Earl Stewart on Cars - 02.01.2025 - The Best of Earl on Cars with Mystery Shop of Starling Buick GMC of Stuart, FL.

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

This is a replay of one of our past Earl Stewart on Cars live shows. If you have a question for our auto expert team, you can text it to [phone], or online at youranonymousfeedback.com, and we’ll answer it during our next live program. “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”

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

Good morning, everybody. We are back. And it's kind of a rainy day here in South Florida. We are in our studio in North Palm Beach, but we're broadcasting and televising, I guess, is a word. Streaming, the better word, all over the country, all over the world. We've been doing this for about 20 years, and it's unique. I say that every week because if you haven't heard the show before, you haven't heard a car dealer who is a reformed consumer advocate. and that's me and that's this team here in the studio that is actually going out and visiting other car dealerships who have not gotten the message yet about the way the retail business should be done when you're selling a product and we've been doing this trying to warn you how to avoid being ripped off and taken advantage of I like to think we've done a pretty good job of it and we have a great following the the audience that we built here is

is more of a part of the show than I sometimes say we're preaching to the choir because a lot of our, most of our listeners seem to be very well educated and actually give as many hints and tips about how to avoid being ripped off by cardio as we do. But I sometimes get carried away because I love to talk about what we do. And so does Rick Kearney here who is our certified diagnostic master. technician who talks about how to repair your car without being ripped off or how to maintain your car. And, of course, Nancy Stewart, my co-host. So if we get to Yak, we shut up quickly when a call comes in.

And I'm going to give you a number that we will give out repeatedly. And we're on the air for two hours. Remember, 8 to 10 Eastern Standard Time. and that's two hours of yak, and we know you're not going to listen to the whole show. I mean, you've got a lot of other things to do on a Saturday morning. So people tune in and they tune out. If you'd write this number down, it would be helpful

because you might get away from the radio or the YouTube or the Facebook or wherever you're watching or listening to us, and you want the number. So that number to call us, is 877-960-99-60. 877-9-60-9-6-0. Please write it down. And if you have a comment, criticism,

anything that you'd like to contribute, we found that your contributions actually, well, equally are up to what we advise on this show. And we have some advisors out there that are extremely well informed. YouTube particularly, YouTube.com for it slash Earl and Cars.

Rick Kearney has a group that follows him every week and his callers are just extremely informed. And especially about the mystery shopping report, which is something

else I have to mention because nobody does this as far as I know. You remember the old Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes piece where Mike Wallace would go into a business and stir up everything, grab the CEO and start asking him embarrassing questions and talking about things that maybe this company was doing they shouldn't be doing. I wish they had to, I wish they continued to do that. They didn't. But we do because we walk into car dealerships every week and we will today. And we do. And we do. every week, and we mainly in Florida, mainly South Florida, but we hit other states too.

We have an undercover agent, code name Agent Lightning, and she goes in and pretends to buy her lease a car. Now, where are you going to see that or hear about that on any other media? Right here at Earl on Cars, every week we do a mystery shopping report. We name names, we name the dealership, and then we grade the dealership, ABCDF. And we have a list of approved dealers. We have a list of dealers that you should not buy a car from. And we put that on our website, earloncars.com.

That's earloncars.com. So we're a service to help you get started if you're out there thinking about leasing or buying your car, or for that matter, repairing or maintaining a car. By the way, I mentioned Rick. he's been in my dealership for over 25 years and he is extremely knowledgeable on cars for 25 years ago most of you aren't driving a car that's 25 years old

but he stayed on top of it because today's car bears no resemblance to what we drove 25 years ago but no matter what year car you drive you call in and get a little problem and you don't want to take it into a car dealership or it ends up in the garage and ask a technician,

here's my car, fix it, please. Because then you're asking for trouble. You're asking for a big bill, and maybe it doesn't get fixed. Call Rick, give the symptoms, tell him the problem, and you'll get a free diagnosis. So give Rick a call at 877-9-60-9-6-0. Or you can text him, or me or Nancy,

at 772 4976530. That's 772-4976530. Now, I've got some other numbers. I'm not going to give those out now. We've got a lot. I think sometimes we have too many ways to reach us

and it's confusing. But let's stick with 877-7-the-telephone number. 877-960-99-60. Nancy Stewart is looking at the laptop in front of her here in the studio and when a call comes in we favor the telephone call so if I'm talking like I'm talking now and the call comes through Nancy will wave at me and we'll stop and we'll take your call at 877 960 960 now I'm going to introduce Nancy and she's studying her automotive news across the table from

here and Nancy is a co-founder of the show with me 20 plus years ago she is also a strong female advocate and women pay play a lot larger part in buying cars than people realize and for some reason they're not as vocal and when we started this show 20 years ago it was an old guys club it was just guys calling the show now we're 50-50 and that's good thing because women buy more than 50% of the cars and Nancy will tell you about that

by the way and they're becoming more important and the sad part is the manufacturers or the dealers haven't quite figured that out yet but statistically and there have been a lot of measurements of this the female influence in purchasing

cars and how you should design the car more for women it's been a guy guy's thing in the past is becoming more and more important. So any of manufacturers listening out there or dealers, you better listen. I'll turn the mic over to Nancy now,

and she has a few words for you. Good morning, everyone. I thought you dozed off here for a minute. Okay. Hey, listen, it's going to be a great show, so buckle up. We have a whole lot to get to. as Earl mentioned the mystery shopping report

it's a fabulous and informative part of our show and you can stay tuned for that that mystery shopping report it was done in 2022 and it's from Starling Buick of Stewart and you're going to

enjoy it enjoy it a whole lot as far as the ladies are concerned, boys, we've got some exciting news for the ladies. I'm going to tell you, Earl said that I was looking at the automotive news. What I was reading was an article, and it was an article about the auto industry and how they have not connected with women, not at all. And as Earl said, it has always been a male-dominated industry, but I'll tell you what, it is changing. And we're on a role.

Did you know that this year, this year alone, United States dealerships are allocating an estimated $8.6 billion to connecting connecting with women, getting their attention, treating them like they are part of this financial success that the auto industry is encountering. Why? Because 85% of women are involved in some way in purchasing a vehicle, in sometimes totally independent, and they are doing the footwork, they're doing the homework, they're doing it all. And they have become an important part of this industry, no doubt. And for the auto industry to ignore this, as I always say, it's a financial disaster. So I'll bring you up to date on that article from the automotive news.

Also, we have a number that we can give out if you are on Zoom, and that ID number, it's a meeting ID number is 926-589-0586. That's 926-589-0-586. And Jonathan is right here, and gosh, he has been here for quite some time this morning, working very hard to help make us look good. Thank you very much, Jonathan. So if you call in for the meeting on Zoom, you can talk to Jonathan. You can give him your information, and he's the producer of the show, and he'll get your name of your location and put you through to us. So that's pretty exciting. Also, for the ladies, as a promotion every Saturday morning, what we do is a special promotion. and it is for the first time female callers.

And again this morning with tradition, $50 for the first two new female callers. The first two. Unconditional, is that? Absolutely. Unconditional. You can call in and you can ask a question. You can call in and give us some advice.

You can, you know, tell us what we can do to improve the show. If you want to, you can just say hello, but it is $50 for the first two new female callers. That number is $877, 960, 9960, and you can also text us. You'll need to jot that text number down for the Mystery Shopping Report at 930. And 930, right, Jonathan? Okay. And that text number is 772-4976530. Now back.

Don't forget Your Anonymous Feedback.com. That's always a whole lot of fun. And you definitely remain anonymous. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer. And we had a breakthrough in the automotive news. We have a phone call. I have to interrupt.

Robbed Earl because we have a female caller first time, and her name is Tina. Good morning, Tina. Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Thank you for waiting. Tina, this morning we're giving $50 for the first two new female callers, and you're the first female caller. If you stay on the line, you can give Jeremy in our control room your contact information. and he'll give that to me, and I will write you out of check for $50 and get that out to you.

I'm sure you can use that this time of year. Oh, definitely. Okay, well, welcome to the show. Thank you. Can I begin my listening? You can't. Tina, let me ask you this question. How did you find out about us?

Oh, I've been listening to you for years. Once I moved to Florida, I always tuned into different stations. And when I came across you, I said this is a phone call, or at least worth getting up early enough on Saturdays. It's my workout days. I do go to the gym afterwards, but I try to listen to you in the car on the way. Oh, thank you. Well, thank you for calling. Oh, you're so welcome.

What can we do for you? Well, I recently went to Toyota to get my oil changed to find out that I needed a, an engine oil pan, and one, they're estimating five hours in my bill. And the problem I had is that the drain plug, the threads have been worn out, and I previously took my car for an oil change to Firestone. And they told me I had the same problem, so they put in a copper gasket, on it, and it was holding well, because I noticed that the oil was leaking on the ground, and that's what made me go back to them.

