Earl Stewart on Cars - 03.04.2023 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Napleton's Northlake Hyundai

Episode Date: March 4, 2023

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits Napleton Hyundai, a local dealer that has received repeated F grades in the past, to see how much over sticker price they will charge for new 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe SEL Hybrid SUV. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, 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 linked to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Periscope. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our Mystery Shopping Report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting South Florida dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. We're back in full strength. I got the Stu here, and we got Rick. We got Jonathan, the control room, Nancy Stewart, my co-host by my side here. and for another exciting edition, I guess you could call it, of rolling cars. We're going to tell you how to avoid being taken advantage of in the process of buying or leasing a car, also maintaining or repairing your car.

We've been doing this for a long time. I love new listeners because if you haven't heard the show, just stay tuned for a few minutes. You're not going to listen for two hours. around until 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, but you probably don't want to listen for that long. You probably got a busy Saturday morning plan. But listen for a few minutes

because you'll hear some things, and you'll learn some things, hopefully. You might even want to call the show about car dealers. And that's kind of our sole purpose in existence here is to aid you, and arguably the most unpleasant experience that people have in, Certainly in the process of buying something, you know, you buy a loaf of bread, you buy a house, you buy a lawnmower, you ain't seen nothing until you try to buy a car.

And we're buying cars the way, I guess people bought cars a hundred years ago. The car dealers are locked in. They're protected. They're a protected species, actually. They should be endangered. I say that slightly tongue and cheek because I am. I am one of them in full transparency. I am a car dealer and had been for a long, long time.

So I kind of came over to the other side, joined you consumers, but I kept my dealership. And I'm trying to write the wrongs that have been foisted upon you, the buying public in America, and the whole world, actually. But we're focusing on the United States. we're going to try to change some things. If we can't change the dealer, we're going to educate you and advise you and consult with you any way we can to help you.

So the show is basically you when you call the show. We sit here and look at each other and worry when we don't get calls or text or Facebook post or YouTube posts. We're all over cyberspace. The telephone number is 877 960

9960. That's 877 960 9960 Please jot that number down if you have a second and you could do it safely

877 960 9960 Now if you call the show we're going to answer the phone pretty quickly. I mean we're if we're on the line with somebody else obviously we can't hang up

on that, but we're going to move quickly to get to your call and we like the phone calls. It's more personal. It really says it all. You get a flavor for a person's ideas, thoughts, personality.

You know how it is when you're speaking one-on-one. We're in a digital age now. Everything is digital. But you can't be good old-fashioned chit-chat, and that's what we like to do when you call 877. 960 9960. Now for the majority, because I know a lot of people prefer text. I'm one of them. I'm not a telephone person, mainly because of time. I just done off time, hours in the day, and I try to use text as much as possible. So if you're a texter like me, our text number is 772-4976530. That's 772-497-6530. That's 772-497-497.

6530. And if we don't get your text right away, I just told you, we're going to prioritize phone calls. 877-960-9960. But if you text us at 772-497-6530, are you getting dizzy? I am. I'm not throwing these numbers out so fast.

I'm good. I think Stu dozed off there. I was stretching my back. but we're on Facebook and Facebook.com for slash roland cars Facebook.com for slash roland cars

Stu Stewart he monitors that and he also monitors the text so and then Rick Kearney to my right who is also our automotive repair maintenance expert

he monitors YouTube. YouTube.com for slash Roland cars. So you can post on YouTube and he'll get that right away. I always emphasize Rick because

the what is it, the romance of the automobile is buying a new car. Here's the truth. You like him better than all of us. No, no, no. Right guys? I just think he's got more information. I'll be honest with you. He's got more specific information

that on a daily basis you can use. We probably You only buy a car every four or five, six years. You repair your car every three or four or five months, or maintain your car, I should say. Hopefully you don't have to repair the car every three or four or five months. But if you do have a little thing with your car, Rick is the guy. So if you just go to YouTube.com, he'll see it right away.

Or you can call Dr. Rick at 877-960. Rick, for you new folks, Rick has been of the business for over a quarter century. technically. And he's evolved from a grease monkey, part of the expression, just an old-fashioned mechanic, into a robotic electronics,

he could even say artificial intelligence. Well, he's got real intelligence. But he understands the high-tech cars of today. And let me tell you something. I sometimes think the engineers that are designed them don't understand them. I guarantee you,

the manufacturers, in general that we deal with, they don't understand them, they are off the radar in terms of high tech. I help teach them what they built. Yeah. I explained to him what they built. He's not joking. That's Rick, and he's telling the truth.

Rick fills out reports on cars to tell the engineers what they build, what these cars are doing. And they say, oh, well, we didn't know what would do that, and then they fix it. So, but let's give due credit to the engineers of all the make cars. They know that the guys in the field that are looking at the real McCoy products when they come in the door with a problem and they fix it. They know a little bit more about the car than the engineer that designed it. The engineer designed the car, they know what it's supposed to do.

Rick Kearney knows what the car really does. So if you want to short circuit having to go to General Motors, or Toyota or Honda, and find out what really is going on with your car. Call Rick Kearney at 877-9-60-9-60 or go directly to him on YouTube, and you can send him a video clip, an audio clip, and really get a free diagnosis. You go into a car dealership, you're probably going to pay a couple hundred bucks for what Rick can tell you for free. So I'm really pushing Rick this morning, but it's true. He really does.

That's a good point. He does. Absolutely. Now, we also have a secret line. Don't tell anybody about this. It's a secret. I didn't know about a secret. Youranonymousfeedback.com.

If you go to Youranonymousfeetback.com, we don't know who you are, where you are. We can't come and find you. And you have total privacy. And we get some very interesting anonymous feedback. So you're a Y-O-U-R anonymous, A-N-O-N-Y-N-Y-N-U-S feedback, just the way it sounds.com. Your anonymous feedback.com. And I swear, you have my word of honor, we don't know who you are, unless you tell us. And some people do it, they tell us, I don't know why they use the Enumous Feedback, but say, hi, Earl, this is a Charlie.

But that's okay. You can tell us who you are. Your amount of feedback.com, that way you can be candid. You might have something you would be afraid would hurt our feelings. You might have something that is maybe not a little profane, profound, whatever it could be.

You can say anything, and we will read it on the air only bleeping the expertise, but we'll read it on the air, kind of like the text. So that pretty much sums it up of what we do. I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart.

She is our female consumer advocate. Females are different than males. Breaking news, okay? They like different cars than men. They drive different cars than men. But you know something? They buy and lease just as many cars, maybe even a few more.

So there's such an important economic impact on the world. we like to build up as many female call as we can. And Nancy, she got the parody in female male callers up from zero when we started 20 years ago. Now we're 50-50 female callers. And one of the reasons is, of course, a special offer. She has for new ladies out there, your females listening. If you haven't called the show before, listen to what Nancy will do for you and give to you if you do that phone call. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome.

Welcome to another exciting show. Boy, do we have a lot of information to share with you. That consumer report, my goodness, if you didn't receive it, if you didn't go out and purchase it, it is really definitely worth its weight and gold, and that's the February edition that I'm talking about. Also, I haven't gotten to that yet. Also, there's the addition that I stumbled upon at Publix, and that is the used car addition, the most reliable.

And I believe that that is 23 April, as Earl just suggested. So with all that, and we have a great mystery shopping report. I'll give you a little hint. second to none since 1931. That's all I'll say. Notorious. Notorious.

That's a good word. I promised the recovering car dealer that I would control myself. I'm going to try. Okay, ladies, ladies, as Earl said, you are a huge part of the auto industry. You really are financially big, very big.

You make a lot of decisions. We encourage you to call this show and be part of the show. Your voice is very important. The number is 877-960-9960, and you can also text us if you're a little shy. It's 772-497-6530. This morning I have $50 for the first two. New lady callers, $50, give us a call toll-free at 877-960-99-60. Excuse me while I turn off my timer.

I have some interesting news from the automotive news about ladies and how brands take, well, how they rank among female car buyers. I have a question for you, ladies. Give us a call this morning and let us know. What's your favorite car is to drive? In the automotive news, they talk about the popularity of, and this is for women, that drive these vehicles. That's the Buick, the Missibishi, the Mini, the Lexis, Infinity, Mazda, Kia. It's really interesting. And the cars that they don't like, well, GMC.

Ford, Tesla, to name a few. So help us out here, join in the show, and give us your opinion, give us a call, and let us know how you feel about these brands that rank among female buyers, female car buyers. I don't know why do women like Buick so much, and I know you do because that's where the survey came out, but why? You know, I don't think the average person, I never thought that, I thought Buick was a good car. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it, but I've never heard of it as being the number one car. So you ladies out there, we'd love to hear from you why, according to the survey, a lot of you're driving Buick's. Why is that? We men would be curious.

Yes, very much so. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-3-0. Buick's listen. That's what. I'm scared. See, we have two comedians in the studio. I mean, is there anybody? I don't know.

Nancy doesn't even know why. She said in the car coming in, we're talking about it. Why do women like beauty? I don't know. That's the reason. If you don't know, you ask the questions. Hey, if anybody out there wants to know what my favorite car is to drive, it's the barracuda.

I know that. Okay, getting back to some serious stuff. Your anonymous feedback, it's real important. Use it. www. Your anonymous feedback.com. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Excuse me.

We have to get to the phones. Okay. Okay, we're going to go to Jan. And Jan is called. us from Lake Worth, and she is a first-time caller. Oh, wow. Good morning, Jane. Hey, good morning.

Can you hear me? I can. Welcome. You just won yourself $50. Well, thank you. I just want to say, first and foremost, I enjoy your show. I'm always in my car. I'm driving to the gym.

