Earl Stewart on Cars - 03.07.2020 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Schumacher Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Delray

Episode Date: March 7, 2020

Earl answers various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Agent Thunder visits Schumacher Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Delray to see if the salesman will disclose a fuel pump recall on a used 2016 Toyota Corolla. 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. “Disclosure: Earl Stewart is a Toyota dealer and directly and indirectly competes with the subjects of the Mystery Shopping Reports. He honestly and accurately reports the experiences of the shoppers and does not influence their findings. As a matter of fact, based on the results of the many Mystery Shopping Reports he has conducted, there are more dealers on the Recommended Dealer List than on the Not Recommended List he maintains on www.GoodDealerBadDealerList.com”

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

Well, good morning, everybody. This is Earl Stewart Live. You just listened to my recorded introduction. And Nancy Stewart is not here, by the way. And since she was here, she's still out with a cast on her foot. and she'll be having that taken off, we hope, Monday, and hopefully be back on the show soon. But we do have Rick Carney and Sue Stewart.

Got Jonathan over there, controls, and yours truly. I hope you have listened to us before, if you haven't. I think you'll really be excited about the show. It is unique, truly, and you might be happy to hear about something besides the coronavirus. We're not going to talk about that. We're going to talk about how you can buy a car or lease a car, car maintain your car repair your car without catching the coronavirus yeah without catching the coronavirus but and I do have I have I'm not unaware of it I have a

bottle of Purell right here for all the folks in the and the studio but we're going to be talking about something to ease your mind to take your take the worry out of buying a car I always I don't always but I should always remind folks that the reason for this show is a terrible image that car dealers have nationwide, certainly, maybe worldwide. We're not trusted. I say we, because in full transparency, I am a car dealer, been for over 50 years. This is not an infomercial. This is a consumer advocacy show.

So, car dealers have just ranked at the bottom of the Gallup annual poll on honesty and ethics professions. That's an actual survey that they've been doing since 1975. Every year they do the survey of the businesses that have the best honesty, transparency, integrity, and those that have the worst. Car dealers, it's a dead last. Nurses, if you're interested, are the top, along with policemen and firemen probably and teachers, the government, the lobbyist, the congressman, and the car dealers, and probably attorneys are at the bottom. But the car dealers beat everybody out. I mean, usually they're dead last. In a really good year, they'll be next to last or third from last.

That's why we're here, because we know you're not happy when you have to go out and buy a used car or a new car. You're not even happy when you have to go out and have your car repaired or maintained. There's something about the industry contamination. I have a theory on that. I'll talk about it some Saturday morning, but the fact is, you know, You'd rather have a root canal probably than buy a car. You'll listen to the show, and you'll find out there is a way to avoid this. We love to hear from you.

That's a key. It's a live talk show. Very exciting. Live radio talk. You can call and say just about anything you want. I mean, we've had some really tough calls. We don't blank anybody out. We even have an anonymous feedback line.

If you have something and you want to remain totally anonymous, You can go to a web link that's called Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Y-O-U-R-Anonymous, A-O-N-N-N-Y-M-O-U-S, Feedback.com. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. And you can say anything you want. We won't know who you are. And we already have a few stacked up in the pipeline, and Stu will be reading those lately. Or you can text us.

We love the text number, and a lot of people prefer it. Area code 772-497653. That's 772 497-6530. Why do I say we kind of prefer the text or people prefer it? Well, first of all, live radio can be scary, so you don't want to be live on the phone, some people.

And the text things, if you do a text, you're almost assured to have it answered. Maybe not right away, but Stu keeps track of those. And the YouTube, by the way, Rick Kearney, keeps track of the YouTube so you can do the same thing on YouTube or Facebook. You post your comments or you can do them by text and we get to them almost all of them

usually all of them before the show's over the two-hour show and so we have time to get to it and we try especially hard to get to it Nancy Stewart not being in here but she's listening and she's watching on Facebook and she's home with her leg up in the air and she has to keep her leg elevated and she's going to be texting and maybe calling she is a advocate for female callers. And Nancy Stewart has done a remarkable job of raising the number of callers we have

in Textors and Facebook from the female audience. Can you believe when we started doing this 17 years ago, we hardly ever got a female caller? So what Nancy instigated was the cash reward for the first two new female callers. $50 cash, I mean, no conditions, no strings. If you're female and you haven't called the show before, And you call us at 877-960-99-60.

I'll give you gals a minute to get the pencil out and the paper. Because if you haven't called the show, automatic, ka-ching, 50 bucks. First two new female callers. 877-9-60-99-60. And we've got Rick over here watching the calls to come in. We try to prioritize the audio calls, the old-fashioned telephone, because you don't want to wait for a long time. Plus, it's a switchboard.

I think we've only got three or four lines, and we don't want you calling and getting a busy signal. So we'll prioritize the audio calls. 877-960-90-960 and $50 for the first two female callers. And by the way, Mark Ryan says, all our best to Nancy as well. Well, thank you. Yeah, she's doing fine.

I'm playing Nurse Earl, and I'm getting her coffee. and all the stuff that you have to do when someone can't get around. And I'm doing a pretty good job. Hey, you get to be at the top of that list you were talking about. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. So here we go. We'd like to have some, you know, you want to get started on some tech, Stu? Yeah.

You want to go around? Well, let me say one thing. Before we go to Stu, we call him the spy master. What do we call you? The handler. No, I don't know. You don't call me anything. Zero is in charge of the mystery shopping report, and I got to talk about that because if there's one thing that sets us apart from any other radio show, any other TV show, for that matter, with a possible exception of when Mike Wallace was really doing this thing on 60 minutes, we send in a secret undercover agent every week to some car dealership in South Florida, and we go in and we pretend to buy our lease a car, and we talk, we tell it like it is.

We name names, we name the dealership, we name the salespeople, we name the sales managers, and we tell you exactly what happened. And we've been doing this for 17 years every week. We've done hundreds of these, and you can access these mystery shopper reports just by going to our blog, earl-oncars.com. That's right. Earloncars.com, and we archive all these mystery shopping reports. So, Stu, tell us a little bit about the shoppers. well we have a very deep bench of qualified mystery shoppers of all of all walks of life we have women men young old we do our best to try to like come across as a real customer when we get

there so we usually come up with a cover story it sounds a little bit silly you think you can go in there and just kind of wing it but it's part of the fun actually is preparing a shopper we hardly ever get caught no no we've been caught like in 17 years maybe three times I'm thinking and mainly it was Agent X, and the reason for that was we start running out of dealerships to shop, and so we might send them back. We said, well, it's been about a year and a half. They won't remember you, and most of the time they don't. But it's happened before.

Let me interrupt you because we have a caller. Rick just waved at me. We have Betty. Ah, female, Betty. Good morning. Good morning. Are you a first-time caller? No, I'm not.

I have a question for Rick. Okay. Okay. The 2020 Coral Maintenance Logbook says that it's first 5,000 miles to add Toyota EFI Tank Additives. What is that and why do you have to add that? You don't. We actually don't even worry about that. It's one of the very, very few areas where I kind of say Toyota, you're maybe being,

a little too pretentious here a little too cautious they actually sell a what I call a mechanic in a can it's stuff that you pour into the fuel tank and it's actually supposed to try to reduce moisture or other contaminants and keep the engine burning a little cleaner but it's one of the things that although Toyota does say yeah you should do this it's more for places that might have bad gas at times South Florida we don't seem to have any issues with it and I can tell you for a fact I have never put any sort of additive like that in any of my cars and I've had four Toyotas that between the four of them have run over I'll say pretty close to a million miles between the four of them how much is that a cost way is it manufactured by Toyota yeah it's it's a it's a Toyota product and it's like $25 for the can I think And what are the dealers typically charged to put it in? Nothing.

They shouldn't charge anything. What year's your corolla? She said a 2020. And that's actually required in the maintenance guide? I believe it, the 30,000 mile maintenance. I've never heard of that. There's a EFI additive that they recommend, but it's not something that we even,

we don't even bother with it. We ignore it. Well, that's interesting. Betty, that's a great, that's a great, That's a great call. Stu didn't know about it. I didn't know about it. Fortunately, Rick did.

But thank you very much for coming up with that. I'm a little surprised at Toyota would recommend that. And Rick is pretty knowledgeable. And if he says you don't need it, you don't need it. And at 25 bucks a can, you know, why have to show that 25 bucks? And they recommend it about once a year or every 30,000 miles, once every two years. Sounds like something that came out of the dealer council. Yeah.

It's snake oil. Yeah. Well, thank you, Betty, very much for that. And you certainly educated us. Please call again. Thank you very much. 877-960-9960 is the old-fashioned telephone, 877-960. And we've had one caller so far.

And remember, Betty was a previous caller. But if you haven't called the show on your female, $50, kaching. And that's the Nancy Stewart special, Nancy's home. right now, betting that we have a call with her cash register. Exactly. And the text number is 772-4976530. How are we doing on text? We got something that came in while we were away.

Okay. We'll start with the anonymous feedback. This comes from your anonymous feedback.com. All of them are, of course, anonymous, encrypted, impossible to know the identity of the sender. Hello there I like watching your Saturday broadcast on YouTube

I wonder why the vehicle shown on the highway can sometimes be seen through Mr. Stewart's body on some of the videos seems like a mystery I mean there's like cars going by Sometimes you have a partially

transparent effect You're slightly less opaque than you normally are Maybe I'm like the invisible man I can You're going on you're fading off to the background I've always wanted to be invisible I guess everybody has wanted to be invisible. I thought it was cool. I can

actually get that one for you. It's because your shirt is actually the color tone of it is very similar to the green wall behind you and the chromocast program allows to stick through. I don't know about that. I've played with that before. You can adjust the settings. This sounds like a bagel thing. I think we better move along here. Hey, we've got two hours to fill. Yeah, but we're going to work on that.

Thank you very much for the observation. And we have a caller, which is far more important. We have John in Palm City. Good morning to everyone. Hey, John. I have a question to ask girl. Yeah. I know of a case people have the car stays here also, but there's snowbirds from North Carolina

and it stays outside and it stays in the sun. And there's hardly any miles on that tires so there's nowhere to speak of. But the tires are actually I looked at them. They were at dry rot and it's probably from the sun, you know, sitting, you know, the north and the south side.

And the deal that they got it, they didn't say me who from, I don't even know it's from North Carolina. They have the deal with tires of life. So I told them, you know, supposedly the car hasn't been checked regularly, which is a problem. But on tires of life, is it only on threadware that the deal were guaranteed or would it guarantee it also if, If it's dry rot in the tire, and the tire is no good. John, that's a new one. We haven't had anyone raise that issue. The first thing when you started telling me about it was how old were the tires when they bought the car?

This was a new car that was bought? It was a new car, and then they put one set of tires on. It's a 2010, and I don't know who the dealer was. I'm not sure if it's, because they're in the Fort Pierce area. They should. So, I don't know who was there or in North Carolina, but they are dried. I mean, it's unbelievable. We have done that.

