of their products. But consumer reports will not accept advertising, and they get all their money from contributions. And when they test a car, if they want to test a Chevrolet Corvette, they actually send a rep into the local Chevrolet dealer where ever consumer reports may be. They go in there and they pay the price on the showroom floor for the car,

and then they take the car back to the track, customer reports and put it through you want to talk about an examination they really go through a complete examination so when they say the Corvette has a rating of 86 or 92 it's a good

bad or in the middle you can be sure that their information is accurate okay great great thank you very much thanks for the call you're welcome Warren okay again our number is

877 960 9960 and you can also text us at 772-4976530. Don't forget that you can catch us on Zoom. And that number is 926-589-0586. Now back to, Rick, do you have anything on YouTube or Facebook? A little quiet on YouTube this morning, but we do have Anne-Marie's good morning text. Oh, great. Good morning, Ann Marie. Okay, she says, good morning. Recent hurricanes triggered massive evacuations with thousands of people trying to use the same roads at the same time. This prompts the question.

Assuming a full tank or charge, what type of vehicle fares best in the long hours of stop and crawl traffic of an evacuation? In other words, what vehicle is least likely to leave you stranded on the side of the road? Gas powered, hybrid, or all electric? Well, I would say hybrid. I think I'd agree with that one because the hybrid car can shut off the gasoline engine and run on its electric power and only turn the gas engine on when it needs it, which would extend the use of that gasoline quite a bit. Stop and go driving. It's doing a lot of charging. Right. And your electric car, unfortunately, is going to be using that continuous use of electricity and its charge is only going to last so long. same thing with a gasoline-powered car.

So myself, I'd want a hybrid for that one. You're right. The EV would be my last choice in a situation like that because everything, the air conditioner and everything, is dependent on the battery. And if you're in gridlock and you're trying to get someplace and you can see where the charging station, you might know where the charging station is.

Of course, when you get there, it's going to have a line behind it a mile long. And you don't know when you're at a time. get there so the answer is a hybrid exactly yep hope we answered that question for you amory it's always great to hear from you we have anything else uh just one quick personal thing a quick shout out to my wife today's our 22nd wedding anniversary oh happy anniversary chris happy anniversary chris happy anniversary chris happy anniversary rick thank you yay you know here's a little bulletin that surprised me and was in

It was in the automotive news. We talk about electric vehicles versus combustion engine and hybrids. And, you know, the market now, there's 15% of the cars being built now are electric. And that's startling. 15% doesn't sound like a big number, but a year ago it was like 5%. So they're really, really making inroads. And one of the dangers and one of the things that we, advised you against going back two or three years ago with the electric vehicles is the battery

represented a huge percentage of the cost of the car. The batteries had a very real life, which wasn't very long back then. But the improvements have been enormous in electric vehicles over the past three years. The bottom line is that your best buy today on a used vehicle could be an electric vehicle. I was shocked to read that in automotive news, but what's happened is with the surge in production of new EVs

people are buying, and of course they're trading them in. Battery technology has also made enormous strides, so the batteries don't they don't they don't self-destruct, like the

original electric batteries but in the old Prius you know those batteries didn't last as long now the batteries do last a long time and and therefore you can buy a used EV that's two or three years old get an investment tax credit I get the EV tax credit and save yourself thousands of dollars though if you're in the 40,000 mile market for a used car consider an electric vehicle and you can save yourself some money and see Rolex reveal it's all about. Yeah, the technology on those batteries

has advanced exponentially. I mean, it's not only do they have a hugely increased range, but the lifespan of that battery is now way, way better. Yeah, I think Donovan, one of our top YouTube callers or posters,

said that basically the battery will not deteriorate any faster than the entire car. Well, nothing lasts forever, but it used to be primary concern. And on this show, probably two or three years ago, I said, don't buy a used EV because you don't know about the battery. If you buy a Tesla, use EV, you can go right to the, you can, the car will tell you the shape of the battery, the estimated life.

So you'll always know that you've got a good battery, and if you don't have a good battery, you don't want to buy the car. Yeah. A subject that if we don't have any calls, let me give the number out because we've got to have those calls. 877-960-99-60. If you write the number down, you might not have a question right now or comment, but you will.

And the number is 877-9-69-99-60. We also can be reached with a regular text, which is, you know, more or less, a lot of people don't like to be live on radio and talk. It's a challenge. I mean, I got nervous when we first started this radio show. We don't get nervous anymore, but if you are a little bit nervous, our text number is 772-497-6530. That's 772-497-6530. And again, I'm doing this to open the channels up because we love to hear from you.

I believe we have a caller. We don't have a caller, but I have a question for you. Do you want to talk about Amazon and the lack of direct sales? Or would you like to address the Texas Automobile Dealers Association We can talk about both of them. The Amazon was supposed to start retailing cars in July. Matter of fact, last year, toward the end of the year, we got really excited about it,

and Amazon had actually cut a deal with Kia, Genesis, and Hyundai to retail cars on Amazon. And, you know, if you're an Amazon user, and two-thirds of the people listening are, because Amazon is huge, if you're at Amazon, you know the beauty of dealing with Amazon. First of all, you get your money back with no argument if you want to return something. Payment is super simple. You have the reviews right in front of you, and it's just the best place to buy. anything. So to hear that they were going to become car dealers, so to speak, got us all

pepped up, and nothing happened. It's kind of like Ashley Moody, Rick. You know, I suddenly just had this weird image pop into my head. There's a lot of people that make money by buying up Amazon returns and reselling them. Can you imagine a car lot that is all Amazon cars that return for one reason or another wow that's i i had thought about that but that that could very well happen and uh i'm not sure i i just i i hate to be one of these conspiracy theorists but i somehow i smell a rat why why are things frozen with the amazon initiative if anybody has got any information on that but i last time i think it was a week ago since i went on Amazon specifically to see how they progressed.

And as of about a week ago, not at all. No conference. Now, you could get parts to things like that to your Genesis or your Kia or your Hyundai, but you can't buy one. So I think something's going on there. It's a little bit like what's going on with the Attorney General of the state of Florida,

Ashley Moody, who swore and told all the car dealers, including the Florida Automobile Dealers Association that as of September 1st this year, 2004, she was going to prosecute and fine offenders of the Florida statute that went into effect over 20 years ago that said you can't put junk fees into a car price. The price she advertised is the price the consumer must pay.

So Amazon, tell me it ain't So, Jeff Bezos, are you out there? What's going on? Let's hear something about the initiative. I think it scared somebody to death so bad that they're just being closed-mouthed about it. Yeah, and what a great exciting time, you know, for everyone to think that they could purchase a car that way. So anyway, I don't know. Would you like to give, you know, Ashley Moody a call our Attorney General?

give her a call and voice your opinion you can do so at 866 9667226 so would you like to rule have Jonathan roll video yeah we can we can do that we're talking about the Texas circuit court the Texas automobile excuse me we just had a call come in we're going to go to Barry first who's calling us from Tampa good morning Barry Good morning everybody. Welcome. I was wondering if you could explain the difference between all-wheel drive, four-wheel-drive, and four-by-four, and is there any reason to buy this technology for a vehicle that stays only in Florida?

