Earl Stewart on Cars - 02.23.2019 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Treasure Coast Toyota

Episode Date: February 23, 2019

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent Thunder visits Treasure Coast Toyota in Stuart Florida to purchase an advertised car at the promotional price. Earl Stewart is one of the most successful car dealers in the nation. This podcast gives you the benefit of his 40+ years as a car dealer and helps you turn the terror of buying, leasing, or servicing a car into a triumphant experience. Listen to the Earl Stewart on Cars radio program every Saturday morning live from 8am to 10 am eastern time, or online on http://www.streamearloncars.com. Call in with your questions during the live show toll free at [phone]. You can also send a text to Earl and his expert team during the live show at [phone]. We are now on Facebook Live every Saturday between 8am and 10am. Go to facebook.com/earloncars to also watch it live or to watch a replay in case you missed it. Uncover additional automotive tips and facts at http://www.earlstewartoncars.com and follow Earl's tweets @EarlonCars. Watch Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars. “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”

Welcome to Earl Stewart on Cars with Earl and Nancy Stewart. Reach them with your questions at 877-960. Here's Earl and Nancy. Good morning. Here we are, folks. My name is Earl, by the way. I'm a recovering car dealer. I'm in the studio with a group of experts on cars. We're here to tell you how to avoid being ripped off by your car dealer.

I just thought I'd get that out of the way right up front because why mince were. words car buying leasing repairing maintaining the whole nine yards is a unpleasant experience it's like having a root canal it's like having a colonoscopy it's just something you don't look forward to and you know I think the fear that the average car buyer has of going into a car dealership is really bad for our economy let's think in terms of economics here all right you buy a car every three or four years now you start to get the issue you want to buy a of the car i mean americans love their cars at least so far there's some talk about that changing but

right now most americans love their cars now you think about it okay i'm going to trade my car in and you start thinking about what's going to happen um you're going to have the sleazy salesperson you're going to have the bait and switch advertising you're going to play the game you go to the manager you go to the salesman goes to the manager you go to the salesman back and forth back and forth Are you going to buy the car today? You know, are you going to, if you give me, I'll give you my best price if you'll buy the car today. The whole game, you end up with a fear that is just not worth it. And so you delay the car purchase.

So instead of buying that car every three or four years, maybe you're buying it every five or six years. Maybe you wait until you have to buy a car. I was watching a TV show the other day. I don't know if any of you watched CNBC, Squawk Box, Becky Quick is a female one of the lead people on the show. And they were talking about car dealers and the fact that car dealers

are ranked last on the Gallup poll and honesty and ethics and professions. And Becky Quick on CNBC said, you know, I would buy a car more often if I didn't have to go in and buy it from a car dealer. So, there you are, folks. That's a great angle. Exactly. I mean, something

should be done about it. And that's why we're here. We're doing something about it. We're helping. We're not complaining. Full transparency, I am a car dealer. And I've been a car dealer since 1968. And even though that could work against my credibility, here's why I think it enhances my credibility, because I really know about the other side, because I've been there and I've done that. I call myself a recovering car dealer. Well, I am recovering because I used to be evil. Here's a picture of my book. I'm not trying to. to sell you a book right now. I'll probably try to sell it later. Come on, buy the book. Yeah. You're watching this. You can buy it on Amazon, and it's 100% of the proceeds go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue,

which is our favorite charity here on Earl's Paraguars. There you go. It is. And that's Rover in the control room there just with a thumbs up. Yeah, you forgot to mention him. No, that was Bella saying, adopt me. Exactly. So you can buy the book.

It's a How to Do It Book on how not to be ripped all. by a car dealer, a little bit about my story, about how I became a good person, an honest person, a transparent person, to try to help you, how I became a consumer advocate from back in the day when I was just another car dealer. Kind of interesting, at least I think it is. There's a great forward to that book, too. And my son, Stu, excuse me. My son, Stu, sitting here on my left, wrote the forward, and said some very nice things

about me, and I appreciate that very much. And I approve read it 25 times. That's right. Until I was blue in the face. Until you could recite it by memory. Exactly. I never did get it right. It's a great book.

It's definitely a great book to keep right by your side, just like the consumer report. You can just keep referring to it. If you just bring that with you to a car dealership and sit it on the desk while you're negotiating, you'll get a better deal. Don't never talk about that. Don't say nothing. Just sit it on the table. You might get thrown out. Exactly right.

That would be a dead giveaway. I think we should probably. I think that would be kind of funny. Anyway, we're here for two hours, folks, and you make the show your calls. This is live talk radio. And if you can call us or text us, I have to say we're on Facebook. And on Facebook.com forward slash hurl on cars. We've had problems with the bandwidth.

I'll apologize in advance. We got Jonathan in control room and Rudy in the control room. Jonathan is working his best to manage the bandwidth so that you don't get a fuzzy, fuzzy picture. But sometimes because of Comcast. Comcast is the villain in this story because we've been talking to them and this radio station, JBC, has been talking to them forever.

Every week we call them, what's wrong? They put in a new router. They did this, they changed that, they suggested this, and every year we fight bandwidth. with. So, you Facebook users, we think we will have stability. We think you will be getting our signal today. So go to Facebook.com, for slash roll on cars, and you can see this in a living color. And by the way, Nancy Stewart is a beautiful woman. Rick, forget about him. Stu, he's ugly. I'm ugly.

Hey, let me tell you what. I want to give all you. That's why I'm off camera. I want to give you men a compliment. Yes. If you haven't noticed that our listeners and our viewers, these three guys all have haircuts and they look 10 years younger and they look handsome. Thank you very much. I am so honored to be working with them. Anyway, hot, hot, hot.

You need a call us. You need a call us at 877-960-9960. That's the old-fashioned call-in number. And Rudy will answer the phone and he'll wave at us and say, we have a caller. and you'll put your name up on a board, hold it like that. 877-960-99-60. And a lot of people like to text. As a matter of fact, texting is destroying telephones.

I mean, I just don't call people anymore. I know too many people that just you can't get off the phone with. And so if you text... The greatest thing ever. 772-497-6530. You can text us at 772 area code, 497-6530. And that way, we're not going to keep you on the phone for a long time, and you can get your question out. And if you think of something, you text us again, 772-497653-0.

Don't forget, Facebook, you post on Facebook, you know that, and Facebook.com, porth slash Earl on Cars. And there we are in living color. Rick Kearney, certified diagnostic master technician. He knows everything there is to know about the internal workings of a car. Used to be mechanics. Now it's computerization, technology, electronics, artificial intelligence, lasers, sonar. It's crazy. I think we may have a caller.

We do indeed. Tina from Benita Springs. Good morning, Tina. Hi, guys. How are you doing this morning? Good morning, Tina. Well, Consumer Reports has a new king, and they have dubbed this new king. Subaru. Subaru is at the top of the heat now.

They didn't need to be, but they've really gone up the ranks, so they've actually beat Lexus and Toyota. Fantastic. They build a great car. I've always had a lot of admiration for them because they're a small manufacturer. It's kind of like a, they're like a giant killer. They're small, but they're lean, mean, efficient, high quality. Thanks for pointing that out, Tina. Yeah, I've had my eye on the BRZ for a long time. I've podcast. pocketbook says no, but my heart says, yes. They're good-looking cars. If I had the bucks, I would be buying a BRZ tomorrow.

But I don't know if I'm tall enough to drive it. That's the thing. You know, we've had this discussion before about how I have the philosophy that the world has made for people five, five and over. I'm five feet tall, exactly. So there's a lot of vehicles I have to watch where that I don't really fit. I have to be careful for fitment. and that means a smaller car is better for me than a larger vehicle,

even a mid-sized vehicle sometimes I have an issue with. And that's why people are going to SUVs. Nancy just moved into a SUV from an automobile, you know, from a regular sedan, and I'm on the verge of doing it myself. The problem is everybody's gone to SUVs, and if you're driving a car, you can't see over them, and it's a safety problem. You got to get a bigger one.

I need to get a bigger right now. You're getting bigger. Yeah. My mom and dad have a Toyota Rouse, for I think it's a 2012 and I have no problem with fitment in that but it seems like the domestic vehicles like fords and chevies I had friends of mine uh they wanted me to drive their vehicle one night and it okay no problem it was a big huge shovie suburban said shabby suburban we tried putting pillows behind my back we tried everything in the world I could not drive their

vehicle I couldn't even reach a gas pedal even with the seat all the way up so you know tina Like more of the foreign vehicles fit me better than some of the domestic ones, too. That's one of my most frustrating problems when I put my car dealer hat on because I have a lot of my customers that have problems with visibility and a lot of other things based on their height. I mean, you can be too tall, you can be too short. There's a lot of physical configurations that I wish the car dealers could accommodate more. Maybe one day we'll have something that will accommodate virtually all physical,

You know, you've got people too wide, too skinny, too tall, and a lot of other things. And we can't mess with the seats. Our car dealers are prohibited by law from doing anything to the seat because it's a safety factor. It's part of the crash test. When a car passes a crash test, they have to have certain safety based on the way the seat is built. So you can't disassemble anything or change anything. You just have to deal within the design of the car. So it's a huge problem, especially for people like you, Tina.

Yeah, and the one problem I've always had is being too close to the airbag. But with my car now, I don't have that issue with my other car. Believe it or not with my Miata, I did have that issue. And this may sound funny, but I actually wore platform shoes to drive that car. That way I was not too close to the airbag. I adapted, you know. It was just one of those things. And I'm not going to get tolerated to get older.

my grandmother and my aunt they used to drive so close to the airbag I would think oh my goodness if that airbag goes off they're going to go flying my poor aunt she would drive like two inches away from the airbag I think you need to put something I think she finally did put something on her seat

to kind of boost her forward while keeping her arms at a safe distance yeah that could be pretty dangerous my airbag went off and it really burned my arm pretty about Oh, wow. That's scary. And that's due to the propellant and the chemicals that are inside the airbag?

Well, I think it was probably just the friction of the airbag. I don't think the propellant broke through that. That's something going to happen with the Takata airbag. Right. That's a different story. Yeah, yeah, right, exactly. You know, we're talking about the Subaru and Consumer Reports. Stu sent me an article that was kind of shocking that the Tesla 3, got an unacceptable rating from consumer reports,

and it's kind of a shock to... Took it off the recommended list. I saw that. I did see that. And what's amazing is it's really hurt their sales, too. It didn't used to be that consumer reports had so much sway, but now they do. People are really listening to what consumer reports have to say,

which I think is great. But if consumer reports downgrade the vehicle, that really is now hurting the manufacturer. It's really causing a problem. so but Tesla's kind of been like I mean they were like the darling there when they first came out but now not only that the Model 3

got the highest score they're not quite the darling they used to be they got a 103 out of a possible 100 last time wasn't that the original Tesla no that was the Model 3 oh the 3 yeah and then they dropped it to like 82 something like that and it was based on consumer feedback

on their survey so it was just a bunch of reliability problems that have gotten worse and worse and they take them the the input from the consumers really seriously, so that's how they lost it. Yeah, consumer report can affect the stock market. It can affect sales at these dealerships can affect a lot of things that we're unaware of. Tina, thanks for another great call. You really, that was good news.