We've definitely addressed that. It's most of the programs, because the dealers didn't invent the Tires for Life program, was something that the manufacturers kind of, and a few crazy dealers have stuck with it. But it is on tread death, but we do run into that because the cars will, Rick can address this, but they can get in pretty bad shape without even wearing. I can tell you for a fact in our dealership, we, and I know. you don't like having a commercial for the dealership, but we have replaced tires that are dry-rotted for safety concerns under tires for life,

not charged the customer, and covered it under tires for life. I know because I'm the guy that got my hands dirty doing it. Yeah. Technically, they're not covered, but as Rick says, we did it because we thought it's the right thing to do. The safety issue. The thought occurred to me that we probably should have checked with the tire manufacturer. if someone bought a car new and it was less than six years old

and it had dry rot I think it should be a warranty claim against the tire manufacturer if they kept the car long enough to where you would have normal dry rot then that's a different issue as far as keeping them outside I got to believe that's probably got something to do with it

a garage car probably is not going to have a tire rot as quickly as one that was kept inside And also along the ocean. But a little research that I did, you know, all tires at DOT have to be specifications. But when I go in like a Sam's Club or something, there's certain tires that's brand new when you walk out the door, they seem to have a bigger odor to them than other tires. And from what somebody told me, and by the way, this guy's car, I never even heard of the brand of tires they are. But several, you know, many companies, countries make the tires.

And somebody told me that some countries, the amount of petroleum that's used in the manufacturer and the tires, it's either a less or a more content in it. Now, maybe that could have something to do with it, too, because that's not regulated by DOT. As Earl pointed out in this show, the big reason with the difference in price of tires is the threadware and probably the, you know, ratings of A, B, and C on the heat rage. But is it possible that some countries would be manufacturing tires with less

of oil content in them? Sure, possible, John. I don't know. The safety measure everybody should take is check consumer reports. They have a number of thorough issues about

tires, safety, cost, value. They drive the car with the tires on it. I mean, they're really, really detail. They tell you about all weather tires, winter tires, summer tires, high speed. I mean, they cover it in depth. Just go to your consumer reports and take a recommended tire, and you're not going to have those kind of problems.

Okay. Well, the second question for Earl or Rick, and I don't want to bring up the virus, but do you see any shortages so far in automobile replacement parts? We haven't seen him in an automobile, but we certainly feel the effect. I mean, we're seeing a psychological effect on each other. I brought a bottle of Purell. We've run into a shortage of Purell.

We try to order a bunch of the dealership. It's hard to get. And we're having to have a conversation with our employees and our customers and let people know that we're taking all the precautions. But as far as Toyota goes and manufacturing and a factory, availability of auto parts. We've seen nothing yet. Actually, a lot of the manufacturers are really based in the USA. We import very few parts from China, or for that matter, even Japan, Japanese car. We have Toyota, a lot of the manufacturers, have a huge presence in the United States now.

So I think automobile availability would be one of the least to be affected or if affected will be weren't one of the last. Yeah, I think the Korean manufacturers, Hyundai, they've run in some issues. I think it actually shut down production because of worker. Yeah, Kia and Hyundai are shut down in Korea, exactly. So that's the answer to that one, Jim. Let me have people check their tires

not only for treadwear, but I have your mechanic or somebody that's an expert. Look at them for dry rot because it's a danger to take a tire, especially on any road, and have a danger of a dry tire and get a blow out. You're exactly right. John. Thanks very much for that heads up.

Well, best to Nancy. I hope she recuperates real fast. Thank you, John. Have a great weekend. We appreciate it. I'll tell her that she asked about her. Thank you. Okay, we've got another caller. Yeah, we're going from John and Palm City to John and West Palm Beach. The Johns are calling. Good morning, John. Yeah, John from West Palm Beach.

This whole tire thing, if you go back to, you were talking about 50 minutes, but when Ford out of the Explorers, when they got in trouble, They had the tire blow out. The firestones, yeah. Yeah, the first. Well, what happens is, you know, you may be buying brand new tires, but they found out that you're buying brand new tires that may be two or three years old, and now they have the date of manufacturing stamped into the tires.

So you can find out, and I don't know, you've got to look it up on the Internet. You Google it, right? And sometimes tires sit in the warehouse. He mentioned Costco and Sam, and they could sit there for a while. Same thing with some of the smaller dealerships. So the tires, brand new tires to be putting on, could all already have the start of dry rod or tire rod. John, did you know that the manufacturers design a specific tire?

When you buy a Ford with a Firestone tire on it or any new car, the manufacturer of Ford otherwise gave the specs to Firestone to build that tire for that particular. And you can't buy those tires, at least firsthand. You can probably buy them secondhand. But, you know, Firestone wasn't totally responsible for that problem. Ford bore some responsibility. Yeah.

Well, with today's technology, the tires and the tuned suspensions that a lot of the cars have and the onboard computer, they've got to take all that into account. So, like, switching brands, I don't know how did the computer picks, up, whether it's got Continental or Nito or Jokammer, but anyways, so like I said, you know, especially if you're switching from one brand of tire to another to save money, you know, you may be

going to a cheaper tire, which some people do, and I do, and that it just, the tire may have been sitting for a while and already has dry rot, or John, it's on its way to becoming dry rot. There's some pretty good tires out there, John, that don't have everyday names. Michigan has got a great name, but there's some

out there better than Michelin, or at least some models of Michigan that you wouldn't recognize, so I keep going back to consumer reports on that. Yeah. Well, John, thank you very much for the call. I really appreciate it. You're welcome. Okay, we've got another call. I wonder if his

name is John, too. Nope. This time we got Alex in West Palm Beach. Alex, how are you doing? Thanks for the call. Hey, good morning. I like your show. Thank you. A couple A couple of weeks ago, you mentioned, I don't know if I'm mistaken or not, but you said do not buy a Jeep? I say that a lot, but it's kind of tongue-in-cheek because I know people are buying Jeep's hand over fist. They love Jeeps, one of the most popular models.

And my point is I'm kind of a practical guy. I'm an analytical guy. and when I see a vehicle that consumer reports pans in every category from safety to reliability to maintenance cost so on and so forth, I just don't know why well I do know why people buy it because they love it. It's a sexy vehicle the style is great. I'm tempted myself

from a look standpoint to buy a Jeep but it's just not a reliable vehicle oh okay because I bought I used to have a full escape, and I had it for years and it lasted until 300,000 miles. But then he died, so I had to buy a car, and I went to the Jeep. I bought a renegade. I've had it for like three years. I haven't had a problem. Well, when I say consumer reports pans of vehicle, they're talking about the percentage of vehicles that fail.

So you could have 1,000 jeeps manufactured, and if 25% of them had a lot of problems, that's not good because your odds are 1 and 4. But you might have got one of the 75% that you don't have a problem with. So it's a numbers game. You're playing the odds. And even the worst car manufactured will have a really good car built, and someone has no problems with it. And the best car manufactured is going to have a lemon. You know, we sell Toyota's my dealership. is a toilet dealership and consumer reports gives them a very high rating but let me tell you

we have some toilets with real problems hey Alex this is Stu this is really interesting on consumer reports for the new the Jeep Wranglers it has one of the highest predicted owner satisfaction scores people love it but the lowest predicted reliability and the lowest road test scores so it means people are overlooking it's a fun car to drive and it looks great and it makes a statement about yourself. If you like going to the beach and driving around with the German Shepard and the server on the roof, you're the coolest guy in town so you're going to love the car. But like you said,

well, reliability is a relative term. So like you said, you might have one and never have an issue with it for the entire time you own it, but it's a little bit more likely than other vehicles to give you problems. Now, let me tell you a problem that I had when I bought it. It was

late in the afternoon and the sale went on to a night. And what the guy showed me was like the gate in the back when you open it, it lifts like a cover so that you don't see what's in behind there. Yeah, like a 10-9 cover. Yeah, that's what he showed me with a cover.

So when I got home, my model didn't have that cover. Huh. So they gave me another car that wasn't the one that I wanted. Oh, but all right. So then when I went back a couple days later, I said, listen, you know, this happened.

I say, I want to talk to the salesman. He says, well, he's not working with us anymore. And I'm like, what, you know? And then I explained the thing. He says, well, the only thing we can do is we can sell you the cover, you know. But then it has to be like retrofit because he has like two strings coming from the gate that lifts up that cover. Yeah.

And, you know. And that's just irresponsible. And it's one of the reasons car dealers don't have the best name in town is because of things like that. You should have bought what they showed you, and you shouldn't pay for what they showed you. It didn't happen, and then they wouldn't make it right. They should have taken care of that at their cost because you thought you were buying it. Yeah, but I wouldn't go in there and talk to the sales manager or any other salespeople. See if you can get in touch with the general manager or maybe even the owner.

I just kind of escalate it because the salesperson, the sales manager, well, the salesperson is not even there. and they're just going to blow you off and try and get you to spend some extra money. That's not an expensive piece of accessory, I don't think. Yeah, it costs like $295. Yeah, that's probably the list price. They could probably... Cost the dealer $150?

If that, yeah. They should give it to you. Well, Alex, thanks very much for sharing that list. Thank you. You should definitely go back. Okay, 877-960-99-60. That's our regular telephone number. and 772-4976530, and we do have a call.

Well, we get actually a YouTube one here. Oh, YouTube. Mike and Wife asking, why do dealers continue to double charge on the freight and dealer prep and still get away with it? You know, that's one of the most egregious violations by dealers. A dealer fee is actually legal if you go through the disclosure, which is kind of a silly disclosure

that the Florida legislature and other legislatures let dealers get away with it. But freight is a federal ruling. It is a federal law that the manufacturer add the freight to the cost of the car and to the sticker price. So the freight is charged to the dealer in the invoice and it's added to the invoice and the MSRP.

So when you buy the car, you automatically, by definition, pay the freight. So when the dealer charges you freight again, they are charging you twice. I'm not an attorney, and I'm going to say this anyway. I think it's a federal violation when you mess with a federal mandate and trick a customer by making them think they're paying a federally mandated cost. That's a pretty serious crime. And I do know that some dealers do it.

A lot of them don't do it, but we've seen it in our mystery shopping reports. And same thing for the dealer prep? Dealer prep? Exactly right. And that's the case where the state law in the state of Florida says that this is part of the dealer fee is the dealer prep. And so they're in a way, they are contradicting the facts by the manufacturers reimburse. the dealers for the dealer prep. When you get a new car, all the new cars,

all the manufacturers, they reimburse the dealer. In fact, it's pretty lucrative reimbursement. The dealer makes a nice profit, the technician that does the work, makes a nice... A little warranty payment for the dealer.

Car dealers love the reimbursement by the manufacturers for the dealer prep. And then, the state of Florida says, that's the reason they have a dealer fee. So the dealers in the state of Florida are double-dipping on the rebate that we get from the manufacturers. Going back on the manufacturer's destination charge, I'd like to go out on a limb to say,

why don't they get rid of that? I mean, it adds so much more confusion and just muddies the waters further. Just a quick anecdote. We sold a car to somebody who was referred by a former competitor of ours. I used to run Ed Morris Del Rey Toyota. Ronnie Fonniero.