I take some classes, and I always turn you on in the morning, and I always learned something, and I'm so grateful that you have this show. Oh, thanks. Thank you. you. Jan, what kind of a car do you drive? I'm right now driving the Toyota Camry hybrid. It's a 2012. Uh-huh. But it's in 2014. It was 20,000 miles on it for $20,000. And I just love it to death.

It does everything for me. You know, it's wonderful. Yeah, we were wondering why we read a survey in automotive news that said women prefer Buick's. And so obviously you don't prefer Buick's. But Do you have any thoughts on Buick's? Do you have any women friends that love Buick's? I think I used to own one. Okay, there you go. I think it was a large one, and my kids used to call it a gangster car.

You know, I used to take kids to school. I used to be a chauffeur. That's funny. You could fit a lot of kids in the car, and then they used to write a thank you note and say, oh, thank you, Jan, for taking us on the school trip. We love your gangster car. You know, it was a lot. Great. Did you know the Toyota also stands out in popularity among women?

Yes. It's a conservative. Okay. It's a conservative car. Pardon me? I think it's like a conservative car. You know, it has, you know, I like the bells and list like this, but it's just a basic car. Chand, does it surprise you that women don't, well, they're not interested in driving a Tesla.

no that's not true that might be my next car two out of my four sons have Tesla well thank you you've just proved the automotive news wrong I think it's who you associate with you know like two out of my four sons own them and they let me drive them and they're trying to get me into it because I'm getting older I'm going to be 70 and they want me to have more more safety features yeah that's that's a that's a great reason I'm 80 And I do drive a Tesla plat. Well, let me rephrase that. My husband and I drive a Tesla.

Wonderful. So what can we do for you this morning? Well, I just wanted to call you and just tell you how much I enjoy listening to you. And I'm a first caller, and that was kind of like an incentive as well. Thank you very much for the call. Yeah, thanks for taking the time, especially when you're going to work. God, you go, girl. You betcha.

Have a great weekend. You too. Thank you. Stay on the line and give me your contact information, Jan. Sure will. Okay, we're going to go to Tony, who's calling us from Port St. Lucie. Good morning, Tony. Hi, good morning.

How are you? Great. I enjoy your show also. It's a great program, and when I, I did work. I was in the automotive industry a little bit. I was a vendor for the car companies, and you guys always had a great reputation. So that was good, too. But my question is, are you taking orders on the grand, what is it, Highlander that's coming out in 24? Yes.

Yes. Okay. So you are taking. Okay. So they have pricing. They have everything. So if I come down and talk to them, okay. No, no, there's not exactly pricing. We have approximate pricing, knowing that every model year goes up a small amount. Actually, last year they went have a large amount to, I guess, an inflation adjustment adjustment, but usually like 1%. But also, if you put in an order for a 20-24 Highlander,

that vehicle is going to get delivered in 2024. And we anticipate pricing coming down considerably by then. certainly. We anticipate it coming down. It is coming down, and it's slowly throughout this year. So it'll be market pricing. I don't think dealers then will be charging over MSRP then. And so you just get in an order, and it's going to take some time, but getting in early is the smartest thing to do. Yeah, I've owned Toyota and Lexuses for the last 25 years, and they're great products. Knock on wood, never had a problem with any of them. and some of them I had over 100,000 miles on.

And, you know, they're just great products, very reliable, very happy with them. And I was thinking about buying the Palisades because it's a little bit bigger. And right now I have a Sienna hybrid, you know, the 2021. And I was thinking about trading it in on a Palisades, but I really wanted to stay with the Toyota product. It's just the Highlander was a little small where the Grand Highlander, by its dimension are going to be similar product to the, you know, the bigger product. Yeah.

That was the area they were trying to, TOT is trying to get in there with the Grand Highlander. Right. They'll be coming out in a platinum and a limited also, right? They always do that. They're going to be divided up by trim levels, yeah. All right, great. Thank you very much. I'll be coming down and see you then.

You're welcome, Tony. Thanks for thinking of us, Tony. Have a great weekend. All righty. Bye-bye. 877-960-99-60. you can text us at 772-497-6530. Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

Don't forget that. That's real important. Now back to the recovering car dealer. The backdrop that Jonathan put together for us is the cover of the April annual auto edition of Consumer Reports. And I've been reading this as long as I can remember. And this is the best annual auto edition.

I've seen. If you take nothing else from this show, if you're watching, if you're listening, watching a podcast or any other way, you should get a copy of this. Even if you're not going to buy a car, you probably have friends that are buying cars, family members. This is excellent. They did an outstanding job. They really rank all the new cars and they used cars.

and you can even buy a car through Consumer Reports. You can go to Consumer Reports. It's CR.org dash car, I might say, C-A-R-E. You need your magnifying glass. Yeah, call tracker. Yeah. Anyway, this is the safest, most reliable, accurate way to buy a car. and they even have a QR code behind me

I think you should be able to capture that with your smartphone and go directly to consumer reports but if you're thinking about buying a new use car that's the very first thing you should do I mean we like you to listen to the show we have some good information we have some good information for you on the show but this

consumer reports can only tell you the best car to buy It also tells you the cars you don't want to buy. And I always say, I know you probably don't want to buy the number one car, the number two car. Everybody has personal feelings about cars, okay? But you don't want to buy the worst car, right? And Consumer Reports has a list of the worst used cars and the worst new cars. Now, fortunately, there's not that many of them. So if you just did nothing else to buy.

that consumer report April edition to find out the cars you don't want to buy. I mean, you really feel stupid. I hate feeling stupid. I mean, I make mistakes. And if I make an honest mistake, you know, I can live with it. But if I make a stupid mistake, I beat myself up for about two days. So don't beat yourself up for two days by buying a car that Consumer Reports told you was a terrible car. And I'll pick up an addition of the... the April annual auto consumer reports. You can get it free at the library. You can even go online free at the local library,

and you can go online or you can pick up a copy at the newsstand. So, or you subscribe. Anyway, I swear to you, I'm not an agent for consumer reports, and I don't get a commission for selling consumer reports. and I know a lot of people out there don't like consumer reports. I've had my issues with the consumer reports. They're not perfect. The only thing they are is they are totally honest.

And I will stake my life on that. They are honest. They don't take money from the manufacturers of automobiles. They don't take money from car dealers. They don't take all the, they only, they exist on contributions. They don't accept advertising. When they test a car, they buy it for the sticker price. They go to the car dealer, and they don't say, I'm consumer reports.

They just say, I want to buy that car, they buy it, and they test it. So total transparency, total honesty, I know they're not always right. I know they make mistakes, but they're right about 95% of the time or maybe even better. I agree with you. They aren't always right, but 95 or more percent of the time they are. And they test these fees. vehicles, as you said, they purchased them, and the number of miles that they drive these vehicles is really impressive. It's not only impressive, but it just really helps to, you know,

walk you through this landmine that we call the auto industry. The other addition that I have in my hands is the used car that just came out, and they list the worst, the very, They had the very worst list of used cars that you can check out. And it just helps to prepare you on this journey to purchase a vehicle. And there's a whole lot of other great information in this edition. And by the way, I picked this up at Publix yesterday. It was really an accident that I saw it on the stands. I had never seen something like this before.

But it's a great Bible. or you can text us at 772-4976530. We're going to talk with Doug. He's a regular caller, and he's calling us from Boca. Good morning. Good morning, Doug. Hey, Doug. Is that you?

I hear you a cat. I think we got a... My middle name's Doug. Yeah. Call back, Doug. We can't hear you. Your metal name is Doug. I think his cat dialed us.

I'll call back. Oh, no, I hear you, Doug. I hear you. You hear me now? Yeah, we can hear you know. Yeah, we heard. You're probably guzzling coffee, right? No, actually, I didn't make it yet.

I yelled at Sim, I said, please boil the water. I'm coffeeless. So, Sim had this miraculous thing happen with our Honda Accord. It's a 2018, and she extended the lease, right? And she kept extending the lease. And it's... It's a 2018, and now it's 2023, and they said we have till April. And it's like, I've never heard this before, that a company like Honda would do that.

It's just bizarre. It is, yeah. You're right. Because we were supposed to turn it in, you know, almost two years ago. Yeah, that's a record. That could be a Guinness record. I don't know why they would do that, but that's great. I mean, you know, it's a bargain for you.

Right. And so I want to get into a Toyota, but the situation with the G.Rs makes me want to give up on that. What other kind of Toyota would you suggest that wouldn't be like $70,000, like the Super? Well, you know, again, I'll go back to consumer reports. I know I sound like a broken record, but they rank the Corolla as, I think, the best car, the best new car. And, yeah, and so it's very reasonable. priced compared to all

the others and that's what you know that's not coming from me that's coming from consumer reports what is it you're really looking for though well I wanted the GR but I gave up on that since it's it's like I don't want to mention

just like every dealership they'll call me up and they go oh we got the core and I go how much is that and the most thicker price is this but we added this and that So you're looking at the GR Supra. Yeah. The BMW.

The GR Corolla. Oh, the GRR. Okay. Yeah, it was a Corolla hybrid. I'm sorry, Doug. It was a Corolla hybrid. That's the number one car. And then the cross is the number two car.

Sounds like I'm doing a commercial. But let's go to the number three cars as a Subaru Forrester and the Ford Maverick hybrid. So as I say, If you don't have a copy of the April consumer reports, which you probably don't because it just came out. But you can thumb through there, and you'll find at least their opinion on the best car you should buy. Okay, and I still have my Honda Civic S.I. That was a replacement for the one that was struck by lightning. Honda's a great car.

