Earl Stewart on Cars - 03.06.2021 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Greenway Kia

Episode Date: March 6, 2021

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits Greenway Kia in West Palm Beach to see if she can get the special $5000 discount on a 2021 Kia Soul featured on their website. Earl Stewart is the owner of Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida, one of the largest Toyota dealerships in the southeastern U.S. He is also a consumer advocate who shares his knowledge spanning 50+ years about the car industry through a weekly newspaper column and radio show. Each week Earl provides his audience with valuable tips that prevent them from "getting ripped off by a car dealer". Earl has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, and other major publications. He has also made numerous appearances on CNN, Fox News, CBS, and other news networks. He is frequently called upon by local and national media to comment on major trends and newsworthy events occurring in today’s rapidly changing auto industry. You can learn more by going to Earl's videos on www.youtube.com/earloncars, subscribing to his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/earloncars, his tweets at www.twitter.com/earloncars, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. Sign up to become one of Earl's Vigilantes and help others in your community to avoid getting ripped off by a car dealer. Go to www.earlsvigilantes.com for more information. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

Good morning. I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female business. We also have Rick Kearney, an expert on how to keep your car running right. I dare you to ask a question that Rick can't answer about the mechanics or electronics of your car. Also with us as my son, Stu Stewart, our LinkedIn. 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 self-horred a dealership.

And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. We're back again to help you navigate that minefield out there in car buying land, car leasing land. I'll help you get into a car dealership safe and out safe. Hopefully get yourself a deal. That's what the reason they call the car dealers, dealers. It's wheeling and dealing. And it's archaic, a dinosaur of the retail world.

Here we are the 21st century. Can you believe it? I mean, 2021, and we're still horse-trading for at least one product. Automobiles and automobile service, for that matter. You can't walk into a car dealership like you walk into Target or Walmart or Publix or any other place, Costco, and see a price and pay the price and walk home or drive home, as it were. No, you got to argue. You got to negotiate. You know, the lawyers are really good car buyers. The attorneys are good negotiators. They learned. They learned. They went to school, and especially your trial attorneys. They really know how to wheel and deal. And it's a fact.

A car dealer will sell a car to an attorney for very near his actual true cost. I mean, that's almost unheard of. So if you're really good at horse trading, hey, you can listen to something else on the radio. If you'd like a roadmap where you can figure out how to get a good price on a new or used car, fair price and service that you need, maintenance that you need, and don't have to be sold. something that's required at a fair price. Well, we can help you there. I say we because, as you heard on the recorded

an introduction a minute ago, I'm in the studio here with a team of experts. I mean, I say that shamelessly. We've got Rick Kearney, who is a certified diagnostic master technician. And let me tell you something. This guy can answer your questions. He really can.

And he answers them in human speak. You know, not technical speak, not computer speak. not computer speak, but he can explain things to anyone. And if you have a question about your car, you don't have to have a problem that has to go to a car dealer or an independent source for repair. Sometimes you can just resolve it on the air or on video.

Send us a snapshot of the problem, video recording, audio recording, or both. Or just call in at 8779.7.9. 960, 960, 877, 960 9960. I mean, who out there doesn't have some sort of little thing with the car? I mean, if you have an automobile, they're so complex today that you have some problem,

usually the ones that you had, you just say, I'll worry about that later. I've got problems with my car, and I'm a car dealer. But if I tried to address every little problem, I'd spend my entire life in my dealership letting them work on my car, because no car doesn't have some little thing you'd like to change the adjustment, something you don't understand, hey, that's a mouthful, something you don't understand.

Who out there listening right now, watching, doesn't have something on their car, especially if you bought it in the past five, ten years? If you bought it recently, I promise you, there's some things there that you have no idea how to operate. so let us help you 877 960 9090 or you can text this a lot of people prefer text I do

I much prefer text conversation than an audio I mean I'm talking personally we prefer the audio on the air because it's more personal obviously text number 772 497 6530

that's 772 49770 and we even have, which has grown surprisingly to be our most popular venue, anonymous feedback. You can contact us, we don't know who you are, where you come from, where you are. We don't even know if you're the enemy or a friend. We don't know whether you're serious or making stuff up.

But we get some amazingly interesting feedback from our anonymous feedback line. And that's a, let's say, web address, www. www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Y-O-U-R-A-N-Y-M-O-U-S feedback.com. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. I'm not sure why that's so popular. And we don't get crank stuff very often.

If we do, that's okay we address it. If you want to allow people the right to privacy and to be heard without having to give all your information, this is a way to go. So please contact us by old-fashioned telephone. And we prioritize the phone calls, by the way. So Nancy Stewart, who is sitting to my left, she's a co-founder of the show with me,

been with me for 20 years on the air, start out at half an hour. She monitors very, very carefully, and she's looking for real audio-type old-fashioned telephone callers, especially females, and I'm going to let her explain that in just a second, but if you call, we've got three or four lines, so we try to hop right on the calls, even if we're in the middle of something, we'll stop and take a call. We won't keep you on hold, I promise. At least we won't do it on purpose.

We have done it accidentally, and for that, I apologize. So if you call 877-960-99-60, we'll try to get to you very, very quickly, and I've talked about everything except the most exciting part of the show. And our Spymaster General is sitting right across from him. He's my son, Stu Stewart. Actually, he's Earl Stewart, but we call him Stu. Too many Earls in the family. So Stu is in charge of our mystery shopper.

And he works with her. We have a he and a her. Agent Lightning is the her. And Agent Thunder is the E. And he coordinates them shopping all over. We've been to Tennessee. fairly recently, but usually it's Florida and usually it's South Florida

and I'm going to shut up and let's do tell you about it. It's something you won't see anywhere, I promise. Well, we do something pretty unique here. We put it all out there and we do these investigations where we send, like I mentioned the mystery shopper, and then I guess the shocking part of it is we just read

what happens. You know, anything can happen, good, bad. Sometimes the dealerships are behaving themselves very, very, very, And they do a good job. And that's reflected in the grades that we give them. Most of the time, unfortunately, it doesn't turn out that way. If you look at all the mystery shopping reports and the grades that we gave for them on good dealer, baddealer list.com, none of these guys would get into a good college if you're basing it on their grade point average.

And you get to votes, by the way, at the end of the reports, we'll vote and you'll vote and we'll get a consensus. Yeah, our grades are subjective, but they are definitely Democratic. We're not dominating the choice. And we've had the listeners sway our grade. We might have considered a passing grade, and the listeners come back and said, no, fail these guys. The hardest thing for me, it is a big deal. I do it every single week.

It's the highlight of my week. And last week we had this epic shop up in the Nashville era in Murphysboro, Tennessee. And so this week I'm thinking, how do I follow up with something like this? So we just did some boring little Kia dealership in West Palm Beach. and, well, I wasn't disappointed, so I'll leave it at that. It always turns out good.

We never know what's going to happen. It's like Forrest Gump says. It's like a box of chocolate. You don't know what you're going to get. Exactly. But like I mentioned, and we mentioned in the report, too, if you want to check these things out, go to good dealer, baddealerlis.com, or even easier, go to Erloncars.com.

And then look at the mystery reports. We got hundreds of them up there. And we just recently updated the site, made it easier to, to navigate and easier to understand our grading our recommendation system before it was a past fail and it became, I don't think it was that useful because we would pass dealers as long as they were behaving within the line of the larger body of bad dealer behavior. If it was an average performance, it would pass. So now we're just giving letter grades. And so you can judge for yourself, you know, a dealer rated with a C-minus, it might not be so terrible, but you got to go

with caution. Tom, it was kind of like the most honest dealers, the most honest criminals in San Quimmon. Exactly. If you had no criminals that were recommended, then you're never going to buy a car. If we give somebody an A,

buy it from them. They're doing an incredible job, so much, way better than the rest of them. We've got Nancy Stewart, as I said earlier, she's my co-host, and she is she should get a purple heart because she's here, she's working

wounded, has some surgery on her foot, and probably the doctor would be very unhappy that she came in, but she's a trooperer. She's got her foot up here on the desk. I'm looking at her foot with the boot on it, and she's healing nicely,

but it's not easy for her to get in and out, and so I congratulate her and salute her for her sacrifice. Nancy's in charge of well, a lot of stuff. Her most important function, I believe, is her beacon of light

to the women of the audience. She's the beacon in the fog, I should say, for women to stand up and be heard and because you buy most of the cars. By some tolls, at least half, and you make a huge number of buying decisions, and you're very important to the economy of the world. Automobile buying is probably

one of the most significant factors and the economies of the whole world. So you're important, we want you to be heard, and Nancy's got some special offers that a lot of you have heard before because you're regular listeners. But if you're a woman and you haven't tuned in before, where do you hear this?

Okay, good morning, folks. Welcome. You're a big part of the show. We look forward to hearing from you, receiving your texts, all of it, because, as I said, you're an important part of the show. Give us a call toll-free at 877, 9-7-7. 960, or you can text us at 772-4976530.

Don't forget your anonymous feedback, your anonymous feedback.com. Ladies, I have $50 for the first two new lady callers. We would love to hear from you. No conditions, no fine friends. $50 cash, boom. You know, if I heard from every female caller, that I talk to throughout the week. If I just hear from you on Saturday, I'd be broke.

Wow, I'd have to give a lot of $50 at. I mean, I hear from a lot of ladies throughout the week. So, well, it just takes one lady first female caller to open up the door for the rest of you. You're an important part of the show, $50 for the first two new lady callers. all of that and mystery shopper report and a pretty talented panel that we have here

so you're going to hear well everything we just don't leave anything out now back to the recovery car dealer I think I forgot the fact that we're on YouTube and I always look over at Rick because Rick monitors our YouTube

and that's just YouTube.com forward slash roll on cars YouTube.com forward slash Rowland Cars go to YouTube channel and here we are in Living Color and Rick will probably grab the even not necessarily answer the question

he will if he can and if it's a sales related he'll throw it out for the team and so YouTube.com for it slash Roll on Cars as we speak did we just get one? We do. I'll just whip right over to you

now let's hear the first YouTube. This is from Negan 1 he's pretty popular with us on YouTube. he's been with it's quite a while he says he's got a PSA safety alert he said has a 2020 ford raptor pickup and he says he recently had a minor fender bender this was due to a blind spot that a lot of us may not take into account it's the a pillar which is the one that's between the front door and the windshield and he says with a lot of these cars now of course we've noticed there the cars are getting

a lot more sturdy. They're really working to improve the roll cage functionality of the car. And of course, with extra airbags and everything else, those A-pillars are actually getting a bit wider. And in his particular case, with his truck, it created

a bit of a blind spot that he really wasn't aware of. And he wound up getting in a small accident because of it. So for personal safety folks, as you're driving around, especially in parking lots, you know, where you get a lot cars moving in odd directions. Be aware also that a pillar may create a blind spot in your car

and be ready to watch, move your head around to look around in different angles to make sure you're catching all the views you need to see. Let me add. What was the model car that you... A Ford Raptor pickup. It's a Ford F-150 and this particular trim level of it. It has a very powerful engine. It's an extremely strong truck and they call it the Raptor. And for you folks out, there that have older vehicles. There's some really good electronics. Some of it I don't like, but some of the electronics and computerization and modern cars is excellent for detecting blind spots. I mean, for eliminating blind spots. So there will time to come when you won't have to worry about pillars and things like that because it'll all be electronic. And with the radar and the laser

and the rest of it going on now, you'd be surprised. And it's not complicated. It's very, user-friendly and if you trial a new car and all the manufacturers have this they have blind spot detection yeah and they have they have not only blind spots and people in your blind spot they can also see see things coming from the side when you're backing out of a parking place or when you're coming out of the front it's really amazing so if you have something that you're really really depending on visually I mean I'm at a point I'm old enough now where it's kind of harsh for me do one of my 360s with my neck like I did when I was a kid, I used to always look behind me

when I backed up. I can't look behind me now. So you have to rely on the rearview mirror, and that ain't going to do it. And so we do have a backup camera, and every car that's built today, I think, I think it's required. So as a matter of fact, a lot of them now have so many cameras on the car that on the radio screen, it can actually show you almost an eagle eye view where it's almost those, the cameras floating above your car, and the computers can stitch those images together and let you see all the way around the car in real time. Yeah, I'm not trying to sell your car, folks.

