Earl Stewart on Cars - 03.09.2024 - Your Calls, Texts, and Mystery Shop of Gunther Mazda of Ft. Lauderdale

Episode Date: March 9, 2024

Earl and his team answer various caller questions and responds to incoming text messages. Earl’s female mystery shopper, Agent Lightning travels to the Ft. Lauderdale area to visit a local Mazda dealer to see what they have on the lot and how much over sticker they will charge for a new 2024 Mazda 3 sedan. 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”

Good morning. I'm Earl Stewart. I welcome you to Earl Stewart on Cars, a live talk show all about how to buy, lease, maintain, or repair your car without being ripped off by a car dealer. With me in the studio is Nancy Stewart, my wife, co-host, and a strong consumer advocate, especially for our female 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 LinkedIn cyber. space through Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Periscope. Stu is also the Spymaster Director of our Mystery Shopping Report. He dispatches our secret shopper weekly to an unsuspecting South Florida dealership.

And now, on with the show. Good morning, everybody. Well, we're back. It's a beautiful day here in South Florida. I mean, sometimes we don't have beautiful days. I think most of the time we do. And we're your how to buy a car without getting ripped off by a car dealer. You heard the recorded introduction just a second ago, and we've been doing it for a long, long time.

I welcome one and all, the old listeners, the ones that we have some incredible callers that absolutely make the show. Probably, I'm sure, cumulatively informed greater than we are. We learn things from our callers, and we value you very much. we have a especially a super informed group of YouTube callers and they're monitored by Rick Kearney, our certified

diagnostic master technician he's on my right here in the studio so if you can get to YouTube YouTube.com forward slash Erlon Cars and you're a highly informed, oh I'm just kidding you it's nice if you're highly informed we have so many YouTubers

that are greatly informed about automobiles put your postings on YouTube.com or slash Rowland Cars. But the rest of you folks, the old-fashioned telephone, we love that. And the show started basically, which, in fact, not basically,

radio talk show, what, telephone, right? You call the telephone. So 20 years ago, the only number we had was 877, 960, 9960. Now, unlike so many other things, that hasn't become obsolete. I mean, this high-tech AI crazy Google world we live in. The telephone, of course, it's a smartphone now, but it's still a telephone.

You hear the human voice. We love your calls. And if you can't call now, we'll be on the show for two hours from 8 to 10 a.m. That's Eastern Standard Time. So you've got two hours. You come back to show, do your shopping, do whatever you've got to do. If you hear us talking, you can listen. And if you can call, please write the number down.

877-960-99-60. Again, and I know I'm going to drive you crazy, given that number out, because we have a lot of new listeners that have never heard this show. But that number again is 877-960-9960. Now, Nancy Stewart, my co-host for 20 years, co-founder of Earl Stewart on Cars,

is sitting in the studio next to me. I'm in the middle between Nancy and Rick. And Nancy is a, I mean, put a basic. She's a female advocate. She came on the show and built the female audience to parody. We're at 50-50. If I had to look at all the calls over the past 12 months, we'd have probably about 50-50.

And we appreciate you, ladies. We want you to call the show. We want to hear your view. Don't be shy. don't be shy and to give you a little incentive Nancy Stewart as a special message for you a special surprise and incentive now I'm warning it sounds too good to be true because I always

warn you on the show about car dealers and their advertisements are too good to be true this is not an advertisement this is an offer that she'll tell you about if you haven't called the show before and you're a female if you haven't called the show before and you're a female, there's a special incentive that Nancy's going to tell you about. Before I turn the mic over to Nancy, let me give you a couple more ways we'd like for you to call us.

And if I've given you a lot of ways to call us, that's on purpose, because you truly make the show. I mean, we can sit here and pontificate. I can talk for six hours. I'm a yacker, and we all are. That's the reason we've got a radio talk show, because we like to talk, but we need to learn to listen better. and we want you to discipline us in that by calling the show. So if you can't call us at 877-960-99-60, or you don't want to, text us.

We have a text number. That text number is 772-497-6530. 772-497-3530. A lot of people, they might want to call. It might be tempted, but, hey, live radio, we got 20, 30, 40, I don't know, 50,000 people out there watching, listening to us. That's a big audience, and people kind of get tongue-tied, nervous about it. I don't blame you. It took Vince, you know, while to get over this live radio, but we're used to it now, and our problem is we act too much.

We want you to yak at us because we learn more from you than otherwise. and the people listening to the show learn more from you. So the call-in number, 877-960-99-60, the text number, 772-497-65-30, and then are my favorite number. I don't know why. I know that anonymity and privacy is a big thing in the world today. I mean, we're like in the Big Brother kind of a world where people are looking over our shoulders. we value our privacy more and more and more. So we have a privacy number for you to call us,

meaning you can talk to us, you can lay it out, you can swear at us, you can criticize us, praise us would be nice, but it's a private number, only you know you call this. I don't know who you are, where you are. And that number, it's not a number, it's a website, and it's your anonymous Feedback.

Just the way it sounds, Y-O-U-R-A-N-Y-M-O-U-S. Feedback, F-E-E-D-B-A-C-K dot com. Your Anonymous Feedback.com. Love to hear from it. You know, some people use that link anyway because, I don't know, they like it better. It's easy. You send it in, and maybe I don't get to it until the end of the show. It isn't the privacy of value.

You like it. I like it myself. We use it on our business. And full disclosure, we have a Toyota dealership, and our employees and our customers are encouraged to use that number because as a business, I want to know what you really think about me. I don't want to know what, I don't want you to tell me what I want to hear. I want you to tell me what I need to hear to improve my business.

So you call us or email us at Your Anonymous Feedback.com and tell us how we can improve, what we can do differently. you love Rick, you hate Rick, you love Earl, you hate Earl, you love Stu, you love Nancy, whatever it is, more about this, more about gas mileage, more about dealer fees, whatever you want, just give us your input. Now, I got off on a rant and I apologize, I'm going to turn the mic over to Nancy Stewart and she will take over and tell you about that very, very special offer for you, ladies. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome. Boy, we have a great show.

Another great show ahead of us, and I'm going to talk about some recalls you may not know about, like driving your car on the road and the doors suddenly open. That's scary. Uh-huh. You could be anywhere, 95, or maybe local, West Palm Beach, anywhere at all. So we'll get to that. Also, we do have a dog of the week, and his name is Mickey, and he comes to us virtually. And we are going to get to that about 930, and that is our sponsored dog of the week.

Also for the ladies, we have $50 for the first two new lady callers. Give us a call. Let us know how your experience went as far as service or sales or anything at all you'd like to talk about. That's 877-960. you can text us at 772-4976530. Also, as I'll mention, your anonymous feedback.com. We're going to go straight to the phones, and we are going to talk to John from Palm City.

Good morning, John. Good morning. Nancy led her off with a recall that she mentioned. Page 83 of Consumer Reports for April. Hondas from 2017 to 2020. Certain models affected $2.53 million of the fuel pump can quit while the car is in operation, and it just conks out completely. So they will pay for it, but my cousin got the notice in New York, and they don't have the parts, it says, until fall of 2024.

Now, by the way, even some of the hybrids are affected, so this is a very serious problem that the car can totally quit on you. What I want to ask, Rick, is this car one of them, it's in the fuel pump in the gas tank? It means they have to drop the gas tank to fix it? Yep. Pretty much any fuel injected car, the fuel pump is in the fuel tank now because unlike the older cars that used a carburetor, you could have a fuel pump up on the engine, and it would create suction to draw the fuel. fuel injected needs much more volume

and pressure up there so you have to use a pressure system that can push it the suction system just won't work that's why they had to put them all in they're all in the tank now well it says in the letter that he got naturally they will pay for this in full

but what scaring him is using the car now here's what else goes on and he's in New York State and the car in April requires a state inspection, and from time to time, his check engine oil light on a dashboard appears, and his mechanic told him there's no way he will pass that car for the New York State inspection. So what I told him to do is go right away to Honda and tell them what this problem is, and they must give you a loan a car until this part comes in.

Good advice, John. I'm glad you told them that. Yep, absolutely. Yes. But this affects so many 2017 to 2020 cars. I mean, we're talking $2,000, $39,000. So beware, there's a Honda number to call. It's 888-234-2138 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Everybody that owns the car, those years, get on top of it immediately. Very serious problem. John, can you repeat that number? Okay, 888-234-2138. Great. Hey, John, did you read about the number of vehicles that are having engine fires also in that report?

Yes, I saw that. Is that amazing? This consumer report is the most fantastic issue, the new one of every car, every model used cars, everything is rated in there. This is a Bible in itself that's worth keeping. I'm glad to hear you say that. We talk about it week in and week out. I'm going to tell you it's just amazing that 327 acres in Connecticut

and the extensive detailed everything they put those cars through, it's just amazing and it's all for the consumer. Totally non-profit. Absolutely. John, it's been a pleasure as usual. Thank you so much for being part of the show. All right, guys. I truly appreciate you.

Wonderful weather today. It is, isn't it? Yes. We're close to spring. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. In case you didn't get a chance to jot that number down that John shared with us, it is 888-234-2138.

Hunter Manufacturer. Absolutely. Also, I was going to say that I believe it's the Hyundai and Kia that have the engine fires. Again, 87-960-99-60, and ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. Give us a call. Rick? Toyota just went through an issue with the fuel pumps, and we were replacing them on quite a few different models. And we did, at our dealership, we did thousands of them.

Is that right? Same issue. Field pump would simply stop operating. Yeah. That's a great way to inform all of our listeners this morning. Thanks for that information. We're going to go to Lance, who's been holding in Tennessee. Good morning, Lance.

Where are you been, Lance? We missed you. The boy of pitfalls of too much dirty dancing at the Else Club. Oh, the Elks Club. It also resulted in a fractured ankle. So I've been recovering from a fractured ankle. But I do want to say it, I agree with John and Nancy's comments about this most recent issue of the two move forward.

