Earl Stewart on Cars - 02.26.2022 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Wallace Chrysler Dodge Jeep

Episode Date: February 26, 2022

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Nissan dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2022 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Edition. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. Well, I feel like it's Freedom Day. We took our mask off. For you folks that are streaming us, we took our mask. We did that once before, and then the pandemic thing came back again, and now hopefully it's retreated, hopefully for a long, long, long time, hopefully forever.

You have no idea sitting two hours in the studio with these masks on, and of course you can't understand us, and we can't understand each other, and we're, it's just uncomfortable. You know what I'm talking about. You've been through it and done it. So keep your fingers crossed that these masks stay off, and thank you very much for being listeners

and watchers of Earl on Cars. You heard our recorded introduction, and we're all here, all president accounted for. Nancy Day, just took a little brief vacation. We were all gone for less than a week, but it seems

like we've been gone. I mean, we were gone. We were in Miami Beach, but we didn't miss the radio show. So we decided we would definitely get back and do the show. We love the show. You regulars know that. You knew folks out there. It's just a big party. We love what we do. We love our opportunity to help you understand

how you can buy or lease a car more comfortably, how you can repair or maintain your car without the aggravation. Of all the retail items in the world, of everything you buy from a loaf of bread to a house, to a TV set, everything you buy out there, there's nothing that is more aggravating and embedded in our whatever kind of culture set the auto retail dealership system up about 100 years ago. But it has evolved into a nightmarish experience for the majority of the people that buy vehicles and a lease or repair or maintain. And we'll talk about why that is. And I don't have to tell you because 99% of you have been out there and you bought

cars. And most of you would probably say, and we would love to hear from you if you disagree or agree, most of you would probably say, every time I buy a new use car, it's a hassle. It's not enjoyable. It's enjoyable when I buy the car. and I got my car home in the driveway, but the process certainly wasn't enjoyable. And a lot of people enjoy shopping. I know a lot of people.

I do. I love to go to Publix and shop. I love to go to department stores. Actually, I should say I love to work on Amazon. I love to buy cars. I love to buy things. But cars are a different story. Cars, you need it, you love them, but you have to go into that car dealership or deal online

with a car dealer. stay tuned and we'll help you I promise and we have a good time I have a better time with our masks off and you can see us our beautiful faces and uh are I handsome yeah uh Brett Kearney sitting to by right he's handsome too and we're all handsome uh Rick is our certified diagnostic master technician I know there's just about everything there is to know about vehicles and it's not easy today I mean The technology is changing so fast, I don't know how he does it. I mean, every time a new line of car come down, trucks and the rest of it, every time, half the time when I'm looking for Rick, and we have a dealership, by the way, if you're new, we own an operator dealership in North Palm Beach, Florida, and been there for pretty close to 50 years, 47, I think, to be exact.

But every time I'm looking for Rick around the dealership, he's in school, and he's being trained. And a lot of this is online now. And every new evolution of car requires retraining. Now we're going through a watershed moment in technology with computerization and electric and autonomous mind-boggling. I mean, are they going to get you, you probably have to have a PhD one day. No, at this point, my career is starting to wind down. If you get a PhD, I'm not, I'm just training all the new kids going along. I'm not going to call you, Dr. Kearney.

I will not call you, Dr. Kearney. Thank you, Dr. Randall. But for you listeners and watchers that we're streaming to, if you have a little issue with your car, give Rick a call, text him. Now, let me give those numbers out. We have to give them out because people tune in and tune out and you hear the number 25 times. You say, please, spare me. But when you're listening, there's somebody who's tuned in for 15 minutes. That's about the average listening span.

So, 877-960-99-60. A lot of folks out there have never heard the show before. Don't have the number written down, much less memorized. So if you want to write it down here, it comes again. 877-960-9960 and we prioritize our telephone calls because we have a limited switchboard I think four or five lines and we don't want to keep you holding and so Nancy Stewart my co-hosts my wife co-founder of the show sitting to my left here she's got a computer screen right on her face and when your call comes through she sees it and she slaps me in the face and say we have a

caller and we'll put you ahead of the text, put you ahead of the anonymous feedbacks, and the Facebooks. We put callers ahead of everybody. So 877-9609960. But we know, based on your time limitations, you might prefer to text us, 772-4976530, 772-7-6530. 772, 4976530. By the way, we're exploring a simpler number for texting. Our text have petered out a little bit.

We're not getting as many texts as we used to, but we're going to try to make the text number simpler to remember. But right now, it's 772-4976530. Our most popular area of communication, strange as it may seem, is our anonymous feedback line. And again, if you're new to the show, this is something I don't know anyone that uses in this manner. I mean, a live radio or television or anything else,

you can contact us anonymously at Your AnonymousFeedback.com. Y-O-U-R-A-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S feedback.com. YouranonymousFeedback.com. Don't you wish politicians had that you could talk to him. Wouldn't you love to be able to talk to our federal and state and our local politicians and government people anonymously? I think it would humble them a little bit, don't you think? Just tell somebody and you know you're indemnified against prosecution or persecution. You could just say anything

you want. So say anything you want to Nancy, Stu, Rick, or me, Earl, your anonymous feedback. And, of course, if you're a Facebook person, we have calls. And she just alerted me, our first caller. Okay, we do. We have callers. And I want to mention www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Take advantage of that.

We'd love to hear from you. I'm going to take a moment before I introduce our callers. Mark, thank you for holding. John, thank you for holding. I just want to take a moment for the ladies. I want to let the ladies know that women represent a huge. opportunity for the auto industry and not everyone has got that memo in the 21st century but we are here to support and build a platform and I thank each and every one of you

ladies for helping me do that and it certainly has been a long journey there's a lot of good stuff going on out there for us ladies and things have come a long way so this morning I I want to offer two new lady callers, $50, $50 for giving us a call and just saying hello or share with us, you know, maybe a problem that you might have had or a purchase that you attempted to have, 877-960, that's 877-960, and don't forget that text number. you can take advantage of that. And the first caller is Mark, and he's calling us from St. Paul, Minnesota.

Good morning, Mark. Hi, good morning. Thank you for calling. What can we do for you? Well, I was hoping you could give me some advice. I'm in an awful predicament. Okay. I leased a car in March of 2019,

It was a three-year lease, and so the lease is up here in about a little over two weeks. Now, I have taken very good care of the car, and I had planned on purchasing it. I had a 10,000 mile a year, a lease, so I could have had 30,000 miles on this at the end of the lease, but I've only put barely 11,000 miles on it, and it's almost like new. Wow. So I was in a car accident on November 30th, and it wasn't a major crash, but it's mostly on the right front of the car, the hood and the right front fender. So here's my situation.

I had figured that it was going to be done here. You know, in just a matter of weeks, I got a 30-A rental car coverage for my insurance company. They've got every, I took it to an independent body shop, and they've got every part they need except for the hood. And they have told me that they have no. idea when a hood is going to come in. So I'm kind of sitting here not knowing really what I'm going to do. I, you know, like I said, I had wanted to purchase the vehicle and it's sitting in a body

shop all taken apart. Oh, my goodness. And have you spoken with the insurance company about extending the rental coverage? No, I didn't know that was an option. I thought they had just told me that it's a 30-day, it's only a 30-day option. And, you know, like I said, I don't know how long it's going to be. I talked to my claims adjuster yesterday who said he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. They're supposed to find a new part if you're leasing a car.

Mark, let me, excuse me, for interrupting, but this is Earl. Did your insurance company direct you to this body shop? Usually they have to, you're required to go to their approved shops. So did your insurance company direct you to this one that can't get a hood for you? No, they didn't. I just was recommended this by a fellow worker of mine that, you know, he had told me that they do great work and they're very dependable. And I'm not blaming the body shop. It's just the fact with the supply chain problems right now.

Exactly. What type of car do you have, Mark? I've got a 2019 Mazda, CX5. Yeah, I would say this. You just need to light a fire under the insurance company and the body shop. You have a lot of options on hoods. And for a 2019 Mazda, I can't imagine there's a shortage of supply of, hoods I would think that we have shortages but I think so much is dragging their

feet this is just my gut feeling and we could do a little research for you for you on that but there's a vast network of used parts companies in the United States and if you if you went online to Google a hood for a 2019 model of that make I I think they would be available. All I can say is my acclaims adjuster who had said he's been in the business for 20 years, and he called me back yesterday, and he says he cannot find a used one in the United States right now. Yeah. Well, it's possible.

You certainly have a legal right, in my opinion, to an extension on the rental. You've been in better shape if the insurance company had approved the body shop, but the fact that you chose it might give them an argument. Let me give you something to think about, you're about ready to inherit a product. You're going to buy that car far below the market, and the market value of that car is thousands of dollars more than what your option to purchase that car is for. So while you're worried about the rental and you're worried about the rental, when you're going to get your car back, the value of that car has appreciated enormously. So that's a little nice thought to think about.

And I know that you still want to buy the car and you don't want to have to buy the rental bill. But I suggest that you talk to your insurance company firmly, talk to the body shop even firmly. And then if you don't get any kind of empathy or consideration, call a lawyer. I think you've got a, I think you've got a, a very good case

you're being caused a problem with your insurance company you paid premiums to absolve you if you shouldn't have to have that problem you paid for it and you're entitled to that rental car so

that's all I can suggest that you do can I ask you one more question please yeah I'm just as far as turning it back into the finance company here's my problem I had talked to a person who really wasn't from their she was more of like a Lisa and consultant that you just called to get what the

purchase prices and the address etc I'm just wondering what are the rules about about, if I just choose to a turn it back in, in the condition that it's in, am I able to do that? Mark, you listen to me carefully. You could buy that car today for the purchase option price. You're aware in your lease contract, you can buy that car. Okay, the amount, do you happen to recall the amount of the purchase option? Well, I can say I know it's considerably less

than what they're... Okay, you could what they're going to... Yeah, you're not going to turn that car in, you're going to buy it, and if you bought it without the hood, you're still way ahead of the game.