Honda's one of the top cars in the world. There's also the rumor that they're going to take the Toyota 86. which is the old Cyan FRS and make that, that's going to be a GR soon. Yeah, and that's the one I was interested in too, but when that'll be available is sketching. Probably another year or two. Excuse me, sorry, a year or two for that one. And then Sim says, well, why don't we get a Tesla? Look, and I know you guys did, but I'm still not sure about electric cars.

I know they're good, but you still have things about them, like you have to put a special outlet in your house in order to charge them, right? Well, you don't have to. I mean, you can use outside chargers, but they have a – it is convenient. I love it because every night I just plug in the, you know, the test. and you never think about charging it's just automatic you charge it every day and you have a full charge and I got 300 miles and of course I don't drive 300 miles a day usually anyway so I love the idea of charging them yeah it's not it's not difficult at all we

really have you know we really have a have it down pat now I mean before we would forget to charge you know the Tesla but it's just it's like having a cup of coffee you can relate to that you just plug it in and i usually unplug it in the morning because sometimes you know earl always says to me i'm really afraid that i'm going to forget to unplug the tesla and i'm out there and i can see it so i just take it up but it's just in the beginning it was difficult i'll think about getting a very long cord just in case now i got it handled and the unit is waterproof too so it can be mounted my neighbor has been mounted on the outside of their house So, I mean, you don't have to have it, like, totally garaged.

It'll mount outside. And I guarantee that Tesla's smart enough. You're not going to drive away with that cord connected. It's not going to be electric. Doug, you'll enjoy this. Rick sent me an article that you know that Mississippi is making it illegal to sell electric vehicles. What? Who's doing that?

Mississippi. Mississippi. The state of Mississippi is telling the electric car manufacturers that they cannot sell cars out of facilities. A brick and mortar building. Brick and mortar facilities. And I mean, I'm not going to make any comments. There are people out there from Mississippi. I know that are very nice people and very intelligent people. There's probably people in Mississippi very embarrassed by that. But to me, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard my lives.

lives. Well, they're going to make them follow. It's the dealerships there and the other manufacturers, other auto manufacturers are going to make them follow that same tried and, well, messed up situation where they've got to have dealerships for electric cars, the same as regular cars, which will ruin like. Which ain't going to happen.com. So that's just a way. Another way of saying, we don't like electric vehicles. Okay, hey, Doug, do you have any other questions? I'm really sorry to cut you short. We are really backed up on the phone lines.

No, no, no. You gave me lots of time, thank you. I'll see you guys in the morning. Thank you so much. Sounds good. Thank you. Bye-bye. 877-960 or you can text us at 772-497-30.

And here's some information via Jonathan. Thanks so much, Jonathan. Did you know that General Motors hired a female engineer? Uh-huh. They hired a female engineer to build the features on the Buick model, such as better seating and bigger cup holders, amongst other things. Well, the answer to the question. So there's some of the reasons why women.

I knew there had to be an answer, and that is, you know. Thanks, Jonathan. Kudos to General Motors. I mean, duh, you want to sell cars? cars to women, let a woman help design the car, and that she understands women. Wow. That's a great. Thanks, Jonathan. Yeah, definitely. We are going to go back to the phones. We're going to talk to David from New Jersey. Good morning, David. Good morning. I have a question for Rick today. Yes. He's right here. Okay, Rick. Well, first, I want to thank you a couple, about two months ago. I called about my

windshield wipers, the Toyota dealer wanted to change the switch and you suggested the motor and I ordered the motor, they put it in and that was the problem. You know, it was only working on the high speed. Yep.

And you gave me some reasons why it probably was the motor and you were right. So that really helped me out. It saved me time and money. Good. I'm glad. Excellent. Okay. So my question is now, now the car is a 2012 Prius I'm the original owner

has about 160,000 miles and now the light's staying on on the dashboard so the dealer wants to change the four devices but that's kind of too expensive like $850 to do it and then they'll put

after markets in but they told me they generally don't work I would have to bring it to them and no guarantees which light is staying on the tire pressure is staying on and blinking and they said it's the devices

and the wheels need to changed. Right, the tire pressure sensor. It could be one or it could be two or three or all four of them have either the battery has finally given up and it's reaching a low point where the battery can't send a signal out or the unit itself has simply died. And 11 years old, yeah, they do start hitting that point. Our dealership, we've actually reduced our price on them. It's like, $100 each on the sensor itself and then the labor is about I want to say about 150 for the first one 200 for the second third and fourth because anything over the first one is just one price for the up to the next four of them um the problem is that you can replace it

but it's got a code number written on that sensor that you need to make sure you save that code number because then that has to be programmed into the computer in the car so that it knows what sensor to look for. Now they've got them the newest ones coming out. The car will automatically detect it and understand, hey, that's my sensor after it's been driving down the road for a few miles and it will even determine where on the car that sensor is. But with the older ones, Yeah, it does get a little pricey to replace those. Does you have to go to the dealer to do that? Generally, yes, because our software for programming that part is proprietary.

Your other option really is just follow the old-fashioned check my tire pressures once a month like everybody used to do, and a little bit of black electrical tape hides that light, and you never even see it. And, I mean, we're not talking a system that is required by law. We're not talking a system that is going to prevent you from having a serious breakdown. You know, that's what I do, David. I think that's a great idea. A little black friction tape over the light, and be sure you check your tire pressure once a month. Yeah, I mean, just like we used to do.

That's what I was going to do if I couldn't do it any lower. The only thing is if you do have a flat or a blowout while you're driving, Yeah, and the fact that expensive is the fact that you have to go to the dealer and you're from New Jersey. You might call your local legislator in New Jersey and say, have you considered the Right to Repair Act? The Right to Repair Act is starting to be put in different states and they're lobbying in Florida right now for that trying to get that in, which says that any independent repair company has right to the data and the software and the information that the manufacturer has on the car.

Right now, it's a secret between the dealer and the manufacturer. So ABC repair company can't buy the diagnostic machinery. They can't get the information, the software, to do a repair. So they limit the competition, therefore the prices are sky high. If you get that through in New Jersey, I guarantee you the replacement cost of those sensors would be half of what you're having to pay now. Well, that's what Costco told me. They do them, and they actually did some on a car of mine years and years ago,

but they said they can't do them on Toyota and Lexus because of what you just said. Yeah. But I mean... I realized that that was true. Yeah, if you go back to any car before 2004, when those sensors were first being installed, it was only a couple years before that that they were using what's called a non-intrusive system

where the computer would simply look at the wheel speed sensors and say, oh, this wheel's traveling at a different speed than the other three constantly, so it must be low on air. But you go back just a few years before that, my car's never had sensors or anything. I only knew if the tire was low by, looking at it so you check your tires once a month and you're good you know great information

rick and david if you have another question uh we'll take it but we have so many calls backed up i'm good i appreciate taking my question have a good day you're welcome and david take a look at that february edition of the new car features that we love some we don't and it talks all about what we just discussed tire pressure and sensors and computers hey seven seven 960-99-60 or you can text us at 772-4976530 we're going to go to bill who has been holding patiently from palm springs good morning bill good morning nancy i had a question or two for earl but first i wanted to ask you why did you tell that lady you're 80 years old uh i've seen your picture i think i think i uh before you say anything you ask me why because I think about my age more now than I ever did before.

And I should have been thinking about it before because no one believed that my children were my children. They thought they were my sisters. Nobody believes you're 80. Pardon me? Nobody believes you're 80. And right now, at 80 years old, I think about mortality and I think about what life I have left ahead of me.

And I should have been doing this before, but I'm doing it more so right now and trying to enjoy every single moment on this earth. And I'm proud that I live this long, but I want to live, it sounds ridiculous,

another 80 years. Okay, I answered your question. I understand. No, I understand. I think about my own mortality at times, but anyways, I had a question or two for Earl. Okay. He's right there.

Earl. I'm 82 years old. Earl, I know you have a lot of callers, and you might have wrote about this in your book. That isn't going to stop me from knocking him off his chair. Your father was Doug Stewart, right? I was my brother. He was my older brother, half-brother, actually. And Earl Stewart was my father, and I'm Earl Stewart, Jr.

And sitting across from me is Earl Stewart III, now, aka Stu. The last of the Earl's. Yes, the last of the earls. Okay. I know you have a lot of callers with more pressing questions on financing and questions for Rick and all, but I was just wondering if I could ask you about your brother. I was born and raised here, and while I never met him, I do remember him from his television commercials. Yeah.

And I was just wondering how he got his start in the business and when and where you all were originally from here. Was your dad in the business also? Yeah. My dad started to Stuart Pontiac in 1937. In West Palm? In West Palm Beach, yeah. Okay. And my brother, Doug Stewart, at that time, was in Detroit, and he was working for GMAC,

John Motors' Acceptance Corporation. And after my father bought the, well, he started it from scratch with a man named Lawrence Obie, and there were 50-50 partners. So in 1945, he asked my brother, I was five years old at the time, and I was too young to work in the dealership. So he asked my brother to come to West Palm Beach, and he did. And he came into the business with my father. So that's how Doug Stewart started in the business,

and Automotive Bracken, Gentle Motors Acceptance Corporation. Okay, so your dad built the dealership, the Pontiac dealership down there on Dixie? Yeah, it was, Lawrence Obie was his partner. If you want to, the real history, my mother loaned him, or life savings, $10,000 to start the dealership, and then Obie put in the rest of the money, and rumor had it that he got his money from bootlegging during prohibition, but that's only a rumor. And they started the dealership, and the rest is it. history. Why does Lawrence Obie sound familiar? What else did he do? That name sounds familiar

for some reason. You know, honestly, he lived at Laugh, the Fontana apartments on Flagler. He lived, he was from Michigan. He had a sailboat, and my father told me that he used to get booze in Canada and sailed across the Lake Michigan or whatever it is, and sell during prohibition. And he made a lot of money. When was repeal? So, I mean, he's, he, uh, Lawrence Obie has long passed away, and I think the statute of limitations are up so I can let the cat out of the bag. So did your dad build the Pontiac dealership on Dixie?