However, I was taken aback by the lack of ingenuity and quality workmanship of American car makers. I mean, this country has started the Industrial Revolution. And now, you know, and now he's traded that off. to all these foreign countries. I just wonder what it happened to the American car building and what will happen to the American car

automobile. And then I'd like to close my remarks out by giving you a joke. Okay. No more songs. You're switching to jokes. You're a comedian now. No, I've got some songs, but I'm responding them.

I've been using them on the nursing staff here. And, um, And so far, it's working pretty good. Boar songs to follow. Okay. Little boy goes to a wedding. He comes home. Daddy says, what did you learn at wedding?

He said, well, I learned how many times a woman can get married. He said, you learned that at a wedding and said, how many times can a woman get married? 16 times. How could that be? four better, four worse, four richer, or poor poor. I love that. That is a good story. That is really cute.

Thank you, Lance. Thanks a much, Lance. Maybe you can take a joke and put it to music, and then you can sing your jokes. There you go. I would like to hear your comments about American car building in the future. Well, that's fine. I do have some comments. In fact, you piqued my brain on that.

started thinking about what happened when I first started in the business, and that's what I'll talk about because of what you just said. It's a very, very astute observation you may not. I will talk about that a little later. Thanks. Have a good day. You're doing a great job. Thank you, Lance.

Have a great weekend. Our number here is 877-960-9960, and ladies, $50 for the first two new lady call. That's $50. Give us a call. In the Consumer Report, can you imagine? They're reporting on some great cars under $27,000. $27,000. This latest edition from April latest edition, it's the auto issue.

Oh, hold that. And I want to tell you. I got my copy. It is amazing. If you don't buy any consumer reports ever, ever, the one you want to buy every year is this right here. What month is this? April. May?

I mean. This is April. April edition. April edition. Buy the April edition. Consumer. It's the annual auto edition. This will be a reference book for you all year.

If you're even thinking about buying a new year used car or thinking about recalls, thinking about repairs. You've got to have this in your library. Absolutely. You know, if anyone out there is thinking we get a kickback from Consumer Report, uh-uh. I'm waiting. Earl asked for one, and, well, I can't repeat what they told them on air. It was not nice. That's why I'm sitting here. I will continue to ask. All kidding aside, like I said, that auto test center that they have in Connecticut, It's an amazing place. Amazing. 327 acres. And like Earl said, the April edition, you got to get it. You got to pick it up. You got to keep it, you know, in your back pocket. For the whole year, it will give you everything. But I just thought it was really amazing that you could purchase a car in this day and age. Under $27,000. Highly recommended. It's just amazing.

Give us a call tool-free at 877-960-9960, and you can text us at 77-497-497-6530. Keep that text number available to you because you'll need it whenever you vote on the mystery shopper report later in the show. We visited Gunther Mazda in Fort Lauderdale, amazing agent. Lightning is just truly amazing. She did a great job. We're going to go back to the phones where

Simon is holding. Good morning, Simon. Hello? Good morning. How are you? Good, how are you doing? Great. What can we do for you this morning? You're calling us from Colorado? Yes, from Golden Colorado. I've called you guys before. That's wonderful. Weather out there is beautiful. Yes, right now it is. What's up? My question is, it might be for Rick, but my question is my sister's 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee. She has a problem with the selector for the forward drive that I think it's right between the console. I mean, it's in the middle console or between the seats.

And usually you hit a push-a-button and it lights up the knob to select what terrain you want. It's not working. Do you know what to be the cause and what is the cost for that? Ooh. Now is it just the light that's not working or it will not shift into four-wheel drive? Well, we can't tell if it shifts in this whole drive because when you turn it, it doesn't seem like it's doing anything or it doesn't light up. Yeah, that would require electrical diagnosis on the switch itself first to find out if it's actually operating and go on from there. Or you could do a tight turn, like a tight U-turn and see. Yeah, that's very true.

And you hear the grinding if it's in four-wheel drive. If you shift into four-wheel low and you do a tight turn on dry pavement, you're going to feel that it's in four-wheel drive. It will feel weird. Because it will jerk and shudder and shake because it's going to try to lock up all four wheels to turn at the same rate. And obviously you can't turn a circle with all four turning at the same rate. So that would be just a quick way to see if you're getting into four-wheel drive.

But yeah, otherwise, most places you should start with about $100 to $200 diagnostic fee for electrical to find out if that switch is actually operating. I know jeeps traditionally have had a lot of electrical problems. It just always seems like the first thing to go on a Jeep is the electrical system. So that would probably be more to your advantage because that's, that's going to be a lot less expensive to repair than, say, the transfer case or the transmission. Right. Okay. Yeah, because it's hard to tell if it's engaged. But like I said, I'll have her take a tight turn on it because we tried to use it for the snow last time. And, you know, you can't tell where it's turning because a little knob lights up has a little light and it indicates where it's way, you know, your category is and it doesn't, you can't tell. yeah that that almost sounds like it's a switch to me

but that would be the first place I would check with it is I'd get the wiring diagram out and a volt meter and check to see if that switch is actually changing its position like it should okay I appreciate it thank you guys very much thanks for the call Simon Colorado beautiful up there yeah well let me get to a text for memory yeah we're waiting for this next caller to come online and he says good morning i fell asleep with the tv on and awoke to an

infomercial i hate when i do that and infomerish or touting identity theft protection this is what prompts the following questions has your dealership ever sold a vehicle to someone only to find out that it was a case of stolen identity if so what happened to the culprit real person alone in the vehicle um i don't think that's happened that we know about if they did happen Well, I was going to say, the problem with being in business for over 50 years, things happen that you don't remember. I would say, yes, it probably did happen. I mean, we've had some very strange cases of cars, stolen, cars, this. But really, in the grand scheme of things, percentage-wise, very small.

Right. It would definitely, because it's not enough to, I can't jog a memory, and I've been doing it for a long time now, too. So it might have a jammery. But to answer your question, you know, it's a crime. So if the culprit got caught, they'll be prosecuted with, you know, whatever laws they broke. Our defense is so old-fashioned compared to what modern technology has done. I mean, think about it what you have today. You can get, you can duplicate, you can manufacture anything.

If you have an identification card, you can come in and that's, that looks real. wants to go to that trouble can steal a car with false identification. Anybody who loves to start a life of crime and become a fugitive possibly. If they finance it, the finance institution would probably dig deeper and probably reveal what's going on. But for a dealer, if you say you're a cash buyer and you give them a check and they're dumb enough not to verify the funds, they got a car and they can be in

Puerto Rico before you know it. Yeah. When we finance cars, there are some protections. We have to go through these things. They're called red flag laws. And if everything pops up, that indicates anything, like anything, inconsistencies in the credit report, things like that, we have to do extra steps of verifying identification. But if they're not financing, someone can write in a check and legally we don't have to care who they are. All right. Let's go on to the next text. This is for Rick. My son's original radiator. This is from Nick, by the way. Nick says, my son's original radiator hoses on his 2012 Mitsubishi Golan are getting

squishy, and he's thinking of saving a few bucks and replacing them himself. Is there anything to beware of other than simply draining the coolant, replacing the two hoses, then refilling the reservoir tank? Obviously, you want to make sure you dispose of the old coolant properly. The easiest way that I have found to do what's called burping the system, because you want to make sure you get all the air out of it is once you've replaced the hoses, make sure the clamps are nice and tight, refill it up to the top with the coolant, and then put the car on an angle

to where the radiator cap is at the highest point. So you park it on a slope. I'll park on a driveway, and just let it sit and idle, listen inside the car. If you hear any air sounds almost like water gurgling inside, you may have air bubbles in the heater core, so you want to let us sit and run until those air

bubbles work their way out. It all circulates through eventually. And just keep topping up the coolant in the radiator. And once those hoses, the bottom hose and the upper hose, once they both start getting hot themselves, and they feel like

there the same temperature, that means the thermostat is opened and it's cycling the coolant all the way through the engine and let the last of the bubbles out and cap it off. All right, Nick, there you go. But be very careful, though, because that coolant can get extremely hot. Okay. And never, once you've capped off the radiator, never open it until the car is cooled completely down because that pressurized hot coolant can eject a lot. I always chuckle when Rick says things like that

because he's been in the business for 25 years and I'm trying to figure out when the first time he figured that out the hard way. You do emphasize that very, very... I came close to it one time a car that had a blown head gasket and it was pressurized but luckily the coolant wasn't super hot. Those are the lessons you never forget, right?

Oh, wow. That's much scared the crap of it. I got so lucky that I did not get burned. I know, now we have your beautiful face still. I've had many friends, and that cool, it just blisters instantly. Gosh, gosh. It can happen, folks, so be very careful with that. Is that a normal thing, though, for the radio herzes get squishy?

Is that an indication it's time to change them? Yeah, over time, they start to get soft. The oil from the engine, the oil vapor that's under there, we'll start to soak into that rubber over time. And over the course of years, and it's a good idea to replace them before they break. and leave you stranded at midnight someplace where you got no cell signal and it's pouring rain. All right.

Great information. Thanks, Rick. Yeah. We're glad you're here, Rick. You always have a lot of interesting information for us weekend. We've got, ladies and gentlemen, give us a call toll for you at 877-960-9960.

And ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers, give us a call. And when I opened, Wineryl opened a show, show, I mentioned the cars that their doors open, yeah, their doors open while they're driving down 95 maybe, wherever you are. Jonathan was kind enough to pass some information along to me, and there's over 250,000 cars. This is amazing.

What bottles are those? How do you not find this, you know, right at your fingertips? He really had to research this. I spent the morning looking for it, but the information tells us, I'll get to you in a minute, Rick, that Ford recalls 250,000 cars because the doors open, unexpectedly.