So, you know, you've got to have a hood on the car, clearly, but I'm saying that your financial situation is good. You just need to push to get that hood. I got a feeling, if you will give us a specific information on that Mazda. We know it's a 2019, but we don't know the model. Give us the details of the color and the model, and we'll do some searching for you.

And if you give us your contact information, we'll try to get back to you. But I'm a little surprised. I know this guy tells you he's got 20 years, and there's not a hood available anywhere in the United States. I just, I have a feeling that that's not correct, but we'll see. Okay. And thank you, Mark. If you give the man in our control room, your contact. At least the young lady.

Yeah, okay. The young lady in the control room, your contact information, don't hang up, and then we will contact you back. Can you give me the model of your Mazda so we can start looking? Yes, it's the Mazda CX5. CX5. Okay. Yeah. And what color is it?

It's midnight blue. Okay. Very good. All right. We'll get to work on that, Mark, and you will hear from us. Give us the contact, everybody. What year is that, Mazda? 2019.

2019. Okay. Okay. Thanks, Mark. Yeah, thank you for the call, Mark. We really appreciate it. And it just makes our day, makes our show, to be able to help callers like you. Thank you.

Stay in touch. And do give Elise your information. Okay, we are going to go to John, and John's a regular caller from Palm City. Good morning to everyone. Good morning. We haven't discussed recently recalls. Well, it's a very serious problem. We didn't do any dealer shopping with cars that have manufacturers recoil on it.

Very serious problem. So many cars that are still running around and people didn't do anything about it, even if they got the notices. What I want to ask, either for Rick or for Earl, if, for instance, a Honda dealer takes in a use Honda on a trade-in, does he obligated for the manufacturer to do that recall before he puts that car on his lot and sells it? No. No. Well, he's supposed to, but he doesn't have to. There's no requirement. There should be.

But manufacturers don't have laws. They have rules. rules and in their certified vehicle program they'll say you can't call the vehicle certify you can't certify it if it has an open recall um but in our experience in all the years of like doing the investigations for recalls uh it was very rare when we found uh recalls that were fixed okay that answers the question uh i spoke to a couple in the restaurant their daughter bought a used honda in rolling north carolina that jay said it just came in on a trade in and you know used cars that are good, they show one, two, three, and then they found out later that there

was a recall on it, but naturally the dealer said, oh, we'll be glad to take care of it for you, so they were kind of angry that it wasn't done before they took delivery on it. John, I'll give you a sad fact of car dealer-manufacturer relations. Manufacturers are very hesitant for recalls to be performed. They only push to have recalls performed when a fires lit under them, like by the NHTSA, when the government comes after them. But typically, we've been disciplined. We've been warned by Toyota when we got too aggressive on doing recalls. When we go out and solicit.

They call it solicitation. Why? Because we make money when we perform a recourse. recall and Rick Gurney makes money when he works on a car, a dealer makes money, we make money and profit. Generally speaking, they're okay with getting recalls, not warranty though. Yeah, we're allowed to solicit for recall. Yeah, we're allowed to, depending on how we solicit it.

I mean, it's not a lot of dealers are doing this, and rightfully speaking, some dealers do it to get people in so they can sell them a service, not recall service. So anytime a manufacturer has to pay money out, they have rules, and the rules they enforce are the ones typically that cost them money. So Honda is not out of line. All manufacturers do the same thing. Well, speaking of fires, the latest recall, which is very, very serious, was just announced, but the letters are not going out until March 31st on Hyundai and Kia's.

485,000 cars are effective, different models from 2014 to 2019, and right on their website, it's a warning. Do not park the recall car inside. Make sure it's parked outside. What is the problem? Fire, even when the engine is turned off. What causes the fire? Rick probably knows more technicality than anything. It's contamination in the anti-lock brake module.

And even when the car is shut off, it's shorted, and it sets the car on fire. Now, it's a simple recall. It may require only a fuse, but people are not aware of it because it was just announced. And it's on their website, and it's as many as 485,000 cars from different models. Very serious. And then the letter is only going out at the end of March. So it's so important that people check, go into by their serial number, and find out about these things, because they're talking.

talking specifically, do not park your car inside, park it outside until a recall is done. Yeah, too bad those letters didn't go out sooner. I agree with you. Can be, they're a silent killer, because that sort of thing can happen in an instant, and even with the car parked and sitting totally shut off. But Rick, have you ever heard of something like this in a contamination in a modular, and an anti-lock brake system and electrical short sets it on fire?

Could you ever hear of anything like that in the past? Not that one specifically, but I've heard of a lot of systems that have electronic shorts that can occur. You know, Kea and Hyundai, for a while now, they've had some issues with electrical problems on their cars, you know, catching fire while they're driving down the road. And somebody really needs to look into

who's designing their electronics, and maybe get a few new designers in there. Well, I just want the public to be aware of this latest serious problem that can go on fire even when the engine is off, and it's as many as 485,000 Hyundai and keys involved. John, you said the notifications aren't going out until next month sometime? Yes, March 31st, they're starting to send them out. This gives us something to look into.

in the future of some mystery shops and once it gets gone we'll make sure that we'll find out which dealers are fixing them and which ones are not okay all right public beware thanks thanks John thanks John you're always so helpful and you can

you can hear where this just led with what Stu pointed out which is very important I have a new purpose yes yes I have inspiration thank you John thanks too ladies and gentlemen I want to let you know that And, you know, we cover so much information in this two hours, and it's very difficult for everyone to absorb everything out there.

And I just want to let you know that you can listen to podcasts of all our past radio shows. And isn't that great? And if you have time and you're looking for a certain segment of each Saturday show, go there. And when I say go there, you can just click on the Apple Podcasts. app and go from there. So I thought I'd share that with you and remind you this morning. Also, what's very, very important is a website that Earl spoke about in his column a month ago or so.

And that's www. Florida Law Protectingcarbuyers.com. That too is very important for you to jot down. Maybe you could put that in your, you know, the book that you purchased, that Earl wrote. I'll take advantage of that moment, and that is the book. I see Earl's holding it, and that's Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer. And it's definitely an investment, and he does have the new book coming up soon. We'll definitely let you know when that is released. But for now, Confessions of a recovering car dealer, jot down WWW, Florida Protecting Car Buyer.

dot com inside that book all proceeds go to big dog ranch big dog and little dog you sound more like a dog than my dog sounds like a dog my dog sounds like a four-year-old child human child you should hear my dog when she starts eating a piece of spaghetti yelled up okay folks we have to move along here thank you Rick for the entertainment Hey, 77-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30, and we're going to go back to the recovering car dealer. Before we get too far along on the show, I googled the hood of a 2019 Mazda CX-5,

and there are multiple 2019 hoods available prices range from 38999 up to 228. years one for 322 so if Mark if you're still listening we'll still get the information for you and call you but if you Google I just I just Googled Moster 2019 CX5 hood and there's a whole bunch of hoods available so you can tell your adjuster the guy in the body shop with 20 years experience who can't find one anywhere in the United States that he I try Google try Google yes and not you might have been looking like just driving around, like looking at his window. Actually, this show is really obsolete because with Google you don't need us.

Every answer that man can think of or woman. They need us. Maybe not women, but all women and men can think of is on Google. You need us to tell you how to find it on Google. That's exactly right. So this will be Earl Stewart on Google from now on. Interesting. Ladies and gentlemen, we can't thank you enough for joining us every Saturday morning.

You're a big part of the show, a very important part of the show. Give us a call toll-free at 877-9-60-9-960. And don't forget, ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. First two new lady callers. Call to say hi. 877-9-60-99-60. and you can also take advantage of www.W.W. Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

Now back to the recovering car dealer. Well, I think we should get some marketer text or anonymous feedbacks. I know we have several, so Stu's got a list. Yep. We always kick it off with Amory. Amory says, good morning. Pretty soon it will be time for spring cleaning. Oh, geez. Yeah, don't think about it.

Just don't think about it. Stuff accumulates in garages in spite of our best efforts. In case there are items of indeterminate age lurking on our shelves, what do you recommend for the following? And I read, she's a list of things, basically wants to know the shelf life of these things, and I don't know any of them. But I did do some Googling, but Rick, Rick, well, Rick has to chime in. Number one, does motor oil have an expiration date? No. Okay.

So the second part, if it's past its prime, okay, forget about it. Does windshield wiper fluid have an expiration date? Some actually does. some of it can actually start to turn a little moldy in there so I'd be careful about that I looked at it said generally speaking things that are sealed up like things like that around five years is what they're saying but it's not indefinite does liquid car wash expire

same rule of thumb if it's sealed up maybe five years yeah yeah what about whiskey gets better with age unless you open it like I do and then it gets cloud then it just gets empty all right leather cleaner same things It's probably, you know, shelf life five-ish years. Yep. The stuff that shines the tires, the tire dressing, same situation.

By the way, those cleaner chemicals also, that time may get lessened, depending on the climate of where it's stored. Yeah. If it's in your garage where it gets hotter than all get out during the day, it could break down. That's going to shorten our lifespan quite a bit. That's a good point. Generally speaking, you know, and there's also new products that come out. So, you know, throw that old stuff away. So if your windshield wiper fluid has expired, you can use your whisker.

because it never expires. Right. You just don't want to drive by a cop. Whiskey on a windshield? Yeah. Earl, I've seen the whiskey that you buy. Sacrilegious. No.

No. I will buy you all the windshield washer fluids you need. I think Listerine would probably be a better choice. That'd be better and safer. You don't want to smell like a whiskey bottle. There's as much alcohol in the Listerine as there is in the gym. Yeah. It'll clean out the windshield pretty good.

All right. Last part of the question is, very interesting, and I'm going to try and make sense of this. Is there any place that can take headlights or taillights that were never used? And I'm thinking, is that from someone who never drove at night? Maybe they... Maybe they bought some for a car and just never got around to use it. Is there any place that can take headlights or taillights that were never used?

Any way to recycle stuff like that? Well, I'll answer the way I can't. There are auto part recycling, a huge business, or I'll mention. That's how he found the used hoods for the Mazda. So for cars that are wrecked and cars that have reached them to their life, yeah, those headlights and taillights make their way into the auto parts trade. First two that popped to mind for me, your eBay or offer up. Yeah.

