Earl Stewart on Cars - 02.03.2024 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Mazda of Palm Beach

Episode Date: February 3, 2024

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Mazda dealer to see what they have on their lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2024 Mazda CX-5 2.5 S SUV. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

Good morning, everybody. We're back, your auto rescue team here to rescue you from unfair, deceptive trade practices by car dealers. I've been doing this for about 20 years. and every year I think maybe next year is going to be the day or the year that will we finally get things under control. Again, I think we're getting close. We're hopeful that the Federal Trade Commission's recent ruling

will help even the playing field for the buyer and the seller, so to speak. Right now, the car dealers are holding most of the cards and you go into buy a new car or use car for that matter, and you're pretty much at their mercy. So this show is to help you deal with that. Maintaining and repairing your car is not a whole lot safer. And we have an expert in the studio. If you're new to the show, his name is Rick Kearney.

He's been with us for many years doing the show. Nancy Stewart, my co-host, and I've been doing this for 20. Rick's been here for at least 10, I think. And he's been in the business about 20, almost 25 years. So he's right. How many? 28 years now. Wow.

Boy, time flies when you're having a good time. Who's counting? And I don't just mean he's been doing the same thing for all these years. He's evolved. He has gone with a fantastic technological explosion that we find ourselves immersed in today. I mean, it's absolutely crazy. You wake up and everything you've been doing yesterday is obsolete. Artificial intelligence is like war.

warp speed for learning. And if you don't stay on top of things, you get way behind. Then you can get in trouble, especially with an automobile, both buying and repairing and maintaining. So if you have a relatively new car, I mean, you bought it in the past five or ten years, if you have a relatively new car, they're very, very complex. It's almost like a computer on wheels. So if you have a problem and you're afraid to take it into a car deal, you're afraid to take it

into a car dealer, and that means you're a very smart person, or for that matter, sometimes with the independent repair shops, it's kind of an adventure because, again, it's like going into a poker game, and when you look around, they sit down at a poker table and you look around and you wonder who

the sucker is, that means you're the sucker. So, you're playing their game. You go into a repair shop, and they tell you you have a squeak, rattle a roll that needs $1,000 to repair, it may or may not be true. So you need to find out for sure.

If you have doubts, call Rick Kearney right here on this show at 877-9-60-90-960. And if you're driving, you can't write the number down, I understand. If you can write the number down, please write it down, because you might not have a question now, but we're going to be on for two hours. We're on from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. So if you can write the number down, 877-960,000. 9-960. Call up and say,

Rick, this is, my car is making a funny noise. It sounds like this. Or I smell something. I don't know what it is. I started up in the morning and I get this vibration. Describe exactly what you see, smell, and hear. And Rick might be able to save you a lot of money.

And you might say, there's nothing to worry about. Just do this. You'll see. So 877-960 for a free diagram. on your rolling computer, which is what you had today. I said earlier about staying on top of things. Every time I turn around, I want to know where Rick is. He's either online learning or he's going to another school somewhere.

The technology is moving so fast. Now we're getting to electric vehicles. Hybrids was a real learning experience. So we're getting into a lot of things now that you either have to be, on top of it or you have to have somebody you can trust and it's hard to find someone you can trust we also have a text number a lot of people prefer the texting I do and the text number is 772 4976530 that's 772 4976530 and the nice thing about the text is my son still who's run to a little late this morning. He'll be in the studio at a couple

of minutes, but he's got his phone with him, and the text will be on his phone, and we will accumulate those texts. We'll try to get to him as quickly as possible, but if we miss a few, like I said, we've got two hours. So usually by the end of the show, we can answer all the texts.

One really cool number that I love to get used out of, because you can say whatever you want to say. It's an anonymous feedback line. It's a company called Incognito, that's the name of the company. And they do this for a lot of blue-chip companies, Adobe, Google, a lot of companies use this.

And they get anonymous feedback from their employees and their customers. I mean, let's face it, it's like calling the police hotline. You can remain anonymous. People are sometimes afraid to report a crime or talk about somebody that might go after them. You know, they don't need that hassle. So if you want to use our secret line, that anonymous feedback, you go to this URL on the web, youranonymousfeedback.com,

y-o-o-U-R-A-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S feedback.com, Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Tell it like it is. And if you have something, if you've got a gripe about me or Rick or Nancy or Stu, let's hear it. You have some constructive criticism. We'd love to hear that.

And if you have some things, you want to say about some other people that you're dealing with. You know what I'm talking. Privacy is a big thing today. And it seems like privacy is really invited all of our lives. So your anonymousfeedback.com. The interesting thing that

we have really, really a lot of hope about is the Federal Trade Commission's regulations. C-A-R-S is the name of the regulation. stands for combating auto retail scams. Combating auto retail scams. If you haven't heard about it, Google it. Very exciting. It goes into effect, hopefully, July 30th.

Now, it's been postponed. And I wrote a blog about this, because I was disappointed at first when I found out the Federal Trade Commission had postponed the initiation of combating auto retail scams. And I found out it wasn't the Federal Trade Commission that put a stop to it. It was the federal court in Texas as a result of the actions of the Texas Automobile Deals Association

and the National Automotive Association. They protested the regulation and the judge agreed to postpone. So the Federal Trade Commission wanted to go ahead. I was worried that they backed off and I called the Federal Trade Commission and I talked to my contact up there, an attorney I deal with. and she assured me that they wanted to go ahead, but the judge said you have to put it on hold until they had a chance to review the complaint

by the Texas Automobile Association and the National Automobile Association. So that's good news, and we keep our fingers crossed. I want to introduce my sidekick here, my partner, my wife, Nancy Stewart, She's been with us, been with me for 20 years of this show. And she is a female advocate. She has started out 20 years ago.

This was an old boys club. We were a little radio station on CV radio, half hour show. The only people that ever call the show are the guys. Now, I love the, I like the guys to call the show. I mean, you know, guys, they like cars, and they're fun to talk to. But half the buyers out there are women. And so finally, Nancy has got the women going and calling. We have about a 50-50, thanks to her efforts.

And you'll hear a little bit about how she did that. I'm going to introduce her now. She'll tell you about a very special offer that she makes, you ladies out there. If you haven't called the show, you want to hear this. Good morning, everyone. And welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars. Thank you for being with us. We appreciate your company.

and you make the show. So continue watching us, listening to us, and every week from 8 until 10 o'clock. As Earl said, I do have a special deal for the ladies. Ladies, do you have a car purchasing or servicing experience that you'd like to share with us? We would appreciate your call. and you can win yourself $50, first two new lady callers.

Give us a call at 877-960-99-60. For everyone else, you can text us at 772-4976530. And don't forget your anonymous feedback. You can definitely take advantage of that and send us whatever information or questions you choose That's Your Anonymous Feedback.com. We have a dog of the week this morning that we're going to share with you. Big dog.

And he is definitely not in the studio. He's about 110 pounds. Excuse me. And this little crazy dog is, his name is Lalo. And you'll hear all about him later on. in the show. And if you want to take a look at the dogs at Big Dog Ranch, and by the way, it is the largest no-kill shelter, you can go to www.bdr.org. That is Big Dog Ranch Rescue. You can take a look at all the dogs that they have for adoption, and you can kind of take a look around

at what they have out there. And it is an amazing place. The dogs just love it out there. Again, that number, 877-960, 990-60. So give us a call. And ladies, again, $50 for the first two new lady callers. And Earl's call him this week, he's continuing to pay attention to the FTC regulation. and you can read his column at Earl On Cars.

That's combating auto retail scams. Very interesting, and he sort of lays out the plan that we're trying to achieve, you know, by regulating things that are going on when you purchase a car. 877-960-99-60 now back to the recovering car dealer and I forgot to say this when you do call we stop what we're doing because we get sometimes carried away particularly me I yak a lot because I love to talk about cars

and how not to be ripped off so if the call comes in Nancy will get the call from the control room she'll jump on the call I'll be quiet everybody will be quiet and we'll listen to you There's something about a personal phone call that we like, and we have a lot of regular callers that we love to talk to. So 877-960-960, that's 877-960-99-60. I want to talk a little bit about consumer reports. I know you think I'm on the payroll.

I'm not. They're not-for-profit, and they don't pay me. It's a non-proud organization. but they're my favorite source of information. And every week, every month, when they come out with a new magazine, they always have something about cars in there. Very interesting article in the,

is this the March edition? I think it is the newest edition. And they talk about cars that are reliable and safe that have low maintenance costs, low insurance costs. And they have something very interesting this time. they talked about cars that are really fun to drive. And I said, well, that's interesting because we both know that cars that are fun to drive

sometimes aren't safe to drive. We joke a lot about Jeeps. And Jeep is a very popular car, but if you really want to have some fun, look at the top cars that are really fun to drive in this Consumer Reports. You won't see a lot of the cars we talk about. about and recommend, but that's, it goes to show you that people buy cars on a motion.

And that's okay. I mean, if you can afford it and you want something, there's a lot of fun. You know, Nancy and I bought a Tesla, a plaid, you know, the hot rod Tesla, and there's a lot of things wrong with it. I mean, it's, be honest with you, the fit and finish and a lot of the amenities about cars that you think about normally, but it's a fun car, so we bought the car. So we do the same thing you do, but consumer reports, cars that are really fun drive, good to look at. I don't know if we have any text, Stu just walked in. Of course we do. I know we have Anne-Marie's text, because she's a regular, and we got maybe some YouTube over there that Rick, by the way, monitors us a YouTube station, so if

you, he has an amazing cadre of followers that are very intelligent and very informative and really help us a lot of the show. So if you want to talk to Rick Kearney directly, just go on YouTube.com forward slash Earl and Cars. We'll go to Stu now and he can

start to sell some text. We're going to have to go to the phones because we have Anthony waiting and he's calling us from Port St. Lucy. Good morning, Anthony, and welcome to Earl and Cars. Good morning. How are you? We're great. What can we do for you this morning?

