Earl Stewart on Cars - 02.01.2020 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of CarMax Boynton Beach

Episode Date: February 1, 2020

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent Thunder visits CarMax Boynton Beach, to see if their sales rep will disclose a Takata Airbag Recall on a 2012 Subaru Outback Limited. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

And so here I am, Earl Stewart Live. This is February 1st, 2020. And we're a show all about how not to be ripped off by a car dealer. Live in the studio with me is Rick Kearney. I said this in the recorded introduction. Rick is just about the Jarvis guy on the planet when it comes to how to fix a car, maintain, repair your car. He's on top of technology, like very few technicians I've ever known.

And cars are complicated today. If you have a problem with your car, if you have a question about your technical portions of your car, and who doesn't? Everybody does. The cars are so complicated today, I guarantee you I have a question. Just call Rick any time. You can call the show at 877-9-60-90-60. The show is live today, February 1st, 2020.

You can call us at 877-9-60-9-960. I'm expecting a call from a man named Barry O'Brien. You may recognize that name. He's a radio guy. He was on this older station before it was bought and sold. And he's been on other stations. say he's a radio guy Barry O'Brien had a great experience I almost say great he has a solution to the problem about how not to get ripped off when you're exercising your purchase option on lease car so Barry I hope we didn't scare you away I hope you can call in because as I say we are live today February 1st 2020 call us at 877 960 9960 or text us that's popular text number is 772

4976530. Again, that text number is 772 4976530. And we are on YouTube. We are on Periscope. We're on Twitter. Facebook and YouTube are very popular.

And you can post, and we'll read your post, answer your questions, read your comments. So please try to communicate with us because this does make the show. I hope I didn't scare off too many people because of the technical malfunction. We had a strange noise

going out over the microphone. It was music. And now my phone's ringing. So this is going to go down in history is one of the most... That's Jim Powell. It was a shrieking alarm sound by the way. I can't describe it to you. I can imitate it. Would you like me to try

and do that? All right. What the heck? Oh my God. Great job. Stoof. Yeah. So anyway, you got to roll with a I mean, I could even tell you that I forgot my briefcase and left all of Nancy's stuff home. Nancy Stewart, my co-host, made a special effort to come in today because she tore her tendon on her foot and had an operation on it and was out last week and now she's back. And it was a major effort for her to get in the studio. So we get in the studio and bam, technical problems and we got on the radio earlier this morning and said, no show, we're going to play a rerun.

And suddenly, we didn't fix the problem. It just miraculously healed itself. And it might come back. But we figured what the heck, let's give it a try. We love doing the show. We hope we have some listeners out there. And it's going to be especially important to us this morning to have you communicate with us. We do have a mystery shopping report, an interesting report, on CarMax.

They're the largest used car operation on the planet. They're actually the second largest operation in South Florida. But we did a great mystery shopping report on them. We always have a lot of fun doing that. And if you'll stay tuned, we will do a real mystery shopping report that we did yesterday, January 31st. So everything is current and it's not a rerun. You're listening to Earl Stewart on cars live. And we would love to have you call us.

I'm going to give these numbers out until you keel over because we need your. calls we need your calls eight seven seven nine six oh nine sixty that's the audio phone number eight seven seven nine six oh ninety nine sixty and the text number is seven seven two four nine seven six five three oh love to hear from you let me ask Nancy Stewart who really made a major effort we had to wheel her in to the studio because she can't put any weight on her boot special thank you to Rick Kearney who got me from the first floor

to the fourth floor. Thank you, Rick. Exactly. It's really great to see all you guys, and I'm glad I'm back. And it is a wonderful show. Tell everybody how much you love the female callers and why that's so important. You know, I was driven by them this morning,

and they thought that, you know, someone would call and help to build this platform that we're building. And Tina has been part of the march, and I can't thank her enough. So ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. No conditions, no strings attached. Every time I say that in the back of my mind, I say, what would I think if somebody said all you have to do is to make a phone call and I'm going to get $50 cash? I wouldn't believe

you. I say, that's BS. I said, where's the fine print? Where's the disclosure? You're not going to give me $50 just for calling the radio show. It's a gift card, right? Yeah. No, it's a check. There's a string attached. No strings attached. Total, 50 bucks. Up to $50. All you have to do, you've got to be female, and you have to call the show for the first time. And the first two that do that, 50 bucks. Absolutely. We'd get more callers if we did it, the car dealer style. We could say up to $50. Up to $50, yeah. You may be a winner.

We accept all requests for $50. We'll virtually send you $50. I want to thank Tina over and over again. She has led the march, and Tina is on the phone, and she's waiting for us to, well, get her through. Hopefully that will be successful. Good morning, Tina. Good morning. How are y'all doing this morning?

You're great. Flustered. Terrible. Calm us down, Tina. Say something to make a smile. Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. Earl, I heard your sing an audition earlier, and you would not even make it at a cheeky cut in Everglades City.

I would suggest to keep your date-up. It's kind of coming through. You're a little faint there. I didn't understand that, Tanya, could you repeat? Can you hear me okay now? Yeah, you better now, yeah. Okay, I was going to say, Earl, I heard your singing, and you would not even make it at a cheeky bar in Everglades said.

You know how some people love to sing in the shower. That's probably where I do all my singing in the shower, because everybody sounds good in the shower. I don't sound good on the radio. I agree with them. I'll try to control myself. It's okay. I have a quick question.

My father and mother just went to Germain, Toyota, Lexus, in Naples, and they got themselves a certified-used Lexus SUV, and it's beautiful. And I told my dad, I said, you know, with this whole Picata airbag business, is you really do need to check and make sure that airbag was replaced. And he says, oh, no, I think they did everything. But if something is certified used or, I should say certified pre-owned, excuse me, certified pre-owned, does that mean the recalls have been taken care of?

I can address that, Tina. No, it doesn't. And they're supposed to be taken care of. So the manufacturer, and we just went through this because we had a massive recall, millions of tootas and hondas were affected and we were we received instructions not to list these for sale as certified vehicles now as a our policy anyway is not to sell them anyway so that's our internal decision but across the country Toyota let all their dealers know not to call these certified vehicles that said a lot of dealers left them up online and we did report them to

Toyota. I can only speak for Toyota, but I am assuming the same situation happens with Honda and everybody else. Maybe the official rule is you can't call it a certified car if it has an open recall, but it's up to the individual dealer to actually comply with that, and we know what they tend to do. CarMax has a form of certification also, and they do sell cars with recalls. And so you have to check every time, whether it says certified or, you know, safety check. you know, the verbiage that all the manufacturers, I should say, dealers use, is different. So, yeah, is buyer beware, you really have to check your own car and take care of yourself when you're buying a car today? Well, that's good to know, because I wasn't sure when we kind of got into a little bit of a debate on it.

That I think you really need to check your VIN just to be sure. Now I know I'm going to go ahead and let him know. Sure. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. There's so many people that want to buy certified pre-owned cars. Yes. It can be a good buy, and it's only as good as the people that do the check on the checking list.

And the Stu just made a face because we're hearing a noise. Can you hear that, Tina? A little bit. It's not bad. Yeah, that's not bad. It was terrible before, and we couldn't even hear ourselves think. So let's hope the tone in the background remains low Or maybe that even goes away

But Tina, thank you so much for calling. We were, I felt like a man in a life raft Out of the middle of the ocean, what was going to happen? And you got the show started out really good. Yeah, definitely. And we really appreciate your calls. Hey, Tina, I have a question for you. Isn't it amazing as daughters with our parents?

it gets to be somewhat of a sensitive subject whenever you start suggesting things or telling them how to do whatever is that true with your conversation with your parents no no not really my parents are very independent they're pretty well with it so I haven't really crossed that barrier yet I don't know if I'm making any sense that

oh you are definitely I don't have to yeah that's great that you have that relationship with them, and you can advise them, and they can advise you. Tina, it is always great to hear from you, and thank you, and have a wonderful weekend. Thank you, and ladies, Nancy and I can't decide us up by ourselves. We need you.

Thank you. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we are here waiting for your calls. That number is 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772, 497-6530, and don't forget, www. www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. You can take advantage of that. Tell us what you think, and we would, well, love to share it with everyone on the show.

Now back to the recovering car dealer. Well, let's see if we're getting any text. I know we had an anonymous feedback, but we'll get to the text now, and as I say, because of the half-aborted beginning of the show, we're now back live this is February 1st 2020 and if you just

happen to go to the kitchen and get a cup of coffee and come back or do whatever you're doing and you heard my original announcement this morning, you can forget about that we're at least temporarily back on the show live February 1st, 2020 and you can call us at 877-960

9960 again that call-in number is 877-960-90 960, or you can text us at 772-4976530. And we're going to go to Mimi, who's holding. She's a regular caller. Good morning, Mimi. Welcome to the show.

Oh, thank you. Good morning. I'm sorry to hear about your mishap. Hope you getting better. Yes. Also, I wanted to say that I had to try a few times before I could get through. So tell everyone to keep trying. Oh, thank you for sharing the.

Okay, my thought and question is the battery. I haven't had time to attend to my 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis battery to get it replaced. And I wondered, is it, how long can I wait? It's been like 10 days the car just sits. Can I leave it another week, or do I have to really get on the stick? pretty much the only issue that you should have in most cases with this if the battery is just dead and the car is just kind of sitting for a while is once you get a new battery in there when you start the car it may run a little rough for a little while the computer's going to forget

its program of what it had learned of how your engine was running the best thing to do then is just take the car out and just do a nice gentle test drive for about 15 or 20 minutes and odds are it should smooth out and settle down for you. And if it does get check engine lights or something like that, then you'd want to check on it. But otherwise, just a short test drive for a little while. Just give it a chance to relearn everything. Oh, thank you. So, but is it necessary for me to really replace the battery next week, or could I wait another week?