That might be a good selling point. If you could sell these are never used headlights, you might be able to sell them for a pretty penny. I went through two or three years restoring our 1930s. Pontiac that was the first car that my father sold back in 1937 and we bought it back from the original owner and when we decided to make it nice we wanted to restore it but we didn't want to use genuine OEM Pontiac parts and it took up two or three years a harbor auto restoration in mid state Florida did it but it impressed me so much that you could take a 1937 Pontiac

and find every little part somewhere. It just takes some time. Now, some of them cost a lot of money. And it takes a little time to find them. And it took a long time to find them. But if you really want something, so when Mark called earlier, he said that there was a hood that was nowhere available in the United States,

I figured if you could find a hood for a 37 Pontiac, you could find a hood for a 2019 Mazda. And sure enough, there was. Okay. Pontiac's a better car, though. True. That's kidding. We have a caller.

At any rate, I'm going to set this up before we do take the call. Denise, who's on hold right now, called us last week. And, well, she sent me an email late last night just updating me and reminding us of the phone call last week. And it was regarding her seven-month-old 22 Volkswagen Tail and the replacement of a defective engine. harness and her car rental expense. The email that she sent me was just a recap, and she says that since February 14th, I have attempted to speak to someone at Volkswagen who could assist me with obtaining a full reimbursement of the Hertz rental car, the cost of it.

The amount of the rental car is $524.46. sense. After leaving many messages and speaking with people who would not help me, I was directed to Sarah. After a few emails, she offered me the following. Either they would pay a portion of my monthly car payment. I paid it in full for my car in July, or give me $300 gift card. She made it clear that Volkswagen is not responsible, not responsible. for my rental fees that the dealership has the discretion of offering a loaner or paying for the rental okay that's the update I really don't need to go into much more information at this point I'd like to introduce Denise good

morning Denise good morning Nancy thank you for taking my call you're welcome thank you for calling okay you can have the floor and explain to us what's going on at this point? Well, I was lucky enough to get my car back on Monday. Sadly, I was back at Volkswagen Friday when one of the lights on my dash went off, so I went into a panic. Turns out it was just a check oil, but still, it may be concerned. I'm arguing to no avail with Volkswagen.

Everyone's throwing their hands up and saying, well, it's not my responsibility, but my stance is it's a brand new car. and through no fault of my own, a major component was defective and needed to be replaced. I was 14 days without a car, and I don't believe I'm asking for too much for the reimbursement for the car rental. Denise, I did forward you that cell phone number for Mr. Wallace. Were you successful? No, not at all. I called many times, and I continuously get an automated message.

saying they're not accepting calls at that number. So I've hit yet another dead end. And to be honest, I'm not looking to do anything but be treated fairly unjust. And I believe as a single mom, as a widow, I didn't have the support of a man coming with me to negotiate the car, to negotiate anything. And unfortunately, I'm led to believe that that's maybe a part of it. And indeed, I think at this point, you probably should hire an attorney.

To me, you have a slam dunk, no-brainer case. I can't imagine. As I recall, your Volkswagen is under warranty. You have an issue where it can't, where it won't run. And you have a rental car that they're telling you, they won't reimburse you for um so i i think you have a i think in a letter from an attorney do you do you have an attorney a family attorney or someone that you use and trust uh no no okay uh i'll try to get you a name and uh hmm ray yeah yeah i think ray engelsby retired

uh but uh there's something again i i hate to practice law with license but I go back to my business law days and when you sell a product there's an implied warranty of merchantability which is translates into if you buy an egg beater it's supposed to beat eggs if you buy a television is supposed to have a picture on it if you buy a car it's supposed to run so the Volkswagen sold you a car that won't run and they're liable for it and one of the liabilities is your transportation during the interim until they fix it. So it's a it's a no-brainer for an attorney. A letter, I hate to say this. I'm sorry

that Bill Wallace did not get the call. I don't know what happened. That's his cell phone number, but apparently he has blocking calls in there that narrowed it down. If you're not somebody knows, he won't take the call. I don't know. But we're on the radio talking about him now. We have a mystery shopping report coming up about one of his dealerships at the end of the show. Anybody out there know Bill Wallace, let him know we're talking about him. He's a good guy. I've done him for years.

He's got too many dealerships. I say that, tongue and cheek. You know, he can have all he wants. I've got one dealership, and I got my hands full, taking care of my customers for the one. He's got 25 or so dealerships, so I can see where some things are slipping through the cracks.

Unfortunately, Denise, you're issue is one of those things. But I'll try to get you an attorney to write a letter and no charge to you. And I think a letter to Bill Wallace will get the manager's attention there. Bill probably still doesn't know what's going on, unfortunately. And if he did, I think he'd take care of it. So we'll get to work on this thing for you, Denise, get you reimburse for that rental car. are always the last resort. I hate to go to a lawyer, but we'll do this and we'll keep you out of the picture in terms of fees. I don't think it'll go beyond the letter because the lawyer knows you're right. Bill Wallace knows you're right, and it would be crazy

for them to litigate this. It would cost them far more money than being able to pay your rental bill. And Denise, I have to share with you my opinion. You have to share it. You have to have, as Earl's called it, a slam dunk, definitely. It will consist of a lot of work if you have that kind of time. But the bottom line here is that you've got a seven-month-old Volkswagen. This is totally unacceptable, and you have a legitimate case and a winning case. So I encourage you to follow Earl's instructions. I will. Thank you. You guys have been so supportive and I'm very grateful I so appreciate that okay and I'll stay in touch with you I do have your number you do have my email address and we'll correspond back and

forth thank you again I so appreciate it oh we know you do Denise have a great weekend spread the word we're building a platform here for ladies we all have to join together absolutely thank you for that have a wonderful day 877 960 9960 or you can Texas at 772-497-6530. Speaking of platforms, first two new lady-caller's, $50 for you. Give us a call. Everyone can use $50. And to Denise and Pam, while I'm thinking about it, your checks went out late, so you'll receive them next week.

Those are the two female winners from the last Saturday. Hey, 77-960, Texas at 772-49-6. 530. We have no calls, so I'll go back to Stu. All right. We have lots of text coming in. We have some visual aids, and I know there's some messages coming on on YouTube, too. Jonathan, can you pull up that picture? We have a picture of an addendum sticker that was taken. It was one of our vigilantes, Bob in Maryland, and he was traveling through Nevada, and he took a picture at a dealership. It's a picture of an addendum label on a brand-new Ford Bronco.

MSRP of the Bronco is 44,305, and they've added a $30,000 market value adjustment. And that's a list price at Ford Country in Henderson, Nevada is $74,305, $44,000 Jeep. Take your brother away. We were able to show that? All right, cool. And then that's that one. And then we have Frank and Jupiter Farms, who is also a vigilante. and let me go to his

we have a posse don't we can probably get a yeah so I put the picture of a Frank up so Frank assisted a young lady getting a brand new vehicle and he sent us a picture got a great deal he said he's used the years of listening to the show and reading the blog put it to good work

and he is posing with his vigilante hat on next to the salesperson and the customer that he helped us so this is vigilantism in action on a roll-on car I envision a reunion a get-together there of all the vigilantes, and we can have horses, and we can get them on the horses. Yeah.

They're there. We'll just pose him. He's got his hat on? That's really cool, yeah. Now, this is funnier. So he also, Frank sent us another picture. I'm going to put my hat back on. That's right.

You're feeling inspired. Frank sent us another picture. He spotted an old four-run, an old Toyota forerunner on the road with a funny little sticker on the window. He followed him for five miles trying to get this picture. and Jonathan can put it up on the screen the sticker says I understand the Jeep thing but that's why I drive a Toyota

but it's an old forerunner and the story is and this is really interesting the guy noticed him following him and got concerned because Frank I love it. The guy with the black hat following him around anyway so he pulls over turns out the guy bought this car

this truck, it's an old forer was actually bought by one of her old technicians years ago and he's since passed away, and he doesn't have a name, so I don't know who it is. But he purchased it from an old Earl Strait Toyota technician, and he's driving,

and he says it won't die, unlike all the jeeps he used to own. So thanks, Frank, for sharing that with us. Great picture, by the way. Now I know what you'll look like. Oh, that's great. Great. All right.

Let's come up over to Rick, because I know he's got some messages piling up. Oh, we got a couple of them. First one, a shout out to our buddy Donovan. Oh, hi, Donovan. He is actually almost halfway around the world. world. Right now, I am going to try not to murder the name here. Let's see, it's Deberson, Hungary. And buddy, be safe over there. Right now he's about 60 miles from the Ukraine border. And he said, one of the things he said that kind of ties in with the shows, gas prices over there are skyrocketing. And the Hungary, the Hungarian government has actually put a cap on the gas.

prices right now at five dollars and fifty cents a gallon American so American dollars there on the Ukrainian border in the middle of a possible next world war and he's talking about gas prices he's hey he's keeping us he that is our gas prices of the least of your problem that the hell home now this just shows what the dedication of our of our fans and our listeners and the Army out there that's yeah definitely and most importantly you know as John Jonathan has put a lot of work into the number of people that we reach every week across the globe. It's just amazing, and there's proof right there.

And guess what? Earl alluded to he has more to worry about than the war. He's creating a diversion. He is in, he is visualizing a bloodbath, and he's creating a diversion. He's letting us know. He's there helping out some of his family members. I thought it was pretty cool, though. Oh, I see.

I was wondering why he was over there. He took the time to call into the show, and he's watching the show from over there. So, as Jonathan put it, we do have an international show. Absolutely. Without a doubt. And speaking of international, John Bell says, Love Your Channel.

Have you ever helped any Canadian snowbirds with a car purchase to drive back to Canada? Can you recommend a broker? to handle the paperwork at the border. Pickings are so slim here. You know, it's amazing. There's an article, I believe, in this week's automotive news about Canadians coming to Florida, coming to the United States to buy cars.