Four-by-four and four-wheel drive are basically the same thing. Basically what that means it's a two-wheel drive vehicle that you can then shift it into four-wheel drive, And you have the option of usually four high and four low. Four low, of course, produces much more torque. It's geared to create more torque, and it will get you up out of a bad mud situation, sand, snow, whatever. And it gives you multiple advantages with that. Four high lets you run in four-wheel drive, but at higher speeds. All-wheel drive is a car that is four-wheel drive all the time.

you don't have the option of switching it to two-wheel drive. And it does have a very good effect here. Even in Florida, all-wheel drive can be a good advantage. Say if you're using to tow a boat, you need to get up and down off a boat ramp. On sandy conditions, wet, rainy conditions, all-wheel drive rewards gives you better traction because all four wheels can have power at the same time. And with modern systems, it can train. transfer the power to each wheel as needed to give you better safety control in slippery conditions.

So yeah, even in Florida, all-wheel drive is a very good option to have. Okay, so is there any advantage of four-wheel drive over all-wheel drive? It sounds like all-wheel drive is a little bit more sophisticated. They all pretty much are, but four-wheel drive. Four-wheel drive, the only real advantage that it might have is by switching to two-wheel drive when you're just on normal roads, you would save a little bit of gas because it's not using quite as much power to power all the wheels. For myself personally, I would actually want to opt for an all-wheel drive vehicle because

say you're driving down the road and something happens in an emergency, you know, just a panic emergency situation you've only got a couple seconds or maybe not even that to react so having power to all four wheels can save you from skidding out on wet rainy roads so i i think the all-wheel drive would be the much safer vehicle to have and safer of course is going to be the the biggest advantage it just keeps you under control better okay um so that no i understand like the The Toyota Camry all-wheel drive system is sort of electrically powered because it's a hybrid system. Does the computer switch it to two-wheel drive when the conditions warrant it to save a better fuel economy? Or is it always powering all the four-wheels?

It can switch and run only just the front motor, the front electric motors, and then the rear motor only kicks in when it needs to. okay all right well thank you very much not a problem anytime thank you very we are going to stay with the phones and then we'll get to that audio that I spoke about earlier excuse me we're going to talk to Trish good morning Trish hi good morning how is everyone hi hi I have a question um my lights the four lights to the left of, you know, the spedometer go on intermittently. Now, remember, I have a 2016 Honda Fit. Right now, they've been on for about a week, okay? And I don't know, they've been off for a while.

They just, it's real intermittent, and I don't know what causes it. Now, I'll go to my local guy, you know, he'll plug in, you know, his computer, probably shut them all off. No code will come up. They'll probably just shut all off, and I don't know when they'll ever come on again. I mean, nothing's wrong with the car, just the lights go on, all four of them. What four lights are they? Okay, the tire, the battery, the skid, and then there's something else with an X-Sk, Climation point. I don't know what that is.

Okay. Hmm. All four of all. Well, Earl just looked it up on Google, and he's got one that says, if all the lights come on a Honda fit, it's possibly a diagnostic signal from the car's self-testing. But I'm looking more at their second part here, where it says, however, it could also indicate an electrical issue, such as a weak alternator or corroded battery cable, I'm thinking you've probably got a loose connection somewhere in one of the systems

because those four lights, the tire light and the skid control light, you know, are two separate systems. So the fact that you've got that coming on along with that exclamation point, which is an indicator of warning issues, something seems electrical there. You've most likely got a loose connection.

somewhere maybe in the back of the odometer or the back of the instrument cluster or in one of the electrical systems going to the computer maybe even a bad ground wire I was when he did a diagnostic test just like a week or two ago nothing came up now but the light you know but he did it anyway he did it for me because I just had the tire pressure light come on and I wanted to see, hey, you know, how come that's not coming on when my tire pressure is low? He just happened to plug it in. He had a very sophisticated system and everything was fine and maybe a week later all these four lights came on. Now, of course, I'll go, but he's not there on the weekend. Of course,

I'll go back to him on Monday to do it again. I don't know. They might go off again on the weekend, but it's really strange, and this is totally intermittent. Yeah, for me, the first thing that I'd be doing, and I hate to put it this way, because this could get very involved and could get rather expensive for the amount of time

that he's going to have to spend doing this, I would start by doing what's called voltage drop tests across all the ground wires because that really sounds to me like an electrical connection issue a ground wire that the connection is good but not perfect

and at times it's loosening up just enough that it's causing bad signals into the computer and it's... Okay, that's cool. What's that called again? Sorry? Basically it's just testing all the grounds for a voltage drop. Okay.

And it creates a situation that we call it GIGO. It's a computer term means garbage in, garbage out. When the computer gets bad signals coming in, it sends out bad results, which is turning those lights on. But that really sounds to me like a ground wire issue because you've got multiple systems picking up signals. And I would bet anything, you've got either a wire that's starting to break or a ground point connection. Trish, whatever you do, if you bring it in and you're talking to a technician or to a service advisor about what Rick has advised you, before you leave the car with it, be sure you get a written estimate of the most this is going to charge, take care of that. You don't want to just leave and come back later and find out that they had a four-hour diagnostic charge on the top of the fix.

but as Rick says Oh, no, he does it while I'm there. You know, I know him very well. Oh, good. Okay. So, hey, Trish, so this is the same, this is the same tire dealer that's been, you know,

assisting you during your tire journey, so to speak, right? No, no. And you can trust him? No, I can trust him. This is not, this is not my tire guy, but he's, he's, he's, You know, there's a few people involved in that, but this is not the same person.

So, no, but I do, I do trust him, you know, very well for other things. Like he told me, I need, you know, break fluid and other fluids. He said, well, look, just wait. Just wait until you get, you know, another tire rotation and another oil change. So he didn't say, hey, you need it right away, you know, just waiting, you know. So he's pretty, you know, honest with me. Oh, great. And he doesn't charge me for a diagnostic test.

Great. Very good. Well, thanks very much for calling, Trish. I'll let you know. I'm sorry? I say thanks very much for calling. Oh, my. Thank you.

Thank you. Do you have any other questions, Trish? No, but I guess I'll let you know next week what he says. Yeah, please. A follow-up call. We'd appreciate it. Okay, our number here is 877-960-99-60. You can text us at 772-4976530.

Don't forget, we do have a Zoom number, and if you didn't jot that done, and you didn't call in. It's a lot of fun. You can talk to Jonathan. He's our producer. He'll get your information and pass it along to us, and that number is 926-589-0-586. We are going to go to Dot. who's calling us from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Dot.