Trust me, this is not an infomercial. I don't care what you buy, Fords or Hondas or Fias. Well, don't buy a Fiat. But seriously, folks, if you haven't driven a new vehicle, go to the manufacturer to make of your choice. If you've got a 10-year-old vehicle or 15-year-old vehicle, you owe it to yourself, your safety, and your family safety, to try out a car that's a little bit new or not to buy a new car, buy a late model used, buy a three- or four-year-old, nice, certified used car, and try it out. You'll see the safety features, and you will not want to buy another car without them. So, how else we're doing on the... Excuse me for a second. Ladies and gentlemen, here's an idea. Which one is the safety features? features, if you're fortunate enough

to have them on your car, which one is your favorite? Which one is most difficult to understand? There's a good question. There's a good question. Okay, and as far as the ladies are concerned, you know,

share with us your experience as far as getting your vehicle serviced, whether or not you were able to pick up, shall we say, a hot deal today, you know, this past week, or just call to say hello. And there's a lot of options there for you, ladies.

So take advantage of it. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-2-497-6530. Don't forget, ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. Now we're going to go to Stu. Yes, we're going to kick off our... first text from Anne Marie this morning. Good morning, Ann Marie. Hey, Emory. Amory says, good morning.

A few weeks ago, you were asked what your favorite automotive movies were. Mine are Bert Reynolds' classic Smokey and the Bandit. I like that one, too. And Cannibal Run. And Paul Newman in Cars, which is the animated movie where he plays Doc Hudson, a crusty old, long-forgotten former champion race car. That's a few things that he's the new kid.

Another great movie. Now that movies have been addressed, how about songs. What is your favorite automotive song? I've got three songs on partial to. Little Nash Rambler. Beep, beep. Hot Rod Lincoln and Little Old Lady from Pasadena. What are your favorite automotive songs? Just wondering, thanks. I love how you get our tickers or brains working in the morning. I'm not sure this is the name of a song, Amory, but one of the lines is, my 409, she sure is fine. I can probably look that up. I actually have a favorite one

I didn't realize that you guys probably don't know this one but it's an old song It's Long May You Run by Neil Young And it's a song that he wrote For years I thought it was written a song about a person Like a friend who died a long time ago Anyway he had a Pontiac hearse That he had that died in 1962

And he left it in the side of the road in Canada somewhere And it's a song about this hearse that he loved I just saw I have another one, Mabelaine Mabelaine Why can't she be true How about you, Rick? I know you got one. Convoy. Convoy, of course. Yeah, you just said, smoking in the band was your favorite movie.

And, of course, Wolf Creek Pass, which is by C.W. McCall, same guy that did convoy. Okay. I couldn't have told you the artist if you, if you tortured me. All right, let's jump on to another one here. We have a... How about get out of my dreams? Get out of my car? Get into my car. That's Billy Ocean. Billy Ocean, 1985.

Could be a DJ. No, let's go to it here. Oh, yeah, that doesn't make sense. Get into my car. Get out of my dreams. Get into my car. Become real. I didn't go start to that.

I did it, yeah. They all say, get out of the back seat, do they? No, it's, it's inappropriate. Sounds like you've lived the dream. I don't. And by the way, that was the Beach Boys. My 409. Oh, very cool.

I thought I remembered that one. Oh, did you Google it? Of course. Of course. Well, thank you, Emery. That was a fun question. Okay, Jonathan. What about you?

What's your favorite? Okay, we're going to get back to Jonathan. Mary should be on the show. She should be our producer. Yeah. Well, she's got an open invitation. We would probably squeeze another chair right here. Yeah.

Buddy room. all right the next text we have says there's no name on it says last week Earl said only to buy extended warranties from the manufacturer I've driven Toyota's my whole life and I've always been told that in the southeast Toyota extended warranties are not available

at Toyota dealerships and the offerings from independent warranty companies are all anyone can choose from in the southeast well there are some things that are not available in this for the independent distributors you know Southeast

Toyota controls all the dealers, they're kind of like a middleman for Toyota. And then there's a mid-states Toyota that is also independent distributor. But most of the states, probably 40 of the 50 states, are dealt directly with Toyota the manufacturer. And there's some products that Toyota offers that, for example, Toyota Finance, Southeast Toyota Finance has their own finance company, and they have their own warranties. which is kind of like Toyota, but not really Toyota. Right.

Is that right? Yeah. I mean, they're comparable. I guess the point Earl was making was you're going to have homegrown warranties that dealers put up through themselves, and generally speaking, they're going to be, well, any insurance product is designed. The house is going to win. You're going to pay a premium, and most likely you're not going to see a benefit from it.

It might buy you peace of mind. However, there are some good warranties, and there are some bad warranties, and we're warning you against the bad warranties. So if a dealer is making these things up themselves, they have these exclusionary warranties which exclude most of the things you'd want to get fixed. The thing to remember about an extended warranty on a car, they're enormously profitable to whoever the warranty company is. I don't say usually, but in many times the dealers own the warranty companies,

and they're immensely profitable. That should tell you something right there. So be careful. Anytime you have a product that's enormously profitable and everybody is in the game, you have to be careful. You don't want to have to pay too much profit. Profit is okay to have, but you just don't want to be gouged. And the way you find out, really, is by shopping and comparing like everything else.

And also by looking at the warranty. It's hard to look at fine print, and there's a huge amount of fine print on extended warranties. I don't recommend that you read. Actually, I do recommend you read the whole thing, but you won't. What I do recommend is on the warranties is required to say what is not covered. And you need to look at that portion, if nothing else, because on the cheap warranties, the expensive stuff, the stuff that you really worry about, isn't covered.

And they cover the stuff that's not going to fail, and if it does fail, they have conditions in there. You probably didn't obey the conditions, and they're worthless. Power-train warranty is the most famous. Car dealers give them away. Free warranty with every car. Free warranty with every car. And it's not worth the paper it's spent it on.

So you have to look at the warranty, and you have to shop and compare the price. That's right. All right, the next one was, I think this from where we're talking about this last week, says when mixing your own anterfreeze, this is just advice. When mixing your own anterfreeze, make sure you use distilled water in a 50-50 mix. Is that correct? We're passing on good information?

Okay, because I wouldn't know. Got to YouTube, right? We do. RICO is asking, any idea what percentage of the MSRP is the manufacturer's cost, save for a Corolla versus a Highlander V6? Well, Stu can answer more specifically than I, but the percentage of the MSRP

in different models and makes, varies all over the planet. So the only thing good about, about an MSRP, it gives you a standard of comparison between the exact same year-make model car with the same accessories. But discounts on different makes and models vary from as small as 7% or 8% to 50%.

So it's too complicated. When you start buying a vehicle, a new vehicle, based on discount from MSRP, it's only valid within the same year make model car and discount from the exact same MSRB. You can't go based on the amount of the

discount. The discount is almost meaningless. Right. I mean, and also typically, the more expensive the car, the more there is markup. So if you go down to the less expensive end of the spectrum for like a crawl or something like that. Trucks and SUVs

have the largest markup and the small little car is small, compacts, subcompacts, have the smallest. Exactly. And in some cases, like when you get up into the upper end, these $80,000, and this is our realm, we're not in the luxury, we have a luxury business,

but you get a $70,000 car, and you can have an $8,000 or $9,000 profit built in if it was sold at MSRP, and conversely down, like on the crow level, it might be $1,500 or $1,800. But, yeah, I agree with Earl, do not get focused on what percentage you should be

shooting for. The magic of the market will give you the best price and that's just comparing prices as long as you know what you're comparing you get competitive bets. The discount is the best tool only with respect to MSRP and then comparing

it with at least three competing dealers. When you do it that way it's the way to buy cars, it's the only way to buy the car. So discount off of MSRP. MSRP is something required by the federal government. It should be your north

in terms of comparing and buying vehicles. You should never ever buy a new vehicle without knowing the real, true manufacturer-suggested retail price. It's called the Monroney label. It was put into law in 1958 by a senator. He sponsored that bill. And it was to require all dealers, all car dealers, to put the manufacturer-suggested retail price,

prominently on the window, leave it there until the customer takes delivery. And that is your North Star. So first decide exactly what your make model you want, then get that MSRP and tattoo it on your hand and go to three different dealers and don't vary from that. And if you can get a $5,000 discount from that MSRP instead of a $4,500, buy the $5,000 discount. That's your North Star, the Monroney label.

Then watch out for all the hidden fees. Gosh, this is confusing. This is why we have a show. This is why we'll always have a show, I think. Exactly. Yes, exactly. Excuse me, Stu. We're going to go to Roadrunner, Steve.

He's a regular caller. We enjoy his conversation. But also, ladies, don't forget, you've got yourself $50 here for the first two new lady callers. Give me a call. Anything at all. The guys that love to answer your questions. And, you know, compare comments, $50.

Okay, Steve, good morning. Good morning, everybody. My favorite song is I'm a roadrunner. Me, me. Okay, here's my question. I don't know if it's Nissan or Toyota, it says they will double your down payment. 1,000 becomes 2,000 and so on. So my question is, let's say the car cost $17,000.

And I put down $5,000, which makes it a $10,000 down payment. And I turn around and say, okay, all I owe you was $7,000. Here's $7,000. Give me the car. Well, you didn't read the fine print, Steve. Somewhere there's fine print. And fine print limits the amount they'll double your down payment. It's just a deceptive way of tricking you.