I got a quick question. I'm thinking about buying either a suburban or a Benali or a Jeep, like the Wagonier. I travel a lot back to New York, and right now we do it in a pickup truck, but I want it more comfortable for my dogs and stuff like that. What do you think is the best, you know, value out there? and I also pull like a trailer with it. That's only, you know, like a tool trailer. Yeah, gosh.

Which is about 3,000 pounds. That's that whole class of big SUVs out there. Don't really study them that much. We were just talking about consumer reports, and I would start there because you mentioned the Denali, and then there's an escalade, and there's a Toyota, Sequoia, and all that. So there's a whole range from sporty to luxurious and all that. And the price range, they're all pretty pricey, but I don't know off the top of my head, you know, what's the best value.

I mean, I'm driving the Sequoia right now, Toyota Sequoia, and it's a hybrid, but I'm still only getting 16 miles to the gallon. So I don't know what the, because you have to consider mileage and as well as the, you know, the cost. Rick, do you have any input there? I would kind of shy away from the Jeeps myself. Yeah. Because it just seems like Jeep is a brand, has had a lot. lot of problems with their cars right a by in the ratings they're usually rated very low yeah for just having so many issues um like gmc denali i think i see a lot of them around here um gmc's generally

rated pretty good uh the chevies of course they're basically the same vehicle just yeah different badging anthony i'm i'm i'm looking at consumer reports right now we have opinions rick is you know he he knows cars real well let me tell you what consumer reports that these are just a shotgun. The number one recommended SUV by consumer reports is the, uh, uh, uh, for BMW X five, but that's too small. He's looking at the big, but this is all of them. So that just happens to be a small one.

They are, uh, they have a, uh, uh, Highlander hybrid is a mid size. Small again, yeah, uh, you're looking for a, uh, Janale or Tahoe. Yeah, they have them all the big, the small. whole size together so uh go to conservative reports and uh and they they have their big small intermediate size all the SUVs rent so uh uh i can go to big SUVs and get and get and get you the specifics but you could do the same thing and uh you can you can pretty much uh rely on their on their recommendations if i was going to go with a gmc or a suburban or something like that Which dealers should I look at down here?

I've only been here a year now, so I haven't, you know, I don't really know any. A Schumacher is, the Schumacher dealers, I believe that they have, the GMC franchise. I would start with them. Generally, they've done pretty well. We mystery shop, all the dealers around here. And, I mean, they haven't, like, gotten any A grades from us, but they haven't gotten any Cs. Or they might have gotten Cs, but they're okay. So I'd start there.

but go online because once you settle on the model that you want to get you can start the pricing step of the process and just stay at home use your phone and just go to websites and get and get prices and just go for the lowest out-the-door price once you sit on the vehicle you don't even have to get up and drive around and Anthony as everyone mentioned consumer report you can narrow at Don, pick yourself up the March issue and there you will see all the top rated SUVs

so hopefully we helped you out this morning. I appreciate it very much. Thanks, Anthony. Give us a call. Let us know how your trip went to the dealerships, the internet. There's just

so much at your fingertips. We're going to go to Dave in New Jersey Good morning, Dave. Hello, good morning. Welcome. I have a question for Rick. Okay.

Helping out in the past. So it's a 2012 Prius, 170,000 miles. And when you're in park and you have your foot on the break, it just started making a loud tapping noise. Hmm. I can play it for you real quick because I have it on my computer. It's up to you. Oh, that's great, yeah.

Okay. Here we go. That is most likely going to be the ABS actuator starting to have some issues. I was scared about that. Yeah, and that's going to be a very expensive repair. If you're not getting any warning lights, at this point, yeah, at this,

this point, I would consider looking at trading the vehicle in before too long, because that, you're looking at probably three and a half to four, maybe $5,000 repair for that. Well, shouldn't you confirm that somehow? I mean, you could listen to it, but I would almost guarantee that that's going to be the actuator. Boy. And when it finally gets in, what's happening is the Toyota's had a problem with those actuators. They put an extended warranty on them for quite a while, but most of those now are out of warranty, even the extended. And at this point, you know, it's a 12-year-old vehicle, 170,000 miles.

You know, it's kind of reaching a point where the what's called the accumulator inside, the seals are not holding the pressure like they should. So it's constantly trying to rebuild that pressure. When it finally starts leaking too much, it's going to. going to be throwing the warning lights on very quickly. And then you're going to, when you go to trade it in, they're going to see those lights on, and they're immediately going to drop the price on it. He should trade it in before the lights go on. Yeah. And it may be a praiser that doesn't have very good ears. Well, they're unlikely to be sitting in the car in gear with their foot on the

brain, so they're unlikely to hear it. Yeah, it's kind of pass it on and let the next guy be aware of it. But even so, most appraisers are already going to know that that's an issue with Prius on the higher mileage ones. And they'll work with you to try to get the best deal they can. What would you say the cost of the repair would be?

Probably about between $4,000 and $5,000. Oh, boy. Wow. It's an expensive part and it's a lot of work to replace it. How much time do you think I have going like going that from now on?

Like how long until it starts to be a problem with the lights and all. Yeah, unfortunately, the crystal ball is very foggy on that one. It could be anywhere from, say, three to four weeks to three to four months, maybe a couple of years before it ever hits that point. You should try to sell that car or trade it as soon as possible. I think you got lucky, I mean, because, to catch something like that, that expensive. And Rick, I trust

him a thousand percent. He's got amazing ears. I was kidding him about the knock. I said, maybe you know, maybe you had to get a double check, but he's sure that this is the problem. And he's heard enough of them that he's right. So before that

flashes up as a warning light, that car will devalue by several thousand dollars when that light comes on. So I'd sell it. I would trade it. As soon as I could. Especially right now, prices the way they are, and fuel prices, too. Hybrid cars like that one, you know, they kind of command a little bit of a premium. So it's just, it's just that, well, I was going to wait for the newer Camry that comes with a hybrid, which is only a few months. Right. And also,

I don't really think the cars work, even though I'm the original owner and the motor's perfect, excellent maintenance that transmit everything's perfect but but the car has had a lot of body work on it and you know and and not real good body work so I really don't think the I got my money's worth out of it but I don't think it's got to have any trading value I you might be surprised at what they will work with you on that because then they'll you know they'll probably wind up sending it to auction and when it goes to auction some buy here the buy here Pay now a lot

they'll they'll jump those pretty quick but meanwhile right now I really wanted to wait for the new Camry so if I was going to get

a new car so I would have to wait a little but I have another vehicle to use too so yeah I understand see what happens yeah

but that's a shame that it's I scared that it would be that yeah okay Rick's ears Rick's ears

don't lie ever so often then they work. Well, thanks for calling and let us know how it works out. Sure. Thank you very much and have a good day. Thank you, Dave. We're going to go to Sunny in Port Lauderdale.

Good morning, Sunny. Yes, good morning, Nancy. Good morning. Welcome to the show. Are you a first-time caller? Yes, yes, I am. Well, Sonny, you won yourself $50 this morning. You're the first new lady caller this morning.

If you stay on the line after we're finished talking, you can give Jeremy your information, and he'll pass that along to me so that I could send you that check. So what can we do for you this morning? Okay, I brought an Accura. I was just trying to see here. It's a TLX, okay? I really like the car. I thought, well, I'll treat myself.

I sold my Camry and I bought the Acura. It had 23,000 miles on the clock. And it was about five weeks ago I bought it. And I have a vibration. It's a slight vibration. And it's a little bit worse when I put the AC on. So I talked to the mechanic at my nearest Accura dealer. and I had to leave the car there all day

and they said they put it up on on the rack yes and they said they couldn't find anything wrong with it and I said well did you take it out for a drive and eventually they did they took it and they said they couldn't find anything wrong with it

so I said well did you try sending the AC on anyway it went back and forth and eventually they said oh, yes, we realize, but it's just a characteristic, a normal characteristic of the car. So I said, normal. I said, I just sold a car that's 15 years old. It never vibrated, and this car's vibrating.

It's only, you know, it's only four years old, three years old, I guess. It was in 2020, and I bought it. I think Rick can answer your question. Unfortunately, the first thing, I'd be looking at is maybe a motor mount might have started to get a little weak because the motor mounts are like big metal pieces with rubber mounted inside that holds the motor so that when the engine's running, the vibrations of the engine are kind of insulated from the rest of the car. But sometimes those mounts start to get a little weak and you can't

really see anything, but it lets it settle closer and it'll transmit that vibration feeling a little bit. Unfortunately, most of those are going to be a three-year, 36,000-mile warranty item on most cars. The motor mounts are? Yeah. That's crazy because I know it's not the engine and transmission, but it's so integrated with a part of the engine. The problem is that most manufacturers say,

It's any part that is internally lubricated by oil is under the engine, drive train. But if it's not part of that, then a mound is really considered a three-year item. The problem is when you get a vibration like that, which you're driving the car all the time, so you're very sensitive to it, whereas the mechanics, you know, we're getting in and out of cars, 10 cars 12 cars 20 a day maybe and so those vibrations that we feel in one yours might be on one end of the spectrum that you notice it but we

we may feel that same vibration in a bunch of cars that are much much worse and so it may be just you might want to wait for a while to see if it gets any worse and if it does then maybe they can narrow it down to what that would be but I would guess at a motor mount unfortunately you know like I say they could be a little expensive to replace just as a guess item

and that's one of the things that I myself I shy away from it I don't like to say hey maybe this is it because I don't want you to spend your money on a guess I want to be able to say yes this is definitely what's wrong but sometimes it can be very hard to narrow it down 100 percent. The car is certified. It's pre-owned certified until 2027. Does that, if it was a motor mount,

would that be covered? You need to check the paperwork on it because some manufacturers will cover those on the CPO's, the certified pre-owned. Others, that certified portion, the warranty only covers, again, the drive train. so that's something you'd want to check the paperwork but if it does show that motor mounts are covered then I would ask them about it and it would certainly be worth a try

yes actually my neighbor suggested that and I said it to the technician and he said no we've checked everything is fine they you know they get saying that's the character sticks the car and it really does vibrate because you know I've had it now five weeks and I noticed it within two or three days of driving the car. Unfortunately, not the first day. But, as I said, my neighbor drove the car on 95, because I didn't want to take a 95, and he noticed it. And it's not something that you could really miss.

