Earl Stewart on Cars - 03.08.2025 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Maserati of Stuart FL.

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning visits a local Maserati dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2024 Maserati Grecale SUV on their car lot. 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, and reading his blog posts at www.earloncars.com. To purchase Earl’s book, “Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer”, go to www.earlsbook.com. This will forward to Earl’s Amazon page to complete your purchase. All proceeds from the book go to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. For more information or to adopt the dog you have seen today or any of their other dogs, please visit their website at www.bdrr.org. “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”

Hello, 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 listeners. 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 is my son, Stu Stewart, our link to cyberspace through Facebook, YouTube, text messaging, and our encrypted anonymous feedback service. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our mystery shopping report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting the car dealership. And now, on with the show.

Good morning, everybody. We're back. And I'm a little jittery because that's on a second show live since I was all for a while. I was ill, and we were off the air for a while. We've got three callers? We've been on for three weeks. Three weeks, okay. Congratulations.

Signals from Nancy Stewart. You're looking good. Thank you very much. And I appreciate all the well wishes, and I'm feeling a whole lot better. And it's an exciting time to be back on the air. There's all sorts of crazy stuff going on in the world, tariffs on automobiles and tariffs on everything else. sales, car dealers, supply chains starting to fill up.

Car manufacturers, very shaky financially. We're at that point in our history, that 100 plus year auto dealer history, where there's going to be a total, total new picture on the horizon coming shortly. We've got fully autonomous cars, we've got the possible disappearance of the auto franchise system which as you regular listeners know we are an automobile dealer we have a toilet dealership in North Palm Beach Florida but this is a consumer advocacy show and we our purpose here is to help you buy or lease your next vehicle newer use or maintain or repair that vehicle or the one you have now without

being ripped off pardon the expression take an advantage of if you prefer by car dealers. It's a, what is it, a zoo out there. We live in South Florida. Our business and the radio station here is in South Florida, southeast coast, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach County. We're in the news a lot. It's a big, big tourist area. And there are a huge number of automobile dealers. I mean, it's a great market. A lot of money down here, a lot of retired people down here. And our car dealers are just fat and happy. And they've been fat and happy for a long time. And in our shopping excursions,

where we send a mystery shopper into car dealerships to find what's good and what's bad about them and let you vote on it that comes later on the second hour of the show, we have found that South Florida car dealers are about as bad as they get. I mean, we shop in Massachusetts and Tennessee, Pennsylvania, I mean, we've done mystery shops all over, and we get calls from all over too. And I can't, there is no worse or more dangerous place to buy a car for you, the listener,

the consumer, than South Florida. I mean, if you live near South Florida, you're lucky, just go somewhere else to buy your car or buy it online. So that's pretty much what we're going to do. I said in the preliminary introduction that Stu Stewart, my son would be here. He won't be. He's missing this show.

He's got some family business to take care of. But he'll be back next Saturday. Thanks all you listeners that stuck with us last week, and I know you'll be back this week after I've been off for a month or so. You were back, and you were back in volume. We had more callers than we had the long. long time. But we're still going to give that number out a lot because it's key to what makes this show special. It's your personality, your suggestions, your comments are the heart of our

show. And that number, that call-in number, is 877-960-9960. Again, that's 877-960. Please write the number down if you're not going to call us. Now, we're on for two hours. That's a lot of radio, you know. And, you know, I'll be honest with you, Nancy and I and Rick, Jonathan, I'm sure. Two hours is when you know there are thousands of people watching you and listening to you, there's a strain on your body and your mind. Because, you know, no one likes to make a fool of themselves. That's what we're, we come close to it sometimes, but we're natural, we're live.

we laugh at ourselves we laugh at our mistakes and that's the way to go through life folks I mean as long as you don't make too serious a mistake don't don't let that drag you down so we need as many callers as we can we learn more from our callers that's just not a compliment that's a fact then we then we probably disseminate over the air to you again that number as I say write it down because you'll probably be calling later we're off from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. That's 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Eastern standard time number is 877-960-9960. Again, that's 877-960-960. Now I'm going to give you another number, and then I'm going to turn the microphone over to Nancy, my co-host, here. And that other number is a text number. And the text area code is 772. That's area code. 772 4976530. You ought to write that down too because we've got a special offer as he's going to tell you about having to do with consumer reports and

you're going to need this number and if you would please write it down now or you know or text now you know you can text if you're not driving the text number one more time is 772 4976530 and with that said I turned the and Mike over to the co-founder of the show my wife and partner in life is Nancy Stewart oh good morning everyone we are going to have an exciting show this morning exciting I have to tell you that this consumer report the consumer report 2025 auto issue very interesting and gosh they have some new car lingo that's what we have to learn. The new car lingo. So anyway, the good news is this morning we are offering

a consumer report subscription. How do you like that? That is a great book to read. Earl and I have been subscribing forever. So this morning, if you give us a call, And it could be male, female, doesn't matter. New caller, bold caller, we have this gift to offer to you. I would need your contact information sent to Jeremy, as usual, or to the text number, which is 772-497-6530. So take advantage of that offer. not only would you get the subscription,

but you would get the 20-25 auto issue, and I'll tell you what, it is packed. We just got out of the mail yesterday. Yeah, with all kinds of information. I mean, here it is March, and we got it, we got the April issue, so. Yeah. I think

that for our audience, if you were to look into the type of work that Consumer Report is involved in, it would blow you away. It's worth looking into. So anyway, a subscription to consumer reports. Also, for the ladies, first two new lady callers, you can win yourself $50 this morning. Give us a call toll free at 877-9-90-60. That's

877-960. Here's something interesting from my favorite person, chat GPT. Well, Earl's my favorite person, but ChatGBT is number two. Anyway, ha-ha, a little funny there. You know, can you imagine, can we, as representatives of the auto industry, salespeople, can you imagine just being so low on the totem pole, I'll call it, with this Gallup pole, can things get any worse? I'll tell you, it's just, it's amazing. We're way down there with the congressmen, terrorists.

No, I'm just kidding. Direct mail. Bank robbers. So at any rate, the places that salespeople, they're near the bottom, as I mentioned, are alongside lobbyists, members of Congress, TV reporters. It just goes on and on and on and on. and we are officially at the bottom. We at the bottom, with all of that said, we need you and you need us,

and we just love hearing from you. You are a great part of the show, very informative, and we totally appreciate that. So 877-960-99-60, and also we have, from Big Dog Ranch, a cute little Pomerini, and she's a female 32 pounds. You'll hear more about her later. We also shot Maserati of Stewart.

It's quite interesting. Stewart's in North Florida, I mean, South Florida, just next door to Palm Beach County. So it's not a well-known county, but there's a lot of car dealers up there. Indeed, there is. It's becoming what Palm Beach. Beach Lakes Boulevard.

Is it close to that? Okay, ladies and gentlemen, buckle up. We've got a great show. Take advantage of the toll-free number, 87960, 9960, and also, as you know, you can text us at 772-4976530. And don't forget your anonymous feedback.com.

Now back to the recovering car dealer. I didn't mention my introduction, shame on me. Rick Kearney sitting next to me, and this is for the new listeners, because our regulars know Rick better than they know me. Rick actually probably has more mic time in terms of calls because he's a certified diagnostic master technician on automobiles. And, you know, if you're an old guy like me, your knowledge of automobiles probably dates back to

well I was born in 1940 so you pick a year and the vehicle was a very simple thing it had a you know an engine and a couple of doors or maybe four doors and four wheels and real simple stuff I mean I think back about my knowledge on cars and I can think about things like you know spark plugs and coils and radiators and, you know, just the basic. They're really a simple machine.

And I'm gonna get Rick involved in our conversation very quickly. You folks are know Rick, please give Rick a call if you have any issue on your car that you'd like explain to any. He'll explain it. He can have that answer 99% of the time and the other one that said,

we're very fast now on Google and chat, GBT, So you have a problem with a car. You don't want to be taken advantage of by the service department at your car dealer or an independent service department. Call Rick at 877-960. Now, Nancy, just high sign me. We've got five callers holding, and you callers do take priority. Thank you.

Back to the phones, folks. We're going to go with Barry, who's holding. Barry's calling us from Tampa. We've heard from him before we're. really appreciate his call. Hi, Barry. Good morning, everybody. Good morning.

This morning, my question is about Carfax reports and particularly erroneous ones. I'm trying to sell my car, and while contacting potential buyers, I've learned that its Carfax report is stating, in big red letters, potential odometer rollback. And so understandably, this is scaring people off, even though it isn't true, and I think I can prove it. I've opened a case with Carfax and submitted documentation, but that hasn't gone anywhere so far. So can you advise me on what I might do to address this issue, and if I do sell a car and the Carfax isn't fixed, could I be in legal trouble over it? Well, that's an excellent question, and I mean a very, very good question. Carfax has been with us for a long time, and at one point earlier, it was one of the

the few reliable sources of information on used cars is still valuable and is still reliable. But I sense a little bit of compromising on their part. Profit is a very, very tempting way to lean a little bit out of the straight and narrow. And Carfax reports can't be manipulated. And the dealers also, which makes, this is the reason I'm nuts about consumer reports because they are impeccable. I mean, they are there for the consumer period. But Carfax now relies heavily on dealers for revenue.