Yeah, and he's a great guy. and he's no longer a practice. He's no longer a competitor, and he's bringing us customers, which is really nice. But we gave him a price. The guy went out to shop it because we give him out the door price and spoke to another dealer who pointed out the invoice and showed him the manufacturer's destination charge,

which is like, you know, $1,100, whatever it was. And he tried to confuse the customer and say that it was a dealer fee, and his dealer fee was a couple hundred dollars less than our dealer fee. But he was showing him this fee came from the manufacturer. We talked it out and he understood and he ended up buying the car from us, but it's just more confusion. One more thing. I believe that's federally mandated. I think they have to have a destination?

Yeah. I believe. See, what it used to be was years ago, every dealer had a different, based on your geographic location, had a different freight charge. And if you lived in, if you were a dealer in Detroit, you probably didn't have any freight charge. if you're in, you know, Hawaii, you would have a huge freight charge, and it varied all over. So then somebody complained, and they standardized, so all manufacturers have to have the same trade charge no matter where you sell the car.

And I guess the way to verify that was by putting it on the Monroney label, which confuses the customer. Gotcha. But I totally agree with you. Something that should be changed, but unfortunately, it's a federal law. I got something for Betty to follow up on the call. who asked about the electronic fuel injection additive in their corolla. I looked up the 2020 Corolla required maintenance,

and every 5,000 miles, it says to add the Toyota EFI tank additive, but only if you live in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or Saipan. Oh. For real. You have to have the M20A-FKS engine and live in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or Saipan. So, no, you don't have to put the EFI additive. So if a dealer is telling you that, open up your maintenance guide and point out to that state, that territory, and that Saipan, is that a country by itself?

Why would they put that in all the owner's manuals when there's only three places? And I guarantee you, Betty was fooled, I was fooled, Rick was fooled. I was fooled. And a lot of people get fooled. And they're just selling a whole bunch of that EFI at $25 a can. I guarantee you I mean it's in big print I mean it's it's hard to miss

but if you read it but if you're not looking at it and a service advisor tells you you got to put this in there and shows you flashes that at you might you might go for it good fine Stu good fine Wow

that that one's awesome 877 960 9960 and remember we still have two female caller 50 bills to mail out if you haven't called the show before and you're female

and you call us at 877-960-9-60-877-9-60-0-60-0-6-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0. That's a nasty stuart bonus. Do you know how much that shook my confidence there? I mean, I just, hearing the... Yeah. There's always a little bit of fear on the show. The EFI thing, yeah. Well, someone who comes going to call us something that you don't know, and, like, I can't

believe I didn't realize it was part of the meetings for a corolla. I mean, how obscure. Saipan. Saipan. Wait, Saipan is the largest island of the northern Mariana Islands, so it's basically over, like, in the Philippines. But what about Guam? Guam's okay. Yeah, why not Guam?

Yeah, I mean, what is the, what is Saipan? What's the difference between Saipan and Guam? They're both pretty much show. Hey, anybody out there from Toyota Manufacturing Land, any of your big shots out there? And where's the headquarters now? It used to be Torrance, is in Indiana. It's in Texas. Texas, oh, that's right, yeah.

Okay. Why don't you do that? You Toyota guys, somebody from Toyota, an executive, somebody call me. Maybe there's... Hakeo Toyota, maybe you're listening. Call us from Japan. It could come out of the dealer counselor. Tell us why.

We need more money on that maintenance, guys. Give us something to charge some customers. How about some text? Let's go over the text. All right, well, I'll start with some, well, I still got some your anonymous feedback to get through. The power of no wielded wisely. No is an instrument of integrity and a shield against. exploitation. It often takes courage to say it's hard to receive. But setting limits sets us free. And this is a book by Judith Sills, Ph.D. published in 2013. Where can this word be used in a powerful way, to the full extent as described by

Judith Sills? That's the dealership. Fabric protection, no. Paint protection, no. Window action, no. Gap insurance, no. Maybe not. Gap insurance can be good. Source yourself at insurance company. Rear seat entertainment, no. Consider tablets for the kids that are more interactive and mobile to be used in other cars. Roof rack, no. Paint and fabric protection, no. Key Fobbit insurance, no.

Nitrogen fill tires, no, amen to that. Dealership prepaid maintenance plans, no. ADM, additional dealer markup, no, advertising fee, no dock fee, no, it goes on and on and on. And this is from Earl's much younger brother from another mother. I don't know who that is.

And I think the spirit of this texture is they're right on the money. anything that's pushed upon you say no. No, that's really a great anonymous feedback and it covers a wide spectrum and the sad thing is

virtually everything in that is actually sold actively by car dealers. I think we have a real caller or an audio caller. They're all real but this one's on the phone. We have Howard in Jupiter. Hello, Howard.

Hello. Hey, Howard. Nice talking to you. I have a comment to make about a throttle body cleaner. Many years ago, I was told by a mechanic to buy a product called TECron. And it comes in a plastic bottle and put it in like every 5,000 miles. You have to run your car, the gasoline down to an eighth of a tank. and you've got to put it

put it into the gas tank at Techron it's like it looks like a big tube and then it's a body plastic body and you put the fluid into the gas tank and you got to put in at least 16

gallons of gasoline and I've been using this product for many years and never had any problem with the trial body and I think this thing helps However, I was told that gasoline nowadays, you don't have to put this. Because gasoline, many years ago, wasn't as good as it is today. So I don't know how true that is.

Maybe Rick could explain that to me. I'm sure again. Now, gasoline nowadays have all the cleaners in them that you need. And the refinement and evolution of gasoline has been right up there, along with the cars. fuel is refined to the point now just put it in the tank you don't need any special cleaners in there you'll be just fine

it's stick oil when do you perform a throttle body service now that's a little different story throttle body service is actually cleaning the big plate that controls how much air goes into the engine

and there will always be some little bits of carbon buildup on there we recommend about every two years every 30,000 miles. And basically it's pull the air hose loose. We clean that plate up really well, put it back together. And then we actually have to drive the car for a little while because the computer has learned to adjust itself to run with that dirty plate. So when we clean it up, the engine will actually idle at around 12 to 1,500 RPMs. So we have to drive it a little bit to let the computer relearn and bring itself back down. But it makes your car run

much better when we do that. I never really understood that. Now you explained it very well. So all cars need the service or, you know, if the car is driven on highways a lot, I guess it would not need the service as much as a car that's, you know,

that's driving a couple of miles to daylight, let's say. The owner's manual would tell you, right? Pretty much. It's about this highway driving does do a little better for cleaning out the cars, keeping things burned and clean by, I'll call it. But basically, it's a good service to perform about every two years, though. What's the owner's manual saying?

The owner's manual actually doesn't address it because they don't consider it as like a maintenance item. It's more considered a repair for a rough idle. Okay, well, if you don't have a rough idle, then you don't want to do it, right? No, if your car is not running rough, then you really wouldn't need to worry about it. I like keeping things simple and the simplest thing. It's not perfect to do this, but it's as close to perfect as anything. Always do exactly what the manufacturer's owner's manual says and do not do what the dealer recommends unless it's the same thing as the owner's manual.

The manufacturer's owner's manual are pretty damn accurate. And stick with that and don't do anything else. Additives and exotic things that you here recognize. recommended to you are all BS. Unless you live in Saipan. Yes. What about a brake fluid flush? No.

Should that be done? No. The only time we recommend that is if the fluid has become contaminated somehow. Yeah. You know, everything, all bets are off if you have a problem. If you have a rough running condition, throttle body, if you have something else wrong, sometimes you need to replace the fluid. But 99 times out of 100 or 999.

nine times out of 1,000, you don't have problems with these things. And the dealers are trying to sell you this because the cars today require so little maintenance. The manufacturers, most of them, are given free maintenance for a couple of years or maybe even three years. So the car dealers cannot make money unless they sell you something you don't need. And they make up these exotic stories, flushes and all sorts of stuff. And they say this is recommended. They don't tell you who recommends it. They're recommended it.

So look at your manufacturer's manual. If it's not in there, don't do it. Okay, one other question. Fast question. What's the difference between silicone brake fluid and regular brake fluid? The chemical formulation, but truth be told, again, you want to look at the DOT number because a lot of those silicone brake fluids

are DOT 5, not DOT 3, and it is incompatible. If you put the wrong brake fluid in your car, you will need to flush it because it can seriously damage your brake system. So make sure you only use DOT 3 brake fluid, but double check to make sure what your car is required to have. I can't wait to use that in conversation. DoT5, which cars use that?

Motorcycles. Oh, I got you. Okay. And there are a few high-performance cars, but motorcycles actually comes first to mind, because I know that they use dot five. So use three. Okay, great information. Thank you very much.

Thank you. I appreciate the call very much. 877-960-99-60. 877-9-60-text us at 772-49-6-5-30. text us at 772-4976530, 7-7-2-497-65-3-0, and we do have another caller. We have aquif in Hobbe Sound. Who? Aquaf.

It's spelled A-Q-U-F-F. Oh. I hope I've pronounced it correctly. Hello? Agaf. Hello. I have a question for Earl. Yes.

Earl, my wife has a... a 06 Solarica convertible with the original 39,000 miles on it and it is absolutely spotless but her dashboard is cracking from one end to the other and I've been up to the

Toyota dealer here in Stewart and they said that it's too old they won't do anything about it but they used to replace those Do they still do that? Rick, are we replacing, are we getting any goodwill replacements on dashboards? Unfortunately, the extended warranty that Toyota did on those

has run out, and they have pretty much put their foot down and said, no, they're not doing goodwill on them. Where did you buy the car? Where did you buy the solara? In West Virginia. But we live down here. Yeah. You know, it's just a shame.

You know, my heart bleeds for you. I mean, I honestly feel bad because they built a, yeah, they built a, yeah, they build a dashboard that just didn't hold up under the heat and humidity. And we actually, my dealership, we were responsible for calling it to the attention. We got the press on it because these dashes were cracking on Camrys and Abilons and Salarra's. I finally saw it as a safety issue. And it finally became a safety issue. Let's do this. I can't offer you a lot of hope,

but if you would contact me after the show, and I'll run it by my service manager, and we'll run it by Toyota. Take a shot at it. And we'll take a shot. We might be able to help you. At the very least, we could have the repair done at cost with not any markup.

And at most, we might get some help. I don't want to offer you too much hope, but by the way, the good news about that 06 solara with 39,000 miles, that car is worth a lot of money. Those things are high demand, low supply, and everybody wants them, and a low mileage vehicle like that, if you ever want to sell it, you can get a lot of money for it. You've got to get the dash fix. But you call me after the show. I got a pencil. I'll give you my cell phone number. Yes, I do.

My cell phone number is area code 561. 358 1474 358 what's the last four digits 14774 174 yeah and

give me a call I'll probably probably Monday before I can talk to my service manager and we'll try to help you any way we can that sounds great but the car is absolutely spotless and everybody that sees us

says when you want to get rid of the car I want that car yeah well don't sell it don't sell it to but it's worth a lot of money. All right. Thank you very much, Earl. Thanks for the call. Take care.