Is this something that you feel only when you're driving down the road, or is it when you're sitting still as well? Yes, when I'm sitting still, I can see. feel it on my feet and the whole car vibrates. It's not a feeling well. It's the whole car. Yeah, because if it's only when you're driving

and at higher speeds, then it might be a tire out of balance, but if you're feeling it all the time like that, yeah, I would begin to look at the motor mounts, but like I say, unfortunately, there's usually three to four mounts and it's hard to narrow it down, and

a lot of the extended, the warranties on those, warranty companies have been cracking down like crazy all the manufacturers and for the technician if I replace a part and we send it back under warranty which they call for those parts back and they inspect them and if they look at that part and they say hey there's nothing wrong with this part that we can see they will kick the claim back and say we're not going to pay you and then the dealership doesn't get paid for it and a mechanic doesn't get paid Sunny, did you say that you only feel the vibration when the air conditioner is on?

It gets worse when the AC is running, yes, that's correct. But it's all the time. It's basically all the time. Sometimes it's worse than others, but it definitely seems to be a bit louder. It's kind of you can hear it when the AC's on, and you can feel it on and off most of the time. But as I say, you can actually hear it. the vibration when the AC is on. Well, Sonny, I hope that Rick was able to, you know,

put some light on the situation and you'll follow his in. I wouldn't even have it checked by a different dealer. That's a great idea. Yes, yes, that's a great idea. I was thinking that because I felt like I got the run around. Yeah, exactly. Two or three, you know, different ideas from, mechanics, I think it would be very helpful.

Yes. Can I ask one more question? Certainly. Okay. When I bought the car, I have obviously two ties in the front and two in the back, and they're both different from different manufacturers. Would that cause any problem because they're good year on the back, which I recognize, and then the tie on the front, I think a hand cook. Hancock, is it pronounced? Yes.

Yes, okay, I'd never heard of those. Would it be because I have different manufactured tires? Generally not. Hancock is a good company. They're actually installed by the factory on a lot of cars. As long as the tires match on the same axle, in other words, two hand cooks in the front, two Goodyear's in the back is just fine.

You just don't want to have like a hand cook in a Goodyear on the same axle, that can cause a car to pull one way or the other. But as long as they're on the same axle, that's fine. Oh, okay, I understand. I don't see that. Okay, that's great. Well, that's good to know. That's something that won't worry about.

Absolutely. Sonny, give us a call back. Let us know the problem was resolved. Yes, the outcome. I'm hoping I'll be able to find out. Yes, and it won't be too expensive. Yes, definitely. me. Sunny, thank you so much for calling.

Thank you. Well, I appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome. 877-960-9960, or you can text us at 772-497-60. We're going to hear from Stu. Just real quick. For Anthony, who had asked about the large SUV, I did track it down on consumer reports. We hate making commercials, but hands down, the best large SUV is the tow to Sequoia in every category, including the overall. all, including mileage, reliability. So there you go. And they're all on the same price pocket, too. They're all priced between the 60-80.

What's a numerical score? Do you have that on your screen? It's not that great. It's in the green. It's 61 in the light green. Every other large SUV falls in those questionable iffy categories. That's the Coyah is big. It's big, and none of them get good gas mileage.

So if you're thinking about it, get a gas melt, forget about it. Even the hybrids. Okay. Hey, we're going to hear from Stu and Rick. They've got some text. Just about to get to Amariz. Yeah. Amri says, good morning. I've got a few questions about tires this week.

Number one, can you just repair a tire if you pick up a nail in the tread of the tire? I'm quite aware that if you pick up a nail on the sidewalk, well, just kiss that tire goodbye. Number two, the question is, can you buy one replacement tire? Do you have to buy all four tires if the vehicle is either front or rear? wheel drive. And number three, if you have four-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, would you have to buy four new tires? Thanks. And once again, that's Amory's question. So let's start with Rick. The first question, can you just repair a tire if you get a nail in the tread of the tire? The rule that I was taught and that I go by is when you look at the tread of the tire, look straight

down at it, the two outermost treads, the one to the inside, the one to the outside. If the nail is that section of the tread, I will not repair it. Because it's too close to the sidewall. It's too dangerous because of the curvature of the tire inside. If it's in the groove between those two, depending on how it went in, if it went straight in, I call it safe. If it's angled towards the edge of the tire, again, no. And if it's on any of that intersection, as long as it's not a huge hole, I will safely repair that tire. It's basically the close, if it's on the sidewall or dangerously intruding towards that area, it's not going to repair.

If it's safely in that section on the ground, touching the ground, then you want. You're talking a patch and not a plug, right? Right. Plugs are actually not considered a safe repair anymore because of the damage that it can do to the steel belts and the tire. In internal patch is the best way, and it should be done by someone who's been trained properly how to do it. Because you can damage a tire when you're trying to scuff the inside to repair it properly. Messing around with it. Okay, so the second question is, can you buy just one replacement tire, or do you have to buy all four tires?

That depends upon the condition of the matching tire on that axle. Okay. So if you're working on, say, the right front tire and your left front tire is close to brand new, yes, you can certainly put a brand new tire just one. And if it's, say, anywhere up to about 75% to 60, 75% of tread, I will still go ahead and feel comfortable putting a new tire with an older tire as long as the brand and the model are matching. Okay. Because if you get unmatched tires on the same axle, you can create a pull to one side of the other. Well, Sunny had mismatched tires, too.

Is she concerned with that? But hers are on the same axle. Both on the same axle. So she has matching tires on each axle. So that's fine. Last question, well, Amory was distinguishing between rear wheel and drive. It really makes no difference there. As long as you make sure that the tire is the correct size for its position,

because there's some cars out there even. We were talking about that last week. Your front tires are different size from the rear. So you've got to make sure it's the proper size tire, and then it matches the other tire on that. The vast majority of people don't have that situation with different size. Very rare anymore, very rare. Mainly high-end performance type of cars.

Yes. Yeah. And, Ann Marie, you can pick yourself up the February edition, and they have all kinds of information about tires. And if you have to replace them. Consumer reports? Consumer reports, correct. If you're replacing a single flat tire

and the repair shop tries to sell you for new tires, don't assume they're out to cheat you. because they really advise replacing all four. Well, and that, of course, is going to depend upon the tread depth of the tire remaining. And bear in mind, folks, although those run-flat tires sound like a great idea, if you get a puncture in a run-flat tire, it has to be replaced. Yeah, and they talk in the Consumer Report about the checking that depth thread. It's very important.

Yep. Okay, Stu. All right, we are... We go have John. We've got John. John's calling us from West Palm Beach. Good morning, John. Oh, good morning.

Good morning. Thank you. When I first start off with, well, to continue with tires, but it'd go a different way. I have a 2003 avalon. My daughter drives it. The tires that became low on air. And as I was filling them, I started on the driver's side front, worked my way to the driver's rear, then the passenger side rear.

Filled that one up, and as I filled it up, I started to fill the front tire passenger side, and all of a sudden, water started dripping from the door pillar. And I know there's drain rails that collect water, and they didn't, but the water didn't. because it didn't start flowing until I had filled up the tires. And is there a drain, I don't even know what you call it, like the drain rail that would go to the center pillar of the car to get rid of the water that accumulates in like all the crevices of that. Like I said, it didn't drain until I started filling the tires

and I did that counterclockwise, you know, just out of it. not happen or anything probably coincidence and maybe as you were filling the tires you're going to change how the car sits just by a little bit uh but there there's several different places that are going to drain of course you got the air conditioning drain that's for the condensation it builds up on the evaporator core inside the car if you have a sliding roof there are drains for one on each side and some of them have trains in the back as well um the other thing that's the other thing is there's holes in the bottom of the doors because the rain that gets on comes down and hits the car goes past the window and that belt molding that's only there just to reduce the amount of

water that gets in and to try to keep dirt and leaves and other debris from getting inside the door so there are drains in the bottom of the door that when you shift into the car a little bit as you fill the tire it's going to maybe change how the car is sitting by raising it up just a little bit, and that might have caused some water that was caught in there to suddenly move and hit that drain. So that's probably what happened.

Okay, and then just, you know, for the people who believe in nitrogen in their tires, which is me, you know, when I filled my tires, I fill them with helium, so it's a get better gas, myles. Your car will float now. Yeah, I think you'll bounce down the street, you

And it saves gas. Now, myself, I like to use hydrogen. Oh, boy. Because then all I have to do is disconnect the bowelstem, and I can run it in the engine, too. And then, well, just one last thing. For the getting ready, well, I'm not getting ready yet, because I still got mileage on. But for those that have Tesla's, and they're only getting like 20,000, 15, 20,000 miles out of their tires, one of the recommended things was when you go to replace the tires on the Tesla because of the weight and low standard of gravity,

you want to go with a tire that has the LT rating, and you'll get more mileage out of it. John, thanks for that information. So, anyways, that's it for. for me. Give us a call again. Very interesting. Good luck with your tires. Thanks. Give us a call. 877-960-90-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-530. Don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. We are going to go to, boy, that lines are really lit up all of a sudden. We're going to go to Frank in Jupiter Farms and spend a brief time with him. Good morning.