Does it still start the car? Oh, no. No, no, we're dead. Yeah, you can pretty much wait until you feel like it, really. It's not going to make a big difference. If the battery's already dead at this point, it won't make a difference if you wait another week or even two weeks or longer before you put the new battery in and get it back on the road. I just wouldn't give it more than like two or three weeks because you don't want to take a chance on other things going on,

like the fuel getting too old, which, you know, sitting for a month or more, fuel can start to degrade and things like that. Oh, I didn't know. Okay, well, I appreciate your help. You're very, very helpful. Have a wonderful day, and I hope people can get through. Thank you, Mimi. It was great hearing from you. Stay in touch.

We are going to go to John from Palm City. Can't tell you how happy I am that John got through. And John, we forgot our information and briefcase. And this morning, I was going to thank you for being so kind to send me so much information that Earl and I took a lot. look at. And I want to thank you for your dedication. And I found your material very helpful. So welcome to the show. Welcome back, Nancy. I hope to get a fast recovery. And I'm glad I got through. I understand technical problems. And I'm pretty much in a remote part of Palm City as you're going

to October. So sometime I don't even get good radio reception. But here's the good nose with your radio station. Not only that they're great for handling. your show. And also on every Tuesday in Stewart, they sponsor a largest cruise night of old cars and collector cars in South Florida. And they're the major sponsor of it. And it's held at the Lowe's home center, which is across from Wallace Cadillac. So my kudos to this radio station for not only handling your show, but also to run this largest show in South Florida from Collector Cars. Thank you. I just want to give a congratulations to the radio station, and we all understand that there's

technical problems. The first thing is I just remembered something. When the woman just called now with a mercury, we mentioned part sources, and Earl talked about rock auto.com for your modern parts, and the mercury, put me in mind that Chevrolet, Pontiac, Camaro, T-Bird, including Her Mercury, one of the largest sources, and they're right here in Florida, but they're all over the United States for automobile parts, for parts of older cars, is National Parts Depot. I think they're in Orlando area.

It's an 800 number, 874-7595. then the one that's very obvious people don't even know about them for Mercedes Ben's parts they have this is Mercedes directly but not your regular Mercedes number it's they're on Facebook it's uh for instance a woman with a 64 a Mercedes 230 SL they needed an axle they have them brand new in stock brake parts suspension parts mostly for older Mercedes classic cars

and it's a direct number Mercedes but it's not Mercedes you know the actual Mercedes number it's a division of them 866 622 52777 then there's many other groups for Buick Cadillac Pontiac Chevy

one of them is original parts group 800 So for people like with Saturn, Mercury, Pontiacs, and they're worried about these firms that I talked about, they can research it further, have brand new parts, mechanical parts available, so that they don't get stuck or have to junk their cars, they can keep them going with these parts sources. So I just thought I'd mention it. Thank you. And I want to mention something else, too.

one of the things that I mentioned to Nancy when I got out of college I met a junkyard man in Mount Vernon, New York tremendous amount of parts and cars I mean probably the biggest United States

one in Russia but I got a very good lesson from him his philosophy on life was unbelievable and what he said to me and I'll never forget it and it worked he said to me

behind every good man is a woman and I don't want to guess I don't know the background of Earl and Nancy but I wouldn't doubt if Earl who wasn't the most straightest car dealer when he mentioned

it mentioned and entered in 1968 but I'll bet you Nancy Stewart had a lot to do with turning him completely around well you're right about that you think I'm right absolutely that's the reason they call me the recovering car dealer

I started recovering about the time that we met so it was it was meant to be. Well, I can attest to that myself. So I'm glad to hear there's another actual case. And I kind of was suspicious that that's

what happened. Thank you so much, John. Behind a good man is a woman. Yep. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, John. Welcome back. Please call again, John. We miss you there for a while.

I know the technical problems are to overcome but you know we count on you you're uh been with us longer than anybody you go back to the very beginning when nancy and i were only on for a short time half hour one hour and now we're two hours so uh you're part of the show we we miss you when you when you don't call yeah john was very instrumental in making us part of making us happen so thank you john and thank you so much for the compliment you're a great person uh 877 960 9960 and you can you can in Texas at 772-4976530 and as usual we will have the mystery shopping report coming up and I see that we have a call from California so we're going to go to Rob. Good morning Rob. Good morning.

Thank you for waiting. Absolutely. Thanks for being there. I appreciate what you guys do. You guys have been a big help. I'm looking to buy a new car. I'm probably about two weeks out. I've spent the last four to five months gathering information, researching. I've listened to your podcast. I've binged it recently. A few other podcasts, websites, et cetera. I figured out what car I want. I'm getting a 2020 Honda Civic Hatchback. And I'm going to be adding about $2,000 worth of dealer installed options that I've selected, and I'm going to make sure that there's no other options other than those. I'm planning to buy probably around President's Day.

I'm pre-approved through my credit union for an auto loan. The terms were exactly what I want, up to $30,000, 2.74% for 60 months, which I plan to pay it off sooner. I'm also a Costco member, and I plan to follow the directions that you have on your blog, which great by the way and getting out the door out-the-door price no hidden fees once I have my Costco price is there a point in using another online buying site am I simply going to get and simply going to hit the same dealers twice with the same services with different services or I mean does that even make sense this hey Rob this is Stu I think you should just to play it

safe because we've done, when we did a series of Costco mystery shops last year, we found that some, the Costco price, they didn't follow the program is what happened. And the Costco price was actually higher than their online price in one case. In another case, the true car price was better. So you've got to keep them honest. And stay in contact with Costco. You're already registered and they know you're out there looking and they want feedback from you. So as Stu said, check, if you could check with at least one other, preferably two other Costco members and compare the prices. And, you know, I just, when you were talking, what was going through my mind is Rob is the car buyer of the future. You're the 21st century consumer personified, and you

are the consumer, the car buyer that is feared by car dealerships. And that's not tongue and chic the whole industry the whole retail car industry is very frightened about the fact that we have people like you rob that go out there and do their homework when you do what you do you will buy your new honda civic 2020 for an extremely good price in fact a better price than anybody else will and the dealer will not make much money and he may make no money it will be a very small profit to him and if that happened on nationwide and there were many many more people like you it would mean that the demise of the retail car dealership is we know it today so congratulations and uh it really means a lot to us that you got some of the knowledge uh from our show and we'd love

to hear back from you uh after you buy the car in fact i'd love to hear the price that you paid out the door and I'd like to broadcast that to the listeners around here because if you do your homework like you did and buy the car the way you will buy the car you'll buy the car you'll buy the car for thousands of dollars less than a lot of people are buying that exact same car for I appreciate that I'm going to try not to feel too guilty don't know no the times are changing it's the car dealers that are out of sync they're operating in the last century and they're the only retailer I know of that has not entered the 21st century and they're entrenched by state franchise laws protecting them so you're right and they're wrong and they're

going to have to adopt they're going to have to change radically whether they like it or not the way they retail cars and as I say you are the spark and people listening to you will do what you did, and more and more people will begin to shop and buy cars the right way. But I love to hear from you next week or the week after whenever you consummate the deal. Absolutely. And I appreciate you being the fuel that's helping the spark. Thank you, Rob. Thank you so much, Rob. Stay in touch. 877-960 or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Don't forget www.W.W. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. And I want to introduce our next guest that's calling, and he is a fabulous person. I think that everything he touches, well, you might say he's got the

Midas touch. Barry, welcome to the show. I have the minus touch selling and buying with Barry O'Brien Good morning Good morning Good morning Good morning Good to be back on the air on that station

I was on there a few years ago You have a great radio voice Can I set the premise Just lay the groundwork Barry in full transparency disclosure Is a friend I've known for a while And learned a little bit of what I know on radio

from Barry. He's a professional, and I'm an amateur. But he's really a great guy, and he read a blog that we wrote a little while ago about the bogus charges that are, that are snuck, they sneak him in on you when you exercise your option to purchase. And he read the blog, and he was in the process of exercising the option to purchase. So with that framework, Barry, I love to hear your story. Plus, Barry says he has a solution to that threat, so can't wait to hear, Barry. We'll see if we have a solution.

The vehicle is, it's a Kia cadenza which I leased for two years, and I leased it from North Lake Kia, and this is not a knock on North Lake Kia.

They seem to do fine. I think I got a fair price and everything. And the lease agreement was was given by Kia, okay? In other words, it's a motor vehicle lease agreement from Kia finance, but North Lake Kia filled out all the blanks, okay? They put in my name and the costs and all that stuff, okay? Now, when you get to the part of, excuse me,

a purchase option at the end of lease term, it says you have an option to purchase the vehicle from us. Now, in my mind, that means Kia. That doesn't mean North Lake Kia because the agreement is with Kia. That's who I make my payments to. You can purchase the vehicle from us at the scheduled end of the lease term, as is whereas from us or a party we designate for the residual value on line 7D plus a purchase option fee of $0.0. And I look and I go, that's perfect. I have read that if you go to take the, if you go to purchase your car at the end of the lease and you go to the dealer, they can add fees to it, but if you do it directly through the leasing company, it may not cost you any fees.