Good morning, Nancy. How are you guys? Great. Nice to hear from you. Yeah. I am, I was listening, I've been listening, obviously. I do most Saturday. I want to circle back to car batteries with electric cars and hybrids,

building on the caller a few minutes ago. Mm-hmm. How would one find out what the battery life remains on that car if they're not in a Tesla that's built to tell them? I know someone that's very concerned with her hybrid. It's a Ford Edge, I believe, and they're very concerned about when that battery is going to go and how much time she's got. Sure. at expense so your question is on battery life a Ford dealer probably would be able to run a

diagnostic on that battery and see if there's any signs that it's you know starting to degrade other than that really there's not much you can do to tell you don't want to base it on the age and miles of the car obviously the older the car and the higher the mileage, the more likely that that battery might be starting to degrade a bit. But if it's anything less than, say, 70,000 and less than five years old, or less than seven years old, I'll say, I would feel pretty comfortable with it. Okay. And another idea I had one Saturday when I couldn't call in. The conversation had been about all the things our cars do that we don't even know about.

And I know, Rick, you've seen stuff on my 2015 Ravs. I thought it would be fun if there was a tip of the week that, you know, to kind of help us out with that. Some of these unusual cars do that we don't know about, such as being able to adjust. the height of the seat belt. Yeah, I mean, that certainly was something we could look into. By the way, the thing she's mentioning about adjusting the seatbelt, most cars now on the B pillar of the car where the shoulder belt comes off of the, you know, to pull it down, you can adjust the mounting piece up or down, usually about six to eight inches to make

the belt feel more comfortable on you while you're driving. I just wish mine would go lower because it's at the lowest setting in Stilchuk. Yeah, some of them can be a bit annoying that way. All right. Thank you guys for doing what you do every week. I love the show. Oh, thanks, Dot. It was nice to hear from you.

Good luck with your friend's hybrid battery. She's in good hands, you know, with proper care. Sometimes they last up to 200,000 miles. Right, Rick? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I've seen hybrids with a couple hundred thousand quite often now. Yeah.

They're getting up there in age, and we're starting to see that I know the second generation Prius, for a long time, when they first were coming out, as they were hitting 120,000, 130,000 miles, we were actually starting to replace a lot of the hybrid batteries, but now the quality has come so far up that we're, we just don't replace them near us often anymore. Maybe it's one a month at the most now. Is it based on a make and model, what you say? It's hard to say because I really only see the Toyotas myself. But I would say all the manufacturers, the quality level is coming up. Because remember, most of the hybrid batteries are being produced by the same certain few companies. And they simply make different models for each manufacturer. So the same company might be making batteries for Ford, Honda.

Chevy GM and simply producing what they require you know and so it's all it's all working out I mean it's yeah it's not like you have one company that makes only hybrid batteries for only Toyota they're these basic companies they're making them for all that it makes manufacturers they're working together you heard it here ladies and gentlemen if you'd like to talk to Rick give them a call at 877 960 9960 we are going to go to We're going to go to Marty, who's a regular caller, and Roadrunner Steve is holding. We'll get right to you.

Good morning, Marty. Hi, how are you? Good. How are you doing? I got a question for Rick and a question for Stu. Still's not here. I've been talking batteries. Stu's in the walking lungs.

I'll take a stab at it. In my trunk, there's a battery in the crown. Is that the hybrid battery back there? Is that a regular battery? Almost, almost. The hybrid battery is actually kind of up between the rear wheel struts, so it's pretty well buried under there. You wouldn't be able to see it unless you disassembled a bunch of parts.

The small plastic, black plastic battery, that's your 12-volt battery. That's the one that, just like a normal battery in a car, will start the car. but on a hybrid that 12-volt battery all it really has to do is turn on the relays and boot up the computers when you put the car in ready mode and additionally if you only put the car just in accessory mode it'll simply power everything while you're sitting there in accessory mode that's why and it's pretty small though so you don't want to run it accessory very long just put the car in ready mode it turns on all the relays boots up the computers And then it just sits back and goes for a ride. Okay. Well, I don't touch it. So whatever it's doing, it's doing properly. Yeah.

Now I want to ask Stu a question. Oh, Stu's not there. Let me ask Earl. Okay. I've had my crown for about eight months. When I'm out driving around, I've only seen two other crowns on the road. So not that I'm looking for crown specifically, but I went online just for the hell of it

and I checked four dealerships in West Palm Beach and nobody has crowns. So my question is, is it because they come from Japan directly? Or what do you say? The reason is there's not too many of them. Well, it's the crown replaced the Avalon. As you know, that was the luxury top of the line car.

The crown is a luxury top-of-the-line car. So it's a matter of supply and demand. And even though we say cars are plentiful today, that's a relative statement because let's go back five years before COVID. At our dealership, we would typically have at least 300 new cars on the ground. Right now, we have less than half that. So the new normal right now is still a relatively limited inventory. And the supply chain is pretty much flowing smoothly, but not completely smoothly.

So the crown would represent maybe 5% of the sales of Toyota, if that, probably 2% or 3%. And they just don't build that many crowns because they're not that many people buying them. that would be my best guess. If Stewart here, he'd probably have a better answer for you, but that's the best I can do. Yeah, basically it's high demand. You know, it's a high demand and low supply. Okay, yeah.

I guess when anybody gets one, they sell it. Yeah, and they get all the money for it too because, you know, there's nothing sinful about a company charging more for a product that is in high demand and low supply. That's capitalism, that's economics 101. Somewhere in that

economics 101, when dealers are selling cars for $20,000 over a sticker, it turns from capitalism into greed and just treating your customers like trash. So it's hard

for me. You know, Corvette is a good example. How many years has it been since you can buy a Corvette for less than sticker price. If you buy a Corvette today from the average Chevrolet dealer, you're going to end up paying $1,000 or two or more over a sticker. And again, General Motors does that on purpose. It's an image car for them, and so they keep the supply down,

and they know that the demand is high. So the Crown, luxury cars, and a line typically fall into that category. But you're right, Marty, about them being historic. popular in Japan and some select international markets so you have that too. I can only tell you this when I got mine they gave me a very good discount so that's the only reason why I bought it and I gave me very good money for my trade and it's again the only reason why I bought it but I agree they're not it's not a cheap car.

No. And Rick? I just got a quick note here from Donovan. He says, for the caller, the factory that produces the crown in Japan has been paused a few times because apparently Toyota has been doing some emissions cheating. Uh-huh. And they got caught and they got paused a couple times. Oh, emission. Emissions testing cheating. Yeah, that was a shock.

That was a shock. I mean, here's my alma mater. the company that I appraised is absolutely amazing the amount of skull duggery and fraud and that goes on with auto manufacturers. I thought Toyota was squeaky clean, but, you know, Volkswagen's been a huge amount of trouble.