And we use Carfax in our dealership, and we advertise with Carfax in our dealership. Other dealers do the same. So it makes me question sometimes the, I hate to say integrity, but maybe the comprehensive coverage of these cars. I would always verify anything on Carfax that, that you're a little suspicious about. If they say the car has not been involved in an accident, if they say the car has no recognizable mechanical issues,

I still go to all reliable, and Rick Kearney is sitting next to me, will second this, I'm sure. Take it to an independent mechanic, not the mechanic technician that's at the dealership that you're considering, but go to someone that's ASC certified, certified technician and whatever you might be suspicious of, or better yet, someone that's certified at all categories, air conditioning, transmissions, and the whole nine yards.

When a mechanic is current on those issues, he's going to tell you, yeah, this car has more than the quoted mileage, and I know it says it doesn't, but it does. can tell. So Barry, thanks a lot for that. I'm not saying that Carfax is not a valuable source. It is, but it is not as reliable as it once was, and you should always verify with your independent mechanic. Did I answer your question? Well, not exactly. In an odometer rollback accusation, is there any way you can, any way you can like query the cars? black box or anything like that to verify that your mileage is true and it hasn't

been rolled back the black box would be a tough way to go but but a mechanic can look at a car and if it says it's got 75,000 miles on it's got 200,000 miles a good technician will know that so this car has got a lot more than 75,000 miles on the other way you know you can track these cars if you have if you have the title and you track the transactions that this title had over through the history which you could do if there were four previous owners or three previous owners you could verify the odomel yourself by going back and saying mr. Smith do you remember what the car had when you treated it in to Acme

Automotive they say yeah I had a hundred and eighteen thousand miles I said oops It only shows 20,000 miles on CarMax. Carfax, I'm exaggerating a little bit. But, yeah, there are ways a good terrain technician can tell you if the... See, people aren't going to put the dealers or sellers are not going to turn back the odometer. That's a very risky thing to do.

You can go to jail for that. And if they're going to do it, they're going to do it seriously. They're not going to turn back an odometer with 100,000 miles on that. to 80 they'll turn back a car with 100,000 miles probably to 25 or 30 or it's got 300,000 miles back. They'll turn it way back to maybe 90. So it isn't going to be an adjustment of 10 or 20,000 miles. So if you can get the guy that owned that vehicle in the beginning, or depending on how many owners it had, to tell you what he recalled the mileage was a trade

in, then you're good to go. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you very. I appreciate to call up. Rick has got something he wanted to comment on. One quick note that can happen with Carfax is if you take your car into the dealership and one of the service riders accidentally kind of fat fingers the numbers and they set the, say you go in and your car has 30,000 miles and they accidentally type it as 60,000 miles. And then the next time you go in, the guy puts the mileage in correctly as 35,000 miles.

Carfax is going to flag that and say, oh, that's an odometer rollback. And that's where that issue comes in or can possibly. That's one of the ways that it can possibly happen. So that might be where your way to argue that and get Carfax to correct that. Tell them, look, somebody must have goofed up. Here's a photo of my dash. And this shows my mileage is correct. And that being said.

That's exactly what happened. what happened that I had an oil change they reported it too high and then the DMV reported the registration renewal that was the original mileage when I bought it so it's flagging it but it's so far in the past they won't they won't go back and fix anything ah yeah see if you go to the dealership or any any dealership that is the same manufacturer you can get them to print out that history and then you actually have physical paper proof showing hey this was simply a clerical error this is not somebody messing around with the odometer on this car

it was a clerical error let me ask a question of both of you the caller and Rick so the guy accidentally put $60,000 at our dealership and but he was in another dealership or even our dealership six months or a year ago

and we put 20,000 miles on so you're thinking if you had a great variance between the previous mileage and the current mileage it should be a red flag so maybe check back to the second right that's what I'm saying if you get the print out of that history and that that history will show all the services that were done at every dealership so say you went to uh Mullenax Ford for one service and they put in the proper

mileage then you went to a dealer in Miami and they put in the wrong mileage and you went back to Mullinex and they put in the correct mileage again obviously your printout would show hey these miles are messed up and that way you actually have physical proof that all it was like I say it was a clerical error Barry thanks very much that very constructive construction I learned something from this and I'm glad you answered that question I learned something that I didn't think of so Rick thank you very much Barry just for the record what kind of wear and tear do you see on the vehicle oh it's in great shape great shape well that's a positive And it's also a positive that you can compare service records, old inspections, or even sometimes title documents.

But I'll tell you what, has Earl said, there's just a heavy fine for odometer fraud. And it is definitely not worth messing around with. You know, it wouldn't turn out as, well, funny as Ferris Bueller's Day Off if you ever saw that movie where they turned back. the miles. Anyway, Barry, it was great hearing from you. Good luck, and I certainly hope that you bring us up to speed next week. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Hey, 77960-99-60, or you can text us at 772-497-6530. We're going to go straight to Marty who's been holding. Good morning, Marty. Good morning. Sorry for the wait. How are you doing? Good. How are you?

Great. I have a question for Rick. Okay. On my crown, there's a camera on the steering wheel that's facing the driver. Every so often that camera says either sit up, your eyes are closed. Usually I drive with my eyes open. Usually. Usually.

Yeah. And sometime at night, it'll say, it'll start ringing and say that your eyes are closed. So I figure, well, maybe at night it doesn't see as well itself. My question is, I was told you can turn off the camera. My question is, does that get rid of any of the warnings that you should be able to see on there? Deactivating that camera should only turn off those driver alerts. it won't affect anything else

on the operation of the vehicle but it will turn off any of those alerts of like hey it looks like you're getting sleepy but there are redundant issues where if you're you know your lanes should you start drifting in the lane the lane keep assist will correct you know there's there are backups for it

but turning off just that camera is just going to turn off those alerts about where it's looking at your face to say hey you're not looking at the road your eyes are closed, you know, we don't detect a proper visual attention to the road. Yeah, no, a lot of times in mind it'll say sit up. I can't sit up. I can't sit up anymore than I am.

Yeah. You know, it's just annoying to see it. For the most part, now I just ignore it. It's a very new technology, and unfortunately, like any new technology, it's got some bugs that they're going to have to work out and one of the things that that hopefully will improve it is over time uh Toyota's going to be doing updates that they'll do digital updates that will help improve that so hopefully it will get better but it's it's like any new technology yeah Marty I appreciate that observation

and you're reporting that because that's our dealership and Toyota is involved we will report that to Toyota. And because you can even, to get their attention, to get the factory's attention, I and you should always use the word safety. And if I'm driving your crown and I keep getting a message that I'm not sitting high enough

and I'm sitting as high as I possibly can, it's going to irritate me and it's not going to be, when my attention is trying to fix or live with a bug created by the, the manufacturer of the car is creating a safety issue. And when you say safety issue to a manufacturer, Toyota or anybody else, suddenly we get their top technician down at our dealership

and with the orders get that thing fixed one way or the other. We don't need a safety lawsuit or the publicity on something unsafe. So, yeah, that is something I wasn't aware of and something that a lot of people weren't. But we'll call that to Toyota's attention for you. Okay. Hey, Marty. Very good.

Yeah. I'm driving a crown again, the day, 20, 25. I'll tell you what, it is extremely comfortable inside. The reason I have the crown is because we were hit by a person on Wednesday that ran a stop sign. So my Tesla plaid, because I'm the designated driver, well, she's not doing real well right now. They towed her away. So, but the crown, I'm sure you're enjoying it. Yeah, yeah, like I say, this is the only thing that I would complain about.

And again, it's not a, you know, for the most part, I just ignore it. Yeah. Well, good luck with that and give us a call back. Let us know what you decided. And we'll talk to you next week. Okay. Now, if you want the consumer reports that you advertise, what do you have to do, send you a text? Yes, you can't.

772-497-6530, and just give the information, your contact information, so they know where to mail your subscription, and we'll pay for it. Okay. Or Marty, if you want, you've sent me text before. You can send me a text if you'd like. That would definitely speed things up. Okay, I'll send it to you, Nancy. Okay, I'm taking care of it.

Okay, Marty. All right, very good. I'm glad you're back in business. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend. Ladies and gentlemen, 877-960. I said earlier that we were talking about the subscription to Consumer Report, and we will extend that to another caller.

Give us a call, 877-960. Along with that, you'll also, you'll be receiving the, 20-25 auto issue. It's a great magazine. Again, the number, the text number, 772, 4976530. We're going to get back to the phones, and our callers have been waiting patiently. I love it. Sometimes they hang up this morning. Everybody's hanging in there. Good morning, Howard, and welcome. Yo, Howard. Thanks for waiting, Howard. How are you? Okay, how's everything there? Beautiful day today.

Isn't it? Wow, beautiful. I know you have a lot of calls, so I have a question for Rick. Heat a core. Okay. What causes them to leak? And a friend of mine has an old Mustang, and he did something. He took out the heater core.