But then the next sentence says, if you purchase a vehicle through the originating dealer named Section 1, which is North Lake Kia, instead of the purchase option fee, you will pay a fee to such dealer in the amount of $1,000. $1,098. Now, that's $1,100. So when I looked at the, when I looked at the residual value of this car, it was, I think it was like $16,000, $16.5. And I said, and that's a pretty fair price. And I have very low miles on it. And I like the car. So I said, that's a pretty good deal. Well, also, if you had $1,100, it's not such a good deal. So I called the Kia 800 number for the lease and terminate. What they told me was that since Kia does, and you can fill me in, and you're the expert on the car, if I understood this correctly, because Kia does not own any dealerships in the state of Florida, Florida, and four other states do not allow them to sell the car directly to me that I would have to go through the dealer. This is correct. This is correct. Okay. Okay. But the guy on the phone, it sounded like he wanted to tell me a little more, but he couldn't.

And what he said was, you get to the dealer, and if you don't like what they tell you, call us back and we might have a workaround. Well, tell me the workaround now. So I called North Lake Kia. I couldn't get through. their automated voice said something like welcome to North Lake Kaya but anyway

I'm not trying to pick on them well I wasn't having a look getting a hold of anybody so I used one of their chat things on their website in about three minutes a woman called me and she must have been on commission to get people to come in and say oh Mr. O'Brien

if you come in in the next two days We've got the most incredible deals, whatever. I'm like, you're not paying any attention to the deal. All right. So I called back. I go, all right, we're not getting anywhere here. And I called back to Kia. And I happened to get the same guy on the phone.

And he gave me the name of a company. He says, called this company, and they can help you. And it was called, where is my paper here? Innovated Funding Services. innovative funding services now for all i know it could be a wholly owned subsidiary of kea i don't know but i talked to a very nice woman there she was in austin texas and she said no we can we do this all the time we can provide you with the uh with financing for the car when it's over you don't have to go to the dealer and there is there will be no fee now i wasn't my lease isn't up until

made so i couldn't really get into the discussion of it i have i have 800 credits for so i know i'll get a really good interest rate but it sounded like i didn't have the option to actually pay cash if i wanted to give them a check for 165 plus the tax and all that other stuff i don't know that that's an option so that's where i am right now i don't think i can get any really more information in a couple of months but my point on this is the kia instituted, instigated, whatever you want to go, they came into a motor vehicle lease agreement with me. They prepared it, and it says,

you have the option to purchase the vehicle from us. Exactly. At the schedule, end of the lease, blah, blah, blah. Well, if they're not allowed to do it, then obviously I don't have the option to purchase it from them. Well, that was the subject of my blog was, this sounds like a bad faith contract. You probably heard the terms in contracts, they have to be in good faith.

If I do a contract with you to cut your finger off and you agree to it, that's not a good faith contract. You have to have that good faith. And when the Kia leasing company contracted with you to lease the car with an option to buy at this price with no fees, then they have to do that. I think it's grounds for a lawsuit. I know you don't want to have any part of that. A lot of people don't want to get involved with lawyers. The advice I gave to Barry, to you, Barry, was to shop other Kia dealers, find one with a lower dealer fee, or some that would just waive the dealer fee, would be their option.

A competitor might do that. I mentioned Gunther Kia in Fort Lauderdale because I've known the Gunther family for 50 years, and they're honest people, they're transparent. They might do you a favor to waive it. Back on the earlier question, Barry, Florida law and almost the law in all 50 states requires that every new car be retailed, every new car be retailed by a franchise new car dealer.

And when I said earlier in the show, they're entrenched. They have a monopoly. Nobody can retail a car, not even a manufacturer, are prohibited by law from retailing cars. They have to be. These are state laws that were lobbied in by dealers and dealers associations, political action committees, and they basically bribed all the state legislators

to give them monopoly on selling cars, and that's the reason they get away with bloody murder. But I would try calling Gunther or some other dealer. A competitor of North Lake Kia might just have fun by taking away the business and depriving them of their $1,098 dealer fee. I know I would. Yes.

Well, Earl, I have a question. Yeah. What is the story with the other manufacturers? What is Toyota do? Are you are, does somebody whose lease is ending on Toyota, can they, can they end it through Toyota or do they have to go through you? They have to go through a Toyota dealer. Anyone in the state of Florida, actually Kia has got a better deal. the key lessor has a better deal in Toyota.

Toyota, when someone next has their option to purchase, has a purchase option fee that they charge. And then on top of that, the Toyota dealers charge their own dealer fee. We don't. We don't charge any fee when someone returns the car to our dealership, but we're a one Toyota dealer out of 270 or something like that in the Southeast United States. of in for Southeast Toyota,

but all the other toilet dealers will charge you their dealer fee. There's dealers, we know, Al Hendricks and Toyota and the Coconut Creek, their dealer fee is over $2,000. You exercise your option to purchase, they'll charge you over $2,000

dealer fee. So this is the way with every manufacturer in the state of Florida. Well, the manufacturers don't have anything to do with dealers. In California, they're limited by law to $75 for a dealer fee. In Florida, I didn't, I didn't mean the dealer fee.

I mean with the manufacturer. Manufacture. You can't buy it directly from the manufacturer. No. You have to go through a dealer. Exactly. And that's part of the reason that the car dealers are operating in the 20th century, because they are, it's like having a lifetime agreement to sell cars and retail.

You can't have any competition. Nobody can compete against you a Toyota dealer in Florida unless Toyota gives them a franchise, which is approved by the state. And the state will not approve a franchise if it's too close to another dealer. And so you have a monopoly. Every car dealer in Florida and every state has a virtual monopoly that is required by state franchise law, which is lobbied in by car dealers. Even the manufacturers don't like the idea. But we are, as a car dealer, I love it, because I have a unique ability.

Nobody can come and compete with me. I'm going to sell my Toyotas, and if you don't have a franchise from Toyota approved by the state, you cannot compete with me. Interesting. Well, I learned a lot here. You gave me a little bit of more information. Well, Barry, I can't wait to see how this thing gets resolved. and when you call the Gunther in Fort Lauderdale just say you're a friend of mine

and that I think they know me and I used to compete with them years ago they were a monster dealer while I was a monster dealer many years ago and they were the most honest competitor we had back then and they are... Well I am

Earl I am still available for adoption so you know your son might like an older brother I would like the company car, but it doesn't know. Well, we'll start with lunch, and then we'll talk about the adoption. That's the deal. All right, Earl, thank you. Thank you, Barry. Great call.

I really appreciate it. Nice hearing from you, Barry. Good luck. We are going to go to Charles, who's been holding for quite a while from West Palm Beach, and this is the first time that he's called the show. Welcome, Charles. Good morning. Good morning.

How are you? I'm doing good. I hope you can resolve my problem. I was leasing a Toyota. And after three years, I turned it into, I bought a Buick. I'm leasing a Buick now. I turned it in on January 2nd to a local Buick dealer. And the salesman,

went over the car, looked at it, checked it in, didn't find any problems with it. Yesterday, I got in the mail that I owe them $551. Part of it is wear and use, excessive wear and use, and the other is a disposition fee. Now, who's responsible me or the Buick dealership? Did you say you lease a... Charles, did you say you lease a Toyota or a Buick? A Buick. A Buick.

Okay, I'm sorry. Misunderstood. This is unfortunately standard procedure with leasing companies, and they all have the lease disposition fee, which if you who did you who did you lease the Buick from Del Rey

Del Rey Buick The disposition fee shouldn't be charged if you lease another Buick That is my understanding It's the way it is with Toyota And most other manufacturers Rick He said he had a Toyota

But he switched to a Buick And switched his Toyota lease traded it in and got a Buick lease. Okay, but you didn't turn your Toyota lease into the Beulich dealer. Did you? Yes, I did. Okay, that's what

puzzled me because normally Toyota requires that you turn your car into a Toyota dealer and, or they... Well, let me jump in. The way the Toyota lease works in the southeast at least, if you

release a Toyota or you finance with Southeast Toyota finance they will waive the disposition fee if you go from a Toyota and you don't release they like you did you went and bought a Buick they're going to charge you the $350 I understand that

in fact it's in the letter that they sent me but my concern is $176 for excessive wear and use what was specifically do they get detail on that are they did it what was the detail um curb rash dense chips

light scratch heavy scratch yeah they show no pictures they sent one picture with this which was the front of the car But when I turned it into Buick, they found no chips or scratches. Now, perhaps that happened at the Buick dealership. Sure, yeah. Yeah, entirely possible. Did you have the official, like they recommend getting an inspection done, they send somebody out to your house, take a look at it.

Did that happen? I didn't, no. Yeah, that was, they usually will send, so who sent you the pictures? That came in from Southeast Toyota Finance after it was turned in. The best course of action, yeah, it's tough to take care of that. If there is a, because the Toyota dealers usually have a relationship with the bank, if there was some kind of disputed damage on the vehicle, sometimes they can intervene on your behalf, and they might be able to waive it or reduce it or something like that,

your best protection and this will go when you got the Buick did you lease that or did you buy it? Yes I'm leasing it. It's really important because they can be real sticklers and they got you because it was in the contract so the best way to protect yourself is to get that official

inspection done and they have and this is before you turn it in so you have the opportunity to dispute anything that you disagree with so if they come up and they say that it's excessive wear and tear and you think that it's minor and it shouldn't be then you have an opportunity to talk about it then. Without that

official inspection, you're kind of hung out there to drive. Charles, I hate to give you bad news, but the fact is that when you switch vehicles, you go from one make to another make car, the lesser or the former make

has very little sympathy. They don't love you anymore. Yeah, very little sympathy. If you had at least another Toyota, you could probably negotiate it down the price. The fact that you leased to Buick And that's wrong.

They were wrong to do that. I don't like the whole concept. I think that they should take disposition fees and all the other fees. They have an acquisition fee and they have a disposition fee. You probably didn't even know you paid an acquisition fee. This should all be included in their advertised prices. But they don't do it. All the manufacturers are derelict in this.