How are you, Frank? Hey, good morning. Okay, I didn't know if you had anyone else following that gentleman. Good morning. It's always great hearing your show. Oh, thank you. After that guy, I just spoke about the nitrogen in the tires. You've probably heard what they use nitrogen for nowadays, right?

Oh my God, yes they do For executions We'll leave it to that I don't want to get too many people shook up But I like that idea about the different gases in your tires And also the tire wear It reminded me a few I guess it was about two years ago

And Marie and I were looking for a new car for her We looked at one of the BMWs M models Which was really quick and fun to drive Not probably as much fun as your plaid But nevertheless I found the car and I noticed that they already had new tires and they said oh yeah the tires

when I last about 8,000 miles with this model I go oh well so much for that so we passed on that we didn't want to go into tire business what was Rick saying the Hellcats like 4,000 5,000 miles the tires oh yeah it's just crazy but on another item when your dad was talking about consumer reports

I actually had the March issue just sitting here I never looked at that much I mean the project canceled I should read them more. But they were talking, yeah, about the cars, and I was looking at, and that was interesting. So I heard that on the radio, so now I can actually read my magazine. But here's something. I was out of the rehab center last week for my knee, or maybe earlier this week.

It was this week. And the road shut down, of course, because the president was here. I mean, the road and the traffic, I mean, it was just horrible. But as he was leaving to go back to the airport, these Harley-Davidson motorcycles were zooming by, and almost like triple-digit speech. Oh, brahm, brahm. And one of the guys there, he says, I drive a bike and stuff. And he said something, I never knew existed.

You can get an airbag for your motorcycle. Are you familiar about that? Inside the helmet? No, no, no. It's actually a jacket you wear with some sort of clip to the machine. If you're thrown, it inflates very quickly. Wow. And you go rolling down like the old Michelin tire.

Notice how we think of it. same way. I was like a Michelin guy or a bear suit or something like you're bouncing down the highway. Hey, if it works, do you become a road hazard as you're bouncing down the highway like hitting up? His wife wouldn't lend to take his son on a motorcycle unless he had his own little airbag

jacket. And they started $400 and go about $800 and I go, it's true. I thought the guy was just messing with me. Well, and here we get to a quick thing for you guys. I don't want to take your, your, um, your, your gunfire away from the mystery shopping. I did a mystery shopping report. If I may give it to you.

Learn something new every day. Frank you, thank you for calling. I have some other callers on and I have to get to. One quick one. One quick one. Okay. This is for Rick. Amory and I went to look at a Porsche the other day. I'm sorry.

I know, I know. But listen, I said about you guys about extended service warranty, how they were talking about the fees where BMW was $2 or $300. Do you know what the service charge is at a Porsche dealership? In the shop, it's 20% of the charge. $517 per hour.

That's just the service. Oh, I mean, that's their hourly rate. Yeah, that's their hourly rate. One more reason not to buy a Porsche. No, no, we walk. That's more than my psychiatrist. Okay, we'll talk to you. next weekend guys. Thanks Frank and I'm glad we could encourage you to open up that March

edition of Consumer Report yeah no no I actually gonna read something this week that is yeah a lot of information in there it'll help you out thanks Frank have a good one have a great weekend we're gonna go to John in Palm City good morning John welcome to the show John good morning good not only South Florida that's the land of auto scams and shady car dealers. And the Orlando News, ABC and NBC, was the exposure of a dealer called FSD, father, son, and daughter in the Orlando area.

The owner was Steve Phelps, and he owes over $4 million, handing, handling high-end cars and hot rod cars, and he was exposed first by a man with a 56 Chevy that lost $50,000 a car, disappeared. But he declared bankruptcy now. So anybody that stuck their cases against him. And he also, on his property, he owned, he opened a wedding place for weddings. But they checked into that and it's under somebody else's name. But I just want to point out that that's not the first time that happened right here in Martin County in 2016. The sheriff himself of Martin County arrested. Greg Danzy. That was a terrible scandal, and he went to federal prison. He had 51 grand theft charges against him. Again, handling consignment cars, not paying the people. So it's really a warning to anybody, I think, that never leave your car on consignment with any deal or anybody, because when it happens, you won't even collect insurance on it. It's considered a case against the person, even though you held the title, and they come up with duplicate titles and other crooked

paperwork. So it's a lesson to people. I say never, never leave a car with anybody, especially a dealer. Especially Martin County. Anywhere and especially. Unbelievable. You will, the car will disappear. They won't even know where it is, and you won't get paid and your insurance will not declare it as a stolen car. so it's just a John we had a you know

just open confession we had a situation I remember a long time like 20 years ago someone had abandoned their car and it sat in a lot for a couple of years and we made good faith

attempts to contact and we couldn't get it and eventually we just got rid of it and then he appeared later and we didn't have the car and we didn't have anything so we had to settle it out you know cash wise

but we thought the guy had fallen off the face of the earth but that's the that can happen even with an honest dealer, so it's not always a scam. Well, in South Florida, we got export, and so it's easy to steal the car in South Florida and put it on a boat and goes to Venezuela, and you never hear from it again. So you don't worry about titles, you don't worry about paperwork.

If you get a car, stolen car, on a boat going south, then you just disappear off the face of the earth. You'll never see it again. What the money for it. Thank you, guys. I just want to put the warning out. warning out about consignment, leaving caused and consignment. Great information, John. As always. Yeah, thanks, John. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you guys. Thank you for being now.

Stay tuned for that mystery shopper report. It's a doozy. We're going to go to Tricia, and Tricia's calling us from Boka. Good morning. How are you, Trish? Oh, hi. Thank you. I didn't hear my name. Thank you. Okay. This is a tire. hour. Oh, the tire hour.

That's pretty good. Yes, the tire hour. Two really good questions, and I want to speak to you, the expert, to help answer this. Okay. Okay. I've had constant problems with my cars. My Honda fits. I know it must be my driving.

I have to replace my tires way too frequently. So find my result, get your alignment, which I've been. I've gotten, get a more expensive tire, this discount tire told me, and it will last longer. Well, lo and behold, I got my alignment in July. I put out the money for Michelin Defenders, more expensive tires. Guess what? It's already worn out after 10,000 miles. Yes, I do drive a lot, 2,000 miles a month.

Most of my driving is street driving, stop and go, left and right, so it probably wears it out. is happening to me on if it's a cheap charter expensive charter they wear out way too fast describe the wear to Rick and he can tell you I was told it's an alignment issue because it was on the outside my right front on the outside of one of them and then on the inside of the other one. now I went to Honda they said oh I said you didn't do the alignment right because that's what discount tires said oh well you know you hit a bumper you hit a pothole you hit a curb blah blah blah they're going to wear out you know they always say that you know can wear out the next day I said well I'm sorry you know these these are expensive tires I don't care 10,000 they should last a lot

more than 10,000 miles. So, you know, that's my first question. What type of vehicle are you driving? What's the vehicle? A Honda fit. A fit? Okay. Those aren't really

big because one of the issues that I've noticed with vans, trucks, anything that has a higher center of gravity is the right side tires will generally start wearing on that outer edge. and it's normally because

doing a lot of turning and cornering, when you're doing the left hand turn, usually you're going quite a bit faster than doing a right hand turn, obviously. And that makes the car lean to that outside point and it puts a lot of pressure on that outer

edge of the right side tires and wears them a lot faster. The only thing that you really can do as a driver to try to reduce that is trying to slow down on those left-hand turns more so that the vehicle doesn't lean as much, unfortunately, just about any tire is going to be susceptible to that. Keeping your tire pressures up to where they expect the rating that's

listed on the side of the tire will help also because having a little bit too low over pressure will actually cause that outer edge wear very quickly. Trisha, as much as you drive the car of high mileage, I'd have my tires inspected once a month. I mean, typically, they recommend twice a year every 5,000 miles. I would try to have them rotated about every 3,000 miles, and I would definitely be checking the tire pressures at least once a week to make sure that your pressures are up. Okay, that's my second question.

I've had controversial information you just answered it about what pressure I should put on my tires. This is recommended for this car. I think it's about 33, 34. I was told I should put it up to 38 or 40, keep it higher. Some people say, no, no, no, no, no, blah, blah, blah. So what I'm hearing from you is yes, that I should keep it higher. Well, here's what I have found is, from my experience,

the way that works for me works best, at least for myself and folks who have tried it with this. You'll find two sets of numbers. One of them is going to be on the, usually on the door jam of your car, when you open your left front door and look on the body, you'll see a sticker there that tells you what the manufacturer recommends as the tire pressure. That is usually the lower number, and you'll never want to go below that. Always keep it at that level or above. Then if you look on the sidewall of the tire, you'll see another recommended pressure, and that is what the tire manufacturer is. says is the maximum safe pressure you can run in that tire. I prefer to run what the tire recommends as that high level. So with my own vehicle, it recommends 35 pounds minimum for the sticker

on the door jam, but my tires can hold up to 50 pounds of air. And I run it closer to that 50 pounds because although I get more of a bumpier ride, it actually makes the tires wear better and I get better fuel economy. And South Florida roads, you know, we're a bit bumpy anyways, so I'd rather put up with that and get the better fuel economy and better tire wear. So are you saying then for my tire size, 195, 60, 15, that I should put it up about 40?

If the number that's on the side of the tire, Trisha, look on your tire, and it'll have a number, with PSI after it. That's the pressure that the tire manufacturer recommends max. So you use the max tire pressure, PSI, that's stamped on your tire.

Exactly. Okay, so now you're telling me also that maybe it's not worth it spending twice the amount, getting a better tire because they're going to wear out just as fast if I don't, you know, slow down my left hand turns.