And when you consider the market here and what people are charging, we just saw, what, a 30,000 mark up on a... Yeah, on a Bronco. 33,000? So what are you Canadian dealers doing? If your customers are coming to the United States, you must really be going nuts. That's amazing.

I know one Canadian Toyota dealer. I'll see what they're doing over there. Oh. Well, I forgot the question. He's asking, can you recommend a broker to handle the paperwork at the border? And he says, have you ever helped any Canadian snowbirds with a car purchase to drive back to Canada? We have years ago. A broker at the border to do that?

The paperwork? Paperwork? Paperwork for what? I mean, the duties, the customs and duties to get the car across the... Oh. Yeah. And there's also things that has to make sure it's like compatible. I knew that there was some issues.

Years ago, we, for some reason, we were selling a bunch of Salara convertibles. And I remember selling a bunch and there were issues getting them across the border. I remember we bought some from Ontario, Canada. Very strange... Podometers. Yeah, we'll ask, I can ask, we have a fleet salesman who deals with... who deals with all kinds of brokers and exporting, not really anymore.

Don't listen. No one was listening. No exporting shipping all over the country. And I'll ask him. And then next week, we'll just bring it up on the show. Or if you want to email us, Earl at Earleoncars.com, if we get some information, we can establish. Well, just tell right on YouTube

what your email address is and we'll send you the information. Yeah. Okay. You know, I'm throwing Jonathan's name around and what he has done for us as far as this international show that we have now. But I forgot to tell you that he is the president of digital operations. I wanted to share that with you.

And also, I want to take a moment right now. Everyone just heard Stu's information and Rick. Earl's vigilantes, we have people that have volunteered, that has helped us out so much. And I'm ashamed to say that I have failed to thank each and every one of them and what they do, Weekend and We God. And you can join Earl's vigilantes. Go to Earl on cars, and you can sign up right there. And you don't have to have the ability to take an engine apart, but you can help consumers like yourself, like us,

and people in your neighborhood. And you can help them and guide them and share your stories with us. Also, as far as the Internet is concerned, we really need people to help guide all of us through that process. There are a lot of senior citizens that are purchasing vehicles, and your help is so needed. And we congratulate each and every one of you for helping us out. Earlsvigilantes.com or go to Earl on Cars for all the information. Our phone number here is 877-9-60-9960, and you can text. us at 772-49-7-2-49-672-49-6-5-3-0 and we mentioned earlier we have a dozy of a mystery shopping report

and you can vote on that and you can also go to good dealers bad dealer list and check out what we have accumulated now back to stew okay let's catch up on some text uh bob text us. He wants to know it can Apple CarPlay be installed on a 2018 Rav4? And if so where would you go to get it done? The answer is yes and there's aftermarket kits that you can set up. A Best Buy

I don't have Wardle Sound still around. Even a Toyota dealership but I'd probably stick to Best Buy. Don't know what the cost is. My brother Josh had it installed in his older 400 before Apple CarPlay was available. I wish they had them for Tesla's.

Huh? I wish they had them for Tesla. You can't. I think you can. They work through the USB drive, I think. Isn't that where you plug it in? Yes. I don't know. It would be interesting to see if you could do it on the Tesla. As a matter of fact, if you've got Apple CarPlay in your car that you're using a wired connection through the USB port, if you check on Amazon, there is a company that makes what's called a dongle that plugs in and lets your phone connect to it by Bluetooth, and you have wireless Apple CarPlay. Yeah, Josh had that, I think.

It was the same thing, so it was pretty cool. Nice. Got that on my truck. It's awesome. Oh, do? Yep. Okay, we got a text from Kevin. It says, hi, good morning.

My name's Kevin. I have a question because I want a factory order a Toyota Camry in 2022, but I want to trade in my Toyota Highlander 2021. Can it be done? What happens when the car I order takes four to six weeks to come in, and do I leave my Highlander dealership to my car arrives, or do you keep my vehicle until the other one arrives? If so, when do we negotiate?

the money for the trade-in because I need all the out-the-door number before I finish ordering my new car. Well, the first thing I want to say is you're not going to get a new Camry in four to six weeks. I don't think anywhere in the country they're coming in that quickly. It's more like three to six months. So it's kind of, it's a longer period of time. You will receive the value of your cars that's appraised when you take delivery of your vehicle. But you can get it appraised you get it appraised at the time you order it to get an idea now we're in a very strange time if you've been listening to the show vehicles are actually appreciating in value the car values are going up we don't know how long that's going to go for but there's a very good chance that value of your car is actually going to be higher when your new camry comes in but if it's not that's kind of the risk that you take with uh with an order like that because they have to give you and you don't have to leave with the dealership you can't just be careful because you're right or you can do or you can do you can do it or you can do you can do it or you can do you can do it something a little bit creative, but I don't know if this is a dealership would do this, and we will do this. You can do an appraisal, but this would be surrendering your car at the time, and you would get the

sales tax credit. They would keep the value of your trade as a credit on their books, and then when your car came in, you would still get the trade in, the tax savings, but you wouldn't have use of the car. But most people just drive their cars until it comes in, and then it gets reappraised, and these days, people are very happy with the second appraisal. I just want to stay on top of the market. It's a crazy market. It's very volatile. And even though we say car prices are going up every day, they could go down. They could go. Anything going to happen.

So stay in touch with the dealer and you're driving the car, verify the appraisal. And if it looks like it's going to be a hiccup in the used car market, you might want to think about giving him the car so he can sell it. And you don't want to lose several thousand dollars when your car comes in. Yeah. I mean, it's a strange thing to think of because you're doing a huge purchase. And there's a, the giant component of, well, what are you getting for your trade? That value is established later on. It's just that this is a very unusual time.

And normally ordering cars like this isn't standard day-to-day stuff. And that's what just happened in now. All right. We have a text from Bob, a different Bob. He said, my question is, I have a 2017 Sienna with approximately 18,000 miles. Is there a time frame when the brake fluid should be replaced? And what would the approximate cost be? That's correct.

No, there's no actual time of what it needs to be replaced. If you've gotten any sort of contamination in it or if you're concerned about it, if it's looking really, really, really dark in there, it may be getting contaminated from air moisture over time, but there's no actual scheduled interval for maintenance on the brake fluid. How do you look at your brake fluid to see if it was muddy? Basically just popped the little cap off and shine a flashlight right on it. should appear almost the color of straw a nice yellowish color so with a

flash light you can actually see it oh yeah as a matter of fact the break fluid reservoir is a kind of translucent plastic so even without popping the cap you can shine a light on it and see quite clearly if it's gotten too dark or dirty looking I have a feeling if I popped a hood I would take me I would never find it that's right because it's not in your car no I'm my car even on a Toyota I mean, it's pretty obvious. Oh, yeah. It's a nice, big, kind of clear, plastic-looking thing.

Is it labeled? Yes. Oh. I think the color that you're talking about is almost like, unfortunately, I hope nobody does, just walks out front of the door and clicks a look at this film of pollen. It is so yellow and is layered everywhere on a bad day. That's the color.

We are going to interrupt Stu, and we're going to go back to the phone. and we're going to talk to Mike who's calling us from Idaho Springs. Oh, wow. Love it. Good morning, Mike. Good morning. How are you this morning?

We're well, thank you. Thank you for calling. Yes, I had a question about pre-purchase inspections that are done at a third-parties shop. I'm in the market for it's going to be a Highlander or an RX-330. that's in the range of $25,000 to $30,000. So I've had cars inspected before, usually taking it to my mechanic. And the inspections are usually,

and they're not terribly expensive, maybe an hour and an hour and a half. And I wanted to get risk to you on how much insurance should a purchaser have if they take a car to a pre-purchased inspection because my assumption would be that the mechanic doesn't have a chance. Obviously, you look at

everything in the car. It's not looking at anything internally. And so what is the risk that's left after a pre-purchase inspection? And then I have a second question, but let me ask that first. It seems to me that I think I get somebody who spends more than, say,

an hour looking at the car. But I should be wrong. Well, there are some things that can be, shall we say, shade tree hidden. Like if you had an engine that was starting to get a rod knock or something, and you drain the oil out and put in a good mix of oil mixed with gear loop, that extra thick fluid will help to quiet an engine for a short time. Well, that would be premeditated somewhere. Right. And I figured that's maybe what he's looking for, it's things that, things like I'm trying to hide from the mechanic.

Charging a coolant in the AC system, even though it's got to have bad leaks. That's another big one. Yeah, you can fool a mechanic temporarily with that. Yeah. Washing an engine down, cleaning an engine really well to hide oil leaks. But a lot of these things also will leave evidence. Like if the mechanic pulls a dipstick, gear loop has a very distinctive smell to it. So just sniffing the oil, which it sounds silly, but it actually can give you information about that engine.

If it smells burnt, there's an indicator. Looking at the coolant in the reservoir to see if it's discolored might be an indication of oil getting into the coolant. Such things as you really can't drive, always take a car out for like a highway speed road trip to see if the transmission is going to shift okay or what it might do at higher speeds and over site travel like that. I think the bottom line, Mike, if you've got a good technician looking at the car in an hour to an hour and a half, if he had a thorough inspection, when he told you it was okay, it's going to be 99% sure. As good as anybody can. There's no way to avoid any, any, all of its contingencies. Because obviously they'll be able to see the tires, the brakes, the belts, the filters. You know, anything that might be a very obvious sign, hey, there's a problem. looking at the body underneath for any signs of damage or shoddy auto body repairs.