Bye-bye. And another call. We do. We have Warren and Pompano Beach. Wow, Warren. Good morning. Good morning. How are you?

We're doing fine. How are you doing? I'm doing great. I got two questions for you. Actually, Stephen. First question is about leasing. I have two residents. I think I mentioned it at the show.

One in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and one in Pompano Beach, Florida. I'm looking at leasing the car Maybe at the end of the year I'm trying to have a fort tourist I'm trying to get like another year out of it if I can Is it better to look up north Where I live in Fort Lee or down

By you guys It doesn't make any difference whatsoever Is to where you lease the vehicle Whether up north or down here What model car are you buying Or leasing? I'm not sure I'm going to look around it could be a variety of different things

It could be a Toyota, maybe a Camry or an Avalon, maybe a Lincoln, maybe a something else. They really don't know. I'm really going to take a look when it comes to that point. If you're going to lease a Toyota, if you're going to lease a Toyota, be advised that the Toyotas that are sold in the Southeast United States, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina are, go through a Southeast Toyota distributorship, Southeast Toyota LLC as an independent distributor. They buy their cars from the manufacturer

Toyota and they mark them up about $1,000 more than you would pay up north for the same car. So that's not to say you're going to buy it for less money, but the dealer's cost will be higher up north. Stu? Yeah, I'd recommend getting, I mean, since we have the

internet and it's relatively easily to get compared quotes, get quotes from both. Earl's right Southeast Toyota dealers do have to pay a little bit more about a thousand more for their cars but it's a different region and they have different incentives

and a different lease program so we're only talking about Toyota but if you're looking at another at a Ford or something like that you know get a quote because here's what I the other factor is you know the registration cost that's going to be different

between New Jersey and down here so you know you can sit in your living room and get the quotes you know with email or online line and compare both places. Another question I have about the leasing is, if you have a certain number in mind, should you go into the dealer and say, look, I'm going to pay, this is what I want to pay, $350 a month, I don't want to pay a penny more, less is fine, you know,

you have to put money down. It's different than buying your cost. I said, this is my number and I'm not moving off this number. Is that a good way to do it or a bad way? No, do not do payment. Don't go in there with payment. You negotiate a price, even if you're leasing. What you need to do, Warren, is leasing has got more hair on it than buying.

There's more ways a car dealer can take advantage of you. So when you decide you want to lease a car, you decide yourself how much money you want to put down. You might want to put nothing down. That's the way leasing originally became popular for people who didn't want. I have a cousin who just did that. He leased a Nissan, and he put money. nothing down because he doesn't really care about cars. He just wants the lease payment and they gave him nothing down on it.

I don't know if that was good or that bad, but he just... Well, it's neither good nor bad. It's your personal decision. But you have to compare apples and apples. If you're going to put $1,000 down on a Ford Taurus for a 36-month lease, then you pick your Ford Taurus with the same M-SRP that you want to buy. And then you go to three-four dealers and you tell them you want a 36-month lease

with $1,000 down and you get the monthly payment and then you go to the next four-dealer, the next four-dealer, and you compare the payments. But you have to be sure that they don't switch it to a different model with a different MSRP and that they don't start mucking around

with the down payment. You need to be sure you get an out-the-door price. You can't be surprised. An actual purchase price. Exactly. You have to find out exactly what your cash out of pocket is going to be on the identical MSRP. And if you compare that, and then you can go to payments, which is what you want to compare anyway. But you can't compare payments until you've locked down all the other variables. Car dealers thrive. The way they make a lot of money on you is get you to come off the target that you came in on.

You came out in one particular Yermick model car, they'll switch it to another. That way, it's a whole new ballgame, and they can increase the profit, and you're not aware of it. But if you're going to be leasing a car, hold down the down payment, the Yermake model, the MSRP, keep that constant, and buy from the dealer that gives you the lowest out-the-door monthly payment. I got another question about the leasing. Now, does this make any sense? Okay. I've leased cars many times in the past.

okay, and sometimes I had to buy the car off the lease because I had too many miles on, and I kept it a year or two and then sold it. Now, they have the gimmick when you go into lease, because I went with my cousin, they try to sell you, like, to pretend if you get scratches or something on the lease, you know, they pay another $50 a month, and then you don't have to worry about that. I wouldn't buy that for anything. But if I go in, and I say, you know, what? What is the least amount of mile in thinking I'm going to buy it off the lease anyway?

Can you give me the least amount of mileage? Does that change the buyout price? In other words, if you say 10,000 miles instead of 12, will they up the buyout price or lower the buyout price? Or it's not going to change it at all? Well, no, it's not going to change at all. Your option to buy is based on their residual value. And, well, it will actually. I guess they're still helping me on this.

if you have 15,000 annual allowance and a 10,000 annual allowance, and the residual would be higher on the 10,000. Yeah, so it would. It would, but you want to be darn sure you don't go over 10,000, because the penalty will really kill you. Be sure that you're going to stay under whatever allowance you choose.

Yeah, but like I said, the ace in the whole, and I've done this before, because I went over once, I just bought the car, and I kept it like two years, and then I sold it, So it wasn't a big deal to me. In other words, you know, it weren't going to work with me. I just said, yeah, I'll just buy the car, kept it for, I don't remember how long on it.

So that's sort of my ace in the whole. I didn't show, well, you know, but I don't want to pay those extra fees. Sure. You know, I try to tuck my cousin out of doing it, but he just had it in his head that, you know, and it was a lot of money. It was like, I don't know, more than $50 a month or something. Well, be careful when you exercise your option to buy.

You want to be sure that you're buying it at a good price. Typically, and more often today, the option price is too high. You can do better by buying the same year-make model on a used car lot, and you can buy it for less money. Sometimes you really get a bargain, and you should always check your option price because it can be good, but I'd say probably three chances out of four, it's going to be higher than you want to pay.

even though let's see you went over the miles and see you got 30 but you had 40 you still have your safety valves to say the dealer you don't work with me I'll just I'll buy it out and you're not going to get anything on it so they won't eat them if you release another car for the same dealer oh I see what you're saying if you go way over that's good point

Stu that your Warren says let's say you go way over the loud miles you have a big penalty if you buy the car then you don't have to pay the penalty they don't care yeah yeah good point Warren I hadn't thought about that before. You've been in the business for 100 years.

I learned something new every week on this show. I never thought about it. I mean, I've had a lot of people that really got killed on overmilege, and I should have said you might want to consider buying the car if you're going to keep it. And my idea.

I actually did that. This was a number of years ago. I didn't realize I was going to go back and forth between New Jersey and Florida, and I racked up the miles away over. So the dealer said, well, I could work with you a little bit with this and that. So I just said, you know, what's the buyout price? I said, you know, I bought it out.

I just get it. I'll keep it a year or so. And, you know, and then amortized it down to where I can get exactly what I was still owed on the car. And then I dumped it. So that was just the way of saying, I'm not going to pay, you know, all this money and fees. And then he said, you know, goodbye and good luck. You're a smart guy. And you told the car dealer who's been doing this for 50 years, something, he didn't know.

Well, you should have, and I thank you very much. Hey, Warren, call again. You're a great coming. I got one quick statement for Rick. You gave me some good advice about two or three weeks ago. I have a 2010, four tourists. And even though I had relatively new brakes on it, the brakes of mushy. And my mechanic said he thought it was the module, the blah, blah, blah.

So finally I gave it and I went to the dealer. I don't remember what he told me, but it wasn't that. They did all the testing on, and they said it was, whatever it was. It turned out to be that was the reason. I ended up doing it at the dealer. I know I paid through the nose for it, but the car was there already, and I just want to start driving it out, and, you know, they charged like $100 to look at it, so they took it off the price.

But you gave me good advice because, you know, I would have gone someplace else and told them it was the brake module, and it wasn't. So that was a good advice on your part to go to the dealer. Sometimes you just got to pay the price, and there's nothing you can do about it. Well, thank you, Warren. you know because they would everybody was telling me something you know it's the brake module

but nothing came out on the scan no computer stuff no nothing so I did go to the dealer and he ran all whatever they did I didn't have no idea dropped it off they called me and told me they could fix it this is the price you know it was high I knew that going in

but I just said the car is there do it and you know I'm not going to start taking it out and going to another place but it was good advice because now it works perfectly and thanks for the advice. Warren, thank you very much. You're a great caller. Please call again next week.

877-9-60-90-60, and we've got another caller right here. We do. We have Jill from Brooklyn, Brookline, Massachusetts. Wow. First-time caller. Hello, Jill. Jill, have you gotten your sandwich from Cuddies this weekend? Not yet.

Okay. We know very good friends with the owners there. The best sandwiches in the United States. Oh, very good. Jill, are you a first-time caller? Yes. Oh, 50-caching! You win $50. Well, before you hang up, stay on the line,

and the guy in the control room will get your contact information, and we will send you a check for $50 because you're a new female caller. Thank you. Oh, thank you so much. My first question is, I have a 2019 van, and sometimes when I go to start it, it's like this. dead. I try it and then I come back and then I try to get in

the start. Does that mean the battery's starting to go or? What model of van is that? Dodge Caravan. Okay. When it does crank does it seem to crank it like a normal speed or does it seem like it's kind of slow and really

working to try to get the engine to fire up? I think it's pretty normal but it's weird. Sometimes I crank it is just like dead. I'm like, or just like it's, and then I try it again and it starts no problem. Hmm. Yeah, because usually if your battery's going bad, it'll seem like it's really having to work to get the engine to crank over.

But if it's just that when you turn the key, nothing happens at all. You don't hear any clicks or anything like that. I'd be more looking at the starter for possibly the solenoid not working properly to, when you turn the key, it's supposed to pull in this big solenoid that will actually start that motor spinning. And I'd be more concerned about that being the possibility. What would that cost to fix, Rick?

Ballpark. I'm going to give you a guess of about $4 to $500, depending on how much a new starter would cost. Well, it's not too bad. Because the car has like 19,000 miles on it, but I think it was a rent-a-car first. in Orlando. Maybe there was a lot of starting stops, but it's not that many miles, but I thought a starter would go 50, 60,000, huh?

They quite often do, but sometimes something may kind of let loose inside. It's, you know, I mean, things do break. They're mechanical things, and we've had brand new cars that things break. What year car did you say it was? What year is that, Dodge?

It's in 19. Oh, I'd be going to the right to the dealership and saying, hey, this is a 2019 with 19,000 miles, you should be under warranty. I'd be right in there having a discussion with them. I think it's guaranteed for like 36,000 miles everything. So that's a good idea if it happens again. I'll have to notice if it's kind of rough like the battery. But one other question is, I think the tire pressure says it's like 35, which I thought was low.

How, what pressure can I put in to get the best mileage and the best wear and tear on the tire? It seems like 35 is low. Well, there's, how much can I put in? All right, well, there's two numbers that you're going to look for. One of them is real easy to find. There's a sticker. When you open the driver's side door, it should be on the body right there. There should be a sticker that will tell you one level.