The less whores are derelict in this. And it's wrong. And you got caught in the vice, and I'm really very sorry. nicely okay I appreciate the call I will I will suffer yeah the good news $177 is extremely small compared to some of these bills that we see come in for thousands we see them for thousands of dollars even when they lease another Toyota or buy another Toyota and we go back and negotiate sometimes we can negotiate zero we're usually successfully getting some reduction but that's when

they release or or buy another Toyota so 177 you got lucky and I know it doesn't feel that way but you got lucky you're very lucky Charles when you got that Buick you went against the family yes exactly and Charles most times whenever these

cars when you turn your car in and it sits in the lot you know anything could happen all the scratches everything you just mentioned could have happened when you turned it in you're not responsible for it but unfortunately there are a lot of people who don't

take pictures of their vehicle whenever they turn it in and it sits on the lot and it's well they roll the dice and whatever so as the guy said you got off easy so I can't thank you enough Charles for calling the show and I certainly hope that you stay in touch with us I certainly will thanks very much you're welcome have a great weekend our telephone number where we can be reached is 877 960 9960 and you can Texas at 772-4976530. We do have a great mystery shopping report, and it's the Tocata test again, and that mystery shop comes from CarMax in Boynton. And I think by the expression on the guy's faces, there's YouTube, and there is Facebook. And Stu is looking very mysterious.

I just got to say, after this aborted start to the show, canceling the show, restarting the show. We thought this show was going to be a total disaster, but we're getting a lot of calls and a lot of texts and YouTube. That's wonderful. And we got a lot of people watching on Facebook, so. Life is good. I'm ensuring them are really live. We forgot our, we forgot all our material. February 1st, 2020. Briefcase, Mr. Stewart, and everything was going awry earlier, and here we are, successful. See, I knew it was going to turn out okay. But I'm an internal optimist. This one's really good. He's so sweet.

I love this one. Earl, I would like you to hear a true story as a result of a dealer shenanigans. I've been purchasing new cars since 1953 and always purchased a car for myself and my wife every two years. Also, in Florida, since 1972, I have purchased two cars from my wife and myself every four years. In 1991, I had a very bad experience with a dealer who used old school tactics and totally turned me off to buying a car. And since then, I hardly purchased any cars. I'm financially able to buy any car I want any every year

but I will not do it. The end result is that up north I have a 2011 steel top infinity convertible in a 2002 Lexus SUV. In Florida I have a 1998 BMW convertible and a 2001 BMW four-door sedan. As you can see, I hardly ever buy cars anymore because of that bad experience.

I'm a perfect example of a frequent buyer who was totally turned off by the crap we have to put up at many agencies. As you can readily see, my four cars are in 1998, a 2001, a 2002, and at 2011. I take care of the cars, and I'm quite happy not having the newest car on the block. Unable to find a reasonable dealer, it has essentially removed me from the car buying market. As once succinctly said by Lord Bacon, revenge is much sweeter when served cold. Thank you for allowing me to vent, one pissed off car buyer.

You know, that's a classic. I really love that text because it's, it's, true for tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, who knows, millions of people. I've talked to so many people that say, I have an older car because I just don't want to go through the painful experience of going into a car dealership. And the manufacturers must realize this too because they sell the cars to the dealers. And I think the manufacturers are caught between a rock and a hard place. They need the goodwill of the dealers. They need to have a relationship with the dealers in order to maximize their new car sales but they also realize that the dealers

are frightening away customers pissing off customers as the texter said and people i guarantee you people are almost everybody buys cars less frequently instead of buying every five years they're buying every six years or if they buy every four years they'd probably be buying for three years, I promise you, if suddenly someone waved a magic wand and everybody operated like a Tesla dealer does, and Tesla dealerships are the exception of the rule, if everybody got treated with courtesy and respect, honesty, and transparency, the new vehicle sales in the United States would increase 20%, 30%, I don't know what it would be. But the problem is manufacturers know this, but their solution to the problem is to push leasing,

which forces you to come back instead of like better behavior. They know it, but they can't do anything about it because the dealers are entrenched with state franchise laws. See, the state franchise laws in all 50 states were built originally 100, not 100 years ago. They started probably 50 years ago to protect the dealers against the manufacturers. The manufacturers at the very beginning,

when I was a Pontiac dealer in 1968, the Pontiac General Motors were predatory. They preyed on the dealers. They took advantage of them. They pushed them around. They canceled franchises. They put dealers out of business. My father was a district manager for Pontiac Motor Division,

and his instructions when one of their dealers passed away. This is a true story. They sent, General Motors sent my father into a Pontiac dealership and said, do whatever you do, to get her upset enough where she'll sign this agreement to waive the franchise. And he went in there and did what he was ordered to do. That's how predatory and nasty the manufacturers were a long time ago. So sprang up all over legislators protecting the dealers,

and pretty soon dealers are pretty well protected. Do you know in Florida they have a perpetual contract? Every car deal in Florida has a lifetime contract. They cannot, a manufacturer cannot cancel a Florida dealer for any reason other than something extreme, like a felony or, you know, something absolutely terrible. A dealer can get away with just about anything in Florida, and they're protected. So the manufacturers have to tippy toe around the dealers. And that's the reason the dealers can get away with anything they want to.

Anyway, great text, and I know the manufacturer is a squarman now to figure out how they can get out of situation. A great answer. Okay, I didn't mean to rant. You're just informing the audience. I got emotional. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-3-0. And we are going to go back to Stu or go to Rick. Let's let's share it. I've got one that I think you're going to like. David Peretto says, good morning, Mr. Stewart. I want to thank you for answering. my request for help last week with your son. I just want to let you know that I've managed to have them replace my used tires under my Yukon XL Denali 2020 vehicle. However, I had to complain to General Motors for them to take actions. The dealer tried to scam me. You should do a mystery

shop to Fountain Auto Mall of Orlando on Orange Blossom Trail, especially the service department. I am 100% sure that they do that practice to place used tires under a new vehicle if you do not buy the warranties that they want to sell you and they profile you. The dealership is under Orlando Automotive LLC. Please advise your listeners to check your tire trends before leaving a dealership, especially if you buy a brand new car or one with low mileage. Thank you. And he also continues to say, I'm still fighting with them to fix the seal of the car.

the trunk I believe the AC box that is filtering air inside the cabin and they've already changed one but did not fix the problem I believe that they have two more strikes and then do I have a lemon well yeah you have three attempts documented by the way you have to put this in writing documented three attempts and you have action of lemon law in Florida so thank you very much for that YouTube and we just may shot the fountain automobile in Orlando that's that's uh only a couple hours drive yeah we're gonna hit the parks do a little universal Harry Potter World yeah Disney I'll do it nobody

knows me up there why's your thunder can take the kids no no no no no no I can do that I'm unknown in Orlando oh that's right here I'd be spotted so okay all right all right this is another text this from Joe says Earl when checking out this is this one's fantastic by the way Earl when checking out testing a used car prior to purchase it's easy to do if you have a list to follow. If you don't have a list, chances are you going to miss most of the parameters needed for a complete and definitive test.

Do you know where a list can be obtained? And if you do not, can someone on your staff, he's talking about me, prepare this aforementioned complete and definitive test list and post it online. And let me just jump in it. That's a great idea. We're going to put together a list of what to look for

when you're buying a used car and what to do, and we'll put it on earlancars.com. Yeah, and Rick can help us with a list. I started to check. Rick will make the list and now post it online. I started to say the gold check list, but I think that needs the modification, you know, the certified. Well, there's, there are things that a general consumer anyone can look at on the car to try to get an idea if there's an issue with them or not. But then there's also things that you're going to want to take the car to a qualified mechanic to have it fully inspected on any used car that you're looking at.

But I'm thinking with this list, they could give the. list of the qualified mechanic and absolutely you don't want to make it too detail because then you're talking about a lot of time and money right but a basic inspection and things under the car yeah in the engine things like that yep and it could also include things just things to ask about smells to look out for even just general advice you know like taking it to another mechanic and things like that check of bullet holes uh yeah bodies in the trunk right but also running the VIN checking for recalls stuff that you got to do

every time you look at a use car. All right. Here's a question for Earl. Do you always have to go to court for a depreciated value claim? Is there anything you should know specifically before proceeding? Talking about diminished value on the suit. Yeah, on diminished value, when you wreck a car, the insurance company pays to fix the car, but they don't take into account the fact that the mere wreck itself diminishes the value.

You can have a wreck car fixed to perfection where it looks just like new. But still, CarMax, or Carfax, I should say, and auto check are going to have a record of that. And when you go to trade it in, they're going to know your car was in an accident, and they'll get to $1,000, $2,000, $4,000, depending on the severity of the accident and the type of car. So, yeah, you should always ask for that. And many times the insurance company will step up at the plate. You do not have to go to trial or go to court. If you do, then you do, but you're going to win if you're, in fact, insurance company will not reimburse you.

They will always hold for the owner of the car in the diminished value case. Okay. Good morning. This is another text. Good morning. Have you all considered revealing the name of the dealer and the brand slash model of the vehicle right after you all finish with the grading? I feel there may be some bias during the evaluation process. Perhaps it should be mysterious to everyone else on the panel as well.

Thanks and have a great weekend. Yeah, I wrestle with that a little bit. I mean, sometimes we didn't use to mention it, and then we just started doing it. I think part of the reason we mentioned it is we would like the dealer that we are doing the mystery shop on to tune in. And we think that it's just fun when they do that. we tell the truth. It's kind of like an in-your-face thing. I mean, I admit it that we brag about the fact that we've never been sued,

and we tell the truth, and you can't sue somebody for libel and slander if you tell the truth. So we're saying when we name ABC dealership that we're going to be shopping and we'll read the report at the end of the show, we're hoping, you know, everybody tunes in. The owner, the sales manager, the salesman, we hope they're all gathered around the radio. and then we can tell the story and they can, you know, like it or lump it. And, I mean, obviously, you know, we're human, so, you know, bias creeps into everything all humans do.