I told him he's nuts because he doesn't get any defrocing action. So you need a heater core for defourcing. I mean, down here, heathor. you don't need heat. At least my friend, I need heat because I'm old, but he doesn't need heat. He's young. He's only 70. So my question to you is,

can you take a heater core out in Florida? And what do you do about defrosting? And when does the heat of course leak? Because I've had cars for many, many miles, and I never had a problem with the heater car. There can be a variety of reasons. the number one reason just is age any any medical that medical listen to me any metal component is going to get some corrosion over the years and sometimes switching the types of coolant some of the

chemicals aren't always compatible and it can actually cause a little bits of corrosion so when that heater core finally starts to rust out that for folks that don't understand what we're talking about this is actually like a little it looks like a little radiation but it's built inside a box inside your car and it actually circulates engine coolant through this little radiator inside the cabin of the car and it blows air across it in your air conditioning so you can have hotter air when you want it I yeah in my time as a mechanic I have done bypasses on heater cores not it's we're not actually removing it we're simply doing a bypass and I

done that probably 30 or 40 times in my career or more and basically all we do is we disconnect the two hoses that go to the heater core and run them together so the cool never goes to the core anymore just goes through the hoses and so if you don't have a heater core you don't have the forcing well actually even in south Florida you you do have some de-frost because it's your when you set it to defrost at that point You're blowing cooler air to the windshield, but the thing to remember is you're actually blowing dry air. Because that air, even though it's going over your heater core, it's also still going over the evaporator core, and the evaporator core removes moisture from the air. So the air that is now being blown on your windshield, even though it's cold, it's dry air.

And that's going to help remove that fog and that mist on the inside of your windshield. so yeah the hot air works a lot faster but the cold dry air will still work to help dry that windshield and help clear it up it'll just take a little bit longer and the reason for that we would do a bypass like that is because on an older car that really the value isn't really there in the car replacing a heater core can be $2,000 or more it's a very labor and intensive job. So a lot of folks opt for this cheap little band-aid rather than spend a big bill and they just kind of have to live with the consequences. Okay, so if you live in Florida, you could do it, but if you travel up north, not a good idea, of course you need heat. Right. Makes it a little more difficult going north. A lot more difficult. Let me tell you that. Okay, thanks for the information. My pleasure.

Have a great weekend. Let's go straight to Joe. Joe's calling us from San Antonio, Texas. Good morning, Joe. Good morning. It's great to discover your program, and I listen to the callers. I have something for the gang there. I would like to hear your opinions on it.

I'm looking for an SUV plug-in hybrid, and I'm finding out it's sort of like looking for a needle in the haystack. And I wanted to know your opinion on two things. one, a manufacturer buyback car, which I found at some dealers, and two, buying a used SUV that's a PHAV from a rental car company. What's your opinions on that? You know, first, before anyone answers, we were talking, I'm not sure when you tuned in, this is Nancy Stewart, but I was talking about the Consumer Reports and the April edition, and we only just received it early on yesterday, and it has the, uh,

safest use cars. There's so much information in here. I recommend you either hit the library, go out and purchase it, or whatever, because this will point you in the right direction. Rick, would you like to answer that question? I'll go for a shot at it. To give a couple definitions here, the manufacturer of buyback car is generally a car that it had a problem. they went back to the dealership multiple times and the technicians at that dealership were unable to solve that problem no way of knowing how much outside health they would have gotten from the manufacturer but eventually it hit a point where to keep the customer happy

they bought the car back from the customer and the car generally is then taken to a technical center like for Toyota it would wind up going to Jacksonville to the training center that we have up there, and the engineers then get involved, and they want to find out why did that car have a problem, what is it? If they can solve that problem and make sure that that car is 100% functional and is safe and ready to go back on the road, then they will send it back to a dealership and sell it as a used car, manufacturer, buyback, and you can save quite a pretty penny by getting that. I've got consumer report open here, and as you say, you're looking for a used vehicle, but typically a new vehicle is pretty close in terms of quality to a relatively recent year used vehicle.

But SUVs, you're looking at SUVs. Is that right, Joe? Yes, sir. That's correct. All right. The compact SUV number one rated is a Subaru for us. number one of compact the mid-size is also a Subaru and that's a Subaru Outlook the number one mid-size is a Toyota Highlander and Luxury SUV number one is the ux 300 H the Lexus ux 300 H so I'll tell you what you give your contact information to the

at the number we texted to 772 4976530 772-4976530 and we're going to subscribe to consumer reports for you, pay for it ourselves and you will give that annual auto issue that ranks all of the

SUVs and you can link that their history with the use too. But if Alexis NX-450H is number one this year, it probably was pretty damn good last year for the year-older model. So I would still. I have a question for you before we continue with Joe. As far as prices are concerned right now, there was a customer who had called me and said that she found out that it was the price of a new car and a used car are running pretty close so she didn't see any you know savings so she went ahead and got the new car is that that's that's kind of an anomaly i think she got either she made a mistake or she got

lucky but there should be quite a difference between the i use legal even one year do you think so one year one year depreciation on a typical new car is in the thousands of dollars so if she bought a used car for the same price or close to it, I think she overpaid. Exactly. Go ahead, Joe. You had another question? Yeah. Oh, excuse me, Joe.

Let me, if you have a pen, would you drop my number down so you can send me your contact information for the subscription to consumer report? Do you wish to receive? We don't want to push this on you. Your text number on your screen. I just sent you my contact information. Okay. Would you do me a favor and a jot down my number so I can get it directly to my office? He says it on the screen, I mean.

5-6-1-386-6-498. The last four again? 386-6-498. Great, thank you. And what we're looking at, again, I'll reiterate. That is the Consumer Reports. 2025 auto issue and like I said this has so much information and it is just incredible I was really excited when we received this because it'll take you right through the year and more okay

thanks Joe sure regarding the manufacturer buyback from your dealer perspective let's just say two three years down the road I want to trade the car in would you treat a manufacturer by that car differently from just a regular used car of the same make and model if I had it carefully inspected I mean on manufacturers buy back cars for lemon laws and a lot of other a lot of other reasons I'd want to know 100% clarity why it was bought back and then I would take it to a good honest independent mechanic and say check this out and verify that this defect has been corrected, but manufacturers only buy back cars for some pretty serious issues, but they can be fixed, and if they are fixed, well, it might be a bargain.

The manufacturer, the dealer that is selling this car has been very forthcoming with me, and it's very interesting. You were talking about Carfax. Carfax just referenced the car being in for service. The dealer sent the, this happens to be a Ford model, he sent the Ford technician blogs on everything they did on the car. and after they had it repaired they bought it back after they had it repaired he says they drove it for 325 miles and could not duplicate the problem so i'm pretty sure the dealers being forthcoming with me and there's no hiding the fact that it's a manufacturer buyback they're very upfront with that but this is like dealing with something uh political

you know people are all way extremes on this some are saying don't touch it and others are saying look up i've sold thousands of these and people keep coming back and buying them again. Well, sounds to me like you did your homework. And to the average person, I would say steer clear of a manufacturer buyback, but because you've had so much transparency and honesty from that dealer, and because you've had that double-checked by you, I'd say go ahead. Okay. Second question is, how do you feel about buying from a rental car company that is selling cars

out of their rental car fleet? I think it's a good idea. I think a rental car company is usually. to be what we're afraid of and buying a rental car was considered a terrible idea going back 30 years or so but today the spotlight is on the enterprise is one of the biggest ones and they sell cars all over typically they're they're more honest and transparent than the average car dealer so and typically the prices are competitive too but this sounds like heresy because I'm a car dealer, but if I were buying a late-bottled-used car, I'd start with a rental car

companies first and go to the car dealer second. And, Joe, my experience with the, I'm going to say Enterprise, that's who I dealt with, many years ago, I bought a car from them, and it was a great decision. Okay, okay. Do you have time for a quick third question? Sure. You know, I think that Rick wanted to add something to the last question. Go ahead, Rick.

Just one quick note on it. For any vehicle that you're looking at buying a used car, always have it inspected by a third-party mechanic. But Donovan Lewis, one of our very frequent commenters on the YouTube channel, man is an incredible encyclopedia and a genius. His opinion, do not buy that car, caller. In his opinion, buy back cars, not. a good idea. I mean, I'm just passing

the word along, just complete transparency. We agree to disagree. That's typical of the opinion I'm running into. Some people say, don't touch it with a 10-foot pole. Yeah. And others, you know, you kind of get the deer caught in the headlight look. They don't know what to think about it. They're not even

experienced with it. So, what's your other question? The third question is, and this is probably the Vipers snake pit in the car business, what's your thought on extended car warrant? and do you have any particular favorite brands that you've had good experiences with? That's one of our most asked questions.

And I recommend if you're going to buy an extended contract, a warranty, or buy one by the manufacturer. If you're buying a Honda, you want to get the Honda factory. I also, the other part of it is that if you buy a quality vehicle and you look at consumer reports and you know you've got yourself that they're most recommended whatever model you're buying.

I believe in going bare, going naked, and not buying the extended contract. These extended service contract companies and warranty companies make a lot of money. I know because I have one. And there's nothing more profitable than the insurance business. So you kind of beat them

in their own game by going to consumer. reports or your own personal experience and referrals and you buy a real high-quality vehicle they that's not going to that's a bad buy for an extended service contract if you've got a card you're not sure of the of the quality and you like to sleep better at night and you you want the peace of mind that's what you really are getting when you buy an extended warranty you're getting peace of mind because you have that type of personality that feels warm and fuzzy and secure because I have insurance on my car, on my home, on my whatever you want

to insure, it makes you feel better and you sleep better at night. I sleep well at night whether I have insurance on something or not, but that's a personal choice. I do appreciate your time. I just discovered your show on Facebook, so I will be listening live and watching you here on, not Facebook, I'm sorry, Facebook and YouTube. Oh, thank you. watching on YouTube right now.