Yes, yeah. Well, actually, the very first one was on Olive, and that building no longer exists. And then he, uh, he moved into the Pontiac dealership, which was at 1928 South Dixie High way right across the care free theater everybody a lot of people all the time yeah right next right yeah and roger dean was down the street before he moved out west yeah roger dean yeah and McCoy was a first Toyota dealer he moved into the place where roger dean was it's just a lot of history you sound like a guy that's been around town for a while well i was born and raised here oh yeah and uh i remember the oldsmobile dealership down there on olive oh yeah clark was it harper old's

Clark, Oldsmobile, Harper Clark. I mean Harper Clark, rather? Harper Clark was my father's first salesman. Really? And then apparently he did pretty well because he was able to get the Oldsmobile franchise. So a lot of history. Okay. I'd love to talk with you about this.

I know you have other callers. I'll let you go. Do you write about any of this in your book? I've been meaning to get it. I'd want to get it one day. Yeah. Well, actually, my new book, which I keep saying is coming out. I said it was coming out in January.

I lied. And it's very near being published. So it's called Confessions of a recovering car dealer. And I do talk about what you talk about. Redemption. Okay. Yeah. Redemptions of a recovery car dealer.

Yeah. The first one is confessions of a recovery car dealer. We're trying our best to get it, well, published. Wrapped up. That's it wrapped up. I know you have other callers. I'd love to sit down with you over a beer one day and talk to talk with you. like that too, go. I'll let you go. Thank you. Thanks so much for the call. We're going to go to

John, who has been holding patiently from West Palm Beach. Good morning, John. Oh, good morning. For the gentleman that called earlier about wanting to get a GR, but now he's thinking, well, he was turned off about the Tesla because he had to get a different outlet. Yeah, I was darned. When I was calling into the station, you may have already answered his question or came up with this. But for me, when we bought our Tesla, we bought the charging system that was $500. It runs on 240. We had it installed.

Electric should have came out and installed it. We have it on the inside of the garage. And the best investment we ever made, and it's not a special outlet. It just runs off of $2.40 out of your U.S. That's correct. Yeah, that's correct. And if he's still listening, my charging bill for the month, it's on the app, is only $46 a month to charge my car at home. Yeah.

And I do it at midnight when it's $0.16 a kilowatt hour. Yeah, that's real smart. I didn't even think about that. I just bought mine in at night, but I should wait. until the rates go down. Yeah, and they go through it with you. You know, you just find out when you're stay off of the peak charging hours

and it's listed there. Do you know if there's any smart, like, chargers out there that does that automatically? You just kind of draws only during the optimal times? I don't think so, but it should be. I mean, as far as I know, I'd have to get up at midnight and bug it in. Well, there's an I thought about this.

for taking a little tangent, but it's related. You know, Tesla sells those battery walls for homes. And there's a process where you have a big battery in your house, and it charges when electricity is cheap, and then you only use it when it's expensive. And so you eventually, you whittled down the actual effective cost of the electricity. Yeah. And that would be a similar thing with charging a vehicle.

It'll happen. I mean, that's a great idea. Yeah, great idea. I just invented that on the radio. Earl, just to let you know, you don't have to get up at midnight. When you go to charge your car, you can schedule when your car starts charging. Oh, that's right. Yeah, that's right.

I forget about that. Yeah. That's exactly that. Thank you. That was the best step I've had all day. I'll do that. So the, and then if the gentleman's still listening, I was looking last night for some reason, but ignore the haters out there.

There's a lot of bad press. It's always going on about Tesla's. But right now, if the Tesla, why? They're coming into South Florida here, and they're going for $51,000. You can get a test long range. Isn't it amazing, John? Elon Musk, I'm going to tell you what.

What a great move. I mean, there are going to be more consumers who can afford a Tesla, and it's a great car, and we are moving in. to, well, we're there, we're not moving into it, electric. Yeah, and right now the Tesla Y is eligible for the $7,500

until March. Exactly. Yeah, there are actually rumors that Elon Moskey is planning now to come out with an even lower price, Tesla. His goal is to be the number one

car manufacturer in the world. Right now he's halfway there, and he wants to double his sales, and he's already committed the budget the billions and billions that he's going to have to spend to do that, and he knows to do that he's going to have to have a Tesla that you can buy all electric vehicle, probably for somewhere around 20,000 or maybe less. So when Elon Musk speaks, people listen, I think it's going to happen. Yeah, and then I've mentioned it before. But like I said, the gentleman, I think he was in Del Rey.

Just based on experience, I drive from here to Houghton Lake, Michigan, and it cost me $70 one way. Wow. From Supercharger to Supercharger. Wow. That's amazing. What a statement. Thanks very much. It's nice to hear some say nice things about Tesla because you're right.

There are a lot of Tesla haters out there, and Elon Musk. It's interesting. I mean, anytime something gets hugely popular and successful, there's always another side. But that's the way life should be. Democracy, speak your mind. Yeah, and for those that are on the fence about whether or not a Tesla, they go to Toro.com and rent a Tesla for three days and see if you like it or not. There you go.

Because there's a lot of them out there. Win-win. And they go for $70. yeah they go for $70 a day so it's worth it yes all right very good thanks Sean give us a call again

877 960 9960 or you can text us at 772-49760 ladies I asked a question earlier and I'll repeat it if you're if you didn't hear me I'd like to know

what brand vehicle you would rather drive and also this Buick that women would rather drive are you one of them engineered by a woman see that's the genius yeah i'm always saying negative things about general motors that is a very positive statement that they had the the foresight to realize hey if you want to sell more cars to women let a woman design the car and that's what they did The Buick is designed by a woman. The inside of that car, boy, I'll tell you what, you climb into the car. Well, you purchase a car. Then you climb into the car and you're driving.

And all of a sudden you say, Lord, what can I do with this seat? You know, it wasn't designed for me, the female, that may have a smaller frame. There's just a lot of great ideas that can come from a female that is an engineer and designs the inside of a car. um ladies uh 50 dollars i have 50 dollars here for one more one more i'm out of breath uh first time caller so give us a call 877 960 99060 uh don't forget your anonymous feedback dot com and we're going to go to dick and jupiter good morning dick welcome how you all doing we're doing great to talk with you I'm a Tesla owner up in Jupiter, and I'm a fanboy, but that's listening to I talked to you before.

Just a couple of reminders. You just were discussing charging off-peak hours. If you go to your app, you'll find that there's a button there you can switch to charge it off-peak hours. Mm-hmm. And your Tesla app? Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. Yeah. I'm pulling it up.

Yeah, you can do, I remember that, I think I had that, I never used it back when I was driving that one a couple of year ago or so. But I never even thought why to use it, but yeah, that's right here. I'm looking, I can't believe I didn't look at this. I'm going to, it says schedule and says all peak charge. Because you don't read the energy costs. And all I got to do is hit this button. I just did it.

Wow. Based on the last discussion, I thought it was appropriate. I had a couple, another reminder item. I heard you mentioned a couple times that you have. to be plugged in to update your Tesla you do not have to be plugged in up for the camera all you Tesla owners that are as stupid

as I am no I didn't even know that was there they read the manuals how much does this cost me because I didn't know that was there probably very cool $20 a month probably thank you Dick yeah one of those guys on one road I bought mine when it was free

so I can go anywhere in a country for zero Zero charge. That's great. I do have the charger in my home, and that worked great, too. It sure does. I remember hearing about when they're, this is years ago, there was supposed to be an automatic and automated robotic charging arm that when you pulled into the garage,

the snake-like aperture or appendage comes out and plugs your car in. Yeah, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, it looks like you had to blow a flute to get a cover to come up. and I'll tell you, I think it just made people think of a Terminator and the attack of the machines, but kind of scary looking. You can still see a video clip of that on YouTube. Was that a, do you know if that was just something somebody made, or was that something in Tesla?

No, that's something Tesla looked at. They didn't do it because it scared people. It may come yet, because when they get the automated, you know, full FSD, robocars, those things got to be charged. So we're going to have to have some way of plug them in. They do. And ultimately, I know we constantly, I see it on the feedback we get, and we hear it on the show a lot, the anxiety of charging.

Having a home charger just kind of eliminates all of that. Yeah, Dick, I was playing with my iPhone here after you told me about the off-charging, and I just remembered I have my Tesla in doggy mode now to show you how cool that is. I don't have a dog in the car now. Now, but we put it in doggy mode to keep the air conditioning on, so when we get in the car, it's the right temperature. Wait a minute. So now I'm looking at the inside of the car.

I think I see a dog in there. And my dog got away. The dog's not there on. No, I see a dog in there. I'm the same way. What's even more fun is whenever I have the app on my telephone also, this really isn't funny. but so we're walking towards the car and I want to activate the hatchback

and Earl wants to do the same thing well he gets to the Tesla and I decide to close the hatchback is that peacock and it hits him in the head it's not funny but it's the bump is right there

we have and and some negative things have happened to me me too but it's just the well do's and don'ts of each one of us having access to features on the Tesla but we must communicate and know what we are doing because it could be detrimental to our health I just thought I'd share that a couple brief items another one you have said a couple times on there about you had to have your test will plug in for update yeah that is that That's not true.