Yeah. But I can tell you, I mean, listen, we've had some pretty, I'll just say here, crappy dealers that we've given passing grades to. Yeah. And we've given some bad grades and some good dealers. So I think we keep it pretty fair. We try. Absolutely.

Yeah, we are biased. I mean, we're biased because we're in the business. We're in the trenches We compete with these people That don't play fair And that's one of the reasons we feel biased Yeah, and we get to the good, bad and the ugly We share it all

It's evenly divided I have a text from Fort Worth, Texas From Sylvia, and Sylvia owns a Jeep Wrangler And she says You know, for a woman, she just enjoys tearing up the trails And the terrain out that way

And she wants to know, even though it's a do anything, go anywhere of Jeep, why does she have so many problems with it? And why are they so popular? Well, I can tell you, Sylvia, that they're popular because, well, you're part of a cult. And as far as reliability, I'll let Rick answer that. jeeps are sexy yeah they are sexy cool vehicles

I want to drive a jeep I mean I I see a jeep I say boy that looks like fun that was part of and then I sober up and I say you know if I drove the Jeep

I could be killed they're not safe I'd spend a fortune on repairs and insurance is that your body you're talking about repairing or the jeep

well just check consumer reports it's just not a good product but they're fun Well, Sylvia, she agrees with you, and she said it in her text, that they're sexy. And that was the reason why, one of the reasons why she purchased it. There are videos online of people, now granted, these are modified jeeps, but they're still roadworthy. They can be driven legally on the road. And yet they will drive them up a rock wall that nobody in this room would be able to climb up.

And these jeeps will drive up that wall. It's amazing what they can do. And yet the jeeps that you find in the showroom, those brand new jeeps on the dealer's slots, just they're not a well-built vehicle. They're not a reliable vehicle. Is that the Jeep Spider-Man? If it weren't for Jeep, Fiat Chrysler would be bankrupt. They're hanging on by a thread. There's talks of bankruptcy.

They're trying to merge. But the Fiat Chrysler, Jeep Dodge manufacturer is hanging on by a thread. and the only profitable thing I got going for them is this crappy product, Jeep, which has also it's got the magnetism and charisma that sells millions of Jeeps worldwide and it's keeping them afloat.

I see what's happening eventually. The Chrysler Jeep, the whole corporation, will go down, Jeep will survive and somebody will buy the Jeep franchise because of the name and the charisma. And then if they're really lucky, they'll make it safe and reliable. That would be a real challenge.

And the other thing it seems with Jeeps is that they are one of the most, I'll call it modifiable vehicles out there that is the sort of thing that if your finances are there, you can spend three times the price of the original Jeep modifying it and building it into this monster creation of your own. Yeah, we've seen them. And it just seems like there's no other vehicle out there that has that mold ability, that clay factor,

that you can create it into your own like a Jeep. I mean, they're awesome that way. I think that Sylvia, as far as you talking about it, being expensive to take care of your Jeep, I think that if you maintain it and you just keep an eye on things, you're going to get what you give. So I hope we've all answered your question. Our number here is 877-9-60-99-60,

or you can text us at 772-497-6530. We're going to go to Howard, and he's calling us from Jupiter. Good morning, Howard. Good morning. Welcome. How's your day going, guys? Wonderful. Exciting.

We've had an exciting day so far. It has improved. Great. Okay. Okay, I've got a question to ask you. I have a cousin who lives in Hot Lantam, and the humidity is terrible. in the summertime. She has a 2006 Cadillac, and I'm trying to convince her to trade it in. She says there's no trade in value in a 2006 Cadillac. That was her only reason why she

wants to keep it. She says, I have a very good mechanic. He takes care of it, and there are no problems. So I told her the problems with the Cadillac in the future. and I convinced her to trade it in or sell it or donate it to a church, and she did it. Now, my question to you is, what method did I use to convince her to trade into Cadillac? There's one specific point that I told her that is very important you trade in this Cadillac because this is going to happen. What do you think that was? They would trash the product. and say Cadillac isn't a good product or not no no I think that could go wrong with a

cavillac because it's at 2006 Howard would you would you would it be the airbag tecotta airbag you got it uh-huh that's what I was going to say you live in you live in hot lancet humidity 2006 Cadillac even though I the airbag was not recalled but A 14-year-old airbag, in my estimation, is it a dangerous thing? Am I correct? You're absolutely right, and that's a very good point. We have talked about before, and we meant to do some research on that because we know that after 14 years, any airbag, a healthy good airbag isn't going to be too

healthy after 14 years, and there should be some regulation, and we talked about doing some research on that and now you have revitalized our thoughts on that process and we will look into it. Right now as far as I know if you got a 30 year old airbag there's no law saying you can't be driving a car with a 30 year old airbag but we know that's a bad thing

but very good point thank you Howard. Okay so I convinced her finally she went online and I know at one point I don't remember when. There used to be a sign on the visor, a little warning saying if your airbag is 10 years old, replace it. I don't remember that, but that was on some cars. That's a great idea.

I haven't seen it, but that should be the law. I mean, there should be something. People, you forget about your airbag, particularly if you haven't had an accident, and you forget about it, and you don't think about it. When you need it, you want it to be there, and it might not be. Yeah, she loved the mechanics. They took care of her, you know, and she wasn't worried about the safety features on the new cars compared to the Cadillac.

But when I told her about the airbag, and then she went online and she really found out about it. Yeah. You're a good friend, Howard. I'm glad you gave her that advice. Yeah, I know. And you just figure Atlanta with the humid summers. Oh, man.

I had a good idea. Now, let me ask you this question, Rick. Let me ask, if you live in Arizona, would the airbag deteriorate because there's no humidity? I'm going to say, yes, it will, but not as as quickly a rate. Because one of the things that they did state was that high humidity and heat were the bigger issues. I think it would still, it's still going to age, but not like they do in the human. emitted areas like Texas, Louisiana, Florida. NHTSA, if you look at any CarMax report, they list all the Sun Belt states in Arizona as one of them.

But you're right, humidity law, probably a little bit of there, but the Sun Belt states are named in the NHTSA reports. How about the Rust Belt states? Never thought about that, right? Not as much. You got a point. Yeah. Okay. It's great talking to you. Have a good day. Thanks, Howard. Give us a call tool free at 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 7-7-2-49-7-65-30.

Guys? Got a lot to get through. Oh, boy. I'll speak more rapidly. Actually, I'm going to summarize one. This is one from Brian on the west coast of California who got a kick at my remark last week. I'm like, there's only one coast in California. you, but anyway, I'm going to summarize it.

Basically, he told the story of his dad who just leased a 2020 Toyota Krola from Frontier Toyota, and the salesperson was Drew, and he just wanted to say it was an amazing experience. They were honest, transparent. They lived up to their promises. They did everything by the phone and by email. And when he showed up at Frontier Toyota, there were no surprises, and he had a great experience. So we are endorsing Drew at Frontier Toyota, somewhere in California. I guess Google it.

I don't know exactly where on the West Coast. No, I'm sorry, Valencia. That's just north of the L.A. The frontier is kind of a scary name, though. I think, wow. I wonder if there's a Deadwood Toyota. I knew exactly you were thinking about that. You got to Google that.

I know Valencia, California is just to the north of like downtown Los Angeles. I know because my son's first college choice is in Valencia, Cal Arts. But thanks, Brian. and I hope people are listening out in California and drew a shot. I got a question from Bob. He wants to know if it's true that the Toyota Venza is coming back. He needs a five-passenger SUV and Raffors is too small. Highlander's too large.

The rumor is true. The Venza, a beloved model that died too soon, is coming back as a hybrid. So that's true. And Anne-Marie, long-time texter, says, good morning. I hope you have a speedy recovery, Nancy. Thanks, Anne-Marie. She says, I'd like to make an observation. Automobile dealers spend a lot on advertising.

It seems that the positive word of mouth would be the best and cheapest form of advertising. Last time I bought a car was such a surprisingly pleasant experience. Respect, no pressure, no dealer fees that I enthusiastically told everyone I knew how happy I was. I suspect other happy customers also behave the same way. Has your advertising budget gone down due to positive word of mouth, or are all dealers required to spend the same amount in advertising? Just wondering. Anne-Marie is so sharp.

What an intuitive, smart question. You know, in South Florida, Ann Marie, we have a huge influx of new folks. I mean, let's face it, the Sunshine State, South Florida, everybody wants to live in South Florida, and the amount of new folks is you buy a car every five or six years. So people come down from New Jersey and they move in town, and the word of mouth doesn't work with those because they don't know anybody here

and they might have a few relatives but it's not like they were you know, for 15, 20 years. So you have to go out and capture the attention of the people that don't even know that you're there. There's businesses in South Florida that if you're not on television, if you're not on Facebook,

if you're not on Google or whatever, they're not going to know you're there. So it's a kind of a state. We're in kind of an area where we really have to shout and yell and you see a lot of it, too much of it. The answer is, yeah, word of mouth is the best way to go. Yes. Yep. And car dealers spend, what, about $400 per car sold on average is about the average price.

And if you figure you can do the math, if a car dealer sells a few thousand cars a year, that adds up to a lot of money, millions of dollars. If you're in a little bitty town in Kansas, you know, population 50,000, and nobody ever left and people didn't die that much, then you wouldn't need any advertising at all, because everybody knows who you were. If you're a bad guy, you're in trouble. If you're a good guy, you'll sell a lot of cars. Word of mouth is so powerful. It's amazing. If you're in the eddy-bitty town in Kansas, they don't have a choice. We know a guy in Amarillo, Texas, who's got a Toyota dealership.