That's the manufacturer's recommended minimum level. So that should say like 35, and that's the one you never. want to go below that level then it's a little harder to find this one but on the sidewall of the tire there will be another PSI rating which could be 35 it could be as high as 40 or 44 PSI that is the tire manufacturer's maximum safe level that you can run in that tire all the time and you can put your tires up to that pressure and that will usually get you the best tireware and the best fuel economy. So if the tires are rated for 40 PSI,

go ahead and run them at that level, and you'll be just fine. So I guess there's a chance that the side of the tire could say 35, too, huh? It's possible, yes. I didn't know that. You're saying that sometimes the manufacturer of the tire and the manufacturer of the tire and the manufacturer of the same PSI? Yep.

I didn't know that. Sometimes they do. Earl, you're learning a lot today. I am. At least two new things. Who says old guys can't learn new tricks? That's great. That's great. Well, thank you so much for your help.

I'll be calling again. Thank you, Jill. Very much. Okay, thank you. Okay, stay on the line so we get your contact information. Okay. Thank you. Okay.

We have another caller. And we have Nancy and Jupiter. Nancy and Jupiter. How about that? I know a Nancy and Jupiter, but probably just a coincidence. Good morning, guys. Oh, it's Nancy. Nancy Stewart

I feel like you're here in the studio What's going on, kid? Good morning, Mr. Stewart. I have a question for you, Via. Well, actually, I think it might be for Rick. Okay. And this is via

excuse me, Lori from Orlando. And she wants to know about her cabin filter. And if it's important right now, in light of what's going on, if she changes it more often. than you're supposed to. And the second half of the TechS asks,

does every car have a cabin air filter? Well, I'll hit the second part first. I would say probably 99% of cars made today, and I know all of them in the U.S. are going to have a cabin filter in them now. And for the first part, no. Keep sticking with the manufacturers' recommended time for changing it. Unless you're in an area that is just so filthy dirty that the air is just full of dirt from construction or something

and that cabin filter is getting dirty a lot more often. I think the question has to do with the coronavirus. And there is no difference. You don't need to worry about airborne. It's not airborne. It's actually has to be the touch on your beard. Just don't eat your air filter. No.

Don't eat the air filter or like rub it on yourself or something. Let's not even go there, no. But no, changing your air filter more often is not going to help anything for the coronavirus. The reason for that question, excuse me, that I didn't read the other part of it, was because she has so many people in and out of her vehicle. We don't need to go into details, but she thought it might be necessary. You know, it might be a good idea to wipe down, like, the handles and things like that. I feel a lot of people going in and out, like with some Lyside disinfectant wipes.

I would see that as a much more reasonable thing. Have some Purell handy for them or just use the wipes on it. But no, changing the cabin filter isn't going to change anything at all. But I bet a car dealer can figure out. I bet you're going to find car dealer saying you need to change your cabin filter every week now. Oh, absolutely. There are things. No, listen, we've been presented with products like a disinfectant treatment on the car.

They're out there. So watch these things are going to become popular. Yeah, absolutely, Stu. On Facebook, there is advertisements all over the place for you to have your interior disinfected. Anyway, back to the texter. She carries the Lysol disinfecting wipes in her vehicle, not the hand, but the Lysol disinfecting wipes. They're critical. I agree with her handles, steering wheel, everything that anyone comes in contact with.

Okay, guys, hey, don't forget, everyone. Stay tuned for that mystery shopping report. Okay, stay on the line. You're a first-time female caller, and we'll send you $15. I'm sorry, no. Nancy was in the hospital several years ago and called in. She's not the first time called. I've heard her on the phone before.

Stay tuned for Schumacher, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep. of Del Rey, Mr. Shopping Report, just about 9.30. Okay. Okay, guys. Thanks, Nancy. We miss you. You're welcome. Bye-bye. Bye, bye, honey. You know, Alan might say something about using a disinfectant wipe. I think you still should, but if you have leather, like, services, like a leather steering wheel,

you might want to make sure that's cleaned off nicely and condition that so that doesn't dry it out, or you don't want to ruin, like, a soft surface in your car. Yeah, absolutely. Be careful of using those chemicals that can cause damage. Don't put hand sanitizer on your steering wheel or anything like that will definitely dry it out. Oh, yes. And mess with the dyes and all sorts of stuff. When we're setting a phone record today, we have a YouTube before we go to that, I'll give the number out. Maybe we can have an all-time record of phone calls.

877-960-960, 877-9-60. And we still have one more. We do it for two, first-time callers, female. Jill got the first 50 bucks. And now we still have an opening for another 50 bucks. First-time female caller, 877-960-90-960. And now we've got to YouTube. And we've got Don Brown asking,

does Southeast Toyota install some extra accessories or equipment on their cars before selling to dealers? And he says, I suspect there is some difference. I think maybe he means difference between the accessories they install versus what a dealer might install. I got it. Probably, no, I'm going to take this one, Stu. I can do it too.

I know you can, but it's my mission. My mission, my passion is the Toyo Guard that is put on the Toyotas in the Southeast United States. Probably 95% of all the toilet dealers buy this Toyo Guard. It's around $699. Retail. Retail, $699. And when you consider rebates and kickback, and the dealer cost is probably close to 200 yeah 250 250 so paint sealant fabric

protection road hazard concierge service and a much of other nonsense that isn't where the old changes and tire rotations yeah the tangible things are tire changes and oil changes but I mean tire rotations and oil changes for the second two years Toyota gives you the first two years free and then after that Toyota Guard But the point is, the cost to the dealer is $250, and they're charging $699. And I think that is wrong, and you really shouldn't buy it. But it's your choice. If you're going to buy it, pay what the dealer pays.

But remember, Southeast Toyota's making a profit when they sell it to the dealer for $250. So the actual cost of this, I'm going to guess, is probably under $200, maybe under $150. dollars. And that is what... You've got to pay the middleman. That's the value, the true value. You're paying two middlemen for this, and you don't need it, and you're wasting your money. And there are other things that they will put on there, too. That you won't use.

Yeah. Be leery of anything that any car dealer sells you on a new car that is not manufacturer installed. Southeast Toyota Distributors is not the manufacturer. They are a distributor. Rick. they also have installed at the port and at dealerships SET accessories such as Tano covers for pickups

the HomeLink mirrors there are a lot of other accessories that they will offer up what I wanted to chime in was there's a whole accessory program that SET tries incentivize the dealers to load up the cars with as much stuff as they can because they're selling it and the point you can get a car if there's something that you want if you want wanted a tonneau cover, you could tell the dealer that you want one, and they can bring it in with you.

The problem is, is when they load it up, it's no different than having dealer installed accessories. Now, that's not to say that they're worthless. I mean, they might have some cool accessories, but... Never buy a car with a pre-installed dealer-installed accessory. When you decide what you want and the accessories you want, buy that. If you want something else, you should have the right to shop and compare prices. and if it's pre-installed, you can't shop and compare. Exactly.

And they shouldn't give you a hard time about locating a vehicle or bringing one in without the stuff. So if you go to a dealer and let's say it's your closest Toyota dealer and you really like the salesperson, you want to buy a car from them, but they have another $1,000 in equipment on it, just ask them to bring in one without it. And they shouldn't give you a hard time about that. Exactly. Another caller.

We have Anna in Loxahatchie. Hi, Anna. Are you a first-time caller? You there? Hello? Hi, Anna. I'm here. Hi, how are you? I'm a first-time caller. Oh, wonderful. Stay on the line after you get through with what you want to say to us,

and we're going to get you $50, and thank you very much for calling. What can we do for you this morning? You're still with us, Anna? I think we're... We lost a call. Oh, my. Anna, please call back. Yeah, if you can hear us on the radio, please call back.

our first time caller and you got to call back because we want to send you 50 bucks and we also want to hear what you have to say. And actually our producers told us we do have her information. Oh great. So we're going to send it to her anyways. Absolutely. We'll make sure she gets it. Even if she doesn't get a chance to call back, we'll make sure she gets it. We're not going to hold you to a technicality. All right. Let's jump on to another anonymous seat. She's back. I think she's back. Do we have Anna? Hello, Anna? Yes, Stuart? Yes, we hear you now, Anna.

You're going to get 50 bucks in the mail. Thank you. Listen, I just want to thank you. I'm getting ready to buy another Toyota. I bought Toyota's all my life. This is about four. This is my third one that I have, and I'm getting ready to buy the 2020.

But I'm a little bit skeptical because of all the new gadgets they have. You know, like my husband tells me it's electric. and also gas I think half of it The hybrid, yeah. The hybrid, yeah. Yes, it is? Well, Corolla does have... Do you have any... Go ahead.

No, Toyota has a hybrid corolla, yes, that came out last year. Well, she's looking for the RAV-4. Oh, Rav-4 hybrid. And you can get either a regular gas version or the hybrid version, either one. How is the hybrid? Is there a lot of complaints with it, or is it, no? Not so far.

I mean, they came out last year, and it's, I mean, there are obviously, things can go wrong, but it's actually, it's a pretty good car. I mean, we're selling a lot of them. If you check consumer reports, I'm pretty sure they have a high rating with consumer reports. Yeah. Great. So, yeah, I just started listening to you guys. And it's a lot of good information you guys have.

the way when I go buy it, I sound smart. Well, Anna, one thing, you mentioned something about them being very high-tech and with a lot of new equipment and features, and they do. All the new cars, 2020s especially, have a lot of gadgets. That's kind of a deprecating term. I don't mean negative. They just have a lot of things. You need to learn. You need to learn how to operate the car.

So when you buy the car, be sure that the salesperson or somebody sits down with you and takes a lot of time to go over everything. And then you have to have somebody to know to call if there's a question later. Because I'll tell you, speaking from personal experience, and I've been in the business a long time, there's things on my car that I'm not sure about how to use them. Be sure you get a full education no matter what car you buy today because they are complicated. Thank you. Thank you for your help, guys. Thank you, Anna. Another really great resource, Anna, is if you have something that you don't really understand,

pull up a YouTube video for it. There's a YouTube video on everything, and you can, I learned stuff off YouTube about the cars. I got a YouTube yesterday on how to unplug my sink, my bathroom. How to clean a toaster. There you go. Yeah. I completely destroyed the bathroom. It compressed air and blew yuck all over the mirror.

Give them a shirt. Give them bad comments. Unlike, dislike the video. Give them a thumbs down. All right. I got an anonymous feedback here. There we go. International, from one phone call in Bali,

and maybe three from Canada? Really, Earl. That's stupid. Get over yourself. Just go back to being a self-serving Florida dealer and leave the rest of the world alone. I'm so hurt by that. Well, see, that's the reason I love anonymous.

Wow. But he's wrong. It doesn't. Australia? Santa Domingo, Saipan. Please. Let's say you can vent, you can say anything you want to us, and that's what we do that. I say the mystery shopping report makes us unique.