I've always loved Subaru, and I think that they deserve that ranking. So you folks out there thinking about a vehicle, and remember, consumer reports is the Bible, as far as picking the right vehicle. Number one now, the Subaru. What a car. Beautiful. I drove one back in the old days, and the one that just came out. Wow. Amazing. If I had a Subaru, I would put a roof rack counter.

A former boyfriend of mine had a Subaru Forester, and that was one nice vehicle. Well, Tena Call again, and you're our favorite caller, and your female. too. You got us rolling this morning. It gets us off on the right foot, and I thank you so much for calling. Thanks, guys, y'all. Have a great day. Thank you so much, Tina.

877-960-9960, and Facebook, you Facebook folks out there if you're streaming us. Give us a little post every now and then about the quality of the picture, and if we have a solid picture. I just got a thumbs up from Jonathan in the control room, so he says we got to, uh, We've got a good Wi-Fi signal, I mean a good streaming signal, not Wi-Fi. And I'd love to have you tune to us on Facebook and post on Facebook, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. 772-497-65-3. And I think we have a text, do we still?

Yep. Hey, excuse me, Stu, before we go to that text, ladies, if you're listening, don't forget. You can win yourself $50 this morning. First two, new lady callers, give us a call tool free at 877-9-60-960 and share your opinion or, you know, maybe you purchased a card this week, or let us know how we can improve our show. That's 877-9-6-0-99-60. Now back to Stu. Have a very interesting question, one that we've never been asked before. And this is from Bill and Stewart.

Bill says, when a bank repossesses a classic car lot, as with the case of Blue Marlin Motors and Stewart, how does the bank dispose of the classic cars? I think by law, Bill, they have to auction it. They have to have several bids. I don't think it has to be a real auto auction. I think they just have to have bids. So the law requires, it's a lending law to protect borrowers, actually. A long time ago before they had these laws, a bank could really take advantage of the borrower. They repossessed a car, and they could get a huge judgment by saying, you know, the bank would sell the car to their buddy at a low price, and then they would go after the borrower for all the difference. So now to protect borrowers, the government wants to be sure that the bank gets the best price. So even on a classic car, I'm sure that the bank has to get. at least three bids from worthy bona fide bidders to protect the borrowers yeah okay thank

you very much for that text bill and anybody else that doesn't want to be face-to-face or voice-to-voice on live radio use that text number 772 497-6530 got another text we have another text we do but we got how we're going to go to howard and howard's a regular caller from jupiter good morning how are you all doing we're doing i'll thank you how are you great great great day today i have a question uh how do you determine whether you're going you will buy a hybrid or a regular gas uh vehicle uh one of the uh factors that you have to figure in uh ask how much mileage you do or how long you to keep the car can you can you explain that a little better. Yeah, Howard, it's an arithmetic problem. I mean, assuming you're talking

about the economic reason that you would buy a hybrid, some people buy hybrid from an eco reason from the fact that, you know, it's a cleaner and its contribution to a cleaner planet, less fuel consumption. But most people, I think, think in terms of just the economics. Typically, a rule of thumb is if you're a high mileage driver, the chances are the high hybrid is your cup of tea. Also, counterintuitively to a lot of people, if you do a lot of city driving, stop and go. Counterintuitively, hybrids actually get better fuel economy and stop and go driving than they do on the highway. You know, a conventional car, if you do a highway driving, the opposite is true. But when you're braking in the city, you're actually charging

by decelerating the car, you're actually charging the battery of the hybrid. So you get better fuel economy. I would just take the EPA ratings on the hybrid you're contemplating and the EPA ratings on the gasoline only car you're contemplating. Look at the difference. Look at the cost of gas. In fact, you're in your driving amount, 20,000 miles, 30,000 miles a year or whatever may be. And it's arithmetic, you know, cost of gas, number of gallons and mileage versus the advantage of the hybrid. Still at a point. And also, since hybrids, were first introduced, since we really got that Prius back in 2019-99-2,000, the difference between the gas version and the hybrid version and price has shrunk.

So it used to be, you're looking at maybe a $7 or $8,000 premium to go to, like, for example, and we're just filming your Toyota, so a Camry hybrid was considerably more expensive than the gas version. Now that difference has shrunk to under $2,000. Good point, yeah. Interesting. Yeah, the hybrid Highlander one time was like $6,000 or $7,000 more. the gasoline that's no longer the case but it's econa do the arithmetic uh how does that answer your question great information um thank you stu we're going to go to frank

now what about if you keep the car a long time and let's say the uh the hybrid battery goes bad isn't it very expensive to replace that not as expensive as it once was but it is expensive and there are aftermarket batteries available. You have to check the warranty is the key. If you get a rebuilt battery used hybrid, you've really got to be careful. I'm going to ask Rick the question now. We'll speak for Toyota. But Rick, what is a rebuilt or what is a Toyota battery replacement for a hybrid Prius?

Prius right now is running about $2,000 for the battery. I have heard that outside companies are rebuilding them for around $8 to $900. However, I would be careful of those because they don't often carry a warranty and they can cause damage to other parts in the car. The good news is that the average length of owners is about, what, six years now? Hybrid battery got you covered at least for Toyota, Most of the manufacturers are over eight years, 100,000 miles. So in most cases, you're okay.

And most of them last a lot longer than that. So the hybrid batteries become less and less a factor. When they first came out, it was a huge factor. But now it's become slightly less and a lot less, actually. Answer your question, Howard. Thank you very much. Very well done. Thanks again.

Thank you. Have a great weekend, Howard. Thanks for being part of the show. Give us a call tool free at 877-9-60-99. where you can text us at 772-4976530. Frank, welcome to the show. What can we do for you this morning? Frank, can you hear us?

I think, Rudy, I think we lost Frank. And I think maybe he might call back in. 877-960-9960. We've got a couple of ticks. So we'll go to, oh. Oh, he's back. Frank is back. Sorry.

We thought we lost you, Frank. Yeah. Yeah, I've turned the volume down. I'm in the car. Oh, okay. I didn't hear you the first time. Glad you're here. Anyhow, I'm very happy.

I put a deposit on a rev four at your dealership yesterday. Oh, thank you. You're welcome. And they have to get it. It'll be in next week sometime. My question is, did I do the right thing? I know you're going to say. yes, because I put it in your dealership.

But I tried to go through Costco, and they wanted so much information on the vehicle that I didn't even know what I wanted exactly, except the RAV-4. Was that on the Costco website? And I spoke to a salesman and told him my story, and he said, will it be the same price as Costco?

Don't worry. And I keep saying, well, show me the sheet. Well, we're okay, we're okay. Anyway, I put a deposit down, and they have to get the car, and that's the rat for limited with the advanced technology package and all that. Well, Frank, I tell you, what you... Did I do the right thing by not going through Costco? That's the question. We will let you know.

We're going to find out. Actually, you didn't do the right thing, but that was our fault. Do you remember the name of your salesperson? Peace. I got it right here. Okay. Here's what, the reason my blood pressure just went up 20 points and the stew is starting to shake sitting next to me is because what you just described is what we warn customers about when they use the Costco program. You should have persisted and we should have cooperated.

And that salesperson is in serious trouble right now. Brand new. It's really embarrassing to have to find out about these things on live radio with 20,000 people listening. But better to find out than not find out at all. But let's use this as an opportunity for the listening audience to learn from the incompetence of the sales department at Earl Stewart Toyota, which is my dealership. And we really screwed up there big time, and I sincerely apologize to you, Frank. The Costco pricing sheet, which is vital that you look at, and the reason it's vital is Costco contracts with their certified dealers, and the contract says that they must offer

the Costco customer the lowest price that they sell that car to anyone else for. So if the car dealer abides by that contractual obligation, it's a great deal for the Costco member. And that's the reason you must always see the sheet. The price sheet is a Costco document and it has the prices that dealer contractually puts in there and swears that these are the lowest prices. If there's a dealer fee or dealer installed option, that too must be disclosed on the price sheet. Now we prefer that Costco required to be included in the actual price, but the Costco requirement is that it be on visible to the Costco purchaser. Now, When the salesperson says, as this salesperson told you, who works for me, at least he did up until about 8.30 this morning, he says that we have a price as good as a Costco.

That's not true. He didn't tell you the truth. Well, Frank, I can't tell you. I didn't think it was. Frank. I knew I listened to you every week for a long time, and I knew this might not be right, but I'm going to. call you this morning, which I am, and what do we do next? Well, my son, Stu, I pulled up the Costco pricing.

I haven't done that yet, but I did want to tell Frank that if the price you got wasn't the Costco price, you will be getting the Costco price. Yeah, of course, yeah. All I got was a customer sheet. Yeah. You know, that describes the vehicle and a handwritten number on it. Well, my son tells me this is a new salesperson. started this past week.

And what that means is that the sales manager really dropped the ball because we should train our salespeople but they go on the floor. And the only thing I can say to summarize this experience is buyer beware. Whether you buy a car at Earl Stewart, Toyota, or you buy a car at another car dealership, buyer beware, do your homework. And Costco is a great place to buy a car if you insist on what they instruct. you to on their website, which is to see the Costco price sheet. And when the car salesman says,

never mind, I've got a price as good. The salesperson is telling you the wrong thing. And Frank, boy, I'll tell you what, that's a powerful phone call. It's the best one we've had a long time because it's best for the consumers. If my dealership can screw up, I promise you, other ones do it. I hope ours wasn't premeditated, and I'm fairly sure it wasn't. But it happened, nevertheless. I thought he was in the new sales

and the way he was acting in the room. Well, I'm an old guy, I'm older than you, and I bought a lot of cars in my life. Well, action is already underway at the dealership,

just let you know. The beauty of texts. I've been silently handling the situation. In case you're worried, Frank, I promise you no physical harm will come to the salesman. I don't know. Mental harm, but not physical.

We'll see. Just kidding. Great call. anything else we can help with. I love you now, but you've got a call every week, because that is really a doozy of a call. I might even make you a mystery shopper. Are you in for that? Sure. Okay. You know, like I have a, I'm from Long Island, New York, 30-some years ago, I moved to Florida. And one of my friends owner Chrysler, the ocean, Jeep Chrysler, and is, from his dealership to the ocean

that is 13 miles and he's the number one Chrysler dealer in the United States with service every year. Is that right? Wow. He doesn't screw around. He's like you. Wow, that's great. Transparency you take care of the customer and they keep coming back. What's his name? And when I moved to Florida

I felt bad because I'm not buying any more Chrysler. Well, let's give him a plug. What's his name? Pardon me? What's the Chrysler dealer's name? I want to buy it. I want to buy it. I want to buy him. I was to give him a plug for people. We've got snowbirds down here that might want to buy Chrysler from him. It's Mullen Motors. Mullen?