So, enjoy the show very much. Thank you for your help. Thank you. Please give us a call again. Let us know what you decided on. Whether you should buy an extended service contract for your vehicle depends on several factors. And I think we all hit on that earlier. But to reiterate the car's reliability, your financial situation, and what the contract actually covers

and it's definitely Joe is a very educated consumer and I think that he'll get the information that he needs. We're going to go to Donna who's calling us from LaBelle and she's a first time caller. Good morning, Donna. Welcome. Good morning. Thank you.

You've won yourself $50, Donna. And if you leave your contact information with you can leave it with the control room with Jeremy I will get the check out to you also also would you like out a subscription to the Consumer Report it's free yes oh that would be great yeah okay I would also need your contact information in order to sign you up for that subscription And also that would make you eligible for the 2025 auto issue.

That's additional. So that's a nice gift. Okay, Donna, now that we got all that out of the way, thank you for building the female platform here. I do appreciate it. And the ladies that are listening right now to you, appreciate it. What can we do for you this morning? Well, I would like to know, can you use synthetic oil in an older motor? Rick?

Yes, you can. However, I would not recommend exceeding the normal factory recommended service interval. In other words, if your car is supposed to have an oil change every 5,000 miles, I would stick with that. Even though you're switching to a synthetic oil and they say, oh, yeah, you go 10,000, 15,000. I would still stick with the manufacturer's recommended interval. but yes, you can safely switch over to synthetic oil and you can use it just fine in your car. Okay.

That's a good, thank you. Good to know. Thank you. My pleasure. Thank you for calling. Thank you. Spread the word with your ladies' friends. I will.

Tell them what they can win. Okay. It's a win-win situation. Have a great weekend. It is. Win-win. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Okay, Beck. The recovering car dealer. On that oil, I was wondering in that dialogue, Rick, you can mix oil, too, right? You can go with the non-you know, you're grimacing. I don't like the idea of if you're running dino oil, the original fossil oil in your car, and you need to add a quart of oil, I would recommend adding fossil oil of the same brand and weight, however if you're in an emergency situation you're driving down the road that oil light flickers on a little bit and you know you check in the oil's low add whatever oil you can put in there as long as it's an automotive motor oil

I you know I would rather see a car with the oil full mixing brands even mixing weights and mixing types because at least you have some oil there but I would recommend having it changed and using a single brand and weight of oil and type of oil rather than mixing them in the engine. Okay, thank you. We got some more coal, Nancy. We do. We have John from West Palm Beach. Welcome, John.

Welcome back, John. Hey, hello. John from West Palm Beach. How are you doing, John? Good, good. Great. Hey, I have a question. My son is looking at purchasing a 95 Toyota Land Cruiser,

and it's got very low miles. It's always been maintaining the service. Is there anything that he should be aware of to look at before making the purchase? Is there anything specific to that 95 Toyota Land Cruiser that would be a red flag in purchasing use? the 95 land cruiser is one of those that there really weren't a lot of them on the road because the price of them back then was really astronomical compared to like the forerunner but 90 the mid 90s toyotas were just oh those were the years that the quality levels were just phenomenal they were incredible if you've got one with under a hundred thousand miles that's a gold mind. Now you're not going to have all the bells and whistles, the toys, a lot of the safety features that the new cars have. What you're going to have is basically a rock solid reliable vehicle and that's going to just last for years yet. Now that being said, I would still say

have it inspected by a good qualified mechanic and even if you slip them an extra 20, 30 bucks and a 12 pack of beer or something, make sure that they go over it with a fine tooth comb looking it everything, the brakes, the tires, searching underneath for any signs of corrosion, checking all the mechanical and electrical items, make sure everything's operating properly, look for any signs of possible flooding, any, literally anything that this car might have experienced. And if it comes through with a clean bill of health and you've got a reasonable price on it, you're not going to go wrong. It's got 46,000 miles. And I think, he's asking they haven't come up with the price yet but it's going to be

hey john let me interrupt you with that statement you just made you know it's it's just totally amazing the durability of this year land cruiser and not only it's it's long-term reliability but most of the owners are getting over 200,000 miles on the vehicle I'm going to need you to text me that seller's information. Yeah, because I, no, I'm not going to shark it out from under you. What you have just described is literally the authentic little old lady from Pasadena that drove the car only on Sundays to church. We know.

If that car comes through an inspection, you have a diamond. You have an absolute diamond. And 200,000? No, try 400,000. Exactly. Exactly. Oh, jump on it, son. Jump on it. He's not willing to sell it to anyone.

He wants to keep it in the neighborhood because he still wants to see it every now and that. Oh, wow. Lucky you. And so he's just taking a liking to my son. He doesn't have any kids of his own. And he likes what he, my son has the Celsius and the high. So my son of process, you know. How did you get those in the U.S.?

Huh? How did you get those over the border into the U.S.? Well, they're one to 99 and one to 98. Wow. Amazing. You know, he's only 21, and he imports him, but he doesn't import them. What he did was he got hooked up with a serviceman in Japan. Ah, uh-huh.

He gets to send vehicles over for free, so he does. The son buys the vehicles from him, and he only pays the $1,000 a port charge or whatever, and the paperwork. Wow. Amazing. Well, do you know, as far as owner satisfaction for this vehicle, the ratings for comfort, for everything across the board, it is unbelievable. And Rick is sitting here shaking his head. He's in awe of the story you just shared with us about your neighbor, and the vehicle is available to you. so he can see it.

Well, this is also, to me, breaking news. But what a great source of vehicles. If you have a contact in the armed forces, and you're telling me that the government will ship his car back to the states for him, if I understood you correctly. Wow. And there are a whole lot of people come back

that don't have cars, and I won't say anymore, but it sounds to me there's a source of, bargain cars out there. Well, there's just some cars that are not available in the U.S. And to get them through customs and to get it to where you could legally drive it on American roads,

it's it takes a lot of jumping through hoops in most cases. And what you wind up with is a unicorn. You'll never see another one here. And John, you're on to one. That's for sure. Did you know that 98

98% of owners. They recommend this vehicle that we're talking about. That's pretty high. And I'm surprised I haven't seen it in the consumer report. But boy, I'd jump into the front seat of that, baby. Well, importing the cars, it has to be less than, it can't be older than 2000. There's some restrictions. Because you can bring any car over. If you go to, I think it's Japan-use cars. There's a whole bunch of sites. that, you know, sell them in that. It's just a matter of, you know, paying the price. Yeah. And they're not that expensive. It's just, you know, you've got to go pick it up from the port. The closest one is Jacksonville.

There's another one in Baltimore. And, you know, so it all depends on where the car's coming in from overseas. Yeah. Well, John, I'll tell you what. We love talking to educated consumers, and you're definitely one. and we have a lot of, you know, informed consumers that call us, and we definitely appreciate it. What a great conversation.

Pretty exciting, 1990-95 Toyota Land Cruiser. What do you think? After talking to us, are you going to go ahead and sign the papers? If my son doesn't jump on it, I think I will, and I'll let the guy know that we're going to run the buyer's shop. How much would an inspection cost? for me guys I believe they would run about an hour's labor so it'd be about $150 Rick is this a part of the vehicle we're talking about is that part of the

80s series I know 95 land cruiser would be I think they did the redesign on that in 95 the update but that's it's an old car but a 30 years old but that's a beautiful car yeah Chachibit was giving me all the series along with the land Cruiser. Anyway, John, do you have any other questions? Well, no, the only thing that I noticed different about the cars, it's got those rear

bench or the back bench seats that fold up laterally. I don't know how to protect them. They pull to the sides. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. All right, great.

Thank you very much. Thanks much, John. Give us a call again. Isn't it amazing about owner satisfaction on that vehicle? 98%. I mean, if you're reading consumer report from week to week or day to day, that's hard to come by the operative word that Rick used was Unicorn, which it definitely is. Our number here, 877-960, 9960.

Ladies, I have $50 here for one more new lady caller. You can give me a call, us a call, at 877-960-99-60. You can also take advantage of the text number, which you'll need when we go ahead and do that mystery shopping report. That number is 772-4976530. And Rick, I believe that you're manning the texts and the texts are coming in and YouTube? Yep. Okay. I'll turn it over to you for now.

we have a little lull in the calls. Well, we got one right off the bat here. Mark H. is asking, he says, Earl, consumer reports are ranking the 2004 Tacoma and the 22 and 23 Tundra as the worst for reliability. Are these problems tarnishing Toyota's image? And for the premium that Toyota gets,

I would expect better. That's what he says. Well, that's a good question. And the answer is that if you also count the number of vehicles by Toyota that are ranked number one or number two, there's quite a few of those too. Toyota has, and most of all, the major manufacturers have almost hundreds of models, probably less than a hundred, but it seems like we have too many models. And if you go model by model and see the Consumer Report ranking it, unless there's some uniformity. For example, I would say you pretty much can't go wrong with a Subaru because they have relatively few models compared to General Motors or Toyota, but a very high percentage of their models are ranked way high. When you talk about a manufacturer like Ford or Toyota with a ton of models, you typically see some that are very high and some that are pretty low.