The anonymous feedback, you can say anything, and we will read it unless it's really vulgar, you know, if it offends somebody. I'll figure out a way to read it. That doesn't offend the FCC. Okay. Let's move along. All right. Do most people with convertibles run the air conditioning with the top down? How are we supposed to do?

know that. You know something? I confess. Well, I think it feels good. If I don't know, I'm going to guess, and I guess yes. And it feels good. You want the top down and the cold air feels good and you're wasting it and you're probably using excess gas, but my guess is most people do run the air conditioning. I would. I would at a heartbeat. Well, there is a certain temperature out there. I don't have a convertible with the windows down. It feels good. Yeah, unless it was cold outside.

You would say when I was a kid, were you air condition in the whole world? Okay, sorry. I think you did that with the refrigerator. Question for Earl and Rick, the Toyota Ravrefour hybrid is getting a lot of press with reference to a design flaw in the gas tank. Uh-oh, we just told her it was a, I'm just kidding, design flaw in the gas tank. Does this design flaw also occur in the regular gas power 2019 Rav-4? And then they sent a YouTube link to coverage of that issue.

I wasn't aware of that. I wasn't either. I'm learning a huge amount on this show. In fact, I'm coming across as kind of stupid, actually, but I've got to tell you, if I don't know something, I'll tell you. A few things of ignorance. It's okay. Today, I don't know.

Okay, so. Yes, sir. So far, I think that is restricted to the hybrid because they do have a slight, some modifications in them. What's the problem with the next time? I believe it's a recall coming out that it's something with the fuel pump, and it's part of that big fuel pump recall it's coming. There's a whole bunch of investment one.

Yeah, there's a lot of cars going to be involved in that one. Is that when the car stops? Yeah, they just added a million to that one, I believe. That was the one that came out a couple of days ago. I don't know if that's the same one. Basically, yeah, the car could stop because the fuel pump stops working.

Can I tell you something that will probably shock you and maybe make people not like me? But I just have this, I'm a radical transparency, guy, and I just can't help myself. Car dealers love recalls. I mean, I've got to admit that we don't like people to be hurt, at least I don't,

and we don't like dangerous things. Or people will be scared to buy cars. When we get a recall, like on this fuel pub and other things, or on dashboards or whatever it is, we get paid by Toyota handsomely to fix the car.

And service business can be a little slow because the cars are really good today. Sounds contradictory, and I'm talking about recalls and good cars, but overall they are really good cars, and the maintenance is so little that car dealers can't make a lot of money in the service department. So when there's a recall, we do high five, we high five each other. We get it. And it's a, I feel guilty about that. But the fact, I just got to tell you the truth. I can't help myself. You know, it's funny. And the whole universe of recalls and defects.

I mean, obviously, cars are getting better over the years, over the decades. Much better. They're just, the only entity doing a really good thing really is the manufacturer, because no one's going to build a perfect car. No. The fact, they're the only ones actually doing anything about it.

I mean, a new car dealer, basically, I mean, a new car manufacturer, they're announcing these things. They're trying to get ahead of it. They don't like the bad press. The downside is that there is a fatigue. People hear these things. You know, a million Toyota's added to this recall.

this week and granted the coronavirus was dominating the news, but it really didn't make much of a splash. Nobody cares. There's an apathy about recalls. I think we have a YouTube. We got a couple of them, but this one's really good one, is give me five bucks. I love this guy's name. If the key fob batteries die in your smart key remote, is there another way to get the car started? He says, I have a Honda Civic. Now I'm going to go a little bit on a list. and bet that the Honda's probably got the same design as Toyota for the smart car. If the remote battery dies, but your car is still fine, the car battery. All you've got to do is hold the remote up next to the power switch.

And usually they want you to hold the backside of the remote, which is where the transmitter chip is, hold it right up against that power switch when you step on the brake and push the button, and it should start your car up just fine. But that's if you have a little bit of juice left in the battery, there's zero juice. It's zero juice, even, because it's got the coil. I am getting an overwhelming education. How many things have I learned today? Did you know that, Stu?

I knew that. No, you didn't. Rick said that we're lying. I always thought, I knew if you held the remote closer to the lock, it would work. But I thought because there was a little bit of juice. And you're telling me that you have a, I could take the battery out of the remote. You have to move it back and forth really fast and create a. current. Now you can't unlock the door. That's why you've got a little key that can be removed

from the remote to unlock the door. But to start the car, you hold it right up against there, and it's just like having a key with a regular chip in it that has no battery at all. Okay, let me sell everybody out there something as the proofs how smart I am. When you are way away from your car and you want to lock it, if you hold it up to your head and hold the remote on your head, your head or under your chin acts as an amplifier to the signal and I have tested this out myself Well you have a giant steel plate in your head

That's sure the plate Don't tell the height Gives me an extra 50 feet radius I can go I can be 50 feet further from my car And lock it when I hold it up in my head And I'm not kidding It sounds like I'm kidding Or under your chin

That you're 6 5 that you're I used to be 6 5 I'm 6 3 now It really does work yes okay let's move along another text this this was interesting it was it's anonymous feedback and um you're you're gonna start you're gonna pick a fight with me i'm gonna be skeptical about this one okay um i just bought a new 2020 rave for le and i want to see if i got a good deal i paid 21,999

out the door with fees and everything no sales tax because they live in new hampshire and that is true the msrp was 29,900 So the MSRAPA of this 2020 Rav4, L.E, was 299, and they went 219 out the door. They also got a 3.3% interest rate on 72 months, and he said he took two weeks of pushing dealers against each other. They had five dealers competing for the deal. I'll see his Costco want to know if they got a good deal. Now, my question is, was there a trade-in? That's a very good question.

And that's the reason I would love to see if it's possible to send in, you can redact your personal information. And my second question would be, do they finance the car with a dealer? They did, at 3.38% for the only reason I'm skeptical is, so I did a little math while you guys were talking over there. And even taking out sales tax, even taking out the southeast toilet administration fee that's in the southeastern United States, taking it down to the cost, and then just saying, oh, let's say they lose $3,000. it would still be around $25,000, $24-5 out the door. That's not to say it didn't happen. I'm just saying I would love to see the paper.

What was the day of the purchase? Well, it's a 2020 rev for L.E. And that's current in the stock, so it has to be in the last six months. And did he buy it in the southeast or up north? No, up in New Hampshire. Yeah. But I accounted for all that. Yeah, the reason I asked that question is that they don't have stair-step incentives.

I counted for everything. Out of southeast area, yeah. If he bought it in the southeast, and they bought it at the end of the quarter, when they had to hit their number, it's possible they would take a losing deal. It is, right? Anything can happen. It could be on the last day of the month, and they said, hey, what the heck, let's lose $5,000 to sell the car. But, I mean, not to make it, I mean, that's considerably less. I mean, at our dealership, and I know we're doing a fair price.

Yeah, we don't want to take anything away from anybody. If you did it, God bless you. Congratulations. If you really, really work... You might be missing something, though. They might be missing something. Might be missing. If you traded the car in, I asked that because they will undervalue your trade

and sell you the new car ridiculously cheap, but they'll take the new car in $5,000 below the actual cash value. If they financed the car, in this case, it was a good interest rate. Possibly they loaded it up with after-sale products. There's a lot of way car dealers can get you. People, a lot of people think they get great deals. and they don't. That's a really scary part about it. It's one thing to get taken advantage of and then realize it because then you badmouth the dealer, you never go back and so on and so forth. But when you think you got a great deal, you spread the word, other people go in,

and the same thing happens. It's so unusual for a car dealer to sell a car below what it cost to me. Yeah, it is. I mean, and it happens. That's just so far below that. I'd be curious to see the buyer's order of the final paperwork that was designed to deliver. And if you can, you can take a picture with your phone and text it to 772-497-6-5-30, and you can cross out your name and stuff. We don't need to know who it came from, but be useful. Next. Okay, I don't know if this is for real, but, okay, here we go.

Anonymous feedback. I got fired, my wife divorced me, my two children hate me. I can try to blame me, but I blame you. Life was good, not perfect, just good. Why do you stick your nose in places it doesn't belong? Why did you have to shop my dealership? You may be trying to help everyone else, but you ruined me in my life. Well, you know, it sounds like it's not factual.

On the off chance, it is factual. Give me a call. You deserved it. I'm sorry. Give me a call. We'll be glad to talk to you. And if you're looking for a job selling cars and you want to do it honestly, we'd certainly take an application. Yeah, but if we ruined your life, you probably didn't do that good job.

I can't help you with a wife. No, I'm saying. If it ruined his life, then he probably had a bad shopping report. I don't know if we want him working for. Why would his wife divorce him just because he got fired? Huh? I don't know. There wasn't real love there to begin with.

So we don't know. Tongue and cheek, if it's true, then I feel terrible for you. If it's not true, that's why we have anonymous feedback. We read everything that you send us. So you folks out there that want to embarrass me, www. Your Anonymous Feedback.com Your Anonymous Feedback.com

You can send in a lie to make me look bad and we'll read it on the air. Rick? On that issue with the Rav4 hybrid fuel tank, this is one that almost got by me. I hadn't really heard much on this. Apparently, there's a concern with the 19 and 20 hybrid raves that the fuel tank, although it's rated to be 14 and a half gallons,

will only take 10 gallons of fuel before the pump automatically shuts off and the fuel gauge will show less than full between 3 quarters or 7.8s full. Well, see, I feel vindicated because I'm admitting I don't know stuff. And I'm learning too. Rick learned too. And Stu didn't know. I knew all this. So nobody knew any of it.

So we're all learning. And it's an ongoing issue where Toyota, says they're investigating it, trying to figure out what they've got to do. And there's actually a class action lawsuit has been started over this. I don't blame them. Where they're really working. I mean, that's really dumb. Yeah.

People are saying the driving range of the vehicle, how far can go on and tank of gas, is being drastically reduced. Of course. Because you can only put about two thirds to three quarters of a tank of fuel. I got two hybrid rap fours in my driveway. Is that right? Have you ever tried to put more than 10 gallons of gas? Yeah. We're not having that issue on ours.

Okay, let's go to it. We have some more text, I bet. Hello, this is Tim from Amherst, Ohio. I leased a new 2019 Tacoma last August. I understand the update of the software for the shifting to improve the sluggish shifting in the 2020. Can that be done on my Tacoma? Thank you. Love your show.

And watch on YouTube. That's from Tim. That's very possible. The only way to tell for sure is you need to go in and ask the dealership to hook up a scan tool to see if an update's available for your vehicle. Okay. Okay. And that should just be no charge, right?

It should be covered under factory warranty for, I believe, most reflashes are eight years, 80,000 miles, and obviously no charge to the customer whatsoever. And plan on, depending on how busy they are, between one to two hours for them to get your car in a shop and get it done. Okay. Amherst, Ohio. I love it when we get these calls. from all over.

International. Yeah. That's kidding. Well, at least it's interstate. Yeah. Okay, good morning, Erling Comedy. This is Ben from Pennsylvania, another country. Oh, Pennsylvania.