But I generally try to go to different, you know, companies for oil changes. And Toyette was chosen, and now they want to charge me $1,592. And it's five hours of work, and I'm saying they gave me a loner for the night, but you know the part is only 200 and change 263 and the rest is all labor plus do can they reseal that can they put a new gasket when I inquired the gentleman said that no once it's done you can't you can't you've got to get a whole new pan so what should I do Tina, before I give the call to Rick, who can answer the question, what Firestone location did you go to? I'm at Toyota on 441 in Royal Palm or...

Oh, Toyota? Yeah. Okay. Now I understand. I didn't hear that part. Okay, Rick. I would actually... I would want to get a couple of estimates on that for replacing that pan. What model of car do you have in what year?

Oh, it's a 2006 salara. Yeah, that labor rate, whoa. No, that's way too high. That should be book time, which, when they calculate labor, there are books out there that say this is how much time the job should pay. And book time on that should be like three to three and a, a half hours. And even at like $200 labor, which a lot of dealerships are really reaching that point now, you should have like $600 labor total, maybe $700 total. And it looks like they're

trying to hit you for double that. So yeah, I would say no, I want a different, you can literally call other dealerships or other independent shops to get a price, tell them you need to have the oil pan replaced that the threads are stripped out. You can call at least three other dealerships. You could call another toilet dealership. You could call a Firestone. You could call any independent mechanic that you know. But anytime you have a repair over $100 or $200, you should always get at least three bids.

Well, what if they have it on the lift and they haven't taken it down? It seems like they drained it already. I'm not sure what it's going on, but it's up on the lift and making me feel that I can't even take it out, plug it up. You tell them to put some fippage or gasket material gasket sealer on the drain plug and snug it back in the best it will go and put oil back in the car, or you tell them I'm going to have a tow truck come and I'm going to tow my car to another shop to have. have it repaired. The tow bill would be probably $100 the most, but you're going to save like $5 or $600 in the long run by going to another shop. And any independent shop, any mechanic shop, we'll be able to replace that pan. It's not a big job. It's, you know, you just basically

it's a little bit of work to get the pan down, clean up the surface on the engine and install a new pan, but it's it's not $1,500 worth of work. And Gina, be sure that you go up the ladder a little bit. You're probably dealing with a service advisor. It was really a service salesman. You need to talk at least to the service manager there and perhaps to the general manager there because you're being taken advantage of. and you need to

if you have something that can't make a decision you won't get anywhere but if a general manager or a service manager realizes that you will be making a complaint to the factory for example you could report this to the Better Business Bureau

you can report it to Toyota you can report it to the Channel 5 you can report to the Palm Beach Post times there's a lot of ways you can rattle their cage. So be sure someone in authority knows that you're serious. And then like Rick says, you need to let them know you're going to have that car towed unless they give you a reasonable repair.

And then don't take any nonsense from them. They're taking advantage of you. And Tina, like you were just told about getting, you know, three bids on that job, you know, depending upon several factors. It should only take about an hour and a half to four hours, you know, like Rick was talking about. And it also, some cars are easier to access that oil pan. Do you agree with that, Rick? Yeah, there are some cars where the pan is actually above what's called the subframe,

and you actually have to unbolt motor mounts and raise the engine up, and it's a lot more work. But an 06 solar is not one of those. That pan is easily accessible. accessible. It is a little bit of work, but it's not that work. It's less than three hours. Okay, so it's easy access on the Salera.

If my back were in better shape, I could do it in my driveway on the ground. And he means that, Tina. He definitely means that. And, you know, with a professional mechanic, with the right tools, the

complete job, like I said, an hour and a half to four hours. So they can surely replug the gasket and keep the oil in there. I'm sure the oil has been drained, though, so they'll have to replace it. Right. They'll have to put new oil in it, and you would have to pay for that and then pay for the oil when you get the pan replaced.

But if you don't want to take the chance with that, you can tell them, just put the plug in the best you can and push my car out because I'm going to have a tow truck pick it up, and I'm going to tow it to another shop to have it done. Okay. Well, I hope I can be forceful. They did order the part, so I'm not sure of what's going to happen. That's why I called so worldly because I'm to check. You're going to need the part.

So go ahead and tell them, I will pay for the part, and I will take it with me. But I'm taking my car somewhere else if you don't drop that labor amount to like three hours labor at the most and maybe $500 to $600 for labor. You start talking dollars because it's price, it's not hours. And so you want to get two other prices and think the lower prices. Don't get confused with hours, hours. They're not real hours. They're flat rate hours.

And they can work on the car for one hour, and they'll charge you three flat rate hours time, which is the way the system works, which is kind of stupid. So when you get your other bids, just be talking how much out of pocket is going to cost me to get this fixed. Okay, sounds good.

Did they tell you the condition of your oil pan and cat gasket? No, they didn't even show it to me. Oh, they didn't? You know, that's a pet peeve, I believe, you know, of if a consumer walks in, a prospective customer, whomever, and they're there for some maintenance on their vehicle, and I say, hey, listen, I'd like to have that part. I'd like you to put that part that you're replacing in my trunk.

I want to be able to see what they did. So there's more advice. Yeah, that sounds good. I hope I have an alternative and they work with me. have to get too aggressive. This is Christmas time, and I'm trying to be very patient.

Yeah. Stay strong, Tina, and stay at it. Call us back, let us know how it went, will you please? Let your voice be heard. Thank you very much for taking the call, and you have a wonderful holiday season. Thank you. You do the same.

It was great hearing from you. Tina, please spread the word. We're building a platform here for the ladies. They're a huge part of the auto industry, and they're growing and it's women like you that call in like on a morning like this and there's a lot of women who are listening to you Tina so keep up the good work and spread the word we'll do thank you so much you're welcome 877 960 9960 and you can text us at 772-4976530 we're going to

stay with the phones we have another female caller her name is jane and she is a very first time caller good morning jane hey good morning welcome how are you all this morning great jane thank you for the call and i want to let you know that you won yourself fifty dollars this morning as the second new female caller if you stay on the line when we're finished talking you will give jeremy in our control room all of your information contact information and he'll pass it alone to me and I'll get that check out to you oh my goodness thank you so much you're welcome what can we do for you this morning my husband was listening to you both and you mentioned about the Costco auto program yes so I did call the other day and I got a member only price sheet

for a Lexus Rx 350 and the only question I have is they give you a Costco member only price And then on the bottom, of course, there's an asterisk with license tag title, which we know that's okay. But then it has a $7.99 dealer fee or $4.99 electronic filing fee. Should I expect to pay those or is that negotiable? Those are junk fees. And, of course, anything is negotiable. The good thing about Costco is they require the dealer to put those junk fees up front on their invoice.

And so it really affects the total price. You don't have to buy from that Costco dealer. You could go to another Costco dealer. The rule that Costco has for a approved dealer is that they will offer their Costco members the price that is lower than they will sell that car to anybody else for. So if you're not a Costco member and you go into that dealership,

they have a contract with Costco that says that that other person that's not a Costco member will have to pay more. So that's the obligation that the Costco dealer has. That doesn't mean that another Costco dealer in town isn't going to have a lower price. So your alternative now is to go to another approved Costco dealer and see how their price is on that exact same. car. Chances are that is still a pretty good price it's the first dealer because what are the

two junk fees add up to when you added it to the regular price? It's about $1,300, $7.99 and $4.99. That's pretty high. I would call

at least one other Costco approved dealer and I'd probably call two. And I would also report this to Costco I mean they they they should be advised they should know about that but it never hurts to call directly I'm sure you went online to find that dealer and and you have you have put your information into Costco so they know you're shopping right yes and what I thought was interesting it had 799 dealer fee or 499 electronic filing fee so it just

sounded kind of strange to me that the ore was in there the ore that doesn't make sense does it i i'm reading it off the sheet and it's ore and i'm like okay well which one is it sounded i'll take the lower one right so yeah exactly yeah well you can take the lower one and then and then shop it with another couple of Costco dealers uh it'll still be a good price because it's now that you explain that it's or it's only $4.99 it's not the best of you know the big number unless it was a typographical error they trying to get you for both but that is a little confusing but the key thing if you're buying a Costco uh through a Costco program is to keep in communication with Costco because they will not hold up for any nonsense uh with the dealer

and and if they they try to take advantage of one of their members then they can cancel them in the program and they don't want to do that because the dealers get a lot of business from Costco members and if they get canceled they don't like that so communicate with your Costco representatives directly and they they can make a call they have the names of the Costco representatives that they approved at that dealership they'll contact that Costco representative directly and say listen you're violating the rules here you have to sell the car at this price and you can't add that on or else we're gonna have to talk to you about

canceling your program and as soon as they say that you get their attention and they give you like one day to make your decision valid through 1212 which i did it on 1212 so it was like late the afternoon so it didn't give you much time well that's that's just negotiation of their part they you know they they always try to get you to commit on the price sooner than you want to so you don't shop around and find a better price. But nine times out of ten, when the dealer gives you a price, they're not going to raise it two days later because you didn't buy on the day they told you to.

That's just being sneaky. They're trying to get you to buy before you're ready. It's such a fun process. It's the worst experience of any product, retail product. Car dealers are doing it like they did 100 years ago. and it's a shame, and that's why this show exists to help people navigate through the minefield of trying to buy a car. It's a terrible experience, unfortunately. My husband listens to you all the time, and he says, no, you've got to call Earl and Nancy.