I'm giving the feedback. Hey, Rudruder, Steve, you've got to turn your radio down. Hey, Red Runner, Steve, you got to turn your radio down. I heard myself. I guess that's the delay. Yeah, and so why wouldn't they do that? I say, here's seven grand. Give me my car.

Let me get out of here. Well, they can only afford to discount the car so much, and they want you to think exactly what you're thinking. Gosh, I was going to put a big down payment down anymore anyway, so I'll just put down more and that'll give me a bigger discount. They're not going to allow you to control the discount you get just by adding more down payment. They have a limit. It's from the fine print where you can't find it, and you'll find out when you get in the dealership. And then the games begin, the haggle, the hassle.

Fine print, you need like three pair of eyeglasses to read that fine print. You're not kidding. It's illegal. You know, Steve, the Federal Trade Commission says that anything that modifies the advertised price has to be prominently and conspicuously displayed, and it has to be in the same type size as the price. That's the law, and it's totally ignored. Nobody enforces it. Federal Trade Commission doesn't enforce it. The State Attorney Generals don't enforce it. So there you go. We have powerful auto lobbies that are controlling our regulators. even our legislators. Well, they probably get a good deal on it since they know they're a politician. I guarantee you.

Get the deal. I guarantee you. A senator or an attorney general walks into a car dealership, let me tell you, they get a good deal. I believe it. Okay, everybody. Have a good day. Keep up to work.

I got to work on my roadrunner now. Oh, thanks, Steve. It was great hearing from you. Have a wonderful weekend. You too. Thank you. Bye-bye. 877-960, 990-60, or you can text us.

772-497-6530. Now back to Stowe. Okay, we have a text from Tom in West Alice, Wisconsin, which, by the way, is a suburb of Milwaukee. That's what Tom told me. He said, my dad, who was a snowbird in Hope's Down there, he turned us onto our show. And in his honor, it's his driving to work podcast. So that's cool. Hey, Tom. I hope you're listening to this, driving to work on Monday, and we're giving you a shout out.

But here's Tom's question. He says, it's kind of a technical one based on the cold snap we had in the last two weeks. I'm 57, and I'm wondering if I misremembered, or I'm having bad flashback from the 70s and 80s, in the very cold weather, do I remember seeing people putting usually cardboard in front of their grill to do what? Restrict the air flow of the radiator? This would heat up your car faster. What would happen if you did that now with new-fangled fan motors that kick in? I don't remember if you guys always lived in Florida or lived in a colder region, and that's from Tom.

I've never heard of that before. That's a great question. I have no idea. You didn't do that at Purdue? Well, Purdue, yeah. Or Rensselaer. Yeah, yeah. Well, I understand the concept of putting, I've never heard of doing it, but I understand the concept.

You're trying to prevent airflow across the radiator, so to build heat quicker. but truth be told in cold weather when you first start your car it's better just to sit and give it a few minutes to warm up itself naturally soon as Googling this so you'd better be careful that would be my option my personal opinion

and I guarantee this will be backed up by a whole lot of folks that live up north into wintertime you'd be amazed at the number of them that have a remote start on their car so they can start the car from inside the house and let it warm up for a few minutes first off to get the heat inside the car going so you're not getting into an ice box

but secondly to give the engine a chance to build its heat up gradually get the oil warmed up get the coolant warmed up and have your car ready to drive safely can I guess all good things from a girl from Pittsburgh definitely my guess is you should be very careful

about putting cardboard in front of your radiator because you might forget it's there and that's not the way the radiator was designed. Yeah. And you might not quite make it to work. I would not do it at all. I'd rather warm my car up. All kind of good things happen before you, you know, get in the car and go to work.

A lot of good things. Well, you're the only snowbird here. Hey, I grew up in South Dakota. You did? Surprise. Before high school. You never quite grew up, but you... Well, that's for sure.

Before I started my car, what I did was take a bucket of hot water out with... my chisel, and I'd get the ice off the locks, first of all, chip away the windshield, then I'd get in the car and get it all ready, you know, to get to work. I'm so glad I grew up in South Florida. Apparently, the cardboard thing is a thing, and on the Internet says it does work, but it is dangerous because your car can overheat when the temperature rises out there, and it's not the way the car is designed. But apparently it is widespread, and that's what people do that.

The question, I guess Tom had like on modern cars, I don't know if the radiers work any differently, if it's different, if this was an old, you know, old-fashioned thing, it doesn't work on a modern car. Another red flag, anything you do to modify the vehicle's operation based on the manufacturer's design is going to avoid your warranty. So if your car overheats because you've got cardboard plastered over your grill, you're not going to get any warranty help on that, even on a brand-new car. So don't mess with something that's going to modify what the manufacturer intended in his design. Exactly. Exactly. We're going to go to Marty, who's giving us a call from West Palm Beach. Good morning, Marty.

Thank you for waiting. Hi. Hi, good morning. How are you? We're well, thank you. Nice to hear from you. I have a question. Well, two points.

The first point is the first person that called about the $5,000 in doubling the down payments. Yeah. I mean, that's all, I mean, you've got to realize that it's all malarkey. Now, there's a lot of dealers down here that if you look at their sticker, they put down market adjustment. Yep. So they're making out that a $20,000 car sells for $26 because more people want the car, you know, or that color is worth $6,000 more. So you're never going to, they're never going to double your down payment in true real dollars. true okay my other question or is every time i buy a car i at least start off with kelly blue book

to see what kelly blue book says the invoice is on the new car but i don't want to tell you your business because i'm sure you know better than me but you don't pay that invoice no lord you're getting the car for a cheaper price much cheaper than that that's than that it shows. So my question is, is there any way in the world that I can see or find out what the dealer really pays? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if it'll be successful. If you ask to see the actual vehicle invoice, which could be any document they make up, but if you actually get your hands on an actual invoice, I can, for Toyota invoices, the most of those holdbacks, the extra profit, is spelled out on the invoice.

Yeah, but you have to read dealers speak. Yeah. And the lingo, if you looked at it, Marty, you wouldn't understand it. And it also, the invoice also doesn't include cash back to dealers and other special programs. There's dealer cash, the car dealers talk about. And on a particular model, Honda could put $2,000 cash back on an accord, and the invoice wouldn't reflect that at all. The average invoice, the average invoice hides about $4,000 in profit to the dealer.

Over half the cars, my dealership sells, we sell for under-envoice, and we make a fair profit. I mean, we're profitable. Unlike most dealers that lose a little bit in every car and make it up on the volume, we actually make a profit when we sell the car. So the invoice conceals about $4,000 with a profit on the average. Okay, well, would I never give the, when I see the invoice or do it, I'd say that's a starter for me when I buy a car. Yeah. And I know that they can go lower.

Yeah, you're better off, Marty, not even to bother yourself with the invoice. I mean, you won't look at it. That's fine. but you're playing their game. Usually they will volunteer to show you the invoice because they'd love to show it to you and say, all I want to do is make $500. So here's the invoice.

I'm going to market up $500. Well, he's making $4,500. Don't play the dealer's game. He knows exactly what's in that invoice and you don't. The only way to do it is take that MSRP on that same car, which is higher than the invoice. obviously, but take the MSRP and then ask him for the maximum discount he'll give you

because you're going to go to two other dealers and compare that discount. That way, you don't care what the invoice is. Right, right. Yeah, I mean, my bottom line is always when I buy a car is, what are they giving it to me out the door for? Exactly. And obviously, if Earl Stewart is cheaper than El Hendrickson, I'm going to buy it from Earl Stewart.

Exactly. If it's the other way around, probably will be. Even though El Hendrickson has got one of the worst reviews that you could ever see in the world, I have gotten cars cheaper there for whatever reason. Because you're a good negotiator. You go down to El Hendrickson.

He's like the third or fourth largest volume toilet dealership in the United States, which means he's like the third or fourth largest volume car dealers. ship in the United States. He sells close to a thousand cars every month, a thousand new cars every month. Hollywood is real close to them down there. They're the number two volume. So if you're a good negotiator and you're sharp and you can stand the blows of going through the game playing and not be bloodied, you can get a really good deal at either Hollywood or Al Hendrickson or any big volume dealer. But you're got to be good. And so that's

me like you know what you're doing now I'll tell you one thing there I've gone up and down I'm sure you're familiar with the plates look like yeah it's like they've never modernized anything in the place but I'll tell you one thing I've gone up and down the stairs five times before we've made a deal so they're they're a very very shrewd operation yeah but I will tell you this if you can't make the deal there you're never going to make it in any Toyota dealership. Well, that's going to war. You in there and you're shrewd and you're sharp. If you go in there and you're gullible and you're inexperienced, you'll end up paying several thousand dollars over a sticker and they'll make a $10,000 profit on

you. If you go in there wheeling and dealing and sharp and able to negotiate, you can buy the car for $100 over their net cost? Oh, yeah. Well, I'll say one thing, most of their poor reviews are with used cars. Mm-hmm. You know, and that's

where a lot of people get stuck. And apparently people that have, you know, poor credit. Sure. And they, you know, and they need a car and they, you know, they have to go for it. Yeah, the thing. Obviously, if you're a good negotiator,

you can get them. to the, at least the rock bottom price. You hit all the, they put on their sticker, that market value and all the other nonsense. And I never, I tell the salesman right away, listen, we gotta, forget about that price. Yeah. And now you gotta negotiate.

Yeah, you gotta let them know you know what you're doing. I happen to like it, so to me it's fun. Most people don't like it. Maybe we'll let you do a mystery shopping report for us, Marty, would you, how'd you like to go to Al Hendrickson and really beat them up bad and see how good a price you could get? Well, I can tell you this, for my last car, I got it there. Good. And believe me, it was a three-to-four-hour negotiation.

But I can tell you this, I went to all the three dealers in West Palm, including yours, and I got the car for. $4,000 less than any other dealer. Wow. Sometimes it hasn't worked out, and I'll be the first one to agree that, you know, it hasn't worked out, but this one happened to be very good, and it was the end of February. I don't know if that was a good deal. The end of February of 2020, and they were just before the pandemic hit, and I was, I'd say I was the only guy in the place.

Really? And they must have needed a sale for the end of the month. Well, you'll let me know when you want to go down there again, and we'll give you the brief course on mystery shopping, and we'd love to have you show us how good you are. All right. All right. If I decide, the only problem I have is what I really want a car,

Marty is thrown out of there? It's Nancy. Marty, is your name on the list of volunteers for? Earl's vigilantes? No, it isn't because... Boy, you sound like you belong at the very top. Let's put it this way. My thing is you've got to have time

and you've got to have the initiative to really deal. You can't just go into a car deal with you. I want a Camry and they say, okay, here it is, and you pay the price. You've got to be tough. I've never done that, not 76. So I negotiate.