Yeah. You're also telling me. It's not going to make a difference. Obviously, it hasn't. I just told you to have. I spent $100 on tires. We're not just as fast as an official indefend as $200. They're still wearing out.

You know, it's a chronic problem. Yep. Trisha, I got to tell you, I got the same problem, and I confess, I'm a lousy driver. I take corners too fast. I hit curbs. I hit potholes. I'm just not a good driver. but you know that's I think that's the way we drive you're probably a little bit like me

it's hard to slow down on the corners that's the way I drive so I think use the high inflation get your tires checked every month just and the alignments are free no don't anybody they charge you for alignment they have very good alignment machines now all you got to do is drive it across the alignment machine and it'll give you an indicator asked to see the printout to be sure they're not trying to trick you because there should be a computer print out that shows your front end is in alignment, your rear it is in a line, and then you can check to see if the pressure is right. If you do that every month, go ahead and drive the way you'll want to drive, but you'll get much better mileage on your tires.

Yeah, I was told what to get an alignment. I must get the printout because they might cheat me, not even do the alignment. Yes, that's right. Yes. That's true, right? Absolutely. Okay. Wow. So rotate them every 3,000, not every 5,000? Well, it depends if it needs it. In other words, you're going to get your tires checked every month for pressure. And when they get checked for pressure, you're going to find out that, and you check for alignment, you're going to find out if they need to be rotated. But they can tell you by looking at your tires and checking the alignment if you need to rotate them.

But every 5,000 miles might be okay, but if it looks like you got somewhere, they'll say you need to rotate them now. Yeah, I would rotate them a little more often, and that way it would help. reduce that wear a bit, make them wear it a little more evenly and get a little longer life out of them. Absolutely. And Tricia, that PSI is really very, very important. And do you check your pressure in your tires yourself or do you take it to a dealership or do you rely on the gas stations?

Yeah, I take it to my local place, but usually I don't check it unless I get an indicator. you know from my sensor I don't you know so so when you take it in and they check the pressure no one has said to you hey listen your tires were really low you you need to come in more often no no only low when I get that indicator you know usually the argument I get is you got it too high you know something like that I should do it what's on the door but now I'm hearing from you, you know, I can make it higher. Yes, I think with all the information that we gave you, I think it's going to be very, very helpful.

Yeah, I will do that. Thank you so much. Thank you, Trish. Give us a call. Let us know how things turned out for you. Our number here is 877-960-960, and you can text us at 772-4976530, take advantage of your anonymous feedback.com and we as usual have a mystery shopping report coming up just about 930 and you'll also see leila um she is our dog of the week and what a dog she is

and she's a oh 110 pounds big mama leila 110 pounds is that that's larger than you i'm going to Do you weigh 110? No. I think. No, about the same. Big mama's bigger than this, yeah. I wish she would come in the studio if there's room. Rick said she, he, not a good idea.

We're talking about the Tibetan Mastaf folks. So you want to stay tuned for Leila. He is a real cute dog. We're going to go to Howard, who has been patiently holding. Is it Leelo? Laylo. Leiloh. Here comes to Leilou.

Hi, Howard. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for taking my call. I really enjoyed that conversation you had, and it was never-ending. But it's okay. My question is this.

Friend of mine called you up, and he said he had a Subaru legacy, and his rear brakes wear out much faster than front breaks. So Rick told him that it shouldn't be. the front brakes should last much longer. And he went to the dealer, and they said, no, just the opposite. The rear brakes wear out faster on this type of vehicle, because I don't know exactly how we explained it. But, Rick, I want to know, what's the story?

Why are the dealer telling the one thing, and the facts are another? Unless they're running that vehicle in reverse all the time. That's right. There's something weird going on. driving backwards all that time. Every single vehicle I have ever seen in my life with four-wheel disc brakes

when you look at the size of the pads for the front and compare them to the size of the pads for the rear. The rears are between half and two-thirds the size of the front brakes because the fronts do traditionally about 70% of

the stopping power. And it's just physics is all it is because when you step on the brakes the momentum of the vehicle the weight the center of gravity is moving forwards and all that weight is being pushed onto those front brakes and the rear brakes at the rear end of the car actually rises up a little bit and this gets even more pressure on those front brakes so the front brakes need more power to stop the car that sounds almost like their metering system in their brake system for some reason is giving more pressure to the rear and not as much to the front which makes the rear brakes have to work harder and I have

never yet this is a new one on me because I've never seen a car that wears out the rear brakes unless there is a malfunction in the system that's keeping pressure on those brakes while you've only been driving down the road so I can understand that Yeah, it's possible. I mean, hey, I'm... But yeah, that, I guess this is my day for learning something because that is definitely a new one on me. Well, that's what he claims.

He replaces the rear brakes much more frequently than he does the front brakes. How often does he have to replace those? I think every 20,000 miles. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, there's nothing wrong there. I think it should go to a different deal with you. I definitely think so. Something is keeping those brakes applied.

And one of the questions that I would ask this person, how many feet are they using when they drive down the road? Because a lot of us way back in the day we're taught, unless you're driving a stick shift, your left foot, they always taught you to hover your left foot over the brakes and use your left foot for the brake. and you can always recognize this sort of person on the road ahead of you because their brake lights keep coming on.

But every time you're stepping on that brake just a little bit, it's applying fluid pressure and it's trying to apply those brakes and it will wear them out very quickly. The average car, rear brakes normally 60, 70, 80,000 miles before they're worn out. Front brakes, depending on the car, anywhere from 30, to 50,000 miles. So, I would ask that question, but I'd definitely

find a different dealer. Yeah, so it's a funny thing you say that, because my rear brakes are in the yellow. You know, you give the chart, green, yellow, red, whatever. And I have 60,000 miles on my car, and they never replaced the rear brakes. So what exactly does that yellow

mean? It's comparing the thickness of the pad when your pads are brand new most of them are say around 8 to 9 millimeters thick in the rear fronts are usually around 12 to 14

millimeters when they get down below the first third say about 3 millimeters gone then we start rating as yellow in other words you want to start keeping an eye on it when it gets past the yellow section

and into red it's definitely time to replace them because as odd as this sounds, the thinner the pad material gets, the faster it will wear, because the pads cannot release the heat as well that builds up. And because they get hotter that way, they'll wear faster the thinner they get. They can't dissipate the heat. So yellow just means keep an eye on them, but it's getting close to time to replace your brakes. Great information. As always, thank you very much. And Howard, that's your friend you're talking about.

right? My friend Delio, he called up. Yeah. And the reason I ask you is because, you know, oftentimes you, you know, really help your friends out and I'm not sure whether you remember or not, but you can join Earl's vigilantes and you can go to Earl on cars and learn all about it. But you'd be a great asset to, you know, a lot of people who are looking for answers. Okay. So think about that. Okay, great. Do I have to change my appearance or can I...

You have to put on a fake mustache. Okay, very good. Okay, guys, wonderful conversation. Thanks. As usual, you're doing a great job. Thanks, Howard. Thanks, Howard. Have a great weekend.

Okay, we're going to spend some time with Stu and with Rick, and they've got some texts. How are you doing? I have a text from Steve here. and so we're back on breaks now. Speaking of breaks, Rick, should the emergency break be used every time we park regardless if it's a drum system or disc, and that's from Steve in Palm Beach Gardens?

No, you don't need it in Florida, really. Unless you're on a hill. The emergency break. Like Earl's driveway. Which is known actually as the parking break. Remember, we're worldwide. Yep. Well, if you live in an area in Nepal,

you want to use your... You're parking on a road that has a grade to it, that has on a hill or a mountain. Then you'll want to use the parking brake. This is to help keep your vehicle from rolling when you park the car. For people who are trying to avoid having their cars towed, like people who like to illegal park

or avoiding a repo man, does putting the parking brake on make it more difficult for the tow truck driver? Absolutely, but they're still going to get your car. Okay. I'm just helping, you know, we have all sorts of listeners in the audience. It'll make it more difficult, but if they want it, they're going to get it.

I always put my parking brake on. I always put my parking brake on. Good old San Fran. Your driveway is very steep. I felt the need to put a parking brake on and you pull up your, I guess it flattens out once you get into your garage, but the approach is a good 30-something degrees. Yeah. And, of course, if you're driving a manual transmission, a stick shift, most people will leave

the in gear to keep it from rolling, but the parking brake's a good idea then. Yeah, I remember it's a shame that all these, the younger generations are not learning the joys of driving with a standard transmission. I mean, you could start your car if your battery's dead with a standard transmission. You can, like you said, use the engine actually in the transmission as a break to hold it on the hill or slow down. That's really cool. Well, you can engine brake with automatic transmission just by shifting in the lower years there. I do that all the time. My kids think it's weird, but I do it like sometimes you don't know.

need a break signal and alert everybody. You're just slowing down a little bit to get into a spot or something. So, yeah, I downshift quite a bit. Yep. Who's talking to you over on YouTube, Rick? Oh, we've got quite a few here. Let's go through a few of these. Roll back here a little bit.

Cliff's Picks has an interesting question here. He says, what happens if you pay for a car, new or used, and the dealer or the lot does not turn over the title in Florida? Call the police. Ah. It's illegal. By law, you have to deliver a title. What is it, 10 days?

It's too short. It's too short. Yeah, even we occasionally miss it because the bureaucracy of getting a title sometime can bog you down. But if I didn't get a title in 30 days, I would call the Department of Motor Vehicles, which is the same thing as calling the police. Yeah. Okay. Allie Val says, good morning. Thanks for the wonderful program.