You've got to call them. I said, okay. Well, thank you very much. Yeah, we're happy that you did. And so thank you so much for your information, and I love your show, and I hope you guys have a night's holiday. Same to you. Thank you so much. Spread the word, Jane.

Let every woman you know and man that we are here for the ladies. Wonderful. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Thank you so much. Oh, you're quite welcome. You know, there's all kind of news as far as women are concerned in the auto industry. Did you know that women are the driving, are also driving the shift towards electric and echo-friendly cars?

Yes, their preference for. sustainability. Yeah, that's what they're looking for. Sustainability. And it's shaping how auto makers are designing. Yes, and designing and marketing towards women. You know, they're paying it. They're starting to pay attention. Our number here is 877960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-3-0. Rick, did you have something to add? Well, we've got some text in if you'd like. Okay, we'll take Howard's call first, and then Rick is going to take a look at some texts and possibly your anonymous feedback and so many other things.

Howard, good morning, and welcome to the show. Good morning. I've been a nice day today in southern Florida, but we'll wait. and then it'll be okay. Yes. Here's my question. Does it tell you to have a car that as you're driving down, if you get too close to another car, it pulls you away.

My car just, I have a 2017 Camry, and all my car does was it flashes a light or something, but it doesn't pull me away. I know some cars have that capability, just so you would have that capability. Um, kind of. What we do have is the radar cruise control, where if you're operating with cruise control on, and you have set the distance from your car to the car ahead of you, which you got three choices, either a short, medium, or longer distance. And if your car gets too close to that person, say they start slowing down, your car will automatically slow down to keep that same distance between you and the car ahead of you. our automatic braking will kick in to try to prevent an accident at the last moment. Somebody slams on the brakes and you have the car with the proper safety features in it with the automatic braking is one of them.

Then yes, it will try to stop your car and even apply the brakes at the very last second hard to try to get you stopped. This is just a form of preliminary autonomous. It's just they have cars now, of course, as you know, Howard, that are totally autonomous, the Tesla, for example, and they will definitely keep you away from all the other cars because they've got eight cameras, and any time they see you getting too close to a pedestrian or a bicycle or another car, it moves the car away. I have one first question. What if I happen to the PCV valve? I know it's in the Toyota, but is it ever replaced?

Actually, not anymore. Most of them now, they did away with that little rattle ball inside them, and the PCBs don't plug up like they used to. So basically, it's simply a vent to get the fumes from the crank case up into the intake so they can be burned away again. So, yeah, it's now become a non-serviceable part. There is no lifespan for it As long as it's still functioning and working okay The computer goes with it and says you're good That's interesting

Okay, thank you very much You're welcome Howard have a great weekend Okay our number here is 877 960 9960 And you can also text us at 772-49760 Don't forget about our meeting

ID number. And if you would like to join us on Zoom, you can do the following. The median ID number is 926-589-0586. We're going to stick with the phones, and we're going to go to Bob, who's calling us from Lake Worth. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Bob. Welcome. Not running in the 5K, I guess. Oh, yeah? Well, I just want to tell you, I read that, finally, Amazon is going ahead with the purchase of the Hyundai's. Yeah, spending the 48 states. Yeah, and I guess Napleton is on the list. Well, that ought to be interesting.

Well, yeah, West Palm Beach is on the list, and he has the dealerships here, right? Oh, that's correct. Yeah, he's got quite a few dealerships. Right. He's got them in this market, and that would be very interesting to see how the mechanics of that is going to work. Yeah, you read my mind. Yeah, well, you know, because even if you get a better deal from a dealer that's out of the area,

it's going to cost you more to ship the car. Sure. So I would think it might not behoove you. to try a location like Atlanta or something like that, even if you're going to save $1,500 or $1,500, because in the long run, you may end up paying more money. Yeah, yeah. I'm not sure how it's going to work.

Amazon's got their hands full on that. They're going to have a lot of inspecting and a lot of problems with a lot of the dealers they chose. So in Napleson's probably the number one problem they're going to have. I suspect that Amazon has some sort of ability to fire a dealer that they are not getting cooperation from, kind of like Costco would. If you have a program and this is the way you're supposed to obey the rules and give the prices to the customer and you violate that, then they'd be canceled.

So my guess is, Napleton, I just don't see how he can last working. with Amazon. Amazon, as you know, is strictly above board probably one of the best retailers in the world and for them to be in partnership with Napleton, I just don't see that

happening. Right. I do have a question for Rick. I was going to go get my oil change. I used to have a neighbor that was doing it for me. He moved away. And I was astounded as to how much the price is going up in the

last year and a half to get your, you know, the change, just to change you all in the filter. Yeah. So, yeah, so I went online, funny thing is that I'm going to do it myself, and, you know, I take 5W30, usually put blended synthetic, and on Amazon, the full synthetic was actually $20 cheaper than the blended. I couldn't believe it. So I bought the full synthetic, and I got a filter coming in next week, and I'm going to do it myself, but I wanted to ask me a question. I have to put in a blended door actuator in the

Mustang, and it's got two screws in there, T-20s, and I went online and I looked at a YouTube video, and there's something about winding up the gears. Do you know how that works? I know a lot of AC controls like that when you're putting in actuators in that. They have to be timed properly so that the computer can control. control it. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the Ford Mustang with how that timing might need to be set. What I would do is I would keep checking some of the YouTube videos. I'm sure there's somebody out there that'll explain how to set that timing properly. And if not, I would check on like some of the repair manuals online, Mitchell or someone like that. And I guarantee one of them

is going to have that information on how to get that timed properly, how to set that in the proper position. Because obviously, does Toyota have those in their cars when the door actuators? We do have them, and usually with ours, you have to set the door to one particular spot when you actually mount the actuator up to it, so the computer can understand where that door is because otherwise it's going to if it say the door is in the middle and the computer thinks it's all the way to one side it's going to try to move it the wrong way and it can break things well this actuator is actually underneath the steering column on the driver's side it's not in the door that's the location of it is in it's for the it's for the AC unit and it's called

a blended door actually that's what they call it but it controls the one of the vents is blowing on the AC is blowing warm and the other one's blowing cold right and I looked and I looked it up it's a common problem in the most thanks okay I saw a YouTube video on it and it didn't look like much you know the pot is only 18 dollars and it looks like a you know it's only going to take me a half an hour okay something about about something about lining up the gears on the I was a little you know yeah I do some more investigation on that just to make sure you've got that procedure down properly. Bob, do you use a chat GBT?

No, I'm a super senior, so, you know, I just... The reason I say is, it is amazing. I mean, I know sometimes these new things get hyped and everybody raves about things. This artificial intelligence, especially chat GBT, is absolutely amazing. and it gets better every day. It's a point now where this voice recognition,

Nancy and I use it all the time. And you can just basically ask it any question and you would be surprised at the accuracy and the time. If you, Google used to be my number one source. And Google, it took a while. Eventually, if you had patience, you usually get, a good answer out of Google, but download chat, GBT, and

just try it out on a couple things. You will surprise yourself and you will save yourself a lot of time. They really, they can answer damn near anything. Okay, I have a question for Nancy. Okay, here I am. Nancy, do you think that that situation over there with the oil pan, you think that was gender bias on

pricing well it's it's um always a possibility uh when they see when they see a woman come in right away they figured she doesn't know yeah well i think it's a thing and they jack the price up yes i i really think that um you know it's a possibility but it's a possibility for a man or a woman and if you're an educated consumer uh and you're going to get three bids you know you're ahead at the game. Rick? I agree. Hold on a minute, Bob. I'll let you in on a little secret.

I've been working on cars professionally for over 30 years now, and I can honestly tell you that, of all the customers I've encountered, women make the more informed decisions than men do. For the simple fact that I understand how cars operate and how everything in them works for the most part, I've just learned this through years and years and years of trial and error and studying. And the average man that walks into an automotive shop has this ego mindset that I'm a man. I understand cars. I know all about them.

But I can tell you within a few moments of talking to them, whether they actually know anything or whether they just think they do. And I can BS a man and make them think that this is a much big. bigger, more complicated job simply because I can, I understand what their mindset is. Are you confessing that I can be us or men customers? No, I'm just telling you that I will, I do have the ability to be evil if I wanted. Because a man's ego will not let them ask those questions that might show that he has not got the knowledge. Whereas a woman coming in, a lot of women, when they have the right mindset, they will come in and they will say,

I don't understand what that part does. Please explain it to me. Show me what is wrong with this part of my car, and women will ask questions and learn from it, and women will make informed decisions more than men will. And also, Bob... I'll just leave you with that, but... Also, Bob, you know, whenever a woman walks in,

I don't care whether she's going to purchase a new car, used car whether she's there for maintenance it it really doesn't matter but when she presents herself in a way that she is definitely informed and i'm not talking about taking you know an engine apart i'm just talking about just a little bit of intimidation and you can do that easily as a female and you have complete control but to answer your question i i think that you know there's a possibility and it's a proven fact you can you know you can go to consumer report you can go to the internet you can go anywhere and they'll say the same thing women do get taken advantage of but the good news is that this cycle is changing and that's good because our voices are being heard on so many

levels that guess what they don't have any other choice but to conforms to conforms to to the right way of treating a woman right well just from my past experience but you know I know already that you're a senior citizen and you're much older and you're going to these places they right away they try to take advantage of you especially in in the sales department if you're buying a car all the people are vulnerable to getting you know a bad deal yes I've had that experienced before, and I just thought it's probably the same situation with a woman because the automobile industry has been notoriously male-dominated forever. Yeah.