I love it. This has Ben from Pennsylvania. Yeah. Sorry, I am a podcast listener, and I'm always a few days behind. This text is for Rick, and specifically the reset, the tire pressure monitoring system sensor, and wait 15 minutes, the technique he mentioned a few times in recent shows. I'm not sure that this will work, because. because if there is a button to reset the system,

it is an indirect system and uses the car's ABS to monitor pressure by counting and comparing tire rotations. The car's computer won't learn the reset pressure rotation rate until it is driven. So I don't believe adding air 15 minutes after the TPMS button is pressed will do anything unless the vehicle is driven before more air is added. Please elaborate. Uh-oh, Rick. I think he caught you.

Nope. Nope. The older... Sorry, Ben. The older indirect systems. Well, I'll try to keep this as short and quick as possible. The older indirect systems, every time you rotated the tires or replaced the tires or changed your air pressure, you had to reset it by holding that button so that the computer could recalibrate based on where those tires were.

Tell them quickly what the whole original thing was. So we got a lot of people out there to know what you're talking about. The new portion, what people are concerned about is the sensors in the tire now, that is the direct system that actually tells the computer exactly how much air pressure is in those tires. This system, you can set what's called the threshold. In other words, the level at which the tire light will come on. And you do this because your tire light's coming on and it really shouldn't come on for temperature fluctuations. Right.

So you change your threshold so that doesn't happen. Well, like our earlier caller that said she wanted to set her tires, run her tires at a higher pressure, she might want to have that threshold set a little bit higher. So if she starts losing air in the tire, she'll know sooner. Versus someone that wants to run a lower pressure can reset the threshold a little lower so that they don't have the light coming on for no reason. Okay. I have a little tip on the same subject.

All right. So it got colder last week, and just like it cooled off this weekend. And last weekend, my tire pressure light came on. It even happens to me, folks. And I assumed that it was just the temperature. Now, my last two cars, and I just in disclosure, I drive current model cars. So not every vehicle has this. But on the car I'm driving right now and the car I drove last time,

you're able to actually see the individual pressures on each tire. And so my assumption would be, and I think this makes sense, if it cools off and the tire pressure goes down in your car, it's going to be relatively equal. I almost just chalked it up to the temperature, and I said, let me just double check, drill down a little bit, and I saw that all my tires are at 34 pounds per square inch, but my right rear was down at 19, and I had a screw in my tire. So if you see it, and it's chilly out, don't assume it's the tire pressure.

It's best to check it out. And if you do have a more recent one, you can actually look on the dashboard and see which tires are individual tires. Very good. Do you have road hazard insurance? I don't need it. Okay. I'm self-insured. Next.

Good morning. This is from Anne Marie, our regular texter. Good morning. I hope that Nancy will be back on her feet very soon. My questions for the morning concerns car colors. What are the most popular colors and what are the least popular colors? Why do red cars have lower resale values? Just wondering, thanks. I think it varies a little bit. You know, you think about sports cars, flashy cars have flashy colors. And, you know, a red convertible is a good color for a convertible or a red. sports car and black and white are the staples you can't go wrong with black or white and silver and still what else I think black white and silver it's just because they have a larger audience that's all yeah so you get a crazy yellow or or obscene orange kind of thing on a on a spiffy yeah like a jeep or something if you go crazy on color go crazy on the model car. But if you're going to buy a sedan or just a normal SUV or

whatever, stick with a conservative colors. If you're getting a Camry or an accord, don't get bright racing blue, because most people want. And it is a big deal. Every day, our appraisers are asked to replace cars over the phone. One of the first questions they ask is what color

is it? Because if you've got a purple, if you've got a purple Camry, you've got a bright green Honda Accord. You're the only person who likes that color. Yeah, it devalues that car by at least $1,000, maybe more. So if you love the color so much, you've got to have it. Bear in mind, you'll pay the Piper when you trade it in.

Yeah, imagine you're a used car customer, what would you pay to drive that goofy-looking purple car? Yeah, right. You've got to be pretty low. Exactly. Give me a good deal. Hi, Earl, this is Steve from New Jersey. Concerning the coronavirus in the coming months, what impact do you estimate on new car sales and the manufacturing prices? Boy, I wish I knew that answer.

I can make a fortune on the stock market. I know one thing I'm glad I'm not in the airline business or the hotel business. But we don't know what's going to happen to the automobile business. I think people, we were speculating the other day that people may be buying more cars online. They may be having cars delivered as opposed to going into the dealership. You know, who wants to go in and shake hands with a car salesman or have a car salesman sneeze on them. We're struggling with that. So, yeah, we're struggling with that.

We don't want to offend people, but we don't want to shake their hands anymore. Yeah, exactly. And so it's a whole new world out there. I like to believe that it's being hyped a little bit out of proportion, but you can't say that until time passes, and the media are enjoying themselves. And so, or part of it bothers me is the fact that they ignore dangerous recalls entirely. Entirely. They don't talk about them.

you can have a car recalled with airbags and the notice will be on page 21 in the newspaper and you pick up There's like 400 cases of coronavirus in the United States that there's millions of recall vehicles Yeah and you got who knows how many people are dying from these ancient recalls because they don't talk about But it is exciting to come to work these days

With this whole coronavirus That's one way to put it All right Here's another text You're an old guy like me. Yeah, no, it's actually, I mean, you should be, you know, proven. Don't laugh it off. But this is a text from Bob.

It says Costco adds additives at the pump. Is this another nitrogen-filled tires gimmick? Costco adds additives at the pump when you buy gas from Costco? That's what he says. I don't know what that means. I do know that Costco gas is extremely cheap. It's good gas. I don't mean cheap in a negative sense.

inexpensive, and they have, in our market here, they're building a new gas station at the Costco on North Lake Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens. And I'm all excited about that because you can save a lot of money at Costco when you buy gas. As far as adding an additive, when you buy gas, I don't know what that means. Maybe you could text us again.

Maybe it's like that, what's the one that adds tecraline? Yeah, they might sell, they might sell you in that. and if Costco's selling entities, I would say don't buy it. No, no. Costco's my favorite store. No, I was thinking like all the different mobile and Exxon and all that, they always talk about

their special chemical they have and their fuel that makes it better than anyone else. Well, I thought Costco sold a regular brand. Do they have Costco gasoline? Costco brand? Yeah. Oh, they do? Well, I always saw it. It was just a, you know, the fuel that they bought from whoever their supplier

was. I didn't think it was any special. I'll check it out I can't answer that question Very interesting Okay we have a texter This is something I don't know if you'll know the answer to You just wants to know if there are Canvas seat covers available for a 2017

Camry I'm gonna guess yeah I mean there's like pet boys and all these Part stores Amazon Put it in the search Canvas seat covers for Camry And you'll have a whole bunch of them

I mean I got a I found a company that made heavy canvas seat covers from my Tacoma. Yeah. Okay. I think we're all caught up on text. Okay. I got one YouTuber left here. So Jose Huerta's asked,

Hi, guys, if I get a price on the net, can I still negotiate when I get to the dealership? Thanks. Of course. And hopefully you don't have to. I always believe in making the quote, an out-the-door quote, and you explain it this way.

Okay. Is this the outdoor price? Salesman. Yes, it is. Okay. My definition of an outdoor price is I'm going to bring you a check for this amount. Or a briefcase full of cash. And I'm going to hand you the check and I'm going to get my car and I'm going to go home and you'll never see me again. That's an out-the-door price. Okay? I don't want any nitrogen in my tires that I didn't know about. I don't want any electronic filing fees. I don't want any, you know, formats. I don't want window tent.

I don't want pen stripes that I didn't know about. I want to be able to write shadow check. Give it to you, get my car, and go home. That's an out-the-door price. If you do that, you're probably not going to have to negotiate again. But what the heck? Give it a try. Okay.

Mystery Shopping Report time? I'm ready. Let's do it. mystery shop of Schumacher, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram of Del Rey. Schumacher bought this dealership, what, two, three years ago? Yeah. He's got a lot of dealerships. They've got to do something about that name, though.

Schumacher, no, no, no, no, the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram. Yeah, I agree with you. CDJ. They don't mention Fiat, I wonder why. I know why. Automobile safety recalls continue to make the news. This week, Toyota added over a million vehicles. to its list of vehicles recalled for faulty fuel pumps.

At this base, 2020, may be shaping up to be a record year for car recalls. I'm sure it will be. I mean, it's just turned March, and there's millions of them. The Toyota fuel pump issue is serious. The fuel pump could fail and cause an engine to stop. I mean, can you imagine being on a 9.95 at rush hour and your car stops? KD. bar the door. But not nearly as scary is that the Cotty Airbag recalls.

The idea of a car's airbag exploding, sending shrapnel, literally, steal shrapnel through the, and we say passenger side, driver's side, let me tell you, that shrapnel doesn't know whether you're a passenger or the driver, or maybe even the back seat. It's like a grenade going on. So it's terrifying. There's something obscenely ironic, I like that, Stu, about a vehicle safety feature becoming the thing that kills you. I mean, that should be in the dictionary about irony.

A safety bag, a safety bag. An airbag that can kill you. Yeah, it's not supposed to do that. Yeah. A lot of them out there, sad to say. The idea, okay, there's something, okay, I just did that. If exploding airbags are the worst that could happen, surely the second worst would be airbags that failed to deploy when we needed them in the crash.

The failure of a critical safety equipment that we've come to rely on to save our lives is a chilling notion. And reading this, because Stu does these reports, I just read them on the air. Reading this, I made me think about this, how many defective airbags have killed people? How long, and I'm not just talking about Takata airbags,

I'm talking about airbags that don't go off, they go off too fast. When you have a deadly crash and you have a tangled mass of iron with human beings inside being peeled out of a car, and I'm sorry I'm being so graphic, but when you have a terrible accident, how do you know what killed the occupants with the car or seriously injured them? And I've mentioned this before. So how long have we had airbags? 40 years, 50 years? In the 80s, right?

I mean, they started, they'd be widespread in 80s. Okay. Yeah, I'm going to say they started about mid-80s. Now, how many fatal 83? Okay, thanks, Jonathan. In 1983, so all these years, we've had these deadly accidents with cars with airbags, and the airbags go off, in most cases, with the deadly accidents. How many times was the airbag part of the problem that we didn't know about?

Now we're talking about it. And suddenly we're getting a lot of airbag recalls. Before Takata, I don't think we had airbag recalls, did we? I don't know. I can't remember any. So suddenly we're seeing other airbag recalls. There could have been hundreds of thousands of people killed by defective airbags that we never knew about. Anyway, that's speculation.

The possibility is the subject of another Toyota recall with 3 million toils are now to recall for a potentially faulty electronic control unit that may cause your airbags to fail to deploy in a crash. As of today, Toyota hasn't announced a remedy. We're told it will be soon. That's kind of nerve-wracking, isn't it? Soon. Many of those recalls are currently owned and driven by consumers who are unlikely to be notified. unlikely to be notified about this problem. And many of them are currently being sold on the used car market.

Okay. Same thing with Tocada, of course. Of course, if you paid attention to the show for the past three years, you already know that there are no laws preventing the sale of used cars with dangerous safety recalls. Every time I say that, I choke mentally. How can it be? our legislators, our regulators, how can the media

let this happen? Do you hear what I'm saying? There's no law against any car dealer selling a car with a dangerous recall, airbag that can kill you. Go ahead and sell it.