In South Old, New York. M-U-L-L-I-N? M-U-L-L-I-N. M-U-L-N-M-O-N-R-R. No, South-H-O-L-V. South-O-U-T-H-O-L-V. South-old, New York. Very good.

It's a family business, 91-plus years in the family. Holy mackerel. I thought we'd been around a long time. That's fantastic. Well, Frank, thanks again. And thank to dealers like Mullen. And it's nice to know there are other honest dealers out there. And he probably doesn't even do dumb things like we just did hire salespeople and put them on the floor without proper training. But we got this guy trained now. Thanks to you, Frank. I really appreciate the call. All right. You're welcome. Thank you. Please call next week. Bye-bye.

We're going to go straight to John, who's been holding. Good morning, John. How are you doing today? Good morning to everyone. I've always discussed fees. Earl discussed dealer fees and document fees. But one fee hasn't been discussed, and it's a Florida law. It's the waste, tire, and lead acid battery fee.

Now, I want to ask Earl, is that included on an MSRP on brand new cars? No, the MSRP is a federal document, and they do not include the municipal state taxes. That's done by the dealer. Okay, is there a minimum? Because I was looking at different repair bills that I've had in the past, and they've charged anywhere from $2 to $5 or $7 on tire disposal and battery fees. it should be consistent there's only one fee it's not supposed to vary and some dealers charge it and some dealers don't we don't charge it but we consider that as part of a cost of business but it's a very small amount

it wouldn't surprise me if a dealer wasn't marking that up they they mark up fees all the time an electronic filing fee is technically a marked up fee we call it a dealer fee but only electronic filing fee is when they sublet the title and registration license plate work that normally was handled at one time inside the accounting department of car dealerships. Now they have computerized companies that do this registration information quickly and more efficiently and they charge the dealers about 10 bucks. I have no dealers that will charge close to $1,000 and they call an electronic filing fee. But the battery tax and the tire disposal is a standard.

fee that should remain consistent all the time. For instance, on a battery, I noticed that you can be given a $2 allowance for your old battery, and it can be as high as $15. I mean, right here in Palm City, there's a distribution center for interstate batteries, and they pay the highest of anyone. I don't know exactly what it is on a used battery that you take in, you know, to bring into them, and it's right by the turnpike. So there's a variance on that also, I noticed, a minimum.

I wouldn't say a minimum, but it's whatever they want to give you, you know, for your old battery. That's interesting. I don't know. How do we handle that, Rick, do you know on the batteries? Do we, I thought we actually had to pay to have our batteries disposed of? I would have to check with parts department on that one. I know for a fact that every battery that comes out of any car,

or our service department has to be returned to the parts department. They will not even give us a battery to put in the car until we bring yield them back. John, it's hazardous waste disposal regulated federally, actually, and tires are the same way. And they have to be disposed of by a licensed bonded carrier. So you just can't throw your tires in the trash van or your batteries away because it's a hazardous material. So a lot of car dealers, and I believe we do also, we actually pay people to dispose of our batteries and our tires. Now, those people may take the battery and the tire, and there is a market for used tires, not much of a market, and there is a battery market also, as you just described on the batteries.

So the question is, is there a profit to be made by the dealer by selling directly to the people that are paying for these used batteries, or tires. In our case, it doesn't work. There was a time when we tried it, but it didn't work very well. It was more cost to do it that way than the other way. Same thing with the batteries, I suspect. Now, oil is an interesting case because we pay, we actually get paid for waste oil. When we drain a crank case and we get the waste oil, we actually get paid a certain amount per gallon for waste oil. It depends on the price of oil, when price is real high, the price is real low, that varies. So, the net amount, when you get paid,

when someone charges you a lot of money, one of the things you see on invoices and service departments is just a general term, hazardous waste disposal. That's a lump sum. That's a gotcha. Because they will charge you a lot of money for that, and

it's just a fee, which is actually profit to the due. And the rule of thumb still applies on service bills, too. If there's sales tax applied to it, it's profit. Anything legitimate, you don't charge sales tax on. Good point. Answer your question.

But isn't it illegal? If it's Florida law on a disposal to charge sales tax on top of that fee, wouldn't that be illegal? That is correct. It's a non-taxable fee. Yeah, if the fee, the way it would break down is this, you just ask a very

interesting question. Let's say that the hazardous waste disposal tax on a battery was $4. I'm not sure what it is. It's a very small amount. But say it was $4. And then supposing that they charge you on the invoice, which a lot of car dealers do, hazardous waste disposal of $300 or $30 or whatever they came up with, what they should do legally is not charge you sales tax on the $4, which is a real tax, but they should charge you on the $296 if they charge you $300 for hazardous waste disposal.

And I'll bet you that would be an interesting thing for the state of Florida sales tax auditors to check on the service departments of car dealers and independent garages all over Florida. I don't know what they're doing. I know what's right, but that doesn't say they're abiding by the law. Well, I told people to watch their bill. I'm just looking at one of my bills, and it said hazardous waste disposal for the oil. There's only 250 on it, but people have to be aware and watch their service bills from anyone and check and see that it's not exorbitant.

That dealer was paid for the oil that they took from your car. It was not a lot of the money, but it was something. So the waste oil is now a profit center for most car dealers and independent garages. If they charge you for it, to me it's deception. incidentally the call that you got on blue marlin mode is just to update people uh blue marlin was convicted i don't know what his sentence was it's going to be at least 30 years i believe of fraud and um the person sounds like their friend or somebody got ripped off and the technicality of it is when the car was given on consignment and i think we're all

would know the rules even if it's taken on a regular dealer if you sign the papers and you gave it consignment and the car disappears you don't have a right to report a stolen car it's the man's they stole your money but they didn't steal your car so it's a big technicality there but here's what I advise everybody there's a expert absolute expert on collective car frauds speedometer problems divorce problems fraudulent documentation and his name is 50 states he covers. And his name is Bruce Shaw. He's a lawyer in Philadelphia area, and he's an expert. Inaccurate, even car appraise, all on a collector cars, though, not on your modern cars. And the phone number is 215-657-2-3-77. He represents all 50 states, an absolute expert's been around for a long time,

and he can get to the bottom for you, and it's a specialist that people don't know about and collect a car fraud. Bruce Shore. Bruce Shore, S-H-A-W. Oh, sure. And it's www.shorelords.com. Very good.

And he's a Philadelphia lawyer. Those are supposed to be really good lawyers. It's a typical Philadelphia lawyer, but 50 states he represents, and he's got a lot of cars, got to the bottom of it with people, including even DeVille. and, you know, sell a misrepresentation.

Incidentally, seller representation, last year, I think it was a 68 Porsche, was sold by the, oh, gosh, I can't think of his name now. And it was misrepresenter. He's being sued, and the car sold for $1.5 million. Holy mackle. I can't even think of his name now. a TV personality, big Porsche collector. I'm just not thinking right today.

But he's being sued, and the auction company's being sued because the car was a clone. It was not as represented. It was a 68 forsh. Well, that's good information, John. Thank you, everyone. I'll put out in my contacts. Incidentally, one other thing, too.

Somebody called you in January about the Supra, and they asked about availability? Yes. Well, in January 12th, a local Palm Beach resident, John Salupe, bought the brand new Supra, one of a kind,

documented, you know, with a special color and all, and he bought it at auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, and if anybody knows the number, you wouldn't believe it. He paid for a 2020 Supra $2.41 million.

You know, I didn't know it was John Salupe. I knew. Oh, yeah, it was John, yeah. I didn't realize them. Now, he bought it through a proxy. So Jackson, who was the co-owner of Barrett Jackson, did the bid for him on behalf of John Stolupi. So the good news is, if we want to go see it, or probably be across the street from the dealers.

That is really something. Well, I didn't even know that. That's fantastic. John Stoopi. Hey, thank you, John, if you're listening. John, he's a good guy. Yeah, you always have so much information for us, John. Thanks for being part of the show every week.

We're going to go straight to Lori, who's a first-time caller from, Palm City also, and she has won herself $50. Good morning, Lori. Well, good morning to you. How are you? I'm well, thank you. We all are. You've won yourself $50. Oh, that's awesome. Thank you. You're welcome. You can stay on the line after you ask your question and give Rudy your information and we'll get check out to you. What can we do for you today?

Oh, that's wonderful. Well, I have a question for all of you. I'm just in the initial stages of purchasing a vehicle for my daughter. It would be a first vehicle for her. She's 17. She's had her license for a year. And I'm just curious as to what would you recommend in terms of a pre-owned vehicle? Lori. If it was your daughter, what would you do? My daughter, I'd get her a Toyota. I'm joking because I'm a Toyota deal. That was tongue-in-cheek.

I would do Toyota, Subaru, or Honda. Yeah. What I would do, Laura, seriously, is I would, first of all, let me say this, of all the times you could be buying a car, the cars that you're buying for your daughter now will be an amazingly, amazingly safe car. I mean, I'm telling you today's cars, I would say, based on your budget, what you can Ford, I would try to stay with as late a model used car as I could. I mean, you can go out there and buy yourself a, you know, she's probably going to want to live.

I was typical 17-year-old, you know, teenagers, they want something snazzy, maybe a convertible, bright color, this, that, and the other. And the Tennessee is going to want to go back in age because you'll find something affordable, the older it is, that will be snazier. But if you want to get the safest car, a two or three-year-old certified car would be, though, Stu has a recommendation. Yeah, just because I'm going through this right now. Yeah. So my son turned 16 last year, and my daughter will be 15 tomorrow, and so we start the harrowing experience of driving with her this coming week. But, yeah, the old, you know, the old conventional wisdom was, you know, as cheap, old car as you can get. And I had a hard time with that.

So we had to strike the balance between an inexpensive car and one that had the newer safety features. And like Earl just said, though, you don't have to have a 2019 model to get all that. A lot of this great safety stuff started appearing really in, what would you say, 2015, 2014? 15 had a lot. 16 and 17, I think, is when most of it became standardized, especially such things as the backup camera became standard on just about every model. Right. So if you're looking at, even like a four-year-old car, you can save a ton of money and still get some of the features. But that's a really good point that Rick made is they weren't standard. So you really got to ask, if you're looking at a dealer or independent seller, really start asking, you know, what equipment was, what options, safety options, because that's what they were before.

They were optional before. And, Lori, just some of the things you should ask for, you know, Rick mentioned backup camera. That's mandatory. Speaking, I'm speaking for my own self, and anybody can jump in here, but I think the blindside monitor is extremely important. The emergency braking, automatic braking, saved me the other day. I mean, no, I was. Every day. Yeah, I was looking off.