Absolutely, Bob. And you have a valid concern. I won't say it's a complaint, but I just turned to 82 years old, and guess what? It's really easy. It's really easy for someone to look down on you. and they could be a year younger, 10 years younger, it doesn't matter. I could go into Publix and you have a, you know, a good chance of being taken advantage of. So if you do your homework, you let your voice be heard, I think we're ahead of the game.

I agree, I agree. Okay, well, everybody, have a great weekend. Thank you, Bob. Thanks for the question. Let's see what happens at Amazon. Yes, absolutely. Okay, thank you. You're welcome.

877-960-960, or you can text us at 772-497-497. You know, this article that Earl, you shared with me about Amazon, you know, it's amazing whenever you think about Amazon. And everybody has such a, the majority of the consumers has such a great feeling about Amazon. and the friendliness and the transparency. So do you think that this, too, is going to have a huge impact? Someone is, a consumer is not going to hesitate to join this platform that Amazon is expanding on over 48 states. Because it's become a household word. Yeah, it's Walmart, Amazon.

there, Apple, a lot of the very, very first-class retailers are setting the pace. And Amazon is the best of the best, in my opinion. So they've got their work cut out for them. The caller earlier talking about Napleton being an approved Amazon dealer. I just don't see that lasting. I think we're getting into the breaking point now. where the dealers that are not going to play by the rules are going to have to drop by the side.

And it's happening slower and slower. You know, there's an article in the automotive news in 2022 about how these changes were going to be taking place. And here we are in 2024, almost 2025, and they still haven't. But it's happening slowly. And the biggest thing that's happened has been the ambivalent. move. Walmart

is the biggest retailer of the world. Amazon, I think, is the second biggest. So when the second biggest retailer of the world gets serious about something, watch out car dealers because things are changing. Yes, absolutely. I think that Amazon's

user-friendly tactics will spit, well, probably there'd be a poor word to use tactic, but in theory, Amazon's user-friendly, friendly. It's just user friendly. I think it's going

to spill right over. The price you see is the price you pay. If you have a product that you don't like you can return it. There's no deceit. There's no Complete transparency. Yeah. Absolutely. We're going to hear from

Rick in a little bit, but I can see by my X-screen, the calls are backed up. So we are going to go to Bob who is calling us. from Pompano Beach. Good morning, Bob. Good morning, guys.

I heard part of that conversation, that woman that had trouble with a drain pan. I don't know exactly what it was. Was it that the drain plug was stripped? Yes, the threads in the drain pan. This was on an 06 solara, so it's an older car, had plenty of oil changes done. I had experience with that many years ago.

I commuted into New York City. and I had the oil change every three months and sooner I used to go religiously to one place to dealership. It wasn't Toyota. It was a GMC. Anyway, what I found was very often when they had changed the oil, they used to class C mechanics and not the A class. You know, there's just some guy that I hard and they stripped a plug on.

on this truck I had, and it was very expensive to replace the pan. Yeah. It replaced, like you said, to take the motor amounts, that, whatever it was. But I was a social worker, had a couple of kids, the only worker. I think I was very honest with. He said, look, we won't do it at the dealership. He said, and I could put it back in. It's just starting it to leak.

but if you go to order a supply place, I have these piggyback drains, and the dealership won't do it, it's a liability, but a local mechanic would do it, you could do it. You reverse the thread, and, or I don't know how it works,

but it's like a plug within a plug, and I had that on there for about 10 years, and it cost me like $8 and maybe a half-hour labor. So I don't know if that woman is still listening, but if she wants to go that route she can or she could do it the right way and it might cost a bunch of more. But anyway, that was my experience. Yeah, in my years, we have tried several times different things to try to repair an oil pan. But most cases, they wind up leaking.

Trying to put a drain plug. Once the threads in the pan have been stripped out, the only real solution is to either replace the pan or actually to try to drill it oversized and cut new threads and then use a piece that goes in like a fitting that would be installed, say, with some sort of sealant, so it would stay in permanent and then would allow you to thread the drain plug back into that. But so many of those, because of the liability of it, if it starts to leak and the customer's engine gets down, then we're on the hook for an entire engine. Well, I don't know exactly how this worked, but apparently, I don't know if they had to threaded or if it went in, whatever it was, a little gizma they had and it repaired it.

And that car worked for about 10 years. And in fact, one of my people needed a car and a few trucks. I moved down here and I felt badly when I gave them. I couldn't use it, so I gave them that truck. It was still in the road. road. There was an 89 GMC, Jimmy. Yeah.

They just recently got off the road with that fix, so it was probably done, but it is a liability. Another thing, too, you have a very good show, but it's kind of said you have to have that show. Yeah.

I mean, it really is. I mean, we, I have a luxury class of Mercedes. I get one every three or four years. And about two years ago, it was about four years old. And I went to, you know, traded in.

And I usually just traded it. And I want to go to the bother of, and the guy came, and he checked the car I had in my garage, and I went to, just to get the car. And they went on about $20,000. It was $130,000. I wanted $150,000 for it. It was a fully-opt-esque. a very nice car.

And I just got upset about the whole thing, the way you just put it on the end, and I was a pretty good customer. As a result, I said, screw this trading in the car, I'll keep it. I have the car now from quite a few months ago, and it works well. Like my wife said,

keep it until it breaks down, you know. But a lot of times people get greedy, and if you have a customer, they really don't care that much down here. I don't understand the mentality. But now they call me up. in a business because they're stuck with a lot of cars. And it's sad to see.

And the way they treat older people, male or female, and women as well. It's a sad thing I notice as I get older. I refer to them as victims. There's a certain different classes of people based on education, sex, age, and people that don't have English as their primary language. Right.

It's very, very difficult to navigate the minefield with these dealers because they do, as you say, take advantage and there's no enforcement. We have rules and regulations, and they don't get enforced. And as you say, it's a shame the show has to exist, but I like to think we do some good, and things are getting better slowly. You guys do a very good job, and what I'm disappointed in is our government. Yeah. Not that I give two names about the government very often. They do with a booty person up there. I agree.

I agree. Much better, too. I mean, there are people running around. They vote R. They vote D. They vote whatever. And they're so hopeful. And, you know, go to church, the synagogue on your day often.

But don't worship the government. They can't help you. But shows like yours do help people a lot. Well, thanks, Bob. I really appreciate that. Yeah. Thank you so much. It makes it worthwhile coming in every Saturday week.

It really does. I have to say, you guys really, but as a result, I have been pulled a car because I'm so fed up with the whole thing. Yeah. For sure. All right. Call again, Bob. Thanks very much for the compliment. I'll go out, I'll go up in your place up in northern Florida, where I went up in a New Highland or a happen alike.

Oh. Fabulous. Take care of now. Thanks, Bob. Thank you, Bob. All of us here at Erlon Cars. you for the compliment. We all try real hard to get to, you know, what you're interested in. And weekend, we got, I tell you, you are an important part of the show without you guys out there.

We wouldn't be here. And we all thank you, especially this time of year. You know, you think about things and how thankful you are. Some of us have a tendency just to complain. And, you know, so on and so forth. You know what I'm talking about. I'm guilty of that at times. So Rick, you were about to say something? Yeah, Earl, when Amazon starts selling these

Hyundai cars, if you don't like it, do you think you'll be able to just return it by taking it back to Coles or to the local UPS store? That's a great question. I think, if I just, if I were going to guess, I think Amazon would have a rule

that they would take care of a customer that had been resolved by one of the dealers, and in which case they would probably cancel the dealer. So I think they're going to have to kind of... I don't know how many Hyundai dealers there are in the United States, but I think after Amazon gets their system set up, there'll probably be half as many dealers. You don't need that much.

dealers. I mean, right now you've got a dealer. It's like your gas stations and banks. There's one on every street corner, and you don't need that many. I mean, you're talking about a high price product. Average price of a new car now is between $40,000 and $50,000. And so if you have to go 20 miles further to buy a vehicle, you're talking about a lot of money, so it's worth going another 20 miles. So I think the ranks will be thinned out. Amazon, will have it their way and life will be good. To be fair, that comment actually came from Johnny Z. Freidley on our YouTube channel here. I thought that was pretty good, though. If you don't like the car, it just doesn't fit right.