You can update anywhere you can get on the Wi-Fi. You've got to be close to the Wi-Fi. I'll update mine on the road. Yeah, I was wondering about you know who told me that was my financial advisor. Even me. Gregorair. He didn't tell you about the schedule charging either. People tell me things.

And smart people tell me things. They can tell me anything. But what you said makes sense. Why would you have to have it plugged in? Well, no data is coming on the electrical cord. Didn't he have a load of his madness? didn't he have a motor to his madness he wanted to drive the car I thought you had to plug it into your phone and dial in

yeah it comes in the Wi-Fi I got we had Wi-Fi in the garage and yeah I just Greg O'Hare are you listening? Meryl Lynch you don't know what you're talking about Greg's outrunning yes Rick yeah you can you can update in front of Starbucks once or whatever

yeah Johnny Z. Fradley says you're in big dog ranch mode right now that's a good one one out of quickie just a suggestion I think on your people to go out to help people buy cars

the vigilantes I think they'll be a specialist to help people that want to prepare an electric car that's a great idea a lot about electric cars that you can't cover everything on your program

and there's a lot of half-truths out there and I might even volunteer to help you but I'll make you our electric vigilante and we'll add a subcategory that's a great name for a band the electric vigilante's the EVs the EVs yeah

the EVs you get that's perfect I would always find you to do I understand that part out too Well, Dick, you are a great call. I love to have a fellow Tesla guy on the phone. There probably are Tesla clubs. There's Tesla everything. I'm not a member of the club, but I should be.

Everything in common. You'd learn a lot. Yeah, the Tesla owners of Florida is a great outfit. They had nice to get together up there. Exactly. I sent you a notice on it, by the way. Yeah. It was a couple months ago.

Very good. Okay, 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-49-6-5-30. And Julie, thank you so much for holding, and welcome back. Good morning. Good morning. I had a quick question. A lot of times in the morning, my front underwear windows are fogged up, and I turn on there as a frostor. and it's a very simple question.

If I want it to clear as soon as possible, is it better to use cold air or hot air? Actually, the warmer air, but remember this, keep your AC button on because the system then will send the air through the evaporator core, and by running it through the evaporator core, it'll actually help to dry the air, so it reduces the amount of moisture,

and the drier air hitting that fog-d-dug-up. windshield will absorb the moisture away from the glass to help clear it up faster. Temperature high, AC button engaged. Okay. Well, that's good to know. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you, Julie.

877-960. Science class. Or you can text us at 772-497-6530. Don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. And earlier we mentioned Earl's vigilantes. You can go to Earl on Cars and you can sign up. It's a win-win situation. You don't have to know how to take an engine apart,

but you can help other people in your community. We can all help each other. So go to Earl-on cars where you can sign up for Earl's vigilantes. You can also win a hat that Earl's son, Stu, designed. Yes, Stu? Oh, I just want to tell Rick that the air conditioning reduces the vapor pressure deficit in the cabin of the vehicle since we're getting scientific. Absolutely.

Sorry. I'm sorry, I'm just digressing. That was important. Since I'm digressing, can we talk about that giant bumper sticker on the back of your Tesla? Oh, I would love you. I would love to. Can I say what I'd like to say about it? It's bigger than the license plate.

It's a safety feature, though. Okay, go ahead. It just, you know, unfortunately, there are people out there who don't like looking at it. And they're very mean to us. Oh, no, I wasn't being mean. No, they really are, and we don't need it. Oh, really? People are, like, yelling you on the road?

Really? Oh, okay. It says... She speaks with fork and tongue. Oh, Nancy is? The car has... We've been driving the Tesla, and suddenly it stops. Okay?

With the autopilot. Autopilot. Right. So the car clearly says, on the bumper, autonomous. Okay, that's where you get into things. So we're not in autonomous. Most people know that when you see driver training cars, it is probably the law. If not, it should be the law.

But all driver training cars say student driver. The reason they say student driver is for obvious reasons. I don't need to explain that. So if you have a fully autonomous car, we all know that they have not been perfected. Tesla has been sued. There's a common discussion about this. Nancy and I have talked about it on the air. everybody talks about it

that there's a long way to go before a car is fully totally autonomous. So the beta, these are beta cars on the road test cars and Elon Musk, the genius he is, has got millions

of people out there testing his cars. He has the software wired into computers in his labs and he makes constant adjustments increases the efficiency of the vehicle. So that what I do so that people know that if I have my autonomous on, you need to be careful of this car, just like a student driver would be.

So you do it as a safety measure for the public. Yeah, I understand why you do. You know what Tesla needs to do. There are Tesla haters out there, and they probably resent the fact that I have an autonomous car, and they probably they can't They call them to the show too They probably don't know

autonomous means They probably means It's a dirty word They probably think it's like a socialist But hey listen Real quick I think Tesla should have Like some kind of indicator

On the outside of the car Like all these red lights It goes into kill mode And red lights on Everybody's just stay away from that car Exactly We don't want to encourage That kind of behavior

Excuse me To my point I think we beat that to death Don't you? I am I am not driving autonomous. I am not in the autonomous mode.

The reason it needs to be perfected. I am not driving in autonomous. I do not want to advertise that I am on the back of the, on the bumper. Earl promised me that he would not drive in autonomous because of some near-disaster situations that we've been in. So we do not drive in autonomous. I don't drive autonomous with you in the car, but when I am in the car... You promised me you would not drive autonomous.

Are you telling me you're driving autonomous when I'm not in the car with you? Ladies and gentlemen, you're witnessing a family argument right here on true oldies. Stu, your son has gotten out the peanuts and popcorn. Obviously, he finds this entertaining. I think this is great radio, actually. I think our ratings are going to soar right now. It's great YouTube, too. It is.

This is good content. I just don't want to get you all revved up, but I know I do that. easily, but we're not driving an autonomous, and we promised each other, and you just broke your promise. Are you serious, Earl? You have to answer me on the air. Are you out driving autonomous? You can check the app.

It'll tell you if you ever went into autonomous mode. 877-960. That's in the manual. It's in the manual. Or you can text us at 772-497-6530. and if you so wish WWW you're Autonomous You're anonymous

I got autonomous on my mind Your autonomous feedback, that's great I'm perspiring I need a fan Okay WWWW you're anonymous You're getting right Everybody's cracking up over here

WWWFBaccom Okay I'm glad everyone finds this amusing we're going to go to frank and jupiter good morning frank well good morning guys i had my vigilante hat on but i think i ought to take it off but my marriage counseling hat on oh well that's really funny hey look i try let's let me tell you oh i got a couple of things for you all um i i got the new consumer report and where they go in about the buying and what the dealers are doing they must have been talking to you guys i mean it sounds just just like your talk show for all these years.

And someone's finally listening, obviously, consumer reports. It was a, I'm sure you must have to see that issue. It just came out about buying the new cars and stuff. Mm-hmm. They're looking at it right now. Yeah, I'm looking at it, yeah. It's on the backdrop, yeah. Yeah, about the nitrogen and the tires.

I mean, just everything that you guys have been informing us consumers for years, they finally got on the bandwagon and joined you. Yeah, it's the best. we've seen. They do it every year, Frank, but this year they outdid themselves. They just get better. They're becoming worldwide, I think, in terms of, and it's just not cars.

We talk about cars and consumer reports. I don't buy a product, any kind of investment without checking consumer reports. I mean, I don't always follow their advice, but I usually do. Yeah, no, that's very true. I got many cases when you run that I should have probably opened

before I thought what I did buy. And I learned that one. And back to your, I don't remember what the name of that car as you drive. Oh, my goodness. I saw the plaid version the other day going down North Lake, a white one. And I go, plaid, that's what they're all, Nancy has. And I'm looking at me, like, where's those speed motors?

Where's the bulging wheels? I mean, normally, normally when you would drive a Porsche, people say oh that's just a VW on steroids what the plaid looks like on steroids it doesn't it's just no bolder meals no no you know racing stripes nothing I go oh isn't that amazing that was interesting to see a plaid finally and then earlier this morning when you guys were talking about

the windshield fogging up I never thought that would work with the AC off like that and it's very true because when you park car out here in the farms under like a pole barn you don't have all the do on in the morning and it was been cool so i said well i'll just turn the AC off and save a few drops of gas and by the time you got to indian town road it's all fucked up and you can't see out your window and you go this is weird turn the air finish on and it clears up very quickly so i guess it's just leave the AC on forever but it's it's interesting need to show things that

happened in my life in the past or recently you guys talk about and It's a very enlightening show, and I'm very happy to... Well, thank you, Frank. That's very nice to say. Thank you, Frank. You guys? Have a good day. Have a great weekend.

We're going to go to Dan and hope so on. Good morning, Dan. Welcome. Good morning, Dan. Hey, how you all doing? Great. Welcome. Good.

Good. Well, thank you. I wanted to ask you all about how cars handle now versus how they used to. My first car was a 69 Le Mans, and I could steer that thing with one finger, you know, and I loved it, and I regret ever getting rid of it. now. I didn't know what I had. But, you know, I have a corolla now that I got from y'all brand new and 16 been a great part. It must be. And, but it takes both hands to steer it just going around a sharp corner. And the steering on cars isn't as easy as it used to be. And the other thing is those old land yachts, you could run over a railroad tie and not feel it. And now you feel

every pebble that, that you run over. I just think like we've kind of maybe moved backwards in that respect now. I just wondered why that is. Dan, that's a good question. I think it probably has to do with engineering, safety. I think that I do remember going way back. Maybe it was when power steering first came out,

but the steering wheel was extremely easy to move. There was a lot of play in it. Yeah, and they probably determined that wasn't safe, would be my guess. You have to have some resistance. And you're absolutely right. The resistance in today's modern power steering is less than it was.