Yeah. There's not even a fine. Nope. There's not a penalty. There's no ticket. Not a retrimand, or reprimands what I'm trying to say. saying they're not even required to tell you there's not even a dirty look that's right not even a

disapproving look yeah I mean is there anybody out there are there any politicians listening to this are there any regulators anybody listening to this there's no law against Rick Kearney selling you a car or Earl Stewart selling you a car that I know has defective dangerous recall that can kill you There's no law me telling you that it can happen. Okay, enough of that. Toyota's position has been to forbid Toyota dealers from certifying recall vehicles, but they have no power. They say they have no power to ban the sale of a Toyota with a defective recall.

A certified means Toyota doesn't want to have its name on it. A Toyota certified car, they won't allow you to certify a car with a dangerous recall. You've got to fix it. don't certify it, and you don't have to certify it, Toyota, you can sell it anyway. That's the washing of the hands. They don't want their name on it. Okay. Nor do federal, state, or local governments care.

They don't care. If they cared, they'd pass a law. Or they'd try to pass a law. They haven't even tried to pass a law. No. There hasn't been a bill introduced in the Florida Senate. It would be D-O-A. Or the House.

Yeah. What's the F-A-D-A? The Florida Automobile Dealers Association position? They say nope. They know nothing, they say nothing, they say nothing. Okay. So this week we wanted to investigate this particular recall. We applied a tauticile test to a dealer who was listing a used 2016 Toyota Corolla

with a faulty airbag electronic control unit. Schumacher Chrysler, John. But what do they go? Shoemaker CDJ. Yeah, Seumacher CD. Just Schumacher. Yeah, Schumacher. in Del Rey. When I arrived at the dealership, speaking in the first person, I were Agent Thunder.

In the late afternoon, I found a lot of construction going on and a hard time finding my way around the facility. I had to ask someone to guide me to the used car department. I was guided to the used car office where I was introduced to Pedro. We name names. Pedro, I used car salesman. Pedro asked what I was looking for. I told him about the corolla. I said I was buying a first car for for my 16-year-old daughter. Wow. 16-year-old daughter. Stu knows all about that.

She, mine just got her first car. Pedro indicated his approval and said, I had a lucky kid. I told him that my main concern was safety, and I chose the Corolla for its reputation as a safe and reliable car. Pedro agreed with me, and then asked what I had hoped to accomplish today,

would I be taking delivery this after? them. I said, I'd seen a few other 16 corolls online, but they were priced higher than Schumacher. Also, I promised my daughter I would get her a white one with a light gray interior. I said, if the car checks out and the out-the-door price was in line, I would take delivery that night. Pedro suggested that we go out and meet my daughter's new car. I like that. Yeah. Let's go out and meet your daughter's. I like that. It's a good line. Good sales line. He grabbed the keys and a dealer plate, made a copy of my license on the way out. Pedro talked a little about the car on the ride.

He didn't know much about the Corolla, naturally. He sells Jeeps. He gave general description of the features like, These are the windshield wiper controls. Thank you. And that's the radio knob. This is the steering wheel. I went right for the safety question.

Do you know if there are any safety issues I should be concerned with? I was thinking after I read that what if we didn't say that I wonder what would have happened but I did say that what about safety issues Pedro said he didn't think so but then issued the standard

refrain we'll check Carfax the Carfax report that happens in like in every mystery every time yeah we'll check the Carfax report and it's a fair thing we need to do a shop where we just don't ask about safety yeah you know what this was the gone way back to the Arrigo lawsuit and that

was the guidance from the attorneys who said that would be a good question to ask. And maybe we can mix it up next time. We made our way to the dealership and went inside, Pedro offered me a seat and said, he'd go get the Carfax report. I asked him he could bring a detailed purchase order too. And I said I wanted to look at all the numbers.

And Pedro returned with both the Carfax report and a real buyer's order. We hardly ever see the. at this stage of the mystery shopping report, albeit with the numbers not filled in. There's a blank. He started with the Carfax report summary page.

He surely announced no accidents, no damage, and one owner. Then he said, and one recall. I asked him what it was about. He said it was about the ECU and the airbags may not work in a crash. He said that the toilet is still currently preparing the remedy and point to where he was reading. Pedro said, I shouldn't worry about it. I would just need to take it in to a toilet dealer

when they have a fix. I asked when that would be, and Pedro pointed to where it said toilet was currently preparing the remedy and shrugged to indicate it wasn't a big deal. We moved on to the numbers. now that's something that I think you with a 16 year old daughter

would feel a little bit more concerned about I don't think your mind would be put to rest because the Toyota dealer would fix it when there was a remedy available you would probably just say I don't think I want to buy that car now

you know it's funny the whole 16 year old daughter thing changes the equation if it was just for me I could see myself risking it. Yeah, what's the likelihood I'm going to run into something on the way out? But it was a very real fear when my daughter got her license, I'm like, because kids do that. They'll get their license and get in a crash that same day. That's so funny how we feel about our kids.

We worry about it more than we do ourselves. Pedro used a blue point pen to fill in the figures of the buyer's order. The sale price on the online was $13,495. He highlighted the pre-printed dealer fees, and there was $6.50 in legitimate fees. There are fees that are legitimate. They're very small battery tax. The sale price was the online price, $13,495. Now, he highlighted the pre-printed dealer fees in $6.50 with a yield highlighter, and say these were standard.

The fees included, here we go, $98. private tag agency fee, that's a dealer fee. $279 electronic registration filing fee, that's a dealer fee. And $995 billing and handling, that's a dealer fee, totaling $1,372 in bogus fees. So the advertised price was $13,495. dollars. Floral law says, the Florida statute says that you must include the dealer fees in the advertised price. Schumacher did not do that. They held out $1,372,000, $1,3702 added to the

$13,495, breaking Florida law. But almost every car dealer does that, and we're going to be scoring this mystery charming report shortly and we grade on the curve so I just want you to realize that isn't it terrible that all cardiolas do this after all that I'm not fond of this terms too I swallowed my bile that's disgusting that's kind of like you know you don't want to say I swallowed my bowel and I know what you mean yeah his picture you guys picture I swallowed my bowel and said I swallowed I'd swallowed that's what I'm You don't swallow your bile. That's terrible.

When you burp up a little. Looks good. I'll be back tonight. Okay. I'll be that. I swallowed my acid reflux. Epilogue. Pedro didn't conceal the recall, but he downplayed the hell out of it.

This would count as a technical fail. And we're going to bring it to a vote. Let me show you if you go bars where. Because you rarely see these. Yeah. It actually says it, right? Purchase order, and at the bottom it says these are the terms. I made a note on my copy.

I said dealer fee, very seldom being used. He used the word dealer fee nowhere in the buyer's order. And so the point being all the car dealers now have known, realize a dealer fee probably will take credit. I think this show our newspaper column, our speaking engagements. We have really terrorized the consumers. I mean, we've alerted the consumers

to the word dealer fee. So what they have the Tocardial is done, they just don't name a dealer fee anymore. They change the name. So they actually advertise now, no dealer fees. We don't have any dealer fee, but we have an electronic filing fee. We have a tag agency fee.

And what was the other one? The... Billing and handling. Yeah, billing and handling. Billing and handling. We might as well just give them, like, people's names. Like, this is Bob for $9.95. So there we have.

We have the Schumacher, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, whatever, in Del Rey. We'll call it Dodge, Jeep Ram of Del Rey. And we have to vote. Yeah, we got grades coming in. Okay, that's true. I'm waiting for Linda's, but Bill gives him a D, John gives him a D, Shakir gives him an F, Mel gives him a C-minus, and I'm going to be conscious of the curve.

And on the airbag thing, I'm going to say C-minus, and on the dealer fee thing, a C-minus. Yeah. Curve, you understand that if we went by a strict 100% to 0% A, B, C, D, F, we would have no car dealers to offer in Florida. And so we can't do that, so we create on the curve. We have an F from Amy and a D from William. F and D

Okay We've got on YouTube Wayne F Give me five bucks D, Mark Ryan A D minus And myself I'm going to go ahead

With the D And say They pass But you got to keep Your eyes open folks No Nancy Stewart Did Nancy text in the grade

She did not text in the grade Let me look at Facebook She was out there She's usually pretty strict Yeah I'm going to I'll vote for name Nancy. Nancy gives them an F-minus.

F-minus. Okay. I'm going to vote, and I'm going to give them a D. And I have to say generally that the Schumacher dealerships are cut above. And I believe most of them are on a recommended list. I will say this. I know Chuck Schumacher. I've known him since he was a kid. I knew him when he worked for his father, Dick Schumacher.

had the only the Buick dealership at that time on Okeechobee Boulevard and his father was an honest guy he's an honest guy Chuck Schumacher's grown his dealerships to multiple I don't know how many different franchises he has now but I'll guess eight at least yeah maybe 10 and so we have almost all those on the recommend list I'm not going to fail him I think that his I think think that his dealer fees are a little like extreme right yeah he's starting to look like a broward county dealer now yeah and um and i think the disclosure on the tecotte airbag again everybody has problems there so that's the reason we're not going to fill you but do better try to do better and we have the recommended list uh you could go to earl store on cars dot com our blog and you can go to

recommended dealers and we will have a list for you and bear in mind it is buyer beware on the recommended list on the do not recommend list just don't even go in because they're really bad because when you grade on the curve

and you flunk somebody they are really bad recommended list just be careful and do your due diligence and get three competitive bids and watch out for dealer fees by name of everything except

the dealer fee it's like from Shakespeare a rose by any name, any other name, is still a rose, a dealer fee by any other name. A rose and rose and still a dealer fee. And stay away from it. And when in doubt you can call us, and if you have a bad experience, we ask you to call us and tell us about it.

That's right. How much time we got left? Like two minutes. Did you hear that the CEO of Ram resigned over this sales reporting scandal? No. Yeah, so he was in line to become... In Chrysler, Ram? Well, he was the Ram division, the Ram division.

of Fiat Chrysler and he was in line to actually assume the leadership of the whole shebang Fiat Chrysler and he became a government cooperator and got federal whistleblower protection for revealing these dishonest sales reporting

tactics of RAM. So he reported and then he quit. You know why? We have a morality crisis in this country not just in car dealerships but you look at Wells Fargo and you look at something pharmaceutical companies.

You know, when people are rotten and dishonest at the top, what do you expect? Well, this guy's an honest guy. His name is Reed Bigland, which is a great name for the CEO of Ram, Bigland. But, yeah, he did the right thing, and then he got out of the business. Well, you got the CEO of Nissan in jail. He escaped. Escape from jail.

I mean, you know, I can't believe what I'm saying that. He's on a beach in Beirut right now. Yeah. He's hiding in Lebanon and Beirut. Yeah. Okay, folks. I think we're at the end of the trail here. Thank you all for joining us in Earl Stirling cars.

Nancy and I'll be picking up garlic at public on the way home because I know you're going to make me your spaghetti and meatballs. Oh, sounds good. See you next week. Red go. Right. Go. Go.