Yeah, just take it back to Coles and return it there. Yeah. Let them worry about it. Well, we have that guarantee in our dealership. I mean, we have unconditional seven-day money-back guarantee so so some dealers that we do it most dealers don't but Amazon does and you know I we try to model our dealership after the better retailers I mean I I look up to Apple I look up to Walmart I look up to Amazon I steal a lot of ideas from these very very advanced retailers that know how know what they're doing I go into an Apple store for me is a pleasure. I mean, I love to go into, I love to buy something on Amazon because I feel totally safe about it. And once you have a consumer that feels

totally comfortable with dealing with you, you've got a customer for life. Exactly. Very comforting. You know, real quick, I have a text message that just came to me from a young lady who's listening to the show, but she prefers to text. And Max, If she decides to buy her lease, her leased vehicle, do you know if the sale price is negotiable? Maxine, everything is negotiable. Earl, your thoughts? Well, you actually have a option, and that is a fixed price. The danger is not buying it less than that.

the danger is buying more than that because most of the dealers, when they are trying to buy your off-lease car, because based on market conditions in the past few years, the off-lease cars have been bargains,

the option price. So it's a legal part of the contract when you lease a car that there's a specific price three years or four years, whatever the length of your lease, that you have the legal right to buy it at that price, not a nickel more other than, you know, government fees, tax and tag.

But the dealers will add in junk fees and other fees to inflate the price, but it's illegal. So that's one thing you want to be afraid of. But yeah, always check to see what your option price is and always be sure that the dealer that is handling the transaction does not market up by anything other than government. face. Great answer. Okay, Maxine, I hope that we helped you, and I also hope that you may call the show someday. Our number here is 877-960, and you can also text us at 772-497-2-4976530. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Take advantage of that, and you want to stay tuned for our mystery shopping report. That's always a fabulous. done by our mystery shopper agent lightning she has done a very very great job for years and she did

another one we're going to stay with the phones we'll get to rick in a couple of minutes and we're we are going to go to jake thank you so much for your patience jake jake's calling us from boca hi good morning guys good morning hi i really like your show you know when i've noticed the last few calls they were talking about dealers, they're absolutely correct. And I'll tell you, I'll never take my wife to actually sit down and purchase the car again. I'll take it at Ted's drive, but she's too emotional, and she doesn't want to hurt the guy's feelings. I'm telling the guy, I've been here three hours already. How long does it take together price sit down with the finance guy?

I was getting, and she said, relax, relax, say you don't want to, you know, and I say, come on let's go enough already but she feels like she just can't talk bad to the guy so i'm never going to with the next car i get would you probably be a toyota or lexas or something i'm just going to test drive it and that'll be that i'll go back and discuss with what's up with that jake i don't know she's a special ed teacher so maybe it's just bred into her i don't know what it is. So anyway, we were talking about tithers. I noticed a lot of the tithers

they're all synthetic now. They got these remember in the old days, you used to have some rubber in them. Now I don't think they have any real rubber. It's all like oil-based or synthetic. So am I still going to see those cracks and stuff in my tires?

Because I got a 19 BMW I bought for my birthday in March of 19. And the tire is still I don't put in many miles in three, four thousand in here, but I'm not seeing any cracks in them anymore. Are these tires, can I still anticipate cracks in the tires like the old days when they dry? Hey, Jake, before Rick answers that question, let me tell you, you need to pick up yourself a mystery shopping report because there's all kinds of information on tires, everything. Rick?

Oh, okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah, tires, like everything else on the cars, the quality has been increasing to the point of they're finally figuring out new ways to fix these problems that they've had for years. Dry rot cracks on tires, a lot of shops use that to basically bully you into buying new tires, even when it's just tiny little surface cracks, they're like, oh, no, that's not safe, that's not safe. which, you know, it's a gray area. So the manufacturers now have just reached the point. They've come up with these new polymers, these new formulas for making the tires.

The tires are lasting longer. They're surviving impacts on the road, damage on the road, that old tires would have, they'd have gotten bubbles and burst. And now we don't have those same blowouts. We don't have a lot of those issues happening. The safety of these tires has come way up. So, yeah, the price is going up, too. I mean, believe me, their tires are very expensive anymore,

but you're actually getting some value there. So, yeah, you're not going to see those cracks as much anymore. Okay, thank you. Also, one last thing. I'm looking, I was looking on the Toyota website, and I really like that vendor, the venture car. Yep. Is that car based on another car's platform?

Like, you know how you guys sometimes you share with other makes and models or even cars and stuff? Or is that, like, completely brand-new through Toyota? Because I really like that body style, and it's only 183 inches long, so it'll fit nicely in my garage. Yeah. Venza, actually, several years ago, quite a few years ago, Toyota came out with the Toyota Venza based on the Camry platform.

They basically took a camera and blew it up like a balloon into the Venza to make it like a small SUV. And they were really nice cars, but for some reason, they just didn't sell well. So Toyota stopped them after only like five or six years. And then as we started getting more hybrids, they decided to resurrect it. So yeah, it's basically a Camry hybrid at this point that has been brought up into an SUV. and, yeah, they're an incredible car. As a matter of fact, Jonathan drives Avenza. He's our show's producer.

And they are literally, they're probably one of the best family small SUVs crossovers like that that you can find. I mean, it's just, they're an awesome car. But yeah, it did come from the Camry originally. Okay, thank you guys. Again, I love listening to you show. I'm so happy I found you again. Oh, thank you so much, Jake. Thank you for that.

And, you know, I really think that you and your wife can truly work together on purchasing a vehicle. I do. I feel real positive. Well, if I told you we spent from 1 o'clock until 7.30 at night buying the Hed-A-Land-Messadis, would you believe me? Well, I would believe you, but I think you can cut that time in half if the two of you, could, well, come to some sort of a happy medium. What do you think about that? I hope you're right. I think after 44 years of marriage, I think we probably could. Oh, I think, I think you're right. Thank you so much for the call. You were a delight and tell your wife we said hello.

I will. All righty, thank you. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-65-3-0. and we're going to stay with the phones. We're going to talk to David. And for John and Marty, please hang on. Good morning, David. Hello, good morning, everyone. I have a question for Rick today. Okay.

He's helped me quite a bit in the past with diagnosing problems on my Prius. So it's a Prius. I'm the original owner. It's a 2012. It has $185,000. So the car runs just like new, except lately it's got an intermittent problem

when you started up on cold weather, which we have in New Jersey now, the motor knocks like crazy. And then, you know, it stops and runs fine. And then next morning when you do it, it could possibly do it again. But it's a really loud knock that keeps on going. I have a recording that I could try to play for you. I'm probably about 80% certain that I can tell you what's going on. And unfortunately, it's probably going to be bad news.

A dealer says. Yeah. What happens with the Prius when they get older like that, the higher mileage on the engine? They start getting a little bit of a warpage in either the block or the cylinder head, because it's an aluminum cylinder block and aluminum cylinder head with a metal gasket in between them for the head gasket. and they start to leak coolant into the cylinder as the car is sitting overnight. This happens even in the warm weather down here in Florida. We see a lot of it.

And what will happen is when you park the car at night, the cooling system is all pressurized up to high pressure. And as the car is cooling down, it hits a certain point where the coolant starts to leak into that cylinder. and when you start the car in the morning this usually will happen with number two or number three sometimes both of them on the coolant that has leaked down into that cylinder when it tries to start up and run

that will mix in with the air and the gas and the cylinder will not fire so it will misfire and knock for up to a minute maybe and then it will clear itself out and unfortunately the only way to fix that is to either replace whichever part warped, which is a huge bill, or replace the engine with, say, a used engine.

It's something that you can kind of live with for a while until it gets a lot worse, and eventually it's going to fail completely, but that could be 20, 30,000 miles more, or you could try to have it repaired, and the way to have this verified is the mechanic would actually pull the spark plugs out of the engine and run a borescope. It's a little camera on a flexible wand, basically, and they'll pressurize the cooling system and run that borescope camera down in, and you can actually see the marks on the cylinder

and sometimes even watch the coolant dripping very slowly, and you'll see the little drips of fluid coming into the cylinder and dripping down the cylinder walls. It's something I've diagnosed, I don't know, 40 or 50, 50 or even 100 of them in the last five or six years that this starts occurring. Okay. So I know that it started, I put a lot of miles now on the car, and it started at about 140, and now I'm up to 185. And I know if cooling is leaking out of the, in the reservoir, I don't see any coolant missing. Really? And I've changed the, I've changed the, I've had the

dealer change it already twice the coolant because I like to do that. Yeah, I don't see any missing. That's what, that's why I was, they weren't come and said the same thing as you, but then I'm starting to wonder how come I don't see any cooling missing.

Now that is kind of odd because, I mean, it takes a while before you'll see enough of it go down to really be noticeable. It doesn't do this. It doesn't do this all the time. It might only do this. once or twice a month. Oh, okay, all right.

And only in the cold weather. Ah, all right. You may have something else going on there. I would then be looking at possibly the coolant temp sensor may be getting an intermittent issue. Because if it's, say it's not reading the proper temperature, it's reading it as being higher than it might be, then you might not be getting enough fuel.

in there to burn properly. But again, that's something that the only way to really to verify that is you'd have to have a scan tool hooked up and be looking at that sensor when it occurs. God, that can be a tough one to figure out at this point because it's so once or twice a month, that's pretty intermittent for sure. At fact, I had a hard time getting a recording of it because it does itself so in often.