That's frightening. All the doors, the front doors, rear doors? You'll have to Google that. Also, Volvo also has some recalls, and their doors opened unexpectedly. they don't mention the number of vehicles that were affected but you got another good reason to always wear your seat belts Google that or you know take a look at past subscriptions of consumer report I'm sure you you can get the information and I hope everyone heard what I said

I was away from the mic there for a second we have we have some calls to get to we're going to get to we are going to get I'll tell you what the young lady that was calling for the first time please give me a call back sorry we didn't get to you immediately but we're going to go to Tricia and she has called before and she supports the ladies and that's the reason why she continues to be part of the show good morning Tricia good morning yes you are my go-to-you-you-morning station Saturday morning, every Saturday. Oh, thank you so much. Yes.

I learned a lot from you guys, but I got a two-part question here. Number one, I spoke a few weeks ago about my tires wearing out excessively fast, and I drive like Earl. Earl, I'm a very bad driver, left and right. So my very good tires, Michelin Defenders, wore out within 10,000 miles. thousand miles ridiculous um and i was told this controversy here and i want your guys opinion i was told one guy told me well the reason why they're wearing out so fast because i overinflated them but then i have another guy 30 years experience with tar i mean with cars telling me yes uh

even though it's 33 i always pump it up to 38 or 40 i'm totally confused about this and I want you guys once and for all your opinion I'll tell you what you're very persistent I really like that that's a great quality Rick what do you have to say about that there are two sets of numbers that you're going to want to investigate for your car the first one is usually located on the door jam by your driver's door and that's going to tell you what the manufacturer recommends as the absolute lowest tire pressure that you should be running on your car. They're usually going to be somewhere around like 33 to 35 pounds of air.

Right, right. Then if you look on the side of the tire itself, you'll see another number that can be anywhere, depending on the tire, anywhere from like 35 pounds to 45 pounds or some even 50 or more. And that is the maximum air pressure that you want to, run. You don't want to exceed that. So if the tire is rated to handle on the tire, if it shows that it's rated to handle 40 pounds, and you're running 40 pounds, you are completely safe to do that, and that tire should not have any adverse wear caused by that. So, Tricia, what PSI have you been using? Okay. I was up to 38, 39, because that's what?

this guy like was of 30 years experience said yes now I went back to you know Tire King and he said well that's why your tires are wearing out you got to do what's on the door 33 and no more Tricia are they wearing out on the outside edges or in the in the center of the tire if it's overinflated the wear will be in the center of the tire if it's under inflated the wear will be on the edges of the tire well it was on my it was on the outside edge then they were under inflated well it was already at 38 or 39 well that's uh I'll throw that to Rick I don't know edge where if it's only on one edge just the outer edge and the inner edge is okay then that's usually a condition of the alignment it's where the tires are actually they're tilted outwards, so they're running on that outward edge more. Okay.

I still have the car aligned before I put the tires on. Yeah. I'm just really wondering if there's something going on, maybe they're not using the proper specs for that car. Maybe their system is outdated specifications or something, and it's actually being set up wrong to where it's, you know, allow. allowing it to run on those outer edges. That's really only the best I can come up with on it.

And Trisha, since you're like me, you're a recovering reckless driver. We both drive aggressively and probably faster and take turns faster than we should. It's awfully easy to knock your car out of alignment. You can have your car align today and tomorrow it'll be out of alignment. is because you hit a curb, you hit a pothole, it's easy if you're an aggressive driver to knock your car out of alignment. You might want to double up on your alignment checks. The dealer or the independent garage where you go should give you an alignment check,

and there should be a computer printout that you can look at to verify and do it for free. So, as expensive as tires are, and as many tires as you're having to buy, I check by alignment every week. Well, this, I don't know any place that does it for free or $25 to check in alignment. Well, you haven't looked around enough because in our market, most people do it free. It used to be the other way around. But there are alignment machines now where you can just drive across the equipment. It costs them nothing to check your alignment. So they have high-tech alignment machines now.

Get on your telephone or text or email around and say, will you give me a free wheel alignment and four-wheel wheel alignment? And the ones that say they will check it out. There are also some places that will sell you a lifetime alignment that as long as you're still on that same set of tires, they will check that alignment and adjust it as often it's needed for a single charge. Pet Boy is advertised a free. Great information.

Pep Boys advertise us one. Oh, thank you. I will do that. Hey, Trisha, is the center of your tires wearing out more than the edges? No, it was my right front tire on the outside edge, a little bit. bit on the driver's side, but a lot more on the right side. Within 10,000 miles, this very expensive Michelin Defender tire wore out within 8,000 to 10,000 miles. There's a lot of money. I think you're going to be able to solve this problem because you're really on top of things

and you're doting your eyes and crossing your T's. What else can you do? Well, I do want to give a little shout out of, and this is good for your consumers too. Michelin, a kudos to Michelin. When I told them that, you know, the tires were wearing out, I had my alignment 8 to 10,000 miles. I had two tires that needed done. They were only going to give me $75. I said, wait a minute, this is, you know, your tire is a warranty to $80,000. and it wore out in 10.

So I said, you know, you know, no way. I'm only going to get one tire, not two. I got a call back within two days. Listen to this. Two days, they paid me in full for two new tires. There you go. $150 each tire they bought for me. All I had to do was for the balancing and whatever.

And they paid me, all I had to do is fill out some paperwork, take pictures, show them the receipt, whatever. I got my money within 15 minutes through Zelle. Excellent. $300 for Michigan. So I want to give a shout out to Michigan. That's amazing, Tricia. Persistence, I like that. Congratulations.

Keep on calling us, please. You're an inspiration. for the ladies. Thank you, thank you, guys. You're welcome. Thank you. That's pretty smart on Michelin's part. Before we get off that subject, I hope you're still listening to Rich.

I just Googled free four-wheel alignment near me, and our studio is in North Palm Beach, and I came up with Tires Plus, Tire Kingdom, and St. Lucy Battery and Tire. So you probably have a Tires Plus or a Tire Kingdom somewhere near you, and they do free four-wheel alignments, free, no charge. Great information. We are going to go to John in West Palm Beach. Welcome to the show, John. Welcome back.

What can we do for you? Are you talking to John East Beach? West Palm Beach. John and West Palm Beach? Yep. Oh, okay, very good. All right. This is for Stu, or maybe Rick, I forgot, but you were just talking about radiators and the heat, the pressure, and all that.

What, then, whatever happened, because I don't see him anywhere, whatever happened to the radiator caps that had the pressure release valve on the top so that he'd go ahead and work on the radiator and not have to wait, you know, an hour for the engine to cool down other than, you know, running cold. water over it. Yeah, those, they kind of went by the wayside because they would leak so easily that you'd lose your cooling out on the ground. So those kind of, they went away. As a matter of fact, the newer systems now, the actual reservoir, the backup reservoir system, is included in the pressurized portion and the cap on it, there's a big air gap in there. So you can actually if you're very careful, you can loosen that cap and release that pressure even while it's hot

and then you can still access it to do your drain and refill. All right, very good. Great. All right, well that's it for me. Thanks a lot. I appreciate that. And by the way, folks, if you're doing any sort of coolant work

on your own, if you have pets, dogs or cats nearby, make sure that that coolant is kept well away from them because engine coolant by its nature, the ethylene glycol, is very sweet tasting. Dogs are very likely to try to lick it. They can smell it. They immediately want to go for it.

And it is deadly to animals. Wow. So just myself being an animal lover, dog lover, cat lover, don't put that coolant on the ground. Don't pour it in the drain. save it in a back in a gallon jugs and take it to a local parts store where it can be recycled properly they don't charge anything if you walk in there with old oil old coolant and say this needs to be recycled same thing with the old oil filters just put them in a plastic bag take it in there they'll take care of it no charge great information our number here is

877-960 and you can text us at 772-4976530. Don't forget your anonymous feedback.com. We're going to go to Jersey, Mike, who is a regular caller from West Palm Beach. Good morning. How are you, Mike? Hey, pretty good, folks. You're doing another great job as you usually do. I really enjoy it. Thank you. I want to ask you a question about Lightning Shopper, you know, that you post different dealerships. And you have suggested in the past, don't buy a car in South Florida because of junk feed and this and that and so forth and so on. But let me ask you this. If I was to go ahead and lease a brand new vehicle in South Florida, which, of course, if it breaks down while the period of the lease,

they'll repair it. Is there anything wrong with something like that with regard to not buying a car in South Florida? I didn't quite get the question. He said as opposed to buying a car, leasing a car, and then, you know,

having everything in that three-year lease period, you know, covered under warranty. Yeah, if I do that in South Florida as opposed to going up north, the same thing, well, the same, the same dangers and same, you know, pitfalls that, you know,

so still await you with whether you're leasing or buying because they're still establishing a selling price for the car. I mean, leasing, I mean, there might be different to pinnings in the studio here. Leasing is a viable option for, you know, a lot of customers. But in South Florida, the same process happens in the showrooms, whether you're leasing or buying the car. Actually, leasing, you're more vulnerable to a markup if you're not an educated consumer and careful than buying with leasing because they can, there's a,

a lot of fudge factors and leases are more complex and hard to understand. Purchase, they try to make it hard to understand, but it's easier to buy a car and get a good price than to lease a car and get a good price. Well, I read my contracts word for word, and I'll sit there for an hour if I happen. Well, then you're an educated consumer, and it's a 601, half dozen of the other. And we've done shows, and Earl has whole articles on Earl on Cars about it, but it comes down to this. don't talk about leasing at all establish your best purchase price within out the door and then say now apply this as my cap cost and I don't want to see this change I'm going to read the contracts

right yep so yeah if you want to go through the abuse you go there and you can get a pretty good deal but maybe heading up to like we said maybe northern Florida or a nice sleepy town maybe you might find a less aggressive dealer I'm not just going to Georgia because they don't have the sales tax problem, you know? That's true. That's true. Anyway, let me say this year about Cadillac, okay? I have chewed up a couple sets of tires because you can't see the front of the car. That's how I got bought it, 2016 from Napleton, which was my biggest mistake.