Because you can watch your dog run away for two days. it's so flat and wide out there. He goes, and he has no competition. He's got to drive like 50 miles to get to the next Toyota. If you want a Toyota, you've got to buy it for him. Otherwise, you know. Thankfully for the folks in Amarillo, he isn't on as good guy. He is, but if he decided to go evil, oh, boy, watch out Amarola.

Oh, yeah, definitely. Thanks, Amnori. We're going to go to Jim who's been holding from Lake Worth. Good morning, Jim. Good morning, all. How are you? It's fine. How are you?

Thanks for tuning in. What can we do for you? I was just wondering, do you have an app that I can listen to your show on my phone? Yeah. Yeah, you can download, get tune-in radio, and you can listen to us live. And if you wanted to hear rerun shows, you can use just the Apple podcast app. Or if you're on, if you're on, have an Android phone, you can use Google Play. and just search Earl on Cars.

And all the old shows are there, and you can listen to anyone you want. And if you want to listen to us live, like I said, tune-in radio is probably the best way. And T-U-N-E-I-N, tune-in. One word. T-U-N-E-I-N. Just download that from the App Store, and you're in business. Yeah, because I tried on Google it a while back, and, you know, said Earl Stewart Car. show and

give me all kinds of information about your dealership and everything else, but nothing about the show. Yeah, Earl on Cars. You can also go online to Earl on Cars.com. I mean, Stream Earle or Cars.com.

www. www. Stream, S-T-R-E-A-M-E-O-O-N-Cars.com. Stream, Earle-on-Cars.com. And you can watch us there, Listen to us there. Okay, well, I'll do that sounds like the easiest at tune-in. Tune-in is probably easier, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. One other observation or question, on my third terrain, but when I first one, would I really always get annoyed about and argue as the, I call it in the lease. Is that what you're calling Exposition fee? What was it called?

Stu, did you get that? No. Okay, I'll repeat the question, please, Jim. Hi, Jim. What was that question? You broke up a little bit. You cut out. You cut out on us.

Could you repeat the question? Okay. Can you hear me now, all right? Yeah, I hear you loud. There. Okay. I was talking about that I had leased a terrain. The first time from GMC. Buey, Del Rey. And like I was saying, I really get annoyed about the end of lease fee. Is that what you were calling a disposition fee a little while ago? Yeah.

Disposition fee is a gotcha that all leasing companies have in their. fine print. And if you release or re-buy the car, then they waive it. But if you don't, they charge it to you. Okay. I'm wondering if Toyota Fly on TMC or GM financing, a freight car, or you added, the dealer just wanted to make the deal. they didn't show you guys. Well, the only, the leasing company is the one that can waive the fee. The dealer, the dealer can't waive the fee. Now, the dealer, of course, could pay the fee for you, but it's unlikely he would do that. That's probably strange, is it?

That's why I took the deal on the first. Yeah. Yeah, we got a bad connection. There was no end-goo Lee. No. I'm just wondering if that does happen. Yeah. Your phone connection is breaking up on this, Jim. Yeah, we can continue answering. I think it might be the weather.

Yeah. Oh, well, if you're having a lot of trouble in the call. Well, okay, thanks, Jim. I appreciate it. It sounds like it's either in the station or maybe in your phone. I'm not sure what it is. But please call again. Thank you. Yes, please do. 960-9960 or you can text us at 772-497-4976530 the guys have a lot of Texas and YouTube's coming in and our show is definitely a success but our callers

come first David good morning from North Palm Beach how are you good morning good morning hi this is David in North Palm Beach uh-huh welcome to the show David what can we do for you You're on the air. I have a technical question. I have a 2007 solar, they told the tire light is on. They told me I needed new sensors. I put four new sensors in it.

What is the button on the left-hand side down below? How do I reset it? After I put the new sensors in, my light is still on. Ah, yeah. See, unfortunately with Toyota, when you install the new sensors, they have to be programmed to the car using a factory tech stream computer. And it's something that you'd have to have done at a dealership. The button down low on the side there, that's only used for when we're resetting tire pressure.

Say you had a tire went flat and the light came on because of that. You can use that button to turn the light off or to reset the threshold level of where that light will come on, whether it comes on at like 25 pounds, 30 pounds or whatever. but once you've when you replace the sensors they've got to be reprogrammed to the car at a dealership how long does that take

it takes about 20 or 30 minutes really okay approximate cost okay David oh the approximate cost Rick what do you know? If all we're doing is just programming the sensors

I'm going to say about a hundred dollars but unfortunately we need the number off of the sensors. There's actually a number on each individual sensor, a code number that needs to be programmed in. So we should be able to get that with our other scan machine that reads those numbers off of it.

Okay. Okay, thank you very much. You're a lot of help. Thanks, David. Okay, we are going to go to Patricia, who is holding from Palm Beach Gardens. Good morning, Patricia. Good morning.

How are you doing today? Welcome to the show. Are you a first time? Yes. You just won yourself $50 for calling a girl steward on cars. And if you... You're welcome, Patricia. If you would stay on the line after you ask your question and text your information over to

us and I can get that check out to you. Okay. What can we do for you? My daughter bought a lease car like after we at your dealership. And in probably 2013, she's had great luck of it. It's a Camry. But I noticed today when I went up to open the trunk, there was like a plastic strip back there, and it was all moldy. I don't know if it's under the strip or on the top of it, but have you ever seen that? like on the slumper

yeah it's like a clear like a clear tape almost and then underneath yeah what that is that that clear tape that they put on there is a protector for when you're lifting luggage and stuff in and out of the trunk so that it will

hit the tape and not tear up the paint and unfortunately in Florida our environment is just so crazy sometimes the moisture gets under there really the best thing you can do is find a good detail shop and see if they can remove that plastic tape and clean it up from there and odds are that's going to be your best solution yeah because would they sell pieces of new plastic stuff to put on in or yeah yes yes you can get that that protector you can

get a new one but in order to get the old one off you're going to want to get a good detail shop that has a proper heat gun because they're going to need to actually warm that plastic up to a certain degree. It's kind of like an industrial hairdryer, really, and that way it can be removed, cleaned up, and have the new one properly reinstalled. Yeah, because her car is so nice, and I walk up in this whole moldy, I'm like, geez, something should be done about that. You ought to see some of the cars that I see inside the gas door, you know, the fuel refiller lid door. Wow.

Yeah. well thank you uh patricia thank you for going good luck with your dilemma and stay on the line so we get your uh contact information and mail to that check for $50 and give us give us a call again Patricia spread the word we need all the ladies and their help to build this platform right here at Earl Stewart on cars now back to our texas that are coming in and our YouTube yeah we got Steve on Facebook says last week I asked a question about car buying philosophy. Old school said that if you buy a used car, you're buying someone else's headache.

I'm still old school. Nowadays, cars are so well made. Buying used seems to make more sense. Is there a sweet spot where we get the best value? Use car is the best deal. It's better than a new car. If you find the right used car, you have gotten rid of all the depreciation that you suffer when you drive that brand new car off the showroom, four thousands of dollars depreciation. You save that and you just do your research, have the car checked by a mechanic, check the Carfax report, do your homework with consumer reports, buy a reliable car, don't buy a Jeep, and you've got yourself a real bargain. If I weren't a new car dealer, I would never buy a new car. If I weren't a new car dealer,

I would buy a late model used car and have it checked out carefully, probably maybe two-year-old, three-year-old, hopefully something that still has some new car warranty left. all the safety features. You don't want to go too far back. You don't want to go too far back, exactly, yeah. I'm not sure about this one. This is from Dave and West Palm Beach. It says, if things slow down too much,

could you regale us with the story behind the barracuda? Would love to hear it. I'm sorry we don't have time. Sure. Come on, Nancy. That's very funny. I love that. That was my first car.

Tell us again about the barracuda. And you can keep one. talking because I'm going to talk right over your voice and I had a barracuda and I was very proud of it I replied I would love you to tell that story I drove it like a diva what did you say I can come over there I'm scared I'm going to well no you can't you're gonna wheel yourself over here oh I got a boot on that's right I get outrun you okay let's move along I've got some stuff well we've got Don Parsons he's in northern California watching us live on YouTube right now

Bright and early out there. And he's asking, Earl, what are your thoughts on the Genesis G70 luxury sedan? I'm considering the 3.3T model. I haven't checked consumer ports recently. From what I know about it, it's a quality car. And I think Hyundai has gotten their act together, and they want a luxury line. They build it. and I think that it's probably a good vehicle.

Check in Consumer Reports. When you're buying a Mercedes and you're buying an Audi and you're buying a Cadillac and you're buying an Affinity, you're playing for the name. Which one is this? The Genesis G70. Genesis G70. Consumer Reports is your best source of reliability and maintenance, cost, insurance, safety.

And if it passes the consumer reports, I'd go for it. There we go. Jumping over to anonymous feedback. Okay. Hello, Earl. This is from an anonymous person. And by the way, we are alive February 1st, 2020.

Exactly. Hello, Earl. This past weekend show was an incredible episode. I love this guy already. It just transitioned so well from beginning to end. There was excellent conversation. Insightful commentary. I am just swelling right now.