And then it'll go to the whole summer and not doing it. And like said, it started at 140, and I already have 185. Yeah. So then my question to you is, how long more am I going to have on the motor if it's what you thought it was originally? Well, if it's, if it was the coolant leaking in, you'd be getting that almost, you'd get almost every morning. It would be acting up like that. No. So if it's not doing that, then no, that's not the issue.

Yeah, you're, you're in pretty good shape on that one then. But yeah, ooh, that's that's a tough one because it's so intermittent. That would be really hard without just guessing and throwing parts at it. My answer really would be just kind of wait until it starts to get a lot worse so that you can actually get it pinpointed because unfortunately the other answer would be just start throwing parts at it and that can get really expensive. Right. Okay.

but otherwise everything was fine on this car, so we'll see what happens. I'm surprised actually the whole conversation because Prius is probably arguably one of the most reliable cars on the planet. And it's, you know, to hear about a chronic problem like this, of course it is an older vehicle with a lot of miles, but I'm still surprised that it has this type of chronic issue. Well, thanks very much for the call. Yep, thank you very much.

Thank you, David. Thank you, David. Yes. We're going to go to John in Palm City. Thank you for your patience, John. Good morning. I have a good story about women doing their homework. My daughter's friend from college always had purchased Camrys.

She's had like since 20, about 20 of them. And she's going to buy a new camry, but she's a little disappointed that there's no more V6 3.5-liter engine. So she checked into it, and the only thing is now she doesn't know whether to get the two-wheel or the four-wheel. She lives on Long Island. She did the homework about the engine.

The electric motor, there's two of them, on the two-wheel drive, 2.5-liter, and the four-wheel drive is an extra motor, which shoots it up to 232 miles, 232 horsepower. Now, I told her, since Long Allen there's snow, she should consider the four-wheel drive.

And the best way is to drive one at the dealer, which the dealer also rinsed them. He said he'll give her a good deal on a rental. She'd maybe take it as much as a week and try to four-wheel drive, which she's not never owned before. And I want to just see what Rick thinks, the two-wheel drive versus the four-wheel drive. And incidentally, their car gets 44. miles per gallon combined, which is just fantastic.

But I want to know Rick's opinion, two-wheel versus four-wheel. If it was down here in Florida, for sure I would say two-wheel drive, but I want to see what Rick thinks. Okay. Hey, that's a great report, John. Thanks so much for the good news. Rick? Four-wheel drive all day long.

Oh, okay. She's in the snow, the ice. Basically, it's an all-wheel drive, so it's an all-track system. the computer can control the power going to all four wheels individually. So way, way, head and shoulders, way safer and better control in those slippery conditions, all-wheel drive all day long. Well, one other concern that she has, she really digs into it heavily, she thinks that the pedal, the feeling on the pedal is softer. it's with the hybrid it's a different braking system than she's used to on her she has a 2019 cam right now you think there's a lot of difference is quite a electric

motor that operates the system the brake system and the pedals feel softer is any comment to Rick on that pedal soft yeah it's it's a totally different system because when you first step on the brakes in a hybrid, what happens is it's not actually applying the hydraulic brakes to squeeze the pads and slow the car down with the actual brakes. The first thing it's doing is reversing the electric motors into generators and creating electricity to go back and charge the battery with, but at the same time, what's known as the electromotive drag, it's the the drag created on the wheels slows the car down so you're actually using electro power electric power to slow the car just through that dragging force and you don't use the brakes as much

so the brakes on a hybrid can last twice as long as the brakes on a normal gasoline car because you only start supplying those hydraulic brakes down towards the very end of the stopping so yeah it's you know if you've ever been in a hurricane in Florida you had to use a generator and you plug something in on the generator and you hear it go from learn and it's that's the electromotive drag that slows it down it's even they use that it's even more pronounced in an all EV I mean Nancy and I both drive EVs and we virtually never touched the break I mean it's all electromotive force yep so yeah it's it's it's

It'll feel different because it's a very different system, but again, it's safer, it improves fuel economy, and it makes your brakes last longer. So it's a win all the way around. Well, I'm very happy that Rick answered the question about four-wheel drive, and I'm also so proud of a female that does a homework and checks into all the different aspects, and that's a fabulous thing, in my opinion. and it goes on Nancy's side and saying the women know much more than the average man. Education is key. Yeah, that's a great report, John. I really appreciate that. And congratulations to your daughter.

And, you know, it is just, it's happening more and more by female buyers, whether they lease, whether they buy, whether they're getting their car maintained. there's more of us that are voicing, you know, what we want and how we want it. And it doesn't mean that you've got to have a knockdown, dragged out. You can definitely, you know, obtain what you want by just being, like most ladies are, soft and understanding. Congratulations to the females. Thank you. Thank you very much, John.

Thanks for being so faithful to us and listening to the... the show all the time. John's been with us since the beginning. It's amazing. The number of years he's been with us and called us. Okay, we're going to go to Marty, and Marty, too, is a regular caller, and he's calling us from North Palm Beach. I know, he's calling from West Palm Beach. Hi, Marty. Hi, good morning. I've got to ask Earl something, and I know Earl's not going to agree with me, but it's a good way to have a discussion. With Amazon now selling cars and the way I buy cars, I've never gotten the right price online. And if they ever give me the price that I end up paying online, that means I paid too much. Now, Earl is probably not going to

agree with me on that. But I've never been able to get an online price that's the bottom line. Well, but the fact is you have the opportunity to shop and compare, the beautiful thing about online shopping is that if, I don't buy everything from Amazon. I go to Amazon first, and Amazon actually has different sellers on Amazon. they will give you an Amazon recommended price, and then they will say other prices. So you can actually shop within Amazon

and actually get a lower price than maybe the Amazon price because other sellers, anybody that wants to sell on Amazon, can sell. So it isn't the fact that Amazon always has the lowest price. It's that Amazon gives you the right to shop and compare. You know, no one expects a business to say, I'm going to have the lowest price on all my products all the time. If they say that, they're lying to you.

So what you want a business to do is say, this is my lowest price. Here it is, out the door, no surprises, no junk fees, and this is my price. Now, if it's not a price you like, shop and compare it with somebody else. and then buy from the lowest place that you can find. So that's what I like about Amazon. There's no car dealer, there's no Walmart, there's no Amazon that's always going to have the lowest price. But all I look for is the real price,

the out-the-door price without any games. Now, how are they going to, I don't know if you know this yet, how are they going to work the price and the car? Is there going to be a fixed price? Yes, absolutely, yeah. See, that's the whole thing. If you have a wobbly price, that's what we have now. You don't know if you want to buy a 2,025 Honda Accord

and you go to six different Honda dealers, you get six different prices. I mean, that's confusing, it's time-consuming, it's wasting your time. because dealer A will say if you get a better price from dealer B, come back to me and I'll give you a better price and let the games begin.

But all you want to know is this is the best price I'm going to get from this company, Amazon, Walmart. I mean, you don't negotiate with Walmart. You don't negotiate with Apple. You don't negotiate with Amazon. You get the best price and then you take that price

and try to find a cheaper price somewhere else. And that's what marketing is all about. That's what the freedom of being able to shop and compare prices. That's what they take away from you, the car dealers. They take that freedom away from you because they won't give you a price unless you agree to buy it at that time. They give you the price. They say, if you leave tomorrow, the price is going to be higher.

Well, it's going to be very interesting to see how that works. Yeah. Because is that going to work with me? First of all, I don't want a Hyundai anyway. Well, it isn't just one day. I mean, this is the beginning. I assure you, maybe not in the next five years or maybe even not the next 10 years. But before 20 years, I'll stick my neck out.

In 20 years, all cars will be sold at fixed prices. It'll be like an Amazon kind of a thing. Shop and compare. And that isn't to say that different people will be selling the same car, but they will not be giving you a phony price that they jack up secretly with junk fees when you go into the business office or, you know, when you negotiate. Yeah.

Well, if the legislature is like it is in Florida, I don't know if it's ever going to change. Well, ever is a long time. That's right, yeah. I go by my buying time. So far, nobody has agreed to the new laws, and everybody's got addendum stickers. And then when you go into the finance office,

you've got more charges. You're right. So right now it's still the Wild West. It is. It really is. And that's the reason we, maybe at least, you know, that way we can do the show. We're having fun on the show. So as long as the crooks out there, we're going to be doing the show.

So when everybody gets honest, we'll have to go home. Hey, Marty. Let me ask you a question before you go. Do you, in most cases, use Amazon? The only, I use Amazon for certain items. Yeah. If it's an item that I can't get anywhere. else, but I'll, you know, I'll check Amazon's

price and I'll check Walmart's price. Yeah. Or Target's price. Walmart, Walmart's really aggressive now, and I have done the same thing, and you can be lulled into complicity because Amazon makes it so easy that sometimes you say, oh, the hell, well, then I'll go ahead and buy it. But you need to take the time to check

with Walmart. Walmart is very aggressive, and I've beaten Amazon prices on several occasions with Walmart. Yeah, we learned to do some research and found out that to be very true, you know, the way you're doing it and what Earl just said. So you have to be careful no matter where you go. Yeah, I'll tell you one thing. My wife bought something on Amazon and wanted to return it. Amazon would not let us return it at either Coles or either at Whole Foods.