Those are things that are a good mechanic is going to spot pretty quickly. So let me ask you, I appreciate this a fairly far out question, but when, what would be the circumstances under which the buyer should have the compression checked? If the engine seems like it's not running right, then I would ask him to do a compression test on the engine. Now bear in mind, this could get expensive because some cars, like V6s, some of them trying to get to the back cylinders can be really a lot of extra work. You literally have to disassemble parts of the engine to get to the back spark plugs to do a compression test. A good mechanic is going to test drive the car thoroughly at different speeds

in different conditions. And if there's a symptom, then he'll go further in. But like Rick says, you just don't do a compression check unless there's something. for driverability. Got it, got it. Now, one question that I've encountered not personally

but through acquaintances is that they've been to dealers and, you know, these again are on the used car side, and the dealer says that they'll do an inspection for you if you pay for it, but they won't let the buyer take the car

to, you know, to another location. And, you know, maybe that's big cities or something like that but you know just personally I would never buy a car like that I'd walk away

wrong about that yeah I would too I'd just say it walk away okay that's helpful thank you very much sure

you're in Colorado right I said Idaho Springs I thought you're in Idaho you're in Colorado I googled you I am in Colorado right now I'm not

Idaho Springs Colorado Are you skiing? No, no. I live here, right? When I can get out of my drive way. I bet you take advantage of skiing a lot. Yeah, no, no, it's just down the road. Everybody's dream. Thanks so much, Mike.

The weather is gorgeous this time of year. The bright sun, snow everywhere. I hear. It's really a gorgeous place. Yeah, something to really take a look at. It's a beautiful place. Mike, thank you so much for calling us. Okay.

sharing your story we hope to hear from you again we're going to go to frank who's been holding from jupiter farms who is a regular caller and a good-looking guy there you go do you hear that frank frank i think i made him faint frank call back frank i think we lost frank yeah frank has got a great story by the way he and i've been talking uh during the last week and he's got a really interesting story so So, please do call back and tell us about the BMW. Are you guys still there? Oh, yeah.

We lost to go early. We didn't lose them. He was muted. We're right here. I probably spoke over you guys. You didn't hear me. No, I'm definitely here. We were admiring your looks, Frank.

Yeah. Wow. Holy cow. Stu was. I'm actually on a diet. Give me a couple months and I'll come back again. All right. The sit-down or the whatever that thing, the pandemic.

and kind of put weight on one, it shouldn't have been. But in any event, a big thanks to Earl Stewart, because you hear that he'll take the calls, the red phone, and it's not a publicity stunt, it's not marketing, it's the real thing. I needed to speak to Earl in regards to a matter. Sunday morning, last Sunday morning, I got myself a little pickle on Saturday after your show,

and actually had purchased a car, signed all the papers, thank goodness, I didn't drive it off the lot. And I was wondering if the deal could actually be canceled. And his advice was, yes. And obviously not speaking as attorney or anything, but it armed me with a little bit of, how should I say, fortitude to go in there and not be put down or bluffed or.

Right. So anyway. With that in mind, we did so. And I said, you know, I told him. I said, you know, you're so short in inventory. Just sell the car to someone else. because actually I had got that brand new car, not at the $10,000 over market adjustment value,

not even $5,000, not even MSRP, but $750 below MSRP. All right. I was shocked when you told me that. I know. Yeah, I said, well, and the salesman said, well, you really buy this car if we'll give it to you at this price? And I said, I know they're just bluffing.

But then when they said, yes, I go, I guess I've got to buy this car What am I going to do? He caught the car. Yeah. When you call me, Frank, and he says, you know that car we're talking about? The BMW, there was $10,000 or $12,000 over MSRP.

And I said, yeah. He says, well, he said, I went up there, and he says, I was able to buy it below MSRP. I said, I don't believe it. I said, well, congratulations. And then he said, Frank said, but I didn't. don't want the car like that's the contingency that we worry about every week with our mystery chefs she just she just leaves and frank earl and i went back and forth on that back

and forth back on forth i said what's going to happen and so we were entertained that afternoon well it would actually turn out better and then there was that picture i brought am marie because actually the car was going to be for her and the color blue with the black optics i mean it looked really great. It was a beautiful looking car. But for her to drive on an everyday thing, she said she'd be tired of it within, you know, a couple weeks. And so when she and her Connecticut, Italian background, told the sales, and there's no way I'm taking that car, and there's other adjectives we won't use on the air right now. Oh, boy.

So, anyway, you know, of course, I'm actually could be good. So then we worked on that white one that you saw in the picture, and we got that also at MSRP. we can go below it but we got it at MSRP and a good financing and it was about a four-hour experienced it was six and a half hours for me on Saturday I mean they they try and wear you down but um the salesman is named Brian Borman very knowledgeable which is very nice to find he looked familiar to me I was going to ask you his name I don't know Brian Borman but he's he seems familiar nothing like Frank none of like Frank Borman the astronaut in eastern airline We've got to plug the dealership, too.

That's BMW of Stewart. Actually, it's Audi of Stewart, Stuart of Audi. I'm sorry, Audi of Stewart, yeah, Audi is Stewart. And if you want to buy an Audi, there's a place, and you need to be a negotiator like Frank was, and they started them at thousands of thousands of MSRP, and he ended up down to MSRP, and in one instant they're a little below. So stay away from Brayman in West Palm Beach to drive to Stewart, Audi of Stewart, and do some negotiate when I prank did, and it's almost unheard of to be able to buy a car at MSRP today.

So again, congratulations for a great job. Yeah, no, and everyone there was very nice. I mean, there's a lady named Shelly call, I believe it is, that's the one you see after the salesman where you go. in the back rooms type stuff, and they try and sell you nitrogen for an extra $51. Hey, only $51. I mean, I just thought of you guys. I said, this is just so classic. I had a video or something.

That's great. Everyone's there, and they got a nice little break room with coffee and cappuccino and snacks. And the general manager there, I met him. He's just, everyone there is down to earth. It's a whole different, so much better atmosphere. Just a few miles north of Palm Beach and from the, and especially from the, to the Cowboys down in Miami and Broward. That's for sure.

We'll get them on our recommended list. We'll have to make it official. We'll have to mystery shop them one day, but that'll be good. And it's so hard to find a place today you can buy the right car at a reasonable price. I never thought I'd hear myself saying MSRP was a reasonable price, but it's a good price today. So that's great news. You know, thanks for sharing such a great story.

I appreciate the time on the area. You all have a great day. And actually, the car where it has a 333-page owner's manual. Wonderful. We went back on... Enjoy reading that. The pre-flight, it was four hours. I mean, it's like, how do you...

But anyway, the technology is on wonderful. You have a great day, and again, Earl, I can't thank you enough for taking a call on a Sunday morning to help me out before I got into the dealership. I thought I was going to be all right, but your knowledge and your explanation really saved the day. Thank you again. That's what the recovery. car dealer does. Monday morning, Sunday morning, Sunday night, whatever, right there. Frank, thanks for sharing a great story with us, and give us a call again. 877960. Where are you in Texas? 772-497-6530. And don't forget, ladies. Just as a postscript to Frank's issue before we

change subjects, when Frank bought it, he basically, other than the store, he got a good price on an Audi and Stewart, is the fact that he bought a car, signed all the papers, and then changed his mind, didn't want to buy the car. He'd already gone home, and Anne-Marie's wife said that she didn't want a blue car, and here he was, he'd signed in, he bought a, you know, a very expensive, you know, it's an electric car, Audi. Now, what do you do? he did one thing that was very fortunate he didn't drive the car home when you buy a car you will find a lot of pressure from the dealers to encourage you to take it home a lot of reasons for it one of the reasons is just the puppy we call it the puppy dog that's a slang when you take your new car home and you show it to your neighbors and

your friends and everybody it's like taking a puppy home from the from the store from Big Dog Ranch. Puppy Dog Syndrome. You take the doggy home and your children and everybody, your friends see your doggy and they play with a doggy. And then you decide you don't want a dog. There ain't no way you're going to take that dog back because you have bought a car. So that's one reason Cardinals want you to take the car home.

The other reason is more sinister. Maybe just different. I guess they're both sinister. The other reason is in the law, you have to have acceptance and consideration for a contract. That's a basic law. Acceptance. You have to have consideration, meaning you have to do something, pay for it, sign on the dotted line, and take the product. That's acceptance.

And consideration is also part of a contract. So a lot of courts have construed driving the car home the completion of the contract. And you have a good case. You don't have a rock-solid case, but a good lawyer can usually win the fact if you don't take the product. So when you buy the car, that's another good reason. Be sure it's detailed out properly, that the car has got the inside, the inside. Everything, there's no nicks and scratches, it's perfectly clean, and inspect it carefully before you take it home.

And the other reason is you won't have completed your contract. So never take a spot delivery. That's what the car dealers call it, the spot delivery. Get them out the door on the day they sign. Because when that happens, they won't let you bring the car back. Never. You'll never be able to return that car if you take it home. Okay.

Okay, what I was saying was that, excuse me, ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers, and we have about 15 minutes before we get to the mystery shopping report, so take advantage of that. 877-960, 9960. Okay, guys, who are we going to? I got a couple here. Donovan actually has come up with one. He says, have you heard. heard of this new law proposed in West Virginia that would ban over-the-air updates for cars

by the customer, which requires them to go to the dealership to have these updates done. I'm not surprised at all. I didn't hear about it, but... Proposed and written by members of the West Virginia House who owned car dealerships. Yes, surprise, surprise. It is HB. 4560. It is HB. 4560. in West Virginia, and it needs to be stopped. The power of the auto lobby, it's amazing, yeah. Like Sue said, I'm sure FADA is working on it right now. Right, they have their version.

I'm sure the NADA probably has circulated that to all the state organizations, and that'll be a nationwide push. Unbelievable. This is another subject I just have to mention. This is an automotive news, and we're talking about lobbying, power of dealers and dealer associations. There's a news article in the automotive news. There's an inventory called LIFO, inventory, L-I-F-O,

sense for last and first out. Not one out of a thousand knows what that is, but you accountants do. But last in first out is a type of accounting that car dealers, many of them adopted many years ago. We did in our dealership, and most of course, car dealers did. It was a windfall way to avoid taxes. And it was a smoke and mirrors thing that was lobbied through, I'm sure, by the NADA, and dealers saved millions literally. I don't mean all dealers together. I mean individually, individual dealers save millions of dollars with this

type of inventory tax loophole. Now, this inventory that they adopted, anticipated continuous inventories or inventories maintaining pretty much a 60-day supply, we call it in the trade. You know, if you sell 30 cars a month, then you typically carry 60 cars a month. But nobody anticipated the pandemic. So the pandemic came, and suddenly dealers don't have any inventory. So at the end of this year, you're going to have to pay the Piper. So those millions of dollars that dealers, including us, were given this gift for this tax loophole, we're going to have to give the money back at the end of the year.