You're very welcome, and thank you. Yeah, thanks for listening and watching. Why is the Toyota Sienna 2024 still using Safety Suite 2.0 instead of 3.0? I don't know. I've always, I've never understood, I mean, I understood like the introduction of brand new safety features. They're expensive, and so they introduce them as more of an upgrade. But in recent years, Toyota and the other manufacturers, you know, put a big, emphasis on safety, which is great. Toyota's system is the safety sense, and they introduced

them the models, but not always at the same time. So I would imagine the Sienna will get it, but why they don't have it now, who the hell knows? I think a lot of the times with different models, they try not to upgrade all of them at the same time because it'd be pretty expensive to retool each of those models, and they may save that for when they're going to do a bigger upgrade on the car. Would some of those, which will require more redesigning? Would some of that stuff be able to be installed, like the computer components and stuff? Like, it doesn't matter the model, so that could go on a Camry, that computer component for a safety feature. I don't know. I'm just saying maybe they're prioritizing it for the more heavy volume vehicles.

Sienna is a very small volume. Because in order to, in order to upgrade that system, it's going to require quite a bit of retooling and redesigned or re-engineering. So if they've already got that all set for the one, they may plan for it when they're going to redesign the entire car. Yeah. I was just thinking, and usually the plans for a new car can stretch out years, and that new hybrid Sienna came out in, I think, 2020. We had safety sense then, but anyway, it's always a mystery sometimes.

Yeah, sometimes. We just don't know why they do it. Exactly. Do what they do. I got a text from Frank in Jupiter Farms. It says, quick question in regards to tire pressure. All of our cars and pickup trucks have the ability to read tire pressure from the dashboard display. That might be a good suggestion for the lady who called in earlier.

What are your thoughts on that answer? Yeah, that's one of the new developments. Tire pressure systems, when they first came out, all it could do is turn on a light to tell you one of them is low. and what would happen is say you're running all four tires at 35 pounds that light wouldn't come on until the tire had hit 26 pounds which is really putting a lot of wear on that tire now you see the readings you can pull it up and it will not only show you what those four tire pressures are but which tire is where why isn't it technically feasible to build a car

that would automatically inflate your tires as needed I mean all you need is an air pump, and you've got the sensor, and you would never have to get your tire. Yeah, the kinetic motion of the car could compress the air needed to put into the tire. Well, they've actually had that system on a lot of military vehicles, but it's rather a complicated system. And, of course, you've got to be able to hook up a... Because it's military. Yeah, but you've got to be able to hook up a hose to the tire that is spinning. That's a trick.

So that makes an interesting trick. now you've got a wheel that has to have extra systems built into it to be able to hook an arrows to it so that it will be able to fill that thing. I didn't say it would be easy, I'm just saying, or cheap. It's not cheap at all.

But for the same reason that we can't build cars with bulletproof glass and all of them because of the expense. You know, I think we just go back. We need to go to your original wish, which is just a Mars rover tire that doesn't get flat or wear down. you know I like the idea

those mesh ones that the metal well they've actually began working now on tires for off-road vehicles quad bikes and the like where it's a printed tire that has only a honeycomb form it compresses just right but it compresses like

a real tire and doesn't wear it the same and this is something that you can actually have retreaded so you're not replacing the tire as the rubber wears out you simply add more tread on it the air could go on the tire when you stop. No, but you've still got to have a hose hooked up to it. No, but you have it all be internal.

All right, we're getting, we're trying to get silly. Let's move on. Let's get another question here. I think it's probably easier to go to Consumer Report. They've got a lot of information in their February edition of Consumer Report. They've got the top rated tires. They've got, they talk about inflation, which tire to replace. so there's a lot of information there.

We're going to go back to the phones. We're going to talk to a regular caller, and he is from West Palm Beach, and I'm sorry, he's from Boynton. That's Roadrunner, Steve. Good morning. Beep, beep. Good morning, everybody. Meep.

Good morning. Well, last week I started laughing about the tire conversation athletes. I couldn't get through in time. Oh, boy. On my 69 and 70 barracuda had L-60s in the back and E-70s in the front, because that was the cool look. How much, well, was the difference in size? What? The rear tires were L-60s and the front were E-70s.

E-70s. That must look real cool. I had to put shock extensions to lift the back of the car up so the tires wouldn't rub on the inside of the fender wall. Okay, now I've got a question about my roadrunner. So we need to put our thinking caps on. All right. Okay. I'm driving fine.

When I come to a light, all of a sudden, the idol from 7.50 starts going down, down, down, down to where the car wants to shut off. I got to put in neutral, hit the gas, and stay in neutral. I have a carburetelbrac carburetor 600 CFM that I put in in the 90s the fuel pump is the original fuel pump and I have electronic ignition

I use ethanol gas and I put an octane booster in air and sometimes I put that stuff to get the water out of the gas or sometimes the cost six with that. Any ideas? I'd be checking the vacuum lines going to the throttle plate. Yep.

Because if you've got a vacuum leak there, there should be a vacuum line there that keeps the throttle plate open just a little bit. And if you've got a vacuum leak there, that plate will start to close off more and more as you're sitting at idle. And you're going to wind up losing that idle. you've got something going on with the carburetor on that one what year is that engine and what's the engine size 383

383 and from what year 69 69 okay yeah the first thing I'd be looking at is look for possible vacuum leaks but if not you should have there should be an adjustment on it for your idle speed but the

fact that it's coming down to idle normal and then slowly dropping off like that, that doesn't really sound like a fuel pressure issue to me. That's definitely going to be in the carb. And I'd even be looking at your metering system to see if maybe the jets are starting to get a little clogged up. Well, like I said, I put the carburet of in the 1990s. So I figure, you know, the thing is, you know, where an hour. completely yeah I I myself I would go and I would look for an Edelbrock about a

600 CFM carb that's that's one of the best quality carbs I've ever seen they beat out Holley's all day long and they look nice because they're chrome-plated yeah true with that but I have that Edelbrock on it's it's manual chalk which isn't connected because we don't need that down here Right. And, you know, I clean it out. You know, I spray it, cleaned it down here. Then I, while the car was running, I would spray the carb cleaner around the carburetor to see that the idle would change, right?

Yep. Nothing happened there, you know, it just stayed the same with that. So what do you think? It's just old age with the carburetor because the vacuum lines, I got the PVC going in, okay? I got the little one with the knob that's on it. that's covered. I guess I could just change that. Then we've got the other one

running to the carburetor, to the diaphragm that's off the distributor. Yeah, because that's the timing adjust. Okay. For when you get to at idle, the vacuum should come up a little higher at idle because you're closing off

and not letting as much air in. So that should raise the vacuum of the engine. And that's going to cause that diaphragm to move on the. distributor, which is going to raise the timing a little bit. Okay. So what do you think I should see? Go for the vacuum, look for the vacuum leak, and then just go for the new carburetor?

Yeah, because that carburetor, if you put it on back in the 90s, that's, you know, a 30-year-old carburetor, it's looking time maybe for a new one. And I see, you get a good Edelbrock on there. I bet that'll solve all your problems. Yeah. It reminds me of my pants size back in the 90s when I took a nice 34. No, I'm up to a 3840. Good on you, Steve.

Good on you. You're a hoot, Steve. Okay, the other thing is, my neighbor bought a pickup truck from off-lease.com, okay? Now, he wanted the ship to call up north, but when they went out of business, he couldn't get no paperwork for the car. he says they're in court in Delaware now trying to figure out all this stuff. Is there any updates with that? Wow, I haven't heard

about that. So it was some corruption going on in addition to a bankruptcy. Oh, really? Well, I don't know. I haven't heard that. Oh, but he's not getting no paperwork because he went to registered car. He goes, well, you know

how motor vehicle is. Yeah. They turn it and you ain't got the right paperwork for all this stuff. So he says, They're in court in Delaware now to resolve all this problem with the people that bought cars. Wow.

And, of course, when I bought, I got everything there, the registration and the plates and everything. So it was a one day affair, so I got everything there. Interesting. I was just wondering if there's any updates with the... I haven't heard of work.

In fact, I know the former owner, and he was still a 30% owner. I've had him on the show. He's called in a couple times. and when this bankruptcy, they suddenly went out of business. I mean, it was like overnight. And I tried to call him, and he didn't answer his phone, which is, I guess, kind of understandable.

So I'll call him again, see what I can find out. Maybe I can get through to him. Yeah, because I don't even see articles in the paper about it or anything. Yeah, it's been pretty quiet. His name is Fisher, F-I-S-C-H-E-R. and I've got them in my contact, so I'll give them a call after the show. All right. That's just the phone number is disconnected.

Yeah, well, then I'll let you know if it is. Here today, gone tomorrow. Thank you, Steve. Everybody, have a good weekend. Thank you, you too. Bye-bye. To Yvonne, who was holding, she was a first-time caller. Yvonne, see if you can get through.

I'm sorry that you hung up. Okay, we have got 928 on the clock. So I think that we are going to go to Big Dog Ranch, not literally, but... Come on, let's go down to the car. We have a video, and that video is this big, beautiful dog, Lalo. Lalo. Lalo. She's two years old.

Here she comes. And she is, she's just a beautiful dog. I'll let you take a look at the video and you can see yourself what she looks like. Let it roll, Jonathan. Welcome. Hey, everybody. We have here is Lalo. He is a two-year-old Tibetan Mastiff.

He's 110 pounds. He is a big, mushy baby. He's very lazy, mellow. He's strong, but very easy on a leash. You can eat a simple walks. You prefer short walks. You could ride them. Basically, veggie out on the couch, probably.

But I'm a little sloppy on this front end. Come here, turn around, buddy. Come here, turn around. Say hi to the camera. Bye! So I'm always washing his face and everything. He did have a facelift. unfortunately his skin was too

there was too much skin that covered his eyes so we actually had to take something out of way and gave him a little fake that's a first class outfit wow classic surgery yeah from the surgery where they took some skin away but now his eyes he can start seeing again he has an eye drops in medicine for it

but he's doing a lot better and can see now before he couldn't see unless he walked with his face head down because the skin will lay over his eyes but now he's doing good he's a big mush he runs so funny it's kind of like a bloop

Laylo you want to tell you guys I would picture he would gallo is a big mushy love he seems to be really well with other dogs she's beautiful it doesn't react when they go past his room but he is available

if you'd like to get some more information about Laylo here you go to BDRR.org slash adopt and make a visit and come on in and see him he's a big mushy love Oh, okay.