Hyundai, forget about it. Every manufacturer, Stalantis, is a joke. But when Honda, when Toyota got caught, cheating on emission standards, It was such a shock. I just, maybe it's some sort of a secret code manufacturers have you, you have to lie and cheat somewhat. I guess. Oh, I thought that was the qualifications.

Wow. Well, very good. Well, maybe that's the reason why they don't have any around. Well, maybe. Yeah, he says the Crown Signia is extremely rare to find because it's been delayed because of those emissions cheating issues. Wow. Yeah, I haven't been able to tell there's any cheating on my car. So far runs good, so that's all I care about.

That's good. Excellent. All right, have a good weekend, everybody. Thanks. Nice to hear from you, Marty. We're going to go to Roadrunner, Steve, who has been patiently holding. Meet meet. Beep.

Good morning, everybody. Good morning. My friend, my friend, He calls me up. He had a 22 Kia Sorrento, and he said it wouldn't start. So I go over there. He shows me on the dashboard. Key bar, the key is not connecting, you know, to the brain.

Hmm. With that of the car. Key barb not detected. Okay. So I open up the hood. I check the battery. It says good. But on a dash key barb not detected.

So I notice on the battery, they got that little clear plastic thing on top, right? I say, well, that's probably the problem right there. But the battery is only two years old. So he calls up Kia, the guy tells him, put the key bar next to the starter with that. Right, right up next to the start button. Yes. And did it work? No, I rolled my eyes when he said that.

I'm just like, yeah, okay. I just said, key fob not starting. So he wound up having the car towed back to Kia to get a new battery with that. So that was the only thing with that. Here's the reason I'm asking, Steve. Did he check the battery in the key fob? Exactly. Yes.

Yes, he had brand new, that's what I told him too. I know that little things. And Steve, did you say there was a coating over the key put? No, no. Oh, on the battery. On the battery, they got like, it's like an inch long, half inch wide, clear plastic. Right. That's probably got fusable links in it.

Right. It's basically one unit that has several fuses in it. Right. With that. He had to get a new battery for 2022. So the car battery was bad, the 12-volt battery? Oh, okay. Yeah, with that.

Okay, now a fast question. On my roadrunner, I noticed I had fuel around my fuel pump, okay? Oh. But the next day, I started up, no leaks whatsoever. Now, could I have flooded the fuel pump, and I read they have a repo, in those fuel pumps to get the extra gas out if it's flooded? No, because your fuel pump should have be full of fuel all the time. Right.

Yours, let's see, what year's your roadrunner? 69. Okay, yeah, so you're going to have mechanical fuel pump on the side of the engine. I'm explaining for the folks out there, they're wondering what we're talking about, and it's actually designed to suck the fuel from the tank all the way through the line, and then push it up to the carburetors but now flooding is when you hit your fuel pump your accelerator pedal too many times when you're trying to start the car and you get too much fuel in the intake manifold now it's liquid down in there and it can't atomize so it can't go into

the cylinders and burn properly uh but no if you had fuel leaking around the fuel pump and then it stopped that's one of the oddest say i've never heard of a leak that comes and goes, but I'd be checking the gaskets around that fuel pump and the lines coming to it. Because if you've, a fuel leak is a very serious issue, and I'd be looking very closely at that. Yeah, well, I don't have it now. So I thought I was reading about to have a weephole where, like, I guess like a pinhole for the fuel to escape. No, not on a fuel pump. Okay.

Hey, Steve. That should be completely sealed. Is there a, do you have a, is there a strong odor of any kind of a smell from gas? This is the first time I seen it and noticed it. Oh. And it was definitely, it was definitely fuel? Oh, yeah. I tasted it.

How about your fuel pressure? Was that affected? No, no. I got the clear gas filter. I could see right from. it, what's there. The next day, the car started right up. I think I just pumped too much gas into it. Possibility. I guess. Could be, but. Are you still there, Steve? Yeah, I'm still here.

Oh, okay. Hey, you know, just as sort of a sidebar here, I don't know what Rick has to say about this, but maybe there's a crack in the fuel lines. That's... I put a new fuel lines. I put a new fuel line. on. Oh, boy. I'd still, I'd be a little nervous. I'd be checking the connections on your fuel lines, the clamps, making sure everything's nice and tight there. I mean, how long has it been, Steve?

Okay. I changed them two weeks ago. Oh, okay, well, that covers that. The theory of the corrosion. It's only about 11 inches long. So I put the good clamps on. So it's not leaking around there. I could see it on the fuel pump

itself. That's why I asked I took out the wee pole. Yeah. Now, I just kind of monitored that. Keep an eye on it. Definitely. Because they're definitely, you should never,

ever have fuel leaking out anywhere on the car. Yeah. They tell you to stop driving, you know, if it happens. Well, I carry three five extinguishes in the car.

Is there any visible, any visible damage, Steve, you know, under your car? I think it's just old age. That's all. Oh, boy. Okay. Well, we can understand that.

Thanks, Steve. That was Roadrunner, Steve, from Boynton Beach. We are going to go to Bill, who's been patiently holding, and John, we will get to you in Westbone Beach. Good morning, Bill. Good morning, Nancy. I wanted to run something by Earl or Rick, perhaps, about the batteries. I've read how the battery industry is looking to move beyond lithium. it's a substance in it, and they're looking at other, I don't know, chemicals or whatever,

but I've also read about solid state batteries, and I was wondering where that stands and if we could touch on just how those would work. I got to confess my ignorance on that one that I really don't know very much about solid state batteries, but it's a new technology. I know that I've heard of them just once or twice, and who does that? knows. It could be the next thing to really actually work on the market and avoid having to use

the lithium like there are. Sure. Sure. I haven't read much on it myself. Like I said, it just sounds interesting. Can I touch on one other thing if you don't have sure? I know you have other callers. Just real quick with the

full-time all-wheel drive. I was told years ago that if you have a vehicle like that And if you have an issue with the tire that needs to be replaced under warranty, that supposedly they need to replace all four tires. Is that still true? Do you know about that? I've always believed that it's best to replace tires all for it once if you can. At the minimum, I would want to replace tires on the same axle at the same time. I've actually seen a case where somebody, it was with a vehicle that had the old style tire pressure system where it was reading the wheel speed of the tire and determining if one was low on air because it would move at a different speed than the others, depending on whether it was flat or not.

I never contemplated that. This was the original way that tire pressure systems worked when it had a light to come on before they had sensors in the wheel. and one wheel had a very full brand new tread and the other did not. It was almost bald and it was actually kicking on this light because the tire with less tread was a smaller diameter only by a little bit and that actually would trigger the system to think that the tire was low on air. So because back in those days they used the ABS wheel speed sensors to determine how fast all four tires were going and if one was constantly going at a different speed than the other three,

they decided well that means that tires low so it could almost be the same thing but I would I would never recommend replacing only one tire if the other three are lower on much lower on tread I if say you've got tires that are almost brand new they've only got a maybe a thousand miles on them I'd have no problem replacing just one tire but if they've got like say 15 20 30 thousand miles I'd want to replace them at least as a pair if not all four Okay. Well, like I said, I was told that it was some legal issue or something. I don't know if it's federal or what, with all full-time, all-wheel drives. If you had to replace one, you had to replace all four of them.