I saw something on the right side of the road, and all of a sudden I get this warning buzzer, and I look at my car, it stopped right in front of me. It scares the crap out of you, but it works. And so they have automatic braking, which virtually eliminates the possibility of rear-ending somebody. There's also the... When did the automatic braking come out? We actually started seeing pre-collision systems like that as far back as 13 on the higher-end models, and by 15 to 16, it was everywhere. And Lori, I'll chime in here.

I have three daughters, and boy, I'll tell you what, what a decision to make, putting them behind the wheel. And I can recommend to you, Consumer Report, without a doubt, it is definitely, you know, going to be an asset for you. And they have the best cars for every life stage, including you purchasing a vehicle for your girls. And cars last so much longer. and you save yourself, like the guy said, a ton of money by buying used. And, you know, I wish you luck. I had, like I said, three daughters, and I'll tell you what, competition, oh, you bought her this, oh, you bought, you know, back and forth, you and teenagers, good luck.

Consumer report. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate all of your advice. I really do. Great. And stay in touch. Let us know how it all turned out.

Give us a call next week. And enjoy that $50. Spend it on yourself. Oh, I sure will. Thank you, guys. You're welcome. 877-960-9960, or you can text us, 772-497-6530.

And remember, we have a fabulous mystery shopping report coming up. We are going to go to our second new lady caller and she's calling us from steward Andrea you have just won yourself $50 welcome to the show thank you and good morning everybody we've been listening for quite a while and I decided to call up with a pertinent question

because we're about to buy a new car we were wondering Earl would we get a better deal purchasing with the dealer financing or purchasing all cash and proof it to the government it's our money Andre, dealer financing is a real minefield. The dealers make more money when they finance a car than when they sell the car. The average dealer relies on the finance department because they can't make a lot of money with competition selling cars,

and they hose you in the finance department. They call it the box. It's really a dangerous place to be. You should always check with your own bank and your credit union. Now, there is an exception. Manufacturers often have subsidized financing. They have extremely low rates, which they allow their dealers to offer the customers. It can be under 1%, sometimes 0%, and if it's a legitimate manufacturer's rate and not a dealer rate,

then it can be a really good deal. Typically, they offer you either or. You can take a cash incentive, or you can take the very, very little. interest rate. But in general, stay away from the dealer financing. Now, negotiating the deal by cash is always the best way to buy a car, but you never want to let the dealer know you're not going to finance with them at that point. And you're starting to buy a car because they will mentally think that if I can't make a lot of money when I sell Andre of the car, I can make a lot of money when I finance Andrea's car. So they're thinking about that during the negotiation.

Let it be a surprise when you finally negotiate a good price by getting two competitive bids from other dealers using Truecar, using Costco, whatever means you use to get your best price. Then you can surprise them and say, my credit union will give me this interest rate or my bank will give me this interest rate. Can you beat that? If you can, I'll consider financing with you. well thank you very much and it was so cold to call in today i really appreciate it and and Andrea this is nancy stewart i'd just like to chime in again here and just to let you know that uh you know before you walk into that dealership uh get all your information put it in a little

folder that's very intimidating when you walk into a dealership and uh you know go to your own loan or bank and or credit union and have all your ducks in a row and that'll leave you in complete control well thank you thank you that's great information well i really appreciate it i'm so excited ah i was on the radio yeah yeah Andrea okay well listen stand in line give Rudy your information and we'll get that $50 out to you and thank you very much. You're welcome. Give us a call again.

Bye, Lori. Okay. Okay. It's pretty quiet right now. We're backing up on, I've got a bunch of text over here. Okay, it's pretty quiet right now. So give us a call toll free at 877-960-99-60. Or, well, everybody's using that text number.

So you probably already have it. 772-497-6530. And Stu is up with a lot of texts. Yep. We have a question from Sandy, watching our live Facebook feed. She says, good morning. My friend has a Kia in the shop at the dealership for more than two weeks.

They can't find out what's wrong with her car. What do you suggest she do? I would go to the service manager and Sandy and speak directly with him. I would also ask the service manager he can't solve the problem to contact the Kia specialist. They have technical specialists, all the manufacturers do. that can offer technical support either online or over the phone, or sometimes you'll actually have a specialist come in to the dealership.

They have to be able to fix your car sooner or later. There's something called a Lemon Law in all 50 states that if they try to fix your car and they do it three times unsuccessfully, then you can take them to court or actually arbitration and get your money back. But it is frustrating. I know what you mean. In the real world, sometimes dealerships can't diagnose and fix problems. Cars are complicated today.

And one way to do is to take it to another Kia dealer. I'm not sure which key dealer is with now, but technicians in terms of ability vary from dealership to dealership. So you have a lot of options. Rick is looking at me like he's got a comment. Yeah, actually, you pretty much hit it on the head. I would either insist that they get a specialist in from the factory, engineers that can handle it, or take it to another dealership. Yeah.

You pretty much got the words out of my mouth before I could to get there. Sandy, does that answer your question? Well, that was a text, so maybe that's wrong. That's okay. Sandy, text me and let me know what's that answer is your question. All right. Hopefully she's still watching. Okay. The next one is also as a text, and this comes from a longtime listener and text her. This is Anne Marie. Her question is, she says, good morning. A friend was driving a 2000 Honda Accord way up in northern Wisconsin when the left front fender was clipped by an 18-wheeler on an icy road. The front passenger side airbag deployed, fortunately no shrapnel, but the driver's side didn't deploy. Two questions. Was the driver's side airbag defective, and can the airbags be replaced so the car can be used again?

the front end is fixed thanks anytime you have an airbag question the factory gets extremely interested in the manufacturer and what mick car was that's due that you mentioned it was a 2000 honda accord yeah yeah Honda Honda should be notified and they will immediately check that out because there's one thing a manufacturer doesn't want to do is have the national highway traffic safety association have a recall and they will inspect the black box or whatever else to be sure that there wasn't a malfunction. Stu, I mean, Rick is looking at me again. Yeah, the airbag systems, the computer reads impacts from the various sensors.

There will be one on each corner, sometimes one on the sides, and the newer the car, the more sensors it will have. And depending upon the point of impact, the computer is supposed to decide which airbags to deploy. So whether it made a mistake or not, that would be up to someone. that Honda would need to look at that box to find out if there's something wrong with that system. Exactly. And as for replacing the airbags, yes, we do have airbags that are deployed in accidents. The car is still drivable, still can be saved. And they replace the airbag, usually the computer and the sensor.

Pretty much every electronic compartment in that system gets replaced as part of that repair. Yeah. It's not going to be sure that the insurance company is very careful about, and the collision repair shop is very careful about. There are cars that get repaired without replacing the airbags at all because airbags are very expensive, and these cars can be sold at auction, and people don't know they're buying a car without airbags, so you want to be sure that your airbags work.

That's right. And moving along, our collision and auto insurance expert, Alan Napier, has been listening to the show. Oh, really? Yes, he's getting ready for a procedure this week because he's an old man. And anyway, he was wondering if Consumer Reports had ever been sued for a bad review. So he Googled it, and Consumer Reports has been sued 13 times by manufacturers and never lost a case. Yes.

Wow. There was a small Japanese car that really went after him a long time ago. And I don't believe there's still... Was it DeWu? No, no. I can't remember it now, but they really blasted this one. and they were rolling over all the time. And you remember?

Anyway, go ahead. No, that's true. Okay. But that's great to hear because that's the proofs in the pudding. Well, it's like, see, this is like Earl Sturt on cars. Right. That wasn't a Suzuki, shamari, was it? We've never been sued.

And so we're better than consumer reports. We need to be sued. We need to be sued. So, yeah, the reason we don't get sued, there's two reasons. number one, we don't say anything about the truth, knowingly. And the other thing is that if you sue somebody, then you get a lot of publicity. And then you have a public trial. And all, everything's exposed.

And then you have the TV cameras in the room, and we're talking. So that's one of the reasons that your car dealers are afraid to sue me. Right. Exactly. Thanks, so. But we would like a record, like, consumer reports. It would be a good thing to brag about on the area. It'd be fun, yeah.

We've been sued 13 times and never lost. Exactly. That'd be great. And the truth shall set you free. Yes. All right, we got a great text here. This is from Don and LaBelle. And Don is a long-time listener going back to the old days.

Love Don. Love Don. And he doesn't pull any punches. And so he's going to punch us a little bit here. But we have addressed this before on the air. So Don says, hearing the last latest caller, and this was talking about Frank, who tried to go through the Costco auto buying program. Don says, hearing the latest caller,

Does that mean your dealership is not a one-price store but has a lower price for Costco shoppers? Don and LaBelle. Well, that's actually true. We are a one-price store, and the semantics of that troubles us a little bit, but we have to comply with our Costco contract. So we do price our Costco cars a little lower than we do our regular cars. and because our one price is competitive and we consider it to be a very good price, we have to give the Costco buyer a really, really good price.

And frankly, we kind of wince a little bit sometimes. We hate it. Yeah. Well, Costco. So you Costco folks out there, listen to this. A Costco dealer that truly adheres to the letter of the law with Costco really is, unhappy about the price he sells you the car for because I'm a Costco dealer and I'm unhappy with the price we sell you the car for but we do it because we need the volume

and because we think it's a good program and we really love Costco but in terms of dollars and cents it's it's a better deal for you than it is for the dealer absolutely the we don't like it because Costco does dictate you know what the pricing has to be And we've tried, and we've talked about it on the show for years, that we've tried to get them to have rules cut out or certain exceptions made for true one-price dealers, which then it's not owned by Costco. We already, I can't remember the name of the company.

As long as we're talking about that, let's just tell it like it is, all right? The dealers don't abide, most of the dealers don't abide by the Costco program. So they can put a price, another toilet dealer, I'm a toilet dealer, another toy dealer who was certified by Costco can put a price on the on the Costco price sheet which is the lowest price he'll sell the car for but he's also got a dealer fee

and he's also got dealer install accessories now Costco says he has to disclose those but he doesn't include them in the Costco price he puts them at the top of the price sheet and oftentimes the customer never sees the price sheet so he can say this is the Costco price and be telling the truth, but he's not telling you about the dealer fee and the dealer installed accessories.

So you saw, if you listened to the show earlier, that even my dealership doesn't always show you the price sheet because we had a rookie salesman, a new salesperson, that wasn't properly trained by the sales manager, and he dropped the ball. So the Costco price in our dealership, Don, to answer your question, is truly lower price and our one low price and not all vehicles have a Costco price for example if we decide that

we don't want to list the price as low as Costco won't we won't because we feel the price should be X and Costco says it should be Y so they won't and also a new model sometimes will not be on the Costco pricing sheet but the best thing to do is to go to the Costco auto buying portal

and try to find your car and then but remember all these pitfalls that we talk about on the show I haven't thought about that last pitfall, but yeah, if you want a specific car, and you better be sure that you see that Costco price sheet, because as Stoja said, the dealer doesn't have to have the car on the price sheet at all. He can't put the car on the price sheet by contract and have it higher than the price he sells to other customers, but he can just not put it on the price sheet at all.