So whenever you adopt a dog, it is an adoption, but there's always a, there's costs incurred the Big Dog Ranch Rescue or some of the, you know, the other local ones. Hey, we take, all right, I could take it live now. Ladies and gentlemen, I just want to let you know that Lalo is ready for adoption. and her owners had to give him up. I want to keep referring to his heart. They had to give her up because give him up because they just couldn't take care of him any longer. So go to Big Dog Ranch and you can take a look at Lalo

and all the other dogs at Big Dog Ranch Rescue. And that is WWW BDRRR. dot org wwwbdrr.org stu i was saying and uh we're going to pay the adoption fees for anybody who adopts lalo through us just say you heard

heard about her on the show you watched it or listened and you want to give her a give her a test drive she's uh him i think nancy misgendered her first and then i just picked up on it a big dog like that is wonderful I have a big dog. They're like furniture.

You cuddle them. Come on. Give Lailu a chance. Yep. Okay. And your dog is so cute that you... My dog is not 110 pounds, though. My dog is 75 pounds, which is still pretty big.

Yeah, I thought he might be bigger than that. No, no. 75 pounds is pretty big, but 110, that's a... That's a lot of dogs. It's like a human. Yeah, exactly. Okay. We are going to go to the mystery shop.

And you have the mystery shop over there? That's right. Yeah, they're out of somewhere. We mystery shopped Mazda and Agent Lightning did a great job again. And we mystery shopped Mazda of Palm Beach. So this is going to be interesting. And don't forget, you two can go to 772-497-60, and you can run. and you can rate the mystery shopping report.

Now back to the recovering car dealer. Now, we shop Mazda Palm Beach a long time ago when Greco owned it. I believe Greco sold Mazda Palm Beach. I didn't have a chance to research that, but they're actually in Northmont Beach or in that area just off North Lake Boulevard. North Lake Boulevard and A1A. Yeah. So hopefully it's changed hands, but we'll check the ownership there.

Greco is not, he's kind of like a Napleton kind of dealer, and we haven't had too many good shopping reports on Greco dealerships, but we'll find out who owns Mazda Palm Beach. I arrived, I'm speaking in the first person like I were, Agent Lightning, who was our crack undercover agent, does an amazing job getting in and infiltrating, and in this case here, she actually bought our car there when she was a civilian before she was drafted. It's owned by Don Leah. Don Leah. We did this on a shop a long time because from New York.

And I found it on a Better Business Bureau profile. They have a 1.31 out of five stars on customer reviews. 1.3. Yeah. Well, it's on Better Business Bureau. And usually people who go there are highly motivated. Yeah. They don't go there to leave good reviews.

Okay. Except for us. Oh, sorry. Okay. I'm Agent Lightning, and I arrived mid-afternoon. wandered around the lot for a bit before hitting inside. Once inside, I noticed that the salesmen, all the salesmen were standing in attention

with their hands behind their backs in the sales office and appeared to be in the media. I have a mental image of that. I mean, I'm assuming she really saw this. It's kind of bizarre. It's kind of like military formation. Yeah. I don't know.

I don't know. But that's, if Agent Lightning said that's what happened, that's what happened. Okay. One of the salesmen saw me, got a big smile on his face, turned around, and came to greet me. He asked me, what brought me in today? And I said, I was wondering if they had any Masta CX-5s in stock. He replied, we've got a bunch of them. So come with me. Let's go take a look. On a way out the door, he thanked me for getting him out of the meeting. I can understand why. I laughed, said, it looks like everyone's getting scolded. They aren't going to change.

charge me extra for that, are they? Since I'm pulling, you know, the meeting, he laughs, and we'll still get you a good deal. We headed out to the lot to see the inventory, which they indeed did have a ton of cars. Now, that's, you know, if you've been listening to the show for a while, it's been a while since we've heard anybody

had a ton of cars. So here's a Mazur dealer that's got lots and lots of cars. He asked me which trim level in color I want. I told him, I really like the dark blue or black, and a higher trim level is preferred. He started out, he started pointing them all out to me. I asked which one's the higher trim level.

He said, I've only been here a week and I'm still learning. We will have to look at the window stickers. You're learning to do a lot of that if you're shopping for cars is a high turnover with salespeople. All the times you get a rookie. He's only been around for a short time. This is one of them. He took his time and walked around all the different cars.

And I finally pick one out and said, I like this one. It was a new 2024 Mazda CX-5, 2.5S, preferred, in Jet Black Micah. I turned to him and said, I didn't catch your name. He replied, Daryl. Extended his hand for a handshake. He left me standing outside by the cars, headed inside for the keys. I stayed standing at the car. When he returned and unlocked the car, he said I was trying to get a picture of the window sticker

with all the features. So he peeled it off to make it easier for me. I don't know how he peeled it off. I mean, those things are run pretty tough. No, they're actually, they come out kind of nice. Once you get your little finger there, they're better. I remember they used to leave mess anymore.

There's been a long time since I tried to pull them up. I guess I only pulled them off when I was evil. Right. Daryl's innocent action here, but unknowingly breaking a federal law. Anyway, the MSRP was $32,275. He told me that he spoke with his finance manager when he went in for the keys and was told that they have some really good rates going on right now, which is surprising.

And some great incentives, so they should really be able to get me a good deal. Gerald mentioned that the rates are between 2% and 3% for new vehicles through Mazda. Of course, needless to say, with interest rates higher than they've been in many years, a 2% or 3% rate is a great rate. And if they're accurate about Mazda having two and three percent in-house financing, that is a good deal. He pulled the CX-5 out of the parking spot so I could take a look at it, asked if I was familiar with a car, to which I replied, yes, my son has one. He went over the features with me, and then we went on a brief test drive.

As he was pulling out of the spot, I joked with him not to wreck my car. He laughs. Asked me how soon I plan on buying it. I told him, hopefully this weekend, we'll be making a final decision and pulling the trigger. He then asked me if I'd like to see some numbers on it, which I replied, yes. We headed inside to his desk where he asked me for my name and address. And when he saw that, I had, I'd been there before. She was in the computer.

I was in the computer as a mystery shopper. And I love it that she lives around here when we shop locally because she has shopped around a lot. And if she knows the dealers, in this case here, she actually bought. bought a monster from Mazda Palm Beach. He told me that because I purchased a vehicle before, that there might be a rebate for me, a discount because of customer loyalty. He then asked me what other vehicles I have in my household

and if I was going to be paying cash or financing. I told my likely finance unless the rates were too high, which of course they are, unless you get the captive rate, which he said there were two or three percent, which is great. Then I considered us paying cash. After he collected all my information, he then went to go to speak with his sales manager.

He wasn't going on long return, asked me what I do for a living. I looked at him and said, what's that got to do with getting the numbers for a vehicle? Ah, he said, he was wanting to know because if I'm any type of a first responder, like a fireman, I guess, college graduate, then you got first responder down twice, maybe an army, a veteran, something like that. Anyway, I said, okay, that makes sense,

and I feel everyone should be able to get a better discount. He left again briefly and then returned with his worksheet. The top line on the worksheet, here we go, was MSRP 32-275. We knew that. There was a $250 discount show, That's not a whopper. He added, and I've got a question of Stu on this,

he added $9.66.49 in taxable fees. And a $9.99. Well, that's a taxable fee too. Both of them are. But they actually labeled it taxable fees on the buyer's order. Okay, they just labeled it, okay. They didn't say what they were. They just said they're taxable.

See, if you do the reverse arithmetic out on that, it doesn't work out because if I divide it. $6% and a $966, you get a huge number. I mean, sales tax. I mean the sales tax is wrong? Oh, no. If $9666 is a taxable fee, okay, he's just calling it. Yeah.

Okay, even though, okay. Who knows what it is. So we know that $9.99 is a taxable fee. Yeah, because they call it. And there's also something that we don't know about that he's calling a taxable. Exactly. Okay. Anyway, the real price was $33,000.

2009 and that's a $1,0.15.49 over MSRP. Now, you know there are a lot of cars in a lot, and you know he just said there's a lot of discounts and a lot of, you know, special interest rates. So now they're asking for $1,750, $1,15 over MSRP. So something is not right about this picture. We'll continue. you. While he was gone, I pulled up their website of my phone, came across a coupon for $1,000 off. Whoops, of any vehicle in stock.

And I showed that to him when he came back. Darrell then said that if I'm ready to do business right now, he can likely get that for me as well and then suggest I give him a number where I feel I should have to pay for the X-5. It's the old game.

It's the old game. And you can see he's a rookie because he's running back and forth, only been there ten days, and he's a puppet by the manager behind the closed door, probably the one conducting the meeting. I looked at him and said, ideally, I'd like to be closer to what the window sticker is out the door. He looked at me and said, that's likely not going to happen. Those days are over, okay? Daryl pointed out that they typically mark their vehicles up $3,500 over sticker price. but since I'm a loyal customer, they're giving it to me

MSRP and even discounting it a little bit. Not really. I mean, Daryl might think they're doing that. So that's the game they're all playing is they discount the MSRP and they add back junk fees, which means they don't discount the MRP,

they charge you over that. So you've heard the... Your regular listeners have heard this story before. I told them, thank you for your time. I'll be in touch. need to try to reach my husband, see what he thinks, and get back to you. He should just say that I call my husband now,

see what we can do, they always say that, because his manager is eager to sell cars and make me a deal. Eager, old school, old school, old school. He really wants to sell the car today. Let's make him happen. Oh, yeah. I printed to make a phone call. I told him I was not able to get my husband,

and I get back to him. He asked me to wait for a sales manager, come and talk to me. I waited for a few minutes, and when he didn't return, I went to the restroom and then looked around for him, but it still didn't see him anywhere, so I left out through the side door. I got it in my seat, put on my seatbelt,

and I was pulling out, Darrell came running towards my car. This is like the movie, you know, it's just, you've seen this over and over again. That's because the drill sergeant. Wait a minute, don't go on there. I put my window down and let them know that I was trying to reach my husband, and I'll be in touch with him

and thank him for my time. So there we have it. You know the boss said, get out there and stop her. Right. Go, run. Don't let her leave. Run.