I've never actually heard of a law about that. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, I have other questions, but I know you have other callers. You all have a good weekend. Thanks for a call, Bill. Yeah, Bill, we love hearing from you. Give us a follow-up. we are closing down the phone lines right now and we're going to go to any YouTube Facebook okay any messages that you may have well I got a couple of here from Donovan first one he's got he says this week Tesla started to give out trials of the latest version of the full self-driving and I was curious after

Earl's story last week of the car driving him to the doctor he says I got the latest version of full self-drive on my Model 3, and I used it to go from my house in Port St. Lucie, and had it drive me all the way to Western Boka for dinner with friends, then used the new actual smart summons feature where the car came to get me at the front of the restaurant from where the car had parked on its own, then had the car drive me home. I didn't have a single interruption. It worked perfectly in Friday night South Florida traffic, and I know it's not going to be perfect in all situations, but it's very impressive on how well it can work. And here as we go down, he's got, let's see, he says, by the middle of next year,

Florida will have 274 supercharger locations just in Florida. He says, Florida's the number two state for EVs. So you've definitely got lots of charging available there. And let's see if there's, ah, he also says on the, uh, For the caller, solid-state batteries are a scam and will not be happening anytime soon. The next thing is lithium-sulfur batteries. Well, can I jump in there? Yeah.

Because I Google that, too. Solid-state batteries are the name of the game, but the technology hasn't caught up on that. And all batteries will be solid-state by the end of the 2020s, in other words, 28, 20-29. It's going to be a few years. When it happens, there will be nothing but solid-state batteries. Well, and he goes to say that the next thing is lithium sulfur batteries and high-silicon lithium batteries. Silicon is the easiest way to increase energy density and C-A-T-L and B-Y-D, which are companies that make the batteries, both have batteries with 40% more energy density because of silicon.

And he says, semi-solid-state batteries are possibly made today, but are very expensive to scale. So hopefully that will be changing in the near future. And as Earl says, by 2030, pretty much everything might be solid-state batteries. And, Donovan, you know, for you, Nancy and I are thrilled with our autonomous. And you heard the story. We told about going through the doctor in a driving rainstorm that I would not have driven myself in. and the autonomous that Tesla planned drove better than I could. I was, if it had been me on the turnpike and that kind of weather,

I would have pulled over. Problem is I might not been able to pull over. It was, you know, the visibility was so bad. Now, fast forward to our Cyberbeast, which also now has the full self-driving download. Interesting story there. We came to the radio station this morning in the cyber truck, the cyber truck beast, and fully autonomous from our home to the radio station.

We pulled up from the radio station, the cyber truck parked itself. And the interesting thing is that apparently Tesla has put the same software, which is the most advanced software they had for the S model and the planet and the other Tesla. They put that in the cyber truck. I was happy they did it because I thought it would take a while. They said it was not there now because of the design of the vehicle and the fact that it's designed for off-road and a lot of other things. Well, the software, autonomous software, the cyber truck is not nearly as good as the software

and the Tesla plan. There's little glitches in there. and nothing that I've seen so far well we had one dangerous incident yesterday and I was really disappointed because you know I was I was thinking here full self-driving total autonomous is here and I'm saying that driving the plaid

with a cyber beast it's not it's not there and I'm praying for another software update on the cyber beast but it's good but it's not great like it is on the plan. Donovan says, I will come wash your cyber truck. If anyone puts a true solid state battery in a car,

you can buy by the end of the decade, Earl. Wow. Okay. I hope that you'll watch my car for me, but I don't know. Yeah. Hey, well, Donovan, you know, I'd love to talk to you more, but I think the thing is, think about, this, Donovan.

With the sum total of human knowledge in artificial intelligence increasing exponentially, the time between 2024 and 2030 is almost a lifetime. And I

say to Donovan, because I know you're a genius, if you've got six years with AI on warp speed, which it is on warp speed, I can't say that anything that your human mind can imagine cannot be created by the end of this decade with artificial intelligence. I think all bets are off in terms of design and what can be done. Just my thoughts. And Donovan, I'm not, you're probably

right and I'm probably wrong, but that's my thoughts. Well, Automania is asking, what is average lease payment on a crown x lea um there's no such thing as an average lease payment because it depends upon uh first of all the msrp of the of the of the crown also it depends on the length of the lease and the down payment so if you're talking about the msrp uh that's one thing but uh and i can't and i don't know what the answer is but uh because stew's not here still would be able to tell me that Yeah, I gave him an answer here to say, yo, Stu's off today, but if you could check back with us next week on that. This one from Mark H, he says, shop owners are worried about liability when replacing only one tire on all-wheel-drive vehicles, possibly ruining the transmission, which that certainly could be possible. Real-life story, he had four tires installed on an all-wheel-drive Dodge Caravan.

One tire was mislabeled, and it was a wrong-size. tire and it destroyed the transmission in 500 miles which I can understand that because if you have one wheel at a different diameter than the others which a tire that's mislabeled the sidewall height might be different and obviously that's gonna put a strain on the transmission so that could certainly damage it yeah yeah but shake in my head at the technician that didn't double check his tires to make sure that they were all the same tires.

How could something like that happen? Well, if somebody wasn't paying attention. For all you geniuses like Donovan out there, and I say that, not tongue and cheek at all, we've got a lot of very smart people listening. And I'm not one of you, but I do have something that helps me keep up, and that's a chat, GBT, GBT.

And it's funny how this has become a part of our life. There's three people that live in our home. There's Nancy Earl and there's ChatGBTGT. And it is amazing how our lives have improved because of that artificial intelligence. And artificial intelligence is becoming, you know, next week it'll probably be twice as smart as it was right now. So I could be talking myself out of a job

as a radio talk show host because with chat, GBT, you don't need me. You don't need Nancy. You don't need Rick. You don't need Stu. How about Alexa? Alexa's way behind. Don't leave her behind.

Well, she's been with us through thick and thin. We have to give her a little recognition. Speaking of recognition, would you like to go to the audio? And that is something that Jonathan is going to set up. Let's do that. But first, Rick, you had something. One, just one last note here from Donovan, he says, but the dendrite problem of solid state batteries is not going to be solved by AI. Apparently, that's something that needs human testing to figure out whatever the dendrite problem is.