And the salesman might tell you We have one This is the price Trust me This is the Costco price sheet Well, it isn't And Frank called earlier Embarrassed me on the air

In front of 20,000 people Because my salesman But in a caring way In a caring way Yeah, we appreciate Frank Well, I'm still embarrassed Oh yeah Because it means that

I did something wrong I don't like to do things wrong Well thank you Don We love you Please continue to text and call Okay Well, here's the opposite of Frank's text, so this will make you feel a little bit better. It's from Patty and Phil, and good morning, Earl.

Congratulations on receiving the best of Palm Beach County 2019 First Place Award for New Car Dealer and Auto Dealer Service Department. It's a well-deserved honor. You are a blessing to our community. Well, thank you very much. He's blessing now. I appreciate it. You know, I had a dinner with a bunch of my old friends, and I mean old. They're really old.

I mean, not as old as I am. No, they're not. But I get together once a month with a bunch of guys, and we had dinner, it was, actually, at Ruth's Gris. I had too much to drink, and we all do once a month. And I should take Uber home, but I didn't. And, boy, I really got myself in trouble now. They're going to be staking out Ruth Chris next month.

It's okay. Just use that Uber next time. You know, being honest can be hazardous to your health in a lot of ways. You're filtering. Tell them the truth on the air, spilling my guts, like this but anyway Dean LaValley is

he owns the Park Avenue chain of barbecues and Dean LaValle won the best restaurant award and he congratulated me on winning the best car dealership for

car sales and service and I congratulate him on winning for a barbecue I think he's got eight barbecue restaurants really good barbecue by the way and then he said it really wasn't it's not fair because he said that all the employees can vote and places like it he named some big chain restaurants like duffies that has hundreds of more employees and they could all vote for duffies and so they get more votes just occurred to me we didn't have our employees we did not we didn't even know about it we didn't know about it well no we had heard uh no we had heard that someone was we were going to be nominated yeah and then we were like okay and we didn't do anything with it but anyway thank you very much patty and phil It is an honor, and thank you very much for that recognition.

Another text. Yeah, moving along. So we have a question from Sue, who's watching our live Facebook video. Very simple question. When are extended warranties a good idea? Extended warranties are a good idea based on the individual buying the warranty and based on the car that the warranty covers. In general, if you have a good car, we talked about Subaru,

when the consumer report's best car if you buy a Subaru you don't need an extended warranty on the other hand there are people that need insurance that's what an extended warranty really is they need insurance for peace of mind to sleep well at night people go to sleep in their homes and they have fire insurance chances are pretty good their house isn't going to burn down they got probably got detect you i got a good fire department they got smoke detectors They got all sorts of precautions. But if you don't have fire insurance and you're a certain mentality, you say, I don't sleep well night.

My house might burn down. Same thing with your car. What is your, how do you feel? Because remember this, folks, the insurance companies make a ton of money. The extended warranty companies make a ton of money. Warren Buffett, at any given year, he's the richest man of the world. I think Jeff Bezos is the richest man now. Warren Buffett gets all of his money, cash flow, they call it, from insurance companies.

Then he takes that money that comes at him like a torrent of money from his insurance companies, and he invest on other good companies, and that's Brookshire Hathaway Corporation. Insurance companies make all the money. So when you buy insurance, you buy an extended warranty, you're betting against the insurance company, and you are not going to win. They're going to take more than premiums than they pay out claims. I hope I didn't go on and on too much. No, I think that's a great way to say.

I've kind of, you know, copied your advice, and basically it's kind of, well, what makes you feel comfortable if you can't buy a car and you don't feel that your purchase is protected, and it's just a matter of what you can, the type of risk that you can accept. Yeah, dental insurance. I've never had dental insurance. Never. Because I brush my teeth very carefully. I gargle with listerine, and I never have cavities. You're going for torture four times a year to get your teeth clean. Okay. We got a couple more, though, unless we have a caller.

I'll give out the phone number. Yeah, do that. Lines are pretty quiet. 877-960-9960, and that text number is 772-4976530. And whenever Stu is done with the text, I have an email and a text that I'd like to share with our listeners. Back to Stu. Yeah, we were talking about safety features. on used cars for our kids, for our teen drivers.

And Steve, who's on our Facebook live video, chimed in. He says, as to the automatic braking, the feature started in higher trim levels only in the Accure RDX. Our 2016 version had the advanced option level. It had auto braking and lower trim levels did not have that, but he thinks all the trim levels has it now. And he says, that's when buying use, the trim level can be critical in determining if that feature is included. So, yeah, you've got to go. use an online resource either, you know, Edmonds, Kelly Blue Book, and to see what trim levels had what safety options on it.

I told you how that automatic braking saved me the other day. I forgot to mention. In fact, I never mentioned it even to Nancy. But I was coming in the garage the other day, got distracted, and then saved the doors at the end of my garage because it stopped the car before I knocked down the doors. So the answer is even if that wasn't an expensive option, it would have been more expensive to smash into your house.

And the final text, and we'll be all, we'll be caught up. It's also on our Facebook feed, and Steve says, it has to do with our Costco conversations. Just tell our customers about the North Lake Boulevard, Costco, they can stop by, get a membership on the way to the dealership and get the best price. You know, listen, again, I think that I'm possessed by this honesty and transparency, and I have to say it, if you were going to buy a car from my dealership, you're going to save a little bit of money by becoming the Costco member. I mean, Costco, you have to, you have to be sure that the dealer that you deal with with Costco abides by the rules. And because I had this incident

in the early in the show, be absolutely sure you see the Costco pricing sheet. Do not buy a car on the Costco program without seeing that Costco pricing sheet and identifying the car you want to buy as being on that sheet and look at the top of the sheet because that will disclose the dealer fee, electronic filing fee, tagging fee, all those other extra profits. Nitrofil. Nitrofil. That's going to be there. And the dealer installed accessories.

I mean, it's a lot of work, even given the Costco advantage. You have to be very diligent and you have to be sharp and you cannot be schmused by a salesperson who tells you this price is the Costco. That can happen even at my dealership, and it happened, and I'm embarrassed about it. Well, I can't tell you that whether this was ignorance, poor training, or intentional, it will never happen at our dealership again. So that's it. We're all caught up with text and Facebook comments. Remember, ladies and gentlemen, when you go out to buy a car, these salespeople, they're not your friends.

Remember that. You know, knowledge is power. Okay, I'm going to go to my text from Jessica. and she asks, how can I be sure that I'm getting the money from the right money for my trade-in? I'll answer that first, and then I'll swing it over to Earl. Maybe he might have something to add to it. You know, Jessica, there's a lot of people that don't realize that you need to keep your trade-in separate. Okay?

That's yours. And as far as you getting enough money for your trade-in, take it to three different dealerships. There you will get the right price. And, you know, you won't be short-changed. So I hope I answered your question. Earl, do you have anything to add to that? When you go to the dealership, go to the same make-dealorship that you're thinking about buying from. If you want to buy a Honda, you go to three different Honda dealership.

contact the used car department and do not tell them that you're going to buy a car telling me you have too many cars in the family it's going to be a transaction I'm going to sell you my car I got three cars in the family I only need two I'm selling the car I'm taking my car to the Honda dealer over here and the Honda dealer over there and I'm going to get bids from each of them the one that gets me the best price for my used Honda I'm going to sell them the car that way you get an arm's leak objective transaction if they think you're buying a car, they start playing games.

Over allowance, under allowance, they mark up the price of the car they think you're going to buy, and then they give you more than you're really going to get on the trade-in. Don't let that be part of the game. There you go, Jessica. Great information from Nancy and Earl. Now, I'm going to get to my email. This is from Gary Gold,

and the topic is Mazda dealer. Do the Mazda dealers have the replacement airbags for the CX-7? We had the recall for passengers. airbag and lower control arms and a computer update.

They said they did all the recalls, but I thought the airbags were not available. Thanks, Gary, Mazda Dealer. Gary, write this down. www. www.safercar.org. And that's the National Highway Traffic Safety Association website. Safer, S-A-F-E-R-C-R-C-G-G-G-B-E-E-R-G before. go www.safercar.gov go there put the VIN number in and you will find out if there is a recall

and if the recall it exists is a fix available and that's the best way to do it now you can also call the manufacturer and you can go on their website probably but you can certainly call the dealer they can check their computer and tell you and another way to check it is on carfax Carfax, the manufacturer through the dealer, or safercar.gov. Great information. The lines are still quiet. Give us a call 877960. And you can text us at 772-49760.

While the lines are quiet, I have an old concept that I want to bring up because it appeared on the front page of automotive news. and it's something called stair-step financing and the dealers are rising up against the manufacturers because the dealers hate stair-step financing I'm a dealer I hate stair-step financing Toyota in the southeast has stair-step financing and I don't like it one of the reasons dealers don't like it is because the manufacturers give every car dealer a quota based on the market that they sell their cars in And a quota could be you have to sell 200 cars this month, or you have to sell 350 cars this month, whatever. And then when you get the number of cars sold and you hit your quota, the manufacturer gives you retroactively so much per car. These stair-step incentives, based on the size of the dealer, can be literally hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So the dealers in the market in that area for that manufacturer, they're competing against each other rather aggressively. to be able to hit that big number so they sell their cars for less money than they like to so they can hit the quota. The problem is things happen. Sometimes they don't hit their quota and they might find out that they have to sell 300 cars that month

but they only sell 290 and they might lose a lot of money in the new car department and it's something that creates a lot of pressure and disadvantages to some dealers. It also creates confusion in the minds of the customers because it's impossible for you to know what that dealer will sell the car for depending on his situation and his position in that contest which is what stair-step financing really is he may be desperate to sell you a car at a great price on the other

hand he may have hit his quota and he's not at all under any motivation to give you a good price so a stair-step financing is not good for the customer it's not good for the dealer it should be abolished. I think we've got some text coming in. We do. Yep, we do. This is a good one. Were there any other songs that you were considering for your theme song besides

the good, the bad, and the ugly? Can you tell the audience why you selected that one? That's from Chuck in Lake Worth. Well, Nancy gets credit for that. That was her idea. And you explain, Nancy. Why did you choose the good, the bad, and the ugly?

Well, as we did the show, it just became obvious that this was just very fitting for the auto industry and what we were trying to do and how we wanted to expose the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's very descriptive. So there you have it. Yeah, we need it. On our list, we only have good, dealer, bad, we need an ugly dealer. I could put that list together.

I know there they are. And when you hear that red phone, ring, I also was a huge part. Well, I was the only part of that. And also, again, it just seemed like as if it just brought everything together. So without sounding like a commercial, I won't go on. We're going to go to Donna from West Palm Beach. Welcome to the show, Donna.