And believe it or not, that car is the most uncomfortable car. And I've had Cadillac's my whole life since 1970. That's the worst car I ever bought in my life. I cannot believe it. It's just bad So I have chopped up tires Because I can't see the curb When I'm going around a corner

Or something like that Yeah I mean it's just really bad They should do a better job with cameras On making things like that You just said something that triggered By Talking about consumer reports

You said the worst car you ever own And a lot of people Don't have a lot of faith in consumer reports And they say oh just because it says It's a good car I'm not going to buy that. But the one thing I think it's a good idea is you don't want to have

like Mike has, the worst car you ever bought. I mean, you don't want that in your driveway. And Consumer Reports has a list this month in the annual auto issue of the worst cars to buy. So I'm saying if you

don't believe in using consumer reports to tell you what car to buy, at least do yourself a favor and if it says it's the worst car they ever tested, which they have a list of the worst cars. Yep. Don't buy it. Just don't buy it. I mean, if you make a mistake,

it's better than not making a mistake and get the worst car you ever owned. Yeah, Consumer &, of course, has a FAST article, or about TAS magazine out, where they talked about buying used cars, and they rated all the used cars. Yeah,

yeah, exactly. And, you know, from number one, you know, always down at the bottom. Absolutely. You know, I was listening to you, Mike, and you were answering a lot of yeses. It sounds like as if you're not only a, you know, educated consumer, but you could join us right here in the studio if you have some extra time. Well, I always have extra time.

I'd love to be there. Matter of fact, Joe's going to two-a-half-an-hour interview with me also because he likes me. There you go. Hey, I've got to get to some calls. One last question. about a big dog ranch people don't know this i got to say that i've already said it once before if you're a veteran 50% off of any dog that you go over there and adopt and i've already adopted one uh secondly that's what comes out is fully taken care of everything right down the claws

are taken care of uh they get all their inoculation you get a whole record of all this stuff it's all on paper they're the fleed they get a collar they get everything you need to have and it's the only no-kill dog a local shelter in the United States. That's right. That's right. And Tuggy Adams is a great place, too, but they kill animals there. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And also, I'm going to mention, and we're going to take our next call.

I'll say thank you to you, Jersey, Mike. You're quite welcome. Keep up the great work. You guys do a great work. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend. And I'm going to mention Mickey again. Mickey is our dog of the week that Earl Stewart Toyota is sponsoring.

And in case you didn't know it, we pick up the registration fees. Yeah, $200. It's expensive to adopt a dog. But not only can you adopt a dog, but you can foster a dog. So look into that. You can go to their website at big dog ranch rescue. dot org. We are going to catch up with the guys with techs and while the lines are open and you too. Rick, Stu. Yeah, I got one. Bob has a question. This is a good one for Earl. Right up

Earl's alley. Good morning. My question is if is, if by law a vehicle on recall, the dealer must provide a loaner. And what if the dealer says he has no rentals? What happens? And that's from Bob. well the I think the law is a loner if it's a dangerous recall in other words if if the recall is because the radio is do not drive thing or something yeah yeah it has to be a dangerous recall now dangerous is a general term so I recall I recall a recall I recall a recall about 15 or 15 years ago where dashes were cracking in the Arizona and the Florida sun. And everybody was ignoring it. The manufacturers

Toyota happened to be one of them and we have a toilet dealership. And the hot sun was being magnified inside of a car and the dashes were actually melting and they were cracking and

it was, they looked terrible. So Toyota and Honda and a few other manufacturers must have been using the same dash manufactured to put in their cars. And they kind of recalled and they didn't make a big deal out of it.

And our customers were raising hell and Toyota wouldn't give them a lunar car. So I had a customer call me one day and says, you know, when I'm driving on the road in the bright sun, the sun refreshed off that melted dash into my eyes and I can't

see. So I a little light bulb wouldn't have over my head. I said, bingo. So I called to Toyota, and I said, I'm going to insist on giving my customers a lunar car because it's a dangerous condition. The press picked up on it, and we were interviewed on television, and we had them come in, and we showed them the danger, and guess what? Lo and behold, Toyota changed that where they would provide a loaner car. So the key word is dangerous. If you have a recall, think in your mind as to how that might be dangerous to you, and if you can have a logic,

description of why that recall is dangerous or if the manufacturer is already so deemed it then they're required if they get you a hard time then you just got to go to the 800 number to the manufacturer they will notify the dealer and it will happen and of course if that doesn't happen then you you call a lawyer but it's a slam dunk Rick the Takata airbag debacle we had customers in rental cars for some of them over here over a year yeah no waiting for the those parts to come in to repair their cars. We would actually have them keep their car at their house. Because we had no room to park the cars at the dealership. We had so many. Yeah, we had to buy a two-acre lot of rent, a two-acre lot to store all the Takata cars. There's a shortage of rental cars,

there's a shortage of new cars and used cars. And with this whole COVID thing, it's very difficult for the dealers to find these cars. And at our dealership, if we don't have a rental car, we find a rental car for you, or we give you a car off of our lot to drive if it's a dangerous recall. So you have to be persistent. If you have a dangerous recall and you perceive it to be dangerous, you're going to get stonewalled by the dealer in many cases.

So you have to go to the manufacturer, and you have to be pushy to insist. But you have the right, just remember, on a dangerous recall to have a free loader car. All right. Hey, we got one more, and it's from Gary. He has, I believe that most Honda's and Toyota cars, you can access the fuel pump from under the back seat without dropping the tank, but I'm not positive. Is that true? Most cars have an access panel. A lot of the smaller SUVs like RAVs and Highlanders have an access panel under the seat so that you can access where the fuel pump is.

most trucks have a frame or SUVs with a frame the fuel tank runs in a different position and it does have to be removed from the vehicle you can't there's just no way to put an access panel for the trucks okay I didn't know that and now I know all right I'm all caught up what's like one of the guys over there on YouTube saying I've got Donovan here coming in with some great information so morning Donovan he says Ford last Last week enabled charging of their EVs at the Tesla Supercharger Network. They are sending every owner of a Ford EV an adapter for free that will allow you to plug into the Tesla network. Tesla opened up 15,000 superchargers to Ford.

You were able to just pull up and plug in just as it should be. Ford is first and other automakers will be coming in the next few months. You can get your adapter for free till the end of June from Ford. So, folks, I would get on that list quickly because they're going to get the adapter before. They're going to go back order very soon, I'll bet. Are they going to get the adapters before they get their other remote? Wow. Yeah.

We're still waiting on a lot of those. I know. Oh, see, this will fix the number one complaint from people on EVs about where to charge. Toyota is desperate to sell the existing hydrogen moron. on lots in California as more fueling stations have closed or are struggling to have fuel available. Get a hell of a deal

on one of those. Yeah, let's buy this car. You can't drive it, but you get a hell of price. They are now offering $40,000 cash incentive on the vehicle plus a $15,000 fuel card, which basically makes the car free.

until you can no longer get fuel and it becomes a free lawn ornament you're laughing I mean Toyota's a great company but you know they they really I can't use the expression I want to use

but they really messed up there on that it was a great idea yeah seemed like a great idea at the time couldn't work because you've got no fuel for the vehicle yeah you have it it's everywhere you just got to get it into the vehicle. Yeah, there's just that one little catching point there.

Oh, my goodness. Yep, yep, yep. And let's see. Oh, by the way, Johnny Z. Freedly says, I remember installing an aftermarket stereo system in a Lexus that the dash had turned sticky. Yeah. Yuck, what a mess.

Yeah. And Johnny, I hear you because I replaced a lot of those dashes. And I worked on a lot of cars with that sticky, melted dash, and even just touching it, you could set your hand on it just with the lightest pressure, take your hand away, and your fingerprints would be embossed in the dash. I just had another flashback of that. I said earlier on the show, Toyota loves me and they hate me. And one of the reasons they hate me is because things like I did with that melted crack dash turning it into a danger because a customer said it was a danger and it was. And I just flashed back.

I had a call on Saturday evening. That was back quite a while ago because I was still smoking cigars. And I was sitting on my back patio with my scotch and my cigar and the phone rang. and it was a top executive for Toyota calling me from at that time their headquarters were in California and he wanted to know why I was talking about this crackdash and why Toyota should be giving them loaners and why I was giving, what I was doing is I was giving the loaners

and I was paying for it and he says by doing that you're making all other Toyota dealers look bad I said, well, I'm sorry. I said, but it's not my fault. I'm more concerned about my customers. So that was on a Saturday night, and it was the next week that Toyota announced nationally, they were going to be providing free loaners. So he was trying to shoot the messenger so he wouldn't have to provide free loaners to all the cars,

because that's a very expensive thing. I mean, they had a lot of crack dashes out there. So, again, love-hate relationship I have with Toyota. More love than hate, I have to be honest with you. I think they're the greatest auto manufacturer in the world, and for a lot of reasons. And they've been right when I've been wrong. Matter of fact, there's a article in the New York Times.

They'll be in the Sunday, New York Times. It's online today about the fact that Akio Toyota figured out that the hybrid was the name of the game, and the electric vehicle was off in the future, and they had the best EV, best hybrids, leading the industry now. So, as I say, when you're a big manufacturer and your successful business, all you have to do is be right more than you're wrong, and Toyota for sure is right far more than they're wrong. Okay, where are we? Well, I'm all caught up on messages. Actually, no, hey, one just popped in right here from Lanecats. Good morning, Earl, Stu, Nancy, and Rick.