Well, I told you he's probably right, now is your own. But thanks, Ronald. We have an audio clip that Jonathan was able to pull out of the hearings that are being held right now. I think in New Orleans, the Texas Automobile Deal Association and the Court of Appeal about the fact that the Federal Trade Commission wants to regulate car dealers board. And we were able to get this actual recording from the actual courtroom just a few days ago on the argument. The lawyers stand in front of the judge and argue orally. As listeners to the show know, we have commented through a few days ago. amicus friend of the court so we have a paper objection and comment there but are we

ready with that clip now listen this carefully this is an actual argument before the circuit court yeah this is one of the most pervasively regulated industries in the United States at every single step of the transaction what the FTC did was to say some bad actors have done bad acts these are just the tip of the iceberg, so we're going to airdrop in this whole new apparatus of regulation even though we've never tested it, and we don't know if this will prevent the bad acts that have been happening. I mean, we don't dispute there's bad actors. There are 40 million covered car sales per year. Of course, it's a huge industry. There will be bad acts. But what we're missing

is the link between these regulations, which I can't emphasize enough, how burdensome these are on the industry and preventing those bad acts. We hear again and again, transactions take too long, they're too complicated, there's too much paperwork, there's too much confusion, and their answer is to inject more disclosures and paperwork into hundreds of millions of interactions between dealers and their customers.

And we don't dispute that it's well-intention, but with the record-keeping requirement, dealers are obligated under penalty of an unfair trade practice to keep records of their compliance with this rule, Which means if you're on a test drive with the customer and you have to make a disclosure, if the customer texts you or the customer messages you through Facebook, how on earth is that dealer going to make the record to prove that they made the disclosure in the event the FTC comes knocking at some time? And the customer may have test driven 10 vehicles.

Or the customer may have said, well, okay, as to this vehicle, what if you add certain add-on to the car, what's that going to cost? So it could be multiple disclosures for each vehicle. Absolutely. And remember, too, with the monthly payment, it says each time a monthly payment is discussed, the dealer has to basically do the full underwriting and put in the full total of payments. But now, every time there's a discussion of the monthly payment, these are all going to have to come in. And respectfully, I just don't think they have justified layering all these new burdens

atop a time-tested regime. When you think about how this works on the ground, as dealers are making these disclosures, it's just going to be, you know, here's your disclosure, please sign initial, here's your disclosure, please sign initial, here's your disclosure, please sign an initial. So when you look at this rule that they've adequately grappled with these very serious questions of, will these disclosures solve the problems that they claim to be happening? I don't think they've explained why the upending transactions in this way will stop the handful of bad actors. There's 30-some million car sales that will be subject to this transaction. So even if

all 100,000 complaints they cite were somehow about this, that's 0.3% of sales. So, again, there's a big denominator problem. So the FTC says 13 billion savings, one billion costs, the economists are saying it's actually going to be bigger. The reduction in markups will more than offset the potential rise in prices due to potentially higher compliance costs borne by the deal. I don't agree with that. I mean, many of these are small businesses that run on pretty tight margins, and this offering price could also be affirmatively misleading, because now that the dealer has to go around offering price, offering price, offering price, disclosure, every card, this is the offering price, this is the offering price, this is the offering price. I believe as the rule is written, they intend it to be a ceiling, not a floor, and you can still negotiate down. We point out in our comments, many consumers might see this and think that it's now one price shopping, and that's the price, and you have to pay it when in fact it's more of a ceiling and so by anchoring so much to this new offering price we actually think there's a very real risk that some consumers might think oh okay that's it we're done and there's nothing further to negotiate that was the argument in new Orleans of the

circuit court of appeal you you heard the attorney mainly the attorney from the texas automobile dealers association uh if if you listen to the this whole audio, they're saying that there's only a handful of bad actors that are creating the problem. Well, if you listen to the show for 20 years, you'll find out that a handful of bad actors includes every dealer in Florida virtually and even out of state. If you look at our archive for our good dealers and bad dealers and listen to the mystery shopping reports, every even the good dealers that we say are good are violating these rules so this handful of bad actors is a myth there's not a handful there aren't any now I can obviously there's one or two or three but I'm

from a practical standpoint among 20,000 dealers or 30,000 dealers there's not more than just a a miserable couple of dozen that would actually qualify as not being a bad actor. And the argument of the Florida automobile, I mean, of the Texas automobile dealers association and the National Automobile Dealers Association

is that the burden of paperwork and time consumed would actually cost the customer more than he's getting screwed now by the dealers by lying cheek and stealing and adding junk fees and dealer and stall accessories. So it's a, the argument, as we see it, is a fallacious argument. All they're doing is stall tactics. We fully believe, the powers that be, those in the know say that the Federal Trade Commission

will proceed with this, and all the Texas Automobile Dealer Association, the National Automobile Dealer Association, are delaying. the inevitable. And they're doing a good job of delaying it. And it's easy to lay. You can delay things, but you can't stop it. It's going to happen. It's just going to happen much later than we would have liked to see it happen. So, ladies and gentlemen, I'll voice your opinion. Give the Attorney General a call Ashley Moody, and you can reach her at 866-966-7-226. we are going to go to the mystery shopping report and if you want to be part of the mystery shopping report

you can do so by voting and you can vote at our text number which is 772-497-6530 our mystery shop took us to Agent Lightning did a great job again and she went to Rick Case Genesis and it's all yours.

Yeah, Rick Cakes, Genesis, a lot of you I've heard the name Rick Case. He passed away several years ago. His wife, Rita, Case, now owns all the Rick Case dealerships. And they've got a whole bunch of them there. I'd say probably two, three dozen dealerships. Started in South Florida.

And that's not a good place to start a car dealership. because as I say it's kill or be killed if you if you if you if you start I have empathy for car dealers especially new ones that go into business and they open a dealership in Miami or Fort Lauderdale for you know if you open a dealers in a market where all the other dealers are lying cheating and stealing or as the Federal Trade Commission would say they're all bad actors. Every deal in South Florida is a bad actor.

And Rick Case is down there. Rick Case Genesis is one of them. And I just wish some of the people that are involved in this hearing on the Federal Trade Commission could listen to some of these shopping reports. I know I shouldn't be giving it away like I am now, but I'm going to read this mystery shopping report, Rick Case Genesis, in South Florida, and I'm speaking of the first person as if I were Agent Lightning or undercover agent. I arrived in the mid-afternoon, and I approached the front of the building.

There were five salesmen standing out front, all waiting to come up to meet me. I put my head down and walked toward the front of the building until I was greeted by a salesman named Paulo. He asked me if I was here to see anybody in particular today, and I told him I wasn't, but I was interested in checking out a new Genesis. Paula said, perfect, let's take a walk to the back lot, and I can show you my inventory. We walked and walked through two different inventory lots, which I would say was at least a football field's distance, with me in heels. That's Agent Lightning in heels. I don't wear heels. Until we finally reached where the Genesis cars were parked.