Yeah, and then the little old lady came in after you bought that car for $500 over cost, and she paid $10,000 over, so their average profit is just fine. Everybody that goes into every car dealership, especially Al Hendrickson, pays a different price for the same car. And the price is the problem, yeah. You're 100% correct. Exactly. 100%. Okay.

Marty, thanks for you, a great caller. Thanks a lot. You're welcome, Marty. Spent the word about our Earl's vigilantes. And for all you folks that are listening out there, this is a great group of volunteers that get together that's going to help, you know, a lot of consumers in their own neighborhood, you know, by getting this information and weeding these dealers, these auto dealers out.

So you can go to Earl on Cars and sign up, and we'd love to. to have you join us. Girls Vigilantes.com. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6-5-30. Don't forget, ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. $50. Now back to Stu.

Okay, do-dokey. Either one, I'm happy. We do have a YouTube on right now. Is 5946 is asking, what's up with the car business? It seems they don't know what to pay salesman anymore. A salesman can make good money, but only if he works non-stop tirelessly,

taking numerous ups and calls, miss one day and miss a bonus. It's great to hear from a car salesperson. It's tough out there. It depends on the dealership, and there's some dealerships that you just, based on your morals and ethics, you just wouldn't want to work for.

A lot of car dealerships do, in fact, unfortunately, most of them do a lot of bait-and-switch advertising, which means that as a car salesperson, you're standing there waiting for someone to come in the door who has been deceived. You'll see this every week on our mystery shopping report. Baton-Switch ad. The car will be advertised for far less than they'll ever sell that car for. The truth is sometimes disclosed in the fine print. Sometimes not.

So here you are trying to explain to a nice person that came in and smiled at you, and he smiled at them, explaining to that person why you can't buy the car for the advertised price. We actually have mystery shoppers that are told by the salesperson, listen, that ad is there just to get you in the door. They find that is easier to confront the lie and the deception up front, hopefully to gain the confidence personally. of the shop or the buyer, but most cases that won't happen. And then you'd have to play the game. So I don't blame you for not liking being a car sales person. My suggestion is you shop around for a dealership that's honest and transparent

and that will pay you fairly and not make you an adversary to every customer that comes in the door. There are a few dealerships like that, and you should try to find one. And find one that doesn't have an 80-hour work schedule because that is the old model and it's designed to handle like what Earl just said. A ton of traffic. A lot of people coming on ads that are never going to come true, and so you've got to be there to get that traffic. A better carty leadership would have more like a normal work week

and also don't put you in the position of having to defend a bunch of lies. Yeah, the average hours per week of a good car dealership would be between 40 and 50 hours. I mean, 50 hours would be max. The key-to-key, seven-day-a-week kind of thing, that's going way back. A good car dealership does not do that anymore. It's demoralizing, and you're not going to be on your best if you have to work 70 hours a week.

They're not going to be on your best. I'll tell you what, that cliche bell to bell, 80 hours a week. Boy, I'll tell you what, that's a killer. As a matter of fact, Iz just came with another comment. He says, yes, we had only one car available at the advertised price, and we were not allowed to sell it. You can fire. Typically, in one of these tough old school dealerships, they have the bait and switch car, and they say, you cannot sell the car.

Sometimes they say if you sell the car, you're fired, sometimes they just say that there's no commission. So if you want to work for nothing and you sell the ad car. You get a dollar. Yeah, exactly. There you go. It's in my pocket right here. I'll hand it to you personally when you sell the car. Okay, folks, we're going to go back to the phone.

Warren has been holding from Pompano Beach. Good morning, Warren. Nice to hear from you. Good morning, guys. I thought I'd add a little bit of levity to your show today. When Bert Reynolds died, this is in regards to car songs and car movies. He told

the story. He played an interview with him. And from Smoky and the Bandit, he got a call from the president of General Motors and said, we want to give you a Pontiac, was it a Pontiac Transcend? That was in the movie? Yes, it was. Yeah.

Yes, so he said, we want you to come to Detroit, if you don't mind, and we want to make a presentation and give you the car. So he said, that's great. So he flew to Detroit, and he got to the planet, and he said he's had like the biggest day of his life because they had banners that said bur, burr, and they were screaming his name because they had to put on a third shift just to keep up with the demand. And they had him in the key, they made a whole big deal about it,

and he says, you know, the people in the plan were yelling his name. And he said, it was like a big, big thrill. so the president said that we're going to give you a new one every year for the rest of your life so every year on that date he had a new transand delivered to his house and all of a sudden about seven years go by he said he gave one to his sister he gave one to his friend he'd keep the new one yada yada anyway he said seven years go by and the eighth year comes and there's no car so he calls up and he speaks to somebody at general mortars and he says to them I was promised the car every year for the rest of my life

the person on the other insist. Well, that may not work because you've misunderstood what we said. It was till the end of the president of General Motors' life, and he dies. You know, that raises an interesting question to my... I used to be a pony egg dealer, and we used to deliver a new transam

to Bert Rennel's father who lived in this area every year. And the, you know, the Bandit car was the one we delivered. So his father was getting a car, probably Burt paid for it, but we would deliver that. He would come in. Burr Reynolds' father to my dealership, 1928 South Dixie and West Palm Beach and pick up his new Trans Am every year. Yeah, I thought the guys get a kick out of it. And you know, the way Burr Reynolds tells a story, you know, it was funny the way he was telling you. I just thought you guys get a kick out of that

Yeah, I just found the video of him with that interview telling the story, so I'll watch that after the show. He's a great storyteller. I love at the end when he's talked about, you know, well, you've got it wrong. It's not your life, but his life. That'd surprise me. It's the car business. Yeah. Yeah.

Anyway, so, you know, that was it. I just got one question from you guys. It's sort of like a pep in mind when I'm driving. and we don't know those stupid things are driving. Why is it then when sometimes you're driving and you want to get into another lane, somebody's got to speed up on you? I just don't understand that.

People don't like people in front of them. I don't know what it is. It's a competitive thing. Yeah, it's a, I think psychologists probably have done studies on that, and I see it all the time. You're absolutely, it's a great observation, and I find myself doing it. I think it's an animal kind of an evolutionary instinctive survival or something.

Something kicks in when a bunch of humans are going in one direction. It becomes a race. You want to be ahead, yeah. But that's a great observation, Warren, you're correct? And Earl's the most guilty one of that. I'm guilty, yeah. I'm the one you're talking about. I think we're all good things, and every few of the day.

And one of the funny things is I have Florida plates on my car, but I spend the whole summer up in New Jersey or northern New Jersey. If I miss something up there, I just yell out, well, what do you want from a guy from Florida, although I lived there in my whole life, and I know every road back is good. So I says, don't you give a guy from out-of-state a break? No. No, no, you're a target. All right, guys, thank you very much.

I enjoy you. Thank you, Warren. Thanks, Warren. Thanks for the humor. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us. 772-4976530 now back to stew okay some anonymous feedback I'm a snowbird not sure how long and a vigilante hey I don't know who you are but you want our vigilantes we'll be going back to Michigan in early May if you're doing the mystery shop out of state I could maybe do a few in Michigan if you so desire I just kind of did such a thing with two different Mazda dealerships in Michigan one on the west side of the state and one in the southeast Michigan. And honestly, both were straight up, gave me an out-the-door price without

dealer fees, and sent it to me by email. The out-the-door price they gave me was very similar to your mystery shop of Mazda Palm Beach, and both were about 2,000 below invoice. Now, I'm not naive enough to think that all northern dealers are this way, but dealerships in the south, particularly South Florida, are just brutal. And you hit the nail on the head. There's something unique and special about South Florida. Well, Tennessee was And Murphy's Brough We're expanding our

Yeah, the Wild West is down here But there's just, they have a Like a satellite location On Murphy's Brough Well, California, for example And other states Have a cap on hidden fees And they allow the dealers

To have their BS fee And they just say, identify it And we're going to put a cap on it So they put a cap, I'm going to say $100. It used to be $75, probably $100, maybe more. But it doesn't make any difference really how much the fee is as long as it's disclosed. There's not something hidden in addition to that fee.

It's permitted by law, and it's advertised in the price. That completely neuters hidden fees. If you put it in the price, when you advertise it, it's not hidden anymore. Knock yourself out. That's right. All right. More anonymous feedback. Excuse me, Steve.

Yes. We're going to go back to the phones. Okay. And we are going to talk to Dina. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome. Thank you so much for taking my call.

Oh, you're quite welcome. You're quite welcome. You've won yourself $50 for the first-time female caller, so I thank you for calling. What can we do for you today? Well, I received a flyer in the mail from Edmorse Honda. It was a scratch-off, and it appeared as if I was a winner of $1,000. Congratulations. I wasn't. I went to the dealership and was told by a salesperson that this was a joke,

which I thought was really cute. He was right. He sent me to someone else. The man was sitting at his desk, and all he wanted was my contact information, which, of course, all he had to do was ask for the flyer, and it was on the flyer. When I said he had, I wasn't going to give it because it was on the flyer, he got up and he walked away from me. I asked for a manager, and just as you've said on the radio, a gentleman came over and he said that he was the manager, which of course now I realize he was not. And he took me to show me the sign, which the sign on the flyer said, peel off here to see if you have a match, if you have won, head to the dealership

and match your winning number to our prize board to see what you have won. And then underneath it it says, come in today and get your guaranteed prize. Well, when I went over, he took me to the, to the, board and yes I was a winner and then he went ahead and got another scratch off as if it was a lottery ticket and when we scratched it off guess what I won nothing so it was the biggest joke and I said something and of course they were not interested in what I had to say so I just want people to be aware of these flyers that come out in the mail that tell you that you are a winner and inevitably you are not a winner of course you know excuse me for interrupting but

what was it that you said that they weren't interested in they weren't interested in providing a prize it says on here you you come in today and get a guaranteed prize there was no prize he had a board with all the the winning numbers that were on the flyer that I had and then he then proceeded to hand me a scratch another scratch off ticket and that scratch of ticket of course I did not win anything so he told me, oh, I'm sorry, you're not a winner. This is one of these turnkey sales that are going around, and here's the reason they do it. It's based on probability.

They will sell about 1% of the people that come in. 99% are like you. They're savvy. They're not going to be fooled. But about 1% of the population will actually buy a car. So it's a numbers game, and they hired this company. Some of the people you talk to are professionals that come with a kit. The dealer at Moore Sondra probably paid something like $10,000 or more,

and they do the sale over a certain number of days, and they expect that 99% of the people are going to be too intelligent to fall for it. Some people just come in because sometimes there is a little free gift. They might get a fan or a flashlight or something nominal, and they come in and take the flashlight and they go home. 1% actually come in and buy a car. And they do make a profit. Have you ever gotten an email or any kind of a solicitation out of Nigeria or someplace?