You have a great show that I've listened to while I'm driving to the synagogue. I emailed Earl and Nancy in February. Did you receive any from Lane Cats? Well, I'll go back and double check and make sure that we didn't miss anything if that's the case, and we'll get back to you, Lane. I'm all caught up. Email also let us know

when you sent in your last email. The name sounds familiar. Rick, what did? We're caught up here right now. Let me jump on here. Here's a cute story. It's a good story. On the way to the studio this morning, Nancy and I, we pulled up in front, and we both got out of the car.

We were run a little bit late. And Nancy said to me, did you put it on doggy mode? I said, no, I forgot. I'll do that. Now, we drive a Tesla, and the Tesla has a feature called Doggy Mode. You just hit a little button, and the cabin inside of the car, temperature is maintained the way you want. We have it at 72 degrees, and so it keeps it cool and nice for your doggy. Well, we don't have a doggy in the car, but we do it anyway because when we get back

in the car and the hot Florida sun, we don't like to sit in there and have the air conditioner fight the 120 degrees, and we don't want to get in the car and wait because it's so hot. So what's happened is that was a feature that Tesla had for years. We've had this particular Tesla for about three years. And the other auto EV manufacturers are copying that now. Why? Because doggy owners are buying EVs because it's the only car that you can do that. You don't want to leave the engine running in your car.

You're shooting carbon into the atmosphere and nothing's in the car. I do that. And people see the engine running. It makes everybody nervous when the engine's running. So the doggy mode is so. so cool, no pun intended. That's twice on the show today. Good puns. That's your second good pun today.

Oh, yeah, it's true. Thank you. Josh would be proud of me. So at any rate, the EV is affecting the sale. So Rivian and two or three other Vsies are going to doggy mode. And the other cool thing about a doggy more that you can't do with a combustion engine car is the screen, a big, large, CD screen and your car lights up and it has a picture of a dog on it and says, because people see the dog of the car. They say, oh, that guy's leaving the car, the dog in the car, the windows are all rolled up. I'm going to call the police.

I'm going to get a brick and break the window and get the dog down. So they come running up the car and there's this big sign of a dog with a smile on his face. And he says, don't worry, my owner will be right back. I'm very comfortable and the temperature is 72 degrees. Now, think about dog owners and think about how they feel about their dogs, and think about, would that motivate somebody to buy an electric vehicle instead of a combustion engine? Yes, it would. That would be a deciding factor for me.

Yeah, yeah. Every so often, my dog goes with me different places, and if I've got to stop somewhere that she can't come in, what do I do? I locked the door with the engine running. And she's a big dog. Right, Rick? I said she is a big dog, so she needs air conditioning. If you've got a dog and you really like to take good care of that dog and you don't want people thinking you're a bad guy.

And by the way, it works for babies too. You know, I mean, kids and dogs. Move that up a little. I'm not advocating leaving your kid in the car, but if you're going to leave your dog over there. Move it up a little so everybody could see it. There you go. Bring it down a little. There you go.

Perfect. Well, with South Florida, that also works senior citizens. If you've got a senior riding with you, you need to go in somewhere. They want to wait in the car. Now they're totally protected. Yeah. How many times I could have used that for my mom? Okay.

You know, if you want to scratch your head, you also can take a look at the back page of the Consumer Report. report and can you believe it they have a list of some car lingoes that you might want to bring yourself up to date with and you know scratching your head over the acrimands or the techie auto terms in this issue you can make yourself like a i don't know a little crib sheet so to speak quick note in from donovan he says earl you don't have to use doggy mode for that. You can just start the climate control from the app when you're ready to leave and it will cool the cabin in just a few minutes. You can also add a widget to your phone's home screen

for one touch to start the climate control in the car instead of keeping it running while you're not in the car. I'd love you, Donovan. I'd say that I want. What doesn't? He knows these Teslas inside that. I'm going to put Donovan on the retainer so I can call them during the week. I can't All I'm getting two hours worth of, I'm learning from you, but I'm going to be, right now I say, I'll Google that. I'm going to start Donovan things. How much you're going to charge me, Donovan? I'm getting it myself, a T-shirt. Well, but one of the reasons I like the doggy mode is because that big sign on the LCD screen.

I love the picture of the dog, and when people look in the car, it's kind of a cool thing to do that. I see him look at the car every now and then and see the dog. Interesting. Okay, folks. Ladies, $50 for the first two new lady callers. $50. Give us a call. 877-960-99-60. We're going to, our phone lines have suddenly lit up. So, everybody, be patient. Bob from Lake Park. Good morning. Welcome. Good morning. What do we do for you? Good morning. How is it by you? Good morning.

So welcome back, Stu. How was your trip? Oh, Stu had to step out for just a moment. He went to New York last week. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Did you know that Stalantus has hired outside contractors to come to your house to fix your Ticata egg bags? Really?

Who was that, Bob? Stalantis Auto Group. I didn't know. I don't know that. Boy, Stelanus, Honorable. Okay, so that's Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep. Yep. Oh, right.

Wow. Now that is what I call good information, and the kudos. I usually badmouthed Chrysler. I don't call them Stalantis, because it's funny, when you said Stalantis, who the hell is Stalantis? Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep. I mean, their naming is so screwed up that they decided rather than try to do the mouthful, they'd come up with a name nobody can remember

but I will give them a pat on the back and an attaboy. They will go out to your home and they will fix your Ticcada airbag problem at no charge. You don't have to inconvenience yourself too and that is a great thing because a lot of people don't want the inconvenience to have the car tied up all day or two days or a week and they come out to your house. That is a great idea

and all manufacturers should follow suit. Well I think it's because a lot of people are ignoring the recall. Yes. And they're not bringing the car in. The only thing is when somebody knocks on your door, sometimes some of the car owners think it's a scam.

Yeah, that's true. But you know, contact my email text, confirm the appointment, come out. I've had Tesla come out to my house and tried to fix my windshield wiper washer, but they didn't get a fix. So I know I've got to bring it in. But yeah, I love the,

idea, especially on a safety recall. If I were president of the United States, I'd do an executive order and I would make every auto manufacturer come to the home of the buyer to do the repair on their car. Or if they can't do the repair at the home, I would leave them a loaner car, pick it up, bring it in, fix it, return it, take my lender car back. That would have your auto recalls close to 100%. And right now, only about one out of four. We have three out of four cars on the road that are recalled that have not been fixed, and they don't even know it needs to be fixed.

They sell the car to somebody else that doesn't know it has a recall, and they drive their car. It is a mess. And thank you so much, Bob, for that information. I want to talk a little bit about consumer reports, too. you know these they give I like consumer reports I don't take everything they say

as a you know I take it into consideration but I don't know sure something what they do that I disagree with but I will say one thing that's a little bit of a conundrum you know when they put that list up there of the best cars a lot of the cars that they

list are not available you can't get them you have the way to you whatever it is and it seems like all the cars that are on the bottom of the list are the ones that the dealers have an inventory on. So it's a little bit of a, you know, it will help you, give you an idea, but what good is it if you can't find the car? You're exactly right.

You have to wait a year for the car. If you're in a hurry for a car, it is a problem. And it has always been the dealers thrive on that. They want you to be in a hurry for a car. But in fact, that Consumer Report says in this very issue about, buy your car. You're better off to order the car you want and wait for it. Of course, easy for them to say when they tell you it's going to be a year, but it's not that bad anymore and cars are becoming more and more readily available. Inventories are climbing. Prices are

coming down. So in general, try to find a car that you can order to your specifications and get exactly what you want. It eliminates the flimflam and the, it eliminates the flim flam and the, Dendip stickers and all the other BS, and it's a more civilized way to buy a car. Dealers want you to walk in, get emotionally involved with the car, and take it home and pay too much for it. That's the system today. We've got to get that changed. Well, my other point is if you look at the list that Consumer Reports does with the best and the worst, it really hasn't changed all that much in the last 10 years.

from what I could tell I look at it I mean you still got the worst cars are still at the bottom and the best cars are still at the top not really there have been some big improvements Kia has got a lot of cars now that are highly recommended

I can remember when you wouldn't buy a Kia on a bet I mean it was a terrible car you're going back 20 years well yeah that's true I mean I keep saying that in my mind they've recently become good but it's been a little bit while it's been a while now

I have another question so you're going to go in to buy a car and you've done all your research and everything how much time should you allocate to go in there and do a deal is it four hours you're going to be at the dealership is it

six hours how long to get in there and actually you know even though you did your research and everything you're going to go in you're going to try to say you're like the guy Marty that drives the crown and you want to go in and you're going to, and you're going to, you know, you're going to try to make a deal.

Well, how much time do you need to allocate for your day? Bobby, all you need is the time to go in there and pick up the car and go home because you've done all the negotiating and shopping and comparisons online. You do it all anonymously by text or email or phone call. And so when you go into the dealership, you're just going in to pick it up and take it home. You had to pay them, of course. So you have your check made out. You've got an out-the-door price.

You say, there's my car. Maybe you want them to wash it again, you know, but you should be out of there less than an hour. Yeah, and also a test drive is very important also. So the time to, as you, the question that you ask from A to Z, it's very, very short. Really? But what if you're not going to go through that process? What if you want to go into the dealership? You're not going to do it online.

You already saw they have the car that. you want you did that research you know what the price or do you want to go in and do a deal on the car i really think i really think that if it were if it were me who was going into a dealership first of all i know what i want second of all i know what i want to pay for it i know what color i want that's it you have it or you don't have it you can accommodate me in all three uh sections or not. Right, but you still got to do all the paperwork. So, Marty...

Well, you know, it just depends on how much time you want to put into it. There are people who like to walk around the dealership. They're there all day. And it's, you know, whatever you're interested in, you can be accommodated. But you're in control. Right, right. Because my experience has always been that usually you're in there. Yes.

What I'm saying, it's... It's as long as the customer wants to spend because you can agree to whatever ridiculous thing at any point that they're pushing you. So it's a matter of the amount of time you want to take going back and forth. Stu, what is the average time when somebody walks into your deal with you know? It varies, really.