He explained the difference between the lower-in model and the highest package. And I decided to go with the midline Genesis. We landed on a 2025 G70 sport and an MSRP of $47,890. By the way, the Genesis is a hell of a good car. I mean, it's a luxury car. I'm just amazed at Hyundai. did such a good job with their luxury car it's it's right up there I mean it could compete with Lexus not quite there yet but it's pretty close continuing on with

a mystery shop we went for a test drive and he explained the vehicle's features he even demonstrated some of the quasi self-driving capabilities which made me nervous once back at the dealership he sat at his palace cubicle and he took my license that put me into their system. He confirmed that I loved the car and would potentially like to buy it trial clothes. Yes, I replied. He then excused himself to go talk to his manager and get me a price sheet. A few minutes later returned with a proposal sheet. The first thing I noticed was that the price was way over MSRP. Now, you know, this is we're getting pretty well into 2024. The COVID is over with

The supply chain interruption is 99% over width. Cars aren't selling over MSRP anymore, and with a couple of rare exceptions. So to see this Genesis price way over MSRP was a little shocking. So I questioned Powell. He said that there are $2,000 markup that goes on all Rick cases of vehicles, and that it includes a 20-year 200,000-mile power. train warranty. So this is supposed to justify a 2,000 markup over MSRP. Regular

the system they show that a power train warranty is worth absolutely nothing because if you obey the rules on the warranty in terms of maintenance, you don't ever have a problem with your power train. The losses are zero. So a worthless warranty justifying a markup of $2,000 over a sticker makes no sense at all. I said, well, I know there's no way either my husband and I will ever pay over MSRP for any car ever again, so I'm not sure if there's anything else to discuss here. So she kind of called Paolo's bluff.

Paolo jumped up forward to the seat and asked me to tell him, what would get me to buy today? Now this is old school, standard, old school. school. This is the game that car dealers have been playing for 100 years. I replied, well, something much closer to MSRP out the door, none of these markups. He said he checked with his manager, but he wanted me to know they're offering 2.99% for 48 months through Genesis. He also said, I couldn't get away from taxes, dealer fees, or title fees. Now he's telling me, that I can't get away from dealer fees.

Now, dealer fees are specifically banned by Florida law, and this recase genesis is in Florida. And this Florida law has been on the books for 20 years, and the Attorney General has said that they're going to begin enforcing this law on September 1st, and what is today, the 14th or 15th? So here we are having a salesman tell the mystery shopper that I got dealer fees, junk fees, and there's nothing I can do about it.

There's also nothing apparently that the Ashley Moody or the law or the Federal Trade Commission could do about it. But it's illegal. It's illegal. And here I am on live radio talking about Rick Case Genesis breaking the law in the face, of the warning given out months ago, and he's still breaking the law, and nobody cares. But I digress. Let me continue in the role of Agent Lightning.

He then asked me again where I want to be. Closer to the 48,000 MSRP as a final price is what I said. I've said that twice already. He repeated to me just so we're clear that I was looking to buy for $48,000 out the door today, and he says, let me see what my boss says. Let the games begin. Paolo then asked me for my credit cards. This is really old school.

Paolo asked me for my credit card to take with him to show I was serious. Back of the day, believe it or not, when I was early in the business and I was one of the evil bad actors, We used to get watches, rings, cash, anything. This is part of the game, part of the commitment to begin the selling process. So in this case here, he wanted Agent Lightning's credit card.

I said, for what reason? He said, to show my boss that you're serious. And that's the old, old school. I said, nope, not happening. I've never been asked for this before. I'm sorry. That just seems insane to me. As I sit here in the radio studio, I feel the same thing.

This is insane. He then said, okay, well, here, how about this? You sign here that you're willing to buy right down if the out-the-door price is $48,000. Now, he's asking me to swear to him, promise that I'll buy if I meet the price that I like. And that's not a contract, but that's what he wants, wants me to do. He said, our goal is to buy a car today, but I'm not signing, I said, our goal is to buy a car today, but I'm not signing anything or running a credit until I see final numbers.

He could talk to my husband. He said, okay, I understand what you're saying. I'll be right back. About five minutes later, his boss, Mauricio, came over to confirm everything that I just told Paulo. I was getting annoyed. He then asked me what vehicles I currently had registered to my address. I responded, like I told Paulo, a GMC, a Toyota, and a Volkswagen. He said, okay, let me see what I can do.

However, likely, if there are cash incentives to lower the price, you won't qualify for the 2.99 annual percentage rate. He didn't ask me what my credit score was. I said, high, 700s. He said, let me check for you. I'll be right back with some new numbers. Wait another five minutes and Maricio returned a loan with his sheet and said this offer was available today only.

Oh, man, this defines old-schooled and bad actors, right? And that in order to use incentives, he applied, I wouldn't qualify for the 2.99% rate. He'd already told me that. This time, the selling price was right at MSRP, and they showed $3,000 rebate after taxes and fees. The out-door price was $50,651, and $59. I asked for Paolo's card. He said he'd send him over. Apollo return without a card and then he said he'd be back in a few minutes with his card

at this point I'd had enough and I left and I that's that's one for the books books I'd love to in fact I think I'm going to send this mystery shopping report to Ashley Booty a certified return receipt request and see if anybody looks at it because why is she shooting her mouth off and telling people that she She's going to enforce the Florida law on September 1st. And we've been shopping in South Florida week after week after week. And this is the worst one we've had, but we've had all of them violated the Florida laws.

So there we are. And ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to vote, remember you can go to 772-497-6530 and you can place your vote. Earl, well, we may need to get agent, lightning a bodyguard or at the very least body armor maybe a guard dog or something that that's getting scary they wanted her credit card yeah credit card yeah but you get this is the old school back of the day we used to get the keys to the trade and you heard about the the chain of

doodles back in those days they would get the customers keys and they would throw them up on the roof yeah and that was north of us and I remember us talking about that? I mean the prospective customer couldn't get out the door. They were in. They were locked in. I had a little thing I did when I was a Pontiac years ago when I was evil and this is this is kind of a nice ethical you know taking advantage of a customer when the customer came in and it hadn't bought and has to go home and think about it you know they would leave my dealership back then and they had to pass a whole bunch of car dealers to get home and you just know they're

going to shop my price so what we would do is we would give them a free pint of ice cream and say be sure to put this in the freezer because we wouldn't want it to build so they would go straight home and they wouldn't stop off and shop my price okay could you pick out your flavor what could the customer request a flavor ice cream cream flavor? I'm not sure. Well, we've got Negan 1 says Big Fat F. Jonathan

and Palm Coast says Rick Case Genesis gets a grade of F, a $2,000 automatic markup, additional illegal dealer fees, and an additional fee of over $1,200 for shipping, which was already on the Monroe label. Absolutely. Absolutely.