It might be also just like a cultural fashion thing. Like people just like, I know that a lot of cars will have a sport mode. Well, you stop and think before power steering, you had to be a very strong person to park a car. And whoever invented power steering, they probably said, wow, this is really cool. Let's turn it all the way to 10. The easier it is to turn the better.

Rick, you're chomping of the bit here. Well, one of the things, back in the day, you had the big land yachts, the steering wheel was tiny. Very small steering wheel. When? Back, say, in the 70s. Well, you're not going far enough back, so you're... Or even into the 60s, the 50s. No, when the 20s.

The steering wheels were much larger. Right. In the 50s and early 60s, you had a much larger steering wheel. Yeah. But you also had a wheel that you turned three or four times around. Yeah. versus a wheel now that it's one and a half revolutions and you've you've almost got this side it's sideways uh rack and pinion steering made a big difference on that versus a gearbox that has much more moving parts so a safety issue yeah i remember that you'd back up in a spot and you'd be sitting the wheel to be going around yeah less moving parts it's safer uh it's less parts to break and of course also it's a better feel for the car

It gives you a better response in emergency situations. Yeah. You know, there's a lot to it. Yeah. It was like driving a boat back then. That's your question, Dan? Yeah, and the suspension, though, I mean, you could, you know, you had a big car back then. You know, you could run over a curb stopper and barely feel it.

I think that's the same answer. I think that the driver and the car needs to know. the surface they're on. And I think that it's probably a matter of breaking, cornering, control of the car in an emergency situation.

The car has to feel the road and the driver, unfortunately, has to feel the road too. If you're in a car that floats and I remember some of these big cars back in the day that were just like gliding on ice, but they really weren't safe.

They felt good, and you didn't get any, you know, a cricksten in your neck from a long trip. But unfortunately, it wasn't the safe thing to have that. And if you've ever been in a car that you suddenly are sliding on ice, and no matter where you turn that steering wheel or hit the pedals. Doesn't matter. Nothing. The car is just on its own doing what it wants to do. Been there, done that.

That feeling of being out of control completely. I'd rather feel that bumpy ride and be at least in control of the car. I agree with you. Yeah. I'm going to stay down here in sunny South Florida away from the ice. So, well, hey, thank you for answering my question. That cleared things up for me because that's been bugging me for a long time. And I know you've got other calls, so I'll let you guys go.

Hey, Dan, before you go, where are you from originally? I'm from West Palm Beach originally. Originally, okay. Wow. All right. Yeah. Another Floridian. Nice to meet you. So is my wife. The same doctor delivered us. So it's a small world.

It definitely is. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you all for what you do. Thank you for everything. Thank you. All right. Have it. Yeah, the driver must know the surface it's on. That's real important. Definitely important. 877-960, or you can text us at 772-497-3530. Your anonymous feedback, you can always.

take advantage of that. www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Now back to the recovery. No, we got Howard. Howard's calling right now. Good morning, Howard. Howard's our regular caller.

Yeah. How are you all doing? Notice my southern accent? I come from South Bronx. So that's where I'm a son. Okay. Rick, I have a question for you. Let's see if I can stump you.

What cars do not have ABS? Yes. Railroad cars. Not real. I'm going to stump you this time. Cars nowadays without antelac brake system. I don't think there are any. Race cars.

Well, those aren't cars. No, I'm serious. Go try to buy one right now to run on the road legally. You can't do it. Okay. Next comment. I think I stump you. Next question.

Which cars have to have nitrogen in the tires? Race car. Have to have? None actually have to have. Race car. As a course, just a fact that they all do, that would be race cars such as NASCAR, any formula race cars, anything where they need to be accurately able to predict the expansion rate of that gas based on the temperature in order to pick up a tenth of a second to win a race?

That would be pretty much any race car. Correct. Okay. Now, next comment I have to make. Friend of my bought a car and it didn't have a spare tire. Instead, it had something to blow up the spare. and a couple of other tools. Toyota, I believe, except for the Super,

every car has a spare. Is that correct? Nope. Prius Prime, when it first came out, instead of doing a spare tire, they gave you a basically a can of fixaflat and a small electric compressor that you could plug in and you would put this fixa flat in the tire,

which, of course, would then mean that you could not repair the tire. You had to replace it. You had to replace the tire pressure sensor and clean the wheel out. So it was a pretty big nightmare. Several other companies tried that deal, and there were several of our cars that had all-wheel drive, like Sienna all-wheel drives, had no spare tire. As a matter of fact, that's the reason they were putting run flats on them,

and run-flats were the reason. that the government came out and said you have to have a tire pressure system on all these cars. Interesting. Okay, one other thing that I have to make, if you have a spare tire, make sure you have the proper pressure in it, because it's very easy over a number of years for the spare tire to go down. So make sure you check that. It could be hard because you have to, you know, to get it out, it's not easy.

Absolutely. Yeah. And as a life hack, carry a little battery operator or plug in the power outlet operated air compressor in your car. You can pick them up for less than 50 bucks on Amazon, and they're the size of a, almost the size of a wallet now. But it will pump up a tire in a short amount of time to get you down the road. I have a compressor. It's a great thing to have in the car. Absolutely.

Okay. Thank you very much for the information. you all have a good day. Thanks, Howard. You too. Thank you for the call. Yeah. Thank you, Howard. We're going to go to Sarah, who's been holding from Boyton Beach. Good morning, Sarah. Good morning, Nancy. Good morning, everybody. How are you all? Welcome.

I am calling because it was a couple of weeks ago that I heard about this used car dealer in West Palm Beach, who was taking out loans on people. people's credits did you guys hear about that no maintain that loans for himself he was taken out personal loans stealing identities I briefly read about that yeah but I have to confess I did I got busy something I don't know I was interrupted I understand I'm not a part of your Earl on cars or the Sunrise anymore I don't know why but I do remember your number. Well, thank you. I'm glad.

We always worry about that. I wish you all a great day. Thank you. I'm trying to look this up right now. Was in West Palm Beach, you said? Yes, yes. Yes, it was. Well, I'll continue searching. Wasn't that last week, Sarah? It was. Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, I briefly remember

reading that and I was interrupted, never finished it. Well, you know what? I appreciate all of you and love you all. Thank you very much, sir. Sarah. Thank you. Thank you for listening. Spread the word on our female callers. Let them know. We need to hear from them. Okay. We're... I found it. Close the line and Stu found the article. I was just a little too slow. Yeah, this was in Delray Beach. It was Jason Dennis. He owns and manages Car City in West Palm Beach. He's facing multiple fraud charges. He was arrested by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. He took out multiple loans using customer information. And he's out on bail, but he's going to go to trial and face the music. Interesting.

Yeah, Del Rey Beach. And it was in. I mean, he lives in Del Rey. It happened in West Palm Beach. It was at Carr City. Sounds like a little independent use lot. Yeah. One of the little places.

Okay. We need to get to some texts in Facebook and YouTube. Oh, yeah. Amaree has been ignored the entire show where it's almost over. We apologize. That's okay. I liked her text because I've been thinking about this all the time. She says, good morning.

Train wrecks have been in the news a lot lately. There are ways to minimize some of the carnage. For example, if your car gets stuck on the tracks and won't move, grab your cell phone, get out of the car, and get away from the tracks. Look for a blue and white sign near the crossing. Jonathan's going to put it up on the screen for those of you who are watching the live stream. It's a blue and white sign that should be clearly visible. the emergency notification system sign includes an emergency phone number for the specific railroad responsible for that specific crossing and the U.S. Department of Transportation National Crossing inventory number, which identifies the exact location where it is.

Call that number, describe the problem, and give the National Crossing inventory number so the Emergency Response Center can contact oncoming trains. But if you're going to grab the cell phone, don't look for it too long. Right. I mean, where is that cell phone? phone. Maybe it's in the glove box. Exactly. Check the back seat. If there's, I think if you see a train, if there is a train coming visibly, just

get out of there as fat. If you don't see any train coming, you can take a second or two to. I would leap out and borrow somebody else's cell phone. Okay, you could do that. I would just start screaming. Get out of that car. Call that number. Anyway, it says once a train's breaks are applied,

it will still travel a mile before it can come to a stop, depending on the speed, I'm sure. And the way to the train. and the weight of the train. Could be a lot more than that. And this is from Anne-Marie. She signed it Mother Hen, which I really like. And she sent us a picture of the thing so you can watch that.

And I didn't know what that was. The reason I'm thinking about trains lately is there was another Brightline accident someone recently. And I wrote there's been 88 people killed since 2017 when they opened up Bright Line. And I just can't figure that out. It seems like every month there is. there is somebody else that gets run over by this train,

and I'm just thinking maybe we're just not used to trains down here in South Florida. Yeah, but we've had trains for a long time. I just don't think that we counted them before. It's so far out of the norm. It's been picked up by national news. And what reminded me, it was a national CBS story that picked it up, and there is an anomalous, it's an outlier. There's something going on with Brightline.

I don't know what it is. Something else happened, and this is a true story. My wife and my mother-in-law were driving in two separate cars, and they were in Jupiter, and they crossed the train tracks at A1A on Frederick Small, and a train, and they were doing, they've been down here, folks, if you're listening in Alaska, they're doing a lot of work on the train tracks around here. And they were doing some testing, high-speed testing, and a train came out without any lights or crossing rails did not come down,

and they both gunned it through, so they had witnesses. If my wife told me maybe I think she wasn't, I'm just kidding. But anyway, both became very shaken up, called the Jupiter police and reported it. She didn't know about the blue sign at the railroad crossing. What's the story? What's the blue sign? The blue sign is what Amri texted about. It has a number.