Donna, we've got a little bit of a crackle in the phone here. I don't know if it's on our end of the control room. or urine. Are you on a portable phone? Are you, uh, can you hear me? Okay. Now, I think Donna's, uh, Rudy's working on it. Rudy's working on, yeah. I think he's got her back. Yeah. Okay. Hi, Donna. Hi, how you doing today? Oh, that's much better. We hear you. We hear you well now. Thank you. Now I can hear you. Fantastic. How are you? Wonderful. Doing fine. Thank you. Great. I just wanted to let you guys know a couple of months ago. So we were looking for a vehicle for our son because he, unfortunately, had his Kia Rio go up in flames as he was driving it.

And my husband was driving around looking for a car, and he stopped into your used car lot, and he spoke with Richard. And I have to tell you guys, had been fantastic for us. The radio wasn't working, and he replaced it at no charge. You gave us extra key. So I have nothing but wonderful things to say about you guys. Thank you so much for your great service. Oh, thank you, Donna. Well, thank you, now.

The kind of offsets the earlier call we had were it didn't work out that way. You know what? We need a couple more like this. I went for breakfast. I got home and I said, I need to have some positive vibes today. Well, bless your heart. That would very much appreciate it, Donna. Yeah, great energy.

Thank you. You guys have a wonderful weekend, and thanks again for all you did for us. You too, Donna. Bye-bye. Have a great weekend also, Donna. Thank you. Bye-bye. You're welcome.

I have another email. I'm going this is from CJ What if you come into the dealer and are not crazy about particular salesman

that approaches you but you want to stay with the dealership Is there any way to change salesperson without having to give up the dealership positively CJ

you're in control that's short that's the short version now I'll swing it over to Earl Stewart. Well, I think you answered it very succinctly. Yes, you should also always act for a different salesperson if you don't have the chemistry, if you don't feel comfortable with that salesperson,

and the sales manager will be more than glad to accommodate you because he wants to sell a car. So just go to the sales manager, just say, no offense, Charlie's probably a great guy. I just don't feel comfortable with him. How about Bill or Dewey? Yeah, it happens often. You know, there are times whenever you just don't click. You can, you know, you can apply that cliche to everyday life. You click with some people.

You click. Sometimes you don't. So you're in complete control, C.J. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's really good advice because it is hard to do. I mean, you don't want to hurt anybody's feeling. And sometimes, and I might even do that. Just I'll suffer through something unnecessarily because I don't want to rock the boat. But it's a big deal.

You're buying a car. You're spending a ton of money. You know, it's okay to rock the boat a little bit. I had a bad experience with AT&T on the phone yesterday. I'm reliving it in my head right now and I could not understand the person I was speaking to and finally at some

and I was getting nowhere and wasting time finally I just said can I speak to somebody else and I was honest I said I only understand about half of what you're saying no offense I just I need to get this done it's so politically sensitive and I am the same we all feel that way and when you stop and think about it

if you're spending a lot of money when you're buying the car especially you're looking at a $40,000 investment you really have to be able to understand everything the salesman says you have to feel comfortable you have to feel that the salesman's being forthright with you so you can politely put it uh i think he's a fine person yeah i just have a problem and then to describe your problem i need somebody else to talk to yeah absolutely uh we're

going to go to frank good morning frank well good morning errol and nancy and the gang hey um i think i've discovered another way the dealers are trying to make extra profit and let me explain We know about them because this is Earl's hot button, the dealer fees, excuse me, electronic filing fees, this and that, da-da-da-da-da. Well, now they moved her from the front room, the showroom, to the back room. And I'll explain. In the service department, they've always had a shop fee for $5 or $10 for rags and disposing and just, you know, because of stuff they need to, at Mercedes now, where I went, because I have a Mercedes, that's still on an extended warranties.

I'm utilizing their service to make sure the warranty is not going to be affected. I got an oil change that was around $350, and my shop fees were $35. I said, excuse me? And they said, well, you know, that's for the washer flu we put in. I said, I can buy five cases of washer fluid. And they said, no, now we, it used to be like $5 or $10. Now they put in 10% of whatever. So you go in for a $1,200 tune-up.

Now you get $120 in shop fees. So there's a new profit gimmick out there, and I complained about it because you didn't come in front. You quoted me the price for one thing. But just something that... Frank, do you mind mentioning the name of which Mercedes dealer it was? Well, I know last weekend you talked, Raymond. I actually go back to Melbourne when I retired at the Air Force Base. Oh, okay.

That dealership, I mean, you could mystery shop them, but the one thing I will say, their service department, they have a complete cafe upstairs where they have a, espresso machines and four big chairs you can sit in. They cook you of food and they serve you. So, I mean, indirectly, you're paying for it. But actually, their normal service prices are less up there in Melbourne than either one of the two dealerships down here that the Mercedes. Well, that's interesting. It's worth the drive.

And then we go to the base and do some shop and things like that. Well, that's good to know. Yeah, that's a bit of a drive, but I understand the local Mercedes dealers really charge an arm and a leg. Yeah, this is a shop fee thing is that we call it the service. we call it the dealer fee of the service department and it's unconscionable and 10% is crazy I mean first of all

$350 for an oil change is crazy and that add 10% is adding insult to injury but great call Frank I appreciate it and if you're Mercedes owners take a weekend trip and have your Mercedes service in Melbourne they have a really nice service department up there

is what you're saying right Frank Oh, yeah, it's unbelievable I mean When you take your car in They give you some tickets You go upstairs And they got four big screen TVs All gone on different channels

And none of them are being interfered Because they give you Wireless headphones To listen to your particular TV Wow They have the York peppermint patties Sitting out there by the dozen Fresh baked cookies

Sandwiches I like the idea of the peppermint patties Oh boy Yeah My weakness I'm gonna take a I'm going to take a used Mercedes off my used car lot, and I'm going to drive up there and have lunch.

And actually, after you did that last mystery shopping last weekend, I said, well, geez, I got a 2012 E350, and I went to true cars to make sure there wasn't any recalls on that puppy. There were none. But your show is unbelievable. You're doing it as a world of service for the public. Thanks, Frank. And I won for everyone else out there, applaud what you're doing,

and thank you so much. That means a lot to us, Frank. You're a great caller. And have a great weekend. Thank you, Frank. I look forward to talking to you again. Give us a call toll free at 877-960, or you can text us at 772-4976530. I have one more text, and this text is from Marlene, and she wants to know what are the best online sources for purchasing a car.

And what comes to my mind, the top three would be a true car. It would also be Costco, and it would be auto-buytel. No, auto-bitell is pretty much out of business. Consumer reports, but they used true car as their source, but I'd say true car and Costco were the two best. Okay. I hope I answered your question. get back with us and let us know how it went.

877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. And I think by the look on Stu's face, he has... Do you mind reading again? A text. Okay. Steve from New Jersey, long-time listener, has a question. He says, I had my airbag canister replaced on Thursday by my Subaru dealer. While there, the service manager said that Subaru has a program where they send technicians

to salvage yards to look for salvageable suboros with the airbag recall. When found, they replaced the airbag canister on the spot. Have you heard of this practice from any other car manufacturers? Honda. Honda actually originated that. They were the biggest victim, call it what you will, of the Takata Airbag recall.

There's more Hondas out there recall than any other. And they have been very proactive. They do exactly what Subaru is doing. I convinced Uber. I don't know who went first, but I do know Honda has done some amazing proactive efforts. The other manufacturers, I'm sorry to say,

have not been nearly as proactive as they should. And the thing that burns me up so much, and we talked about this on the show, they do not get the current owners of these cars. They use their old list from their records. Chevrolet, we'll look at all the people, well, they sold Chevroletes, too, and they keep sending them notices. They don't think about the fact that that Chevrolet's changed hands three times since they sold that car new,

and they're sending recall notices to people that don't own the car anymore, and it's so simple. Like me. Happened to my sons, too. I have a terrifying recall notice for a 2014 Prius that I have not owned in five years. Okay. So, okay, so the next text, this comes from Anne-Marie on our text line. I was walking through a parking lot yesterday, and I just noticed that vehicles with cloudy headlights

had nice clear backup lights by their taillights. Why don't auto manufacturers use the same covering material for both headlights and taillights, so everything stays clear longer? I'm not sure if that's what's causing the fogginess, but Rick has got a smile on his face, so he's going to answer. I was going to say because the headlights are on the front,

so they're catching all the wind flow, and the taillights don't get it. Right. but none of that um truth be told I don't really have an answer for that I don't know if chemically the two materials are the same

but yeah it seems there's no shame and not knowing it to answer Rick and all we have to do is Google that yeah but I would have hypothesize I mean I think it's a is that what Rick said is right because you're on the leading edge of the car so there's more it's certainly possible so maybe it's like

an etching thing that happens over time it seems like the obvious answer but I'm I'm not so sure. Well, here's a good point is that manufacturers might be aware of that, and there could be a different material. It could be softer on the back. It just doesn't get damaged. Okay.

We're all caught up. Are we cut up? Okay, we're going to go to our last caller, and I apologize to everyone who is called after this caller, but we really need to allow some time for the mystery shopping report. We're going to go to Judy, who's been holding, and she's from Jupiter. Good morning, Judy. Good morning.

Good morning. I called a few months ago, and I have a 2012 Honda-A-Lantra, and I was having major transmission problems. I brought it to Hyundai for a week to leave it there. They couldn't get it to act up, and you had told me that if I could take a picture of it revving up r pms really high for quite a while, then maybe that would get them to replace my transmission. I have 88,500 miles on it, and I'm so worried that my transmission is going to go after my 100,000 miles. Did you take a picture?

Well, when it went up to like four, between three and four, I was driving down the highway, and I couldn't do that. I see. Judy, the fact that you've documented this with Hunter, Hyundai should protect you because if it goes out of warranty and you can point back that you contacted them X number of times with this identical problem, that should, that should, if they're going to be fair with you, and I believe they would, cover you in under warranty. I would also try a different Hyundai dealer because the problem you described is one of

the most frustrating to car dealers, to technicians. I know that Rick has had hundreds of these. Rick drives customers' cars for miles and miles and miles. He's probably driven customers' cars' homes and back as much as his own car, it seems like, at times. Because sometimes you just have to keep driving the car. Intermittent problems, you know. I like going to the doctor. You know, you're coughing and you're sneezing and you go to the doctor and nothing happens.

Difficult for the doctor to diagnose it. But you're doing exactly the right thing. and you should put them on notice and say to your Hyundai dealer, I just want you to know, I have documented and you have documented my six visits in to fix this problem where my RPM is spiking and it's frightening because I'm afraid I'm going to blow my transmission. You have been unable to fix it. And so when my car fails out of warranty, I want you to be put on notice that you will fix it under warranty. And I think that'll get their attention.