And they say, your uncle died. I heard of them. Yes, I have received the email. Yes, we're stuck in London. Please send money. We need to get them. Same principle. Those are more honest in Cardinal.

I laugh at them. I even put them on Facebook because I get them. And they say, you know, George Stewart and Tokyo died, and, you know, there's no one here to collect his $200 million. And so you're the heir apparent. And if you'll just send me $50,000 so I can pay my cost, I'll arrange to have the full, you know, $200 million forward to you. So I laugh at it, but then I realize that about maybe it's one-tenth of 1%. but whatever it is, there are no suckers on the planet that if you send out a million of these, you make money.

It's profitable. Yeah, no, Dena. It was very sad because the dealership was crowded, and I saw, and I hate to say this, a couple of elderly ladies, and I wanted to go over and tell them to please head for the hills. Yes. But I didn't.

You know, you just felt badly for them because they were coming in, obviously, with this flyer, and nothing was being done for them. Yeah, there was a whole lot of them. of that going on right now. I think I talked to two ladies this past week who had the same encounter and they handled it pretty well even though they knew in fact, you know, this is a way to get you in the door. It's amazing the amount of deception that's out there and it's amazing that today there aren't a whole lot of consumers that will just stand up to that person

and, you know, stand around. That's all. Knowledge is popular. You get them in the door, but, you know, prove to them that salesperson that you're not a moron and turn around and leave. Well, I will tell you, I did have the nerve. You would laugh at this one. I did have the nerve to go back the next day because I had listened to your program that morning. And I went back in the next day, and I asked for a manager because the first time a gentleman said he was the manager. I knew he wasn't, but I went along with it. I went back the second day.

another gentleman said he was the manager. I said, oh, could I have a business card, please? Oh, I just started a month ago. I don't have any. I said, well, I have a manager who perhaps has a business card. And suddenly another gentleman comes out. And now he presents me with a business card. Oh, let me see what I can do for you.

And then he presents me with a gentleman, as you said, who was from this company that made up the flyer. And he sat down with me, oh, let me tell you all about it, and this is what happened, and so on. for us, and on the flyer, it showed some of the gifts that you might be eligible for. Might. At which point, I said, oh, I guess I'm not eligible for anything. And on the inside of the flyer, it says, just for coming in, pick a prize.

And it shows a bunch of things. So suddenly he disappears, comes back, and hands me a prize. I mean, it was something that, believe me, I would toss in the garbage, but it was something that because I pushed the envelope, he was giving me a prize. Yeah. And, of course, it says, wild supplies left. It was the biggest joke. Don't you think that if you turn around, you'd say to yourself, am I on candid camera?

You're absolutely right, and at that point, I turned around to walk out to say, if I did need a Honda, I would never go back to Ed Morse Honda because of that type of treatment. Well, I'll tell you what, you know, we could sure use you. Are you on the vigilantes list? No, I'm not, but I would love to be a mystery shopper. Oh, wow. We would love for you to be a mystery shopper. You'd be a good one.

Yeah, definitely. I like your style. Okay. Thank you so much. Like I said, I did it as a joke because I knew I wasn't getting that original $1,000, but it was just very sad when I think that people fall for this type of advertisement. I wonder what happened to the two little old ladies. I don't know.

Very sad. I wanted to hang around and watch, but I had to get home at that time. Yeah. But I felt so badly because the dealership was packed. There was barely any, there was no place to sit down. Amazing. And people were falling for it. Yeah, amazing.

What can I say? So I got up and walked out, but I would love to be a mystery shopper. How's that? Thanks for bringing all of this to our attention. Be sure to send me your contact information. We'll discuss. Okay. And you have yourself a great time spending that $50.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Now, how do I contact you? You can just stay on the line with the control room, and Mike will take your information. You'll be able to email me. Very good. Thank you so much. Thank you for speaking with me this morning. Oh, thank you. Have a great weekend. 877-960, or you can text us, 772530, Your Anonymous Feedback.com.

Take advantage of it. Now back to Rick. We've got Richard Poplis, says, Earl, have you ever heard of Car Wright in the North in Connecticut? Can you negotiate with them? It says they have one set price with no salesman. He says he loves the show and our honesty. Car Right, I haven't heard of Car Right. Is that like C-A-R-I-G-H-T?

It's C-A-R-R-I-T-E, Car-R-R-R-R-R-R-T, Car Right. Yeah, there's not a new one. Richard, these kind of companies are growing, and most of them are legitimate. CarMax is probably the original, and they have one price. It's not negotiable. It's a fair price. We also have We Buy Anycar.com. We have Carvana.

We have Vroom, V-R-O-O-M. Automation almost bought Vroom. I didn't realize that. They were talking to them. year ago about buying automation is not quite one price but they're talking about it so yeah the one price thing is is a groundswell and of course our dealership has been one price for a long time you be sure it's the lowest price that's the trend to put their lowest price on every vehicle that way you

know we were talking about a little old lady at Edmore Sonda who paid probably several thousand dollars profit and everybody comes into a car dealership now pays you to have a price. That's just not customer friendly and the dealers now are starting to figure this out and we have someone like car right

apparently. What do you make them out? I just checked them out. It's not a it's not like Carvana or Vroom it's not they're not selling the cars. It's a service. They sign up dealers it's a listing service so you're still dealing with dealers. Be careful. Oh yeah. If it involves dealers, forget about

it. There's even though car right might be legitimate if they're working through the dealers right then there's a red flag right their website is great and they're saying all the right things but it's going to break down the second you start dealing with a typical dealer they might have some good dealers on it are going to honor it but basically they have to commit to selling the car for one price no negotiating but it's a listing service similar to auto trader so there's no way to contact car right directly well there is but they're not they don't own the cars they're not selling the cars They're just...

See, Costco has a dealer network, too, and that's the Achilles' Heel in the Costco program. Exactly. This show recommends the Costco auto buying program is the very best way to buy a vehicle. But unless you go through Costco and go by their rules and dot the eyes and cross the T's per Costco, the dealers will lie to you and tell you it's a Costco price,

and it's not, and take advantage of you. So beware. It's always beware when you walk into a dealership. I am. I also wanted to mention when Dina called about Edmores Honda that weekend that she was there, they had a big spike in sales. Typically on a weekend, Edmores Honda, because we get weekly reports because we compete with them. And typically a typical weekend for them, maybe 15 new Hondas, they did 33 on that weekend.

So people who are responding to the ad. And they're also getting pretty aggressive. Our body shop manager and former member of this show, Alan, he gets a lot of. of their advertisements. He forwarded me one that they sent out last week. Actually, it was on Facebook. They're offering $5,000 over Kelly Blue Book for trade-ins guaranteed. So we know

that's not the case. If it was the case, we would sell them our use car inventory and make a bunch of money. Well, I think we need to put them on the Agent Lightning or Thunder. Oh, they've been targeted. Yeah. Then we just lit them up. And Silver Surfer says,

Hi, guys. The end residual on my lease is 22,000. with 20 months left. The KBB trade-in is only 23,000 currently. Anything a dealer could do to get me out of it early besides swap a lease? Thanks.

No. I mean, you've got to make the payments on the vehicle. You're contractually obligated. You can make them now or make them later. How many months did he say 22 months? He's got 20 months left and the end residual

is 22. thousand dollars well you had 20 times your monthly payment and that's that's really what you're going to have to pay that you're right what do you say KB said the car was worth 23,000 I mean it's worth exploring I mean that's like I mean if it's worth more than the residual than you then you can but the KB is not it's a good guide you should definitely get a few different bids on getting the car appraised from different places and see if it's possible well he can exercise it yeah but he has to be 23

Not if he buys it out. Oh, if he buys it out. Yeah, so that's the two things. You can either make all the payments, which is, did he mention what his payment was? He did not. Okay, so if it's 300, you know, he's got 6,000 in payments roughly, I'm just making this up. It's highly unlikely. I think you made a mistake because for a car that's leased to have higher Kelly Blue Book,

a wholesale value, with 22 almost almost 2. almost two years left it's not typical not typical yeah that raises some suspicion be careful yeah but if you go to Edmore's Honda they'll give you 5,000 over Kelly Blue Book so you should be able to get at the least no problem come a call all right anonymous feedback back when we are kids and I'm talking in the 1950s supposedly a common prank was putting sugar in a car's gas tank I don't think I knew anyone who did that or anyone who had that done to them my question is what happens to a car if someone really did that

I've been wondering about this for about 70 years. What happens if you, it's going to, it ruins the engine, right? You dissolve and go into it. No. No, what happens? Most cases. It makes cotton candy coming out of the tailpipe? Yeah.

Actually, it does. It tastes really good, but you've got to be right up to the tailpipe for us, too. The sugar pretty much would dissolve into the fuel, and it would mess with the chemical composition of it to the point that the engine probably wouldn't run. And when you get it to a mechanic, they would diagnose it as bad gasoline. We would drain the tank, flush it out with fresh fuel, flush it through the injectors, and get the car running again. Wouldn't it gum up the carburetor because all the cars back when he was talking about. Back then, it's very unlikely because the sugar would dissolve in the gasoline,

and it would simply spray through because the jets and carburetors were actually very large. There were a big opening. The openings on modern fuel injectors are about one-tenth the size of a human hair. So if anything on modern cars, it would be more likely that some debris might mess it up. But in order for that fuel to get through the filter that's in the tank, it's got to be small enough to make it through those injectors anyways. So you're really, the worst thing you're going to see is the car will not run because of the contaminant, fuel it just won't burn properly so the car will have to use

artificial sweetener and the gasoline yes yes sweeten low now that oh that'll do it so that's really good to know so if you're thinking about doing that that prank you know the consequences if you get caught wouldn't be that bad you might be you have to come up with a few hundred dollars to pay for a flush and

it'd be about the same thing as the folks that accidentally put diesel into the car or E85 into the car that's an interesting topic I don't know whether it's because of where I come from, from Pittsburgh. In Pittsburgh, you just put potatoes in the tailpipes. Whether it's my location or what it might be.

But a lot of people using a whole lot of sugar. All right. We got another one here, anonymous feedback. I recently had an accident in my car and had my car repaired in a reputable body shop. Unfortunately, I hope that insurance would total the car because I just don't feel safe in the car anymore. Insurance says it's fixable. I know in my gut that this car isn't right anymore.

Why can't insurance take into account the fact that a big wreck ruins more than fenders and doors, it ruins confidence? And I definitely sympathize with that. We see a lot of it. People get spooked, and it's when you see, and we talked about this last week about Tiger Woods Genesis, people saw the condition after that wreck. They go, and that thing is awful. I'm sure they totaled Tiger Woods Genesis because it looks very expensive. When you see the impact on your car, I completely sympathize that it feels like it's ruined.