I should have pointed that out. Now, not only is that a violation of Florida law, that's a violation of federal law. The federal law with the freight, and that's a, for all 50 states, you cannot charge for something that's already been charged for. That's a double dip. They broke every rule I can think of. And an extremely pushy salesman makes me look for a different dealership. Grading on a curve, be darned, this dealership gets the only grade they deserve, the aforementioned F. I'd give them a much lower grade if I could.

Let's see. Okay, now we go over to this one, this section, and we have, oh boy, they're coming in like crazy here. Oh, boy. I get my computer to scroll. And, you know, Jonathan pointed out that we had a mystery shop from Rick Case, and that was Hyundai. And he pointed out it did get an F on that mystery shopper report. We've got Bob and Maryland says, since it's a Genesis, on the first day the FTC, said let there be light this is a good example of what is needed with the cars act it's an F K Mitch says F minus with three exclamation points and

Marie says F their behavior is lower than a snake's belly and death valley oh boy T-cash says let's get it back here okay T-cache says total F oh boy you Ah, sorry, my computer's acting crazy on me here. And let's see. T-cache is F-minus. New name badge, same old four square with junk scribbled on a page. Unbelievable.

Kim appreciates life, says, the more I hear about these crooked car dealerships, the more I want to buy a car online, the way Tesla does it. And Tim Gilliland says, too many games for me, D. Mark Smith, I give him a solid D-minus. No excuse for that treatment. Johnny Z. Freidly says D. Brenda Wise says

F for so many reasons. Brian Siddletco, Agent Lightning should not have to negotiate to get to MSRP. D. Donovan says, A big F for me. Asking for the credit card is just insane. Earl, what will you do

when you're ignored by Ashley Moody? F. That was from Cram 1624. Mark H. says that credit card scam is like not giving your back your keys on a trade end. Kim appreciates life. Triple F for myself.

I try not to do this very often, but that's totally enough. That was almost right. He's asking for her credit card. How many people are going in there would automatically just say, well, all right, here, here's my credit card. And now you're a total hostage.

Because you know they're not giving it back until you start signing on dotted lines. That's exactly right. Wow. Yeah, absolutely. Just like having the car case. Yep. What do you think, Nancy?

I think that I'm questioning the power train warranty. I mean, a power train, has anyone please call the show that they last a lifetime if they're taking? I mean, you really have to drive your car into the gutter in order to have to have your power train. And I'll bet you that there's a fine print in there to say, you must be able to prove regular service and maintenance on the vehicle. Oh, sure. Before that will take effect that 20-year, 200,000-mile warranty. Absolutely.

Good information, Rick. And as far as the credit card is concerned, you know, this year, please, attorney, Ashley Moody, please help us. We have been on a long journey, and we need your help. I give them an F. Oh, and this is from Frank and Jupiter Farms. I love the ice cream from Rfaniak dealership days. Back to grade, or back to the grade, F.

Well, I tell you what, it's been a long time. I don't remember giving an F. I'm always, I always fight for the curve. You do. And to give an F to a dealer in South Florida, that is a very serious thing. I'm going to give them an F. I'm going to fail them.

And to say you're the worst dealer in South Florida, you know, I hope Rita Case, that's Rick's wife who is running the store. As a matter of fact, Rick and Rita Case were a team all the years they were in business before Rick passed away about three years ago. ago and the word was that Rita was really the brains behind the operation Rick was a salesperson he was a you know he was a get him out the door kind of a guy

probably worked a lot with the marketing departments and the sales departments but the brains behind the whole thing was Rita and if she heard about this I wonder what she would say by the way Johnny Z. Fradley he mentioned that they didn't actually start in Fort Lauderdale. And I found information on the Rick Case website that said that Rick Kay started his first dealership in 1962 in Akron, Ohio. Wow.

And his first in Florida was a Hyundai and Accura dealerships that they started in 1985 and went on from there. Wow. Interesting. They're big. He didn't mention how many stores they have now, but it's got to be, you know, 50? Oh, I would have to guess.

Let me see if I can pull that up real quick. Well, until Rick pulls that up, please, ladies and gentlemen, let your voice be heard. Give Ashley Moody a call 866-966-7-226. We need your help. That's 866-9667-226. Well, according to Google, it says Rick Case Automotive Group, they must maybe they've downgraded a bit they operate 16 dealerships in Florida Georgia and Ohio oh that's all yeah bigger than that I thought they

were too because you see that name seems like everywhere yeah you know just something we didn't cover earlier but we talked a lot about this health driving cars now and on the East Coast is one thing but on the West Coast they've jumped in with both feet I have had no idea. Nancy and I saw this article in today's Wall Street Journal, how San Francisco learned to love self-driving cars. Now, we're not talking about a few examples on the road now. In San Francisco, there are 10,000 paid rides a week.

Is that right? And it's become the preferred way. They don't even, you know, it's hurt in Uber and Lyft. The taxi cabs forget about it. But in San Francisco now, the name of the game are these autonomous, driverless camps. So if they could do it like the public in a big city, I mean, I'm scared to drive in San Francisco. I mean, if I would think, yeah. I mean, I just going up and down, knobbill, some of these.

Yeah, but with more drivers. Lombard Street. Lombard, that's what I'm trying to think. Yeah, that's the crookedest street in America. Yeah, but with more drivers on the street, I think maneuvering for EV is autonomous as much easier because they all understand each other. Well, that's going to be the awesome part, though,

is when all these cars get connected by the Internet, by the cloud, and they can all talk to each other, you're not going to have any more car accidents because every car suddenly will know what that other driver is going to do because the most dangerous part of driving a car is the unpredictable driver that you don't know what they're going to do

but if they could all talk to each other instantly that's my point that's my point right there utopia you also have this when you do it you have to be there you have to get in an autonomous car

and try it out because you will have a whole you see it's true that autonomous cars can make stupid mistakes it's true that the cars that Nancy and I drive

have made those mistakes but it's also true that in other cases we don't talk about that often they are better than we are this terrible

rainstorm that we had the other day I wouldn't have wanted to drive the car they can park the car better and faster than we can so if you

way the safety if you're safer than the human and then you have a foible where you're cause an accident and you you got to weigh the two together I mean it's a it's a balance of is this autonomous car more safe than a human and most cases I believe the autonomous cars are safer than human drivers yeah exactly and imagine parking lots now where for what we have Now, every spot has to have enough space for the people to open their doors. But imagine if the cars all could go and park two inches apart and have their mirrors folding automatically. You could fit another 40, 50 cars in a small lot.

Everything in sync. It'd be worse than what they're doing with the airplane seats. It's all in sync. Yeah. And good things have to come from that for sure. So it's the experience of driving EV. You really have to experience in order to, you know, come to a conclusion. And you either love it or you hate it.

Okay. I think we're wrapped up here, are we? Okay. We're going to wrap it up. Another great show. And all of you out there made it a fantastic show. We've so much appreciated the company. And we want you to stay tuned next week.

We'll be right here 8 a.m. on the Oldies Channel. Have a wonderful. weekend everyone