But my answer would be if you see a Toyota model that's ranked low by consumer. reports, I wouldn't buy one unless I was a Toyota dealer, which I am a Toyota dealer. So I take a chance. But yeah, stick with Toyota with consumer reports, even on Toyota or Lexus, and especially something like Jeep. To be fair, just so people are aware, the Tundra is in question and the Tacoma model, they had an issue with the engines on these where there were metal pieces. from the original manufacturing pieces that were not properly cleaned out. And as part of the repair for that,

Toyota did a recall. They're recalling mainly all the tundras and they are literally replacing the entire engine. Yeah. Myself is a mechanic, I find that it's, that's something that you should be aware of if this is done and if it was, really look this truck over if you're looking at one used

simply for the idea that any time you have a really really big job performed on a vehicle like that you know sometimes mistakes can be made so it's very important that you have that vehicle inspected you give it a thorough test drive and really check it out when something like that has been done but that if the engine replacement i'm sure has a good warranty on a different dealer replaced it

oh it does but it's just the idea that you know when a mechanic is doing all that work and, you know, a lot of them, they learned how to replace an engine by doing this campaign. So it's just

something to be aware of and be aware that, yes, Toyota's stepping up and fixing these things, but there might be other issues crop up eventually from these. So just something to be aware of and that's going to be the number one reason why consumer reports is rating these so low.

Okay. Rick, I have a question for you. Sure. I have a young lady that text me about the Toyota Highlander and the Toyota Highlander hybrid. And she said that she'd like to have your opinion as to which one you would purchase. I would be totally happy with a hybrid. I think the fuel economy savings and... Why wouldn't you be more happy with a hybrid? Excuse me, she's in a pinch for money also.

Well, that's going to be a factor on it. But one of the number one reasons why I would prefer the hybrid over a regular straight gasoline powered car is that even though you're using that gasoline engine, the computer controls how that engine runs and whether it runs and how hard it's being driven. So the engine itself is actually going to last a lot longer because you can't beat on it. You won't have some young kid out there flooring it and making that engine over a rev or anything. I would say in general, if you have an option on any car, a Toyota or any make or any Toyota, and two are available, the combustion engine and the hybrid engine, I would always go with a hybrid. The differential in price is relatively modest compared to the way it used to be. Now, if you go back 10 years when the hybrids were first something new,

I recommended people don't buy the Highlander hybrid because I think it was 50, $1,500 or $2,000 more, and the differential in gas mileage savings wasn't that great. Right. But now, the hybrids are pretty close in price to the combustion engine, and the hybrids is far superior. When you say modest, what would you say she would be looking at? A few hundred dollars? A few hundred dollars? Yeah, not a few thousand, yeah. That is amazing.

That is something to consider the Toyota Highlander hybrid, and I hope you're still listening. We're going to pick up Lisa's call, but Rick has something he was going to mention. I was looking at your body language. Oh, no, we were going to, I was going on to Ann Marie's text message. Oh, okay. So we'll hold off on Ann Marie. We're going to go back to the phones, and we'll talk to Lisa, who's calling us from West Palm Beach, and she is a first-time caller.

Good morning, Lisa. Good morning. How are you? Welcome. You won yourself $50 this morning? And if you give Jeremy your contact information, I can get that check out to you. Okay, Jeremy. I have my son's name is Jeremy.

Pardon me? I say I have a son name. You said Jeremy? Yes. So what can we do for you? Well, today I'm just calling, I listened to your radio that I heard about the Highland. I do have a Highlander. And then what you were saying about a hybrid, I mean, maybe that, you know,

That will be my next car. So that was very informative as far as that goes. But I love my Highlander. It's a very nice car. Well, great. Yeah, one of the best cars, Toyota Nikes. Have you been driving it for a while? Oh, I've been driving.

This is actually, it's a 2013. Oh, great. Highlander, yeah. And I love it. You know, it's just very comfortable, and I'm a small, you know, I'm 4-11. So the seating is perfect. I could have a good view of, you know, my street, you know, it's in front of me, so I really like that car a lot.

Oh, that's great. I'm so happy to hear from you. And Janet, who inquired about both vehicles, hybrid or just the Toyota Highlander, that's great information for her. Yeah. So you said that you were driving just the Toyota Highlander, but you were thinking when you do go to purchase another vehicle, it would be a hybrid? Definitely. And then the safe gas. How much gas has actually saved you? I'll tell you what I'm going to refer I'm going to refer you before I refer you to Rick I'm going to refer you to the consumer report I can't tell you enough about consumer report everybody here will agree and before you and you sound like a you know an educated consumer that consumer report is definitely worth picking up especially the 2025 edition and that's the auto edition and it has everything in it that you're speaking of right now right well that's perfect and Rick what did you have to say my opinion on hybrid fuel savings is for the average driver 10 to 15 percent or better

however if you go online and Google the term hypermiling this is a term that was invented back in the early 2000s the mid 2000s when people were buying Priuses and the Honda Insight, which were the first couple of hybrids available on the market. And they learned how to drive these cars in almost an exaggerated manner to the point of which the fuel economy was massive. As a matter of fact, my own personal best on a Toyota Prius, I drove one home for a customer overnight. They didn't think they were getting good fuel economy.

and their best fuel economy was 40 miles per gallon on their car. When I brought it back, I showed them on the computer screen on the car that I had gotten 71 miles per gallon out of that car by using these hyper-miling tricks. You're being modest, Rick, you haven't told her about going from here, North Palm Beach to Washington, D.C. Before you do, Rick, what is that again? It's hyper-miling.

Miling, okay. Hap-a-M-I. Right? Okay. Yep. So go ahead. Yeah. What Earl is referring to is we actually had a Prius that was modified.

It had a plug-in hybrid battery added to the normal factory system. And yes, we actually, we were able to drive this car from Lake Parker, West Palm Beach, Florida. We sealed the fuel tank and drove the car 1,100. car 1,100 miles on one tank of fuel, averaging about 110 miles per gallon, actually a little over that, and drove it up to Washington, D.C. on one tank of fuel. Mm-hmm. Oh, that's great. Isn't it?

And so, no, as far as the hybrid, do you plug into the, you know, some sort of a device to charge it? No. That's the plug-in hybrid, and a plug-in hybrid actually plugs into the outlet at your house, just a 1-10 outlet. Right. And what that does is you plug it in at night, and with the newest ones where there's so many computer controls, you can tell it when to charge your car. So you can have it charge just for like four or five hours in the middle of the night when electricity costs are the lowest. And when you get in the car the next morning, that hybrid battery is totally fully charged.

So you get to drive for the first 15 to 20 miles or more without using the gasoline engine at all. So say if you live close to your work, you might not use gasoline for weeks on end. Okay. So when you're driving a long distance, like you were talking about, you know, going to Washington and etc. Would you, I mean, how do you, do you have to use gas, right? I mean, how do you get charged? Well, yeah, you use the normal, you're using the normal, you're using the normal, gasoline to drive the hybrid system, but again, you're still getting those increased highway

miles, the higher fuel economy by driving a hybrid car. So, because a hybrid car is basically, the basically look at it, it's an electric car that carries its own generator with it. So that's- So now with a generator, you're talking about the generator. I mean, how long does it usually last? Well, the gasoline engine is your generator. So as long as you put gas in it, you're just going to keep right on driving.

Oh, okay, okay. You know, with some other, like Tesla and such, the battery goes, you have to replace after, you know, so many miles and et cetera. So, but anyway. Yeah, but that's like a quarter million miles now. You know, Lisa, this Highlander that we're talking about, it's really impressive as far as fuel economy is concerned. And, you know, for the couple of Earl and I were just talking before you called, he said that it would be like a couple of hundred dollars to choose, you know, the Highlander hybrid opposed to the Toyota Highlander. But there's so many reasons why it's just a great decision. And it's, I think that they said it was, it achieved about 35 miles per gallon combined, which is excellent for.

this is a three row SUV we're talking about and it's it's it's it's really amazing uh for the capacity inside of it the you know you're going to save money on gas it's a win-win that sounds like a win-win so that'll probably be my next car okay all right thank you so much for the information you give us a call thank you all right okay thanks okay okay I think we're gonna go back to Rick and we'll talk with and we'll he'll talk the text is it yeah we'll go right Ann Marie's text Ann Marie good morning Ann Marie and she says why are autumn I'm gonna paraphrase this one a little because it's kind of a long one here but why are automotive companies so creative in naming their paint colors like wind chill pearl and so

bad at naming vehicle models like the BZ4X. Ah, yeah, it's, whoof. Get down here. She says, one of the classic cases is the old Humble Oil Company, Enco brand, which Enco in Japanese means a stalled car. It's not a good idea. Like the Chevy Nova. When they tried to sell the Chevy Nova in Mexico, in Mexico, Nova, in Spanish, is, doesn't go.

And yeah, she says, it's, she's wondering, basically, why are we naming cars with such odd names? And I kind of agree with that, which, now her suggestion here is to name the Toyota electric vehicle as the watts on. And she says, there's a little joke here. the command for the vehicle to come and pick you up would be just like Alexander Graham Bell's first words on the telephone when he said, Watson, come here. Well, I think the answer is a lack of thought and sophistication. And I totally agree with Anne Murray's criticism on models of cars.

The challenge to name a new model is you want it to be memorable. You want it to be hip, cool. you know, like, boy, I like the sound of that, and you don't want it to confuse the buyers with other models. So there's a whole lot goes in. You've got the marketing, you've got the engineering, you've got the design people. What usually happens is the executive gets to name it,

and the executive oftentimes doesn't know what he's doing when it comes to marketing. But the last thing you want to do is have a confusing name on any model car and the demographics are really important you know they target that also you know yeah i kind of like how a lot of names now are place names which kind of gives it a generic feel but some of the car manufacturers out there come out with some great names a place where uh Santa fe Tacoma okay what if you bought what if you're not what if you're buying it and buying the car in Peking or Chile, and you've got Santa Fe name.