So if you call it and give them that number, they'll tell you that, they'll tell any approaching trains to stop. That is a terrible story. Wow. Yeah, it was very scary. frightening but she reported it and I hope that the Jupiter police you know passed it along to the NTSA or something like that I'm sure they did yeah wow that's incredibly dangerous very much so scary and where is this sign that you and Earl were just oh on every on every railroad crossing there's a blue and white sign but but where I mean it's right on the is it over the tracks it's right on the side the sign you see with the big crossings

x and the flashing lights it's mounted right on it okay where it says do you stop here on red yeah yeah okay so that's what you look for there's an emergency but like i or had a funny but a serious point if there's a don't don't waste too much time you're looking for yourself well that's so scary yeah all right um let's see we have one good morning um i have a 2006 tundra and the tire pressure monitoring system, TPMS system in my truck, monitors pressure in five tires that includes the spare. Can the sensor in the spare be removed and the TPMS system reprogrammed to monitor four instead of five?

Love listening to your show. Thanks. That's from Everett. Unfortunately, no. That's, for some reason, that system was never really designed very well, in my opinion. They should have had you have the ability to remove the spare but in other cases

you should have the ability to put a sensor in the spare because like my own truck with a full size spare does not come with that fifth sensor and you have to go with that but however certain models like land cruisers you could actually have

an entire second set of sensors a second set of wheels and you would tell it which set of wheels so if you're running summer tires versus winter tires for up north you could literally just have two sets of wheels and just swap them or if you're like traversing like the arabian desert and you need extra tires exactly that too yeah okay um here's a question here

it's probably for you eros is just wondering if you have any idea the percentage of markup and auto manufacturer charges on the vehicles delivered to the dealerships i realize price is variant's impossibly precise is there any rule of thumb on the subject well just whatever they can get away with the manufacturers always want to increase prices, and they can do it a lot easier because it's, uh, the pricing of an automobile is probably the most complex pricing of any product sold anywhere. And, uh, you have rebates and holdbacks and phony advertising charges. And we talk about all the phony fees that car, the car dealers charge. Yeah, I think he was, he was just talking about what the manufacturers are making per car. That's what I'm talking about.

Oh, okay. Yeah. The manufacturers can actually increase a price to a car dealer, for example, by lowering the amount of dealer incentives that they have on the car or by changing the freight. You know, the freight is like a dealer fee to a customer. The freight is like a dealer fee to a dealer. because it doesn't cost the manufacturer anywhere near what they charge per car. I'm going to say the average freight dollars, what, $1,000? Okay. So you have 10 cars on a truck? Yeah, 10 cars on a car.

So it does not cost $10,000 to get a truckload of cars from Detroit to Florida. No. And they charge $10,000 freight. that's a dealer fee screwing the dealer and of course the dealer passes a cost along to the customer

and inadvertently you have no choice especially nowadays that people are charging over us but the the increased cost to the dealers has gone up steadily

over the past three four years I looked it up so as far as like gross profit margins it looks it varies all the way through manufacturers

but it looks around about 10, 15 percent. Toyota is making 15 percent. Ford is making a 15 percent gross profit margin. They're recently making a negative net profit margin, and Toyota is netting net profit margin around 6 percent. Yeah, and Tesla is about 23. Yes. Now, here's, this is just, you know, Pete, you're not going to believe me when I say this, but car dealers themselves don't know what they pay for the car. And in my own dealership, It is a rocket scientist project to figure out what really you pay for a car.

It is so complicated, and I think it's on purpose that is done that way. The dealers literally, you can talk to a dealer and you say, what is your net cost on this car? And it'll take him a while with a pencil and paper and a calculator to tell you what his cost is. I could do it in about three minutes. Yeah, Steve is a general manager of the dealership. He knows. Probably less.

Yeah. But no, it takes me a couple of minutes. You take a couple? Yeah, yeah. But any other product, you say, what's your cost on that? Right. Exactly. Yeah.

Right. So it's a conspiracy between the dealers and the manufacturers. Ultimately, actually, it's promoted by the dealers. I mean, the manufacturers pass along to the dealers and the customer, it takes the screwing. I wonder if I could use AI, I think I could figure out a way just to have it just take a glance at the invoice with a couple other inputs. I think even AI would not be able to do this. It is so complicated. Well, I used AI just now for the radio show.

I'm not kidding. We got a very long text, but I was looking through it, and it's very, it's very heart-wrenching, but I have to summarize it. So I had a chat GPT summarize it for me, so I'm going to go ahead and read the text of the summary. The texture shares a story about having to get rid of their 2021 Honda Accord Sport to a recurring head gasket issue and a slipping transmission. They traded in for a 2022 Camry SC and they loved it. The Texter shared a story about a difficult period in their life where their family faced some serious financial hardships. And they had to rely on a 2008 toy to Prius is their only vehicle. the texter worked 75 miles away from home had to stay at their mother's house during the week

leaving their wife with the Prius and four children the Prius got them through three years of tough winters and never left the wife stranded texter just concludes that they will never buy anything besides a Toyota for the rest of their life and it's a great story great story and that was a check gbt well it was a very long text and we didn't have time to read on the whole thing a lot of details in it and so I copied it and paste it and said could you summarize this in a few sentences. Did you know that Apple, there's an app that Apple is censoring because the Chad GBT that Apple was going to use for the app

would be not for children's consumption. Oh, okay, some NS not suitable for work. Ex, that's created, yeah. Yeah, wow. Yeah, there's been some really, really kooky things going on with this AI stuff. It's fun to play it with, but it's a whole lot to ponder. All right, I'm caught up on text, but we did have some anonymous feedback. And while I'm pulling that up, because they lagged me out, what's going on over there on YouTube?

Actually, things have been rather, well, not so quiet while we were having some interesting discussions here. Okay. Earlier, David A. and I were discussing the ideas of the inventory coming back on the dealership lots. You know, he was wondering, would we ever see the days like we'd had five years ago when you could walk on the lot and there would be just row out. a row of cars that you could choose from and that was that was something that we got to do the mystery shopping report for us are we oh yeah yeah we're gonna have to we're gonna have to continue uh these uh rick um next week uh we're running out of time uh ladies and gentlemen it's very important that you vote on the mystery shopping report our mystery shopper report is uh from napleton north lake hundy and uh you

definitely want to listen to this mystery shopper report. And as I sometimes say, well, these shops never cease to amaze me. Well, Agent Lightning did a great job. And Stu did a very, very nice job in writing it. I just want to say, I didn't write an introduction because Napleton needs no introduction. Thanks, sir. Well, that's, I mean, seriously, I think that's, well, first of all, they're, they're all over the country, but that's one of the dealerships we can name in every listener, no matter where they are, knows exactly who we're talking about. Yeah, they're in over six states, I believe. Yep.

So, Mr. Recovering Car Dealer? Yeah, we got about five minutes here. We got 19 minutes. I arrived mid-afternoon. I'm speaking of the first person as if I were agent lighting and walked around to see what inventory was VEBO and to see if any salespeople would approach me. Then I headed inside after about six minutes. minutes of aimless wondering.

I circled that because it tells you the attitude of car dealers today with the low supply high demand and insane pricing. The salespeople are making a lot of money and they don't have to work too hard. So someone comes on the lot, nobody rushes out. That's actually good in a way. People in years past were surrounded by, I call them the wolf pack as soon as you got out of the car. you can get out and go to a car dealership and they just wait till you come in and take their time and they say a $5,000 over a sticker, take it or leave it.

Don't you like that better, though? Well, the salespeople love it and the car dealers love it. I was greeted as soon as I walked through the door by a younger salesman with a name tag that read Marcus. I let them know I was interested in the 2003 Santa Fe Hybrid SEL. I chose this particular dealership because they sold Hondays, and the Consumer Reports ranked the 2003 Santa Fe Hybrid SEL as, I think, either the number one or number two, best new car for the year. That's a good-looking car, too. I was just curious to see what a car dealer would do selling a car that had the endorsement of consumer reports like that.

So I followed him to his desk. He asked me for my name and driver's license and then asked if I'd be trading anything in. I said I won't. I won't be trading anything in. Then he asked if I would be registering it to the address listed on my license while mentioning how close I lived in the store. He asked if I would be leasing or financing. These are all qualifying subjects that you will always get when you go into a car dealership.

I figured I'd switch it up today and I said I would likely be paying cash. out of my trust account. That's a nice twist. He then asked me if I'm doing that because they offer me a low APR. And I said, no. I said, my trust account would be pulling cash out. And then he laughed and smacked himself in the fore and said, yeah, oh yeah, I knew that. I'm embarrassed. He's a genuine guy. I mean, I like that. You say something stupid and you admit it. Smack yourself in the fore. That's really good. I like that. He then excused himself to go. go get the keys so we could go out on a test drive. I let him know I'd be outside getting myself familiar with a new car.