They had to have a UPS truck come to the house to pick it up. They would not allow the normal easy return. And it just so happened, you had to be home to give them the item. and it was very inconvenient. I told my wife, don't ever buy something from Amazon that you can't return right at the store. Yeah.

No, that's true. Get me careful. They're not perfect by any means, but I like the return. I guess maybe I'm home a lot of the time, but when we return a package, it's really convenient for us to have UPS come by and pick it up. Yeah, but, you know,

Just the idea that we didn't realize that there was the rule of that item. Yeah. Yeah. All right, well, have a good rest of the weekend, a good holiday. Thanks, Marty. Thanks, thank you. Yeah, thanks so much, Marty. Thanks for being part of the show.

We took our last call, and I just want to mention something before Rick goes on. He's got probably a text from Anne-Marie and so many other spots. I'm going to read you something from the Consumer Report. I got an update this morning from Consumer Report, and due to the reliability that is so below average, can you imagine Consumer Report has removed its recommendation of eight models? They no longer recommend them, and number one is Adi, and the other is BMW. Ford Escape, the hybrid, Hyundai Santa Cruz, Kia, the Lincoln, the Mazda. This is, this is...

You don't mean all models, do you? This is amazing. This is the Audi Q8 and the Fort Escape hybrid, the Hyundai Santa Cruz, the Hyundai Santa Cruz, the Kia EV6. So go to the Internet and check that out. out. And like I said, because reliability was so below average, they just had to, you know, remove them from recommendations. Oh, that's pretty sad because personally, the Hyundai Santa Cruz, I think that's a pretty awesome-looking vehicle. The guy that designed the shape of that car, the look of it,

I agree with you. He knocked it out of the park. That's a beautiful car. It is. It's just, it looks awesome. The aerodynamics, the whole thing, is quite stunning. Unfortunately, beneath the skin, it's a rotten apple. Okay. That's too bad. We'll leave you with that.

Rick is going to take over, and he is going to share some texts with us and some FaceTime YouTube, and he's got some, are you taking care of anonymous feedback? Yep. Okay, great. First one we're going to have is Anne-Marie's text. Good morning, Anne-Marie, and welcome. And she starts right off. Good morning. I'm hoping you may have an answer because I haven't a clue.

Why is the Tesla cybertruck so angular like a modern battleship? All the other vehicles on the roads have curves in their design. Why doesn't the cyber truck? Well, because it wanted to be different. And there's over a million people that like it because they're on the road now. Elon Musk is an unusual guy to say the least and he just he thought he wanted to build something that was totally different and didn't look like any other truck and he found a niche market

pretty big niche market because he's selling quite a few of those cyber trucks including the one that Nancy and I have we get a lot of comments and a lot of criticism Either you like a cyber truck or you hate it. Yep. And I got to admit, they've kind of grown on me a bit. Let me ask you this, Rick. As far as a cyber truck is concerned, wouldn't it be difficult as Ann Marie referred to as, you know, being more curvy instead of this crazy-looking cyber truck because it is wild-looking? Is it because it would be difficult to, because of.

what the cyber truck is made out of the stainless steel to shape it. Nah. Into what other people think it should be look like. Well, that is why that is one of the angular designs

because it's made of the same steel that the SpaceX ships or the rocket chips are made out of them. It's thick, heavy stainless steel. So to curve that in the way you would a you know composite material or plastic you couldn't do it so

it would be a lot more difficult but it would be costly I think they could accomplish it if they wanted to but I personally I think it's more your answer Earl I think it's the idea that they just wanted something that was going to stand out and by putting those sharp angular lines it it breaks the mold because anymore when you look at cars on the road it's hard to distinguish a Lexus from a Toyota, from a Chevy, from a Ford, from a Hyundai, a Honda. So many of them all look the same.

And if you can't see the emblems on the car, you don't know what it is. But you see a cyber truck from a mile away, you can recognize that thing because it is so distinctive. And I think that maybe what Elon was trying to do is create something that the moment you see it, you know what it is. Definitely. But it is definitely. Rick has a good point. And boy, I'll tell you what, you can see, I can see a cyber truck coming for, as Rick said, a mile away. And boy, it doesn't matter.

If you're flying under the radar, forget about it. Because if you're in a cyber truck, it's like walking a puppy. Yep. Everybody wants to talk to you and ask about this mysterious cyber truck. But also, Rick, I truly believe that it is costly and impractical to, you know, what we were talking about, the shape of it. I think so, yeah. And Marie, thank you for the great question. Okay, and this one is from Bob.

He says, good morning. Are many crown vehicles, Toyota crowns, being sold? If not, how long before they're stopped, before Toyota decides to stop, production? introducing him here, would it be the same as to CHR? Thanks, Bob. Well, they're building the Crown in Japan, right? For the most part, yeah. Yeah, so that's why they're so fuel here. I think that once they build a manufacturing plan for Crown in the United States, they'll probably be a lot more. Yeah. I think having it take over for the Avalon, it's an expensive car, but I think they're going to catch on pretty

soon. And we're going to start seeing a lot more crowns on the road very soon, I think. Okay. Now we're going to go over to some of the anonymous feedback from Incognito here. And this one, I got to read this one. Oh, boy. So basically, Earl has wasted another salesman's time with his mystery shops, and he lost the possibility, he meaning the salesperson, lost the possibility of a good. good up for this crap. By the way, Earl Stuart Pontiac had addendum stickers and bogus dealer fees on his new cars back in the day. Well, you know, the nice thing about telling the truth and being candid, yes, we did.

We, you know, I was an evil dealer back of the days. I had the junk fees and bait and switch advertising. I did it, I did everything about the way. In fact, I was even sneakier, I think, that some of the dealers are today. But I learned it was the wrong way to do it, and I learned how to mend my ways and be more successful by being honest with my customers. So, yeah, I confess that Stuart Pontiac, we had a lot of bait-and-switch advertising. One of my favorites was we would order a Grand Prix.

If you remember the Pontiac Grand Prix, and we would order Grand Prix. and we would order Grand Prix back in those days, you know, in the 60s and 70s, you could order cars without air conditioning, without tint and glass. There were very few accessories. So I'd order a stripped Grand Prix, and I would put it on the showroom floor. I would sell it for $4,995, but they had no air conditioning, no tinted glass, no power steering, no power brakes, nothing. and the person would come in and I'd say, well, you can't buy this for $4.9.95,

but I can sell you this one, and it's only $10,000. But it's got the air conditioning, it's got the power brakes. So that's the kind of nonsense that I did. I get, I feel ashamed of myself when I think of what I did, but that's the way everybody did it back then. Yeah. As far as wasting the going fly, you know, fast forward to today, I'm wasting,

a salesman's time because he's trying to take advantage of a customer. I'm trying to expose the fact that you're taking advantage of customers to protect the customers, and that's the reason this show exists. So I don't apologize at all for wasting that time. But you have confessed, hence to your anonymous feedback, confessions of a recovery car dealer. And if you pick that book up, it doesn't matter when it was. was written. When you buy it, just that you buy it, put it on the shelf because you'll always refer to it. It is, it's not outdated. Confessions of a recovering car dealer. That is the book

that Earl decided to write quite some time ago. You can go to Amazon or you can go to Earl on Cars. And by the way, all the proceeds from the purchase of that book, it goes, that's $19.99. $19.99. That goes straight to Big Dog Ranch. So take advantage of that. Pick up that book. And all your questions, they'll be answered. Okay, Rick. Now this one from incognito, I'm going to try to paraphrase this a little. Excuse me. We're going to take one more from incognito. So you go ahead with that. and then we're going to jump forward and get to the mystery shopping room. Okay.

This person says in May of 2023, I bought a new 23 Toyota Tacoma from a dealership and I'm considering refinancing due to the high monthly payments. You say, I noticed several questionable fees

and discrepancies from the original sale. Apparently, the MSRP on the vehicle was 36, $1,440, and the dealership added more than $10,000 in optional markups, which were presented as mandatory fees. They say apparently these fees were delivery, processing, handling fees, and they apparently, as they added it up, they came up with the total sale price of $64,000, $3,300. $156. And Rick, was the market adjustment included in that as a fee? Apparently, there were quite a few extra fees. They don't list them all here. But they say they had a $10,000 trade in, and they had to finance $44,253 for a truck that had an MSRP of 36-440. and they're saying now they've contacted several lawyers

but they say they only take personal injury cases and I was wondering if you know of any lawyers who specialize in consumer protection or car dealership issues could you recommend someone who would be willing to take my case alternatively I'm wondering if you would be willing to accompany me to the dealership to help expose those issues and perhaps assist in finding a resolution I'm hoping to address these deceptive practices

and potentially reach an agreement with the dealership, but I feel like I need expert guidance to move forward. I really appreciate any advice or help you can provide. Thank you for your time and consideration. We have a lawyer that we've used from time to time. He works out in New York and Florida. He's licensed in both places. His name is Justin Lynn.