What the hell is the Santa Fe? So you've got to look at your markets. You've got to look at your youth age or the buyer, and look at a lot of things. And I put as much study in to naming a model car as you do into designing it. I think they're shooting from the hip on these model names, and I think it cost them sales of the line. And, you know, sometimes there isn't an advantage. Did you know in Japan what the car, what the car's name is in Japan? I believe it's the Honda Fit. And then in other regions of Europe, they've got the Honda Jazz. I mean, it gets kind of, and I think that we did a short show last year it may have been on how these, I'm not sure what their titles are that sit in this little room and decide upon what color, you know, what make and the demographics and whose attention we could get.

Well, as a matter of fact, interesting little note here, Negan One, who is a very popular on our Earl Strait Toyota YouTube channel, he recently went and tried to buy a new Ford F-150 pickup. Now, of course, he likes a very particular model, the Raptor. Great name. I mean, you've got to give them credit with using the name Raptor. Well, it might be a great name to you, but... What is it, right?

Raptor. Raptor? The Raptor. It's a dinosaur. Which, yeah, it came from Velociraptor. Of course, interesting little story here, he was telling me. The sticker price on that truck was $112,000, and the market adjustment markup was $30,000.

No. He fought with him a little bit, and he walked out and discussed. He said it was ridiculous. Wow. $30,000 markup on a new 2025 Ford Raptor. Wow. I need to pick myself up off the floor. Yeah.

It's crazy. Yeah. I think that by the clock I see here, right, Jonathan, we're going to go to YouTube? Yes, we have. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's go with Bob. And he's asking, good morning. With the likelihood that tariffs will go into effect, wouldn't it be better to postpone a new car purchase until things settle down? Well, as far as the tariffs are concerned, Earl and I were talking this morning about the pause that, you know, China and Canada are part of right now.

and it's just, you know, it's just part of a pause right now, and I believe they'll re, they're going to instate these tariffs, what, March? Yeah, everybody's waiting for them to be enacted. Most people expect them to be enacted, and the thing I would say is, first of all, there'll be, between the time they do the tariffs, there'll still be an inventory of cars without the tariffs to buy. If I was on the line between buying used or new, I would probably look more toward used than new

because of the possibility of the tariffs. I would not let it affect my decision very much. I would try to be sure to buy the right-made car at the right price by learning what you do. learn and they're all on cars and what's going to happen in Washington is going to happen or not happen and you can't let it ruin your life it's it's going to ruin the life of a couple of countries maybe but it won't be the United States it might be Mexico or it might be Canada but it's if you pay too much attention to the headlines you're going to be

taken with a car dealer the car dealer is the one you've got to be careful of not tariffs. And if they come, they come, if they don't come, they won't. Exactly. Suspending them, you know, reinstating the, you know, it really doesn't matter. But you and I talked this morning and we said that at the end of the day, you know, as long as you do your homework, that is more important right now with the way things are. The car dealer will tell you, listen, if you, the tariffs are going to be 25% on this car if you wait.

and that's nonsense you'll ignore them so buy this car that I have now in the showroom and because next week the tariffs are going to reflect and they're going up by 25% that's all nonsense is too unknowable for you to put into your equation of what car you buy and you know what you know I've been saying to everyone right now I'm not letting the news control me you know I mean you just got to keep your head above water and know what you're what you can afford and there's just a whole lot of stuff to consider okay next one we have here is from Bob in Maryland and he says is it okay

to have your transmission fluid changed at a quick change oil business my opinion I would not have a jiffy loop type place change the transmission fluid I know

they're using these machines that are relatively foolproof, they're pretty accurate. However, my experience, modern transmissions, the fluid level in that vehicle has to be exact. Now, you're talking 12 to 14 quarts of oil or more in that transmission, and it has to be exact within about a pint or less if it does not have that proper fluid level it can cause problems with that transmission and having that job done by a guy whose mechanical experience is

about three weeks worth of time he's paid minimum wage in other words yeah they're working down in that pit and most of these guys about three months ago they were asking do you want fries with that I mean, I don't want to get down on them too much, but they don't really receive a lot of training. And transmissions nowadays are extremely complicated.

The greater majority of them, the manufacturers, do not even have a maintenance interval for replacing that transmission. What happens if they buy too much oil in a transmission? If you get too much in there, it creates a condition known as foaming, where the fluid actually builds up, gets into the moving parts. like beer and it stirs it up exactly like foam on a beer they should blow the head off the transmission while exactly but unfortunately when it blows the head off what it does is the parts inside come outside and that's bad news folks if they put too little then what happens too little means that the clutches don't get the kind of fluid pressure that they should have and things start to slip and when things slip they burn got you and now you have again those

pieces inside want to come outside there goes your engine so yeah that well it's talking the transmission which in some cases the transmission can be as expensive as the engine or more exactly so folks if the manufacturer does not recommend a maintenance interval stick with that if they say yes you should have it done if you know for hard driving or towing or things like that have that service done at the dealership, especially because if the dealership goofs it up, if they make a mistake there, they will fix it and they will make it right.

That jiffy-loop place, they're going to fight with you, because they're not going to replace it. They're going to try to get you to go somewhere cheap where they're going to have to pay, but they're going to want to pay as little as possible. So my advice, don't do it. Well, I'll tell you, Rick has some great information, a whole lot of knowledge,

he can answer every single question let's see here a little quick note here from Donovan he says the tariffs are paused on cars that are USMCA compliant an Audi Q5 is not so the cost will be higher

they have the 25% tariff right now a lot of VW BMW and other brands are making cars in Mexico that are not USMCA compliant so the cost is going to be higher on those. And he says, let's see, go on down here.

He says, he thinks it's really hard to know. So you're going to have to do some homework on that to find out if these are compliant or not. But yeah, I agree with the oral. This whole tariff issue, it's going to get crazy for a while. It sure is. You've got the greatest tool in the world now, the availability of online pricing.

You've got the leader there, Amazon. By the way, the latest consumer reports ranked a lot of vehicles that were made by Hyundai. And you got the Hyundai, the Kia, the Genesis. And I was amazed at the high-quality ratings on Hyundai, the Kia, the Genesis. So you've got the best of all worlds if you could buy yourself a Hyundai and buy it through Amazon because you'll get a good price

and you will get a good car. So this is what's happening in our auto retail world. We're moving to online buying and pricing and safety for you the consumer. Okay, we're gonna continue with the YouTube. Okay. All righty, a little quick note here is, nice thing to scroll here.

John Hartley says, why does CarMax have their cars marked up so much? He's looking at a 24-4 runner that they have an inventory that is marked $5,000 more than the original MSRP on that vehicle. Well, in general, CarMax is honest, transparent, and fair. Every CarMax has a different management. Fortunately, there's a lot of CarMax outlets.

And if you're in a suburban, urban area, especially, you'll have two or three CarMax within distance of each other. In general, CarMax has fair pricing on the cars. There's probably some anomalies where you could do much better of the dealer, but on average, if I were not doing what I do today and I were not a car dealer I'm not on the radio I would the first place I would go would be CarMax to buy a used car they have a better selection are they're relatively transparent and honest I say relatively they have dealer fees but they're

not crazy they're they're totally honest and they're pricing if the car's too high price today I go back at a week they'll drop the price and remember that when you buy a car from CarMax, I think it'll be looking in their computer, and if you're looking for a particularly year-making model, they might have one in that inventory or none, but in the computer, within maybe a half-hour drive, they might have a half a dozen. So start with CarMax, but pay attention to the prices like you can, and if you can beat the deal at a different used car outlet, do that, but just be more careful. You will not be lied to in a CarMax. You will not be taking advantage of it at CarMax.

Great information. Okay, we are going to move to the Big Dog Ranch segment of the show. And we have Major, and Major is a Pomeranian female, and she's 32 pounds. She is very sweet. She's been at Big Dog Ranch for a while. And, you know, of course, at Big Dog Ranch. branch is the largest cage-free, no-kill dog rescue in the United States. So this little baby here, Major, you would, it's such, the weather is so fantastic, it's a great

day to take a drive out to Big Dog Branch. Not only will you see Major, but there's so many other dogs but before you go out fill out the application for adoption that'll save you a whole lot of time you can go online to big dog ranch and also they recently I think it was last week that they got all those Yorkies in from Missouri and they have them already for adoption now so you can take advantage of that we're going to take a look at the video on major So sit back and enjoy. Hi, this is Major, and he is just an adorable little teddy bear. He is two years old, and he is a wonderful little guy.

Look how, like, chilled he is. He has a little bit of a hip problem, but it's coming along quite nicely. And he's just looking for somebody to snuggle with, because he's such a cute little guy. That's wonderful. Okay, that is Major, and you can go to Big Dog. ranch website and take advantage of taking a look at all the dogs, the facility, take a look at Puppie Land. You'll certainly enjoy it and you'll give a fur baby a home. And you dog, you dogs watching out there and listening, it is a very nice place to stay.

So if you can somehow convince Big Dog Ranch to take you in, we have dogs out there that almost refuse to leave because it's still going to, well, they've got a swimming pool. They have nurseries, they have a maternity ward. You heard Nancy say cage-free. They have little cottages they stay in. It's amazing. They have their own, we have several veterinarians. They love the place.