I mean, we have a pretty straightforward, like if somebody just walked in, they hadn't ordered a car online. I mean, there's no negotiating for price. some time is taken, if there's a trade, that takes some time, you know, just the logistics to get it down looked at. But I would say that's probably 15 to 20 minutes. If all the terms are agreed upon in the vehicles in stock, finance it. There's a Department of Motor Vehicles paperwork. You will be presented with some, you know, extended warranties to buy.

It's easy to say no at our dealership. That wouldn't take any much time if you say you're not interested. And then, so maybe 20, 30 minutes signing paperwork. So it could be as short as an hour, an hour and a half. It could be as long as, like Nancy said, some people prefer to spend some more time, you know, looking at the car driving it, learning about it. So it's really up to the customer. Well, you separate the demonstration, right?

You separate the evaluation, and you should drive the car. But you can drive a car from a rental company. You can drive it from another dealership. But you consider that part of your research. When you walk into the dealership to buy, you've already driven the car. All the paperwork without a trade should take under an hour. Okay, guys. Hey, listen, Bob, one more thing that I believe in, keep that trade separate.

That should be taken care of long before you decide to purchase a car and get yourself three estimates. Bob, it was great speaking to you. Thank you for being part of the show every Saturday. Don't forget the spring ahead. Oh, that's right. I think it's done automatically for us now. My VCR, I might have to go to my VCR and do it manually, though. Thank you, Bob. We're going to go to Paul in Lake Worth.

Good morning, Paul. Yes. Hi, ha, ha, hi. Hi. Good morning, good morning. Good morning. I listen regularly. I don't call regularly.

And from the Department of Nobody is Perfect, Carpax. I have to jump on Carpac. Now, I like Carfax. I love Earl Stewart, Toyota, but I found out that Carfax does not give you a complete service history. Now, I happen to be obsessive, compulsive about the maintenance on my old Lexus. Every service in the owner's manual I have done at Earl Stewart because I know the service will be done correctly, and it will also be listed on the Carfax vehicle history. However, about a year ago, I had my car serviced at your dealership, including rotation, alignment, and wheel balancing, which I religiously do every 5,000 miles or six months, doesn't matter what.

So, anyway, I had it done at your dealership. When I drove home, the car was pulling to the left. Took it back, had it redone, drove home, the car was pulling to the right. I lived 30 miles away, so I wasn't going back for that particular service. So I had my alignment and wheel balancing. I had a redone again at Tires Plus, and it was perfect, absolutely perfect. I purchased the three-year alignment package that they had for sale. And then a few months later, I get a notice from Carpax that my alignment was due and it wasn't done.

What I found out was that the alignment service was not on my service record because Tires Plus does not pay Carfax to be part of their reporting system. Shame on Carfax. Shame on you. Paul, I'm not sure that you need to pay Carfax. Carfax has a service that dealers pay for, which is advertising. We don't pay it for the feed. But we do submit our information to Carfax so it can be recognized in the maintenance on that vehicle.

The only maintenance information Carfax has is that information that the dealer will submit. Now, you don't have to pay them to submit that. So what Sue says is they do have a follow-up program that Carfax you pay for, and that is an advertising thing. I get nervous anytime we pay Carfax or any other vendor because to me it raises a questionability of the objectivity. That's the reason I love consumer reports. I couldn't pay consumer reports any amount of money to let me use their name saying they endorse our car. They won't take money from a, they're totally pristine. Carfax is very close with the dealers.

They provide a lead, a sales, lead service, and the information is good, but they're very cozy with the dealers. They're not perfect, by the means. And that's the whole point. If you don't have your car serviced at a new car dealer, Carfax doesn't always get that. No, it doesn't have to be a new car dealer. Tires Plus has apparently chosen not to submit their information to Carfax. But in my opinion, they should submit it, and any independent or dealer should submit to Carfax.

it's for the common good. It's for their own good. I want to know if I trade a car in, if I go in Carfax, I want to see that car was maintained. And if I don't have that information, I'm not going to be able to offer as much money for the trade in. Right.

And understand, I keep every receipt. Every service I have, you know, I don't know which end of a screwdriver to use. So I have to have everything serviced by a professional, and it really upsets me that I couldn't get car Carfax, Carfax. I called them, and I could not get them to recognize Tyrus Plus for the services that I have done. And I like Taras Plus. I like you guys. Thank you, Paul. We think your concern is justified. Yeah, thanks for your input, and thank you for calling. Sharing your opinion with us. We have got to get to Marty.

Marty is a regular caller from West Palm Beach. He's heard his name. And James, hang on. We'll be right with you. Sorry for the wait. Good morning, Marty. You're famous. How are you?

Great. I'm glad to see that I've got a little reputation on the radio. Right. What I wanted to tell you, I've got the 24 Crown Limited with the advanced technology package. Tough to get. It's a very nice. I love the car. I've only had it a month, but I love the car.

Do you? The only thing my question is that either Stu or Rick, the car is so smart that under the speedometer, you get little notices like your eyes are not all the way open. Right. That's the alertness check. Yeah, whatever that is, I'm afraid to come in and have it turned off. or anything because I feel it might turn off other safety features. I don't think it will.

Usually when I drive, I do have to say this. My eyes are open. I have not had any case where I drive with my eyes closed. But it thought you did. Yeah. Okay. Well, if your eyes are closed, you couldn't see the warning anyway. That's true.

That's true. That's true. We're all that's correct. That's number three. This is very interesting, Marty. Very interesting. It's so smart when you come to a school zone, and the other thing, it tells you entering a school zone,

entering a crosswalk area. That's right. When you come to a stop sign, it shows you a stop sign. Yeah, it gives you the speed limit. Yeah, and the speed limit is on the dash, and if you're going over the speed limit, the speed limit is in red. And if you're going the speed limit or under, then you'd like.

So all I'm saying is, my question is, if I were to find out how to turn off all these smart features, would that also affect safety features? Well, Rick, you can turn off the alertness check, right? Yes. Okay, that's not going to affect anything else other than warning you that you're not paying attention. It'll also notice it's really neat. It's not just until it as other manufacturers have begun to introduce this. If you're looking, if you're not looking at the road, you're looking down or out the side window, it's going to alert you.

And Marty, here's something, I thought you would maybe compliment the crown on. Nancy and I read an article, in fact, Nancy's giving a crown shortly, an article that said that the crown actually has figured out that people want a knob to, to work like a knob should be, a switch to work like a switch should be. They don't want the magic of things flashing around on LCD screens. They want to dumb up the system where it'll do everything you want it to do, but do it in an intuitive sense and not make you scratch your head, get the owner's manual out every five minutes. So we love that idea.

Have you seen that in your crown that some of the controls were in an area where you expect they should be? or would be well the only thing i do is i listen to it just a few radio stations so usually it's on when i come into the car or it says enable enable the radio if i turned it off but uh my driving is very simplistic i go from point a to b i'm not using it probably but i do agree there's probably features in there that are that I'm probably not even using but I what I what it did have when I first got the car I don't know why because I I know where I'm going but I wanted to put a compass there's no compass like there was in my Camry I think there is I think there is a compass in there but you got to get it on one of your

screens on the multi on the multi-in information that's right So I was able to get that on the screen, so I leave the compass on. And on the other side, it's just telling you, you know, more simplistically how many miles you're going and whether your car has got gas. Exactly. You got yourself a pretty sophisticated vehicle. I'm looking forward to mine. How do you like those screens?

How do you like the large screens? Is that great? Yes. And also the wheels. The wheels are just unbelievable. and so far I got a little under a thousand miles on it but I've been checking and I've been getting about 41 miles to the gala fantastic what color did you get uh it's I call it gray Toyota calls it heavy metal heavy metal look uh you don't like saying that that vehicle has

panache so the heavy metal go right with it Marty it was a pleasure talking to you enjoy that crown yeah thank you the advanced technology package, in my opinion, is worth having in there because you're getting the 360 camera with that. Sounds good. That's a recommendation from Marty. Yeah. Okay. We are going to go to James, who has been patiently holding from Boynton Beach. Good morning. Welcome. Hi, how are you all? We're great. Great. Listen, Nancy, Earl, Rick, et al. You guys put on a great show. I started listening a couple of months ago, and I was like, wow, these guys, they're diversified. You don't just

talk about Toyotas. I think it's terrific. You're interested in cars. Yeah. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Listen, and Earl, I don't like to assume things. I take it, Stuart Pontiac and West Palm was part of your family. Yeah, my dad founded Stuart Pontiac, 1928 South Dixie and 1937. Let me tell you something. My father bought a lot of cars from you guys over the years, and there were some beautiful cars. I particularly remember in 1967 Pontiac Firebird 400.

Oh, boy. The black line, all the gold interior. Dad used to run that car back and forth from Palm Beach to New York regularly. Really? That was a great, great car. Another one was a... Yeah, what a beauty. Pepper Green, Pontiac Grand Prix from 1970 with a 400.

Another beautiful car. Pontiacs are beautiful cars. You're describing my driveway in my childhood. Yeah, yeah. Rick, I have a question for you about my 1986 Mercedes-560. I have a starting problem. I went to the book. First of all, I disconnected the fuel system

and the electronic system to spin the starter to see how it was working, it spins the engine freely. When I hook everything up and try to turn it over, start it, it starts off wanting to fire, and then it sort of gives up and just starts turning over. I go to the book, the old Mercedes manual, it says test electronics start at the coil. I'm getting connected, the system connected, it says, I'm supposed to, to get battery voltage at the um testing the coil through the um test port okay voltage is wait let me pat battery voltage is 12.77 i'm only getting 12.09 is that a big enough difference to make an issue no because you're you're going to lose a little bit of

voltage across the wiring anyways uh a half a volt is really not enough to really affect it but it does sound to me like you've got an ignition problem. All right, next question. It has these crummy squat coils, and it says I'm supposed to pull two to four oms. I'm pulling a little up to six oms, two to six. Is that enough to say it's a bad coil? No, again, that's pretty negligible

because an extra couple of oms could be just where your probe is actually touching the contact. That can even have an omer or two of resistance there. The first thing I'd be looking for really is I would hook one of the coils up electrically, put a spark plug in it, and put the base of the spark plug against good ground and look and see if you're actually getting a spark firing across it. I'm getting a spark. It's very dim. It's yellow.