So there's a panic, and the lobbying is on now so that the dealers can keep that tax loophole. Now here's the irony. Appreciate the irony of this. The dealers that are crying about giving back this money are making more money today, today because of the pandemic and their basis for having the life of rule changed is the fact that it was an act of God pandemic this created this horrible situation in the country well it wasn't a horrible situation for the dealers it was a windfall so they want they want to keep the windfall of the tax leap ball by by uh at the same time they have the windfall of

unprecedented high demand and high prices and profits so you can't make this stuff up folks the dealer's greed is absolutely without limit well I don't have really anything to follow up on that kind of leaves you speechless had you know your hair's on fire it just continues over and over and over again and folks that's why we're here to try try to help you with some, you know, odds and ends and things that you're dealing with from day to day. So, as I said earlier, you're an important part of the show. Give us a call toll free at 877-960.

We're going to go back to the phones. We have a couple of calls holding, and Marty is one in West Palm Beach, and John, we will get to you shortly. Good morning, Marty. Good morning. How are you? Well, thank you. I just wanted to tell you, I've only lived in two states, New York State and in Florida.

In Rochester, New York, when you bought a car, you never got the car the same day. If you bought a car on a Wednesday, they may say, can you pick it up on Saturday? They'd make sure they had the insurance cards, make sure the car was clean, make sure they adjusted or whatever. When I first came to Florida and they gave you the car on the same day, I was shocked. Yeah, spot delivery. I said, you mean it's ready? They said, as far as I know, all they did is wash the car and bring it out to you.

I mean, one dealership I had down here, and I said, well, I didn't bring my checkbooks with me and everything. He said, we'll give you the car right now, take it home, and come back the next day with the check. Marty, let me ask you a question. In New York, I don't know, was there a right of receipt? decision like could you return the car after three days that's like there's a myth down here in New York could you return it after I I've heard that in my case I never it never happened so I never looked into it because down here because that plays a big role in this going back was getting getting off the

curb getting over the curb and have them deliver the car and then they're you then they're an owner and then they can't return the vehicle well they there is a rescission agreement that the dealers make them sign the forces. I'm talking about the customer rescissionary or the customer has no right. Only the dealership does. But this was a shock to me when I first got to Florida. And the guy said, here, we'll have the car for you in an hour.

Well, that's the thanks to New York law, Marty. They require you have to have the car licensed and registered before it can drive on the streets. So it's a law in New York. And it's a good law. And it prevents the devil initiatives. out of the dealer with a spot delivery. So, yeah, you're exactly right. Also, everything in the car there was, you know, they really checked, I mean, I don't know,

I've only bought Toyota the Panthers up there, so, but they ended up really, when you got the car, it was waxed, it was, you know, I mean, I got cars here that were still dirty. I didn't even know who went through the car wash. Yeah. So, but one thing about, uh, up there. You never left without. The insurance card had to be printed out. They made sure your insurance card was, you know, right and had the right dates and everything else. Now, I haven't bought a car up there in years now, so maybe they've changed. Also up there, no dealer had a dealer fee. I'm not saying that they made any less money than they do here, but they never had an actual dealer fee.

And maybe, and again, that may have changed. That surprised me. I thought, is this just Rochester or other places? Yeah, this was in Rochester. I never bought a car in any other city, so I can't tell you. But the Toyota dealers I dealt with in Rochester, and I dealt with three different ones there, and they were all, I never had a dealer fee.

So, but like I say, I don't know, things may have changed. I sent a text in that you didn't get a chance to read yet. But for Denise, I wanted to tell her, stick to Toyota's or Honda's. They have a much better warranty, much better. If your car doesn't run, I know Toyota will give you a loaner car. And I never looked at a Volkswagen. Never even thought of a Volkswagen. So I think, unfortunately, that car was a mistake for her.

Yeah, Volkswagen is not as good a manufacturer as Toyota. Toyota will step up and help the customers. I haven't heard a lot of that type of thing about Volkswagen dealers. It's just a different culture, I guess. Yeah, and also with Toyota, you get the first two years of maintenance included. it. And I mean, Honda doesn't even do that. They don't give you the first two years for free. But you've got to stick to a reputable place, reputable dealer, and, you know, this guy's, you know, not giving her the reimbursement in the car when he's some months old. It's really ridiculous.

Well, Marty, listen, thanks for the call. We've got three guys holding here, or maybe gal, so please call again. You're one of the most interesting callers. Thank you very much. It was great hearing from you, Marty. Give us a call again. We're going to go straight to John, who's holding in Jupiter, and Ron is calling us from Summerfield. And if you'll just be patient, we'll get to you. Good morning, John.

Good morning, Anthony. Hey, I received a letter from Toyota. I've got a 2013 Toyota, which I purchased new. The trust's 10 years old. I'm hoping to get 10 more years out of it. But the letter says that there's a defective power steering gear service replacement assembly. And then it goes on to say that there were only 151 power steering gear assembly replacement parts that could have been installed in vehicles of my age.

So how, because it says urgent equipment recall. How urgent is this recall? Any recall, I would have it done as soon as possible. you stop in at your local dealership and they will set you up to get it taken care of and if it requires parts to be ordered you tell them I don't feel safe driving this vehicle get me a rental

well the dealership would be Earl Stewart that's okay Toyota's going to pay for it yeah okay but it doesn't only take 45 minutes exactly what are they looking at when they're talking about because I've had the truck for 10 years

Is this the data communication module one? I think so, but we'd have to take a look at it and see which one, because sometimes there's even several recalls that you might not be aware of, and we'd prefer to get them all taken care of. Yeah, I think also can't you look up what's recalled online on the vehicle? Yeah, if you go to safer, was it safercar.gov. And you put it in your van, you'll see everything that's outstanding. Put your van.

Okay. And the next question would be, what was the best time to go by Earl Stewart to get this done? Middle of the week? Well, we are late in the afternoon. We are late in the afternoon is nice because it's usually busier in the morning. Best thing to do is get an appointment. That way we can make sure we have parts available and get the right technicians ready for you. And then it says if it needs to be replaced, it could take several days to do. I'm assuming you have to order the part, if that's the case.

possibly okay you can find out ahead of time just call in and ask to check to see if everything's there

in the parts and then that way you'll know not to waste your time yeah well who is your best service advisor

well that you put me on the spot they've got a lot they're all awesome we can't tell you if you call me call me after the show I'll tell you

I can't tell you on here I'll have 14 people mad at me we don't I don't have any favorites they'll be waiting for us Marty okay one of the questions you guys were talking about the Volkswagen deal wouldn't that car be covered under the Florida Lemon Law it could be that too that's a great point I should have brought that up you're absolutely right that would that's probably even a better idea a threat with the Lemon Law is probably a the most valid threat and

they would have to act then so great great thought thank you very much yeah Denise if you're listening you have that lady contact yeah we've got our phone number so we'll call her I'll give her a call a great idea all right thanks people I'll probably see you next week at the dealership okay thank you very much looking forward have a good weekend you too thanks for the call give us a call at 8779 well we can forget the number because we're taking the last call right now Denise with the Volkswagen, she barely has any, barely used that car, did she? She's had, she bought it seven months ago.

She's barely. When you do the lemon law. Yeah, so they, they prorate the use of the car, but she will have a very large percentage coming back. Yeah, and she is listening. So at any rate, we're going to take our last call because we're going to get to the mystery shopping report, and we're going to talk to Ron, who's giving us a call from Summerfield, Florida. Good morning, Ron. Good morning. This question is for Rick. Rick, I was looking at a new, looking to buy a new 22-Rav-4 hybrid. And so as I was thinking about it, I said, well, let me check out the Lexus. And so I went over to Lexus to look at the NX-300H.

And nice car, and they said basically the power train and the two cars are the same. Yes. Except I found out that the NX requires premium fuel. Why is that? Because they tune the engine, the computer programming is tuned a little more, to give it a little more higher compression rating. It's just, it's a Lexus thing. They want to try to get a little more power.

And one of the differences you'll find between a Lexus and a Toyota, the fit and finish are usually just a little more refined on the Lexus. sometimes a lot more refined and the engine actually is tuned to run to a little higher standard and of course that requires premium fuel in them can you make my Toyota run like a Lexus no they won't let me and also and also Lexus buyers have a lot more money than Toyota buyers and they can afford premium fuel right they're in cahoots with big oil oh boy okay so can you put regular fuel in there at all oh boy uh you can but it's really not advisable what would happen though is the engine would detect the the pre-ignition knock that would occur

from running that lower level fuel and it would begin to retard the timing and you might notice a change in the performance of the engine and how it's driving it wouldn't hurt the car i think Too often people are afraid to try a lower test gasoline, but certainly if it's tuned to a certain performance, you might miss a little bit of performance. But, I mean, it depends on how you drive the car. If you look at the cost of regular versus premium fuel over four or five years of ownership, that's a lot of money. And so it's, you know, I always say to people, listen, unless you want a high performance, TV, you love you had a lead foot, you love to zoom off of stoplights and you'll drive fast.

If you're just a normal driver, not like me, but if you're a normal driver, try regular in your car. And if it doesn't make any noises or if it isn't anything that's going to be obviously going to bother you, keep using it. It's not going to, you're not going to burn up the engine and you save a ton of money. Yeah, you know, because it was a deal breaker for me. I don't want to spend 50 or 60 cents per gallon more in a car that's basically the same as a Raffer. I'd rather just buy the Ravrefour. Yeah. I think you can add your cake and eat it too.

Yeah. Okay, well, that was my question. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Oh, you're so welcome, Ron. Boy, isn't it great. You can have your cake and eat it too. I had some cake.

Yesterday was my daughter's birthday, and it was a delicious cake. And can't believe that she was 18 years old. I'm an old man now, officially. Oh, my goodness gracious. You are an old man. You sent me that picture of the one-year-old birthday party and an 18-year-old. You can't remember it. I aged right there, just my, it was a Dorian gray thing.