There aren't attorneys that will take that case. In fact, we used for a long time, Gordon used to be Gordon and Donna, and now they're Gordon and partner. And they specialize in that sort of thing. Well, and diminished value. Yeah. Yeah, they're just, this person has just spooked. They just think there's something wrong with the car now. I didn't want to drive it.

All just, yeah. Yeah, yeah. and it is a natural thing and be honest with you it's based somewhat in fact I mean after a big accident even if it's fixed there's a good chance that might not drive as well as it did

and there might be the potential for more problems down the road you did indicate that it was done at a reputable body shop I hope that's the case that's less likely for things to go wrong down the road if it is a professional outfit but watch out for those smaller places on the side of the road

you know all right here's more anonymous feedback if I buy a previously enjoyed Toyota in other words you use Toyota and it's still under warranty can I still buy the Toyota extended warranty thank you you can and it depends on the year and miles on the car all warranties will have restrictions on what they can cover

so if it fits into those parameters you should be able to get one but look we talked about warranties earlier there are good warranties and bad warranties It's probably best. I mean, I'll refer to you. I think if you call a reputable dealership and they're selling their version of the manufacturer warranty, inquire about that. And what I do, if I were not on the business and I were buying a used car, I would ask what their checklist is on cars that they put the certified warranty on, and I'd say, would you

please perform this check? Tell me what you charge to do the check on this, and then I'll take the car, but I don't want to pay for the warranty. So it's that way you've got a car that's been qualified, and if it's qualified, chances are you're not going to have a problem because the warranty companies make a ton of money. I mean, that's where Warren Buffett made most of his money is with insurance, and that's all an extent of warranty is. It's an insurance policy, and they priced the premium much higher than they have claims, especially with car warranties. And don't forget to go to the manufacturer of your car, the Toyota stop in at a Toyota dealer, and just ask them, would they please print out a maintenance history, and every time that

that car was serviced or repaired or anything was done at any dealership, it'll be on that list, and they can tell you what was done. Any Toyota dealer. Yeah. Well, it's also Honda for any Honda dealer? No, if they take it to an event. Right. Any Toyota dealer in a nation, it's all in that database. and the same thing with all the other manufacturers. So you can find out if that car was properly maintained or not. Most people don't bring it back to the dealer for maintenance. So if you can get hold of the owner, the previous owner, then sometimes they'll have their copies of their bills or be able to get that too.

All right. You got a call over there? Let's checking. 877-960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-9-7-6-6-5-6. 30 on the topic of warranties, boy, there sure is a lot of scammers out there. Be careful folks whenever you go into the dealership and if you are offered in an extended warranty. My first question, what doesn't it cover? Now back to Stu. Okay, anonymous feedback. When I was younger, I loved the Mazda Miata, but I was teased mercilessly by my friends who said it was a chick car.

I'm a shame that I did not ever buy one because of this. A few years later, I considered a Toyota RAV-4. Once again, my friends said it was a ladies' vehicle. This isn't true, is it? No, it's not true. You need to get some more enlightened friends. It sounds like you're like, that sounds like toxic masculinity. I've heard things like that before.

If you like a car, buy a car. No, wait a minute. The RAV-4 was initially designed to take into consideration, the female buyer. Maybe it was. Because it was smaller and none. No other reason it was a smaller vehicle. Earl is also suffering from toxic masculinity.

If you like a car, buy the car. I got news for you. One of the vehicles that I seriously considered trading my Tacoma way when the Rav came out was that two-door convertible Rav. Because to me, that was a sexy little vehicle. I was ready

to jump on that thing. It looked like a little roller blade that you could drive. But they were cool. I didn't see the It literally had The back half of the roof Was a convertible canvas roof And it was a two-door Rav-4

And they were great-looking little cars I loved it Great-looking little lady's car right there I'm secure in my masculinity You know they're finally There's an enlightenment happening now With the manufacturers to realize that This is a bull breaking news

Women are smaller than men Right, but, Dad, you're missing the whole point. It hasn't been to what it was designed for. They're saying that if you drive the car, you're feminine. The styling is feminine. I've heard this before. Like a Miata was like you're made fun. It wasn't a real sports car.

It was the lady's version of sports car. I'm not missing the point. I'm just, because they don't recognize the female gender in most car manufacturers and dealers. Now they're recognized. So cars should look more feminine and less masculine. And if you're a woman, I mean, people, that's the real. reason women buy feminine things because they're women and men buy

masculine things as a man. But if a guy likes a Volkswagen Beetle and he wants to drive one and his friend says he's going to be ladylike if he drives it, he should give his friends the finger and buy the car anyway because it's his choice. I mean that's what I think he's going to. But the beetle was not designed for women. The beetle

it wasn't, no, but women bought it and that was in used cars considered a girl's car. In fact, that unfortunately came out of the height of the male chauvinism movement. Well, when the new beetle came out, remember, it actually had a little spot on the dash that was a flower vase. And how is that feminine? I don't know, but I like flowers, too.

I have a cool idea that you can put flowers right there in the car. And as far as I see it, every car that I've ever had, I gave it a girl's name because I just felt that was my right. It's like an S-O-P, you know, that's what you do. And anything at all. I mean, my hypiscus tree is a girl. Anyway, that might have been a poor example. Ladies and gentlemen, boy, I'll tell you what, Earl really hit on a great topic, and so does too.

And so did Rick. But this lady at General Motors, who's the senior design release, she is really doing a lot of work to get the female buyers in. And there are more women buying the Buick that she designed than ever before. Everything is with the female in mind. So she, like I said, she's the Buick Senior Design Release Engineer of the interior of that vehicle. 877960, or you can text us at 772-49-60. All right, anonymous feedback.

Are there any mandatory maintenance requirements to satisfy the warranty versus recommended service? They're highly recommended, and then the danger, what makes them mandatory, is if you grossly neglect recommended maintenance and you have a failure, then the warranty won't cover it. So in most cases, that fear is unfounded, that people, dealers will often say, you better have this done or else your warranty won't cover it. you in a failure. In most cases, that's not true. It's a good idea to be safe. You should always keep track of what service you have. You don't have to go to a dealer to maintain your car. You can go anywhere you want. Keep receipts and be sure you're going to a competent source. You can probably get a better price, a place besides a car dealer for routine maintenance. But just be sure they do it right and keep a copy of the receipt.

But don't be threatened that if you don't do it exactly when the owner, you know, her manual says, you're going to have your warranty and validate it. That's okay. Next one, very good question. When a dealership gets his new cars, does that dealer order the exact specifications, or does the factory just send them a mixed batch? Well, modern distribution systems, a lot of it is, most of it is automated based on algorithms, based on what you sell, color, equipment, trim level, and all that.

But the dealer has some input on preferences. So they can indicate preferences for certain equipment combinations, but it's not guaranteed. So a lot of it is kind of decided by the computers. It's a much different than it was in your day. I remember you telling me stories of you and my uncle going through and ordering cars, and I think it was probably much more specific. You'd say, I want 32 Green Bonnevilles,

and then you would argue with Uncle Doug about whether green Bonnevilles were a good car. Yeah, my brother ordered all the cars were green, and I'd say, why do we have all? green cars he says because we sold all green cars last month I said that's because that's all we had right and it hasn't changed that much now because the the algorithms that the modern distribution system uses takes an account your historical sales so if you're selling a whole bunch of green cars you're going to earn a lot more green cars but you can modify it as a dealer we can modify it

we can modify it and go in there and say we'd like to see a certain percentage of this package or that color so the problem with the day's modern car is there's a proliferation of accessories, colors, and combinations are probably literally millions. And so to have to customize a car specifically, they probably don't make it exactly the way you want it. So they have generalized combinations of accessories and colors, and it really works out to the best for everybody. You can still sometimes order a car specifically, but you're going to wait a long, long time

before they build that car. That might be built overseas. Exactly. And even now, some of like the special ordering we have, it's still like a big, fancy, complicated dealer trade. Like, you have a car that's being built, but it doesn't have the equipment that you want or the color that you want. You offer that up for trade and you'll find it from another region.

And it's just a big, it takes a long time. Next, I heard that Costco car deals are pretty good. Is it like getting fleet pricing? Can you get a better deal at Earl Stewart? Well, of course you can't. No kidding. Well, it depends on the car. I mean, in some cases, Costco pricing is lower than what a fleet account would be able to buy from a dealer.

It's all... Probably not. Probably. It's possible. But, yeah, Costco is a great way. We addressed it earlier in the show. Costco's a great way to get a great price on a new car, provided that you go in with caution and make sure the dealer is following the program to the letter. Nice thing about Costco auto programs, you can communicate with them and have them.

look into your interaction if they're not doing it the right way they'll let you know and in some cases the key to the Costco program being good if the dealer abides yeah big huge if contractually that dealer signs a contract with Costco that the car you bought that has to be a lower price that he sells that car to anybody for now that's that's the letter of the law and the contract so if he abides by the letter of the law buying a card on the Costco buying program is by far the best way to buy a car. Now that's the lowest price that dealer will sell the car. So if you really want to nail it down, go to two or three Costco recommended

dealers for your make because the other dealers might have a different price that's the lower price and they sell it to anybody else for. And you do that, you've got the best of all worlds and you stole the car. Dealers don't like to sell the car at the Costco price. Another reason... I don't. We don't. No. We don't in our dealership. We're a Costco auto dealer program, and we prefer not to. But we do it, and we go by the way to law because it's the letter of the law. That's right.

All right. Next one. How does snow-covered bumpers affect the new sensors? Will they still work? That's actually a very good one. The new blind spot monitors are mounted on the back corners underneath the bumper cover. So yes, if you've got snow build-up and ice build-up, on the bumpers. You're going to need to brush that off because it can affect the blind spot

monitors. Also, be very careful of any bumper stickers or like identifying stickers that you put on that might be metallic because those can interfere with those sensors as well. You don't want any stickers or anything else on your bumpers on the back end anymore. Very good. Can you readily identify the sensor location? It's not visible. It's not something that you're going to to be able to spot and say oh there's where it is wow but it's actually if you look at the back corner of the car it's going to be underneath that bumper kind of down low about 12 to 15 inches back from your tire if it's underneath then you're unlikely to have a bumper sticker over right well it's it's on the end it's on the side of the car right back at the corner but it's behind

the bumper cover so if you put a sticker on the on the back side of the bumper oh wow you could be covering over where that sensor is. See, that's something I didn't realize. That's a real safety hazard. Yeah. It could, well, what would happen is you'd start getting weird operation of your blind spot monitor system, and you'd go into the dealership and say, hey, there's something going on here.

It's acting funny. Well, the word operation might be just doesn't work, so you don't know about that car coming crossways as you had 40 miles an hour. That's possible. Yeah. But a good mechanic would immediately spot that sticker and say, hey, we got to take that off first and then double-check the system. Well, you never know what you're going to learn here, ladies and gentlemen.