Covelling, as my people say. insightful commentary and just good talk radio. I have a follow-up question to the leather seats topic. I'd like to keep my new fake leather seats in as good of a condition as possible to avoid cracking and fading. There's lots of products out there. What are some good products that

Alan has come across? Should one be cautious of products designed for leather when actual car seat is covered in fake leather? Are there cleaners for protection and protection creams that one can make by mixing products found around the home? I know there are forums and YouTube videos out there,

but there is nothing like Alan's input. Thank you, not Alan. I didn't make that up. I'm going to recommend mink oil. And the only reason I'm saying that is because I remember that from when I was a kid. You got mink oil to rub on leather. But honestly, for fake leather, I'm just going to go out on the limb here and try and channel Alan. I think that you are less likely to damage fake leather if you're just using because it's really a plastic.

So I think that a mild cleaner, possibly use. even maybe a little dish detergent. See, leather will dry out. I think vinyl and things like that don't because it is artificial. So maybe a gentle cleaner. Rick could chime in because he's a car guy. I'm not. My best recommendation on leather, true leather,

is a good conditioner like Lexol or Needsfoot oil. I think we're talking about fake leather, right? Well, that's made of make oil. For fake leather, again, I would stick with a very gentle, gentle detergent, and I would dilute the ever-loven out of it with water and have such a mild cleaner and just use that very gently and very sparingly. Does everybody remember rich Corinthian leather?

Yes, Ricardo Mantlebotten. Yeah, was that for Chrysler? That was the Chrysler Fifth Avenue. Corinthian leather. That's still a joke. 50 years later, nobody is with it. All of the kids are not what we were talking about. Another anonymous submission,

and hello Earl, I may have stumbled upon something that with your consideration and blessing may be a valuable piece of information for your audience. When I was purchasing my car, there were apparently two distinct types of documents to sign. State required documents and documents not formulated by the state. Some

documents had controlled numbers with state verbiage in them, while the others had the dealer's name and logo on them. Another document was strictly for serious XM radio. Now, I'm not saying that all the documents with a control number or revision dates or are state documents, but there seemed to be a dividing line.

So I reviewed every document but paid extra attention to the dealer drafted documents. One in particular was the arbitration agreement in regards to issues raised against the dealer. I refused to sign this document. To my surprise, yeah, a round of applause for you, very brave,

but to my surprise, the general manager instructed the finance manager to proceed with the handwritten note, quote, customer does not agree. Having said that, I believe all the documents should be reviewed, questioned, and the deal should be stopped if you don't understand what you are agreeing to. What are your thoughts? Thank you. Super Anonymous Incognito guy.

Well, you're also super smart, and we haven't got enough time in the show to cover it, but arbitration is really one of my hot buttons. All car dealers, except for our dealership, requires you sign an arbitration agreement before you buy the car. and you waive your right to a jury trial, to a trial by your peers. When you sign an arbitration agreement, you agree to have any disputes with a dealer resolved by a panel of arbitrators. Now, arbitration companies, they're professional companies, they get paid. They're on the payroll of the dealerships or the manufacturers or the company. The arbitration people are in the pocket of the companies

because that's where all the business come from. The customer, the person that might have the dispute, they might have, once in a lifetime, they'll have an issue in front of the arbitration panel. So it's clearly evident that the arbitration panels are biased to the dealerships. I think it's outrageous that you have to sign that. Congratulations to this texter for refusing to sign it. And if you read the vehicle buyer's order, when you buy a car, it will be right there. I recommend you cross it out and say, I'm not buying the car if you make me sign this arbitration agreement,

because if you screw me, I want to be able to sue you and take you to court, and I'm not going to waive that right. Is it an American, I won't waive my rights. That whole topic just kind of rubs all of us the wrong way here. It does. It's if all the bad things car dealers do, taking away one of the fundamental rights in the Constitution is a right to attack. And the lawyers said it too. When we drop the arbitration fee from our agreement, what did our lawyers say? Oh, you can't do that.

No, you can't do that. You're going to get sued by everybody. And you know what? We don't ever get sued. Oh, we have. Well, you know. But we're always right. Well, we.

I'm just kidding. Circling back to the question about the Hyundai Genesis, I looked on consumer reports, and it gets a really good score. It gets a five out of five on predicted reliability. It gets a 74 out of 100 on the road test, but that's a subjective opinion, even by Consumer Reports. And the predicted owner's satisfaction is a four out of five, and it gets an overall 82 score in the range of all their tested luxury vehicles.

It goes from 51 up to 88, so it's on the upper end of the luxury vehicles by Consumer Reports. Go buy that genesis. Great car. Hey, we're running out of time here. I think we better do our Mr. Shopping Report. Absolutely. And we can come back to the text later. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

mystery shop of CarMax in Boynton Beach, and it was another Takata test. The recalls keep coming. Last week, it was Honda and Toyota recalling 6 million. Six million vehicles for defective airbags.

Toyota, Toyota's recalled airbags may not deploy properly due to a defective electronic control unit. Honda's problem was a new twist on the old familiar Takada Ocean. In this case, improperly sealed airbag in place, may either deploy too forcefully or not forcefully enough.

It's a mess, truly. And just before these massive recalls, yet another round of Takada recalls were in the news, affecting 10 million. I just said six. Now I'm saying 10 million. I mean, it just sounds like all the cars. Every car, yeah. Yeah, every car.

Including Subaru, Volkswagen, Honda, Toyota, and Nissan. What's more, Nissan just added another 300,000. Sounds like a drop in the bucket. We're talking 10 million, 30 million, another of the 300,000. Who cares? You know, folks, only 25% of those cars will ever be fixed. Only 25%. 75% of them will never get fixed.

Rick? I just did a recall the other day on a 2003 tundra that the recall has been out for over 10 years. Yeah, there you go. Lucky guy. Although media attention on the issue was picked up the last two months, the Dakota story isn't exactly making headlines. The most recent story on CNN.com was on January 22nd, buried deep in the business section. FoxNews.com

post the New York post auto section piece on the Toyota and Honda recalls on January 23rd, and USA Today ran a piece on a January 9th, deep in the money section. I mean... And nobody goes to these sections. No. No, they got... And you know what's on the front page. Yeah. It's... If it leads, it leads, it leads. if you have anything that's controversial, anything that'll turn your stomach, get you mad. They've got to sell newspapers, they've got to sell advertising. It's terrible.

They don't care about your life or the recalls. It's just a sad situation. They're focusing on the coronavirus, which has killed 0.000000,000,000,000, 0.001% of the people in Takata crisis. Despite the apparent apathy, we have actually been able to report so good news on the show. The last two Takata-themed mystery shops, result in passing grades.

Very encouraging. Gricco, Chevrolet, and Wallace Mastra both disclosed the recalls in order to fix the effect, offered to fix the effect for a shopper before delivering the vehicle. Maybe this signals a change in car dealer behavior. Maybe it's a temporary reaction to the increased attention to the issue. It's too soon to tell.

I absolutely believe that this show, I'm going to pat myself on the back, and pack all you on the back, I believe this show has actually made a significant difference in South Florida. I think they know we're sending Agent Thunder out every week, and we've been hitting

a lot of Takata issues, and it's got to be embarrassing to those that flunk, and we've never had two passing grades in a row, and that is a really positive sign, so I feel sorry for the people that are not in the reach

of Earl Stewart on Cars. because I don't know anybody that's out doing what we're doing to alert the public and tell them what they should do. And this is usually when Rick chimes in and says, www. www.safercar.gov. Got that, folks? www.W.safercar.gov. It's your buyer beware.

If you don't do it, the car dealers aren't doing it for you. www.safercar.gov. This week we investigated the second biggest retailer of used vehicles in our area. They're actually the biggest of the world in the South Florida off lease only is outselling CarMax. CarMax is in Boynton Beach, just off I-95. CarMax usually fare as well on our mystery shops. But the last three times we visited, they failed the Takata test. Amazing.

The biggest used car dealer in the world failed the Takata test three times in a row. Three times in a row. Okay, Agent Thunder was sent in to see if they could do it four times in a row and get it right this time. We hope they do. Here's the report, as if I were Agent Thunder. I was sent to Carmack's Point to pretend to buy U's 2012, eight years old, 2012, Subaru Outback with a Togada Airbag recall. Before I set out, I called ahead to make sure the outback was available for sale, and the Boyden Beach Shore it was.

I was greeted by Peter, who offered me his hand, asked how he could help. I told him I'd seen a nice 2012 Subaru Outback online. I said I called earlier and was told it was available. Peter said we would check the computer to make sure then asked me if I had ever shopped at CarMax before. I told my hand. Shopped you many times. I told him I had and I sold a vehicle to them as well. In fact he actually sold the vehicle. He sold his 2018 Dodge Charger. Exactly. They got a good price for it too. He did.

He did. Yeah. Peter said since you've been to Caramax before, you know how it works. He said we would review the vehicle's history and other information at his desk. Peter explained we would review the Autocheck report and explained it was an extensive background check powered by Experian. He said it was just like a Carfax report. Auto check is like the cheaper spread. It's as good, but it costs less.

And a lot of those are going to Auto Check because Carfax is more expensive. One of the reasons being they spend a lot of money on advertising, and people are impressed with the word Carfax, but Auto Check is a good report. After a review of the information, Peter said we could go outside, take a look at the car. We sat down, Peter went to work on his keyboard. He turned the screen to face me and reviewed the Auto Check report.

He said there were no accidents, no damage, and one lien recorded. He then said there was one open recall and asked me to give him a second to print it out for me. me. Okay? Peter walked over the nearby printer and returned with several documents. He sat down and explained that the Outback had an open-to-cut airbag recall. How refreshing. He handed me a copy of the Outer Check report and a recall information pamphlet. Peter told me that if I were to buy the car, I love this. He strongly recommended I take it immediately to a Subaru dealer to get the airbag fixed and the recall satisfied. Strongly recommended. He told me that it wouldn't cost me anything except a few hours of my time.