Yeah. Yeah, just looking at it. Okay, folks, we're going to get to the, Stu, do you have something to finish up? Oh, we can do a quick rundown because it's only 930, so. We have some anonymous feedback, so I'll run through these real quick. This came in a couple of days ago. I saw your YouTube video for the mystery shop of Napleton, North Lake Chrysler Jeep. My question is, how does this dealership stay in business so long?

Well, it's a... Because Ashley Moody is in the pocket of the Automobile Dealers Association, and she's the Attorney General. And, yeah, you can get away with anything. And car dealers get the legislators and the regulators elected. If you have the car dealers against you, you can't get elected to political office in any state. So it's amazing what car dealers can get away with. We've got some great laws, folks, but they don't get enforced.

And this mystery shopping report will show you a flagrant violation of the federal law. car dealers do it all the time. Why? Because they can. It's kind of like it's like a coral area of the, why did the main climb the mountain because it was there? Something like that. All right, we have another one inspired by the Napleton mystery shops.

That's a little harsh, but this is what anonymous feedback is for. Any fool that would buy from a Napleton dealership deserves to be separated from their money. I would find it very difficult to be a salesman there and have to look a customer in the eye with a straight face. Well, unfortunately, you know, not everybody is listening to this show, and not everybody is his education. And I don't think the texter really meant that. I mean, you do realize there are people out there that weren't fortunate enough to be born in the United States,

and English isn't their native language. There are also people out there that aren't fortunate enough to be able to get an education. And there are people that are too old, like me, and there are people that are too young. They have no experience. They've never bought a car before. So when you say people deserve to be screwed by Napleton, I don't agree. I think that victims, we call them, need to be protected. And we have to have laws enforced, and we have to have regulation with car dealers too.

So people like that, they'll get stolen from. Okay. More anonymous feedback. I have a problem with the Czech airbag system light on my 2012 Civic, and there are no codes DTC in the system. Do Honda dealers have a more advanced tool to view computer logs that are stored or something similar to troubleshoot the problem?

Yes. A lot of the generic pullers, the code pullers that you'll find, like the auto stores, can't get all the information. If you got an airbag code issue, go to the dealer. That's a safety issue.

And here's another political issue that ties in with this question. There's a federal bill now going through the process in Congress, which is called the Right to repair bill. Car dealers hate it, and it's going to be a battle of the Titans, who gets this through, and my guess is the car dealers on them, and the manufacturers will win. But right now, the law is that if I manufacture Hondas, I can. have secrets about how to fix them. And I won't tell anybody except the Honda dealer. And the

excuse is, well, the Honda dealer is trained and, you know, there's a lot of good mechanics that aren't necessarily working for Honda dealers. And if you give them the information and access to the data, they can fix cars. But the dealers don't want competition. Nobody wants competition because you can charge anything you want if you don't have competition. So remember that I'm all for it yeah of course I think it would benefit our service department I think people would be bringing in us yeah probably you know right to repair we'd be able to fix arms and Schwartz and Porsche is and testes yeah you'd find an honest mechanic honest service department and you go to him but right now there's

certain things that we just call her and mention can only be fixed by onto dealer that'd be a great thing all right okay I have an anonymous feedback, but I'm looking at my watch, and we have a mystery shopping report to get to, and Stu has something to say, and I'm wondering if this could wait until next week. You and I share this, you know, I miss feedback in the car. What would, and it's a little difficult at my age to read this from the phone, but I'll give it the old college try. What would be the case of a delay in shifting from park to drive, Rick? The cause.

I have a clicking sound. Stu, do you have this on your computer? Go ahead. All right. So, Rick, pay attention. What would be the cause of a delay in shifting from park to drive? I have to wait for a clicking sound, like a tap, to engage, or it will be stuck. It seems to occur more often during the mornings. Separately, another question is sometimes the digital odometer is faint.

The other lights to illuminate the speedometer, voltage, RPM, etc., work fine. On rare occasions, the digital odometer works bright. Thank you, Ms. Stewart, for being an advocate for women. You're welcome. Without knowing the type of car, just a shade tree guess is going to be, you have a transmission issue where the valve train is not shifting, not moving properly. And I would definitely have that checked out by a qualified transmission specialist. If not in a dealership, there are transmission shops that are highly qualified that can handle those. Something in there is not moving when it should, and that click is when that valve finally is popping into place, letting your car then move. So that would be my first

thought to look for. It could be serious if we don't look at it in the way. Yes, because if transmission starts to slip, once they start getting a little bit aware in there and they start slipping a little bit, that accelerates very quickly and can cause a lot more damage in the transmission. For the electrical issue, that's probably going to be an LED or a bulb starting to get weak or something in there, maybe a loose connection that's starting to have issues. All right. So you go.

We've got the answers. Last anonymous feedback and it will be done. More commentary on Napleton. The sad part of buying a car from Napleton is that someone will pay their inflated price. people it's a cheap not some ultra rare vehicle exactly yeah yeah that's why uh they're charging these prices if you don't want to pay it somebody else will and that's what's happening selling fewer cars and making more money than ever before uh it's a bad time for buyers okay um i want to mention to the folks that uh you're an important part of the mystery shopping report please

vote we really enjoy hearing from you and your opinion and you can do so by texting stew at 772-4976530, and my hat is off to our female mystery shopper and also our female director and of operations in the control room, Elise, I want to thank both of them and the ladies that have joined us weekend and week out. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Okay, mystery shop of Wallace, Chrysler, Jeep Dodge, Ram. We've also had the call in from Denise, who had had an issue with Wallace Volkswagen. Wallace has got a lot of dealerships. It's been a while since we've had a good mystery shop at one of the Wallace dealerships,

now all located in Stewart and Fort Pierce. Wallace, he's on our good guy reputation, a friend of mine personally, and he's historically done well. Not so well recently with a complaint from a customer at the Volkswagen dealership, and now we have this Michigan Shopping report and we'll see how well this goes at Wallace, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram. As I brought us to the Mystery Shop archives

speaking as the mystery shopper. I noticed this downward trend from the... Oh, no, I'm talking now I'm speaking the first person as if I were Sue because I'm reading his notes. Who are you? We're both Earl. I'm Earl. I speak for you. We speak for each other. And there's a downward trend from the Wallis

group is how things go about recommending. Last week on the show we had a caller with a problem and she called again this week. I offered her Bill Walts' cell phone number and she called it and he's got a blocker of some kind. Apparently it is not as easy to get through. I've given his number out a couple times. I do it reluctantly. I only do it as a last resort. In the past they've been able to get through, but it didn't work this time. I also know, and and discuss with many times on the show the perils of managing a growing group of dealerships. And, I mean, this is just not a negative comment on Bill Wallace. It's a fact of life.

As you grow... Logistics. Larry Morgan is another that was grown. He used to sell tires, and then he got in the car business back in 2012, and he's grown enormously. You can only get so big, and watch what's going on. it's a lot harder to put good managers in positions of responsibility than to do it yourself. And a lot of cardio, I had that problem. I had a bunch of cardioloships a long time ago, and it was like a Chinese fire drill.

Is that a politically incorrect statement today? Probably, but you painted a picture. Yeah, it was absolutely a, no offense to the Chinese on this, although there are problems for the Chinese. I digress. Anyway, it is absolutely impossible for me to run six dealerships. And I got better with five and four and three and two. And finally I got down to one and we do a pretty good job. So Bill Wallace, you got 25, I think. I don't know how you do it. Larry Morgan, same thing. You can't do it. You just have to have really great people. And that's, I couldn't do it. I couldn't find that many really great people.

Okay, it's 13 dealerships is what he's got. Bill Wall's got 13 dealerships. All of which, by the way, were acquired. I don't think this is correct, Stu. You said... It's right from their website. 25, yeah, I think it's... Oh, is that right?

Yeah, so he had 11 dealerships in 1997 from his dad? I'll correct his website because what he did is he sold the Ford dealership to automation. Oh, okay. And then when he sold the Ford dealership, then he multiplied. afterwards so anyway it's the trivia we last investigated wall interesting to just us yeah I'm gonna stop you for a minute how in the world do you keep all of this information in that vault I'm a June of a mind of yours you are indeed I truly am sometimes it's frightening okay it scares everyone we leave the room yeah

she's gonna she she's called the men in the white coats and they're gonna have me committed. On many occasions. She's trying to pacify me now. We last investigated Wall's Jeep October 20-20, mid-pandemic, but pre-eventory crisis. Agent Thunder and Agent Lightning. I remember that, yeah. Came in on an ad, promising a really low lease payment. As a matter of fact, this was Agent Lightning's very first mystery shop. How cool is that? I love it. Okay. I hope Agent Lightning is listening because this is really kind of historical. Yeah, it's nostalgic. Yeah, not hysterical, but historical. Although Agent Lightning received a better treatment and a better price than Agent Thunder,

both were subjected to bait and switch and other sneaky tactics like requiring impossible to get rebates to get the low price. So we sent Agent Lightning back to the place where it all started, hopes that Bill was, and his crew could stop the series of stumbles. Stu used the word anonymous. I crossed that through. You did. Oh, so all your omissions are premeditated. Yes.

Okay. Now I understand. Okay, here's the actual report. I am as if I were Asian lighting. I pulled in a lot a little afternoon and was met by a woman on a golf cart. Her name was Michelle. And she was a greeter. She collected some information with me and said, Diego, or is that,

Diego, yeah, Diego, would be here to help me soon. to help me soon. We waited for a minute, then Michelle offered to take me to him. I climbed into the golf cart next door, but before we get to park, Diego pulled up in his own golf car. They're having fun. There's golf cars all over the place. I tell you what. And they tried to get me to buy golf carts at the dealership. I don't, I was afraid there to be too many accidents people being run over by golf cars. I vetoed that to the extent I could view it. Well, I used to play golf. I was reckless in my golf cart. I thought. probably why we don't have golf carts.