Go get her. She leaves you're fired. Yeah. So there we have it. Old school and... So, Earl, how much over the MSRP did they sell,

did they want to sell that vehicle for? $1,000. We're questioning the taxable fees. About $37,400. $1,000? No, $1,700 over. $1,700 over, yeah. $1,700.

You know, $1,715 and $49 over. Yeah. Wow. So remember we're great on the curve. I always remind our newer listeners for that. There's no such thing as a perfect car dealer. God knows that's true. And if you fail everybody, then we don't have a

referral service. You have to buy a car from a dealer, unfortunately, unless you're buying an electric vehicle. and so we had to grade on the curve. So they might be kind of shabby, but don't give them an F unless they just absolutely are the worst of the worst. What do we give Fs to maybe 5% and age to maybe 2%? We get an F last week.

Yeah. Unanimous. That was Nabilton. Pretty bad. So vote by text and by YouTube and let us know how you rank them. And we'll put the, anybody without an F goes on a recommend. list, but we'll put the grade on the recommended list. So you can select our A, B, and C dealers from my recommended dealer list.

And on the do not recommend list, forget about it, don't ever buy a car if there are the do not buy from this dealer list. And you can vote at 772-4976530. Right. Well, we got Bob gives a B from Mastaf Palm Beach. B from Bob, Jonathan and Palm Coast. The reputation of Greco dealerships receive the mystery shopping report But we do have a correction

This is not a Greco dealership But, you know, cultures are hard to change Therefore breaking federal laws No surprise with that in mind Along with the numerous taxable fees And fraudulent $1,000 coupons I'll give Greco the grade I feel they deserve a D-minus

I was trying to think clearly About the whole process the nothing really was I mean the DRL was nice there wasn't an addendum issue they had a lot of fees but that's part for the course

it's unusual that they're so far above MSRP on a pretty easy to get vehicle but I'm going to give them a C because it sounds just like your typical experience it even sounds like a pre-pandemic experience So see from me.

I think that what we see here is almost original old school. Here is a dealer with too many cars. I mean, the car inventories are rising. Apparently the Mazda inventories are rising very fast, at least of this particular dealership. So when you have too many cars, you can get a good deal if you go by our recommendations. shop and compare, and really do some serious. But if you go in, even in, when a dealer has too many cars, like in the old days, I say the old days, that was like four years ago.

Four years ago, if a dealer had too many cars, you could get a hell of a deal, but you've got to go by what we teach you on this show. Shop and compare, competition is your friend. Get it three or four prices. There's no reason that you're going to buy a Mazza CX-5 for almost 2,000. over MSRP. I think we need to ask Agent Lightning to press it a little bit now and and have just accept it.

And have her go through the whole, it would be interesting to take a dealer like this with too many cars and have someone go through the play the game and get the best price they could. Maybe we need to hire Marty for that. Yeah, yeah, Marty could do that. Marty, I want you to spend 12 hours at the dealership from time they open and don't leave until they close. and you get a good deal.

Worm down. Worm down. Okay. All right, so Rick, what's going on over there? Well, we've got Joseph Kelleher with a D. Would have been a little higher if they'd sold a car at MSRP. And over on this side, we have Mark Anderson, grade C minus. Kind of feel sorry for Daryl.

Not sure if I should, but I did. I did, too. Tim Gilliland, not the worst, but I still wouldn't let my mom go there, herself, C-minus. Good point. Tom Steckle, C-minus. No addendums, but fake taxable fees.

Not as egregious as Sport Mazda in Orlando. Maybe that's one we ought to put on the list. Fort Mazda? Sport Mazda. In Orlando. Scott H. Sr. says

C. Brian said Latko. I'll give Mazda a C. Kyle in Pennsylvania, F. With a ton of inventory, you should be able to get one five grand under MSRP. Wow, Kyle's one hard ball there. Right, go for it. Johnny Z. Freidly says D. Rocky Blocketeel, C. Average old school tactics.

T-cash, D for those days are over. Earl, please keep fighting for the Cars Act. Yes. Honestly. See here, Cliff's Fix. D, too high over MSRP and fees. And Cram C, Cram C, 1624, what happened to the $1,000 coupon? You think he would take off another $1,000? D. And by the way, we did have one note here. T-Cash says she should have brought in 34 of those $1,000 off coupons.

It actually worked in Massachusetts. Apparently, one time back in the past, a guy got a free Cadillac because the advertisement did not say, limit one coupon per deal that's when they first came up at the limit one coupon per deal idea I think so anytime you see a sign

that means something happens for myself I'm going with C I think is pretty much an average place they're going to play that same old game but I think if you fight it properly you could probably

get a reasonable deal Not good, a dealer, a great deal, but a reasonable deal. I'm sure you can. I mean, if you go buy what you learn on this show or a blog or own cars, if you just use the rule, using competition against them, there's nothing that works better than shopping a deal with several Mazda dealers. In South Florida, we probably got a dozen Mazda dealers, and you could certainly get a very, very good price.

If all those boss of dealers have a lot of cars in stock, which I believe they do. Nancy? Okay, I got to say, what's up with the $1,000 coupon? Why couldn't they honor it? Another thing, Daryl was very honest and said they had an overflow of inventory. What happened in negotiating? And what's up with all these fees?

I have to go without saying I give them an F. The Black Widow strikes again. All right. Well, you know, things are starting to heat up in the market. We need a Black Widow. Yep. I got to go with it. Too many people are complacent, and they say this dealer's doing the same thing,

and you've got to, you know, roll with the punches. Uh-uh. I got to go with a sea. Good for you. Can I have my blog? Can I have, can you have me my bag? And Earl, this is Rollancara, so that's the official grade, so they go on the list.

with the sea. I think they're already on there is with the sea. You know, by the way, Masta had their best year last year. They've had a long time. Mazda has been struggling. I have a blog which we can't lay it fine right now, but I urge you to look at this week's

a blog at earlancars.com and it's an open letter to honest car dealers. And I basically am trying to yeah, I'm basically trying to get the honest car dealers And there are a few to write the Federal Trade Commission, call the Federal Trade Commission.

We need to back the regulation that is on hold now because the court in Texas and the National Automobile Dealer Association holding it up. July 30th was supposed to be the implementation date for the combat auto retail scam. auto retail scam, cars, that's the name of the Federal Trade Commission regulation that would really save the day for consumers. Basically, bottom line, when they advertised or quoted the price, it would have to be the out-the-door price, meaning the actual price you could buy it for plus tax and tag only, sales tax and license plate, no junk fees. Junk fees would really be stopped if this regulation goes into effect.

So, Jonathan, you want to try to put that QR code up on the back? I don't know if this is going to work or not. Consumer reports August, August, March issue, has an article in there, and advertisement is inside the front cover, and they show a QR code. And the article they have is about junk. fees. They are soliciting us, the consumers, to fill out this form and if you can scan the QR code that Jonathan will display on the screen. Fine, if not, it's in the March Consumer Reports. Scan that. Sign up and tell them that you support the Federal Trade

Commission's rules against combating junk fees. And if they can get enough signatures, all you have to do is fill a little form. Don't actually have to sign anything but your name down and if you can if you can go to the consumer report support the petition that'll go to the federal trade commission and it's what you can do to help us and all car buyers support the federal trade commission for to compound combat auto retail scams C-A-R-S and my my blog to the honest car dealers is simply to say write letters support because the tactic being used by the NADA and the Texas Automobile Dealers Association is the car dealers don't want this.

Well, honest car dealers do want this. And you let them know. So read my blog at Erlon Cars, open letter to honest car dealers and try to give us some support. All right. Hey, Earl, have we got time for one last quick question here? Yes. Sure. Kim appreciates life as she says, I was trying to call, but

The line was busy. I'll try next week. She says, if you only had a Tesla and no internal combustion engine car, would you feel safe to try to get out of Florida during a hurricane? I would because it's a Tesla, because there's a ton of charging all over the United States, and Florida's got a ton of chargers. But to answer the question, when a hurricane comes, Earl doesn't go anywhere. True.

Well, I've got a 300-mile range, so I can. I can almost get out of floor on one charge. You can get to Jacksonville, usually. And a quick note here from Donovan, he says, interesting news, Porsche will let people try out their new refurbished take-hand this week, the car, which electric Porsche, the car is able to do almost 400 miles of highway speed range. But more interestingly, it can charge from 5% to 80% in just 14 minutes. Great.

It adds 200 miles of range in just eight minutes. This is the first next-gen EV with next-gen batteries in charging. It only costs $400,000, right? I don't know the price on that one, but, I mean, let's face it, how expensive were hybrids when Prius first hit the market? I agree. Like the hybrid battery was $10,000. Now it's $2,000.

I mean, so as the technology improves, those prices will come down so electric cars may just wind up working out absolutely of course they will ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for joining us we definitely enjoy your company

and all the information that you have to share with us stay tuned next week at the same time at 8 a.m. right here on Saturday morning have a great weekend everyone Thank you.

I don't know. Oh! Uh-huh. We're going to be.