They might even try a little harder to work with you. at that point. I would do that. I'm nervous that I'm driving down the highway. Will it all of a sudden stop on me? Rick might have an answer. I don't think that would happen. I think from what she's described as a peak in RPM,

what's the possibility of what it might be. That is possible because what she's describing almost sounds like the transmission is slipping out of gear internally. And that could cause a loss of power while you're driving. Suddenly it'd be like shifting into neutral. How often does this happen to you? Probably a couple of times a day. Judy, let's do this. Google this and see if you can get into some Hyundai-A-Lontra chat rooms and find out if this symptom has been reported by other folks. And chances of are it has. And that's going to give you some guidance as to where to go. My other thought

is this, and now that Rick has explained to us, that this could do what you fear, stop your car. And if you're on the turnpiker I-95 and your car stops, the power goes out entirely. That's a huge safety factor. Now that you've got a safety issue, I think you confront your Hyundai dealer with that. And confront Hyundai, go on their 800 number. Because once you say safety, to an auto manufacturer or a dealer with any common sense. It really gets their attention. It's one thing to have your car just have a problem. They've got to fix, and it costs them money.

But if you're injured or, God forbid, it costs somebody their lives. It could put them out of business. Oh, yeah. So wave that safety flag at Hyundai in writing. Do the same thing with your dealer. And I think you might be pleasantly surprised you'll get their attention. And, Judy, by the way, I did look it up online, and there's quite a few things on the Hyundai.

the allantra with some engine revving suddenly and spiking an RPM. So check it online. I think you might have some ammunition to take with you to the dealer. And Judy, call us back next week, would you? I'm very interested in this because I want to see Hyundai, the manufacturers, and the dealer's response to a safety problem. That is very critical that they give you full attention. They should give you a loaner car to drive.

One other thing, Judy, is if you can kind of pinpoint just when it's going to occur or with a pretty good idea when it's going to occur asked to take a technician out for a drive and you drive the car and do everything you can do to make it act up while he's in the car with you

because if you can get that to happen and he can see the problem occur you've got them at that point then they're pretty much required they've got to do something okay I will do that Will you call us next week, Judy?

Yes, I will. Thank you very much. That's a great if you did. That's a great idea, Rick. Give us a call next week, Judy. Thanks a lot. Thanks for your help. You're welcome.

I didn't mention Your Anonymous Feedback.com, but you can take advantage of that. YouranonymousFeedback.com, and you do remain anonymous, and you can send us whatever you would like, whatever's on your mind. We would appreciate it also to our listeners. Please vote on our mystery shopping report that's coming up. You can do that at 772-497-6530. And our mystery shopping report is from Treasure Coast Toyota. Now back to the recovering car dealer.

You know, we don't like mystery shopping toilet dealerships here at Earl Sturland Cars. As a toilet dealer myself, I'm very sensitive to the possible impression I can give by doing this. I risk looking like I'm bashing my competition if we give a Toyota dealership a bad grade. I also risk offending Toyota because the manufacturer, they're very adverse to public squabbles between Toyota dealers. They look at it as tarnishing the Toyota brand. So it's walking on eggshells when I talk about another Toyota dealer. But Toyota is a big factor in the market. They're the largest selling manufacturer.

Our toilets are number one in sales. And if we didn't talk about toilet dealers, it would be doing a disservice to you. And I hope when you do see our assessment of Toyota dealers in the market, we've done Toyota dealers in the past, you've seen that we have put other Toyota dealers on a recommended list. As a matter of fact, we put Treasure Coast Toyota on our recommendation. list a while back they dropped their dealer fee and we recommended them and then they put their dealer fee back on and I think later on we took them off but we try

to treat all dealers whether they're Toyota Hyundai Honda Chevy or a Cadillac you know we try to treat them all honestly and fairly and reminder when we have somebody on our recommended list that doesn't mean you don't beware when you go in there we use a curve we score on the curve and there are no dealers out there, including my own dealership, we found out earlier in the show. We can all make mistakes. And I can say, I mean, behind the scenes, when we're doing these things, you guys listening have no idea how giddy we get when we do a shopping report and they did a good job.

And like, it's really exciting to be able to put somebody on the recommended list, partly because it gives us more credibility. It doesn't look like we're just out there to, you know, assassinate dealers. But we did that Brayman Honda a couple weeks ago, recommended them. They did a very honest. And we try to reshop because if I had shopped my dealership and I'd gotten the salesman that Frank got, I would have put us on the do not recommend it, do not buy list. Because it sounded to me like, it sounded me like just had I not known, this was a rookie salesperson.

None of it. We wouldn't have done. We just wouldn't recommend us. It's all fair and balanced. So we go back and we shop again. And, by the way, we do mystery shop our own dealership. We do that all the time. The last two visits we paid to Treasure Coast. We showed us their improved version did last long,

and we put them back on the Do Not Recommend list. It's been exactly a year since we last investigated Treasure Coast Toyota and uncovered some shady sales practices. They caught our attention this week when we saw they launched an online buying process on their website. Now, online is really in vogue. It's a buzzword. It's a buzzword.

Everybody wants to be an Amazon kind of buyer, a seller, I should say. Amazon is just, it's huge. I mean, they've, it's become a generic term. Amazon buying. Great company. They've changed the world. Amazon has changed the world.

I mean, just think about it. You can buy anything you want on Amazon. We're just talking about it to show. Let me show you something that Rick Kearney bought on Amazon. This is a cough meter. And we got anonymous feedback last week because we're all coughing. Sound like a tuberculosis ward. You're the only one who's not coughing.

Exactly. Everybody was coughing. So Rick said, I know what I'm going to do. And we bought this on Amazon. So can we try it? Rick try it. Did you pay a dealer fee when you got that? I did not.

Yeah. Amazon does not have. So he just tried it. And I couldn't hear Rick, so it worked. Momentary push button, and it works great. Point being that everybody wants to be like Amazon, because you can buy anything, you can return it, anything you want, and they had no charge.

You usually get a pretty good price. You have to check even Amazon, though. And you get instant gratification because the darn thing comes to you in a couple of days. And then if you don't like it, you send it back. I ordered something the other day It didn't fit Put it back in the box Put it on front of my front door

UPS came by Took it back And I got to credit the next day On my visa card You know what I love I love that you can subscribe To a product that you use all the time And you don't have to think about it

Toothpaste Yeah You get it like every three months Or however Wouldn't it be cool if you do that with cars Yeah I want to drive for four years And have a new one show up

In my driveway every four years Anyway This is what Treasure It goes Is going to do We mystery shop Treasure Coast Toyota in Stewart, Florida. And we went through their online buying. Treasure Coast calls their online buying process online shopper. And it's powered by one of the many companies that offered to build an online buying tool within dealer websites.

We used this same company at one time, and a lot of dealers use this, and they're right on top of the whole online thing. The car makers are really pushing this with the dealers. Exactly. You've got to get on the car wagon. And before I get into this mystery shopping report, too much, you should know that the car dealers don't like online buying. They really don't want to sell your car online. They don't want to sell you a car where you don't have to go into the dealership.

They don't have control. They do not want to give you the price, the car, the out-the-door price. Amazon does all these things. car dealers hate it hate it yeah and i don't know of any car dealer that doesn't except i can i just jump in real quick because we i experienced the um the pitch from several of these companies yeah now we do something in full disclosure we have an online buying process and i'm very proud of but we were approached by multiple companies um that offer these tools so supposedly you can do it they call it um online retailing so you can actually do the transaction and most of the pitches that

we got from these companies, basically said, hey, it's still about getting them into the dealership. It's a great lead generating tool. In other words, we capture their information. We send it to you at the dealership. You contact them and go back to the old way of doing things. Exactly. Basically, it's a camouflaged lead provider is what it is. If an online buying service, and the dealers don't do this themselves, by the way,

dealers don't have software engineers. They can't create anything. They go buy it. The companies that sell this online procedure, they are in cahoots with the dealers because the dealer is their customer. So they have to tell the dealer what he wants to hear. What the dealer wants to hear is, I need to get him in the door. I need to talk to them. I need eye contact.

I need control. So online buying service is phony just by definition. And if a dealer really wants to do it, he's going to have to kind of almost do it. himself. Okay, where are we? We were interested to find out that this was more of the same nonsense of get him in the door as I just described to you. So we sent in Agent Thunder. We called the Thunder. Agent Thunder is doing a great job. Agent X is in the Midwest now in Kansas. Freezing his mittens off. Yes, he is. And Agent Thunder has really stepped into his shoes and they have different things, but Agent Thunder is

doing a magnificent job, really happy with Agent Thunder. Here's our report, speaking as if I were Thunder. I went online and visited Treasure Coast, Toyota of Stewart.com. You can do the same thing if you want to kind of go after us. Yeah, play along, you know, do it in real time. Yeah, Treasure Coast, Toyota,ofstorid.com. And selected a new 2019 Toyota Corolla SE, White, listed for sale in their inventory. On the listing, it showed the MSRP was 22,000.

$538 and they displayed a discounted price of $18,954. That's a $3,584 discount. It looked like there were two other ways to get yet another price and it was a button that read, get our wow price instantly. Get our wow price instantly. And another labeled Explore Payment option, online shopper. Now you're you're coming into the web. you're coming into their web all right now listen carefully i clicked the button that was asked to provide my personal information and then i was asked a series of questions like whether i was a recent graduate or active duty military and how i thought my credit rating was okay i clicked the button was okay eventually i was taken to a screen that appeared to show my deal i saw the msrp and the sale

price was 18,9.54, but the fees and taxes were lumped together in a line labeled estimated taxes and fees, $2,272.50. Now, what this does is it takes profit to the dealer and commingles it with sales tax. This is one of the most atrocious, egregious, horrible, sneaky things that anybody can do. They take the profit that they add to their car, known as a dealer fee, doc fee, tag agency fee, profit.

It's profit, right. And they put it in, and they mix it in the soup with the sales tax. And so you kind of forget about it. And they call it estimated taxes and fees. The fees are profit. Part of the fees are profit. Now,

later on they do break it down, but the thing is, so the way their online shopper works, each screen is separate. You can stop it at any point. And they know this, that people will drop out of this little process. So if you only get to that point, you've already given them your information. So they're calling you now. So now there's no breakdown.

So if you stop before you keep going through the screens, you'll never know what the dealer fee is until you get there. This is carefully thought out that a lot of great minds got into a room when this was designed. And this particular software company designed this to attract the dealer's attention, not the customer's attention. They didn't have a room full of customers and saying, what would you like to see how to buy a car the best way? They had a room full of dealers, and they carefully explored this. And this is a web that has spent a lot

of time and money designing. There was a little widget I could use to adjust my desired term for my loan in the amount of money. Remember, I chose instead of the lowest price, I chose the best payment, the payment I wanted. a little widget that I could use to change the amount of the payment. And I said I wanted under $200 a month. So I played with a down payment until my payment was $197. And that meant I was going to have to put $9,700 down. And if I put $9,700 down, then I was going to get a payment of $197.