Peter asked if anything was good for me, if everything was good for me at this point, and suggested we'd go look at the Subaru. He made a copy of my driver's license to lead me outside. On the test drive, Peter asked some more questions. He wanted to know if the car was for me or a family member and how I would be paying for it, cash or finance. I said it was from my wife, and I'd be paying cash. He wanted to know if I had a tag to transfer, or if I needed a new tag, I said I needed a new tag.

Back of the dealership, Peter went for the trial close. Mr. Blank, is this something you'd like to move forward on? I said, let's take a look at the numbers. We re-enter the showroom. Peter offered me a seat. He left for a few minutes or two, while he went to get a worksheet. He returned with a worksheet. Asked me again if I would take it today if the terms were acceptable.

I said, I may need to wait until the next day. He said, I'd be able to leave a refundable deposit, good, if I elected to wait a day. I said that would be fine. Peter showed me the worksheet, went over the sales figures. Sale price was $13,000, $5.99, same as the online price. He added a $399 processing fee. That's about the lowest dealer fee.

we've seen and it's not good but it's lower than most dealer fees you see they call it a processing fee one of the many things that come from the dealer's minds to call a dealer fee a rose is a rose a dealer fee is a dealer fee is a dealer fee sales tax 370485 registration and a $27 teenyweeney dealer fee that they called an electronic filing fee infant dealer fee Yeah. Okay. There's the epilogue. Peter at CarMax gave Agent Thunder an excellent disclosure, but was willing to let him drive off the lot with a dangerous defective airbag. And as I said earlier, just a few minutes ago, when you drive off the lot or when you have a car and even you get a recall notice, you don't take it back except about 25% of the time. A normal person, 75% probability. would not get it fixed. Something you procrastinate on. You just don't get it done. You forget about it. You don't think it. It's not really something that you fear. It's just the media doesn't want to make you afraid of these things. They want to make you afraid of the coronavirus, which www.w ain't going to happen.com, but they don't tell you about the Takata Airbag that can explode in your face so you don't get it repaired.

The question is, how does the second biggest used car retailer in Palm Beach County and the largest used car retailer in the world not take their recalled inventory to the dealer that manufactured the car. I get the little lots having a financial hardship maybe, but not CarMax. Yeah, yeah. And I'm just shocked at CarMax. You know, they were a victim of Rosemary Cheyenne, who was the world's leading, I will use that word, certainly the USA leading consumer advocate for car owners. She's in California. And she sued CarMax because they have a warranty on their used cars.

And they say, if it passes the Carfax check, you have a safe, good car. and they're selling cars with defective airbags. How can you have a safe car with a defective airbag? And she sued them through the Federal Trade Commission. And the Federal Trade Commission found for CarMax. She also sued General Motors, and both of them got let off. And we had wanted the Federal Trade Commission to require them to modify their warranty. General Motors, by the way, this question came up earlier in the show.

We're talking about certified cars. General Motors was certifying used cars and allowing the dealers to sell them with defective airbags or defective recalls. After the lawsuit, even though they prevailed, General Motors prevailed. They changed that. So now they said to their dealers,

don't sell the car with a defective recall and call certified. So they make General Motors dealers. So Rosemary Sheehan did accomplish that. but CarMax is still playing games. They're still offering the safe car check and selling them with defective recalls, and they say, oh, by the way, you ought to get this fixed.

You have a dangerous recall. Okay. We got to vote. We have some grades coming in. Okay. So we have Whitney gives them a C-minus. We've got a C-minus from Rob, Shakira. I wonder if that's the real Shakira.

Gives him a B. Larry gives him a D-plus. I'm just jumping on. Here's what I think. Last two weeks, we do grade on the curve, the last two weeks, the curve got raised. The average grade was increased fractionally, and therefore I'm going to give CarMax and Boynton a passing grade,

but a low passing grade. Because the last two examples that were set, they stopped the sale effectively and offered to fix the car. CarMax didn't do that. But Peter and CarMax, I think, get a lot of credit for a very robust disclosure. So that's better than most. So I'm going to give them a passing D. You know what they're going to do, too?

They are so good and organized CarMax that their computer system identifies every car they have in the U.S. with a defective recall. They should put a sign on the windshield. They should put a sign by the label, the price label. This car has a defective airbag or this car has a defective whatever, and we highly recommend you have it fixed. You know, you know what I would have done if I had been Agent Thunder and maybe we'll try this in a shop in the future? When they say you should get this fixed, I said, well, I'll tell you what, I don't have a few hours of my time to get a fixed. If you have a few hours of your time and you can get a fixed for me by Tuesday or whatever time it is, I'll come back and buy the car.

I see what they say. Yeah. Why should a retail buyer have to take a car? Well, first of all, he's got to drive it off the lot. He's got to drive it home. Then he's got to drive it to the Subaru dealer to get it fixed. Why should he risk his life? You risk your life. You take it to the damn Subaru dealer, get it fixed, and then I'll buy it.

Yeah, and then you've got to sit there and wait. Maybe they don't have the parts. Maybe it's on back order. Maybe they don't give you a loaner. Or maybe you procrastinate and you forget and then you get killed. I mean, I know I'm exaggerating to make the point. Then it gives them a, says, hmm, I give them a humongous, F.

That's from Linda. Flunko. El Flunco. Frank and Jupiter Farms get some a D. We've got Ed Overdyke on YouTube giving him an F. And Donovan Lewis says they get a big F. Myself, I'm going to go along with Stu, but I'm going to give them a C-minus because I think it was a very good disclosure.

But I really think Peter would have, he would have done a whole lot, more service for his dealership if he had just said before we sell you this car we'll get a porter to take this car over and get it repaired sure absolutely they need a haywood yeah voting on the curve you know you know we can't well my uh my vote is a a d i'm gonna go with rick c minus i'm i could do d but i'm gonna give my c minus you know uh when people call me all the time about used cars. I always sell them CarMax. And I give them the buyer to be aware of speech too, but they really are, they really are a good place to buy a used car with the exception of their dereliction of duty on the airbag recall or the dangerous recall because it applies

to all recalls. Okay. That's fair. Let's go back to answer some text. Yeah, there's an anonymous feedback that came in. I wanted to get to. Okay, I lost my spot. Hello, Mr. Earl. I missed last week's live show, but I'm glad that your shows are recorded and uploaded the SoundCloud. I listened to the recording last night. That was a great show. It was engaging. It seemed to flow a lot better between your discussions, the callers, the social media, than previous shows. Before I knew it, the two hours are up. In regards to a follow-up book title, I'd like to suggest Earl Stewart on the road to recovery. Confessions of recovering car dealer, disclosure of the dealer's sins,

or confessions of recovering car dealer, full disclosure. Thank you. I love it. Boy, we're really getting some good suggestions. That was better than the one I sent you in the email said, Confessions of recovering car dealer, dot, dot, dot, dot, the exorcism. Well, it did conjure up very terrifying images in my head. I sent you a picture of Linda Blair's head, a gift of the head turning around.

and I don't know, maybe we could Photoshop P-Soup, you throwing up P-Soup in someone's face. So you're going to take them out of the confessional box? Somebody sent in that was a creepy book cover. This time around, can you choose a less creepy picture? I could see what they're saying. You're kind of peering out from the dark. I was proud of that.

That concept was my idea, wasn't it? It was. And I said, and we actually went to all the trouble to talk to the Catholic diet. of Palm Beach County and we wanted the permission to be photographed inside of a confession. And the problem

was we wanted an old-fashioned confessional booth and they didn't have one so we had to make a facade of the front. Right. At first I went to St. Jude's to see if I could, well, negotiate with them and that failed. Yeah, you can't really see through those things.

They're a lot more private. Anonymous feedback. Hey, Earl, I'm wondering if you saw December consumer reports car ranking, it gives me a reason to pause. They rated Honda below Nissan. All the automotive blogs and forums I follow absolutely condemn the poor reliability of Nissan cars, particularly their transmissions. Even the Nissan-friendly sites are talking about Nissan's dependability issues. This makes me wonder about consumer reports. What are your thoughts, and what are Rick's thoughts on the reliability of Nissan?

You know, on the Nissan, first of all, consumer reports is really the best. And They're not always accurate. Oftentimes, they'll come out with a new car report, and subsequently they will drop the rating considerably after two or three years on the road. They did that with Tesla. They gave Tesla the highest rating ever. They actually gave Tesla a few years ago a 100 rating.

And then the experience on the road with Tesla and Tesla owners, they dropped it considerably to not recommend. So a brand new car can test out like a million bucks, and then three years later, it's fallen apart. Consumer reports can only drive the car. They're not going to get inside the car and do an X-ray. If they rated Nissan on a new car over a Honda, I assure you it scored better. If I were going to buy a new car, I'd buy the Honda anyway. It'd be, I just think Hondas have proven themselves year after year as being a,

a superior car. Plus, the Nissan is hanging on by a thread. They have all sorts of problems and the leadership. And there's a lot of talk about Nissan going by-bye. You got going on the lamb in Lebanon. I got to show this. This is the book cover. Oh, that's creepy. The creepy book cover. Oh. Look at those eyes. Yeah. Quit looking at me. Penetrating. That's my younger brother, Josh, posing as the priest there. I'm just kidding. You can buy this book online, Amazon, Amazon.com. All proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch. Thank you so much. Thank you, Rick. You know, first and foremost, I want to thank 95.9 and 106.9 right here, the Oldies Channel. And thank you for hanging in with us and putting us back on the air this morning. Thank you, Mike.

Thank you for all you do. And thank you to the listeners. We'll see you right here next week. and have to be a great. Let's go. Thank you. Thank you, too.