Yeah, in open air it's going to be Unfortunately, I am not as familiar with the German cars But yeah, if you're getting a good spark And the timing is right The next thing to check would be to start looking at fuel Okay, cool And James also Google it It's always amazing when I Google something

There must be 25 or 30 Google answers to why a 1986 Mercedes-560 SEL won't start. And it's amazing to me. Apparently, there is a chronic problem with the 86s, but you got more answers than you could deal with if you Google it. Yeah, I've been through all of them, and I get a lot of nothing. Yeah, you get a lot of that, too. thank you so much james well one more compliment for um earl i love that that phrase you use the questionability of objectivity you're a brilliant man earl and thank you everybody for your show again oh you're welcome

thank you very much thank you okay uh it is time for us to get to our dog of the week and uh that's mickey mickey's two years old and he's a lavador he's really cute and we have a video uh that Jonathan will queue up and you can take a look and remember $200 you can save because we pay the adoption fee for Mickey. Mickey Mickey Mickey Mickey Mickey. One of us last name is Donald. Hi, I'm Natalie with Big Dog Ranch Rescue and today I have Mickey. Mickey is a two-year-old retriever mix. As you can see, Mickey's got a really unusual coat, very, very, very handsome boy. I love Mickey.

Mickey is one of our favorites here at the ranch. Mickey was adopted, but he was returned, unfortunately. The couple had a very young toddler, and Mickey was tumbling over, or the toddler and Mickey had been tumbling with each other. But Mickey is extraordinary. Mickey is very sweet. Mickey is really good with children.

Mickey is just an all-around lovable guy. He was actually rescued from Georgia. from a high-kill shelter, so we are really rooting for Mickey to hopefully Mickey will find in his forever home. Yes, I have, Mickey. As you can see, he's kind of laid back. He gets along really well with other dogs, and he loves to go on walks here with our volunteers at the ranch, and we're hoping that you can come and meet Mickey and maybe find him his perfect

forever home with you. Yeah, I know. I know. Mickey is a chill dog. Great video. Thanks, Jonathan. That gives you an inside view of Big Dog Ranch out there. Boy, I'll tell you what, what a place.

If you've never been out there, you need to take a look. It's just an entertaining day and take the kids out. Or, you know, as an adult go out, you'd be, you know, quite intrigued with all of the different places where they take care of all of these dogs and the puppies. They even have puppy land. And they have a vet out there that takes care of the dogs very, very well. Maternity award, they literally have a maternity award for doggies. Yeah, they do.

They have a maternity award. And it's just a whole lot of fun. Earl and I were out there, and we had a great time. Yeah, Loxahatchie, Florida. It's Palm Beach County. If you're familiar at all with Palm Beach County, it's quite a bit west of West Palm Beach. But it's worth the drive out there. You just, I mean, even if you don't want a dog, it's like going to land countries and safari.

It's entertaining. They'll take you on a tour. You'll see where the veterans are presented with dogs that are specially trained for veterans, wounded veterans. You'll see Puppy City, Puppie Town, and that is just too cute. All different colored houses, every house has puppies in it. They have a quarantine area. come in have to go to the quarantine area and they're checked carefully they have a full-time veterinarian they have therapy they have behavioral people that work to get the behavior of dogs

see big dog ranch rescue never euthanizes a dog i mean think about it so sometimes there are dogs that are hard to adopt and believe me uh big dog ranch rescue finds homes but it might take a We have dogs out there that have been for three or four years, but we don't utilize them. So if you really want to be a good person, find a hard-to-adop dog and give that dog home. All dogs are good. It just depends on how you take care of them. And that's the reason we get pretty involved emotionally and otherwise with Big Dog Ranch Rescue. It can't go wrong.

B-D-R-R-R-D-R-R-R-B-DogRanscue.org. Go to their website. B-D-R-R-R-org and just take a look. If you can't drive out there in person, look at the website and you'll see what I'm talking about. Yeah, it'll put you in a good mood, and it's hard not to, you know, go out there and not adopt a dog.

And, you know, while we're talking about Big Doc Ranch, you know, it's really important for me to let everyone know confessions of a recovering car dealer. That's Earl's book, Confessions of a Recovering Car Dealer. Confessions of a recovering car dealer. And what makes it so special is that the book, the registration, everything is donated. It's donated to Big Dog Ranch. All proceeds for the book go to Big Dog Ranch.

So you might want to pick that up. Go to Amazon and you can pick up Earl's book and biography, latest update. all of that. It's an interesting book, something you can put on the shelf and you can use for years. And don't forget what Jersey Mike reminds us that U.S. military veterans get half off of all adoption fees when they go to adopt a dog from Big Dog Ranch Rescue. Yeah. And don't they have a big, don't they have a great department out there for the veterans and how they train the dogs with the veteran out there with that person? And like I said, it's an amazing day, and if you can get a chance to go out there, you can see all of that taking place.

It is time for us to go to our mystery shopping report, and Agent Lightning did another fantastic job, and she went down to Gunther Mazda with her bulletproof vest, and she walked into Fort Moterdale, the city of Fort Motterdale. Yeah, that's about as deep into dangerous. To the zone, the war zone as you can get. In the war zone. It's dangerous down there, folks. No exaggeration. Your car buyers, I'm telling you,

if you can survive car shopping in South Florida. You can survive the jungles. Well, you will get a purple heart for sure. Right. But at any rate, Gunther, a well-known name, originally a Volkswagen dealer and then grew from, it's a family dealership. It grew, and grew and grew, and finally sold out, I think. This is Gunther Mazda. I'm not sure whether the Gunther family still owns Gunther Mazda or not. You really can't depend on the names anymore because a lot of the public companies and other people will keep the old names.

The Arrigo, a lot of you folks see Arrigo brothers do it. that crazy commercial if you're in South Florida and that's now owned by the Morgan Auto Group which is probably has a hundred dealerships so names mean nothing if if you have a familiar name oftentimes the public companies continue to use it so I'll be reading this report that Stu was kind of to put together for us and of course the star of the show is Agent Lightning our female undercover agent who does an incredible job it's amazing how she hasn't been caught yet she's shopped how many hundreds of dealerships

at this point yeah yeah I mean it's amazing and they have her in the computer too because she she does buy a lot of cars actually and for herself and her family she's got a big family and she also uh it's about 50 well it's about 50 a year um because she does multiple um and for She's about four years with us now. So we don't give her name out because of the fact that we want her to be undercover. So I'm speaking as if I were Agent Lighting. I arrived at dinner time on Friday. I was yesterday and was greeted by their front desk lady, a salesman.

This got their folks wagon, by the way, in Port Lauderdale, Florida. Salesman was walking towards us, and she asked if he was available for a potential sale. I mean, what's you going to say? He said, of course. and asked me to go with him to his desk. He introduced himself as Ali, A-L-I, and asked my name as well. Once in his desk, he asked me how he could help me that evening. I replied, I'm here to buy a new car, and I need to be either just under or at $40,000, out the door.

Out the door. He asked me what type of vehicle I was looking at, and I said, well, what do you have in my price range? Ali suggested a Mazda 3 and had me follow him over to one that was on the showroom floor. You like this one? Ali asked. I do, but will I be able to be under the $40,000 out the door? That's a great term, not only to learn,

but to describe and define to the person you're dealing with. Out the door. Out the door means the price you're right to check for and hand it to the salesperson and the salesperson gives you the car and you take it home. That's out the door price. Let me bring another one down for you to drive

and if you like it, we will make it happen. Ali said I agreed, so Ollie said, he said that and I agreed so we left to get it. Oliver returned a few minutes later and asked me to come outside with him. He had the exact same car just with a different

van. Put a question mark there. I guess Same MSRP. Yeah. Okay. They must have a lot of cars. There was a new, Mazda, 2024, that is new.

I say that because they're still selling 2003s, maybe some 2022s, who knows. Monster 3, 2.5 carbon, what are these names? Carbon turbo names. Zircon, metallic, gray.

A gray Mazda 3 Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. The Bernoulli label lay on the dashboard Usually is a case in South Florida In other parts of the country They leave it on the window Which is where the federal government says It must be by law

But in South Florida, to hell with it We put them anywhere we want to put them Sometimes we hide them Sometimes we put in the Trump, the back sheet We put them under the front seat We hide our Monroney labels here in South Florida. So the Bernoulli lay on the dashboard, and I was able to see the MSRP was $33,125. The addendum, as synonymous with South Florida, addendums, the addendum was securely affixed to the woodshould.

Funny, they got the addendum just where it's supposed to be. Priorities, Dad. But they lost the Monroney. I don't get that. I do get it, and you get it too. It's just South Florida car marketing. It listed here we go, the Gunther Protection Package, and I don't mean an armed guard, I mean paint, you know, rust and dust,

we used to say in the old days. Rust and dust. For 995, the Gunther Protection Package, it's worthless, folks, worthless. Door-edge guards and seamless door cups. Yeah, yeah. Free car washes. And then $3,000, but it's only $29.95 at Gunther. limited dealer allocation market adjustment limited dealer allocation that's a mouthful

Rick yeah I noticed on that addendum it also was giving you three years worth of oil changes so I looked up you know Mazda does from the factory does not offer free services on their car like I think almost every other manufacturer I don't know whether they do enough they probably the first four or five services are free but Mazda does not are you sure I couldn't find it. They offer prepaid plans where you can purchase a maintenance plan. Well, Sam and Mazda and Gunther, they're giving free oil changes for only $9.95. Okay, on with the report.