He came out and said he'd move it out in a rather tight location, so he jumped in the driver's seat. I kid at him about, don't wreck my new car when you back it out. Once he pulled it out, he asked me to please be patient with him as he needed to run back in. This is another nice natural touch, I think, maybe a little too far because he had to go to the restroom. me he said he needed to go really bad I'm not sure if that is Emily postwise or not

I guess it's okay once we were both on the car he went back over the bells and whistles this car offered when you hit the turn signal a camera pops up on that side to show what you might be what might be there in the way by the way our Tesla nancy is in my Tesla does the same thing very very handy turn your signal on the left it shows you shows you a really big, beautiful picture of the left lane, all the cars, and does the same thing on the right side. I love it. I asked, as the shopper, I asked if hazards, if the hazard lights are on, will both cameras

show and push the button, but they didn't. He said, hmm, I never thought about that, a little strange. We drove around the neighborhood and headed back to the dealership on North Lake Boulevard. He told me that another customer asked him what happens if you're driving 90 miles an hour on the interstate and someone hits the park button. I can see wondering what would happen. Since it's a place easier to hit, he said the car won't do anything. It's deactivated when in motion.

Once back of the dealership, he asked if I had any other questions and wanted to make sure I really did like the car. I said, I do. I would love to see how much it will be out the door. He headed back to his desk and I let him know I would be wanting any extras, and I would need a buyer's order for my trust before I can get the money. He asked if I'd like water, coffee, while I wait for the numbers, and then excuse himself. I sat waiting for about 20 minutes, and then that's a long time.

Marcus came back and apologized, asking me to please just give him a few more minutes. there are only two sales managers here today. I agreed, but I said I would need to leave soon to get my daughter at the bus stop. Finally, 12 minutes later returned with two worksheets. This is a new twist. I haven't seen this before. This is, uh, uh, shopping, Mr. Shopping report first. Two worksheets. One was my deal and one was supposed to be what it would be if they don't give me a huge discount. So, I mean, actually, Actually, it's clever. I mean.

This is what it could be. This is what it could be. Yeah, yeah, right. I mean, we all want a discount, right? And we all know how people mark things way up so they can mark them down again and the pressure. So this is that psychology. Say, boy, did I get a big discount in Naples?

They marked it up $2 million, but then they marked it down a million. So if you get my drift. You want to contrast it to, as I just said. I just said. He wanted to see that they are adding on, he wanted me to see that they are adding on market adjustments, but the sales manager heavily discounted it for me. A hypothetical worksheet label should be added $8,995, $9,000 market adjustment to the $42,000 MSRP, and also added an $899 dealer fee, you're going to have to wait for this, folks, it's a long list,

$129 e-tag fee, a $149 private-page agency fee, a $270.50 floor of dock stamps, a $199. Dock fee, $2,570 a platinum warranty. I'm running out of breath here. $998 lojack, $299,000 nitro inflation, $5,000. $599 window tent, $1,230 zylon protection, and $199 for Napleton maintenance. $16,301 in total. Absolutely, that's a should-be worksheet. The worksheet labeled is, now here comes a big discount.

That's a whole other car you just added. And represented the deal they were giving me was better. It was exactly the same except they knocked $6,000. knocked $6,000 off the market adjustment. The real deal was only $10,430 over MSRP. Much better. I told him my trust manager, likely won't go for all these add-ons. Please take it back to the sales manager and give me the best deal.

I don't have much more time, he said, and we don't have much more time. Okay, please give him five to ten more minutes. After more than ten minutes, Marcus came back with the other sheet saying he was able to remove most of it. New worksheet came down another 6,000, but I was still 4,000 over MSRP. Marks made sure to tell me that he's not supposed to give out any preparatory information, so I couldn't take the worksheets with me. He asked me not to take the picture. I asked him how I'm supposed to give the information to my trust fund to get approval. However, it's unlikely they will approve it due to the market adjustments, and I took the pictures anyway, out of girl.

Next day, Marcus called me and asked if I had spoken with my trust. I informed that I would not be moving forward due to the markup and other fees and that I would be looking for all other available options. He said he would speak with his manager to see if there's anything else they could do to lower the price. Garrett, the gentleman sales manager, followed up with me after Marcus. He asked how it was treated the dealership and there's anything he could do to earn my business. I gave him the same response that there's no deal. with market adjustment. He mentioned that he's not trying to make

anyone a bad deal and that he could meet me halfway with a $1,500 market adjustment. He also mentioned the other dealerships in the area are doing market adjustments up to $10,000 for Iberts. I thanked him for his time and this is just silly. I mean, this is, I could use another word, that just Napleton. I don't understand. They just got hammered by the feds and they just paid millions of dollars. And I know you said the money is not a lot,

but the publicity, no one's paying attention. Well, you know, the doc fee and the notary fee, that's a lie because you don't have dock fees. It's a cash sale. Oh, doc stamps. That would be illegal. Yeah, that's on a finance. That's a tax on the loan.

There's no financing. There's no dock stamps. The whole thing is just off the chart. Federal Trade Commission, you're not listening, but, you know, Ashley Moody, you're not listening. None of the regulators are listening.

And Napleton, who is, as Stu just said, was fine, what, 10 million, 20 million? 20 million, I think. Yeah, 20 million. That's how much it bothered him. They're still doing the exact same thing they did before. And we really don't really need to take a vote here, but we will because I know you folks out there

that they're listening this are probably as shocked as we are. not that Napleton is this bad, but that Napleton is this bad after they've already been fined $20 million by the Federal Trade Commission. What does it take? Maybe $200 million would get their attention. Let's...

Yeah, I got a F triple minus from Mark. Mark sent it in. He goes, they need me to charge with something much, much worse than that. Bob, Napleton Hyundai, I marked my grade up to an F plus, but I discounted it back down to an F. Very good. How you like that?

An Amory, Mother Hen, F. And I'm going to concur with my people over here. Well, I got another one just popped in. We must have irritated people. Another big, fat F. And I agree wholeheartedly. I'm giving them an F. I'm just checking Facebook real quick.

Nope. There we go. On to you, Rick. Kirk in West By God, Virginia. Oh, no. He had another enabledon, King of the Junk Fees, in Shifty Sales Tactics. Napleton once again earns a solid F-minus. Ah, let's see.

Matt C., I went to that dealership once. They called it the Napleton buying experience, L.O.L. He didn't give a grade, but hopefully he will. Hey, Matt, come back with a grade for me, buddy. Tom Stickle, Napleton. Napleton, how do you cheat me? Let me count the ways F.

Doc stamps on a cash purchase is a bold-faced lot. Johnny Z. Fradley? I'll give him a generous F-plus because the battery fees only $1.50. Scott Hunter, F. Tim Gilliland. Here's the price. Just don't tell you one. D-minus. Mark Smith, D-minus. Mark Ryan, unbelievable. F. Rocky Blocketeel, F-minus. Nitrogen again? Really? Brian said Latko. How is this dealership still in business? F. Baby boomer.

Big F. Myself is an F. Run away from Napleton, folks. Yeah, they're back to $2.99 for Nitro. Remember, like, that's what, when Nitro first came out, they were selling for $300, and then it came down now, it's, you know, $99, $69. Napoliton's back.

It's inflation, folks. They got to earn that $20 million back. I know. They probably have. I just don't know how their attorneys allow them to put a $217.50 cent. Florida docks stamps. The Florida documentary stamps, which are only charged on finance.

By the state of Florida. By the state of Florida. Is he given that to the state of Florida? I mean, that's blatant fraud. He's doing that to thousands of customers, and he's saying this is a Florida tax, and he's pocketing it. So that shows you what kind of local regulation we have, folks.

I mean, when a dealer can openly break the law like this and just be given amnesty, Ashley Moody, you know, we need to, you know, we need somebody to investigate the media for not going after these people and the regulators. Maybe we need to go after the regulators who are, they're as bad as Napleton. This story's got legs. Come on, folks in the media, if you're listening. You're not. It's Saturday. Let's go after these people.

I mean, this is not, this is black and white. It's not gray. And nobody could give anybody, it's got to be an F. I hate to give Fs, but this was a slam dunk F. Yes. Definitely. And you've given out a few Fs lately with your mystery shopperman report, very unusual. He's hardening.

Yeah. But, you know, it's hard not to have some. strong feelings against someone who has behaved so badly. Seriously, folks, if you take a look and look up Napleton, you're going to read that Napleton has become synonymous with excellence and teamwork. The family, they have so many dealerships, over 83 of them in six or eight different states, I believe. They opened up during prohibition. exactly yeah but maybe the ones in the other states aren't as bad i mean i do you really think no they

i think the fine um was in a different state yeah they weren't they weren't all yeah they weren't all here in florida they got this hunday that we just went to uh yesterday it was one of the ones that they got to back in 1931 you know in chicago south side there was edward navelton and that's where he began this a family tradition of taking uh taking taking care of people, but now, I don't know when it began. Anyway, we're going to be out of time. I could go on and on about this place and the craziness and the people that they've taken advantage of. It's unfortunate. I give them an F. Okay. Oh, and Matt C. came back and he says, my grade, you ask, I just purchased my fifth vehicle from Earl Stewart Toyota this week.

Best grade I can give you. I guess that says it all. Thanks, Matt. You know, but just, I know we're out of time, but just remember, you know, we laugh at it and we say, why do people do that and blah, blah, blah. The fact is, people, you know, go in and buy cars there and they get taken advantage of it, and they don't know. Obviously, because if they didn't, Naples and Monday would be out of business. So they're selling cars and they're making money, and the people that are being taken advantage of the people that really can't defend themselves, you can, you can criticize them, but it's just not right. I mean, the victims, they're victims that are going in there, not knowing of the Naples reputation.

And that's the media's fault. Shame on the media. Ashley Moody, we really need you. We definitely need you. The people need you. They voted for you. We voted for you. Thank you for joining us this morning.

We had an interesting show, a great show again. We'll be right back here next week. 8 a.m. next Saturday morning. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. Thank you for joining us.