Diego hopped out and introduced himself and asked how he could help. I told him I was hoping to take home a new Jeep Wrangler today and asked if he had any available Diego clapped his hands together loudly and exclaimed yes and suggested they go inside. I'm trying

to visualize Diego clapping his hands together. I'm picturing the character and Door the Explorer, but... Yeah. We found a desk and Diego asked for my license made a lot of small talk before finally asking what monthly payment I wanted to have. Key question you always ask monthly payment. You pray that they give you that number because if you will buy on a monthly payment, they own you

and they will make whatever profit and price they want to get. Never, never buy on the payment. I said that I'm most likely paying cash, so that's not important to me. After a series of qualifying questions, Diego determined that the four-door sport model would be perfect for me. I went along, probably the only one he had. He then started writing on what looked like an information sheet and asked me my credit score. I asked, why does that matter since I'm paying cash? Well, he's not going to tell you that because it matters because he's going to make more money if he can finance the car,

and he's hoping that he can talk you into finance here because he makes more money. when he finances the car. But very logical. Why would you want to know my credit score when I'm paying cash? I left this little detail out, but he replied, oh, I forgot. But it had 30 seconds earlier she said she would have. Well, it's part of the, it's part of the word. What am I trying to say?

He's well trained, the word track, yeah. We moved on. I said I heard that this was not the best time to buy a car, but Diego disagreed. Of course. I mean, who is he, Earl Stewart? Nobody, no car dealer was going to tell you not to buy a car. He said it was a great time to buy a car because people were getting premium dollars for the trades.

Now, when he said that, the evil Earl fondly admired that. He's sticking on his feet. You know, what do you say when everybody knows you shouldn't buy a car? Cars are priced thousands of over a sticker. How do you say? Don't focus on that. Accentuate the positive. So the positive is he's getting more.

Do you say he was thinking on his feet? He was thinking on his feet. You know, but listen here, he was tapping out of his. He's tap dancing on his feet. He was dancing on his feet is what he was doing. I told Diego I didn't have a car to trade. Diego said, unless he bounced back. Diego is like a, you know, he just bounced back.

I love it. You can't get anything past him. He says, I still be getting a great deal today because prices will be going. up. And the other, if there's a, if there's an, just a teeny, many nuance of truth. It's a clamor. And any of these things. And the buyers want to buy. And if you give them reason to buy, they'll buy. And that's what they do. And Diego, gives them a reason. Diego really, he's a pro. I mean, I got a, I mean, the evil earl, loves the guy. I could see his twisted logic if I concentrated, really like, but the secret to success.

in selling is twisted logic. Think about it. I mean, a good salesman will sell a refrigerator to an escobo, right? That's twisted logic. And he uses elements of the truth to twist him around. Twisted genius.

Twisted logic. Diego suggested we head out to the lot to see their inventory. Outside, there were four wranglers. Diego asked me to pick one out so he could get the keys. I picked out of 2022, Jeep Wrangler, Unlimited Sport, and Black.

Now, I've heard a limited, they unlimited suit. They do Unlimited. And that doesn't make sense to me at all. It doesn't make sense. That means there's a lot of them. It's the obverse of limited. But is that really a name of a Jeep Wrangler, Unlimited? Yes.

I've never heard of a car name Unlimited. Unlimited. Um. Unlimited. Um, I'm sorry. It's unlimited. And yeah, it's a trim level. on the jeeps yeah okay anyway well that's because there's no limits to there i'm

we're all digress we're all going you're all you're all goofy and i am too there was no monroe label on the car we have all this extra oxygen but there was an addem label okay now there's no monrooney label that's illegal that is illegal the real msrp was not visible anyone in the vehicle But Wallace's list price was 62, 883. So it was a phony Monroney and no real Monroney. The items on the venom label were 14,500 for southeast regional market adjustment. $199,000, $14,000. $1.99 for pinstripes.

Them are some fancy pinstripes. $599 for Wallace protection and package of nitrogen and auto bottle. So anyway, now, I went back because it's been a long time since I've talked about Monroney. Of course, the Munrooney law was passed. That's Chapter 28 Sections 1231 to 1233 of the U.S. Code. That's a Mononi label, 1958, and that's when I graduated from high school. And here's an interesting point. The fine per violation, every time you don't have the Monroney displayed properly,

and the only person by law that can take it off is the customer. So that means that virtually every dealer in the United States, including us, are guilty of these violations. We've only misplaced it. Because we take them off for the customer, but the law says the customer is taken off. No, no, no. We actually, that's in our process. We offer it if they say no, and then they think they can allow us to do it.

The law doesn't say that. I think they can. I don't think. Well, they can because they don't enforce the law. Yes. So, but here's some trivia for you. Now, the fine that we agreed on, the legislature in 1958, $1,000. Do you know where $1,000 is today?

Cost of price, CPI adjusted, $9,720.30. So we sat on that $1,000 fine for all these years, 50 years, and not adjusted it because nobody asked. And $1,000 is like a slap up. the wrist for violation of federal law. It should be 10,000, but they don't do it. Anyway, I digress. We have 30 seconds left. Yes. I'm just kidding. Okay, I'll do, I'll read the rest of it like they do their disclosure. Don't do that. That'd be funny, but don't do it. When they return, I asked them why there was a window sticker. Diego said there was a sticker and pointed

to the addendum. Now, this is getting serious, folks. He's getting belligerent and he's violating the law, but he's saying, I'm going to do it. I'm in your face. What are you going to do about it? I said, well, that's not the real window sticker. I want to see gas mileage, specs, equipment. Diego said, he could print one out for me. I can't just print one out. You've got to leave it on the car. Anyway, we looked at Jeep over, Diego didn't have much to say about it. I declined a test drive and asked to see him on the running label for the Jeep. Diego led me back inside, found a different desk to say that. He said he'd be right back with a printed copy of the proper label.

I waited for 11 minutes, and Diego walked back carrying a laptop computer. He showed me a screen with all the specifications for the Jeep I was buying. He asked me what price has to be willing to pay for the Jeep. Before I could answer, he advised me that everyone, everywhere is marking the vehicle. vehicles up like this. He said, it works best if I just sell my offers. Just surrender. You listen, play the game with me. This is the way we do it. This isn't really easier for you. I'm not going to give you the price. You got to tell me what you want the price to be, and then I got to go back and talk to this guy in a room, and then I come back and say, no, and then you give me another

price. Just don't be difficult. Just play along. Diego, who I admire so much for thinking on his feet turned into a pit bull and he's just absolutely he was talking out of his it was just absolutely obnoxious he asked me what price I'd be willing to pay for the Jeep

before I can answer he advised me that everyone everywhere is marking the vehicles up like he said okay I said all that already and that's how I would come up with why I wouldn't come up with an offer Diego sends my frustration finally

and ask me if I was like a price I said yeah I'm not giving you a price. Would you like a price? No, I don't want a price. He said he'd be right back with a window sticker and a price worksheet. He returned a few months with a printed copy of the Monronia label worksheet. The MSRP I finally learned was 47-585.

The worksheet told a different story. The top line was $62,883 to which they added $166.50-filing fee and $849. fee, both hidden phony fees. My real price was $63,897, 16,312 over MSRP. Doug said that all that stood between me and my new Jeep, all that stood between me and my new Jeep was me signing that piece of paper, a silly thing to say. I laughed, said that's ridiculous. I asked him if you, if that was the best he could do, Diego said, it was since I was paying cash and told me about the finance specialist they had. Oh, yeah.

That's when we were really going to get your money. I'm taking you to my finance specialist. I set up, said it was clear he wasn't willing to work with me. I started to walk toward the exit when the manager, Tony, here comes Tony, he's running over. He tried to stop me, but I kept walking. I wish we had a video of this. Tony running, begging her, and there goes Agent Lightning. If they sue us, we could subpoena.

subpoena, their security cameras. This is classic old school. This is a pain of their security cameras. This is the way they always did it 20 years ago. I got to my car. Tony stood outside my window. Was he carrying a gun? She rolled the window down.

I mean, I like it when they beat on the window, but she rolled the window down. I asked him what he wanted. He said he oversaw all the Wallace dealerships. Oh, Tony's the big boss. We know he is because he said he was We have his card Yeah we have his card

He said he wanted to know what happened And said Diego was new I said Yeah right I didn't want him to come back inside I told Tony about the window sticker How hard it was to get a price From Diego

He told me to forget about Diego Don't worry about Diego And you come back inside So again personally Hey personally Take care of me I told him I was too hard I was too mad

And continued to laugh So there we have I feel like I'm going back in time, and that's what this dealership is, is living in a time warp. It has not entered the 21st century, and Bill Wallace owns it. Entertaining, but very sad. We have a minimal amount of time here. Right, so we don't have a whole lot coming in, but we do have, Bob says, as Diego would say, what great do you want?

how about neff and i am inclined to agree because we had some uh listen i it was probably an oversight and they didn't pdi i the car right and put the stickers on but that's still illegal and i'm giving them an f and am re is in with an f so i think bob also yeah so bob me and amory are all on the same page okay uh i think that i'm going to take a moment to uh thank uh mystery shopper uh agent lightning on her impeccable skills her her performance, her care, everything, education. She does a great job week in and week out. And I want to thank her for that in my score will be an F.

Earl? F. Okay. Rick? I've got Kirk in West By God, Virginia. The Monroney label must have been unlimited. The grade is a fully qualified unlimited F. Nigan 1, grade F, FM for Phony Monroney.

I've got, let's see, Mark from St. Louis, not sure if it's twisted logic talking or twisted T, great F. Tom Sekel, F, lack of integrity and character at any price. Mark Smith, I have to fail them, F. Tom, Tim and Yuma, what an insulting experience encounter, F, Scott Hunter, F, Mark Ryan, F, Wayne Vite, F, F, and Brian said Lacko, forget about it, F, and myself, it's the big F. Yes, and ladies and gentlemen, remember, it's dealers like this that keep us at the bottom of the gallop pole. That gallop pole is on honesty, ethics, profession, and you can help us change all that. Thank you for joining us this morning.

We'll be right back here next Saturday morning. Have a wonderful weekend. No, no way. Oh! I don't know.