And if you would text us, I could give you his contact information, and you could text us at, Nancy, give him the text number, would you please? The text number is 772-4976530. That's 772-4976530. And you can call that number, as Earl said. Earl, do you have anything else to say we're running out of time for the mystery shopping report? You want to move forward? I think we probably should, yeah. Take advantage of the text number 772-4976530, and you two can vote on the mystery shopping report from Starling Buick of Stewart.

And this mystery shopping report was done in 2022. Yeah, we slipped an old one in on you because it was a good one, and we had a little confusion about our current marketing, Mr. Shopping report. And so I apologize for that, but most of you probably haven't heard this, and it's an interesting report. I think you'll enjoy listening to this. Mr. Shop of Starling, Bewick, and Stewart, Florida.

And I'll be speaking in the first instance if I were Agent Lightning who actually did this report. About a year ago, car business was already feeling, the inventory pinch. In June of 2021, prices were going up, but they were far from the peaks, we are seeing today. My dealership was raising prices, but we still had a few months to go before going all the way to MSRP. My dealership, I'm speaking about Earl Stewart Toyota. No one was running ads for big discounts back then except for Carlos Buick in Stewart, Florida. their website stuck out like a sore thumb, advertising a $5,000 discount of a brand-new 2021 Buick Enclave.

Remember this shopping report was done back at 2022. Of course, that got our attention, and we mystery shopped them. Agent Lightning actually got the discount, most of it anyway. There were the usual junk fees added to the price, and to be accurate, the discount was actually a GM rebate. So the $5,000 was no skin off Carl Buick's teeth. In other words, the factory discounted it, and it didn't come out of Carl Buick's pocket at all. Prior to last year's mystery shop, Carl's Buehlick hadn't performed too well. They used bait and switch ads with unobtainable rebates and, as I mentioned, the standard slate of junk fees.

This week, Agent Lightning found out that Carl's Buick is no more. A little research revealed that Carl Fisher retired. last year and sold his Carls Buick to a little known small group known as the Starling Starrling Automotive Group. Starling consists of Alan Starling and his three sons, Andrew, Jack, and Walker. They have six dealerships, including the newly acquired Carl's Buick. Five dealerships are in Florida. One is in South Carolina. It's so exciting to test the waters in a brand new dealership or a mostly brand new dealership it's been six months under new ownership so we can expect some changes new ownership means that new management

new culture new ads new tactics the changes can be good or bad for the sake of our listeners on the Treasure Coast less hope they're good so here's a report I arrived at noon as I'm agent lightning and I was greeted by a customer service lady at the front desk I told her I was in the market for a new car and wanted to take a look at what they had in stock. The lady introduced me to a nearby salesperson named Lee. Lee said he would be more than happy

to assist me today. We shook hands and he took me to his work area. Lee had an extensive battery of questions to ask me about my preferred vehicle. I answered everything to the best of my ability and we determined that the perfect vehicle for me was a 2002 Buick Encore GX select four-wheel drive. Lee asked for my license and walked me outside to the side lot to find the car.

His sales manager, Corey, came outside and met us. He had the key to the encore for me. The MSRP was $27,780, which included $50 credit because there was no heated seats. Lee said that as soon as the chips became available, he would call me to arrange to have them installed, but he had no idea how long that would take. We test drove the encore, due to a lot of construction, our excursion ended up taking over 40 minutes. Lee was apologetic.

We returned to the dealership, and we asked what other vehicles I was considering. I said I was also looking at Ford escapes. I asked Lee if they were selling below MSRP. He said he wanted to be really up front with me and said they were adding $3,000 to him, MSRP because of the car shortage, but he added that he was still trying to get me a good deal and keep me from buying elsewhere. Lee said that other dealers were sold their cars for $10,000

to $15,000 over MSRP. I said, yikes, and then told him to get me a good deal. Lee then, Lee said he needed to get the numbers from Corey. He was gone for 15 minutes, returned with a worksheet. The top line was MSRP. A $250 rebate came off, but then the price started to go up. They added $3,000 market value adjustment, MVA, they called it, $121 in taxable fees, an $899 dealer fee, these are all junk fees. Starlink's Buick's price was $4,000 over MSRP, $4,020, to be precise. Lee asked me what I was thinking

and I said I was thinking I wasn't paying $4,000 over MSRP. He asked if I would do business with me today, if he could get Corey to split the difference with me. So the games began. I said, I don't know. Lee asked me what it would take, so I

told him to get my out of the door MSRP or less. He said he left to speak with Corey again. Back and forth, back and forth. A few minutes later, both men came back. Corey said he understood and I wanted to look at another car

I shook my head I said I wanted to discount the encore we're working on Corey said I should drive another car that might work better for my budget I said I wanted to take this car this car work in my budget

make it work at my budget Corey encountered that he didn't even know if I was serious about buying this car now he's getting rude and abusive He said that if I could show I was serious by giving him a deposit and letting him run my credit, he would go to his general manager and see he would remove the $3,000 market adjustment.

I mean, this is hostility here going back and forth. I balked at this. He said he knows I was also considering Ford's and told me that Ford is making their cars, marking their cars up 10, 20, even 30,000 over a sticker, and he's just doing 3,000. I shrugged my shoulders and said sorry and walked out of there. So there you have it. I won't ruin or prejudice your vote by giving you my opinion, but I think you can tell by my talk of voice what my opinion is.

And we need to vote on that. And I like to grade on the curve because as I always say, Florida is a bad place to buy a car. South Florida is especially bad place to buy a car and if we gave everybody Fs in South Florida there'd be no car dealerships to sell cars. So we great on the curve. If they're not so good, now we give them a C instead of an F. And so look at what is average in Florida, which is not good and base your vote on Starling, Beulaker-Stewart on an average and shoot your votes in and we'll read them on the air. At number 772-497-6530, you can vote for the mystery shopping report right there. 772-497-6530, and Rick is ready to read all of your grades. We are waiting for them to come in. YouTube.

Okay. First one I got is Johnny Z. Fradley says, F. Tim Gilliland says, Corey needs to learn some people. skills, D. Joseph Kelleherst says D minus. Let's see, see if we got any coming in on the text lines. It's all we've got for right now. Myself, yeah, I mean, it's interesting to compare that one from so long ago to today and what we're seeing. But yeah, I think I'd go with a D again for that one from back then. Oh, here's T-Cash says F then. F minus today.

And Brian Sondlatko says, this is an easy one to grade. Automania says F minus. And we have Bob says, it was an F for me in 2022 and it's an F again. And Marie says F for being fed up with the rude, condescending, hostile behavior. Yeah, that rude condescending, that really got me. You know, if you're going to try to take advantage of a customer, you ought to least be polite.

Yeah, you've got to have some people skills. Yeah, when you try to take advantage of a customer and you also get pushy and insulting, you're not only just dishonest, but you're all so stupid because you're not going to sell very many cars that way. Interesting to see that this new outfit that came in and took over Starling Group, we need to go back maybe and do another one I don't even sure they're still there yet but if they are we'd go back and shop them again to see if they changed any

but I is agreed I would I started to say an F I'd give them a D as in dog Nancy you raise your hand there oh I thought you were waving at me no I was waving you have to go to the bathroom

I was waving, that ship's sail, I was waving at Jonathan. You know, back to this mystery shopper report, people skills. Why on earth is this person in the position that they're in, and so many others out there, you know, and they confront the consumer who they're trying to sell to? You know, it's deplorable. It really and truly is. If you don't like people, stay home. You offend women that way, even more than men.

And one thing about a woman, if you were rude to a woman versus a man, men kind of like the fight and the argument. And we had a caller earlier in the day that said that, you know, he enjoyed the negotiation and the hassle. Women don't. So if you take advantage of a woman and you're rude and abusive, you'll never see her again. So a word to the wise, all you car dealers out there,

If you're going to sell cars to women, you have to treat them with respect. Yeah, how about some active listening? How about some empathy? We don't have time for me to go through the list. My grade, F. F for the Mystery Shopping Report for today. And that was Starling Buick of Stewart. We've got two minutes left.

Anybody want to add anything? The only thing I would say is that Nancy and I are really, really getting into our autonomous driving. And we're also, we just got our driver's licenses renewed. And as you know, most of us, most of you know, we're in our 80s. We're thinking about driving and how much longer we will drive. And the autonomous car is the life raft for a lot of older drivers. because once that is totally approved and once it is totally safe,

people will be able to drive forever, you know, but it's going to be a matter of, we're going to take your driver's license away. So we have a lot of older listeners. Good news for a lot of people that are listening. I'll tell you, as I stand here, December the 14th, 2024, did I ever think, you know, that I would be 150% on board with the electric vehicle that I am. driving and ladies and gentlemen which is also autonomous what and without autonomous um it's just amazing give it a chance ladies and gentlemen it's there and it's in front of us okay thank you

so much for joining us this morning we enjoy your company you can tune in next week the same time right here on the oldies channel at 8 a.m. have a wonderful weekend everyone Take it go!