Boy, I'll tell you what, it's amazing. You heard from our certified mechanic, and that doesn't even justify his reputation, doesn't even put it in context. He's just amazing. You have some questions for him? Give him a call. 877-960-99-60, or you can text Rick at 772-9-9-7-6-5-3-6. Zero.

And Silver Surfer has got a little more information. He's the one with the lease car that was $22,000 and worth $23,000. He says his monthly payment is $300 a month with 20 payments left. So it would be $6,000. He says, I don't want to pay that whole $6,000 just to get rid of the car. No. But I'm trying to get approved for a mortgage to improve my DTI ratio. Debt to income.

So if it is possible, and Earl's cost you, it is not likely if you're seeing that KBB value of worth more than the buyout explore it, find it if you can sell the car or trade it in or have a dealer buy it out for that price because then you're in a good position. Here's a way to shop the car, just shop the car like he owned it. And you don't have to explain to anybody. You take that car to three different dealers of that make, use car manager, I want to sell my car. They're not going to know it's a least car and you don't have to tell them.

Say, give me the best price you'll pay for this car. Then you go to two other used car. That's the market value. And then if you can actually have a car that you can buy for competitively with the residual value or sell, then you're home free. Okay. Okay. Next, anonymous feedback says, what is the reasoning behind regional pricing differences?

Is it because of poor or better volume sales numbers? No. I guess back in the day when, I'm just talking about Toyota, I guess when they set up their distribution system and they created several regions and distribution networks and they're just, and they remain to this day. Most of them, like Earl said, have now worked directly with Toyota, but Gulf States Toyota, Southeast Toyota, they still have a separate thing and they have separate incentives and different pricing and fees on their end. It was economics. It was a way to get into the United States, the big fat market. Toyota couldn't afford to go national and establish a national dealer network. So they talked to people that wanted to invest,

and they bought Jim Moran for Southeast Toyota. He was the founder. He bought Southeast Toyota, I believe, for $100,000. Wow. And now it's probably worth over a billion. billions of dollars and so for a thousand dollars he had the franchise to set up dealers which he could go to a gas station operator and he'd say would you like to be a Toyota dealer you'd say what's a Toyota and they would explain to him and so the gas station would put a Toyota on a lot

and that's the way he started and uh the rest is history I think the story was he had a choice he was either going to buy a Volkswagen dealership or a Toyota distributor ship and he made the right decision Yeah, they wouldn't give him the Volkswagen franchise. He won a Volkswagen franchise on Miami Beach, and Volkswagen turned him down. So he took the money, and he got the Toyota distributive ship instead. That's right. Wow. And then he wound up with 70 giant yachts.

I'll name the Galilee. Yeah. How can I know if, I'm sorry, the last incognito, last anonymous feedback says, Hey, Earl, how come all tires are black? And I will go to the next one while you guys play with that one. Well, yeah. They hide dirt better? I said, no, that's a great question.

I guess because that's the way it comes out of the molding pot when they vulcanized rubber. Yeah, probably. And they just said, you know, it matches the asphalt, so let's leave it that way. I mean, back in the day, when we had these giant white walls, they look like white tires. Remember they're great big, huge white walls? Yeah, they looked great for about 50 miles. Yeah, I loved cleaning them, though. They just really added a lot of class to your vehicle.

Very nice. It was just lucky that rubber is black. Job on a Saturday morning. The next time I get white wall tires, I'm bringing my car up to your house every weekend to have you clean my tires. I like it when they call you Earl and these things. Hey, Earl, how come all tires are black? Well, yeah.

It's a great question. I mean, there's a guy that thinks outside the box. Why? I mean, that's a question of Charles would ask, and you would... It is like child asked that question. Yeah. And because... Very immature person, probably.

And then they find out their daddy doesn't know, and they usually make something up. You know, it's interesting. Bicycle tires now, you can get in any color of the rainbow. Yeah, I would like to have colored tires from the car. That would look cool. Yeah. Bright blue accents. I would not like black tires.

All right. Next serious question. How can I know if the interest rate the car salesman gives me is the best rate? Last week, you talked about car dealers marking up the rate. How can I see the real rate that the bank approved? Don't worry about it. Go to your bank, go to your credit union. And if you don't have a credit union and join one, you can join a credit union for

a hundred bucks a year or something like that. Credit union rates are usually lower and you just, you can go to two or three banks. I mean, remember the bank is going to the dealer and loan the dealer the money and he's marketing it up and then financing the car. So eliminate the middleman of the dealer, go to the bank the dealer deals with, and borrow the money directly from the bank. Based on your credit, you'll get a fair rate. Same thing is true with credit unions. You'll get a better rate at the credit union.

That's right. Let's go for a lightning round. I don't know if you have any piled up over there. I do, but we're getting close to Mystery Shopping Report. So here's the lightning round. This is from Joe. My wife is going to buy a new luxury SUV like a Lexus or a similar car, and we're conflicted as to whether to buy a gas engine, a hybrid, or an electric.

electric car. Could you give us some direction? It's a large purchase. It will be keeping for a long time. Thank you. Joe. Well, I was going to say consumer reports, for any of them, go there and find out the best one. And I think hybrid is great. There are limitations for electric vehicles, but they're great, too. But, yeah, I think I'm going to go with you. I thought this was a lightning around. You're right. I'm sorry. Okay. All right. The cardboard and the radiator, we have a text from, there's no name here. It says they, truckers do this also to warm. up their car so the truckers they put the cardboard in the radiator and then Dennis in Palm City I guess must have struck a nerve he's talking about this too

in the old days when Earl and I were young most big trucks had a custom made snap on canvas cover for the grill in winter I guess they accomplished the same thing and my question is by using Costco Auto would that be close to the best price for the purchase from the dealer yes if they are playing honestly and fair And, but yes, we addressed that a few minutes ago. Okay, let me just, I'll do a non-lightening answer because I was thinking about this before. If you're going to buy in the Costco member program, you will be given the name of one dealer. And you need to go back to Costco and get another dealer by telling them anything you want to tell them.

But if you have a 33401 zip code, as for 3. 33411 or something and just give them different zip codes they'll give you the certified member of Costco in that area that way you can compare you should probably compare at least two preferably three Costco dealers to get absolutely the best price okay that was kind of like a lightning lightning around a little bit yeah this is from Robbie and Stewart good morning the other day of the local news they were talking about being careful buy news cars it was John Matries don't waste your money. They showed an older Toyota Tacoma that had a rusted out

frame underneath. I read up on this and back years ago the frame manufacturers put up bad frames. Is this still an issue that one should look out for today on any vehicle? That was a big problem with the rested frames on the Tacoma's. I don't believe that they're being produced that way. Go ahead. They have been changed and they're not having that issue anymore. However, the extended warranty on those rusted frames has expired, and Toyota is basically not replacing them under the warranty anymore, have any used car inspected by a qualified mechanic of your choosing. Big go.

Okay. Next, last one. This is the final one. I reside in North Florida, and some dealers in Alabama and Georgia are actually closed than those in central Florida. Do major brand dealerships in those states collect tax, tag title fees for Florida. That's a great question. People ask this question a lot.

If they're buying a car, if you reside in another state, it depends on the state. In some cases, it's reciprocal, where you would collect the tag and title here in Florida, and that would be sent to your state. If it's not reciprocal, you buy it here. You don't pay tax or tag, and then you pay that when you register your car in your home county. Most states are. Most are. There's a few weird ones, and I was going to list some of them, but that might have changed since my knowledge is old there.

And we're caught up. Oh, great. I can share my information with all of you guys. Did you know that the tires that are sourced, the reason that they're black is because of the carbon? Did you also know that it was sourced from a milky white substance? Latex. Did you?

Okay. I didn't know. I can always sound like I know. Well, the actual latex, the trees, the Indians in the area way back would chew it like, come. That's right. Well, the rubber the tires are sourced from is a milky white color, but carbon black is added to the rubber as a stabilizing chemical. And it makes the tire black. The addition of carbon black to the rubber increases the durability and the strength of the tire.

There you go, ladies and gentlemen. Is that the vulcanization process? I think I'm going to, we're ready for the mystery shopping report. And it's a doozy, and it's a mystery shopping report from Greenway, Kia. Now back to the recovering car dealer. They're in Green Acres, right? Yeah. Okay. If Nissan dealership's won the prize for worst car dealer behavior, second place, goes to the Kia dealer body.

The evidence that supports this contention is published on good dealer, baddealerlist.com. And you can get there by going to our own cars.com, where we post our grades for hundreds of car dealerships based on our mystery shop investigations. We post the actual reports. There are two allowing you to see and judge for yourself. We have theories as to why Nissan dealers do the things they do, but we haven't developed any answers for why Kia dealers behaves so badly. Think about some of the Kia dealers we've already mystery shop.

Grico, Coachillo, Napleton, it's like the all-star of old school car dealers. I like that. All-Star of old school. Fits it perfectly. Maybe dealers like these are drawn to franchises that tend to attract younger, less experienced, entry-level car buyers with edgier credit reports. I think this is all true. I mean, part of the problem is that why do they use these crazy deceptive tactics? Because they can. Because they get away with it. And the young and experienced buyers, demographic-wise, It works better than it does on sophisticated. If a BMW dealer or a Cadillac or an Infinity dealer tried it, they'd be laughed out of town. So it works on the list, sophisticated buyers. Whatever the reason the Kia dealers are good dealer, bad deal list.com, get worse grades than the other dealers. One of them, Green Lake here and Green Acres, Florida, I always think of Lake Worth area, southern Palm Beach County, currently has a very low passing grade, a D-plus.

However, the last time we investigated them in July last year, it was for selling used cars with the effective recall to cut airbags. We felt it was time to go back for a sales-related investigation using our venerated female, Mr. Shopper, Agent Lightning. Over the last five months, Agent Lightning has developed into a true professional Her experience has allowed her to navigate some tricky sales encounters by thinking on her feet. The comfort she has with the process means we can let her instincts determine the object's objectives of the investigation. It's amazing how she started out good, and then she just got better.

And to be a good mystery shopper, you have to have. Moxie. You have to be tough, but you have to also have a smooth interior. and you have to be able to take the blows and do it your way. And that's what she does. I took the blows. This is how we approach the Greenway Kia shop. Agent Lafey selected the vehicles she wanted to buy

and decided how she would make contact with the dealership. She began by finding a new 2021 Kia Soul S on Greenway Kia Westpobbeach.com. That was the website. If you want to go there, if you're near a smart phone or a computer, greenway key of Westbound Beach.com. That's where we found the advertisement.

Had an MSRP, the North Star, you've got to have that. MSRP, $22,055. And the Internet price was $18,411. That's a pretty big difference. Internet price is supposed to be the best price. Here's a report, speaking as if I were Agent Lightning. I arrived at Greenwickia late morning, greeted by a young salesman near the front door. He didn't tell me his name.