And I kind of looked at the numbers. They were using a legitimate Southeast Toyota Finance rate, and that's what the payment would be if there's no monkey business. Yeah. So I continued. I click continue, and I come deeper into the web, I dove. I was taken to a screen with a more detailed breakdown. The dark web. The dark web. Here I could see the interest rate to it is special, 9 tenths of a percent for 60 months, 0.9%.

Wow, that's pretty darn good. The fees were itemized on the page. Here we go. They did itemize the fees. Eventually. And they have to, legally, they have to do this. And it almost sounds like, well, isn't this refreshing? Well, it's not refreshing because it's a web that everybody doesn't study the way we did.

And that's what we're doing. And no one has felt refreshed when they see a dealer fee. No. You feel some, you feel dirty. Dealer fee, $8.98.50, electronic filing fee, $89.95. And the electronic filing fee is a dealer fee. And so you're looking at over $1,000. And that's what it is.

profit that's profit okay the next screen we go deeper into the web the dark web our next screen prompted me to set an appointment so i did for 12 30 p.m. that day five minutes after i finish bam i received a call from Andrea she was calling to confirm my appointment she emphasized that i was to ask for her when i arrived she then sent me a text thanking me and reminding me to ask for her that's because she gets her commission i asked for me you know we'd going to be going to another salesperson. They call that getting skated. Getting skated, yeah.

I arrived on time and found Andrea. She asked me to have a seat, a little metal desk, and began to ask me qualifying questions about whether I had a trade, how I wanted to pay for my new car, et cetera. I stopped her. I told her, I'd done all that online. And she said it was her standard intake process,

and she had to get all this information from me. So Andre has been very... I'm saying eh. Yeah, Andre has been brainwashed, and she's been told, and she's been ordered, this is what she has to do. If she doesn't do this, Andrea could lose her job. This is the process. The sales manager will say the show starts when they get there.

So everything that happened before that, throw that in the garbage can. It's a show starts when the customer comes. So you understand through the online process, if you went through all the steps, which nobody would do except us, because we know, how to play the game. We went through everything. We got the price and the payment. We got the deal we wanted, but we're starting all over now. And Andrea will have it no other way. She continued to ask her what model I was interested in. I laughed. And I said, I spent 15 minutes answering all the online questions, and you're asking me the same question. I told her I wanted to buy a new 2019 Toyota Corolla SV. I want to finance it, and I want my payment. And I want my

payments to be $200 or less. I had a considerable amount of cash to put down. I told her I played around with the online shopping mechanism. I saw I could get a payment of $197 for 60 months with $9,700 down. I've already done all that. You've got a copy

of that right in front of you, on your screen. Yes. She said she would check to see if it was available. And I tried to continue her, and then tried to continue her questions. I interrupted again. I asked what she meant when she said she checked to see if it was available.

I thought I was halfway through an online buying process. She said all the vehicles are subject to power sale. I asked her to check. Andre left returned, and the white one was not available. She suggested a dark gray one that was very close at price. Okay. Now, at this point, I should have said, locate one of another car dealership. If not, order me one from Toyota.

Let's not play the game of different colors, different equipment. I want the car that I bought online. So stick to your gun shoppers. When they try to switch you, never, ever be switched to a different vehicle. It's never a life or death situation. You can wait a few days. Exactly. When she was done, she asked me if I would take the car today if the price was right.

I laughed again. And I said, I thought I'd already had the price and pointed out that I haven't even seen the car yet. Andrea said she needed this information so she could know if I was committed by her. Old school, folks, old school, sales manager, be sure they're committed. I don't care. Get their watch. Is he wearing a watch? Bring me his watch.

I want him to be committed. Literally, that is old school. And you do that. That has happened many times. And I told her, I can't guarantee that I'm committed to any deal with any dealer until I have the details made clear. me. Andrea homed in on my any dealer and commented and asked where else I'd shopped. I told her I'd gotten numbers from another toilet dealer who didn't charge a dealer fee. She knew exactly who I was referring to. She said that this dealership claims to not charge any dealer fees,

but you know they have to make their money somehow, so you're paying it. I made a note on this shopping report to go to Google Logic and find out. what they call that. This is a logical fallacy. What logical fallacy? Right. Yeah. I asked if we could see the car and she took my driver's license left to get the keys.

She returned and we headed outside. Test drives it quick, unremarkable. When we returned, Andrea tried another trial clothes. Asked how I liked it. I was ready to take it home. I said maybe. We sat down at the desk gig and this time I was aware there was a group of male managers sitting in a tower. The tower, and the reason I juggle is classic old school.

It's a control symbol, and it represents total control. Can you imagine walking in to Publix, and they've got a guy up in the tower, and he's watching you when you go over to the Brett Isle, and now you're going over to Milk Isle, and somebody's following you around. Rick? I have a picture in my head of the old Disney movie where it's a tree with the three vultures sitting up in it, staring down at it. It's a jungle book.

Exactly. Yep. Hey, I got to lay down in milk aisle. So that's a tower. You see a tower in a car dealership? That is old school. Andre excused herself to get a manager to review the numbers with me. Nick took Andreous place behind the desk and asked me how I like the car.

Okay, here we go. The T.O. I said it was very nice. He asked me if I was really putting down $10,000. I said I was putting down $9,700. I said I should be under $200. with that. Nick scroached up his face, tapped his forward with his pen, and he said he could get close. He hopped up and jogged back to the tower. I like the visual image. I mean,

you know, he jogged back there. You did climb the tower. He returned a minute later with a worksheet that had various payments and down payments on it. I mean, control, unbelievable. Now, if you just tuned in, this is Treasure Coast, Toyota, and Stewart, Florida. We've already been through the online buying process, we've gotten the exact numbers, we've gotten the payment, we've gotten the down payment, a discount, we've done everything, the car, we've got it all, but they are still reverting back as if I just walked in the door. So now the dealer, the manager comes in, he says the best you can do with $9,700 down is $244 for 16 months. Well, they just quoted me $197. And just so you know I did the math that represent

almost $3,000 an extra profit. Yeah. Bumped them $3,000. I chuckled and told him that wasn't exactly what I was hoping to see, reminded him that I had already worked out my payment. He keeps going back to this and they don't care. Online shopper. Nick went on to explain that the unit I had worked, my deal online, was a base model.

And that wasn't true. No. It was not a base model. Base model is a strip car with no accessories, no options, just factory installed, nothing else. And that wasn't the case here. So that's lie number 20, I think we have so far. He said all the online models were like that, and that isn't true either.

The small print clearly points out that there are extra fees and deal out of the equipment. That is true. It sounded to me like Nick has had this conversation many times. Nick has. And he is a pro. He's a, Andre is a pro, and Nick's a pro. I say this. a car dealer listening to this,

they say, I'd like to hire those two because they really know their stuff. They know the language, they have the courage, and they have a dealer that has a dealer, they have a customer that has them dead to rights with an out-the-door online price, and they don't blink. Nick went on to explain that the unit

and I had worked on my deal when I did that. I asked him if the online shopper was just something to get me in. Nick said it was a tool to help save time by helping customers, select a car and play with payments. I said, I didn't think it worked out like that for me. Andrea interjected to remind Nick that I had gotten a piece of paper from Merrill Stewart,

price of Toyota and North Palm Beach, without missing a beat. Nick asked me what I would think if he could do my deal at the online price and give me a $197 payment I had come in on. See how you help customers get better deals? Exactly. I said I thought that would, I said I thought I would, take the deal. So I told him he sold me a car. Nick thrust out his hand and shook it and I made an excuse and I told him I'd be back and that kind of wraps up the report. So I guess this goes to

show you that you have to get competitive bids. Online shopping doesn't work. The prices that you get online don't work. You have to go into the dealership. When you go in dealership, they're going to throw the online price out and they're going to go back to old school they raise the price three thousand dollars to our shopper over the price that he already had he had it and he knew that you knew that the treasure coast knew that he had it and they still tried to pump on three thousand how did he get a good price he had a competitive price from another toilet dealer and when that had when they had that he says i will sell the car right so whether you use my dealership or another toy dealership or if you're shopping for hondas get competitive prices from at least three

dealerships true car is a great source of an online price Costco is a great source of a of a good price yeah have have that arm of that information even if you haven't found another dealer tell him you went to another deal tell him you yeah uh and come up with something in a way of a reasonable price uh you're not going to make the dealer believe you can buy the car for 5,000 to blow his net cost. So if you have the best price of three dealers, they will usually match it or beat it. And you just want to be sure when they fill out all the forms that it's still the same price that you agree to. The handshake price is one price. The price that you sign is another price. And when they add stuff, be sure there is not sales tax charged on it. Government fees

do not have sales tax adjusted to it. Let's give a Treasure Coast Toyota score. Okay. Well, we have five grades that came in online. They're not good. John gives them an F. Connie gives them an F. Kathy, you're too kind, a D-minus. Eduardo F and Linda on Facebook gives them an F.

Well, who wants to go first? Well, okay, go ahead, Rick. Ladies first. Thank you. All these attitudes seem to be, well, shall we say the 20th century. And I'm still appalled. with mystery shops like this, it goes on, ladies and gentlemen. And we're here to try to eliminate, you know, bad dealers one at a time.

I'm going to give the online shopper NF. I'm going to give the Tower NF. I'm going to give Nick and Andrea NF. And this online shopper, I'll call it, seems familiar. in the doctor's office, you're sitting at home, they ask you to fill out all this information. It probably takes you two hours, and you feel that when you walk into the doctor's office, you won't even have to do that. And there you sit, and they ask you the same identical questions all over again.

So, but F all the way around. F, they just failed. Yeah, we have to fail them. I will be texting our webmaster. to put them back on the Do Not Recommend list. Wait, wait a minute, I'm sorry. They're currently on the Do Not Recommend list. Yeah, I always feel bad when I put a toilet dealer on the Do Not Recommend list

because it sounds disingenuous. We will give them a chance to get back because we will shop them again. And now that they have the online buying source, it'll be easy for us to do. Because if you're going to put a price online that you'll sell the car for, honor it, then you have to honor it. I mean, that is just a no-brainer. If they want to go back on the recommended list, all it's going to take is one visit

of them honoring that online price, and then we're going to say, hey, on the Treasure Coast, do you want a Toyota? Treasure Coast Toyota's store. And if you live in that area and you want to buy a car from Treasure Coast, use the online. It takes some patience and some study, and as too alluded to,

it's difficult because as you go from window to window, you can't get back. But use that. Use that. and be sure they stick to the price. I think we're out of time. We are. That's the music.

Okay. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us this morning. We do appreciate you. We'll be right back here next Saturday. So tune in at 8 a.m. Have a great weekend. Fettomte. Duhl.

Thank you.