So you're going to have to be a really good owner to persuade the dog to come. Yeah, and excuse me for a moment, Rick. We pay the adoption fees. Yeah. Is that a beautiful thing? On the dog of the week. Yeah, on the dog of the week. And also, I have to.

to mention Earl's book, Confessions of a recovering car dealer. Earl, you have that book with you? Yeah, I got to here somewhere. I think it's right over here under your consumer report. Eyes like an eagle. Confessions of a recovering car dealer. The book is $19.97, and you can go to Amazon or Earl on Cars. I guess where all that money goes.

Yeah. It goes right to Big Dog Ranch. All proceeds. go to Big Dog Ranch. So take advantage of that book. And there are consumers that have spoken to us about the book.

They purchased it 10 years ago, and they're still going into the book for all the information that really hasn't changed much. Rick? It's fun to stay at the BDRR. There you go. I had to do it. I'm sorry, I had

to do it. It's belted out. I don't want to hear that again. It's fun to say it, the B, D,RR. I'm sorry, folks. You know, I promise I will never be done again. You know, I was thinking of you earlier, Rick, and remember when we used to play on the air,

let's stump Rick? I would like to put that out there. I think I'll do that next week. The problem is, people are going to cheat and they're going to go to chat GBT. given the benefit of the doubt it was fun today if you can and Rick has all the answers you can get the answers oh it's yeah right Rick one one thing I can honestly say when we were doing that I I went fair and honest I never Googled I never chat GPT didn't exist then yeah I never

Googled an answer and if I didn't know I honestly said I don't know that was I'm not perfect I don't I don't I certainly don't know it all I never will but you had all any advances are incredible nowadays but yeah you were you were amazing you know and it just got to be a joke because nobody could stump you and you weren't reading from anything or looking anything up this was from all of your years of knowledge and i just try to keep up on reading when i you know everything i can find on them but i got to tell you folks these new cars now have reached the point. Even I have started to fall behind because they are just so incredible. The advances are coming so fast. Yeah. And it's incredible. I noticed a bit of a change when I got into the

crown to 2025 compared to the older crown that I was driving. And there's just some, you know, they've tweaked things up a bit. There, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's Toyota's motto but I got to tell you all the manufacturers are working that continuous improvement they're all getting better yeah even the Teslas are are getting so much better now these yeah all the cars it's fantastic it is definitely um Earl Cybertruck got some negative press there's about 438 models that are rated in the new 2025 auto issue and You need to take a look at that. Earl, hopefully you'll have time to discuss that after our mystery shopper report.

We take a look at that, so you want to stay tuned for that. Don't go anywhere, folks. Okay, we are going to get to the Maserati-Stewart Mystery Shopping Report, and as I said earlier, you can go to 772-497-6530. That's where you can text your grade for the mystery shop. So we're going to turn that mystery shop text number is 772-4976530. Now back to the recovering car dealer. Yeah, we like to hear your vote, and we do the A, B, C, D, F voting thing.

But we go on the curve. You folks remember the curve when you were in school. So if you're the best, even though you're not perfect, you get an A. and if you're not good and but they're people everybody else is better you get an F so we don't try to hold to the true there are no perfect car dealers and and there are no car well I won't say there aren't any car dealers that shouldn't be in jail because they probably should but you understand what I'm saying C is an average and that's just what we get a lot of our scores there it's important because on earluncars.com we have our recommended list and our do not buy list.

So if you are using our Erloncars.com website to make a decision and you see a car dealer in your area and he's got to see, all we're saying is beware, be careful, and you can be taken advantage of because that's what the average car dealer does. If you see an A, then it's a miracle. If you see an F, don't even drive close to that dealer. because they're really bad. Usually we reserve Fs for people that are breaking the law.

Absolutely. So good dealer, bad dealer list.com. Take advantage of that also. Okay, miserality of Stewart for you folks are not familiar with South Florida. That's at Southeast Florida on the Gold Coast, the Treasure Coast, or whatever you want to call it. And it's not as rough and tumble nasty

as Fort Lauderdale and Miami, but it's still to beware. Anywhere on the southeast coast or south Florida, you have to be careful. Meserati, of course, is a luxury car, and we find typically that treatment of the wealthier car buyer with the luxury car tends to be nicer, more transparent than the other average car. I'm going to speak in the first person as if I were Agent Lightning, who is our superstar under Co-Ragent that goes in every week and pretends to buy a car,

and we tell it like it is. So here we go. I arrived at the dealership mid-afternoon and was greeted as soon as I walk under the shore floor by a customer service representative. I like that touch, who asked if there was anything she could do to help me. I replied that I really liked the Miserati out front

and I would like to take a look at it. She said, our salesman, a river, just like it sounds, like Mississippi, R-I-V-E-R-I-E-R-R-R, would be happy to help you it might be pronounced river I'm not sure but we'll call him River River told me I'll go and grab the keys real quick and then we can take a look as we walk back outside River mentioned that they were having a huge sale if you ever gone to a car dealership that wasn't having a huge sale they're

having a huge sale of their cars and we're discounting this particular model by $12,000 because it was one of their year-end models again standard operating procedure all car dealers are having sales all car dealers that have huge discounts and they won't last long you know the if you bought a car before or you you should know about this rather than ask would you like to take it for a test drive I answered yes please this is one of these areas where I happen to agree with the car salesman the car dealership you should always test drive the car and of course the car dealer does it and the salesman does it because they

want you to fall in love with that new car smell and the new car and get excited and get emotional and throw logic to the wind and make a mistake in their favor. That's their method for the test drive. The real reason for you is all cars are different and you'd be surprised you could take two new cars exact same year make a model and drive the two cars you'll find a little difference in them. So don't ever, don't ever. rule by a used or new car without a test drive and I also think it should be an extensive test drive going around a block won't cut it you should ask before you buy maybe not at the beginning but before you buy sign on the dotted line you

should drive a car for at least a day maybe two days and you should drive it on the expressway in the rural areas you drive it in the city all driving conditions that you typically encounter, you should drive that vehicle. You will save yourself a lot of heartache if you do that. Too many people assume that they had a new Camry. They bought five years ago, and they're bought another new Camry, and everything's going to be the same. Ain't so. I mean, visibility, a lot of things that can change from your, from a year to year. You know, it's amazing. I'm going to interrupt you for a second, but the number of people that have gotten back to me who didn't take your advice and found that the vehicle, the comfort zone for the seats,

they were stuck. They bought the vehicle and they have back problems. Exactly. And they got to keep the car. Go ahead. Okay. Continuing on, after the offer the test drive, I took advantage of it. Salesman, River, I requested my license and excused himself to go inside to grab the keys.

The car was parked out of the front of the building, so after a moment, River pulled it out. Junkingly, I told him not to wreck my new car before I buy it. He just laughed and was a perfect gentleman, though he did make me feel old with his ma'am, reverbertses. Once he had it ready, he opened the driver's door for me, closed it behind me, and then directed me to pull onto US1 and head south, suggesting we do a big loop. I agreed, tested the different drive modes while asking questions about features

of the warning. This particular 2004, remember this is 2025, that's a big facto, and you don't want to forget that. This particular, 2004, somebody correct my pronunciation as G-R-E, C-A-L-E-Mezerati. I can pronounce Mizzarotti.

Gricane. Gricane. That sounds about as good as my Italian name. I should. So anyway, it's a great. No, it's easy for telling. Did not have adaptive cruise control or a sunroof. But let me digress a bit.

We're talking about naming cars and models. A big mistake to name a car there's something that you can't figure out how you pronounce it. I mean, think about it. It's hard to remember something that you read or see if you can't say it. So here I am. I'm looking for cars. and I look at an advertisement for a Grecolle or maybe a Grecal or maybe, I don't know what it is. So that's just a bad way to name the thing.

But it did come with a four-year, 50,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. River mentioned that the next trim level had all those features and more. It was priced at 93,000. That's a lot of potatoes with $14,000 discount. Whoa. Big discount. compared to this one at 7,8,000 with a $12,000 discount. Okay.

Hey, Earl. On mentioning the, pronouncing the words, we just saw the thing on YouTube here, mentioned the color of this car was Nero Tempesta. Ah. What in the world is Nero Tempesta? It sounds real cool, but you don't know what it is, right? Okay. Once we returned to the dealership, we headed to River's office near the front of the showroom.

He pulled out a copy of my license. He had made earlier and asked if all the information was correct so that he could calculate the proper taxes. After putting my details, on my details, he excused himself to speak with his sales manager and printout pricing. A few minutes later, River came back and had to be several options, including a lease for 42 months and 10,000 miles per year. there were three worksheets and I always comment on lease quotes that could get real expensive and the cost per mile overage on a lease contract it can be it can be from eight or ten cents a mile to up to 50 cents a mile yes I have seen advertisements on new cars leases that sounded really good with up to 50 cents a mile for overage so before you lease any car

see the lease contract they're going to ask you to sign and see what the over mileage is and then ask yourself, is that going to happen to be or can I drive within the allowable mileage? There were three worksheets and it was a blur of numbers. The lease option broke down the pricing showing that I was getting $14,000 of rebates and discounts, but then getting charged at least, at least $2,721 in junk fees. The second worksheet was a purchase structure to get the special 3.99 annual percentage rate, interest rate. And, of course, that's offered by Mizorati, a factory offered subsidized interest rate. And typically, that is legitimate when offered by the manufacturer.