He seemed anxious to get to business. He began questioning me as he led me to a desk. The salesman wanted to know some things, like whether I own a home or rented, what my mortgage or rent payment was. I mean, that's pretty unsophisticated, and something you wouldn't normally see in an average of your list. They get those answers, but they don't get them that way. I mean, you don't walk into a store or something says, how much is your mortgage payment? I mean, that's very inartful.

Yeah, exactly. I interrupted to ask him to tell me his name, and didn't even introduce himself, and it was Manny. Mani then wanted me to tell him what my monthly income was. I told him I knew where he was going with all this and assured him I was well qualified to finance a car. Besides, I told him I made me cash anyway. way. Just as an aside, when you're negotiating, when you're going to a car dealership,

don't ever tell them that you want to pay cash. Leave the door open to financing because you leave Hope Springs a Turtle in the salesman's breast when he thinks that you're going to finance the car because that's where they make most of their money. So financing is the dealer's delight. When you take that away from them, they only got one place to make the money and that's the car. They're selling you. So when you say, I'm going to find a lot. finance with you, if you'll take it a little bit easier on you in the pricing. So just a word of the wise. I finally got up to tell him while I was there.

I wanted a new 2021 Keosol S and Cherry black. I like that color. Yeah, it's not black cherry. Yeah, it's cherry black. Many told me that initially he didn't like the Keosol, but it grew one of us. Strange comment. I know I didn't. And that was kind of an awkward sales approach.

But he grew one of them. He said, okay. So, many asked me what a vehicle I currently drove, and I made up a story about how I had to borrow a friend's car because I went through a divorce. I said I was used to my husband helping me through car purchases, and now I felt pretty anxious about doing it alone. Mani was very kind, said he was sorry. I was going through a rough time and promised to help me through the buying process. So there was a little empathy on Manny's part there. We talked about the car some more, settled on the same soul. I found online the one with 22,055 MSRP. Mani took my license, went to make a copy,

he returned 10 minutes later, asked me to meet him out front and said he would pull up in my new Cherry Black Soul. It sounds like the name of a song. Cherry Black, or an album? A Cherry Black Soul. Yeah. Yeah. I waited for another ten minutes before many pulled up in a pollen covered cherry black

soul. The MSRP was correct, but there was an addendum sticker, the infamous addendum sticker, right next to the Monroney label. And we call it a phony Monroney for the obvious reason. It added another, ready for this, 5,995. Can we call that $6,000? Yes, you can't. $6,000 for mudguards.

Oh, geez. Mudguards, wheel locks, and a compliment, is that all? That's it. Mud guards, wheel locks, and a cut. For six grand? For six grand, and I found it quite amusing that. It was complimentary for six grand. I wonder how much the uncomplimentary.

I don't know who they're complimenting. Are those mud guards made of diamond or unobtainium? Right. Yes, I think platinum and emeralds. This is an amazing thing. I mean, you can at least make up a bunch of, other stuff. Yeah, we've seen some with a list goes on 20, 30 items

at least are making an effort to say there's something this is like, mudguards, we'll like. Stupid deception is actually really better than $100 worth less than $100. I'd rather always have a stupid deception than clever deception. Yeah. Anyway, you have your choice.

If you want stupid deception, you go to Green Acres Kia. Many got out of the car, began his presentation, carefully describing all the features. Then we climbed in and Manning continued showing me the car. I had a little hard time turned on the page here. We took a test drive.

I used the occasion to ask Mani about the pricing. I said I saw what the dealership posted online, prices online, asked if they would honor the internet pricing. He said he'd give me the price I wanted. You know, this little, obviously evasion there. I mean, a simple yes or no would have worked, but he said, I'm going to get sure the price you want, which is a lie. I mean, you want the internet price.

Right. That ain't happen. We returned to our seats, Mani left to get the figures from the sales manager. I waited for a few minutes and then he was back with a worksheet. I didn't get the internet price. Surprise, surprise, surprise. The top line was the inflated dealer list that included the $6,000 addendum, $28,050. Then he took off 2,000 discount making the adjusted price 2650. Then they added $971 in taxable fees.

Why don't they just call them hidden fees? The taxable fees. And then there's another taxable fee, but they call that one administrative fees. So they got 971 taxable fees, 24950, administrative fees, which are taxable fees. And then the price was 27-270. $5,220 over MSRP, and $8,859 over the Internet price.

They didn't even try. They didn't even try. Yeah, it's just stupid. I was shocked. I let Manny, and she wasn't really shocked, but she was, maybe she was shocked, because this is really stupid. Manny Scramble explained that the Internet pricing reflected all sorts of discounts and rebates that I probably didn't qualify for.

Here, he's scrambling now. For example, he cited a key loyally rebate and a military rebate, for example. I objected and asked him to show me where in the ad it said anything about Kia loyalty. Listen to this. This is funny. Mani sat back in his chair. Look like he was thinking really hard about something. He pursed his lips, furrowed his brow.

I'm just picturing Manning. Then he leaned forward and wrote 18-4-Eleven, and below that he drew an X and a long straight line where he expected me to sign. While offering me his pen, Manning asked me if I would buy now if he could get me the Internet price of 18,4.11. I said, sure.

Took the pen and I signed the paper. That's the reason I love Agent Lightning. And she never missed to be a maid signed. That's scarce some people. They go, I'm signing, I'm committing, but it is BS. It does. That's what experience. She experienced told her that, you know, she's not signing anything.

Experience tells her that a handwritten contract drawn up on the spot by Manny is not an official legal document. Manning, excuse him. himself, walked across to show him, to go where the manager's head. He appeared to speak with a man for just a few seconds. He came running back over. I wonder if he literally ran. He asked if I had to check on me, ready to go, if he got me around 20,000.

I slipped up a little bit now. Well, out the door, so that would be. Where do you have the door, yeah. I told him not to worry about it, said I wanted to see everything in writing before I agreed to anything. So we agreed to an off the door price for 20,000 again. again and he's ready she's ready to sign many ran back to the manager station return with Bradley and Bradley had a new worksheet this time the discount off the inflated 28,050 dollar list price was 8,239 dollars if you

just do that this is Greenway Kia Lakeworth Green Acres Florida Greenway Kea Poppich County they had the same fee which made my real selling price, 21,031, 1,019 below MSRP, okay. But still, 2,620 higher than the advertised Internet price. Althador was 22, 892, let's call that 23, hardly 20, considerably higher than the 20,000 man he had asked me to come back to. Bradley wrote two more rebates, Hand wrote,

hand wrote, two more rebates. $1,000 key of loyalty and $400 military. He said he used all incentives in his pricing, except these two. Then he asked me if we had a deal. I said I was ready to deal with $20,000 out the door. Bradley said that if I qualified for loyalty and military, I would be real close.

Well, I mean, she didn't have a helmet on it. She wasn't wearing a uniform. She's not in the military. I'm not in the military. And I didn't drive up in a Kia, so I'm not a loyal Kia owner. I already told them that. It felt like I was being blamed for not qualifying. I said, I didn't think about it of the mission, and here we are.

And by the way, we're unable to get true car a price for this model. Why was that, Stu? They wouldn't put in the inquiries and never received anything from the dealers. And then the only thing that they had was the average discount off MSRP. But when you look at that, it doesn't, you don't know if they're factoring in dealer equipment or dealer fees. So it said it was a, I think it was like an $1,800 average discount of MSRP, but that was meaningless without knowing, you know, what fees were. Yeah.

The true car is a pretty good source. We recommend Costco automobile program over True Car, and that's one of the reasons. True Car is hit and miss, and Costco is on the money all the time. We just wish we had more Costco warehouses around the car. country, so you don't have to travel so far. Okay, it's voting time. Okay, we have grades coming in.

I'll start over on Facebook, and Bob says, no need to say more. Triple F. Linda, Big Fed F, don't buy it from Kia, weird. And then over on the text messages, Mark gives them a D, calls them number jugglers. Same old

game, same old tactics, same schemes. This is an F, and that's from Jonathan and Wellington. I'm going to maintain their D plus average. It was pretty rough, but like we said, I summarized it by saying, well, it sounds like a typical car buying dealership in South Florida. Yeah. Rick?

Well, I've got Tim Gilliland with a D minus. Looks like so far that's the only grade coming from YouTube. For me, I'm going to go with the D because, I mean, it's, if you want a Kia, if you know how to negotiate properly and beat them up, You could get a good deal, but you're not going to do a very good there just trusting them. Don't trust them. I'm going to give them a deep. Keep your eyes open, and like Rick said, you know.

IKEA dealers, as we alluded to earlier, are rough. And when they set up, remember, there were late arrivers to the United States retail, and they got in behind the Japanese, their Korean. And when they came in, they couldn't find a dealer network. And they had to sign up any dealer that wanted the franchise. And they haven't had a chance to evolve and mature. And they haven't culled out the poor dealers. And so a poor dealer hires poor salespeople because sales aren't so good.

And so you get poor salespeople with poor dealerships. And the demographics, as Stu said earlier in the show, is the less experienced, the younger people, the people who don't have the money, the key is an inexpensive car. They build good cars, by the way, and you can really get a good inexpensive car. But you have to navigate the minefield

and Kia dealers and salespeople and their selling tactics are terrible. And I've got Andy with an F, Will with a D, and Wayne with an F. Well, we're going to go with a D, and we're going to pass a D-minus, and put them on the recommended list. I'm sorry, but we have to have a key dealer somewhere that you...

That's okay. We're just going to change the D plus to a D minus. D minus, yeah. So there we go. By the way, I did get an email this morning now from Napleton Kia from TrueCar. Didn't give us a price. They sent us a nice video, a personalized video, saying, Hey, Jack, I have information about your car, so we'll follow up on it next week.

But I still didn't get a price. Very good. Yeah, I, you know, remember that we grade them now, so he's got a D-minus, just go in there with your hand on your wallet and be very, very, very careful. If you have to have a Kia, you're going to have to deal with this sort of thing. We haven't found a good Kia dealer, have we? Not yet, nope. Maybe that should be our mission to try to find one, even if it were. We almost bought a couple of Kia dealerships in Jacksonville.

yes we did we would have been good ones yeah maybe that's what the state needs of one honest Kia dealer and suddenly that can you imagine how popular that would be to actually have an honest Kia dealer yeah yeah or you can go with Consumer Report and you can do your homework get even more information than you were even looking for and CR.org I mean you can't go wrong definitely they will lead you in the right path. And they have a buying program, too, not a buying problem, consumer reports. They do. Yeah.

It's actually a true car, but they do have a program. If you ever want to use Costco, you should try to use Costco if you're going to buy IKEA. Yeah. For sure. Absolutely. A lot of good information. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us this morning.

We definitely enjoy your company. And your feedback, you're always educating us. Have yourself a great weekend and stay safe. Let go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Tom.

Thank you.