We went outside, took the Amasa 3 for a test drive, explained to me how they are one of the safest cars on the road. Well, okay, I'll take your word for it, Ali. I mentioned that my first car was a Mata protege that goes back to my days as a Mazda dealer 1975 or was it 74?

Lose track of time. Pretty much the same car, just a new name. Ali said, once back at the dealership, he asked me what I thought, I really like it, I said, do you want to know the price? Ali asked, yes, I would, please. I replied, he gestured for us to go inside, I went back to his desk where he asked me if I was going to buy or lease.

Key qualification question. We had that call earlier in the show about should I lease or should I buy. The dealers want you to lease because they can make more money that way. And it's okay to lease as long as you're educated. Six and one, half dozen the other. I said in my role as the mystery shopper, Agent Lightning, I'm paying cash. He got a little more information from me and then said he would be right back with a price. A few minutes later returned with a worksheet, always got to have the worksheet.

Why? Because it's not a legal document. They could basically say and do anything they want to on that worksheet and it's not a legal document. That was completely devoid of details, said he could do it for $37,500 OTD out the door. He wrote it on the paper with a smelly. black sharpie pen? I couldn't question mark. What's a smelly? You don't use sharpie pens ever? They have a strong odor. Oh, that's right. And they're commonly used to it. I don't know. I have a terrible sense of smell. You have a terrible sense of smell. I've never smelled the sharpie pensions.

You probably used them. You didn't smell it. Some people sniff them. I said, can you give me a breakdown of what the fees will be for this today? Sure. Give me a moment, please. Holly said. He picked up the sheet, flipped it over and wrote the following okay two thousand one hundred forty four dollars tax four hundred fifty dollars new tag nine hundred eighty nine dollar dealer fee or they're still using the old term dealer fee that was what they did in the old days until dealer fees got a bad name so they just changed the name to everything else but dealer fee you gotta say Gunther Masta still thinking with the old term dealer

free which is junk fee that's the current modern name they might have invented it. They might have invented it, yeah. And a $39.99 electronic filing fee. Did they really have an E-L-E-C-K? He wrote E-L-E-C-K? He wrote E-E-E-L-E-C-K. He wrote E-L-E-E-E-E-Lech. So that's another junk fee. That's to pretend like it has something to do with the Department of Motor Vehicles to pretend like it has to do with tax and tag and registration, and it doesn't. It's junk fees. They're hidden. They're deceptive. And they will be illegal in July if the court decides that the Federal Trade Commission can proceed with their cars regulation,

combat auto retail scams, which is now on hold because the Texas Automobile Dealers Association and the National Automobile Dealers Association have petitioned the court. And I know I'm digressing here, but I have to say that I've agreed, I've told the Federal Trade Commission I'm in the process of filing an amicus You lawyers know what that is. That's a friend of the court petition to the court in Texas saying that I think that dealers should have these regulations. And as a dealer that will carry weight with the court. And as I digress, I will say to all you dealers out there listening who are afraid to call the show,

I wish you would consider if you're an honest dealer filing a friend of the court amicus petition with a Texas court to allow the Federal Trade Commission to do their thing in July 30th to stop the BS with these junk fees that you're being charged now and getting away with. So if you're an honest dealer, you know, I'd hate to be an honest, oh, I am an honest dealer in South Florida. But if you're another honest dealer in South Florida, let me tell you, it's not easy. You advertise a price and all the other dealers lie, cheat, and steal, and they cut your price by $2,000 or $3,000. And you can't sell the vehicle at their price because they're adding junk fees, dealer-and-sulled accessories, and there's screwing you. Yeah, Mullin-X boys, brothers, and join us.

Who's writing up the amicus? Is Gary doing that for you? I don't know. I have any response to my plea to file an amygic. I've got an attorney. Oh, a different attorney doing it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, our attorney referred a, you have to have an appeals attorney.

Okay. So I have an appeals attorney in South Carolina, I think, doing the amicus. Excellent. Let me put this in. Junk fees make it difficult, if impossible for consumers to comparison shop. That's a sin right there. And we got, cars is very, very important. Go ahead, Earl.

So after my digression to the amicus and to the cars, combat auto retail scams. I go back to the mystery shopping report of Gunther Volkswagen. So I just got hit with a bunch of junk fees and BS. So I thank the salesman, Ali, in my most sarcastic tone

I could muster, and then ask if I could use my credit card to purchase the card in full. Now, this is something I'm sure that two, Stu asked Agent Lightning to try because we came across some interesting information, and we'll tell you about that in a minute.

Unfortunately, Ali said, you could only put up to $10,000 on your credit card, plus you'll be charged a 3% fee to use it. Wow. I'll explain. Holy moly. Yeah. Oh, my. I was reading an article online where customers were saying they are putting the full amount on credit card with no fees to them. Are you sure, I asked?

Yes, here at Gunther, we're not doing that. I'm not saying you would do this, but theoretically you could then dispute the charge. and fight the transaction. We've just recently increased the allowable amount to 5,000 from 5,000 to 10,000, Ali said. So that's something we didn't think about, but that's just another reason why dealers are bad people. If someone tells you you can't use your credit card

because you might find out that I screwed you and you stop payment, you don't want to do business with those people. I mean, I can go to Amazon and buy anything in the world, and use my credit card. And Amazon doesn't say you can only put $300 or $3,000 on your credit card. So there's another red flag.

They know that you, in the car business, we say, you have an expression. They must have come out of the ether. That means that we fooled them and they got home and then the next day they went to the club and their friends told them they were taking advantage of. That means

they came out of the ether. They say, my money back. Well, if you have a credit card, you're going to stop payment. They don't want you to do that. So that's why the credit card thing is limited at Gunther and Mazda. Continuing on it with the report, I asked somebody could please double-check this with the sales manager. He agreed, said, I know they'll tell me the same thing, but I'll be right back. He returned with a sales manager who did indeed tell me the same thing, and no matter how hard I pushed, the answer was a hard no. They learned their lesson the hard way.

Their customers were coming out of the ether and stopping the payment. I feel bad for the guys, though. I told Agent Lighten, you know, kind of be a little aggressive with that, push on that. So she took me literally and beat them up over the credit card. So here's the wrapping up the mystery shopping report, this Agent Lightning, Ali says, or the manager, says, if you're ready to buy right now, I'm not going to lose your business over a few hundred dollars. See, he's still haggling.

They're haggling until you disappear down the road. Yeah, they're changed it to the car. You're getting a great car with a limited inventory. The sales manager said, yeah. So limited, I had another car, the exact same identification in the garage as a woman's gravel floor. Anyway, to get back to the credit card, this came up in a management meeting when we found out about a salesman that was soliciting.

business from dealers. They found out how legally to charge the customers for the use of the credit card. And that's what Gunther's doing. So we don't charge our customers to use a credit card. We have a limit because we have to pay a merchant fee and we limit it to amount of how much we will absorb. And it depends on the situation. But the dealers are now just flapping that charge into the junk fee category, so to speak. And what we heard was that dealers will now have the ability to have this charge appear as a separate charge on the credit card, which raises the concern for me,

does it also appear on the buyer's order? So if they charge the customer three or four percent to use their credit card, you know, it's not going to be on the rest of the documents. One way or the other, that credit card is going to charge that dealership a fee, and one way or another, you're going to pay for that. A $50,000 purchase is a $1,500 fee. Yeah, good points, too. Okay, how do you feel about all this, ladies and gentlemen?

Our text number is 772-4976530. You can go there and you can place your, well, bet on whether Gunther needs to be closed down. Oh. Okay, well, we have some grades. I have Jonathan and Palm Coast. He says, Gunther Mazda plays games with the Monroney label placement with the worthless protection package, market adjustment fee, $9.89 dealer fee. I think I'd go elsewhere. I'll give them the passing grade of D, but they don't deserve anything higher. I'm a graduate of Earl Stewart Carbuyer University, and I know that there are better deals out there. MSRP, tax, tag, and title out the door, prices do exist. You just need to find those dealerships.

So there's a D. Thank you, Jonathan. From Bob, we have a D for Gunther, and yeah, we're riding that curve. So I'm with these guys. I'm a D. Worse than most, but not failing. I've got Negan 1, Big F for missing Monroney, addendum, and dealer fee. Tom Seckle says, D, misplaced Monroney, and still charging MSRP plus dealer fees.

Bad advice to dispute credit card charges. However, much lower junk fees than the 1700 charged by Sport Mazda of Orlando. Wow. Brian said Latko, I was going to give Gunther Mazda an A. However, my addendum score is an F. Wow. I like that. Tim Gilliland, too many junk fees, C minus.

Cliffs picks, junk fees walk away, F. Johnny Z-Fraidly, F for fees, fees, fees, no Gunther. for mees. Did they spell it with a Z? He did. Chris Picks says, paying the extra fees, they are now upside down even more.

Rocky Blocketeel, I give them a D for D's fees. D's fees. Jodd says, typical, not good, D. And Kevin Bryson says, I'll give them a D. I tried shopping there a year ago,

and it was a similar experience. Sad to learn, they haven't changed. Thank you, Rick. For me, it's a D. D's fees. Okay. Earl? V. D? Okay. For Nancy, F.

For Gunther Monsville, Fort Lauderdale. And, you know, you wonder why Caitlin Lefcoff, the reporting intern for Automotive News, wrote, recently, look it up, you can Google it, why consumers distressed dealerships. I mean, it is running high. Take a look. It's a great read. ladies and gentlemen thank you for joining us this saturday morning it's been a pleasure always a pleasure you make the show we'll see you right back here next week eight a m have a great weekend