I lose, if I take the 3.99%, $3,500 in cash incentives. And again, that's typical. Typically, all these low interest rates offer you either or cash bank or the low interest rate. This worksheet showed me that I was getting $8,500 of rebates and discounts. The same junkie fees were at it. Stu, when he wrote this up, used a bleep, he said, the same junkie-ass fees. I'll go ahead and say it. He'll laugh when he hears the show.

The second worksheet was a purchase structure to get the special 3.99% annual percentage rate. Oh, I just said that. The final worksheet showed a cash deal structured with the standard APR. In this case, I was getting $12,000 discounts and rebates, and what's the case with the other proposals? They added nearly $3,000 in junk fees. Incidentally, and this is just stupid for luxury card yearly, especially. incidentally the junk accessories included perma plate that's a wax and nitrophil was the air that you breathe so they're charged you an extra three thousand dollars to wax the car and put nitrogen in your tires i mean i mean for a luxury car dealer who i mean people these are intelligent people buying your car and you're going to tell them they that you're you're asking three thousand dollars for a polish and air and you're tires nitrogen and 78% air how embarrassing there are you tires then he asked how

soon are you planning on buying I answered soon he followed by asking if it would be okay for his manager to come over and say hello we walked toward one of the sales managers whose name I unfortunately forgot and River introduced us the manager asked how did River do today let's be kind of a new guy then he said are you going to make a decision soon our end of the month is actually today and we're not sure what sales or incentives will be available tomorrow. This is something you will also hear from most dealers, whether it's the end of the month or not,

and whether they give you a discount in a month. This is what the manager does to slow you down. They could take away offers for 2,024 models or switch them to the 2025 models. There's no way of knowing they're trying to what Meserati will do. I don't disagree with that, by the way. The dealers oftentimes don't know what the business. manufacturer's going to do so that's a half-truth I thank both of them for their time

and help letting them know I'd be in touch they added that all their cars come well that's where I just found out what I just told you natural fuel tires and perma-flate protection already installed pre-installed accessories the second biggest rip-off in the auto industry dealer installed accessories which they tell you they can't be taken off the number one of course are drug fees so So there we are, and we're in the voting area, and we want to know, on average, how would you rate Mizzerati of Stewart, Mizorati of Stewart on this particular Mizorati. If they're an average Mizorati dealer, give them C.

If they're a really good, almost perfect, a miserati dealer, give them a day. If they could be arrested for their actions, give them an F. otherwise keep it between I would say a B and a D you're encouraging me yeah ladies and gentlemen you can cast your vote by texting us at 772-4976530 we'd love to hear from you what do you think about Maserati of Stewart okay we'll go to Rick and he'll share the text with us we are Looking for the texts to come in. Here we go.

Bob and Maryland says, charging for wax and air should make it an F, but it's a C as it's typical. John in the Palm Coast says, if you're going to spend close to $80,000 for a car, make sure you get the best deal possible. All those junk fees listed don't constitute such a deal. Overall, not a horrible experience.

Get rid of the wax and nitrogen fees, and I might give this dealership a B. Remember that if you get the best deal, if you enter a dealership with prior knowledge. I got to agree with Jonathan, knowledge is power. Okay, let's see here. We have Negan 1, Big F. Everybody does say, I'm jaded, though.

Ah, Negan, love that guy. Arizona, he's got that beautiful desert climate. Oh, great. Joseph Kelleher says D. T. Cash says, I let that Maserati enjoy another birthday on the lot. It was probably actually made in 2003 coming from Italy. It's aging like a fine Italian wine.

D. Tim Gilliland says, much ado about nothing. C. Ken Asher says D. Mark Ryan, C. Ryan said Latco, if you could afford a month, Maserati good for you C. Johnny C. Fradley

D. Take me to the river and the cleaners. Oh boy. Mark H. C. Just think of the depreciation on that heap. 12 grand on a year old car is hardly a deal. Mark Smith says Maserati gets a C for me and he also says good morning Mr. Ryan. Let's see. Okay we have some more here. Frank and Jupiter farms says oh no okay on the ratings a C grade and a little quick story here from

Frank he says ironically my wife and I were at Audi of Stewart for the yearly oil change the outer dealers the Audi dealership was under restoration when those sitting available so they sent us to the Maserati dealership next door for the waiting area sadly the elevator was not working many long stairs up to the waiting room. Once upstairs, the coffee selection was good, along with a few snacks, but they didn't do any car shopping there. And let's see if we've got anything else. Okay, we're looking for more. Ah, cram 1624 says D, $3,000 for wax and air. I'll breathe my own air and wax my own car. Let the sales manager drink some wine.

And that looks like we're kind of caught up right now on the YouTube's and the text messages. Everybody really has a sense of humor work. Oh, boy, don't they? For me, yeah, Maserati luxury car, but you know the funny thing? $80,000 for a car, as sad as this sounds when you look at the average car prices anymore,

is that really hitting luxury levels anymore? I mean, a Toyota Sienna, if you get the top of the line minivan, that's a good point, yeah. It's $70,000. I mean, it's, so yeah, my grade for it is C. But, yeah, I guess some of the luxury cars, their prices aren't going quite as up as always. It's an ego trip kind of a cost.

And I think a lot of people that buy these type of cars, I'm probably going to make a lot of enemies now. But when you have something like a misery or Ferrari, and you come out of the restaurant with your group of people. You like to say to the valet, I have the blue Maserati. Yeah. Or I have, you know, what it is. It's purely an egotrip.

I just, you know, I'm surprised. I used to get calls I had it recently, but people that were driving Toyotas from our Toyota dealership, they would call me up and say, Earl, I've been buying Toyotas from you for 20 years, but my wife says that she wants a Lexus and and they say you know

and that's another reason why people buy things it's just a matter of image and you know yeah I gotta admit though I've driven a few Lexuses oh that's a great drawer during my career and yeah

the fit and finish of stepping up into those is yeah it's incredible but if you take a camera And what's the, let's see, the Lexus model number for Camry? The ES 350. Okay, now, the two of those cars in terms of the heart and transmission and the engine are the same car. They're identical, yeah.

And the 350 cost how much more than a Camry, I don't know. Eight to ten thousand probably? Eight to ten, yeah, yeah. So if you want to say at the country club, that's by Alexis over there instead of Gamry, if that's worth $8,000 to you. Go for it. Just quick. Do you remember when Cadillac came out

with the Cadillac Cimar? Oh, yeah. It was a Chevy Cavalier that was not even a high-grade Chevy, a mid-grade car. Yeah. And they put Cadillac badges on it. Yeah.

Wow. Gentleman, they're out of all their lines. Okay, are all the votes in? They are. What was yours? All the votes are in. Yeah. What was your vote?

My vote is a C. See? Okay, I'm going to go. ahead and vote and I'm going to give them a D minus and I'm not really interested in their Grigio Gino yellow color or whatever whatever Nero Tempesta. That one's better. An old habit that is costing a lot of people. That makes me hungry.

It's going into car dealerships. So we're really kind of with our mystery shop, this is what we're doing. We're sending Agent Lightning in physically, and that's the worst way to buy a car. Unfortunately, most people still do it that way. But we're on the tipping edge now between people that understand and use online to their advantage. And you can do so much better by letting your fingers do the walking over your smartphone or your PC. And you can shop 10 Missouri dealers, and you will get lower prices. In fact, you might even get a really, really good price,

because like I think Rick alluded to with the Meserati of Stewart, they were, this, or no, was a caller alleged, the car could have been three years old. I mean, it came from Italy. It was shipped over here. It was last year's model. High-priced cars like Meserati do sit on the lot for a while. So there's a huge, a lot of wheel room.

in these so if you if you go online with your smartphone and you just say give me your lowest out-the-door price and i mean outdoor is what i sign the check for hand it to you and you give me the car and i take it home that's out the door i'm not going to pay you on nickelmore give me your best price and i know you don't want to do this because i'll shop it with your competitor and that's exactly my point and this is all of the email if you don't give me a price you'll never hear from me again. If you do give me the price, you're right. I might beat it at your competition, but would you rather have a small chance or no chance? And that's the way a car should be bought in the 21st century. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, there you have it, folks. We had our

mystery shopping report from Maserati of Stewart. And I was going to go to the auto-making printout that you gave me this morning. But I see by the clock, we have... two minutes. Is there anything you could say quickly about this or the tariffs? Canada... I was looking at an automotive news article where a dealer group was found by Maryland, Attorney General, guilty of unfair deceptive trade practices, and it just brings to mind the fact that we have all the laws. really neat on the books.

We were very disappointed when the Federal Trade Commission didn't pass another law. It got defeated in Texas that we talked about on this show last year for a long time. But the fact of the matter is that the problem is with enforcement of our current laws and our regulators are not enforcing the laws. When I see a dealer prosecuted by an attorney journal from a state like Maryland, I want to give her a hug, assuming it's a woman, because it's something that the other attorney journals don't do. I'm really happy you mentioned that. Okay, folks, here we are at the end of our show. We, thank you so much for tuning in to Earl on Cars. You do make the show from all of us

here. Have a great weekend. We'll see you right back here next week. Saturday morning, 8 a.m. on the oldies channel. Thank you. Fett Doom.